A Nobody
by Jebest4781
Summary: Living a new life in another reality, Naruto now must handle a lot of complications of him interacting with various heroes, villains and anti-heroes. How will things go with them interacting with a Nobody. NarutoXHarem Rated M for language, violence and lemons. NarutoXDC ComicsXKingdom Hearts Please leave reviews.
1. A New Start

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 **-Scene Shift-**

 **Chapter 1: A New Start**

A groan was heard from a young man as he awoke on a single-sized bed. His hazel eyes opened slowly while he slowly took the room he was in into focus. He raised his hand and rubbed his head with a small hiss of pain.

His body was sore and he felt as if he had been ripped apart and sewn back together. He raised his upper body and leaned it on the headboard of the bed as he tried to block out the pain he was feeling.

"So, Sleeping Beauty finally wakes up," commented another male voice, though this one had a faint guttural undertone to it.

The man turned to see that the speaker had red hair that was swept back, red eyes with black slit pupils, and pronounced canines and nails (making them appear to be fangs and claws). He wore a red shirt with a black business coat, black slacks, and maroon boots. However, what really stood out were two fox ears on his head and whisker-like markings on his cheeks.

"It's about time you did, brat," he said with a smirk. "I was beginning to wonder whether you'd ever wake up."

The man groaned again and held the side of his head with his eyes clenched shut. "W-Where am I?"

"Really? That's the first thing you ask?"

"Kurama, what did I tell you about bothering him when he wakes up?!" yelled an elderly female voice. The hazel eyed man strained to see a woman with greying blonde hair and honey eyes step in. she wore a black shirt that seemed to be straining from her bust size, blue jeans, dark blue shoes, and a white coat. Her hair was pulled back into two tails behind her and she held a cup of coffee in her hand.

"Ah lighten up Doc," Kurama said in a careless tone. "He's dealt with worse than a headache."

"From what you've told me, I don't doubt it. However, he still needs to get himself reoriented from his coma. He was out for over two weeks after all," admonished the woman.

"B-Baa-chan?" asked the man, making the two turn to him.

Kurama smirked as she sighed and answered, "Sorry kid, but I'm not who you think I am."

"What are you talking about? You're Tsunade right?" he asked in confusion. 'She looks just like her! How can she not be baa-chan?!'

"Could you give us a moment, Doc?" asked Kurama, though it obviously wasn't a request. She gave him a look of annoyance before she left the room. As soon as she left, he turned to the man and said, "Let's get one thing straight here, brat; we're not in the Elemental Nations anymore."

"What?" gasped out the man. "B-But we were just-"

"Naruto!" yelled the redhead, making the now named man freeze. "Get it through your head! You and I were caught in a rift because of your clash with that damned no-named bastard! Don't you remember?!"

Naruto tried to remember, but his head was still throbbing. Kurama saw this and sighed in annoyance before he smacked his ex-container's head hard. As soon as the blow hit, hazel eyes widened as a vision of the past entered his thoughts.

 _ **-Flashback-**_

 _He was in the conjoined mindscape of himself and the Jinchuuriki of the two-seven tailed Bijuu, along with the Bijuu themselves. His eyes looked up to the Bijuu as their forelimbs rested on top of one another before he bumped his fist against them all, taking in the power that they offered to him._

 _As he came to from his vision, having learned their names and engraving them in both his heart and his memory, he entered his Chakra Mode once again while a clone was made to take in some nature energy. He and Kirabi then took on the reanimated Jinchuuriki before the clone gather enough and dispelled, making Naruto's orange eyes gain cross shaped pupils._

 _In a spur of the moment, he shot past his fellow Jinchuriki with a senjutsu/Kyuubi Chakra enhanced Rasengan. The false Madara acted fast and used his Kamui to intercept the attack._

 _However, the resulting clash of three different energies caused a rip in space/time to open between them. And since Naruto was rushing at Tobi – who had stood stationary – he was unable to stop himself from falling into the rip before the lack of energy sustaining it made it close._

 _As soon as he fell in, his body was assaulted with swirling masses of various energies and lights that stabbed into him at various points. The largest ones were at his stomach where the seal rested and his heart._

 _The seal shattered like glass while a large nine-tailed fox was pulled out of his body before the energies made it turn into what looked to be a man with fox ears, claws, and pronounced fangs. As for Naruto, his features changed as well. His blonde hair turned a silvery gray, his eyes changed from blue with black pupils to violet with amber pupils, and lastly a blue human shaped mass was ripped from his heart before a grayish colored energy shot into his heart, taking its place._

 _Another rip in the stream of energy and light opened up before he and Kurama were shot out and landed in a park in the middle of a very large and dark city. Luckily for them, a blonde haired woman came across them during her jog…and that was the last thing Naruto saw before everything went black._

 _ **-End Flashback-**_

He gasped as the vision ended as his hands quickly pulled some of his bangs into his vision, showing his eyes that they were indeed gray. He then tried to feel his chakra…only to feel nothing.

Kurama saw the flurry of emotions in the eyes of the Uzumaki before he saw Naruto's hand slowly stray to where the seal used to be. "That stream we went through ripped me out of your body, along with your chakra. Everyone in this city has chakra; even the barest minimum…but I can't sense anything from you. It's almost like…you don't exist; that you're nobody."

The hand on his stomach clenched the skin as the Uzumaki absorbed the words the ex-Bijuu told him. in a low tone, he asked, "So what now?"

"Well, you can think of it this way: this world we landed in has no one out to get you or me, there aren't any threats that will force you into any life or death situations, and you're somehow able to live without chakra. Maybe now you can actually have a life outside of war and pain?"

Naruto gave Kurama a wary look and asked, "And why does it seem like you actually care? You always wanted nothing more than to kill me; so why haven't you?"

"Because there's no reason to. I only wanted to kill you because I couldn't stand being sealed into you and because I wanted to kill that bastard who ruined our lives. However, since we're no longer in our own world, there's no point to it anymore. It'd just be a waste of my time…and I figured I'd take back my threats and promises of your death since you actually wanted to help us Bijuu out. You've proven to me that you're better than most of the people back home," explained the redhead. "So, don't question why I decided to help you and just accept it."

The silver haired ex-Jinchuriki processed his words while Kurama made to leave. Before he stepped out, he turned back to the Uzumaki; red eyes meeting violet.

"By the way, you should know that there will be some people in this world that will look almost exactly like people from ours. They're known as alternate selves, and they can be similar to how they are in our world…or entirely opposite."

"What's your point?" asked Naruto.

"What I'm saying is this: don't judge them based on the actions of their alternate selves. For all you know, they could be innocent people in this world." He then pointed to the nightstand next to Naruto's bed and said, "Your pack was destroyed, but you still have a kunai and those old books your teacher wrote."

"What are you gonna do now, Kurama?"

He shrugged at the question and asked, "I don't really know… But, I'll figure something out." With a lazy wave, he left the room and said, "Good luck, brat…"

Naruto wouldn't see or hear from him for many years.

 _ **-Ten Years Later-**_

A 26 year old man sighed as he sat in his office. His spiky silver hair fell to his shoulders with some tied into a single ponytail. He wore clothes similar to what he saw Kurama wore when he woke up except that his shirt was a dark orange and his shoes were all black.

 _"Mr. Uzumaki, there's a package for you."_ Informed a woman from the intercom speaker on his desk.

Holding a button down, he replied, "Thanks Jillian. Be sure to send it up to me, please.

 _"Right away, sir."_ The secretary responded.

Over the years of Naruto's stay in the city of Gotham, he had sent his old master, Jiraiya's, book "Tale of the Gutsy Ninja" to a publisher and had the book made. A countless number of copies were sold while the Uzumaki continued making a new life for himself as both a novelist and a publisher; eventually founding "Spiral Publishing", one of the most prestigious publication companies in the state.

What made him smile every time was knowing that he honored his old life by having the symbol of the company be the mark of the Uzumaki Clan from his old world.

So far, he had about five books that he had written published. The first was Jiraiya's old book, three of them were "Icha Icha" series books, and the last was a story of his life (under an alias name of Arashi Rasen).

His books were a hit and he had become one of the most well known men of the literary world in Gotham. He had even made an investment in Wayne Industries, owned by the orphaned child Bruce Wayne. Wayne was a charismatic man and a good friend to the Uzumaki, thought the silverette had a feeling that Bruce was hiding something from everyone.

He was brought out of his thoughts on his new life by Jillian stepping into his office. She was quite pretty with hazel hair styled in an oriental bun, green eyes, an average figure, and slender legs. She wore black heels, a brown skirt that fell past her knees, a black shirt, and a brown coat that was buttoned closed.

She set a small package on his desk and he smiled to her and said, "Thanks Jillian."

"You're welcome, sir," she replied with a smile in return before she left his office.

"Let's see what we got then," he murmured to himself as he opened the small box. Inside was a letter and lanyard that had the word "Guest" on it. Curious about it, he opened the letter and skimmed through it before sighing in slight annoyance.

The letter was an invitation to a gala in honor of James Gordon becoming the Commissioner of the Gotham PD. Apparently Bruce had deemed it fit to invite him so that he could offer words of encouragement to the new Commissioner.

"Great," he groaned out sarcastically. "Just what I need; a night surrounded by rich people who care only about appearances in some single building."

Behind the invitation was what Naruto knew Bruce would call "assurance" that he'd come; a photo of Naruto being seen talking with some random woman who wanted her copy of his book signed. And it wasn't just any book; it was the "Icha Icha Paradise: Orange Edition". That was one of the rarest ones out there with only 50 out of the thousands of copies being so.

He knew Bruce would spread rumors if he didn't come. Of course, he knew it'd be in good fun, but he couldn't refuse when he was at risk for being pranked by a multimillionaire.

And besides, this just made Bruce fair game for the "Prank Master from Hell".

Resigning himself to his fate, Naruto left his office and headed home to get ready for the gala. He just hoped that it wouldn't be too boring.

 _ **-That Evening, Gala-**_

He was wrong; oh so _very_ wrong! It wasn't just boring; no, it was _beyond_ boring!

So many uptight people in one place with "soothing" music and a "cultural" atmosphere... He had to bite back a scoff at that. Kami, he hated these kinds of things. He was once a warrior who lived for battle and thrills!

Now…he's stuck at some ritzy party in honor of someone taking charge of the Police.

He felt constricted in that ballroom sized area, so he snuck out to the outside garden. The cool night air was a godsend to him as well as the sight of plant life. The city was so overrun with buildings and construction that it amazed him that it still had a park.

He sighed as he turned to go back inside. Bruce was probably looking for him.

However, he was stopped when he literally bumped into someone; a woman with red hair and green eyes in a stunning forest green dress. He was quick to notice that he had accidentally knocked her over and immediately offered her his hand.

"I'm so sorry about that!" he apologized. "I wasn't aware of my surroundings!"

"No, it's alright," she replied as he helped her to her feet. "I wasn't aware that anyone else would be out here."

"Yea, I couldn't take being surrounded by so many people of the 'upper class society'. I hope I didn't ruin your dress or hurt you?"

"No, I'm fine." She gave him a reassuring smile and stuck out her hand. "Why don't we start over? My name is Pamela Isley. I'm a botanist at Star Labs here in Gotham."

He shook her hand with his own smile and returned, "Naruto Uzumaki; founder of Spiral Publishing."

"And writer of 'Ninja Storm', right?" she asked. At his nod, she got a small gleam in her eye and said, "I love that one the best out of your works. The storyline, the characters, the unique additions; everything!"

"Well, thank you very much, Ms. Isley. It's always nice to meet a fan, and I'm honestly surprised with your choice of study."

"Why's that, Mr. Uzumaki?"

"Just call me Naruto, please. And it's just surprising that anyone would study plants in a place like…this."

"That's the very reason why I chose that field, Naruto. You see, I'm trying to come up with a serum that will help promote plant growth on an exponential scale, which will hopefully bring back some natural life to this city. Just one park in the middle of this metropolis isn't enough for me. I've always loved plant life and it is unnerving being in a city almost completely devoid of it."

Nodding, the publisher commented, "Yes, I completely agree. I once lived in a little town surrounded by trees and forests before I was…forced to move here. It'd be a godsend to see your serum be successful, Ms. Isley."

"Pamela, please; just Pamela. It feels strange being referred to so…formally."

The Uzumaki chuckled and replied, "Indeed it is. I always hated formalities; especially now that I am forced to hear them every day from my employees and from fans of my work." His gaze turned to the silvery moon and he smiled at its glow while Pamela could've sworn that he was bathed in it. The light made his hair shine like the lunar sphere itself and his eyes became yellow embers to her. When he looked back to her, she had to force down a blush at how handsome he looked. "Pamela, are you looking for anyone to invest in your work?"

"O-Of course I am!" she answered anxiously. Naruto was a successful publisher, so it was obvious that he had some wealth above average society.

He smiled and exclaimed, "Wonderful! I'd be thrilled to put down an investment of my own to further your research!" Taking out a checkbook, he wrote down his amount while he asked, "How does $25,000 sound to you?"

She felt a lump in her throat at the offer. It was far more than she was hoping, and she immediately answered, "T-That's more than enough, Mr.-" She stopped short when he gave her a raised brow. Clearing her throat, she revised, "I mean, that would be perfect, Naruto."

"Excellent!" he said jovially while he handed her the check. "I hope you'll be able to go much farther with this."

"I will! Thank you so much!" she exclaimed before she hugged him in the spur of the moment. She immediately blushed when she realized what she was doing before she quickly let him go with her gaze averted. "I-I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"Pamela," he interrupted, making her stop and look to him. To her surprise, he looked slightly nervous and had his own gaze averted as he asked, "Would… Would you like to get some coffee sometime? There's a nice café about two blocks from my office."

The surprises kept coming for the botanist. First she meets a man as adamant about nature as she is, then he gives her an incredible investment for her research, and now he was asking her on a date. 'Well, there's no denying that he is very attractive,'she mused. 'And I don't think I'd ever meet another guy like him anytime soon. Why not? Might as well give this a shot.' She nodded at her thoughts and inner question before she answered, "I'd love to, Naruto. How's tomorrow at 10am sound?"

He chuckled at her acceptance and nodded. "That'd be perfect."

"Wonderful," she replied softly. "I'll see you then."

With that, she put the check he gave her into her purse and bid him good evening before she headed back inside. The silverette smiled at her retreating form, happy that she accepted.

"Well well, I never thought you'd actually have the balls to score a date with a vixen like that," commented a smart ass voice, making Naruto smirk.

"How long were you watching, Kurama?" he asked as he turned to see said human/fox hybrid leaning against the wall of the building. He still wore his old attire except for the added black tie and gothic red '9' on the left breast of his jacket.

"Long enough to see her gush about your life story," he answered before smirking. "Heh… Who would've guessed that 'shy guy' Naruto would actually be the one to ask for a date? I guess you're all grown up now, huh?"

"Shut up," playfully admonished the Uzumaki before his face turned blank. "I doubt you came to see me just to check up on me and tease me."

"You're right; I didn't. I found something; or rather, I found two people that were connected to you."

"Who?" pressed Naruto with narrowed eyes.

"The alternate forms of your parents, and I don't think you're gonna like what you hear."

"Why's that?"

"Because the alternate form of your father is a metahuman criminal who killed the previous Commissioner of Gotham. From what my network heard in rumors, he calls himself the 'Thunder God'."

Naruto scowled angrily at that before he queried, "And my mother's alternate self…?"

"She's a vigilante who kills criminals instead of locking them up like the Batman does. She calls herself 'Riptide' and at every scene where one of her dead victims is found, there's blood and water soaking the ground."

"But she's still…good, right?" asked an anxious Uzumaki.

"Yea, though most of the public doesn't think so," answered the redhead.

"Damn it… Why tell me this?"

"To warn you…" answered the hybrid as he tossed his ex-container a photo of himself with a cross mark on it. "He's marked you…" He then held up a slightly soaking copy of "Ninja Storm" with a straight face. "She's interested in you as well, though I doubt it's to kill you."

The Uzumaki growled in anger at the info. Why would he be a target? It didn't make sense! He was so lost in his confusion that he didn't notice his right fist clenching hard enough to draw blood…or notice the blood fade into nothingness as soon as it dripped from his hand.

Kurama did, and his eyes narrowed at the sight. He still couldn't sense any chakra at all from Naruto, but he did sense…something. It was like it was alive, and at the same time not alive. _'Curious,'_ he mused.

"What the hell am I supposed to do then? I don't have any power and I can't just go to the Police with something like this."

"I don't know, but you better think of something soon. I only came to warn you; anything beyond that is not my problem," Kurama answered carelessly before he left in a swirl of fire.

"Thanks a lot, asshole," muttered the silverette sarcastically before he headed back inside.

Hopefully the answer would come to him…

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Hello people. This is Jebest4781 and if you're wondering I had adopted this story from a friend on the site who goes by the name pain17ification. A while back we had this story posted but after some time he ended up losing interest in this and let me have full rights of using this. Of course at the time I wasn't really confident into writing a story on my own so this was put into storage until now with me having a lot of time to kill.**

 **So, what did you guys think of the first chapter? I hope you're interested and eager for more!**

 **Now, I won't give any info away here; but if you're way too curious enough not to wait for an answer, PM me and I'll be sure to answer whatever I feel is okay.**

 **The only info I will indulge is this: this story's pairing is Naruto with 3+ women (one of them being Pamela/Poison Ivy)! I won't make the harem pairing too big since I wouldn't know how to fully get that to work.**

 **Be sure to review this story guys! Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	2. Reminiscing and the Date

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 2: Reminiscing and The Date**

It has been a few days since Naruto had his coffee 'date' with the red headed botanist and it had turned out pretty well. The two enjoyed each other's company and had a very nice conversation which consisted of small talk of recent events which soon developed to a discussion about what Pamela's further plans are with the investment she gotten the previous night. They didn't get deep into their get together as Ms. Isley had to head over to work to get further into her testing and research. Before she left though she had asked if they could do this again soon and Naruto complied as he would contact her for any availability or vice versa.

Currently Naruto was in his office going over several things on his list for the day on the basic day to day happenings at his company. This was mostly consisting of heading over to the art and advertising department to check up on current projects, going to check on the journalists under his employ to see what should be put into the next issue of their magazine and lastly there were several books he had to go over before contacting the authors if he would sign them on or ask for specific fixes before sending the work to the editors.

The life of being the Editor in Chief and head of a publishing company everybody.

The publisher was about to go over the first book for the day when he ended up getting a call on his intercom speaker.

" _Mr. Uzumaki, there is a Lois Lane on Line 1 for you."_ Jillian said on the other line getting Naruto to gain a questioning look.

'Huh wonder why she is contacting me after all this time?' he thought before pressing a button. "Thank you Jillian."

He cleared his throat before answering the reporter.

"Hello Lois, long time no hear. How have things treated you since we last spoke?" Naruto said with a smile.

" _Oh doing well on my end. Just working in what I enjoy doing in life."_ Lois said with a smug tone.

"I bet. With you being Perry's star, award winning reporter I might add." The former shinobi added. "Speaking of, how is he? Haven't spoken to him in like 4, 5 years I believe."

" _Around that amount of time and yeah, Perry is doing well."_

"Still grouchy as ever." He said getting a little laugh from Lois.

" _As always Whiskers."_

"So don't mind me asking, but why are you calling me all of a sudden?" Naruto said as he turned his chair around to look outside of the window. "It's been years since we last spoke with me finishing up my time as an intern at the Daily Planet."

" _Well I had nothing going on at the moment with things being quite slow and I was browsing through old photos on my computer. When I ended up seeing pictures of us together I wanted to call and see if we could catch up for old times sake."_ Lois replied making Naruto turn around to his computer and ended up pulling up photos from his time at the Daily Planet.

There were several photos of him when he was around twenty years old being with a younger Lois who was around her early twenties. He scrolled over a few till showing another set of photos of the two being with a shoulder length blonde haired, blue eyed woman who was the same age as Lois. Soon various memories started coming back around making him smile.

"Yeah that would sound fun. You, me and Cat together again right?" Naruto suggested "I mean I know that Cat no longer works there being Perry's assistant last time I heard, especially with her leading CatCo but it would be good to see you two again."

" _Yeah….it could be…..fun."_ Lois dryly said getting Naruto to frown.

"Lois, what's wrong? The moment I mentioned Cat you sounded bitter all of a sudden." he said hearing a sigh in response.

" _It's just that…..when you were over here at Metropolis and was interning at the Planet, you became our good friend and despite Cat and I arguing you would be our mediator to keep things settled. When you left though... Things didn't go all that well. We argued more and things lead to us no longer being friends."_ The reporter explained getting the editor to sigh.

"Lois, if things were going on like that then either one of you could've called me. You know me that I would've done anything to help those that were precious to me." he said.

" _Yeah….I know."_

"So why didn't you?"

" _I don't know Naruto. I think it was a mix between too many deadlines at the time to you writing and starting up your company. I can't really remember at the moment."_ Lois said feeling slightly frustrated on thinking on the reasons back then.

"Hey don't worry Lois. I don't blame you or Cat at all. I just wished I would've known sooner to help your friendship with her."

" _Heh, typical Whiskers. Always helping others when needed."_ Lois said with a little laugh.

"Hey I saved your butt more times than one especially when dealing with your general of a dad. I can't remember how many times I pulled you and your sister, Lucy, out of that particular fire pit."

" _Ugh don't remind me."_ she said on the other end. _"Hey I gotta get off now. Seems Perry needs me for something."_

"Well it's been good talking to you Lois. We should do this again sometime. Maybe I could stop on by Metropolis sometime when I'm there on business so we can make up for lost time."

" _Th-That would be great!"_ She happily said in a higher tone before coughing to compose herself. _"I-I mean we definitely should. You got a handful of things to make up for mister and I won't take no for an answer."_

"Oh don't worry, I don't plan on refusing Lois. Maybe to help sweeten the pot I could sign your copies of what books you have of mine." he added in before he heard her stammer.

" _Y-You mean….all of them."_

"Wait…. you mean you-" _"Oh Perry is yelling now. Gotta go bye."_ Lois said as she quickly hung up.

The former shinobi looked at his phone before guessing that she had his Icha Icha works and didn't want to say it out loud at the workplace. He shook his head and hung up his phone before glancing over to his computer screen seeing the photo of his two Metropolis friends. Naruto was gonna go back to his work but had the nagging feeling for him to check on Cat.

Going through his computer to find the contact information for CatCo Worldwide Media before calling their office building. After hearing a few 'rings' on the line the silverette heard someone answer.

" _Hello. This is CatCo Worldwide Media. Tori speaking."_

"Hello, I was wondering if you could redirect me to Ms. Grant's office." Naruto said

" _And why would you want to chat with Ms. Grant? She has been pretty busy as of late."_ Tori said on the other end.

"Just tell her that an old friend is calling would you please."

" _Eh….ok. Hold please."_ After holding for a minute Naruto heard a stern, feminine voice on the other end.

" _Hello. This is Cat Grant speaking. You better not be wasting my time on this since I'm a very busy woman."_

"Man what crawled up your butt and died? You sound really pissed for some reason. Was it your mom?" Naruto said with a little chuckle in his voice. "Seriously was it your mom since she is probably the only person to make you that cranky."

" _...Who is this?"_

"Well sorry if we haven't had the chance to talk since I left the Planet Kitty Cat, but you would remember your old friend Whiskers right?" he said with a smile before he heard her gasp.

" _N-Naruto!"_ Cat said in shock before Naruto heard something drop on the other end as some fumbling around took place.

"Hey you there?"

" _Y-Yes. It's just that you surprised me there Whiskers."_ Cat said as she tried to compose herself there.

"Well yeah since it's been roughly 4-5 years since we last saw and spoke to each other." He said with a melancholic smile.

" _That sounds about right. So why did you call me all of a sudden?"_

"Well Lois called me earlier and we got into a chat before having to get back to work. Got me to remember the good times together back at the Planet and wanted to try and catch up."

" _Really…..you talked to her."_ She said as she went back to her stern tone.

"Well yeah. *Sigh* Look I heard from Lois on what happened after I left and I'm sorry on what went on. I…. I wish I could've been there to help you guys out. Don't know what exactly went on with your arguments but I wished you guys would've called me to help settle things."

" _...I see. Well…. I'm glad to hear that Naruto. You were always considerate in our friendship and wanting the best out of us."_

"Good to know. So I was wondering how things are going on your end leading a media company as Editor in Chief? Must be tough." He said as he wanted to shift the conversation to something else.

" _Well things are doing well on my end. Just busy everyday to be sure the public is satisfied on the news in not just here in National City but other parts of the world. As for the difficulty I might as well be honest but it was actually tough at first. Eventually I was able handle all that and more."_

"Well both of us now know more on how Perry was, and currently is, like at the Planet. You and me being in similar shoes working as heads and founders of our respective companies." Naruto said getting her to chuckle on the other end.

" _Oh definitely. A lot of times I end up realizing the same thing."_

"From the mixture of frustrations…"

" _The deadlines…."_

" _The possible yelling and death glares./_ The possible yelling and death glares." They both said at the same time before laughing a little.

"Well the yelling and death glares on my end weren't that often with my employees but yeah we sometimes pick up habits from our employers right?"

" _Definitely."_ she said in a lighter tone as nostalgia started to kick in.

"How's Adam by the way? You two doing well?"

" _Yes very much so. He turned six a few weeks ago."_

"Really? Well it seems I'll be needing to catch up on some delayed birthday presents then. I'll be sure to send over whatever books you don't have for the little guy."

" _Whiskers you don't have to-"_ "But I want to Kitty Cat." Naruto interrupted her. "I need to make the little joy of your life happy and if I can make him happy just as I'll make you happy in turn."

*Sigh* _"Only you Naruto, only you would go above and beyond for those you care for. You know, I still can't help but keep thanking you everyday on helping me keep Adam from_ him _. I honestly wouldn't know what I would be like without my little bundle of joy."_

"Your welcome Cat." Naruto said before seeing a light go on and off at his intercom and could tell someone is trying to call him. "Hey someone is trying to reach me over here. So I was wondering if I could stop on by National City sometime so we can hang out to make up for lost time.

" _You do?!"_ She happily said in a higher tone before coughing to compose herself but Naruto could tell she, like Lois, seems really excited in wanting to see him.

"Well yeah I do. Maybe while over there, we could maybe partner up like the good old days. But instead of helping each other out on assignments that we could become joint companies or partners. Don't know but you get the gist."

" _Well I look forward to it Whiskers. Hope to see you soon."_ Cat said before hanging up.

'Man having phone calls one after another. If this keeps up I'll never get into my reading.' he thought before hitting the button to answer the next call.

"Hello, Naruto Uzumaki speaking."

" _Naruto, it's Pamela."_

"Oh hey Pamela, whats up?"

" _Nothing much, I got off work early today and I was wondering if you had any plans this evening."_

"Not that I can think of, why?"

" _Well….Call me silly but I was wondering if you would like to go to dinner tonight?"_ She said as he could pick up her nervous tone.

"Well you're not silly at all Pamela and yeah think I can be fine going to dinner tonight."

" _Really! That's great! So how about picking me up around 7:30 sound?"_

"Sounds good. Just let me get a pen so I can write your address down." He said as she told him her address. "Alrighty then, I'll be seeing you then."

"Same here. Later." He said as he ended the call. "Well that one was actually shorter than the previous two."

Once all that was taken care of, Naruto decided to get back into business and get his work list taken care of so hopefully he can get off on time.

 _ **-Hours Later, Pam's Apartment Complex-**_

It was quite easy for the Uzumaki to find her apartment complex and was walking towards her door. On the entire time getting over there Naruto was feeling a bit fidgety on the whole thing since this is honestly his first date-date with her and doesn't want to screw things up.

Once he found her apartment, he looked at himself to straighten out his clothes to seem presentable. He wore a black button up shirt with the first button undone underneath his jacket along with khaki pants and black shoes. Naruto knocked before hearing Pam yell 'just a second' on the other side of the door. After a few moments the door opened causing the silverette male to drop his jaw.

She wore a strapless red dress that hugged her figure nicely that ended past her knees and showed some of her cleavage but he didn't mind. Her hair was loose unlike the previous times they met with it tied back and it made her even more stunning with her only having very little make-up of just the subtle eyeshadow and the rose red lip gloss. Naruto ended up staring at her for a bit causing her to laugh a little on the reaction.

"Well it seems I literally took the words out of your mouth." Pamela said with a smirk.

Getting out of his trance he shook his head and pulled his hand from behind to show her an assortment of flowers: Red Camellia, Pink Camellia, White Camellia, Red Carnation, White Carnation, some Daffodils around the edges, Gloxinia, and in the center of it all was a Red Rose.

With Pamela being very knowledgeable in flora her mind already translated what he was 'saying': You're a flame in my heart, I long for you, I think you're adorable, My heart aches for you, Pure love, The sun always shines when I'm with you, Love at first sight, and finally _I love you._

'So sweet.' She thought with a small blush and took a whiff enjoying the pleasant smell.

"Well I didn't know which ones you would've liked, so I asked my secretary for what would seem appropriate." Naruto said as he tried to keep eye contact but kept looking away as he tried to calm himself down.

'I'll need to thank that secretary of his when I get the chance.' she thought with a smile. "They are Naruto. I'll be right back, I want to put these in a vase so they won't dry out."

In less than a minute she came back out and locked her apartment's door before taking his held out arm.

"I'm glad you came on time." Pamela said as Naruto lead her towards his car outside. "I felt as though you might come late due to your workload."

"Well I hate to make first impressions look bad." The former shinobi said, "That and I could finish up my assigned reading tomorrow since on most days it takes all night to get that done and over with."

They approached his car and he opened up the passenger door for her before getting in himself.

"So where would you like to go Pamela? I'm all ears. If you don't have a preference I know this one restaurant that would work well for you."

"I don't know any at the moment, so let's try out where you are thinking of."

Naruto nodded as he drove off as the occupants sat in silence. It was bugging her a little so she ended up breaking the ice.

"I'm guessing you don't go out quite often. You seem rusty on dating." Guessed the botanist.

"I'm going to be honest with you Pam, but I've never went on a date before."

She recoiled at the man next to her in surprise. She actually thought that a man like him must have had a few relationships.

Not believing for a moment she asked one simple question. "Are you telling me the truth?"

The car slowly came to a stop at a red light before the former shinobi sighed and looked directly into her emerald eyes.

"Yes I am Pam. To tell you the truth I never had the chance to go out when growing up and I tried before I left my previous home. Ever since I never bothered going out until tonight."

The two lapsed in silence as the car started moving again before Pam decided to ask again on what was going on in her mind.

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"Why didn't you have the chance to go out when you were younger? Surely you could've gotten at least one date." Pamela said in a slightly demanding tone.

This got him to think a little before filtering and changing a little from his childhood so he won't reveal his whole past.

"Well as you know I was born an orphan and my parents died the day I was born." He said as he could tell she was nodding. "What I didn't tell you was what went on in my childhood before I left that home. You see that I was picked on and was ignored for several years. I tried to get the attention of others through pulling pranks and wearing a kill me orange jumpsuit-"

"Sorry but you wore a 'kill me' orange jumpsuit?" Pam questioned as she ended up interrupting him.

"Yeah I did. It was one of the only forms of clothing I could get."

Pam wanted to say something but didn't want to interrupt his explanation.

"I was practically an outcast because of my combination of hair and eye colors along with my birthmarks. Was considered a 'freak' for a while by a lot of kids my age till I turned 12-13 years old and that caused me to be self conscious and not become confident enough to try to ask others out. Even people older than me considered me an outcast."

Pam got pretty drawn into the conversation and was wondering what the hell was going on at his home that made him like that.

"There was one girl I tried asking out time and time again but she was interested in this duck-butt haired asshole we were classmates with because he was so 'cool' and 'emo' and whatnot that it drove me insane. Didn't help that a lot of the other girls my age was interested in the same guy and he just outright ignored them. Most of the time me and a few other guys I eventually became friends with called him 'gay' behind his back for not being interested in girls." Naruto said with a slight chuckle in remembrance of Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru.

"So I ended up wanting to go out with not only her but others. Surprise surprise it didn't work out and eventually I decided to no longer be interested in dating. Besides I didn't _have_ to date that young I could've been at fault for that bit."

Pam feeling slightly depressed on what she heard couldn't help but simply respond. "I-I'm sorry to hear that Naruto. I didn't know."

"Hey it's ok. It's all in the past. Lets just try to focus on the present shall we."

"But there is one question that is now bugging me?"

"Which is….?" He said drawing out for the response.

"If you haven't gone out on even one date then what is up with you writing the 'Icha Icha' books? It's just that you had a lot of great descriptions and details put into them and I thought…." Pam said trying to think of what to say.

"That I had done the deed is what you're implying?" she nodded at his response.

"Well to simply put it, no. I never done it with anyone before. With those books, they were actually written by my godfather, same with my 'Gutsy Ninja' story. The 'Arashi Rasen' story was all me. And before you ask, my godfather gave me the rights for his books since he died before getting them out there. So I had them published so I can honor his memory." Naruto said with some half-truths.

It was true in most aspects that after Jiraiya died back in Naruto's home reality, he had given Naruto full rights to his works and in turn the earnings. So when he got into this world he decided to use those rights to get the old super pervert's works out there for the world to enjoy.

"I see. It is good to know of that and you have done such a thing."

"Thanks. It means a lot hearing on that."

After a few more minutes of driving, Naruto pulled up in front of one of the fanciest restaurants in Gotham that was a few stories high.

"Well, I must admit Naruto this is certainly a great place to go to on a first date." She said examining the quality of the mere entrance of the restaurant.

"Well I'm glad this is going good so far." The former shinobi said as he got out the car and went around to Pamela's side to open her door and offered his hand. Once she got out he laced his arm with hers as the silverette handed the cabbie his keys.

"Even though you said you haven't gone out on a date you sure know what to do so far." The botanist said in a teasing tone making it sound to him that he was lying about before.

"Sometimes when I come on by here for business dinners I end up seeing other couples do this so I had to mimic honestly."

They soon made it to the podium and Naruto told the man of their reservation spot. From there they made their way to their table for the evening right by the window seeing a lot of Gotham with their surroundings very lavishly set up around them.

"If I haven't said this before I might say it now that I'm most impressed." The red haired beauty stated, admiring the mixing colors with the floral decorations.

"Your welcome Pamela. I wouldn't want to do anything less at the moment."

His date chuckled a little as a waiter approached the two, giving them two menus.

"Hello sir, madam. I shall be your waiter this evening. May I start you off with some refreshments?"

"Of course." Naruto said as he looked over to the drink section of his menu.

"Mind giving us some red and white wine. I would also like some water with lemon and lime for the both of us." The silverette said getting the waiter to nod on the selection.

"Right away sir, I shall bring you some bread to start you off." The waiter said before heading off to get the drinks. It didn't take long for the waiter to come back with the two wines in an ice bucket and with two glasses. He set the glasses both down and poured their glasses full before setting the bottles down in the ice bucket. He went back to grab the requested waters and once he returned the waiter pulled out a notepad.

"Are you ready to order yet?"

"I think so." Naruto glanced at the menu. "I'll have a chicken caesar salad with a cajun chicken alfredo pasta."

"And you my lady?"

"I shall have a greek salad with a vegetarian platter."

"Very well." The waiter retrieved the two menus and left the two once more. The two were silent as both of them were sipping their drinks and eating some bread.

 _ **-Meanwhile-**_

As the two were chatting before their dinner arrived, they were unaware that at the moment, they were being spied upon by a very wanted, murderous male.

Minato Namikaze.

And as to why that was so, easy.

Recognition of course! Now, it's rather simple really why he would want his image to be recognized: he wants work. What? A man can't want some good references for some honest to Kami work?!

Granted bloody work but work all the same, not like he was adverse to a little murder anyway. But it couldn't just be any murder, oh no, it had to be someone special.

Someone influential.

Someone powerful.

Someone, larger than your average joe ladies and gents.

Someone that has become quite the celebrity in the past few years.

Hence his current target Naruto Uzumaki.

"And all he has to do, is die. Hehe, let the spectacle commence!" White teeth flashed manically as a glowing hand slowly aimed its way to its oh so lucky target.

The air snapped and hissed as energy warped and gathered around the black and gold clad limb. Arcing and twisting ever so archaically around him the man's smile widened as the show of power pulsed in anticipation, reveling in the concept of release from his body to a more vulnerable fleshy conductor.

Well, who was he to let it stay longer than it wanted?

 _ **-Back with the date-**_

"So he looks to me and asks, 'well, guess she didn't like the present!" Naruto smiled to his date sending her into a fit of giggles.

"W-w-what?! But, but how did you get the pony inside of her office?!"

"I can be very persuasive Pam."

"Persuasive enough to get a pony. In a small one person office room. On the _fifth floor_ of the building. Without her or _anyone noticing?!_ "

He smiled, "Yep."

By this point her giggles couldn't be contained as she laughed unabated, tears beginning to gather in the corners of her eyes as she shook in mirth.

"T-t-that is, is, is e-either the most funny thi-i-ng someone has done to someone or, OR, or the most! Most, well told lie I have ever heard!"

"Ha, you doubt me?" He 'gasped' in shock, "Well, Ms. Isley I will have you know that when it comes to pranks I never lie! Embellish a little, most certainly, but never lie."

Though before he could continue however, all the lights in the restaurants suddenly went off, causing a brief scream of panic from some frightened guests; and though he and Pamela weren't as frightened as some, they were a tiny bit concerned, until at least the restaurant's manager eased the gathered customers with a few choice words.

 _Unfortunately…_

Their reliefs were short lived, however, because the moment the manager left, the darkened room was suddenly filled with a wave of killing intent. In response, the majority of the entire restaurant started to quiver in fear while the minority, which was just Naruto, Pam and a handful of dinner groups, were able to not be affected.

It didn't take long for the conscious people to know where the source came from as one of the windows inwardly broke with a shadowy figure coming through it. Rising from a crouch, people assumed it was Batman but they were wrong as yellow electricity started to emanate from the man to reveal his form that only Naruto could guess to recognize…..

This realities doppelganger of his birth father, the Thunder God assassin.

From the assassin's attire was a black leather jacket, with the hood pulled back, and pants with belts wrapping through various parts of his body with yellow lightning designs put on there.

Seems that he should've prepared a bit better to Kurama's warning and now it's gonna be biting him in the ass.

"Well hello good sirs and madams, I am this night's entertainment for you all! For my main trick for you to witness the murder of Naruto Uzumaki before your very eyes!" Minato yelled out in odd glee as he channeled electricity into his hands and started blasting randomly all over the place causing panic for the patrons.

Naruto reacting fast, he pulled Pam down to the ground from an incoming shot.

"Pam, I'm going to draw his attention. While I'm doing that I want you to try to get others out of here." Naruto said in a stern voice causing Pam's eyes to widen.

"Are you crazy?! He'll kill you!" She barely yelled out due to other people causing a lot of the noise.

"He's here for me and I don't want anyone else to get caught in the crossfire." He said as he tried to get up but a firm grip on his wrist tried to make him stay.

"You can't Naruto. Please." The botanist said as tears started to pool in her eyes.

"I can't Pam, I'm sorry. Please for this one time do as I say." At this she hesitantly nodded despite not wanting her date to get killed.

"As I give the signal I want you to start getting people out of here as best as you can. Will you do that?" He said as a few other bolts of electricity zoomed past them.

"Y-Yes."

The publicist looked on the ground and saw various silverware lying around due to the commotion and acting swiftly he sped towards them and gathered what he can before taking precise aim at the electrical themed assassin.

As Minato was being distracted of laughing his ass off while throwing various blasts he didn't notice a kitchen knife stabbing him in the knee and another one cutting deeply into his cheek.

"GAH!" He grunted loudly as he held his face and pulled the knife out of his leg. "Who the fuck did that?!"

He didn't get a response as the silverette threw more silverware at his assailant trying to get some hits but because of the assassin being alert now, it would be a little harder. So he would need to use the dark to his advantage as best as he can.

While this was going on, Pam was getting a lot of the patrons out of the restaurant and kept on looking back in worry.

Naruto was ducking through various electrical blasts and kept throwing silverware but was running out of ammunition. He knew he couldn't keep doing this forever and was wishing he still had his chakra so that the fight could've been easier. For now he had to try to be smart in his coming approaches. Looking around in the barely lit room, he saw some fallen chairs and smiled a little on a little improve weapon idea.

Minato was getting sick and tired on this little game of 'hide and go shock' as he wanted to get his kill done and over with so he can get recognition of killing yet another celebrity.

"Now where the fuck are you kiddo? All I want is to have some fun as I roast your body from the inside out!" he said in frustration before having his face be assaulted by a chair.

Not giving the thunder themed assassin a second to breathe, the former shinobi jumped out of his hiding spot with broken chair legs on hand to smack his father's counterpart in rapid succession.

"There you are! I was wondering where-" Minato was quickly interrupted as his nose was soon broken by the rough end of a broken chair leg before another chair leg roughly hit his stabbed leg.

"You fucker!" The blonde haired man yelled as he staggered before throwing a bolt of electricity at Naruto. The silverette barely dodged before throwing one of the chair legs straight at Minato who soon caught it.

"You're starting to test my patience here you bastard. I thought that this was going to be a simple, quick and easy kill but this is getting too cumbersome for my liking." He snarled as he electrified his hand vaporizing the chair leg to ash in the effort. Using the same hand he threw arcing bolts of electricity at his desired target.

"You know, for an assassin, you do talk a lot and not move that much. Did you fail assassin academy or something since you're doing such a piss poor job trying to kill me?" Taunted Naruto as he tried to, and continued to, get onto the 'Thunder God's' nerves. "I mean seriously you are literally being a human target, punching bag just for little old me."

"Shut up and die already!"

"I think you should go by the name 'Turtle God' instead of 'Thunder God' as you are just so slow in the uptake." The former shinobi said as he tossed another chair that soon got blasted into pieces. "Maybe you're compensating for being a little quick in your _electrocutions_. Don't worry, I hear it's quite common with men in your age bracket."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" The assassin yelled in blind rage.

"If not then that might explain why you can't get a date!"

That did it. Now Minato was literally exploding in anger. "WILL YOU JUST FUCKING DIE ALREADY?!"

He was frantically looking around for his target when said target's date came into the room looking for her boytoy.

"Naruto! Everyone's out! Where are you?!" She called out causing Minato to look at her in sadistic glee.

'Perfect!' The blonde assassin yelled in his head and threw bolt of lightning at the red headed woman.

"PAM!" Naruto yelled out and ran from his cover towards his date to block the blast. As he soon reached her he put his back towards her with his body spread out. Pam noticing what was gonna happen she closed her eyes as she screamed.

Naruto saw the bolt of lightning come towards him with deadly accuracy but when it almost hit him…..it fizzled out like it was nothing.

' _What?!'_ Was the shared thought between Minato and Naruto and before anyone else could realize what happened a pair of boots slammed against Minato's head, making him tumble to the floor and hitting the far wall.

Minato was going to respond, he was soon showered with dust.

"Hey! *cough cough* What the fuck is with *cough* this stuff?" The assassin said in between coughs.

"Silicate dust. Completely electrical resistant. You're completely grounded." The shadowy man said before punching Minato's lights out and rendering him unconscious.

Soon the lights flickered back on to show not only the result of the entire state of the dining room but also showed who had taken care of Minato.

The Dark Knight himself, Batman.

The caped crusader soon turned towards the one couple, with Naruto being tightly hugged by Pam, before he had out pulled nullifying power cuffs from his utility belt and placed them on Minato. With that taken care of he walked towards them.

"Are you two alright?" Batman asked.

"Yeah, we're fine. Just shaken up is all." Naruto said as he was rubbing and patting Pam's head to calm her down."

"I'm sorry that I couldn't get here sooner. I had another problem across town earlier and tried to get over here quickly."

"It's fine Batman. I don't, and I guess the others, blame you at all. You did what you could." The publisher said as the dark knight nodded in response.

Soon the police arrived and properly detained the thunder themed assassin as medics soon followed to help the injured.

 _ **-Pam's Apartment Complex-**_

After being questioned by both the police and Batman himself on what had occurred, Naruto and Pam were able to leave.

Not wanting to spook Pam up more, he drove a bit slower and kept an eye out on the surrounding areas just in case something else popped up.

Once reaching the complex, Naruto escorted Pam to her apartment door as they soon faced each other.

"Naruto, thank you for what you did earlier and saving my life." She stated as her mood was improving from earlier. "Despite of what happened during dinner, or lack thereof, I am truly glad I spent it with you. I haven't enjoyed such an evening in such a long, long time."

"Same here Pam." The publisher humbly said. "Though I did wish it didn't have to deal with that crazy loon trying to kill me."

Pam gave her date a small smile to reassure him. Though Naruto was unconvinced, he decided not to pressure her.

"You know Naruto, after what happened earlier with the attack and what you told me of your childhood it seemed that we ended up having a little thing in common." She said getting Naruto to raise an eyebrow on what she was getting.

"You see, I've had my fair share of suffering. Though the way you would possibly say it, I don't know how mine could compare to yours." Pam said trying to collect her thoughts. "While you never grew up with parents, I did but it was never really a happy one."

Taking a breath, she continued. "My father was a violent man and took out his frustrations on both me and my mother. As a retreat from the abuse, we would go over to our garden and tend to it. It would always cheer me up even though my mother takes the majority of the abuse. She would always try to mask it but I try to be happy for her." Pam said in slight nostalgia of those pleasant times as they were some of the happiest moments of her childhood.

Naruto soon saw Pam's features darken as something was going to turn for the worse.

"Then one day my mother disappeared and I didn't know where she was at. I asked my neighbors if they have seen her but they didn't know as well. Later I ended up tending to my garden in hopes of lifting my spirits up when….I found her."

At this point she was visibly shaking and Naruto hugged her as he soon felt some of his clothes starting to dampen. From remembering the bad memories to what happened earlier must've been too much for her.

"My-My father killed her in a dr-drunken rampage one night when I wasn't at home." she said in between sobs. "He buried her in our garden and when I found her face staring right back at me I screamed and my neighbors soon found out what happened."

"Pam, I'm so sorry that I made you remember those bad memories." Naruto said as he tried to calm her down. "You didn't have to tell me if it made you feel uncomfortable."

"But-But I wanted to Naruto." Pam said as she was calming down slightly. "I ju-just needed to get it off my chest. It's been s-so long since I talked about this and seeing you risk your life for everyone there brought those memories back up again."

"I understand Pam. I understand it must've taken a bit for you to bring that up." He said as he felt her nod in his chest.

"Naruto."

"Hmm."

"Will….Will you st-stay with me tonight?" She nervously asked getting Naruto to widen his eyes slightly before they went back down.

"Sure."

Feeling happy on his response, she fished her keys from her purse before opening the door to her apartment.

Once inside, Naruto saw the interior and it seemed to fit Pam very well of the feel of nature. He kept on looking around the apartment seeing the various forest and floral decorations and seeing the scientific journals on the coffee table. He didn't realize of how long he was looking when he felt a pair of arms circling him from behind.

"Did I keep you waiting?" Pam said as the Uzumaki turned around to see Pam cleaned up of the little makeup she had on earlier and in green floral themed pyjamas.

"Nope." He said as he kept glancing at the apartment. "I like it here. Seems very homey, reminds me a bit of my childhood in some aspects."

"Well thank you."

"So would you like me to sleep on the couch? I'm fine there if you want." Naruto said as he gestured the furniture next to him.

"Nope. You'll be sleeping in the same bed as me tonight." 

"But I thought I was going to be sleeping on the couch."

"Well I feel unsafe from tonight and you did say you would stay with me for the night. What better way for my protector to be right next to me, keeping me safe as I sleep." Pam said with a coy smile before frowning slightly. "Unless you don't want to."

"No no no I do want to keep you safe tonight. I-I just didn't know you would've wanted to do it that way." he said as he was starting to get red in the face. He was then led towards the bedroom and saw Pam go underneath her covers fully. Naruto saw the connecting bathroom and went in there to undress wearing just his boxer shorts and white undershirt.

Once getting out he went to the bed and slipped under the covers but edging towards the end of the bed to give Pam enough space.

"Well goodnight Pam." Naruto said as he closed his eyes before he felt the bed shift and Pam drag him close to her.

"Goodnight Naruto." She said to the surprised publisher as his blush soon returned.

What the former shinobi doesn't know, due to the darkness of the bedroom, was his companion was blushing like crazy due to the position they are in. Pam was feeling very nervous on what she had done but took courage to do so. With the sound and rhythm of his strong heartbeat was starting to calm her down and getting her to fall asleep quickly. As for Naruto, he couldn't help but breathe in her floral scent that made him feel drowsy and soon succumbed to slumber.

Both were in a state of blissful sleep unaware of what will happen from here on out due to the actions earlier that night.

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

A pair of doors opened in a darkened room with two sources of light present, one from the moonlight coming from the windows and the other being from a lamp on a desk. At said desk was a man doing some paperwork with a pot of tea not far from him.

"Sir." the man at the door said

"Yes, what is it?"

"I'm here to let you know that the 'Thunder God' has been captured." This got the man at the desk to hum in response at the latest news.

"Well it seems that Minato, our fallen member, has finally gotten himself captured due to his stupidity." The barely lit man said as he took a sip of his tea. "Letting his arrogance getting the better of him."

"It seems that way sir."

"He has always been erratic and unstable. Reason why I had to let him go from our services." The man said before bringing his head up towards the man at the door. "So tell me, where did this happen?"

"In Gotham City sir."

"I see. It seems the Batman has taken care of a nuisance of mine. I might return him a favor at some point." The man said as he was about to go back to his paperwork.

"I'm afraid it wasn't the Batman sir. Though he was the one who detained him, it was someone else who defeated Minato." This got the barely lit man to look up in confusion and slight interest.

"Really…. So tell me Al-Owal, who had done the deed?" The man questioned _'The First'_.

"Reports say it was the founder and head of Spiral Publishing residing in Gotham City, goes by the name Naruto Uzumaki." Al-Owal said to his master.

"Interesting…. You may go."

"By your leave Ra's." _'The First'_ said as he left and closed the door to the Demon Head's office.

"Hmm…..It seems that my daughter's old friend has finally caught my attention. Seems you have surprised and truly gotten my interest now Naruto." Ra's said drawing out a smile. "Let's see what else you have in store."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **First off how did you guys like the chapter so far? Sorry it took a while to put this up due to working full time and figuring out the outline of the next several chapters for this story.**

 **Ok so just to help clear things up for the story that I'm mostly having this take place in the DCAU with some changes and add ons for the sake of the story. This means that I'll be focusing on the Batman 90's animated show, the Superman animated show and those that followed as spin offs and whatnot. This also means that I will be changing things due to Naruto being apart of this particular DC multiversal world.**

 **Like for example Naruto used to be an intern for the Daily Planet and honestly if you want to have a job in publishing, yet alone being the founder of one company, you would need to be an intern and whatnot.**

 **Another note to let you know, I'm not going to be super accurate with a lot of details like ages and whatnot since I'm not a supergeek at all like a lot of others. So stuff with the DCAU timeline won't be spot on with me having this story be 'inspired' per say.**

 **So long story short this story will be mainly DCAU with add ons changes with the CW DC shows and other stuff of my choosing. Reason why this story is listed as apart of the DC Superheroes crossover on the site.**

 **Now with some people on pairing suggestions and I do not want to see any odd hate towards my way for not having a particular person in the harem.**

 **Firstmost I'm gonna be iffy on Kushina to add her or not. *Dodging a beer bottle.* Hey watch it! Anyways when the first reviews came in I didn't expect several readers asking for Kushina to be added in since I honestly didn't expect others to want her and whatnot. So at the moment just going to have to wait and see.**

 **With other girls I already have planned out three with Pam/Poison Ivy being confirmed and just to settle you readers on your nerves yes Harley will be in it. It's just gonna be be a process really on how to get her into the romance with Naruto. On the others I won't spoil so please don't ask.**

 **As for powers, I already have them set out for what Naruto has so please don't suggest any.**

 **For those that are wondering about Minato's powers, they are similar to Livewire and Static Shock in the DCAU but without the transportation ability. As for his attire, picture Malcolm Merlyn's assassin's outfit from the CW DC shows with yellow lightning designs added in.**

 **Anyways after getting that stuff out of the way, be sure to review this story guys! Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	3. One Interesting Day

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 3: One Interesting Day**

The morning rays started peaking through the curtains of Pamela's bedroom as it slowly crept towards the sleeping woman's face.

*Groan* "Goooo awaaay." The botanist said as the brightness of the early sunrise started to stir the redhead. She wanted to move but she was comfortable in position in her bed but felt that it was off. Soon memories started coming to the forefront of her mind as she remembered that Naruto slept right next to her last night with her head rested against his beating chest. Realizing what occurred, she opened her eyes in hopes of seeing his sleeping face but it wasn't there.

Having the need to get up now to see if he was still in her apartment, she soon called out his name.

"Naruto….Naruto are you here?!" She yelled out in hopes of her voice reaching past her bedroom door as she stepped out of her bed.

"Hello!" Pam called out once again after passing her bedroom door to see no one else there. She wandered around slightly still groggy from getting up just not too long ago before ending up on her couch. Falling down face first onto the pillow before she started to cuss and moan for no apparent reason on thinking she might've screwed up having Naruto stay with her for the night after their first date-date.

"Should I come back later?" A voice called out from her mid-rant in her pillow. She soon lifted her head towards the entrance of her apartment to see Naruto dressed back from last night.

"Um…. Hi….. I thought you left." Pam said as she cleared the dust from her eyes so she can focus more towards the Uzumaki.

"Well yeah I did….. But then I came back…. with breakfast." Naruto said as he held up a coffee tray with four cups of coffee and a bag of food. "Um…. I figured it could've been the least I could do to make up for not having dinner last night."

"I-It's noooo *yawn* problem." She said in a reassuring smile making him smile back in return before turning his back towards her putting breakfast on the kitchen counter.

"Well I had gotten a Venti Cap Latte, an Earl-Gray Tea, something with Chai in the title and a Soy Milk Espresso. As for food got some blueberry, poppy seed and cinnamon muffins since you told me they were your favorite. So its pick and choose really." He called out not noticing Pam frantically got up from her couch before slipping down on the ground in hopes of getting to the mirror nearby to fix herself up from cleaning up her face of any little eye crusts and not making her hair just as frizzy.

"I….Well I'll be having the tea and the soy." Pam said as she walked towards him.

"Yes! Thought you might say that." Naruto replied back before grabbing her desired drinks before waving his hands around making her groan a little on the display.

"Oh god…. you're a morning person. And here I thought I knew that already."

"Well I wasn't always like that. Was so damn cranky whenever getting up from bed but had to change all that when I was like….. Nineteen?" He thoughtfully said as she nabbed the coffees out of his hands with a slight glare before taking sips out of both. "Well sometimes how I tell my employees 'Always start your day like it was on purpose.'"

"Maybe I should follow that saying, but I don't think it'll work all that well." She said as she pulled back one of the chairs from the countertop before sitting down.

"Yeah….they sometimes say roughly the same thing back to me."

"Good to know." She ate bits of one of the muffins before taking sips of her desired drinks. "So….. just a random thought here but…..why didn't you cook breakfast for the two of us?"

He gave her a look with his head tilted before answering. "I was actually planning on doing that. When I got up, I looked through your pantry to make either pancakes or something. Buuuut seems you forgot to go grocery shopping as of late."

'Damn. I was hoping for a nice, home cooked meal in the morning. Even better with him doing it for me.' She thought before her mind started to drift to one little scenario of her catching him cooking breakfast with just an apron on. Possibly seeing his toned, naked form with most hiding behind the fabric.

'No! Bad Pam. Bad. Bad.' She berated herself as she shook her head to get the thought out of her head. God…. Why did she read Naruto's Icha Icha books if it was going to make her think that way? Now it's gonna be hard to not think of that whenever Naruto is possibly over here from now on.

"So…." The publisher said, getting her to snap out of her thoughts pertaining a certain book series. "What are your plans for the day?"

Thinking a little bit before said plans came up to her. "Well…. I have a few things to take care of today before I need to go to Louisiana tonight."

"Why you heading there?"

"I'm going to be seeing an old colleague of mine to exchange notes. He and his wife been working on a bio-restorative formula that would solve any nations' food shortage problems."

"Really?" Naruto looked at the botanist in surprise on hearing that. "Man that is awesome Pam. Think of the possibilities that could do to the world and maybe save the majority of it."

"I know." she said with a small smile. "It's a very noble goal he and his wife are doing and from what I've been told they have been working on this for years. Last time I heard from them that they are roughly half-way done and that was just last year. Wonder though what the progress is once I see them tomorrow."

"Why can't you just ask them over the phone?"

"Well…..as you can imagine Naruto, the project's outcome will be extraordinary….possibly Nobel Prize winning. So the research has to be very top secret with only a small circle of people knowing."

"Ah ok." He said as he finished up one of the muffins. "But what about on your end with the exchanging process? Will it help out on your serum?"

"I think so. Both of our goals are pretty similar from mine being for the environment while theirs is on the food shortages so I wouldn't think there would be any problems." She said with a shrug.

"So how long will you be gone?"

"Possibly a few days." She soon gave him a questioning look. "Why you ask?"

"Well….. I was wondering….. if I could make up for the ruined date last night and possibly have another one once you get back."

"I would love to Naruto." Pam said with a smile with a little blush.

"Great."

They soon finished up their meal and Pam had to finish getting ready for the day from taking a quick shower and getting dressed. Naruto didn't mind waiting since he decided to skim through some, random scientific journals lying on her coffee table. He soon heard steps coming his way and turned around to seeing her in an orange button up shirt underneath a brown business jacket and a black skirt that reached to her knees. Finishing up her attire was her wearing black, one-inch heels and a pair of black rimmed glasses with her hair tied back into a ponytail.

"You know you didn't have to wait on me. You probably have things to do at your publishing company."

"Oh I know but I didn't want to be rude and leave you here as you finished getting ready."

"Well thank you." They soon exited her apartment, and in turn her building, to see the nice, sunny day outside.

"Man, the day seems to be really nice so far." The publisher said stating the obvious.

"Yes it is." She looked behind her to the direction of her first errand for the day. "Well I'm this way."

"And I'm that way." Naruto pointed towards the opposite direction where his car is parked at.

"Well give me a ring later." Pam said before blushing a little on what she just spoke. "I mean on the phone."

"Yeah, definately will Pam." He said with a chuckle. "If you want, I can take you to the airport tonight."

"That'll be great."

"So what time should I stop on by?"

"Flights around 9 and will be landing over there around midnight. So you should pick me up around 7 so I can get through security on time."

"Sounds like a plan Pam."

Both soon realized they were a bit too close to each other and didn't know what to do for the moment. Taking a chance, Pam decided to be a little bold and give him a quick peck on the cheek but Naruto turned his head slightly making her kiss him on the lips. Both didn't move at all on the sudden action but that didn't say they didn't enjoy it.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that." She frantically said waving her hands around a little with a growing blush.

"N-No it's fine Pam. I-I didn't mind actually." Naruto said as he looked away with a faint blush while scratching his whisker marks.

They didn't say anything for several more seconds until the Uzumaki broke the small tension.

"Well I'll pick you up around 7 Pam. Have a nice day."

"See you then Naruto."

Both walked to their destinations with Naruto still focusing on the feeling on his lips of the slight, nice tingle while Pam seemed to have a slight skip to her every other step.

Once reaching his car and heading towards his firm, Naruto couldn't help but think, 'This might be the start of a good day.'

Took him roughly twenty minutes to reaching work and once he got inside, he got an odd feeling that something might happen at a sudden moment. Didn't help a little when he got to his office and saw that Jillian wasn't there.

'Maybe she went to use the restroom.' He thought before he opened the door and saw someone in there sitting on his office couch.

"Finally. Took you long enough. I didn't know if you were not going to show up." The person said showing their face to Naruto.

'Oh great….her.' He thought as yet another person had shown up that Kurama warned him about: Riptide, this realities doppelganger of his mother. She looked very similar to the mother he talked to when he was training under Killer B to control Kurama's chakra and her chakra echo came to chat with him. The only difference between the two were the eyes and hair. While his mother had royal purple in color and the hair going to her lower back, Riptide here had sea-green colored ones and the hair down to her chin and the shade was slightly darker.

Riptide got up from her seat and Naruto took on her appearance that she wore a loose sweater with the neck of it going up to the base of her head while also wearing loose pants. He looked further down and saw slight difference on the attire of her shoes were metallic in nature, almost armor like actually. With how she presented herself, she was pretty much on the alert at a moment's notice for the attack on either the giving or receiving end.

"Well sorry, I had a rough night last night and I wanted to sleep in late this morning." Naruto said in a half truth. What he didn't want to just give her the full excuse on why he was late coming in today from his usual time.

"So just wondering but why are you in my office?"

"To talk to you obviously."

"You could've set up an appointment with my assistant instead of coming here all of a sudden."

"Well I don't like waiting just so you know."

"I can tell." Yeah that might be a similar comparison between the two counterparts, both of them are pretty impatient and even the way they express it is the same. "But in all honestly I ask again. Why are you here for me? What have I done that has gotten your attention?"

The only response he got was he quickly bringing her hand upwards as something shot out of the sleeve of her sweater and went towards his head. He ducked to the side as he had to roll out of the way with several other projectiles flew to his position. Needing a slight way to defend himself threw several things in his office towards his mother's doppelganger, which she quickly sliced in half with a water dagger. Looking back to his previous positions quickly he realized that she really does have water based abilities with all he found was little puddles of water.

Taking the advantage of his slight distraction, she closed onto his position and sent a few kick towards his stomach sending him to his desk sending several things on it off. She brought her arm down with her water dagger which Naruto brought his arm up to block and keep it from advancing.

"I'm just here to ask a few questions Naruto Uzumaki."

"Well you're not doing a good job in first impressions." He said with a grunt as he tried to keep her dagger away from his face.

He used his unoccupied arm and punched his assailant's side in hopes of distracting her but he ended up hitting armor underneath. Not letting up, despite his hand's pain, he kept on punching to possibly get her off. Naruto kept struggling as the dagger got closer to his face and needed to maybe use another punch towards her face or else he will die soon.

As he was about to send her a punch to her haymaker, his fist was enveloped in some energy of sorts that seemed to spark in his hand but didn't notice this until his fist came into view punching Kushina away from him. She stumbled away from him feeling a burn of sorts on her face and subconsciously brought her other hand to it to use her water to heal the burn. Naruto went up to her and kicked her away from him making her end up towards the door.

"Now Riptide, why the hell did you attack me and what was all that about?"

"I just wanted to know why you had such descriptive details on me and several others I know about." She said with some pain in her voice, which would go away soon.

"I did state in my book 'Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental'." He said in with a huff. "You should really read the fine print."

"I call bullshit. There are some people I closely know that have a lot of the same personality descriptions down to a 'T' and I don't consider that 'coincidental'." She responded back with a glare. "Even with some of the illustrations you did for your novel."

"I don't have to answer that. Like I said before that anything I had written down and drew for my work I did by chance and didn't even know about anyone I was writing was actually alive at some point." He told in half-truths. Naruto knew that he might meet some other doppelgangers of people he knew from back home. Reason why he put that little disclaimer in his novel for safety sakes if said people decided to come find him and ask questions.

She glared at him for a few more moments before softening up and went into a relaxed position.

"I believe you, for now. Don't think that I will let this one go since something tells me that something else is going on." Kushina said as she opened up the door to his office. She paused before turning back and pulled something out from underneath her sweater. Naruto tensed for a moment for an upcoming attack until he saw what was in her hand: one of his 'Orange Edition' copies of Icha Icha.

"While I'm here, mind if you could autograph this please?" She asked before looking away with a little blush. "Despite the situation, I actually like this piece of work here."

Sighing on what just happened, he went up to her and signed her copy of Jiraiya's work before she thanked him and left. As she did, Naruto saw some places on his office walls glow and disperse into water. The silver haired male had a guess that it must've been some water magic of sorts and that bit of magic on his walls could've soundproofed the room.

Looking around his office, he remembered the mess the fight caused and he decided to get things cleaned up.

 _ **-Later, Gotham Highway to Airport-**_

"So are you sure you have everything you need? We can go back now to pick up anything you missed at your apartment." Naruto questioned Pam as he was driving her to the airport.

After cleaning up his office, which was pretty quick with a handful of items needing to be replaced, Naruto ordered one of every children's book his company has and sent them to Cat at National City. He guessed that Adam will enjoy having those books as some form of make-up presents for him missing several years of his young life so far. Naruto will get the phone call or at least an email in a few days time that she got the large package of reading material.

Asides from taking care of everything else on today's 'to do' list, he had to make enough time to get over to Pam's apartment to pick her up for her trip. It was not easy trying to sort everything out on what he could quickly work on while what could be put towards tomorrow's workload. He hoped that this wouldn't be a trend that'll often happen.

Once he got to Pam's apartment just in time, Naruto saw Pam at the doorway with a duffle bag and a laptop bag around her shoulder. Helping her putting her luggage in the trunk of his car before making their way to the airport wasn't that much of a deal but couldn't help to be concerned and paranoid for her.

"Naruto, you don't have to ask me that after the first time you know."

"I know Pam, I just didn't want you to miss anything important for your trip and would suck if you ended up remembering it at either the airport or once you're over there. Happened to a friend of mine when I used to live in Metropolis that she forgot to bring some important documents for one assignment as soon as she got to work. Literally went nuts and made me go get it for her." He said as remembering one of the few times Lois forgot to get some assignments done on time for Perry. Man…. that experience was not pleasant.

"Hmm….You know, I would like to hear about you living at Metropolis sometime. I feel left out not knowing much on your past." The botanist said with a cute pout making the silverette cringe slightly.

"I can be fine talking about my Metropolis years Pam. You have my word on that. Of course it'll be brought up once you come back if that's fine with you."

"Good to know." With that she dropped the matter as they soon pulled up to a stop at the airport dropoff point.

He got out of his car and went to the trunk to grab her luggage as she got out seeing the various people entering and exiting the place.

"Have a good trip Pam." Naruto said with a small smile. "Hope your research over there turns out well with…..you know you didn't tell me their names."

"Oh right. Well their names are Linda and Alec Holland." She responded back. "And yes I hope this trip does well to further my research and possibly the same with theirs." 

They kept staring into each other's eyes and didn't realize how long they were doing this action. Him seeing every detail of her beautiful emerald eyes while she inspected his intense, hazel eyes.

"I'll miss you….." Pam stated as she looked away with a slight blush.

"Same…" Naruto responded as he kept the heat from his face down.

Neither one of them knew who did the action first, but he/she pulled the other into a kiss that was soft and brought back the tingles back to the couple. Unlike their first kiss being an accident and brief, this one felt like something was missing coming back to them after so long with how it felt. It was starting to grow as Naruto wrapped his arms around her lower back as she hung her hands around his neck.

Slowly, Naruto felt Pam's tongue asking for entry as he opened up slightly giving her the opportunity. Their tongues slowly danced and both parties started to savor their tastes like it was their last. They slightly breathed through their noses taking in their scents, which made things more pleasant for the two.

Sadly, their kiss would have to come to an end as they had to break away to get air into their lungs, leaving a small trail of saliva connecting the two before it broke. They opened their eyes to see each other's massive blushes from not just their slight suffocation, which they didn't mind, to their first intimate kiss they just shared.

"That was…." She tried to say as she sucked in some air and cool herself off.

"Yeah…." He wasn't any better either.

They would've gone to back into their kiss but someone was honking from behind making them break their physical contact to realize they need to get going.

"Well I'll see you later Naruto." Pam said as she tried looking away from him but couldn't with their recent action stuck in her mind.

"Same here." He responded back as she picked up her things and headed towards the airport to get checked in and go through security.

As she walked off, he couldn't help but worry about her now if something might happen while she is away. He hadn't felt like that since last night when Minato was going to kill her…. with that…. lightning blast.

'Wait…..why did that disappear in the first place?' He thought. 'While I'm at it, what was that 'thing' that came up with Riptide earlier?'

His thoughts started to make him more curious than he realized and decided that he needed to see an old furball for some answers.. Naruto went into his car and entered but not before looking at Pam, going past the entryway, one last time. With that, he drove off to search for Kurama.

 _ **-Later, Kurama's Office-**_

"You know Kurama," Naruto said as he was staring at his former tenant, "it's not easy trying to find your place of business. It would've been better if you could've given me a card or something to help find you better."

After dropping Pamela off at the airport and giving her a nice goodbye, he went to find Kurama. He had one hell of a hard time trying to find the guy since there was no reference for him to follow. It took him an hour at best before he saw Kurama, by sheer dumb luck, entering a building. He had to use his old shinobi skills, minus the chakra, to infiltrate the building and find the buuji turned human. Now here he is with one women standing not far off from Kurama while the other person was hiding somewhere but can't place where exactly.

The one visible woman was a tanned woman with platinum blonde hair in a pixie haircut in a black, women's business suit with a green tie. She did seem normal if it was just that but the details that stood out were the tattoos sticking out from the shirt's collar along with the woman's eyes being very similar to a certain perverted, pale snake with the yellow slitted eyes.

"Well if I did make it easy, then a lot of my competition would find me easily and cause me problems early on. But for this one time I decided to let you find me so we could chat." Replied the hybrid as he was going over paperwork without looking up to the silverette.

"Yeah I'll talk about your 'place of business' a little later but first I want to talk about this." Naruto said as he held out his hand and focused a little as purple and blue sparks came to life in his hand before an sphere of blue and purple fire surrounded his entire hand.

"Ah….I was wondering when you will realize you had that." Kurama said as he stared at the 'trick' in Naruto's hand.

"When did you know?"

"Hmm?"

"Don't play dumb Kurama. When did you know I had this?" The publisher demanded before he shook his hand to fizzle the sphere away.

"When I last saw you at the gala Naruto. You were clenching your fist really hard to draw blood but as soon as it left your skin it evaporated away. I felt something coming from that form it being alive, yet at the same time it wasn't." He explained to his former landlord.

"So then what is it furball?"

"Well for one it's not chakra."

"Yeah no shit. I noticed that when I tapped into this when I fought Riptide earlier today."

"Other than that I absolutely have no idea. This is absolutely all new to me in all my years of existence. I have never seen that sort of thing ever or else I would tell you right here and now."

"Really, you're just gonna tell me just like that rabbit ears." Naruto said to get a jibe out of Kurama. All he got was a slight eye twitch on the little comment while getting the other two occupants in the room to laugh a little.

"Seriously, you had rabbit ears Kurama?" The platinum blonde woman said while getting Naruto to tell she must've had a heavy hispanic accent before getting it adjusted.

"That might explain on him rutting like one every night with us." came a voice from underneath the desk getting Naruto to facepalm.

"Seriously….you are doing _that_ now, here of all places." the silverette muttered.

"Well you say that as if it was a bad thing."

"Oh just shut up and get her up from that position."

*Sigh* "Fine. Well Anko you heard the man." The hybrid said as he pushed his chair back and zipped himself back up. When hearing the name, Naruto had a sinking feeling on who he will soon meet next in the doppelganger list.

"Yeah yeah." The woman said as she got up from under the desk confirming his suspicions. If it wasn't for the attire being very similar to the platinum blonde woman then she would pretty much be a perfect semblance to the Anko he knew back in his home reality.

"Nice to meet ya Naruto. Name's Anko, at your service." she said in a chipper tone that the silverette knew all too well.

"Kurama….does she-" "Yes she does have the blood licking fetish. Let's move on." The hybrid said in an exasperated tone.

"So….what should I do now with this…power?" the silverette asked.

"Well since this is pretty much new to either one of us then the proper way is train."

"Train?"

"Yup. Research, train, meditate, rinse and repeat. It's what I would do in your position and possibly what other metas have done I think. So might as well do that."

Giving the human/fox hybrid a look before accepting that little bit of logic while giving out a defeated sigh of sorts.

"Ok so having that out of the way, mind telling me what is up with this place? With the guns and drugs?"

"Ah yes that."

"Mind telling me how you became a fucking crime boss Kurama?"

"Well if I told you then you wouldn't really like it."

"I'm already not really liking this at the moment. Now tell me what I want to know!" Naruto yelled out not getting either of the other occupants in the room to be fazed by the outburst.

"Ok fine. Well if you must know it was sometime after we had gotten to this world and we went on our separate ways. I needed a place to crash and needed to unwind some built up anger on something after what happened to us before coming here. So I ended up following this one thug to his hideout and killed all of his buddies before tossing out all unwanted stuff in there at the time. Turned out when I was 'cleaning house', it was one of the places for a human trafficking operation." Kurama said getting Naruto to frown on that bit but nodded for the hybrid to continue.

"So after I got the 'product' out of the place and they went to do their own thing, I decided to just go through any connected businesses and things eventually led to finding the crime boss behind it all. *Laughs* The Gato of this reality was still a piece of shit like the one back home. So once I killed him, I turned the entire business upside down and reformed it to my liking. Now before you ask, I'm staying away from school zones and kids since I don't want to deal with any of that shit." Kurama said to get that out of the way.

"So what are you just trying to do exactly? Being a kingpin of crime in Gotham by taking out a lot of the competition?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Sometimes if you want to take care of crime, you gotta control it." The hybrid said before seeing Naruto's look. "Look Naruto I know this isn't a good kind of business given your past experiences with Wave and other missions in the past but this is a necessary evil of sorts. If I want to help Gotham be a bit better than it previously was then I need to have this business to take care of this problem."

"So what's up with these two? How did they get into your employ?" Naruto asked getting Kurama and the two bodyguard girls a questioning look. "What….I'm just curious."

Kurama soon adopted a thinking pose as he was pulling things from his mind to the forefront for how he got his two snakes to be with him.

What…..He is around 1,000 years old. Give the guy some slack on having a lot of memories to go through.

"It was roughly a year or so after I had gained my organization when some of my boys and I raided a shipment of exotic goods from another mob thinking the merchandise dealt with more weapons, narcotics and museum artifacts as usual. We didn't realize it was at the time the one mob we were raiding was contracted by the Kobra Cult to deliver a shipping yard container to another city after it docked at the harbor. Once we got access to the container, we were surprised of seeing these two in inside of prototype cryo-pods.

It took a while to access the pods' logs and get a rough layout on what they are: brainwashed and experimented assassins to follow their contractor's orders and needs. After getting in contact through some of my informants, these assassins were kidnapped from either their homes or orphanages to be trained at a young age before being experimented on to become 'super assassins' or some stupid name that can't seem original. In a way, Naruto, they were probably put through a similar process as the ROOT program back home." explained the crime boss.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and growled in disgust thinking back to Sai when he told the silverette what he was forced to do in the ROOT program and how he dealt with it once Danzo was killed by Sasuke. He glanced at the two women and felt sympathy towards them on what they must've had to live with.

"Not wanting to deal with any further problems with them in my custody, I removed them from the pods while keeping them in a medical coma so I get the microchips in their heads removed. After waking up, they wanted to try to have a normal life but things got complicated when Cult members tried to get them back and were forced to kill them. Things lead to another and I ended up employing them into my services."

"And what about…..well Anko-" "Giving foxy a blowjob?" Anko blantly said getting the silverette to hesitantly nodd.

"Yeah….what was that about?"

"Oh for Sage's sake Naruto, you're twenty five years old and you published Jiraiya's porn for crying out loud. You can say words of the sexual nature all you want now." Kurama said while rubbing his head in slight frustration. "I mean seriously, how innocent are you?"

"LIke I plan on telling you that furball." Naruto muttered before focusing on the purple haired assassin. "So are you dating him Anko?"

"Yes I am! Even roped Coppy here into joining in our fun!" she enthusiastically said getting the platinum blonde to facepalm on her partner's enthusiastic nature.

"Anko….you don't have to tell everyone we meet that. It gets old and annoying." Copperhead said in frustration getting a laugh out of the other snake assassin.

"So if I want to find you next time Kurama, how can I contact you?" The silverette asked drawing away from the snake's little banter.

"Well unless your new source of power lets you hone onto other's life energies to make things easier to find me, then you have to do it the old fashioned way or I contact you."

Nodding at this information, he turned around to leave before waving the three goodbye. It easier getting out of the place with the guards not looking out for him while in alert. Naruto planned on possibly coming back here but from what he could tell that this was a temporary facility for Kurama's operation and will be moved sometime after tonight.

"Well….seems I'll be pretty much having no free time anymore now." The publisher said as he was heading towards his car.

He brought his hand up and focused a little causing the fiery sphere to surround his hand like before. "Now….I wonder what you can really do."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Well….it's been an interesting past several days or so since I last updated with me going through** _ **a lot**_ **of material to get things organized for my story outline for several dozen chapters. It's been a headache trying to blend what I can together and altering things to the best of my knowledge for all of your enjoyment my readers.**

 **Now to explain a few things that are brought up on the chapter that I decided to use to make things interesting. With Copperhead and Anko working for Kurama decided to use some elements from Marvel pertaining to the Red Room Program that made the Black Widow assassins with a splash of Winter Soldier.**

 **Now after going some reviews I need to address a few things. First off I will not have Kushina be in the harem since Naruto still sees her as his mother and I don't like reading stories of NarutoXKushina all that well. Let alone of me writing that kind of interaction will not be great for me so for the first and last time: NO KUSHINA IN HAREM!**

 **Secondly I have already decided who will be in the harem that the total will be 4-6 girls. Four of them are solidified while two of them are a tad iffy. Won't say any more than that even though Harley and Ivy are already in it so no more spoilers till the other girls are revealed.**

 **Lastly, whatever guest reviews I get from here on out will be ignored. I will be tossing them into the Solar Pits of Apokolips to let Darkseid's slaves get more warmth than they really need.**

 **Be sure to review this story guys! Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	4. Training for the Holidays

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 4: Training for the Holidays.**

"Couldn't have asked for a better way to start the day." Naruto said to himself as he stared out of the window of his loft. He was currently wearing grey sweater with a pair of jeans with a cup of hot cocoa in hand.

For the past several weeks Gotham wasn't able to get any snow at all, which was unusual for this time of the year, but last night it finally snowed and blanketed the city to make things right for the Christmas holiday.

Heh, Christmas….. Even after a decade being in this reality, he couldn't really wrap his head around Christmas all that well. Who would want to celebrate the birth of some prophet/son of a god that ended up adopting Kami knows how many Pagan customs and whatnot to make Christmas one odd holiday. Well obviously not a lot of people do as they mostly get presents for friends, family and loved ones. Not really remembering on what the meaning of the holiday is all about: Being with those close to you and spending time together no matter how good or bad things are.

Well that's what Naruto had gotten out of it in his opinion…..

There is Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the Winter Solstice to consider in this late time of the month and year, but let's not get into that now.

Ever since Pam came back from her trip to Louisiana a little over a month ago, she became really happy on how it turned out. The possibility of improving her serum from what she had gotten from the Holland's information would push her current work ahead of schedule by Kami knows how long. So to celebrate, along with Naruto's promise, they went out on a date-date which turned out a whole lot better than their first one.

After dating a few more times, the two considered themselves a couple and were doing what they can to learn everything about the other to keep things stable. Keeping his promise, Naruto had told Pam of his time living at Metropolis and interning at the Daily Planet where he befriended Lois Lane and Cat Grant. It helped fill in certain stories that Pam was feeling left out on knowing full details on.

Pam, in turn, told Naruto everything she knew about her botanist mother, who taught her everything she knew on flora. She also told Naruto about her _father_ and on him ending up killed in a prison riot a year into his sentence. Pam admitted that when she was younger she had wanted to kill her father in revenge for her mother but got over it as her father got what he deserved.

This helped bring them closer with trusting each other better as they started learning more about each other's history…..Well as much Naruto could tell in half-truths on his part.

During the past several weeks, Naruto had signed on a few new authors into his publishing firm like a spy thriller themed writer with the pen name Rick Castle and a fantasy writer that went by the name American McGee. Their first books had hit and left shelves in an instant making them pretty popular in various circles. Other books came out in the next in line of other successful series the firm was publishing from the Game of Thrones, Indiana Jones, Daring Do (a friendlier, kid version of Indiana Jones) and Metal Gear series respectively.

End result, the company was going to be making bank in the holiday season. In turn, and as per usual, Naruto had closed the business for Christmas Eve and Day so everyone can be with their families.

If that was just what happened in the past weeks for the former shinobi, then it would've been pretty simple, yet boring. Well that's what most people would think.

Ever since Naruto talked to Kurama about his new power, he had been training everyday to figure things out on what he can currently do. He was still physically fit and both his reflexes and agility were still as good when he was younger despite being 'powerless'. For his training regimen for his power, he started out on what Kurama suggested, meditate and search for what he can find. Well he did find something and yet nothing at all like it was a void of sorts.

On the first day, when he really got into his meditation though was an interesting one.

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _Ok, lets see what I can hopefully do here." Naruto said to himself in his living room. He had cleared a lot of the furniture and the surrounding items to a different part of his loft so that he possibly won't destroy any of his stuff._

 _Naruto was in a meditative pose after seeing what he had found, or somewhat lack thereof, before closing his eyes to find it again and see if he can tap into it unlike focusing the energy into his hand to make the hexagonal sphere with electricity. That bit was just focusing some anger in the fight with Riptide to just survive and just wanted to survive so he will focus on that later. For now, baby steps._

 _Once he tapped into that void in himself, he slowly felt lack of the floor underneath him causing Naruto to open his eyes seeing himself going through the floor without damaging it._

' _Crap!' The Uzumaki thought as he tried to scramble to get back up but he fell right through landing onto the loft below._

" _Ow…..That's gonna be sore for awhile." He said to himself since he landed on his lower back hard._

" _Shizune….Is that you?" A female voice called out causing Naruto to pale. He looked around to find a door so he could hide or get the hell out of the person's loft quickly before a misunderstanding occurred._

" _Shizune?" the voice called out again in confusion before landing her eyes on the silverette._

 _Naruto turned around and saw a black haired, pixie cut woman with bright, green eyes in only a towel wrapped around her to hide her modesty. Possibly since she just got out of the shower._

 _In a moments notice she screamed "Pervert!"_

" _Wait wait it's just a misunderstanding!" He called out frantically as he didn't want to get in serious trouble here. In his bit of fear he didn't notice his hands glow slightly but he did see the woman's eyes glow for a few moments causing her to pause._

" _Wait….Why am I in my living room?" she questioned herself causing Naruto to look at her in surprise. She kept looking around the room and kept looking at Naruto but there was no response at all._

' _What just happened?' The former shinobi thought before moving around a little and coming up close to her and waving his hand over her face, but there was no response._

 _The woman scratched her damp head in confusion "Must've been something but can't quite place it." She shrugged before heading back to her bedroom. "Wonder where Isis is? Think it's feeding time for her."_

 _Not taking a chance to ask what just happened, Naruto quietly went to the loft's entrance and exited as quickly as he can. But what he didn't know was that he didn't give out a sound as he closed the door even though a green eyed, black cat stared at him in confusion on what occurred._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

After that little incident, Naruto decided he would need to be more careful now if he was going to be training on his powers.

When he got back to his loft he was thinking through on what he just did and guessed that his 'Void' power had several branches of abilities connected to it like 'memory manipulation' that made one think he wasn't there and seem invisible for a set period of time. When trying that ability out again one night by going to a bar and causing a fight, he worked on 'manipulating' the memory of one guy and later several that he wasn't there at all.

The little kicker that made him either laugh or just be annoyed as hell was his 'phasing' ability that he was able to go through objects now or even let objects go through him.

That must've been the ability that fake Madara had back in his home reality since it reminded him so much of how he was able to do his stupid 'Whack a Mole' Jutsu and other stuff in past fights. Even during other times in the past month, that ability tended to go off at the oddest times that he would either 'phase' through his chair in the office or his pants 'phased' off of his waist and ended up showing his boxers to the world. The later ended up happening in an elevator with a mother and her trouble son that was causing some annoyance. Naruto's pants went down and the mother assumed her son was to blame before she apologized to the publisher.

Naruto eventually learned he had a 'silencing' ability one morning that he couldn't sleep well one night and the sound of his alarm clock got too annoying for his liking and he subconsciously turned the noise 'off'. He didn't realize he slept in and was late for work but checked out his alarm clock once he got back. The Uzumaki thought his alarm was broken but it was working just fine, especially once he turned the noise back 'on' that he realized he must've made a 'sound barrier' around his alarm clock.

Once he had gotten those three abilities under control, he started focusing on that one hexagonal sphere thing again and found out it was apart of a barrier like attack of sorts. It was hard to figure out its capabilities but over the past weeks he got a hang of it….mostly.

Naruto went by a random alley way on one of his days off and wanted to see if he had any defensive capabilities from his 'Void' powers and decided to climb up the fire escape to make guesses on how well he could handle the falls.

Suffice to say it hurt like a fucking bitch.

 _ **-Flashback-**_

' _Fuckin' hell.' Naruto thought as he got up for the upteenth time from the ground as he was failing miserably on getting his defensive capabilities to work. His arms were getting sore and bruises were forming underneath his clothes but he didn't know they were slowly 'fading' away._

" _Think I should call it an afternoon now and head back home." He muttered as he dusted himself off and walked out of the alley way. Well he tried to walk out of it when someone stepped in front of the opening of the alley way._

" _Hand me your wallet and nothing will happen." The mugger said as he aimed a handgun towards the publisher._

 _Naruto saw that the guy seemed shaky as hell with his gun and guessed that this was probably the mugger's first attempt on doing this sort of thing._

 _Hey a mugger needs to start off sometime._

 _Before Naruto could even grab his wallet, the mugger ended up shooting off a bullet. The bullet got close to Naruto, but it faded away._

" _This seems familiar." He said to himself as he remembered the attack at the Rose Cafe with the lightning bolt about to kill Pam. The attack was close but it just disappeared all of a sudden. Naruto narrowed his eyes and saw a slight glare a little away from him of a hexagonal pattern._

" _The hell?!" The mugger said out loud. He thought he missed the shot so he fired his gun several times. Each bullet got 'erased' or deflected before it got close to the silverette._

" _Ok this is getting annoying now." Naruto said as he walked up to the mugger and punched his lights out. After that, Naruto found a phone booth and called the police as an anonymous tip before he headed back home._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

After that happened, Naruto eventually guessed that his barrier was similar to Gaara's 'Ultimate Defense' in some manner of speaking. It would act accordingly if any harm was coming towards the publisher, but wouldn't really work if the harm was self inflicting. Sure he would have that odd healing factor of his now that it would either 'erase' or 'fade' the pain away but that barrier would only work if he was attacked and focused on it if he wanted to.

Naruto remembered that the odd hexagonal barrier had some electricity coming off of it and decided to test it out the next day and this time he went to a junkyard. The Uzumaki focused the 'Void' energy into his hands and for some reason thought of his Rasengan and its variants before he lost his chakra. Deciding to test his little theory, he ran up to a broken refrigerator with his 'Void Rasengan' on hand and hit it resulting with the object having a hole with some sparks coming off of the edges. He then focused again and threw his attack which resulted just the same, but this time it exploded to show a white sphere with dark edges and purplish blue sparks coming off of it before it 'faded' away.

Naruto still had plenty of time to kill that day so ended up checking out several sizes and strengths of his 'Void Rasengans' that the smallest he could muster was the size of bullets or his old 'Mini-Rasenshuriken' while the largest was similar to his old 'Big Ball Rasengans'. Though with the biggest ones caused some bit of strain on the publisher with having to put in a lot of energy into it he decided to lay off on those.

To finish off the training session, Naruto decided to let his imagination take over. He remembered back when the 'Thunder God' attacked him and the former shinobi was out of throwing weapons that made him wish he could've had more. So Naruto thought of some throwing knives or something of the sort and focused in his hands.

Some knives formed into his hand that looked like a sharp, silver-white cross with some black on some parts. He smiled when he felt the knives in his hands and started throwing them like in the good old days that made things interesting. He thought of one more throwing weapon to 'create' before calling it a day which resulted in creating cards for some odd reason which had a particular symbol on it. Similar to the knives but towards the bottom looked like a heart was connected to the end and it repeated on the card's background with one big one being the focus. Soon after 'creating' the cards they, along with the knives, dispersed into blackish smoke making him realize that his 'constructs' have limits with supplying power to them.

Other times for the rest of the month, he kept on training on these abilities to at least be used to them before he attempted to figure out what else his power had in store for him.

"You have been staring out of the window for quite a while Naruto." A voice called out from behind him knocking him out of his thoughts.

"Sorry about that Pam. I've just been reflecting on the holidays." He said to her as he turned around seeing her on the couch wearing a purple sweater and a pair of black jeans that hugged her form nicely.

"Really? Why's that?"

"Well as you know when I was growing up, I never really had any holidays to celebrate with." He stated causing her to frown.

"Yes I know and I still feel horrible that happened to you."

*Sigh* "I know Pam. I know." Naruto said before continuing. "I did enjoy some of it when I was in Metropolis when I was dragged along with Lois to spend time with her, Lucy and her general of a father."

"From what you told me of General Lane, that must've been some odd experiences back then." Pam said with a chuckle.

"Oh definitely." He smiled as some memories flashed before his eyes. "When I first met him that one Christmas, he thought I was Lois' boyfriend and actually whipped out his handgun on me. Yeah that was not a pleasant experience with Lois and Lucy literally beating the shit out of their old man for doing that."

When hearing that, Pam couldn't help but laugh hard when imagining a high ranking general being beaten up by his own daughters.

"Of course in the next year I was dragged over to Cat's place saying that it was 'her turn' with me for the holidays." Naruto said causing Pam to quiet down a little when hearing about his old blonde friend.

"When I got over there it was decent to a certain degree, but good god her mother was practically a grade A picky bitch." He said as he rubbed his head on those set of memories. Ugh she was so nit-picky and correcting on everything. How Kitty Cat was able to handle her for most of her life is beyond his understanding.

"Hopefully you were able to settle Cat down I take it?" Pam asked as she got up to nab some more hot cocoa from the stove.

"Pretty much. She wished though she could not have gone to see her family that one year but she had to go or else she wouldn't hear the end of it. Stuff with family pictures and whatnot was the reason. Though I did make it up to her by bringing her with when I went to visit the Lanes on the next Christmas."

"That was your last Christmas in Metropolis before your internship ended right?" The botanist asked.

"Yup. Both Cat and Lois made it more memorable by going a bit above and beyond from what they could muster and I appreciated it dearly." The publisher said with a sad smile.

Pam looked at her boyfriend with a small smile and could tell he misses his two friends a lot. Sure he did call them every now and then in the past several weeks to see how things are but it wasn't really the same. Naruto even called the two earlier before she came over to his loft and wished them a 'Merry Christmas' and hoped they will enjoy their gifts from him when they open them tomorrow.

"Well enough about that Pam. What would you like to do today? We got the entire day to ourselves before dinner later." He asked getting Pam to adopt a thinking pose.

"Well….despite not liking people cutting down trees for the holidays, I do enjoy seeing the Christmas lights at several places and Jezebel Plaza is one of them." The redhead said before putting up a shrug. "Other than that I have nothing else in mind."

Once hearing that, Naruto thought of what the two could do to kill time before it was time for them to head out to see the lights. He looked over to the side and saw his movie collection on the bookshelf.

"Maybe we could watch a few Christmas movies to kill some time." Naruto said as he pointed out his collection. "You can even pick which ones you want to watch while we get the meals ready."

"Sounds good to me." She walked up to the collection and stared at several before pulling out two VHS tapes from their spots and shown them to the publisher: _A Miracle on 34th Street_ and _It's a Wonderful Life._

"Any particular reason why you chose those two?"

"They were old favorites of mine when I was younger and used to watch them with my mother every Christmas." Pam said getting Naruto to nod in understanding. "Seemed a little sexist on the _Wonderful Life_ film, but what do you expect with that film being pretty outdated along with _34th Street_."

"I hear that."

"Besides, with what our plans are now going to be this evening, I would rather do those instead of watching _It's a Wonderful Life_ when the TV stations air it tonight." She said with simple logic before she went over to his TV set and popped in the first film as the two went over to the kitchen to start making their meals.

Time started passing by as the two enjoyed each other's company cooking their desired meals. They occasionally took glances at the film even though they are mostly listening to it while focusing a lot of their attention on their Christmas meal. For their planned meals, Naruto was having mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, stuffing, and a small Christmas turkey. As for Pam, she was having Chestnut & shallot Tatins with mushroom & Madeira sauce along with some of Naruto's mashed potatoes and vegetables.

By the time the two films were done and over with, their meals were done and ready to be consumed since afterwards they will be walking off their meals. They had some light conversations during the whole thing and didn't have much else to talk about. As long as they were together then nothing would seem dull.

The sun was starting to set meaning that the Christmas lights were going to be turned on very soon. So they grabbed their coats and scarfs and headed out to one of the various locations they plan on going to this evening. Once exiting the building, they were walking to their first destination.

"Did you hear? I heard that the Joker escaped Arkham Asylum not too long ago." A random person said to another as Naruto and Pam headed towards them.

"Really? You think he'll do something today on Christmas Eve?" The other person responded. "Doesn't he have any family he would be with even after escaping?"

"Well to my knowledge, I think he doesn't have any." The first person said as the two people were soon left behind in Naruto's and Pam's trail.

"Well that doesn't sound good to hear." Naruto said as he subconsciously held Pam closer to him, which she didn't mind at all.

"I know. I hope he doesn't cause any problems tonight." Pam muttered as they kept on walking.

The two passed on by various stands and Naruto had stopped by a 'Donation Santa' to donate some of his money on hand. The man appreciated the gesture before going back to his own thing as he kept on getting donations soon after.

Time has past for the couple as they enjoyed the festivities of some caroling groups every block or so to seeing the various christmas lights on display in the parks and plazas. They even passed on by the Gotham Entertainment Center where they had various Christmas Trees on display for contests on which ones were more decorated and extravagant. Yeah….Naruto had to hold Pam back quite a lot when they went in there because of the murder of many trees for the sake of 'entertainment.

Before long, it was time for them to head back to Naruto's loft with it getting much colder to their liking. Instead of walking back, they hailed for a cab to get them to their destination to turn in for the evening. It took a bit of time for them to get back and once they were inside of the loft, the two got out of their warm clothing and decided to do their own thing.

As Naruto was refreshing himself, he couldn't help but think he should get Pam something really special. Sure he already got her a few presents, which the publisher can tell she will love, but he felt that he needs to give her more than just those gifts. But what exactly should it be.

His mind was pretty preoccupied that he didn't realize on how long he was in the restroom that once he exited he noticed the lighting in his bedroom seemed….different.

"Pam….is something going on?" He questioned as he looked around for her and noticed a bit more that the bedroom had a bit more light in it despite it being dimly lit. The bedroom curtains were drawn out to reveal the full moon and some stars shining brightly despite the lights of the city below.

"Nothing is wrong Naruto. I just wanted to set things right." Pam said from the closet door blocking his view of her.

"Setting things right...for…..what?" Naruto drawled out as he soon saw a beautiful sight before him as Pam exited the blocked view from his closet.

"W-W-When did you get t-that Pam?" Naruto nervously stuttered as he roamed his eyes all over her form. Her hair was undone, making it appear like long waves reaching towards the middle of her back. She wore little make up which consisted of faint green eyeshadow and green lip gloss that made her face more stunning. But what else she wore was what really stood out. She wore a green Christmas lingerie nightgown with a green Santa hat with white cotton on both pieces of the attire. Wearing this just improved her appearance more that she looked incredibly arousing when showing her flawless skin, her 'mile-long' legs, and her firm breasts and buttocks.

"Oh this….Well I got it a few days ago and I was saving it for tomorrow for you to open but I just couldn't resist any longer." Pam said in a tone that made him hot under the collar….Well he was in just his boxer shorts and a white t-shirt so give him a break.

"So….Do you like?" She asked as she stood right infront of him seeing him blushing hard.

Not able to give a verbal answer, he nodded yes which made her smile.

"Good." The botanist said as she held her hands towards each side of his face and pulled him down for a kiss.

 _ **-Lemon Start-**_

Their kiss was gradual at first with it being sensual before Naruto wrapped his arms around Pam to get her closer for a more intimate kiss. The Uzumaki soon broke away from Pam before he turned his head down and targeted her neck. Every nip he delivered down the botanist's neck sent electric tingles coursing down her spine and if he could look at her half-lidded, glassy eyes then he would tell she was enjoying the experience.

In the past several weeks since they became a couple, they never went far in the physical portion of their relationship with them just having soft petting in their makeout sessions but they never gone past that point. It seems they will finally cross that boundary tonight.

In his actions of leaving hickies onto his moaning girlfriend's neck, he was turning her towards the bed and made her walk backwards till they both fell down onto its sheets. He released his hold on her before capturing her lips in a soul searing kiss, which she fully accepted.

He once again broke the kiss seeing her pleasured look and Naruto couldn't help but smirk on the view.

"Sorry if I didn't say this before Pam, but I really love the gift." The publisher said in a tone that the redhead never heard before from him that seemed to resonate with her, causing the woman to shiver while still enthralled from the actions of her boyfriend turned lover. Even though she herself enjoyed being on the receiving hend, Pam wasn't going to let Naruto have all the fun even as she saw Naruto pull his shirt off making her drool a little of how defined he was of the lean, compacted muscles.

Quickly wrapping her legs around his waist, she used her surprise tactic to catch him off guard as she made them switch positions from her hovering over him and Naruto lying on the bed. The Uzumaki saw the predatory glint in her rich, forest green eyes and could tell she is going to have a lot of fun this evening.

Pam leaned forward till her mouth was right next to his ear before speaking. "Your welcome Naruto. It took me a while to find the right one and I wanted to make things special for tonight." As she said this, she took a nibble on his earlobe before kissing him once again while running her hands all over his chest without anything blocking her. In the past makeout sessions with the soft petting, she could only feel so much with his clothing on but now she is feeling much more than that.

While she was doing her current action, Naruto was moving his hands all over her form from her back, her legs, her sides, her ass and her breasts. With his hands' travels seemed to get Pam more excited than before of how sensitive she is starting to feel. The redhead moaned on the contact and seemed to want more. She wanted to get a rise out of her boyfriend, so she let her hand travel towards his boxer shorts and went underneath to feel his length. Though when she got there, she didn't expect the anaconda hiding in there causing her to widen her eyes in surprise. Her hand kept exploring and was feeling heat coming off of his tool in the process.

As this was going on, Naruto was moaning into her mouth due to her actions thus causing him to want more out of her. He moved his hands back to her ass and started massaging and squeezing them in just the right spots causing her to shudder in response.

"You know….As much as I would like to have more of this gift... I think it's your turn to receive something from me." He said as he once again switched places with her causing her Santa hat to fall off, not that they really cared anymore.

Naruto soon pulled the top of her lingerie downwards causing her bountiful breasts to pop out and seem to be held in place by her sexy piece of clothing, not that it needed to as there was no form of sag in them at all. Practically a pair of near perfectly sized breasts with nicely sized nipples. He latched onto one of them with his mouth while his hand took ahold of the other one as he worked on both of them. Naruto sucked, twirled and bitten the nipple in his mouth while his hand was pinching and pulling on the other causing Pam to squirm under him.

"N-Naruto." The redhead muttered under her breathe as she held his head closer to her bosom. He soon let go, despite her attempt to hold him down, before his mouth and hand switched positions on her breasts. This process kept on going for a while making Pam to keep on calling his name to keep on doing his current action.

This went on for a few more turns on each breast before he had let go of both of them. Glancing up, he could see Pam's confused look while she was trying to calm herself down with haggard breaths. Wanting to tease her more for her gift, he started trailing kisses from the middle of her breasts all the way to her navel as he licked it through the fabric making her twitch a little while he was rubbing her sides. He soon went past all that as he came up to her legs causing her to know what he plans on doing next.

Naruto had to be a little forceful when opening up her legs to him but he gave her reassuring kisses to each of her limbs from the calves to her mid-inner thighs. Once he got to his destination, he lifted up the themed lingerie up to see an interesting site.

"Really….mistletoe?" He muttered before looking up to see Pam's embarrassed face as she looked away from him. "Don't worry Pam, I want you to feel how I feel whenever I'm with you. So don't worry, I'll be gentle."

As he said that, he slowly faced her 'mistletoe' panties as he pulled them to the side seeing her 'other lips' before he breathed on it causing her to shudder a little. He placed a few kisses around it and even on her nub before he kissed the inside of her lips. Naruto wrapped his arms around her thighs as he slowly 'made-out' with her nether-lips, causing her to moan a little louder than before.

"Naruto, d-deeper!" Pam called out making him lick her inner tunnels quicker and hopefully deeper. She soon brought one of her hands to his head in the attempts of making him go deeper than he is capable of. Getting the message better, he unwrapped one of his arms from her thighs and brought his hand to her folds before he inserted a finger inside. As soon as he moved it around, he licked her clit several times making her shudder more before adding in another finger to bring her more pleasure.

"N-Naruto, faster!" The redhead called out as he complied once again as he inserted another finger and started pumping a little faster than usual as he soon bit onto her clit a few times before inserting his tongue back into her folds with his pumping fingers. It didn't take much longer as Pam started feeling something build up and her back was starting to arch. She held his head tighter between her legs as she tried calling out his name.

"O-Oh, god. Oh god Naruto! I'm gonna-" She tried to warn her lover but it was too late as she came. A torrent of fluids came rushing out and Naruto felt some on his face before he greedily took what he can into his mouth. Once it was over, he licked her nectar from her skin before he crawled on up seeing her eyes were rolled up to the top of her skull. Huh, must've been that strong of a reaction.

He brought his hand to her face and turned it towards him and kissed her, making her taste her own fluids. Once Pam realized what was going on, she couldn't help but break the kiss to get a better taste out of herself, pretty much sweet yet fruity. It made her feel a little turned on more if that was possible before she met his opened mouth, drinking deep of his tongue and lips. They bumped teeth, chuckled slightly, as she attempted to take more of her nectar from his mouth.

The redhead's heart swelled at the kiss, if it could even be accurately called that. They licked and sucked greedily, demanding to be in control, refusing to break before the other did. Pam's face reddened to a purple before she forcibly pushed Naruto back with strings of saliva still linking them as she tried to regain her breathe.

Pam looked away on what was about to come next and Naruto gained a confused look that made him want to ask the obvious question. "Is something the matter?" The botanist shook her head and wordlessly looked away from him with gaining more of a blush on her cheeks.

"Have I-" "No." She interrupted making him frown slightly.

"Can I-" "No." Pam cut Naruto off again, even grabbing the bed's blanket to cover her bare breasts. She spared a fleeting glance at her lover, choosing instead to silently scrutinize her fingernails as if they were the source of her intense discomfort. Naruto observed this without a word, allowing Pam the space she seemed to so desperately, suddenly need. A moment passed. And then two.

"Pam." The publisher said, curiosity getting the better of him, "If there's a problem I should know about, we'll just-"

"I'm a-" She interjected making him grow more curious. "I'm a-" Naruto had never seen the woman before him so anxious in the entire he knew her….and it bothered him greatly. It soon got him on what she was trying to say.

"I'm a-" "You're a virgin, aren't you?" He responded with a rhetorical question making her nodd.

"Yes." The redhead confirmed, her voice little more than a whisper.

Though Naruto was most definitely shocked by this development, he decided that it wasn't the time for twenty questions. He cupped Pam's face gently in her hands, adjusting it to meet her own. Naruto kissed her on the forehead, then lower on her nose as she continued to avoid Naruto's gaze, still colored with embarrassment.

"Pam." He said gaining her attention despite her still looking away from him. "I don't care if this is your first time or your upteenth time. If you had previous lovers in the past then I wouldn't care less about you and if I'm your first then I would still consider it great of me being with you." She listened and could hear the sincerity in his voice that it was making her heart throb for him.

"I have told you before that I have never been with anyone and that you are the first person I have entered a relationship with." He paused as she gave her full attention to him. "Pamela Lillian Isley….You have entered my heart, took root, and blossomed greatly that my love for you has grown in our time together. I don't know how it came so fast in such an amount of time but I don't care. If you are in my life, virgin or not, then I will love you always. And if it makes you feel any better, you will forever be my first."

As she heard his confession towards her, she couldn't help but shed tears with her sudden fear of being a virgin vanishing away before she leaned up and kissed him like she never kissed before.

Once she broke away from the kiss, she regained her conviction like of what she planned on doing earlier this evening. She stared deeply into his hazel eyes and spoke a simple, yet strong phrase to him. "Take me."

Naruto, straight-faced, looked her square in the eyes before she leaned forward and kissed and suckled her neck making the botanist mewl in pleasure.

"Please, take me." A modest smirk grew on Naruto's face, imploring Pam to say it again and again as he kept doing his action on her neck and then doing so on her breasts marking her as his. She eventually caved and screamed "Take me, please! I want you! I want all of you Naruto!"

He complied and pulled down his boxer shorts at last with his member straining against the fabric. Once it was free, he guided it towards her wanting, moist slit and lubricated his pulsating cock before he slowly entered her till he hit a barrier. She moaned a little in discomfort and he paused in response before looking into her eyes. He moved his one of his hands into hers and interlaced their fingers while his other hand rested on her hips. After a few moments, she nodded him to continue as he pulled back a little before pushing forward breaking her barrier. It was slightly painful for her as she tightened her grip with his while her other hand gripped the bed sheets hard while also gritting her teeth on how thick his member was. For him, she was extremely tight like a vice that could possibly cut him off at a given moment.

After a few more moments, Naruto slowly moved making Pam gasp a little on the growing feeling inside of her. He pulled back and slowly went back in that slowly made the slight, painful process turn into a slowly pleasurable experience. He started going in and out of her as the two of them were starting to breathe in and out at a quick pace before they captured their lips for another soul, searing kiss.

Naruto kept on moving while they were still connected on both ends and he broke his kiss so that he could stare on her form with her breasts swaying back and forth. He could clearly see the hickies and bite marks he made on her which made him feel more aroused and, if possible, harder than he has been not too long ago before entering her.

"Naruto, harder." Pam slightly demanded and Naruto soon started to put a bit more force into his thrusts as he was feeling his velvety walls. Both of them were giving out moans and grunts that were filling up the entire bedroom as their pleasure was starting to go higher and higher with each thrust.

"Faster. Please go faster." She breathed out to which he complied once again as he was doing what he can to move his hips faster and faster while trying to hit her harder.

"Deeper! Go deeper!" Pam called out making Naruto pound his cock into his beloved's core and she began to buck her hips for the first time since he entered her. After several more thrusts, Naruto leaned down and flipped themselves over so that Pam could be on top while Naruto was on the bottom again.

Getting the message, she slowly went down on his member with a newer sensation of gravity forcing her down before trying to pick up the pace. Pam looked to Naruto and got the silent message to take her time since they have as much time as needed. She slowly went up and down while holding onto his chest to keep herself steady. Eventually she started bouncing up and down in different paces to see which one suited better for her before gyrating her hips around for more sensations.

While this was going on, Naruto was staring up on her moving orbs before bringing his hands up to knead and play with them as her tight, plump rear smacked against his lap. He gripped her erect nipples and she moaned from the silverette male tweaking and twisting them.

'Oh god this is amazing! I think everytime I come on down, I feel he is coming closer to my womb makes me feel tighter.'Pam thought to herself as her blush had covered the whole of her face. Her forest, green eyes sparkled like true emeralds as Naruto thrust his hilt into her wetness and it rubbed against her velvety walls. Thanks to the combined feeling of her breasts being endlessly groped and Naruto's cock rubbing against her special spot, she wondered how long it would be before they came.

The Uzumaki soon let go of her breasts making her moan a little on the missing feeling before she felt his hands glide down her sides and onto her rear and gripped hard. She soon realized what he was about to do as he pulled Pam down hard making the tip of his member hit and open up her womb slightly. This new feeling made her eyes widen and a jolt ride up her spine to make her arch her back. He kept going at this for several minutes making her feel closer to her own orgasm.

Not knowing her impending orgasm, Naruto felt his balls growing tighter and moaned as Pam rode his throbbing cannon. The couple worked their hips together in perfect tandem and she moved her hands to his face to kiss him again and stroked his whisker marks.

"Pam….I-I feel like I'm a-about to…." Naruto said as he broke the kiss to give her the warning. Holding out as much as he can in hopes of coming roughly the same time with Pam.

"I f-feel it too….Please, do it inside of me." Pam whimpered as she grew tighter on his shaft and in turn, it became swollen within her walls and just as she felt herself getting close.

Without saying a thing, both of them slammed down onto each other hard as he entered her womb. They tensed as her walls tightened greatly around his member and both spurted multiple times with most of it exploding from her innards with both of the essences mixed together.

With her womb being overflowed with cum, both melted into their released pleasure and closed their eyes while moaning to her heart's content. The blend of her juices and his semen oozed from her entrance and virtually covered his entire cock caused it to slide out when she fully laid onto her lover.

 _ **-Lemon End-**_

As exhaustion got the better of them, the two were slowly succumbing to their sleep with each other in their arms for comfort on their Christmas slumber. But before they did, each muttered one last thing to each other as Morpheus took them to the land of Dreams.

"I love you Naruto Uzumaki." She said as she wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his strong, beating chest.

"And I love you Pamela Isley." He said to her as he kissed her briefly on the lips. "Merry Christmas."

Unknownst to them, the Christmas night would be very active as the Dynamic Duo of Gotham City had to take down the Joker.

Eh….. they'll hear about the incident in the morning.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Just to clarify on when this chapter takes place is mostly on the episode 'Christmas with the Joker'. I was planning on having something else go on for this chapter but then I remembered what is coming up soon. I then remembered that the second episode of the Batman 90's animated show was a Christmas episode. So with that, this came into being.**

 **So there is one thing I should try to put down that bugged me a little when I first saw the Christmas episode as a kid was: Why didn't Bruce and Dick have a VHS/cassette tape copy of 'It's a Wonderful Life' instead of watching it on cable? I mean its just the time setting of the show was like in the mid-late 80's/early 90's and they should've had VHS/cassette tapes of various films and whatnot. Sure they had those old film reels they used in the show but what else was there really to see the films…..**

 **Yeah getting side tracked here and being nitpicky here. They did all that for plot of the episode and for them to see the Joker stuff on cable.**

 **With the bit with the publishing firm, wanted to put out some little examples on who Naruto has signed on with and what 'examples' he had published from some fun authors that are big and whatnot that I enjoy either fictionalized or real. So on that whatever video games that are made in real life will just be put into book adaptations. Hey its fanfiction so I can sneak that stuff in obviously. They won't make appearances but one author's work will influence a bit on a certain Gotham villain down the road. *Nudge Nudge Wink Wink***

 **I also decided to have Naruto start training in his 'Void' power and see the various branches of his power. It is pretty good to do that obviously. As for the weapons that Naruto has formed, well you can obviously tell that they are the weapons from the Organization XIII members with some changes like the color scheme to mostly be black, white, and silver instead of their canon color schemes.**

 **One review said that last chapter seemed boring and whatnot but that was somewhat intentional since there would be slow and boring chapters every now and then to deal with expositions. Besides I need to help build things up just so you know and can't always make this a fast paced story. Need to keep things slow at times.**

 **Now to just clear things up from one guy that messaged me that the Copperhead we see in the story so far is the one from the Arkham Origin game. Honestly the guy didn't take the detail notice on the woman. He thought it was female Copperhead that showed up in the Justice League show. Odd on how he thought on that.**

 **Someone asked on how many doppelgangers from Naruto's reality will show up in the story. Well to answer that, I have no idea honestly since I don't know all of the Naruto characters obviously so I would be looking them up for research obviously later on if a character would be appropriate to be used for story later on. So don't ask please.**

 **Also when thinking about crossovers, sometimes we don't see much of a certain series take much effect in the main part of the crossover. Tell me none of you really noticed or cared. Like in many Naruto stories there aren't that many or no Naruto characters making an appearance in the story at all. So thought that having the dopplegangers show up here would fix that possibly.**

 **One last thing, this is pretty much my first attempt on writing a lemon on my own. Sure I had some experience when writing lemons on DRAGONfromheaven's American Kitsune story since I helped write that story with several others but this is the first time I'm doing this on my own.**

 **Anyways readers, be sure to review this story guys! Please and thank you!**

 **AND MERRY EARLY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!**

 **R &R**


	5. Something Starts from Nothing

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV/

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 5: Something Starts from Nothing**

Naruto held in a groan as the light from the window hit his eyes and slowly opened them to glare at the sun peaking through several buildings. Even though he grew accustomed to be a morning person, there were days that he would rather sleep in entirely like in the good old days. The publisher soon felt a draft on several places on his body and guessed that he must've slept on top of his covers again or said covers were thrown off during the middle of the night.

It was then he heard a content sigh and felt something trying to burrow its way deeper into his well muscled chest. Looking down he saw a mop of messy red hair, that's when the memories of last night flooded into the front of his mind like a tidal wave. For a brief moment, the silverette thought it was all just a dream of fully professing his love to the woman he truly cared for while giving each other their virginities. In response to this, he tightened his hold on Pam causing her to groan and stir in his arms before lifting her head up and rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning Pam." He said to her softly as the botanist looked at him for a moment before smiling.

"Good morning to you too Naruto. I'm glad you enjoyed your gift last night." She said as she leaned up and captured his lips for a few moments for a morning kiss.

Once he broke the contact he smiled. "And I'm glad to receive it. You gave me something that will be hard for me to forget for a long time."

This got her to giggle as she shifted herself on him causing her to groan a bit in discomfort for some reason. Looking down she realized where the discomfort came from before smiling a little.

"Well it seemed that you left me very sore down there. I'm probably going to be limping for the next several hours. Thank god it's Christmas Day and I don't have to work."

Oh right….it's Christmas Morning and he needs to get things going for the day. He soon shifted his form and tried to get out of bed but Pam held him down into place.

"And where do you think you're going?" Pam said with a slight glare. She wasn't done with her Naru-pillow just yet. Ever since the first day she cuddled and slept in the same bed as him that she practically found the perfect 'pillow. Every other pillow she had at her apartment couldn't please her anymore and just the way his ribs were placed made things more comfortable for her to sleep on. For the love of Mother Nature, he ruined pillows for her dammit.

"Well I was going to make us a Christmas breakfast to start out the day and see what we will do from there my dear." He said to her as she slowly let go of him with her little glare still present.

"It better be good." Pam said with a pout. Ugh she wants her comfy pillow back.

He chuckled as he moved off of the bed and felt his legs brush something wet. Looking down once he stood up he saw the mess they made in their first time love making last night. It was a mixture of their juices and saw traces of Pam's blood on it from when he broke her hymen.

Seems he will be having the constant experience of changing the sheets quite often now…..Eh a little payment for pleasure and he'll be fine with that.

"So what would you like exactly? Pancakes or waffles?" He asked as he grabbed his boxer shorts off of the ground and put them on. He'll be taking a shower after breakfast of course so it wouldn't matter to get fully cleaned up before then.

"I would like pancakes. For some reason it seems appropriate."

"How so?"

"Well... when I was younger, my mother made pancakes for me every Christmas morning and it made things seem special for me. She even said that even her mother did the exact same thing for her when she was a child." Pam said with nostalgia kicking in as memories of those special mornings coming back to her causing her to well up some tears.

Seeing her shift in mood, he guessed that it was something Pam missed from her childhood and years after. He went around the bed and cupped her face before kissing her lips to raise her spirits up a little.

"Then I'll just have to make the best damn pancakes I can muster to help make up for what your bastard of a father took away from you. I know it won't be really the same, but it's something right?" He said to her making her smile before kissing him again.

Once he left the room, she wondered what she should do now since she honestly had nothing else going on. On days off from work, Pam would either read up on latest developments posted in scientific journals of any variety or pick up a book she got from the library and go through it within a day or so. Even on any given day she would be watering her plants at her apartment.

Given the fact this isn't her apartment and her boyfriend/lover has very few plants that she would need to find something to read to keep her mind occupied. Sure there are possible plans for the day with Naruto but some habits tend to come up at odd times. This is one of them.

Pam soon got up from the bed and decided to stretch a little, especially with her feeling sore from their first time having intercourse, so she can possibly walk properly sooner than later. Feeling a bit drafty, with her in the nude, she found Naruto's t-shirt and slipped it on so she could feel a tad better before resuming her stretching. At one point, her eyes caught something on the bed's nightstand and didn't remember seeing it there last night. Maybe she did but ignored it when getting things ready for last night's activity. Either way, Pam's curiosity took over as she got back onto the bed and crawled towards the item in question.

"A notebook?" She picked up the notepad and saw a faded icon in the background of a sharp cross that had curves on the bottom. Her focus turned towards the writing and started to read its contents as she sat back down with her stretching long forgotten.

 _ **-Meanwhile, in the Kitchen-**_

"Even though I've made breakfast for Pam several times, I can't help but feel really nervous this time." The silverette said to himself as he was gathering ingredients from the pantries and the refrigerator.

Despite his calm appearance, he was flipping the fuck out with what he had done last night. He felt like a young teenager again with him losing his virginity to a beautiful woman. Well not just a beautiful woman but someone he had actually fallen in love with. He felt so excited that his emotions were slowly affecting him physically.

His mind had so many things going on at the moment with making this breakfast perfect for Pam being the main priority. He was practically shaking now making him berate himself that he isn't doing things right now. The publisher needed to take a breather and come back to this with a clear head. Naruto assumed that Pam must've gone back to sleep now and could wake her up when he's done. For now he hoped there was something that could keep his mind occupied from making breakfast for even just a moment.

*Knock Knock* *Ding-Dong* *Ding Dong*

Huh….Convenient…..

"I'll be there in a second." The silverette said as he placed the last of the ingredients on the kitchen counter before heading to his loft's entrance.

*Ding-Dong* *Ding Dong* *Ding-Dong* *Ding Dong*

"Alright! I'm coming!" Naruto yelled out as he opened the door to see a familiar site. A site he would rather be ten or so feet away from right now.

*Chuckles* "Phrasing." The person chuckled.

"Great….You." The hazel eyed publisher said as a little headache was coming his way.

"Oh come on, don't be like that."

"Yeah….I will. So what do you want Anko?" Naruto said to his former tenant's bodyguard/girlfriend.

During the past several weeks after Naruto met the Anko of this reality, he kept on seeing her every now and then. At first it was just because she wanted to get her copies of the Gutsy Ninja, Icha Icha and Arashi Raiden books signed, which he was quite used to. Naruto would occasionally see her at random places making him think that Kurama must've sent her to keep an eye out for him…..Well he was half right. She would show up out of nowhere and hound him for when he will start writing a new book before Copperhead would drag her ass back to work kicking and screaming like a little girl.

Yeah….seemed that this Anko seemed a bit more childish from the one he knew. Well now that he thought about it, he didn't have that much of an interaction with Orochimaru's former student. So he probably didn't know much about that particular Anko all that well so he let it slide.

Anyways…..During the various interactions with Anko made him borderline tolerate her because of her dating Kurama. But other than that he wouldn't want to deal with her that often.

So question was: Why was she here? Was she here to bug him yet again on a possible book or running an errand for Kurama?

"Well I'm here on an errand for my foxy woxy." The purple haired assassin stated.

"Which would be….?"

"To wish you the best for the holiday season."

The former shinobi raised an eyebrow on hearing that. Was that all Kurama was going to do for him?

"Wouldn't it better if he called me or came in person to say that?" He questioned.

Anko just stood there for a few moments before slapping her face and muttered something. She ran off to somewhere and not too long came back with a package wrapped in Christmas styled paper.

"Sorry on that, forgot he wanted me to give this to you." She said Naruto was given his gift.

"Well it's good to know he cares." He muttered to himself. "So is that all or are you going to hound me yet again on me possibly working on another book."

"Nope. I'm all fine and dandy Mr. Uzumaki. In fact I already know you are planning on writing the next Icha Icha book quite soon." 

"Why are you so sure?" He said in suspicion. Just the way she said it made it seem he was planning on doing a new book yet he wasn't planning on writing smut at all.

"Well I was going to drop off the package last night when I saw you and your girlfriend romping it out in your bedroom." She said all innocently causing him to drop the package on his foot and widen his eyes in surprise.

"You were peeping on us?!" He yelled out loud in both shock and the pain. Damn whatever is in the box must be bloody heavy.

"Well yeah. It seemed so exciting to see you go at it. Kurama told me some stories in passing about how the Icha Icha works came into being and I thought that you were finally getting inspiration to get onto your work." She said in a giddy tone that was causing his eyes to twitch like it was no tomorrow.

"So are you gonna be working on it now?" Anko asked in a hopeful tone.

Her response was him slamming the door to her face.

"I didn't hear a no!" She yelled out in hopes of him hearing her.

He soon limped over to the couch and decided to open up what Kurama had sent him. The wrapping was soon ripped off and thrown in a trash bag he had on the side for when he and Pam were gonna open some presents. Once opening the box, he saw a letter on top of the packaging peanuts and decided to check the letter before the actual content of the present.

 _Hello Naruto, it's been a while._

 _I know this isn't a good way to chat with you to wish you 'Happy Holidays' and all that fun stuff but things have been busy as of late that need to have my complete focus on._

 _Even though things have been complicated and time consuming, I always try to think of you often and worry on how things are going for you on your end. It's the reason why I have either Anko or Claudia (that's Copperhead's name if you were wondering) watch you from afar and report back to me every so often to at least ease my nerves. With you having no way to fully tap into your old abilities has had me on edge. This in turn has made it hard to concentrate at times but if anything happens to you then I'm ready to come help you if needed._

 _But when finding out that 'Thunder God' and 'Riptide' had taken interests in you in their own ways I needed to come warn you in person so you could hopefully be ready for them. Wished that I could've warned you sooner since Minato came in and almost killed both you and your woman. Even on the next day when Kushina stopped on by for her own agenda, which I have no idea her true agenda is exactly, made things a bit worse._

 _So when I learned that for the past several weeks you have been training in your powers like I suggested made me relax a little knowing that you're trying to defend yourself better. But I'm not going to be there all the time to possibly have either myself or one of my agents pull your ass out of the fire even with you having access to these new abilities you have._

 _Knowing you, you'll always try to run into danger for those that you care for and who are truly precious to you. So I decided to get you something to hopefully make up for the years being out of contact with you since we came to this world to at least help protect you as best as it could. Pulled whatever sources and materials I could get to make the contents of the package for you. I know the current appearance isn't much but you'll do something to change it at some point to suit your tastes._

 _I wish you a pleasant Holiday and New Year._

 _Kurama_

 _PS: Just so you know Naruto, even after all these past years, you have earned my trust ever since you had released me from that blasted seal. I still thank you for that._

 _PPS: If you ever tell anyone how sappy I was, just like you told Claudia and Anko me being 'rabbit ears', then I'll come to your home and cut off what makes you a man._

Naruto couldn't help but smile as he read through the letter that old fuzzbutt had sent him. It sincerely touched him and made him glad that this helped make his morning seem even more better than it already is. It made him feel great knowing he had earned the hybrid's trust and he'll do what he can to keep it that way. It'll probably be hard to do so but it'll be worth it…..

Though it would've been better if Kurama had actually told him all that in person but he'll let it slide since it's the holidays.

The Uzumaki's attention was then turned towards the contents of his present as he put his hands inside and soon pulled out several things and laid them out on the floor. It seemed to look a lot like a black and white motorcyclist suit in some ways with the guards on both the legs and arms but it also had a metal chest plate with a 'utility belt'. To top off the outfit was a helmet that had no sliding parts on the visor but when he had put it on it had a computer system of sorts inside of it.

Seems he'll need to wear it sometime and 'break' it while training so he could get used to wearing it. And Kurama was right, he'll think of something to make the outfit look different but that'll come at a later time.

When looking at the time, he realized that he'll need to get back into cooking the Christmas breakfast. Before he went to the kitchen to do so, he gathered up the suit and put it back into its box to hide it in his hallway closet.

 _ **-10 or so minutes later-**_

"Sorry for the wait Pam. I hope you're hungry." Naruto said with a smile on his face as he peaked his head into the bedroom. "I made your favorite of vegan blueberry/chocolate chip pancakes with scrambled tofu and kale."

After reading Kurama's note, Naruto felt he had all the distraction he needed to somewhat clear his head for him to finally decide what to make for Pam's breakfast. For his meal is mostly a non-vegan version of what she is having of scrambled eggs along with blueberry/chocolate chip pancakes. Currently their meals were already at the dining room table waiting to be consumed.

"That's nice Naruto." Pam mumbled as her focus was mainly on her reading material.

"What you got there?" He questioned as he walked over to her and saw the passage that was in her hands.

 _Act I_

 _Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess_

 _We seek it thus, and take to the sky_

 _Ripples form on the water's surface_

 _The wandering soul knows no rest_

"W-Where did you get that?" Naruto said as he was nervous of her reading the notebook.

The item in question was something that manifested from his powers a few weeks ago for no reason at all. All he was doing at the time in his company's office was going over documents pertaining to reports and sales when he felt a weight was placed on his piles of papers when he was going to take the next on to work on. Naruto inspected the notebook and it had the same symbol he saw in his 'throwing cards' and guessed the book came from him for some reason.

Ever since it first appeared, he had little urges to fill its pages with anything. At first it was just him putting down basic information to contact others or even just using it like 'sticky notes' for off handed reminders. Then things progressed after reading some books he had in both his office and at his loft that he started writing down various, random ideas for books. From there he ended up writing and sketching like he needed to and it worried him until he did the 'brain dump' onto its pages.

That was another thing with the notebook: no matter how many pages he filled out, there seemed to be no end of how many pages it contained. The former shinobi was at a loss when trying to figure out how the notebook worked especially when he was frustrated on the current story he was writing. Like any normal writer when frustrated, he would end up tearing the page on accident and would start over but when it did, it seemed to mend itself or make a new page to replace the damaged one.

With so many pages inside of the notebook, he placed sticky note tabs in each section to help have things organized.

Anyways back to the matter at hand…

"Found it on your nightstand and curiosity got the better of me." Pam said as she turned the page to keep on reading its contents but found it stopped on the previous page. "And I gotta say this is really, really good."

"R-Really? You think it's good?"

"Very." At this, Naruto had left out a breathe that he somehow kept in that was building up in his chest. He was actually nervous on her reading what he had for that story so far. It seemed to be his main story idea he had been writing in the book's contents.

But a question that seemed to pop up in his head was: 'How did it show up here?' He distinctly remembered leaving it in his office at the firm but how did it show up here all of a sudden.

"I can't wait to read more of this 'Loveless' story you have here. It's very engaging and poetic. The style of this kind of 'epic poem' could possibly be best selling once it's finished." Pam said to her boyfriend with a smile before looking into the notebook again and saw something that piqued her interest.

"Well that's good to know honey. This kind of project seemed pretty important and been working on it every now and again." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head with a nervous chuckle.

He was waiting for a reply of any sort but didn't hear any as he kept hearing the sound of pages turning. The publisher then looked over to the botanist and saw her really drawn into something with a faint blush on her cheeks.

'Ok something seems wrong here.' Naruto thought. 'I know I stopped writing 'Loveless' shortly after starting Act One but what is she reading now.'

He bent down to her level and looked at the pages she was on right now. What the both of them were now reading was something very sexual and raunchy in nature that it would be hard to describe further than that.

'W-When d-did I write this?!' He yelled out in his head as he tried to figure out how and when he wrote this. This was clearly in his handwriting and it showed very explicit detail on what is going on. But he didn't know what was going on here.

"You know…" Pam said knocking Naruto out of his thoughts as he looked towards her red in the face with a certain gleam in her eyes. "After reading this. I would like to continue what we left off last night Naruto."

He was about to say something when she pulled his face down and engaged in a heated make-out session. His thoughts soon went away as the two engaged in their new activity for the morning.

 _ **-The Afterlife-**_

Giggling could be heard as a man was peering down at the scene before him.

He was a tall man with waist-length, spiky white hair that was tied back in a ponytail with two shoulder-length bangs framing his face. He had red tear mark lines that ran down from his eyes with a noticeable wart on the right side of his nose. He wore a short white kimono shirt with matching pants along with traditional wooden sandals. To finish off his look was the halo hovering over his head to indicate that he has died.

For one who doesn't know this man, this was the late Sage of Mt. Myoboku and self-proclaimed Super Pervert of the Elemental Nations: Jiraiya the Gallant.

For what he is doing, he was watching his godson every so often as usual when he saw him and his beautiful girlfriend finally do the deed last night and he couldn't be more proud. Of course a little bit of a shock was that during their sleep, Naruto summoned and started sleep-writing (similar to sleepwalking) in that odd notebook of his and wrote down things that could possibly put his Icha Icha books to shame before putting it to the side to cuddle with Pam.

"Finally! He has embraced the ways! *Sniffle Sniffle* I am so proud!" Jiraiya said to himself in joy as he pulled out a handkerchief to blow his nose in a comical fashion.

If he was paying any attention to his surroundings, sometimes hard to tell with him being in heaven with no danger at all, he would've seen two people come from behind him with malicious intents aimed directly towards his way. Without him realizing what happened next, he was then kicked from the side and tumbled several dozen feet to the side.

"Hey! Who the fuck was inter- EEP!" Jiraiya screeched out seeing the people hovering over him with auras that could possibly kill him, again.

The first person was a woman that had a slender, but feminine build, fair skin, royal purple eyes and waist length red hair with shoulder-length strands framing her face. She wore a high-collared, sleeveless white blouse underneath a light grey dress with traditional wooden sandals with a halo over her head.

The second person was a woman with brown eyes and straight, shoulder-length straw blonde hair that was kept in two loose ponytails underneath her glowing halo. She had a violet diamond mark on her forehead along with a figure that most women would kill for. She was wearing a light grey, kimono-style sleeveless blouse, that was closed quite low revealing her sizable *cough* assets *cough* underneath a white haori along with a dark grey obi matching her pants. She also wore a pair of open-toed, strappy black sandals with high heels.

These two individuals were Kushina Uzumaki and Tsunade Senju, Naruto's mother and godmother respectively and they looked absolutely pissed.

"What the hell do you think you were doing?" Tsunade said as she glared at her former teammate.

"I-I was just checking up on our godson Tsunade. I-I didn't know they were going to end up like that I swear." Jiraiya frantically said as he was sweating bullets.

"A very unlikely story you old toad." Kushina said with her arms crossed.

"But I'm telling the truth you two! You've got to believe me!" He said as he scrambled away but the two women were walking towards him with the malicious intents growing a bit with each step.

He tried to get back up before Tsunade stomped her foot onto his back.

"Now listen here Jiraiya and listen good. We had tolerated you for years with your perverted antics." She said as she was digging her heel into his upper back where his ribs met his spine.

"But when you influence our precious boy with said antics, then that's where we draw the line." The redhead said while cracking her knuckles and her hair was starting to float in the air and resembled a multitude of fox tails.

"N-N-Now girls. L-Let's talk this-" The toad sage tried to say to them before he felt more pain on his back.

"Oh we are talking and you have a lot to answer for." Tsunade said to the man as the two women drew closer to him.

"No! No! No! Not the face! Anything but the face!"

"Oh really!"

"GAHHHH! Yes the face! Go back to the face!"

"You know I wonder what this halo could do…."

"GAHHHH! St-Stop ch-choking me you crazy-"

"If we kill him, where does he go? Super-heaven?"

"Maybe, let's find out."

Off to the side, a man was rubbing his face while shaking his head to the side seeing this antic happen like in the good old days. He had bright blue eyes and sunny blonde hair that was very spiky and wild on the top with jaw-length bangs framing his face. He had a decent build while wearing grey sweat-pants, a white shirt and wooden sandals. This was Minato Namikaze and he was the silverette father.

*Sigh* "Seems that this is going to happen all over again." He said to himself before looking to the scene being shown and couldn't help but smile. "I'm glad you found someone to love Naruto. I hope you end up happy with her my son."

He kept looking at this for a few moments before waving his hand infront of it to try and disperse it.

"Ok….So how do I get rid of this."

 _ **-An Hour Later-**_

After having their morning romp on the bed, which soon ended up in the shower, the two were soon dressed in a pair of fresh clothing eating their reheated meals having their Christmas morning was going pleasantly well.

As they were having their breakfast, they had heard from the news playing on the television of last nights events. The Joker had indeed broken out of Arkham Asylum yesterday and had terrorized Gotham through the airwaves. Prior to those events, he had kidnapped Commissioner Gordon, Detective Bullock of the GCPD and the news reporter/anchor of Gotham Media, Summer Gleeson to have his own 'family' for the holidays. The crazed clown wanted the Dynamic Duo of Gotham to stop him before midnight or many lives would be lost. During the search for the Joker, they had to stop a train from going off a destroyed bridge and stop a few bombs located on several places in the city. In the end, the two heroes had found Joker's hideout and saved the day.

"Well...That's one way to somewhat make the morning not all that great." Pam said as she was washing the dishes alongside Naruto.

"I know, but I do wonder what I could do to make it better." The publisher said to his botanist girlfriend as he kissed her cheek. She giggled as she playfully pushed him away when he accidentally splashed some soapy water on her.

"And what would that be?"

"Presents of course." Naruto said with a smile as they finished up cleaning the rest of the dishes and put them into the dishwasher.

Once drying themselves off, they made their way to the plastic Christmas tree Naruto had in the living room. It was small in size with very little ornaments on it with several presents lying underneath it. Naruto didn't like the idea of people cutting down trees just to decorate them every December and then afterwards just getting rid of them, so he had gotten a plastic one to not follow that trend. Pam liked knowing on his thoughts since she was in the same boat as she grew older.

Things were pretty simple on the gift exchange from each receiving books and clothing but seemed to change a little towards the end.

"Seems that there are no more gifts." The botanist said as she was on her hands and knees looking for any additional presents for them to open.

"Not exactly." Naruto said as he pulled an object out of his pants pocket.

When Pam back to see what he meant, she saw a small little box in his hand and her mind just seemed to stop.

'I-Is he gonna? Is he pr-proposing?!' She yelled out in her head. 'B-But we just got together weeks ago and had sex the first time last night. Th-This is going a bit too fast.'

Naruto saw her reaction when he pulled out the box and couldn't help but laugh a little.

"It's not what you think Pam. Geez, you think I plan on proposing after what we did last night." He said as he shook his head.

This statement knocked her out of her storm of thoughts and made her seem surprised on the assumption. Pam soon grabbed the box out of his hand and hesitantly opened it to possibly assume it was a pair of earrings or a necklace he had gotten from a jewelry store. What she didn't expect was…..

"A key?"

Seeing her confused look, he soon answered her running thoughts.

"From what I told you last night Pam, you planted yourself in my heart and took residence there. I soon started thinking if not just my heart would be good enough to live in so…." He drawled out making Pam realize what he meant.

"You want me to live here?" She said eying the key in her hand. The a copy of the key to Naruto's loft.

"Well if you want. You don't actually have to move in with me since you're still under contract at your current residence. I wanted to give you the key so you could come and stay over whenever you want." He said as he was rubbing the back of his head while looking away from her trying to think of what else to say. That last bit was odd for him to say, but hoped she got the idea.

She didn't say anything and tightly hugged him for the present giving Naruto the message that she likes the gift. He was putting a lot of trust towards her and wanted to go into another step into their relationship.

The moment was soon broken as a phone was going off. Both checked their cellular phones and saw that it was Pam's that she was receiving a call.

"I'll probably need to take this." She said with a smile as she kept on fingering the key in her hand. She opened up her phone and turned to the side to answer it.

"Hello, Dr. Isley here."

….

"What happened to the Hollands?" When hearing this, Naruto turned towards Pam with wanting to hear what is going on.

….

"A-Are you serious?" She said in worry making Naruto put a hand on her shoulder which she had her free hand go to and took a gentle squeeze with.

….

"I-I understand. I'll head down as soon as I can. Thank you." Pam said as she hung up the phone.

"Pam...What's wrong?" He said in worry since what her reactions were in that phone call shook her up badly.

"That was friend of Alec and Linda Holland. He's a lawyer that worked with them and called me that something happened with them a few days ago." She said to him before she explained on what the lawyer friend told her.

A family member came on by to the Hollands for the holidays last night when they found their residence destroyed in a fire. When police came onto the scene to inspect the place, they said that the fire happened a few days ago. They found Linda's body but not Alec's and with what evidence they could salvage showed that a struggle occurred with Alec being taken for his research or worse. The lawyer friend told Pam that she'll need to come to Louisiana to hear the last will and testament of the Hollands since her name was in their request.

"I'm more than willing to help pay for your trip Pam and I won't take no for an answer." The publisher said to her as she complied in his request. He cared for her very much that he will do whatever he can to help her in these troubling times.

Seems that the rest of their day would be a somber one as the two made it over to Pam's apartment to get things packed for the flight. Since things were going on last minute, Naruto called the airport and paid for her ticket over there with her coming back later in the week. From what additional details Pam told him is that the reading of the will and testament will be taking place sometime after she arrives in Louisiana and that she will want to pay her respects to the deceased Hollands.

She even called her supervisor at Star Labs, one Dr. Jason Woodrue, to let her know on what happened and he seemed fine with her going to Louisiana and paying her respects. But from what Pam told him after the phone call that Woodrue seemed odd when she spoke to him but didn't know why.

"I don't trust that guy Pam." Naruto brought up as they were on their way to the airport. "Something about that supervisor of yours seems….off to me."

"He's my supervisor Naruto and he seems off to everyone due to his eh…..eccentric personality." She said to him with a shrug. "Besides he's pretty lenient on me with my serum I'm developing."

"I know from what you told me about him but just meeting him that one time just made me ticked off about him." The publisher said as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel to which Pam noticed but chose not to say anything as they got closer to the airport.

They soon came to a stop at the dropoff point and they got out of the car with the silverette grabbing her luggage from the trunk.

"Well Pam, hope the trip goes well with the funeral and the will reading." The silverette said as he hugged her and gave her a quick kiss.

"Same." The botanist said with a sigh. "They were good friends of mine and it's really unfortunate on how their lives ended in such a way."

"I hope they catch whoever had done this and bring them to justice for what they did."

"I hope so too but for now I just need to focus on the now and not the later."

"Still though, I wish this can get resolved." Naruto said as he looked at her downtrodden face. "Maybe when you get back we can go to that one restaurant you like very much. Hopefully that could cheer you up a little."

"Maybe, we'll have to see how things go dear." Pam replied as she kissed him on the lips. "Well I gotta get going. I'll call you on how things are proceeding over there."

"Alright Pam, have a good flight." He said as she nodded and headed off to catch her flight. With it being Christmas Day that the airport will not that much of a problem with their security checks so she'll be able to go on through and reach her gate in no time.

*Sigh* "Great, now what the hell am I supposed to do for the rest of the day." The publisher said in frustration. "I was hoping that I could've spent the whole day with Pam and this turned up."

Once in his car and drove off he kept on muttering to himself. "Not that I'm complaining on the Holland's dying with it being really bad but I wish that couldn't happen at all. *Sigh* I just don't know what to do now."

A bit into the drive, an idea soon popped into his head as he remembered Kurama's gift to him earlier that day.

"Maybe I can use this chance to break in that new gift of mine."

 _ **-Later, in a random alley-**_

Currently in his stealth suit, which was a pain in the ass to get into with it being tight and all in some places, Naruto was looking through his helmet into the little instruction manual he found in his utility belt on what the capabilities of the suit were. Given the details of the specs, the group of people who designed the suit for Kurama referred the suit to be psychoanalytic cardiac-dampening sneaking equipment. There is supposed to be a built-in medical system that dispenses some stimulation and medical packs but there is a low amount of the product so he'll need to use them sparingly if possible.

"Gotta say, I like the suit so far from what I'm reading but does it have to ride up the crotch when I was getting over here." Naruto muttered as he had to pull down part of his pants to give his privates some 'breathing room'. "I swear Kurama did it on purpose just to spite me on the whole 'bunny ear' bit.

Unknown to the Uzumaki and at another location, Kurama stopped working on paperwork and smiled a little for some reason before getting back to his blasted workload to finish things up for the Christmas Evening.

"Well might as well get things started." He said as he focused an object into his hand and a grappling hook formed. It was pretty standard with nothing special about it. The disguised publisher twirled the hook in a fast action and threw it up in hopes of it latching onto the edge of the rooftop…..

But it fell down and it hit him hard on the helmet causing a sound to vibrate in the helmet.

"Ok….The sound is gonna be annoying."

This kept on happening a few more times before the last one finally made its mark. The costumed man tugged on the grappling hook a few times to see if it was secured before scaling the wall.

"Wish I still had my chakra so I can walk on the walls without this." He said as he kept on walking.

"Maybe I should've tried to see if I could walk on walls with this power of mine before 'breaking' this suit in."

Kept on walking a bit more as his arms were getting a little tired.

"Should've imagined a grappling gun of sorts, but don't know how the stuff functions and operates." He said with a sigh before making it to the rooftop. After stretching his arms a little, he summoned his notebook and wrote in it. "Note to self, look up grappling gun schematics and learn how to walk on walls…...again."

With that said, he willed the notebook away and looked over the city's landscape.

"Huh, don't know right now if it's just me but think the smoke and light pollution is making the sky look red at night." He kept on looking around and couldn't help but voice his thoughts. "Makes it seem creepy."

Looking around, he saw he was moderately high up with various buildings having gaps in between each other. Having the idea to jump between each of them, he decided to go for run.

Not really caring on his destination for the night, he went on a sprint and jumped quite a distance. When he got to the other rooftop, he barely made the landing but had to roll before making the recovery to keep his pace. This went on for a while with him making various movements in hopes of stretching the suit a bit more and for him to be used to it. There were some instances he had to stop running to adjust his crotch area to the point he pulled out his notebook for another reminder to get an jockstrap so it won't ride up his crotch again. Other times he ended up missing his jumps and had to catch the fire escapes so he won't fall onto the pavement below despite him knowing his defensive abilities will activate.

Eventually he made it to some of the higher buildings and focused on his hands to have claws of sorts so he could maybe scale said buildings. Taking a few deep breaths, he sprinted towards the edge of the current rooftop before taking a leap of faith in hopes of making it to the wall just in time.

As he was about to hit the wall, one thought came to mind: 'This is gonna hurt!'

And hurt it did as he slammed against the building's wall hard and started to skid. Throwing his arms hard against the concrete so that his hands can latch against anything. After a few seconds of his claws leaving marks on the wall, he came to a stop.

"Fuuuuck." Naruto moaned out as his arms and chest were growing in pain from the prior moments before taking his time to climb up the building's exterior. As he was getting higher and higher, his pain was slowly leaving him with odd tingles as usual. Once reaching the top he gazed upon the city below as it was gaining more snow for the Christmas Evening.

"Gotta admit, it looks really good up here." He said to himself as some nostalgia started to come rushing in. Seeing the current view reminded the Uzumaki when he came back to Konoha from his training trip with Jiraiya. The view was somewhat similar in a way, minus the fact that there is no mountain nearby with carved faces on it.

"I think I might be done for the evening. Should probably try out one more thing to wrap things up before heading back to the loft."

The publisher looked around for a decent 'target' for a little bit that could peak his interests when he eventually found one: the Gotham City Clocktower.

Built over one hundred and fifty years ago by Bruce Wayne's great grandfather, it has been a site for a lot of intrigue and supposed mysteries. Hell, there was even one story that started out back in the 1930's when the late mobster, Frankie Scolacci, had stolen and supposedly hidden the famous Cat's Eyes Emeralds somewhere inside of the Clocktower. People had searched every nook and cranny for the pair of emeralds and came out empty handed. From what he heard from one of his writers was that supposedly any thief that originates from Gotham always attempts to search for the jewels at some point in their careers.

Even though he isn't a thief, he used to be a shinobi and technically they have done missions in the past to search and steal valuable information and items of interest. So he might as well do this sort of thing now than later.

Walking back to the far end of the rooftop, he gave himself enough space for a running start before he takes his jump towards the Clocktower. It's quite a distance away and he doesn't know if he'll cause too much of a commotion if he fails to reach it.

"Well here goes nothing." He said as he took off.

The masked publisher started to pick up speed as he reached the end of the rooftop and he took a large leap once his foot left the very edge of the building. As he was in the air, he reached for his grappling hook he had to the side…. when he remembered he had left it behind several buildings away.

"OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIIIIIIIIIIT!" He yelled out loud, which some people heard down below, but didn't know where it originated.

Naruto was comedically clawing through the air in hopes of slowing his descent but was failing to do so.

"I need something! ANYTHING right now!" He yelled out as he tried to think of something until his arm shot out and some cloth formed from his suit. It went straight towards the clocktower and wrapped around one of its hanging gargoyles before Naruto swung around the building.

"Holy shit! This is freaking awesome!" Naruto called out before seeing the upcoming wall.

"Crap!"

 _ **-Meanwhile, some distance away-**_

"Well that seems interesting." A woman said while perched on a ledge. "A newbie trying out his or her luck for the first time."

If one was nearby, they would see that her attire appeared to be a leather suit with some armor sewn into the fabric at various places. The suit showed the woman's figure very nicely in all the right places while heightening other areas with a circular zipper located straight down the middle. She wore high heeled combat boots, sharp gloves, a leather collar and whip, along with a mask that appeared to look like a cat's head with red goggles to finish off the look.

The woman in question is the the thief, Catwoman aka Selina Kyle.

Reason why she is here was that while other people throughout the city are celebrating Christmas, many residences of the wealthy would be up for grabs for any thief daring to do their job for the evening. So far Selina had been able to break into several places so far and nabbed a good handful of valuables for her own agendas. She was going to call it a night when she caught sight of someone running across the rooftops in some stealth suit of sorts before making a jump to a building nearby and made his/her way up. What surprised the cat themed thief was when the person jumped off of the high rise building and somehow gotten a rope or a grappling line to attach to the Gotham Clock Tower so far away and swung to its position.

"Hmm, wonder what your up to." Catwoman said to no one in particular. She then felt movement around her neck as a black cat uncurled itself and yawned as it woke up.

"Enjoy your little cat-nap Isis?" She said as she scratched her cat in the right places making the cat to purr in confirmation.

"Well, I think you should hang on tight my dear." The thief told her pet, who gained a curious expression. "We are gonna head over to the clock tower before heading home for the night. Something seems to peak my curiosity and I intend to find out more."

 _ **-Inside of the Clocktower-**_

"Thank Kami above I phased through the wall or else that would've been really painful." Naruto said as he rubbed his helmet in hopes of rubbing his actual head. Wouldn't work but force of habit.

The sounds of the many clock parts operating filled the air as Naruto got up from the walkway and looked through the mechanism of the tower.

He then looked at his arms where the cloth came from and saw the remnants from one part that was torn. It appeared to look like a scarf that transitioned from black to white with the end looking like part of the symbol he kept seeing from his powers.

He looked away from the material as it faded so he can focus on his task at hand.

"Well if I want to have a better job breaking this suit in I better have some fun and what better chance than from a place that is constantly in motion." He said to no one in particular.

Naruto soon climbed up the steel ladder to get to the upper level before jumping onto one of the clockwork gears and climbed onto the next one.

The process on getting towards the top of the clocktower from the inside took a little trial and error. Getting knocked over and almost getting hit a few times by the many parts made him slow down or be extra careful on the climb. He did have to think things carefully and see the patterns to get the timings right so he could make the jumps easier for him.

As he was progressing, Catwoman was watching him closely to see what he is up to.

Once making to the top, where the main bell is at, he took a view of the entire city from where he is standing and enjoyed the view even more. Naruto took it in for a few more moments before turning back to the main contraption below.

"Well….here goes nothing."

With that, Naruto jumped down onto the first gear several feet below him as he rolled shortly after onto the next one. He soon fell off and didn't do a thing causing Catwoman to catch her breath a little and anticipated on what he was gonna do next. After falling for several dozen feet, he willed his arm to make that scarf from earlier to latch onto one of the pillars off to the side before it retracted to pull him up. Not wanting to lose momentum, Naruto had his scarf let go to send him flying a little into the air as he latched onto one of the gears up above.

During the time of Naruto having his 'go around' of the mechanism, Selina was enjoying the show of the masked individual performing all kinds of tricks all over. Her breath was caught several times when he didn't stick some landings or grabbed just in time but had recovered quickly to save his own hide by using that cloth of his to latch onto any nearby pillars or gears. She was very drawn into his performance that she kept on leaning forward from her position.

"Huh…..maybe I don't need to look up grappling guns after all." He said referring to his new 'scarf' he has. The masked publisher kept on swinging a bit until…..

*DONG*

The clock tower chimed it's bell causing the interior to vibrate and its loud noise vibrate the air.

*DONG*

With the sudden happening of the new hour, caused Catwoman to fall off her ledge and had to latch onto something quickly for her own safety.

*DONG*

That wouldn't be the same with her black cat, Isis, as the sudden movement of her master falling down caused her to lose her grip.

*DONG*

"ISIS!" Catwoman yelled out in fear for her cat's safety.

*DONG*

Naruto thought he heard someone call out a name and some screeching sound making him looked down to see a cat falling to its doom.

*DONG*

The Uzumaki willed his scarf to let go so he can plummet down to reach the cat.

*DONG*

Naruto had the scarf shoot out to snag the little creature in hopes of saving it's life.

*DONG*

As each brief moment passed, Selina felt her heart stop seeing her beloved Isis plummet to her death and the stranger trying to save her.

*DONG*

The scarf reached its target and retracted quickly getting Naruto to hold onto it for it's safety as they reached towards the bottom.

*DONG*

The thief couldn't bear it any longer as she closed her eyes not wanting to see the coming deaths of the two.

*DONG*

At the last chime of the clock tower's bell, the feline themed thief slowly opened her eyes to see the gruesome display below…..to only see nothing at all.

"W-What?" She said in shock. "W-Where are they?"

She climbed on down from her placement and kept on looking around for any sign of them.

All of a sudden, she saw the masked stranger….walked out of the giant, rotating gears on a few levels above the ground level. Simply walked out like they weren't even there. It surprised her that she unconsciously moved behind one of the support pillars to hide herself.

"Man….I'm glad I had that phasing ability of mine or else things would've gone bad for us." He said as he slowly opened his arms to show the shaken black cat.

"There there little one. It's alright." He petted Isis as slow as he can in hopes of calming her down. "The bell won't hurt you now."

After a minute of petting Isis, she eventually calmed down and 'kissed' him for saving her life.

"Good to know you finally relaxed now." He said before tilting his head in confusion. "I do wonder though, why are you here? You're clearly not a stray because of the collar and I think I heard someone call out your name."

Catwoman wanted to go out there and thank the man for saving her precious cat but a part of her didn't trust him at the current moment.

"Well it doesn't matter. As long as you are safe then I wouldn't worry about anything else little one." Seeing the cat's look he assumed he didn't know the name. "Sorry if I don't know your name little one, but the ringing of the bell might've blocked out your name being called out so I hope you don't mind."

Isis shook her head, making him smile underneath the helmet before he decided to walk off with her still in his arms.

"I'm gonna take us to the ground floor so that you can be really safe. I recommend you not going into high places for a while you hear." He said in a childish, strict tone making the cat nod. He slowly climbed down the few ladders before reaching the ground floor with the entrance of the tower nearby. Once outside, he slowly lowered himself to the ground getting Isis to crawl out and walk onto the ground.

"Well I hope you have a good Christmas little one." He said as he reached to his utility belt and pulled out some pet treats to feed the black cat. "Don't know why that furball had these in here, but right now I'm not complaining."

Once she was done eating, the masked man went on his way before Selina came out of her hiding spot and ran towards Isis and kept on kissing and petting her like no tomorrow. During the process, she felt something on the collar and pulled away seeing…..

"A note?"

When pulling it out, she heard something fall onto the ground. When looking at the source she saw two emeralds. Not just any emeralds, the Cat's Eyes Emeralds.

"H-How did they get there?" Selina said in shock before remembering of the note in her hand. Once opening it up, she read it's contents.

 _Hello Little One's owner, lovely night isn't it._

 _You might be wondering on how I knew you were nearby._

 _Well for one you calling out your cat's name, but like I told her I couldn't tell what name was called out._

 _The second was an ability of mine to tell of certain presences nearby. Learning how to properly use it better as of late, but could tell you were in the clocktower for brief moments so it was rocky at best._

 _Anyways…. I don't know if you were tracking down your cat if she escaped from your clutches or not, but I'm not prying._

 _I hope you have a pleasant Christmas and a Happy New Year._

 _Sincerely yours,_

 _A simple Nobody_

 _PS: Hope you like the present, didn't expect finding those tonight but hope you put them to good use Little One's owner._

When inspecting the note more, she saw a peculiar symbol in the background. But that didn't matter, she had gotten her hands on one of the best presents she could ever get. Now she'll be putting these emeralds along with her other valuables she got this evening towards the betterment of animal kind.

Selina looked around the area in hopes of finding this 'Nobody' and give her his thanks but she couldn't find him at all.

"Wherever you are Nobody. Thank you."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Sorry on not having this out sooner but things with work and family kept delaying me from working on this chapter that much. It had been a pain in the ass but had to deal with it along with the writer's blocks on some parts on how to write things down. Hope this turned out well to all of you reader's expectations.**

 **Now with some stuff with the last chapter that some would think the lemon came out of nowhere but I honestly wanted to have Naruto and Pam to cement their love before her accident to make things heartfelt and whatnot. Besides with a lot of the shows that air a 'mid-season' finale or Christmas episode would sometimes make things tragic or cliffhanger-ish in a way. This is me somewhat wanting to exploit on that but instead of her accident happening on Christmas Day, it'll be quite soon.**

 **Also for those that are wondering the stealth suit Naruto was given to by Kurama, via package for Christmas, is the Stealth Suit MK II from the Fallout series. Was watching my roommate play it when I got back from work one day and was trying to think of a temporary suit idea before Naruto's void powers morph it into something that both me and pain17ification had chosen prior to when he originally made the story before I adopted it.**

 **As for the further training, yeah I wanted to do more on that and for Naruto to get used to wearing his 'super suit'. Not only that I wanted to bring up that in season 4 of Batman the animated series the sky was red. It was just because they wanted to make the colors pop in the 4th season, while in the Batman 2004-2008 show the sky was all purple or dark orange. Odd thoughts to address but yeah.**

 **If any of you were wondering about the scarf that Naruto formed, it's the scarf that Twilight Thorn has in Kingdom Hearts.**

 **Also some reviewer, can't remember his name at the moment, made me think to change the crossover selection on the story so that more people on the site could read this story more. Well props to you man.**

 **There was also the bit of Naruto feeling like a robot. Well tracked him down and had to scrap robo-Naruto. It wasn't easy since he tried to put himself back together but had to go all Terminator on his ass and throw him into the molten led stuff to finish him off. Of course if he just so happens to reappear then I'm sorry I'll try to do what I can to keep tracking down the robo-Naruto's that Orochimaru keeps making and sending them my way.**

 **Be sure to review this story guys! Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	6. A Rose has been Planted

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 6: A Rose has been Planted**

"What's taking the flight so long?" Naruto said as he kept on looking at his watch. "It should've been here by now."

The publisher was currently at the airport terminal gate waiting for Pam to get back from Louisiana. From what he knew from talking to one of the airport workers that the flight took off late due to a storm down south but it wasn't causing any problems at all for the rest of the way. But this wasn't settling Naruto's nerves all that well on his patience of seeing Pam with how urgent her last phone call was.

The botanist had gotten something big from the Holland's in their Will but didn't want to say what she had gotten over the phone and would rather say it in person. Asides from that, she had told him how things had turned out from the funeral service to meeting the Holland's friends and family. For the rest of the trip she had visited a few places the Holland's wanted her to see that she never got the chance to before.

Naruto was honestly glad that she was trying to enjoy herself despite the loss of two close friends and she was doing her best to keep herself up.

"I think that's it." The Uzumaki noticed a plane coming down the runway and heading towards the designated gate. It took roughly ten minutes or so for Pam to get out of the plane and he greeted her with a few kisses which she returned gleefully.

"So how were things while I was gone?" She asked as they were making their way to the parking garage.

"Things were pretty quiet while you were gone. Work has been steady given the post holiday time and not much has occurred."

"And for you?"

"Well….I've been keeping myself preoccupied on my free time." Naruto said they kept on walking to their destination.

After that Christmas night with the Gotham Clock Tower, the publisher had been working on his current skill set a bit more but had mostly focused on his physical assets. With some of those incidents with the climbing, the hanging and swinging made him realize that while he is still physically fit and both reflexes and agility were still fine and dandy. His body grew unaccustomed to that extreme sort of exercises for a long time.

So he had to start working out again to be reaccustomed to his old strengths so his muscles wouldn't be sore when he did all that again. He got himself a salmon ladder and had it placed in his loft so he could possibly help fix some of those mentioned problems but still needed to get things taken care of with the real deal. In the past few several nights, he had to do the same thing he did that Christmas night of climbing up buildings and swing around with that 'scarf' of his. He did try to work on his 'wall walking' with his 'void' powers but it seems that his powers were not capable of doing such a thing, especially with him failing miserably several times when doing it in his loft.

Naruto also had tinkered around with that on board computer he had in his helmet to figure out how all that worked since he outright ignored it the first night he wore it and wished he hadn't. It helped him out a bit when getting some of the timings right when trying to latch onto certain things without his 'scarf'. He didn't want to grow too accustomed to his grappling scarf just in case if he ended up reaching his limits and his powers not functioning properly.

The two were driving back to Pam's apartment for a while with her explaining some of the sites she went to like the French Quarter, the old state capitol; and the Melrose, Laura, and Rosedown Plantation and Gardens.

"With how you're describing them makes me want to go to these places myself." He said with a chuckle.

"You definitely should." Pam said in a happy tone that made Naruto smile. "Maybe we could go there together sometime and I'll show you."

"We'll see Pam." The publisher replied before asking what was bugging him for a while. "So been meaning to ask but what did the Holland's give you? You were pretty insistent on telling me in person instead of on the phone."

She paused for a bit to collect her thoughts as she fished for her laptop bag from the back seat. Naruto slowed down on the action since he didn't want cause any problems for any of the drivers around them. Once Pam was properly situated back into her seat, she pulled out the item in question.

"A compact disc?"

"The Holland's told me in a 'living will'," Naruto gained a little confusion on that. "Which was a video recording of them telling others of their wills."

"Oh I know what a 'living will' is Pam, just didn't expect one for you to go to.

"Neither did I but there were things the two wanted to tell family members and friends dearly that reading from a document wouldn't have much of an impact."

Nodding at this, she continued. "Anyways, they told me I should have this as it contains all of their research notes and progress. They update it each day and kept it in their safe that survived the fire."

"So that means-" "That they wanted me to combine their research with theirs to finish up the projects in full. I believe they must've been close to finishing when they were attacked." Pam said to finish his assumed thoughts.

"But who would want to attack them? Do they even have any competition?"

"None that I know of. Like I mentioned before they tried to be as secretive as possible. But there could've been a leak and some companies could've seen them as a threat."

"I agree. If they brought out their finished product, this would bring out a major boon that not only they would win the Nobel Peace Prize but would have more fame and profit in the end." Naruto said as he got them closer to her apartment.

"In turn would drastically decline stocks of various companies that could possibly be harmed by their research." The botanist said to wrap things up. "That's what I thought as well during my time down south but I don't know what else to do exactly. All I can do now is to use their research and finish up the serum so I can use it in their memory."

"Well I think that should be something to celebrate. I did promise to take you to your favorite restaurant when you got back."

"Oh I remember and I intend to cash that in." Pam said with a smirk.

"Great. For a moment there I thought you forgot." Naruto smiled back. "We'll still stop by your place and freshen up before heading over there."

The two eventually made it back to her apartment and unloaded her belongings. It didn't take long for them to get themselves cleaned up for their date for the evening. Pam couldn't help but giggle when she saw Naruto have a spare change of clothes with him for the night. He did explain a little that he couldn't wait for the little event as he wanted to make things great for her return back to Gotham. Naruto ended up wearing a dark, suited attire that seemed to highlight his features nicely that could make any woman want his attention. As for Pam, she was wearing a dress she got on her trip being a black, strapped dress that if light hits it in just the right angles one would see its green color blended into the fabric with very little makeup as always to highlight her features.

"Is something wrong Naruto?" Pam playfully asked seeing her boyfriend's look. Though to be fair she was gaining a similar look with how well he is dressed.

"I don't know if we should go on our date now."

"Oh…. and why's that?" 

"Well I don't want to have any other man gaze upon your beauty Pam, you just look too beautiful for any other eyes to see you."

This caused her to giggle in response. "Oh you flatterer."

They soon went on their way to the restaurant and Naruto was glad he had made a reservation that Christmas Night after taking Pam to the airport. There was only one spot left for this evening and he took it right away. It's a pretty popular place for many of the white collar individuals of Gotham and the two had eaten there on a previous date so they knew what to expect on how crowded it could be.

Their expectations ended up correct when they arrived with the parking area being full with a bit of a line in the front.

"Thank Kami that the place is bigger on the inside or else it'll be hard to get in." Naruto muttered as he pulled up to the valet.

"Nice evening isn't it sir." The valet greeted them as he opened up the driver's door before opening the passenger one.

"So far so good." The silverette said as he handed the man a tip. It's hard for some people these days to get a good wage.

"Thank you sir, enjoy your stay." The man said as he went into the car and drove the vehicle to find suitable parking. The two went inside soon after so they can get checked in at the receptionists desk.

When the reached their destination, Naruto saw some familiar faces and couldn't help but voice his thought.

"Bruce? Harvey? What are you two doing here?" Said men turned around to find the source of the call showing the couple the billionaire playboy of the Wayne family and Gotham's District Attorney. The playboy's short black hair with cobalt blue eyes were highlighted a bit with his black suit he was wearing to help define his features while the DA's combed black hair with light grey eyes were matching his dark grey suit.

Next to the men were two blonde women, one was wearing a black dress that was probably Bruce's date while the other wore a magenta dress that Naruto soon recognized as Harvey's fiancee, Grace Lamont.

"Oh hey Naruto, good to see you." The billionaire greeted his publisher friend as he held out his hand for a handshake.

"Nice seeing you too. Haven't seen you since that gala last month." Naruto responded as he shook his friend's hand.

"Same here. Been quite busy these past weeks with the company so I couldn't chat with you that much."

"All is forgiven Wayne." Naruto then looked over to the other couple that was with Bruce and his date. "Harvey, Grace. How are things going on for you two?"

"We're doing great Naruto and I've been meaning to thank you for getting those autographed books from your new writers in your company." Grace said getting her fiancee to nod.

"Definitely. Been reading what I can when I'm not working on various cases and glad that you had published those works. They help keep my mind off of work at times when needed."

"Then I'm glad to be of help District Attorney."

When the conversations are going on the other two women were seemingly left out of the conversation.

"I'm sorry. I should've introduced my date for the evening." Bruce said to Naruto. "Naruto, this is Natasha. Natasha, this is Naruto Uzumaki of Spiral Publishing."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Uzumaki." The woman said with hints of a Russian accent. "I gotta say I enjoy reading your company's latest works." 

"Well thank you Natasha." The publisher replied. "Anyways Bruce, Harvey, Grace; this is my girlfriend Dr. Pamela Isley. Pam this is-" "Bruce Wayne of Wayne Industries, yes I know Naruto. You don't need to tell me, but it is nice to meet you Mr. Wayne."

"And here I wanted to properly introduce you." He said with a pout which got the two women to laugh a little.

"I know but wanted to tease you a little." The botanist replied back as he patted his cheek. "And it's also nice to meet you two Mr. and soon to be Mrs. Dent."

"Likewise/Thanks." The engaged couple replied respectively.

"Don't mind me asking, but when did you two get together?" The billionaire asked with the knowledge that they are in a relationship now.

"Since Christmas weekend."

"Well congrats then." Bruce said before noticing their current placement. "So were you two going to check in?"

"Yes we were."

"Well why don't you two join us? It'll be fun and I think this place is too crowded as it is." Grace said supposedly voicing her Bruce's oncoming response.

"I don't know. Would you be fine with that Pam?"

"Why not. I think it'll be a pleasant dinner either way."

With that said, Bruce had asked the receptionist if it was possible to combine the two parties which he was happy to obliged. He had ushered them to a table that had finished getting ready for the next set of customers.

"So Bruce, are there any projects in the works that we could learn about or are they going to be a surprise?" Naruto asked as they were getting situated in their seats.

"There are a few, but yes I'm not at liberty to speak of what they are."

"That's understandable so I won't pry. I'll just wait for when you properly give out the announcements."

"But while on the topic of projects, what about you? Are you planning anything else to write?" Grace politely asked.

The publisher was going to answer but the redhead had beaten him to the punch. "He does have one book in the works."

"Pam!" Naruto whined to her. "Spoilers!"

"Oh really?" Bruce inquired. "And how do you know of this Pamela?"

*Sigh* "She found what I had written so far in my notebook." Naruto said as he rubbed his head. "It was just something I've been doing in passing and after reading it, she wanted me to finish it up."

"Well given the reputation on how most of your previous works turned out to be, I wouldn't expect your next one to not be a best seller."

"We'll see Bruce. We'll see." The former shinobi stated. "I think I'm halfway done now and it'll be sometime till I'm even close to being done."

"Really?" Pam curiously asked. "From what I had read so far that you were practically two acts in from the 'prologue' and you starting the first."

"Acts? Are you playwriting this book of yours?" Natasha asked

"Well it's more of an epic poem Natasha. I honestly never thought of having Loveless be transitioned into a play but now that I think about it, it might seem like it. I don't know now but I'll see on how it goes in the end." Naruto replied.

"Then how many acts do you think will there be in total?" questioned the DA.

Naruto thought about it for a moment before replying. "Well Harvey, technically I'm currently writing the third act with it written as the second. I plan on having six acts in total with the prologue and five acts following."

"Then I guess it'll be an interesting read then."

The party were soon greeted by their waiter for the evening and they soon ordered their respective meals. There were some fun conversations going on various topics as they were going through their appetizers of varying salads but soon things started to get interesting after they finished those up.

"...But how would one raise children in a city such as this?" Natasha asked.

"Well I was born and raised here in Gotham and I turned out okay." Bruce replied.

"Despite….well….you know." Naruto said as he knew talking about that specific night around Bruce is always touchy. The others understood on what Naruto meant and the playboy nodded on his friend not actually saying it and going into that can of worms.

"Sometimes I do wonder, is Wayne Manor even in the city limits?" Pam questioned.

"They are around the palisades. Around the border I believe." Naruto replied.

"I'm talking more about of how a city idolizes a masked vigilante."

Hearing the Russian woman's correction, Naruto decided to explain a little. "Well from how things have gone in these past years, Gotham City could be proud of an ordinary citizen trying to do what is right."

"That I can agree with." replied the DA.

"Gotham needs heroes like you elected officials instead of someone who thinks is above the law." Natasha countered.

"So with that, who appointed the Batman?" Bruce commented.

"We did apparently." Harvey said. "All of us who stood by and watched a variety of scum take over the city."

"But this is a democracy Mr. Dent."

"When the enemy were at the gates, the Romans suspend democracy and appoint one man to help protect the city." The DA said. "It wasn't considered just an honor, but it was a public service."

"From what I remember in my history classes, the last person the Roman republic appointed was Julius Caesar and he never gave up his power when things died down." Pam said her two cents.

"True. But here's the thing, you would either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain." Harvey said as things started to sink in.

"From what I can tell, Batman doesn't want to do this all his life." Naruto said getting the other's attention. "I can imagine that years down the road that if he keeps his mantle of responsibility on for too long, he'll grow very old and bitter towards the world and would never have any bright days to live by. Probably be held up in a cave and act like a hermit for all his life till he goes into the grave. He'll probably want someone to take up his cape and cowl for when the time comes that to finally pass the torch."

"Maybe to that Robin fellow that works alongside him." Natasha asked

"Possibly. Who knows if the traffic light wants to take it up or not. All I'm saying is that if the city grows too dependant of Batman then what would happen if he just up and left or disappeared and then what." Naruto said leaving that question in the air.

"Things will start toppling down I guess." Grace answered.

"Pretty much." Naruto said with a shrug. "Batman will end up creating a symbol or an icon that it'll be hard to live without and that someone will need to keep it alive after the current Dark Knight retires or passes on so that Gotham could possibly be safer down the road."

"That seems to be a very interesting assessment Naruto. Didn't really think about that." Bruce replied as he started filing those details into memory.

"Same here." Harvey said in agreement. "You really thought deeply into this sort of subject haven't you?"

"Eh….probably." Naruto said with a shrug. "But other than that, then you're welcome."

Of course it wasn't really just a guess, Naruto had known on how similar it was between Batman and the Kage's from his home reality. Someone that was truly strong when the shinobi villages of respective areas were formed that each of them needed a leader, an icon to help keep the peace and stabilize things throughout the other places of the world. At some point, the current Kage would need to step down so the next generation could take his/her place then the new one would need to be properly trained.

The Uzumaki had to obviously know of this back then for his former dream and even now with current events.

"With that said, if Robin doesn't want to take up the Bat's mantle then who? Would it be you Mr. Dent?" Natasha asked.

"Maybe, if I'm up for it." The DA said with a chuckle.

"What if, Mr. Dent is the Caped Crusader." The Russian replied as she put her napkin in front of Harvey's face to only show the bottom portion of it.

This got a laugh out of the man before he responded back. "If I were sneaking out every night, then someone would've caught me in the act."

"Oh I definitely would've." Grace said with a giggle as she kissed her fiance on the lips.

"You know Harvey, isn't the DA reelection going to be happening soon?" The publisher asked

"Yes….in a few months or so. Why you ask?" Harvey curiously asked.

"Well I would like to help fund or at least contribute to your campaign when the time comes." Naruto said getting several people on the table to look at Naruto in surprise.

"You would really want to do that Naruto?" Bruce asked. "I mean it's just that I have helped fund Harvey's campaign's in the past and things have turned up well so far."

"I know that Bruce, but I just want to at least donate a substantial amount when the process begins. I just want to show that I support you Harvey and not just voting for you since I started living here in Gotham."

*Chuckles* "Then I'll be glad to accept your generosity Naruto. Anything I can get will help keep this city on the right track despite the mob and other forms of crime running around."

"I hope you will Harvey. I hope you will."

With that, their meals soon came and the group had shifted conversations to a lighter tone so things can end pleasantly for them.

As time has past for the group with them satisfied in their meals as they were heading off to their respective destinations. Harvey and Grace left a bit earlier due to them having meetings in the morning and they needed to get back home early.

"You know Naruto, you should maybe come with me to this Animal Rights event going on next week." Bruce suggested.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the one dealing with Gotham's finest being auctioned off for dates with all of the proceeds going towards the animals."

"That it is."

"I don't know about that Bruce. I'm currently in a relationship and I don't know if Pam would be fine with me attending or yet participating in it."

"Participating in what exactly?" Pam asked as she came up from behind the two.

"O-Oh ah Pam." Naruto said with a stutter. *cough* "Well Bruce was asking if I could come with him to this event next week."

"And what event is that?"

"An Animal Rights event and the proceeds go towards the animals."

"Okay but why would you think I wouldn't be fine with it?"

"Well it's a celebrity date auction."

"Ohhhhh." She drawled out in acknowledgement.

"And I was telling Bruce that I wouldn't know if it would be good for me to attend or yet participating in it."

"And I think you should go."

"See Bruce I told you she wouldn't…...Wait What?!" Naruto said in surprise and even Bruce shared the same reaction.

"Well if it was being used for a good cause, especially with it being the wildlife, then I think it'll be good for you to go."

"B-But wouldn't you be mad if I went out with someone on the event?"

"Not at all." Naruto's eyes soon narrowed as he stared at his botanist girlfriend from her response. This got her to be confused on his little action there.

"What?"

"This is a test isn't it."

"A what?"

"A test in our relationship. You are suggesting me to go and to see if I will actually want to attend or participate in the event. Either result would affect our relationship in a positive or negative way."

This got Pam and Bruce to adopt confused looks on Naruto's response. Soon the botanist realized what he was implying and decided to voice her thoughts.

"What, no Naruto. This isn't a test in our relationship at all. I really do want you to go. You know how I feel about nature and the wildlife is apart of it. So if you going helps on the event then you should definitely go."

"But what about you?"

"Well maybe I could come or not. It pretty much depends if work is going to be crazy with the new year." She said with a shrug. "But in all honesty Naruto if I can be able to come with or not, you should definitely go and I will not take no for an answer."

*Sigh* "Alright, if you say so."

"Besides, I think it would be fun to see how much women would end up bidding on you if you actually participated."

"Oooof course."

Bruce couldn't help but chuckle on the interaction and decided it was time for him to head off as Natasha came back from using the restroom.

"Then I'll be seeing you next week Naruto. And I hope you have a good New Years you two."

"See you then Bruce and a Happy New Year to you as well."

With that said, Naruto and Pam went on their way to head back to Pam's apartment to head off to bed. From the mixture of Pam's flight and their meal, she was wanting to spend her New Years just relaxing and celebrating it in their own way.

 _ **-A Few Days Later, Pam's POV-**_

"I wish I wasn't here right now. I would rather be at home with Naruto helping me relax." I said to no one in particular with a sigh escaping my lips.

For the past few days now, I've been working non-stop on my serum after I got back to work. I thought at first I was going to take a bit of time to figure out how to properly get Holland's serum to mix with my own, which I thought was impossible.

But sometime after I clocked in, I was approached by one of my supervisors, Dr. Jason Woodrue, that I needed to get my serum finished very soon or else I will be forced to put it on indefinite hiatus. There was no explanation at all and he left me to do my things making me wonder if what he said was true and I would be forced to no longer work on the goal of the Holland's and my own. So by that I was forcing myself to stay at Star Labs for the past several days working day in and day out to get everything wrapped up.

During one of my meal breaks, I had called up Naruto and told him the news on what I had to do. He told me it was unfair on what Woodrue was making me do that reaching my life's goal was in her reach but if it wasn't done soon then I would kiss it goodbye. I agreed with his statement but I had no choice at all.

'Oh Naruto, you are so damn sweet to me.' I thought as I gazed upon the various flowers he brought me these past few days to help cheer me up. Of course the gaze would've been better if some of the meal boxes I had cleanly eaten weren't near my precious flowers. With how stressful this 'wrap up' turned out to be, I had to shove a lot of my things to a corner so they wouldn't be near any of my sensitive equipment.

"I can't wait for this to be done so I can finally clean up my lab and finally clean myself up properly." I said as I gazed over to the mirror nearby seeing my disheveled look of frizzled hair that was tied up by a headband and a scrunchie.

If one could describe the current condition of my lab, well it would literally be a mix of rotted nature taking over with a hurricane had passed on by. Many small experiments and attempts on blending the two serums together were unsuccessful as things seemed to look fine at first as things started to grow, only for them to die moments later.

What the hell is wrong with this picture?! I have the understanding perfectly as every attempt of getting the serums to blend well turned out for not. Is there something that I'm not getting in all of this or was this some sick game from a higher power wanting to screw me over. Oh mother, what should I do?

*Knock Knock*

"May I come in?" A man called out from outside of my lab.

"It's open!"

The person who stepped through the doorway was not only my supervisor but also the man that I would really want to kill right now for causing me this annoyance of finishing up my project. Dr. Jason Woodrue was a man in his late 40's, early 50's with his dark hair combed back with two white streaks going off on either side. He was wearing a standard lab coat with some business wear underneath. He also wore an….interesting pair of glasses that had several attachments of a magnifying variety to help him see closely if needed.

"So Dr. Isley, how's the project coming along?"

"It's doing alright sir. I'm just having trouble trying to get some kinks to properly work."

"Well I know you'll be able to do fine finishing this up by tonight." He said making me to widen my eyes in surprise.

"Tonight! I have till tonight to finish this?"

"Why yes you do. You've spent quite a long time working on this project of yours but I'm afraid your time is just about up." Woodrue said with a smile that made me feel uncomfortable at the moment due to me working overtime with little to no rest. "Like I told you before that if you have not completed your serum by the deadline then I'm afraid you'll be putting this on indefinite hiatus."

"But I thought I had another day or two, but not tonight." I said as I was starting to well up tears in frustration and exhaustion.

"Well I just wanted to let you know. I'll be stopping on by later this evening to see if you'll be done by then." And with that he left my lab for me to wallow in my misery.

"Why does this have to happen to me?!" I cried out as I slumped onto the floor and just wanted to die now so I won't have to deal with this.

"Alec….Linda…..What am I doing wrong? Is there something that I'm not getting at all from your work?"

'The Green.'

"...Wait."

'The Green.'

"...The….Green." I said as the slight thought came and went through my head as slight memories came back to me before I widened my eyes in shock.

The Green was something the Holland's had said in passing in previous times I had visited them. They mentioned that it was something really important in their research to help make their serum to truly work but I didn't think it wasn't all that important.

'Oh good fucking god why did I forget that?!' I yelled out in my head as I scrambled from the floor and ran towards my laptop. I went through the disc the Hollands gave me and eventually found the file that was hidden away deeply into other files. Before I knew it, I finally found the information I was looking for.

As information started piling through my screen, I couldn't help but smile hard to the point that my cheeks could've ripped from how happy I had gotten.

This was it! This was fucking it! I finally found my solution!

With new invigoration with little to no exhaustion, I dived into my work as I started plowing through it like a snow plower on a snow day to ruin a child's day off from school or Naruto giving it to me hard back on Christmas and New Years.…

Yeah odd analogies there, but fuck it I don't care right now! It's time to complete this baby!

 _ **-Hours Later-**_

"Finally…..It's done." I said as I held up the vial of green liquid that seemed to sparkle and glow as I held it up to the white lights of my lab…..

I don't care if I'm seeing things due to my exhaustion. I am finally done! Alec's and Linda's work…..My work…..They are finally done!

*Knock Knock*

"You can come in!" I called out to see Dr. Woodrue walking in.

"Hello Dr. Isley. How's the project coming along?"

"Oh it's great sir. I finally have it done now." I said in a giddy tone as my excited high kept me from noticing an odd look come to Woodrue's face.

"Really…..Well that's wonderful." He said in a tone that seemed a tad off to me. "Well I think you can finally call it a day Dr. Isley and head on home now."

"But shouldn't I clean up my lab and present my work to you before I go?"

"It's all fine Pamela. I've caused you enough stress that you can go on your merry way. You can clean up your lab and present your project in the morning."

"Thank you sir. I'll see you later then." I said to him as he smiled at me before going on his merry way. As I started gathering my things, I had this odd tingle at the back of my neck that something seems off and that I should be worried.

Nah, it's just the exhaustion getting to me. But still….this feeling isn't really going away.

I was walking out of the botanical area of Star Labs as I made my way to my car, I saw that it was pretty dark outside with the moon and stars somewhat shining this evening.

"I can't wait to finally go to bed. *Yawn* It'll feel so damn good especially when I take a nice hot shower in the morning." I said as I fished my keys out of my purse.

Once I got into my car, I tried starting it up but it wouldn't go. I kept doing this several times before I realized that my battery must've died.

"Great." I mumbled. "Absolutely great."

I soon fished out my cellular phone and started typing Naruto's phone number and I really hope he was up.

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

" _Hello."_

"Hey Naruto."

" _Oh hey Pam. How's the project coming along?"_

"Great news! I finally have it done!" I said in a slightly happy tone.

" _Really! Congrats Pam! I knew you can do it!"_

"I know Naruto."

" _So I'm just wondering but why are you calling me? I can tell that it's not just for the big news there."_

"You got me there honey. Look I need a ride to either your place or mine. The battery of my car is probably dead so I'm pretty much not going anywhere."

" _Ok Pam, I'll be heading your way right now. Give me about 10-15 minutes and I'll be there. Just head back inside and wait for me."_

"Alright Naruto, I'll see you then and I can't wait."

" _Me too Pam. I've missed you."_

"Same here. Oh and Naruto?"

" _Yeah."_

"I love you."

" _I love you too."_ After that, I ended the phone call and made my way back inside of Star Labs. With how cold it is outside, there was no way in hell I was going to wait inside of my car with it being so damn chilling.

Once I got inside, I decided to go use the restroom so I can properly wash my face and feel a little warm in the face. While on my way towards my destination, I heard something quite a distance away. I thought it was nothing until I heard some glass breaking and some yelling that got my curiosity getting the better of me.

"...the fuck is it? Where the hell did she put it?"

"Isn't that Woodrue's voice?" I muttered to myself as I drew closer before I realized the commotion was….in my lab? I soon peeked inside and saw what he was doing. He was rummaging my lab?!

"Where in the bloody hell did that bitch put her work?" He said as he soon tossed drawers from their originated place as it broke some nearby equipment and glass chemical containers.

I wanted to go in there and question why he was messing up my lab but I needed to wait for what his intentions are.

"Gah! The bitch must've taken it with her instead of leaving it here! Now my plans are ruined!" He yelled out as he kept throwing chemicals all over the room in frustration.

Was he talking about my serum and my notes? That must've been it but why…..

"I should've taken it from her before she left so I could've presented it to the board tomorrow." He said as he was biting his fingernails. "Now I won't be having any of the credit and my shot in the Nobel Peace Prize will go down the drain."

He was planning on stealing my work?!

"Even after all that effort of hiring those goons down south to take care of the Hollands and possibly steal their work but nooo, they had to fuck it all up!" He yelled out as he kicked some objects that were on the ground.

No….He….He was the one….He was the one that caused that?! He was the one that killed them?! Oh that was it!

"You!" I yelled out from the doorway getting his attention.

"How dare you?! How dare you try to steal my life's work you bastard?!"

"Ah Dr. Isley. So nice for you to return." He said in a sweet voice but I wasn't buying it.

"Don't you dare try to sweet talk out of this you bastard!" I yelled out. "I heard you confess on what you have done."

"Oh and what do you mean?" He asked in delusion.

"You wanted to take my life's work and you took the lives of my closest friends. For what, just to gain all the glory and profit from the finished work."

"Ah yes….that."

"And what do you have to say for yourself?!"

He didn't say anything at all trying to think of something but my patience was wearing very thin.

"Listen here and listen good. I have spent my life's work wanting to protect the environment and for plant life to live on and not die out. My friend's wanted to solve the problem on food shortages and would've saved countless lives in the process. And now, here you want to steal our hard work that we have literally cried, sweat and bleed for. When I get through with you, you won't even be able to get a job as a high school chemistry teacher. Do you hear me?! You psychotic bastard!"

With my bit said and done, I awaited for his answer.

"Well….I respect your opinion." He said to me. "And quite frankly I'm not all that great with rejection…..."

When Woodrue said that I felt something heavy go down to my stomach.

"So I'm afraid you'll have to die."

He lunged at me as a fight broke out between us. I fell onto the ground and felt the broken glass cut into my skin but I couldn't let him get the better of me. I pushed him away as he hit hard against the counter before trying to attempt harm me again. I ducked away as he ended up pushing a stand full of chemicals onto the ground and some splashed against some wall sockets and broken machinery causing some sparks to light up.

I tried to run out of the lab that was starting to catch on fire but he grabbed my hair and slammed my head hard against one of the counters cutting my head open slightly. My adrenaline kept me awake as I had to take care of the psychotic supervisor. I soon found a broken flask and I didn't care if it broke through my skin in my hand as I lunged towards him to either imobolize him or even kill him. He tried to move away but some of the chemicals on the ground made him slip towards me. I took the chance and I stabbed the broken flask into his throat and left a deep gash.

"Y-Yo-You bi-bitch!" Woodrue yelled despite his throat slashed open as he attempted to kill me while his life was slowly leaving him. He ended up pushing me against my bookcase full of chemicals to fall upon me.

I tried to push the bookcase off of me as I saw Woodrue try to leave, but he once again slipped and fell to the side slamming his head to hit against the counter knocking him out and letting him finish bleeding to death. I somewhat felt satisfied that the Holland's were avenged, but that didn't matter now as I tried to get out of my predicament. I tried shifting through but I felt that one of my legs was broken and the other sprained so it was going to be really hard to get out of my compacted spot.

I tried to breathe but felt something being jabbed into my chest. When I looked down, I saw the vial of my life's work sticking out of my shirt's pocket with a mixture of the serum and my blood coming out. I realized that I ended up being stabbed too deeply and I was probably going to die here with the growing flames consuming my lab, killing all of the plants inside of it.

My eyes kept on glancing all around me and something that was precious to me caught my eye. I tried to reach for it but the struggle kept on having the vial dig deeper into my chest but I didn't care. I soon got it in my hand and I pulled it towards me to see the picture frame containing the one sweet moment of both of me and Naruto being together when we had just started going out. The pain was too much for me and I started to cry before I uttered a few last words.

"Naruto. I love-"

*KABOOM*

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Damn this chapter took a while for me to work on with my mind going in and out since I wrote my last chapter. Also a modified quote from Bugs Bunny: 'Ain't I a stinker on the cliffhanger?'**

 ***Someone throws a molotov cocktail at my direction* Hey watch it. *Dodges gunfire* If you're freaking out of me possibly killing off Pam then it's not my plan to do that people. I'm just setting up the stuff on what me and pain17ification had discussed on how Pam became the Champion of the Green so please don't go all 'angry pillager' on me please.**

 **Now let me talk about a few things.**

 **Reason why Tsunade is in heaven is that if you think about what went on in the reality Naruto came from, he was sent to the current one after learning the other Bijuu's names and fought Obito briefly before accident went on stated in the first chapter of the story. But at the point in time Naruto came to current one that many events got altered from canon so a lot of others would've died because of it instead of surviving. Also I just added Tsunade into heaven because of laughs for that scene.**

 **I also had the dinner scene go on because I wanted to introduce Harvey and Grace as they don't have that many episodes shown before Harvey becomes Two Face so I just wanted to add that in. Besides, the first episode Harvey was introduced in was Pam's first episode appearance in Batman animated canon of 'Pretty Poison' and I thought it was weird to have Harvey single on that episode and dating Pam but then a handful of episodes later he is engaged to Grace. So I decided to fix that bit up.**

 **Also Natasha is just a throwaway OC inspired from Dark Knight of Bruce's date for his cover as a playboy billionaire.**

 **Also I tried to make Dr. Jason Woodrue as best as I can do but with limited resources I can only do so far with him so give me some slack with that bit please. I just wanted him to be that slight, idiotic bad guy that ends up talking about his plans out loud like every saturday morning cartoon villain when stressed out and get caught in the act. Don't care, it's my idea honestly on how I roll it.**

 **With weapons and explosives for Naruto to acquire alongside the current stealth suit, well I just wanted Naruto to have just the suit and very little equipment since Naruto still needs to get used to his powers and abilities along with that he'll be having other weapons in his arsenal later on.**

 **Be sure to review this story guys! Please and thank you!**

 **ALSO GOODBYE 2016 and HELLO 2017! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!**

 **R &R**


	7. The Cat and the Bat meet PT 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 7: The Cat and the Bat meet and Nobody else. Part 1**

*Beep*...*Beep*...*Beep*...*Beep*…..*Beep*...*Beep*

The sounds of the heart monitor filled the room as Naruto sat in one of the chairs. His hazel eyes were evidently red from crying when he found her in the wreckage of the botanical department of Star Labs. The memories were still fresh in his mind and every time he kept thinking of that moment hours ago he would unshed freshly made tears.

He had just gotten off from a long day at work when he had gotten the phone call from Pam that she need a ride to either of their places due to her car not working. He was so happy to hear that she had finally completed the serum, the life's dream of both her and the Hollands, that he had several ideas running through his head on how to properly celebrate the accomplishment. But as Naruto was getting closer to his destination, a growing feeling was rising in the pit of his stomach that something was going to happen. His gut never failed him before, asides from prior moments of him having food poisoning, that he sped his car past the speed limits.

When he came onto Star Labs, everything seemed fine and went towards the entrance of the building until the botanical labs exploded in a fiery blaze. He feared of what happened and quickly called 911 and reported what happened before hanging up to find Pam. Naruto had to use his powers to get rid of most of the debris so he can properly search her. Eventually he made it to her lab and found her underneath a bookcase with various cuts and burns along with most of her hair burned off.

Once he got outside, with Pam in his arms, he was greeted with the sight of the paramedics showing up and he had brought his girlfriend to them. For the entire ride towards the hospital, he felt like he was having mini-heart attacks with seeing Pam's vitals going out of control as they tried to stabilize her. Even with the surgery, which he couldn't track how long it took, all he could think about was Pam and wished she can make it through.

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard the door to the hospital room open to see Bruce Wayne there.

"Naruto. I just got back into town when I heard of what happened and I came as soon as I could." He said as he quietly closed the door.

"Hey Bruce…..Sorry that you had to come back to this." Naruto tiredly said to him before looking back at Pam. Bruce looked around the room to see a spare chair and pulled it next to the publisher.

"How is she? Is she going to pull through?"

"Barely…..I was so damn lucky that an ambulance showed up when it did and had to keep her stabilized on the ride over. If…..If they didn't respond quick enough….."

"Naruto, don't think of that."

"How could I Bruce?" The publisher said to the dark haired man. "If only I could've been there sooner then none of this would've happened...Then this wouldn't happen to Pam."

Nothing was said after that as the sounds of the heart monitor were filling up the room. Bruce then glanced over to Pam's prone form and took in the various details of her appearance. Many wraps were around her body that made her look like a stereotypical mummy with hints of her right leg being in a cast underneath the bed sheets. There were many wires attached to her body with some tubes were inserted into her to help with her breathing.

"So what's her condition?" Bruce asked

"From what I was told by the doctor, there are burns of various degrees around her body that will take time to heal. She has scars around her body from the glass along with her right leg being broken. But...I'm more worried about her head." The Uzumaki stated piquing Wayne's brief curiosity.

"What do you mean?"

"They said that there was a deep gash on her head with some blunt force trauma from what they had seen through x-rays and CAT scans." Naruto said as he slowly tightened his hands. "I….I'm worried Bruce. I-I don't know if Pam will forget about me or her mother or anything she considered her precious in her memories."

Bruce placed a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder before speaking. "Naruto, she'll be fine. You just need to try and relax. She's in very capable hands."

"I know Bruce. I just hope…..I just hope she wakes up alright."

"Excuse me Mr. Uzumaki." A voice called out getting the two people to look towards the doorway to see one of the hospital's nurses. "Commissioner Gordon is outside and would like to speak with you."

"Oh, ah thank you." Naruto said with slight surprise as he rose from his seat and headed out of the room with Bruce soon following. Naruto was about to get out when he momentarily glanced back to Pam's unconscious form before stepping out.

The two men looked around before seeing Commissioner James Gordon by the nurses station along with Detective Harvey Bullock. James Gordon had a well fit appearance in his suit and tie attire while wearing a brown trench coat. He had combed auburn hair with the sides of his head showing signs of it going grey while wearing a pair of thick rimmed glasses with a thick mustache. Harvey Bullock was a….pleasantly plump, dark haired man wearing a yellow shirt and red tie while the rest of his attire was dark grey on the pants, trench coat and his hat.

"Naruto Uzumaki, I'm sorry to what has happened and you have my condolences." The auburned man said to the publisher.

"Thank you Commissioner." Naruto replied back. "So is there any reason why you two are here?"

"Yes there is. My investigators had searched Star Labs to figure out what happened since I didn't want to rule out of 'accidental gas leaks' unlike some people I know." James said before glancing to the detective who was innocently whistling while munching on a donut.

"And did you find anything for how this happened?"

"We did. It took a while to search through the wrecked lab that we found several things."

"Which would be…..?" Bruce asked since he was curious as well.

"We found a burnt up corpse in the lab and once going through dental records, we were able to identify it as Dr. Jason Woodrue." This surprised the two men and wondered why he was in there.

"But why was he there? Was Woodrue there to help Pam out?" Naruto asked getting Gordon to shake his head.

"I'm afraid not. After going through the autopsy report, it showed that the man's throat was gouged out indicating that Ms. Isley had stabbed him."

"B-But why would she do that? There is literally not a mean bone in her body as far as I have known her." Naruto argued in hopes of protecting her. "When I found her, she was all cut up and underneath a bookcase."

"I wasn't finished Mr. Uzumaki and I'm not accusing her on cold blooded murder." The Commissioner said to calm the publisher down. As the silverette did, the bespectacled man continued with his explanation.

"I had my investigators look through the security tapes at Star Labs to figure out what happened and it was revealed that the late doctor was the cause of the explosion."

Naruto felt several things go through his system as he narrowed his eyes and slowly tightened his fists. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm down a bit more.

"Mind explaining please." The hazel eyed man said getting Gordon to nod.

"Once going through the video footage, it was revealed that Woodrue was rummaging through Ms. Isley's lab in the attempt of stealing her work and pass it off as his own. After coming up empty, he ended saying his intentions and confessing that he had hired people down south to steal the work from Alec and Linda Holland but they ended up killing them."

"He did what?!" Naruto growled out in response. Gritting his teeth, he tried to calm down but it was wasn't helping all that well.

"Yeah and your botanist girlfriend ended up hearing his confession and started yelling at him." Bullock said after finishing his donut. "That was before the asshole tried to kill her."

"Harvey, that's not helping." Gordon sternly said to his detective.

Gritting his teeth badly as his anger was starting to rise to the surface while his hands were tightly gripped enough to break the skin. Blood would've dropped if his powers didn't make it fade away. Bruce had placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder to calm him down. He was going to yell at his friend when he saw Pam's prone form through the room's window.

"If Woodrue was still alive and kicking then I would kill him myself for what he has done." The Uzumaki growled out as he was starting to well up in tears.

"Well Ms. Isley is being counted for self defense and we had called Louisiana State police of what happened so they can inform the Holland's family and friends while searching for the hired thugs." James informed the two civilians.

*Sigh* "Thanks for letting us know Gordon. I'm glad that despite Woodrue being dead, that he has been brought to justice." The publisher stated getting the others to nod at that.

"But one thing that I don't get is, why didn't Woodrue stop the security tapes from running before he raided Pam's lab?" Bruce questioned to fill in that little gap.

"Guess he was too impatient and rummaged the place before doing that. Successful or not, he would've erased the tapes afterwards." Bullock said as the others felt a little satisfied despite the incident from earlier.

"Anyways, we should get going. I hope you rest easily Mr. Uzumaki." The Commissioner said before he and the detective left."

"Thanks for holding be back there Bruce. I would've blown my top if you hadn't."

"No problem." Wayne said. "So what will you do now?"

"I'm staying here for the night. I-I don't want to leave Pam's side and I want to be here when she wakes up…..hopefully."

"She will Naruto. Just give her time." Bruce said as he as starting to walk away.

"I should thank you Bruce." The silver haired male said getting his friend to turn around.

"For what exactly?"

"For blackmailing me to go to the gala." Naruto said getting Bruce to adopt a confused look.

"Why would you thank me for that? Wouldn't you be mad at me for doing that to you?"

"Oh I'm still mad at that so expect a prank going your way."

Bruce shuddered when hearing that tidbit. From what he had heard about the Uzumaki that he had pranked several people badly that left him become a bit infamous on the actions. One of them was sneaking into one person's office last week and painting the entire place in 'kill-me' orange. The police couldn't pin Naruto to the incident, but they all knew the silverette was the culprit.

Unknown to Bruce, Naruto was thinking of the same event. When the publisher was training to use his skills when Pam was out of town, he wanted to test his current skillset on a few individuals. During a previous date with Pam, one man was harassing his girlfriend in various ways that made Naruto want to punch his clock in, but the man was of high standing in Gotham and Naruto couldn't lift a finger against him. So once Pam was gone, Naruto used his 'grappling scarf' and phasing ability to break into the man's office and finally release some long awaited pranking.

'Ah, it felt so damn good to do that.' The former shinobi thought with a chuckle before shaking his head. "No, I'm talking about that if you hadn't blackmailed me then I wouldn't have met Pam."

"She was there?" Bruce asked in surprise.

"Yes she was." The publisher said with a small smile. "Anyways I'll see you later Bruce."

"See you later then Naruto and hope you have a pleasant sleep over this."

"I'll try Bruce. I'll try."

With that said and done, Bruce headed off his way while thinking over the recent events. He felt horrible on what happened to his friend's girlfriend and wished he could've prevented that but it's too late now.

'Maybe I'll help out by paying off the medical bills. Though I'll have to wait and see how the Star Labs board of directors will do with the recent events before I act on my own accord.' The billionaire thought as he headed home for the evening before going out on patrol as the Dark Knight.

Back with Naruto, he headed back inside of the hospital room and sat back down next to Pam's bedside. He slipped his hand into hers and gripped it slightly.

"I don't know if you can hear me or not Pam but I finally learned of what happened. I-I'm so sorry on what happened to you and I wish this didn't happen to you at all. I was so scared when I saw the botanical labs explode and I rushed in to find and see if you okay."

At this point, the silver haired male felt his voice breaking as those memories earlier came back. "B-But when I found you…..O-Oh Kami…..I didn't think that you would've made it, but I needed to save you. I-I couldn't imagine my life now without you with how much you mean to me."

By now, he was shedding tears and tried wiping them away with his other arm but it was no use. "I love you so much that it would've killed me if you died. So please…..do me a favor and live for me…..The Pam I know and love doesn't give up this easily. You never gave up on your passion for the environment and you did everything you can to make it better by making that serum of yours. You finally accomplished your goal along with the Hollands but you can't stop there Pam. You've got to see this through."

*Sniffle* "So please….. *Sniffle* Please wake up Pam. I love you." He said as he leaned up and kissed her cheek before leaning his head on his other arm on the bed as a makeshift pillow for the night while slightly crying himself to sleep.

If he would've seen her face, he could've seen a tear fall down from one of her eyes that gained a faint, green glow before it died out.

 _ **-Few Days Later-**_

"Well….. I hope that this night goes well." Naruto said as he pulled his car up to the building where the Animal Rights event was taking place before a vallet came up to him to park it. Once stepping out of the car, some people recognized him as he wore a dark grey suit and tie. As the publisher was past the entrance of the building, he was remembering what occurred in the past several days.

Ever since that night when Pam was admitted to the hospital, Naruto was down in the dumps to a certain degree but he did what he could to try and raise his spirits. For the past few days for roughly an hour or so, he would stop on by with a bouquet of flowers to check up on her and inform her unconscious form on the day's events. He had requested the doctors to inform him if any changes happened to her since he was now her emergency contact like the very moment when she wakes up so he can come and see her. Even during the one of the visits, he had seen Grace stop on by to check up on Pam and give her condolences from both her and Harvey.

From what Naruto had heard from Star Labs after the incident, the board of directors of the Gotham branch fully discredited Dr. Jason Woodrue on what he has done that night and had wanted to pay Pam's medical bills in full from Woodrue's salary and earnings they had seized from his bank accounts and assets. It did help settle Naruto's nerves a bit more that Woodrue would be paying more for what he has done especially with what remaining money that was taken was sent off to the friends and family of Alec and Linda Holland for their troubles. But it still didn't fix on what had been done as it will be a rough time to heal from.

The other thing that Naruto has done during the past few days was working more on his Loveless story since he wasn't in the mood to train in his abilities at the time. With the recent events and the drive, Naruto was able to finish up the third act while starting on the second to last act of his book. Possibly by the next month, he might be able to finish up writing the 'epic poem' before getting it edited and then published in the following month.

Back to the current matter at hand, Naruto made it to the event hall where the 'dating auction' was taking place to see the room somewhat jammed packed with a variety of Gotham's wealthy and celebrities. It was going to be very hard to navigate and make his way through without fully playing one of his 'favorite' games 'Know your neighbor.'

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" A familiar voice called out from behind as the silverette turned around to see Bruce in one of his nice suits.

"Oh hey Bruce. Man it is really packed here isn't it?"

"Yes it is but you still didn't answer my question. Why are you here? I thought you would still be looking over Pam." Bruce stated as he crossed his arms with a small smile seeing his friend here.

"Well if you remember, Pam wanted me to attend this event since its helping out the wildlife." Naruto told the billionaire. "Besides, if I didn't go to this then Pam would probably kick my ass six ways till Sunday."

This got Bruce to laugh a little at the statement as he knew that Naruto must've kept his promise with Pam regardless of what happened to her.

"So are you going to be participating by being auctioned off or going to buy yourself a date?"

"Neither I'm afraid. I promised Pam I would attend and even with recent events I think it would be hard for me to attempt to buy a date or even try to go upstage. Even I have limits despite Pam possibly wanting to see me up there and wonder how much someone will bid for me."

Hearing this, Bruce nodded at Naruto's excuse.

"Well then, I think you should still head over to get yourself checked in at least and inform them that you wouldn't want to be bidded on then."

"I'll do that then."

Naruto walked off in search of the 'check-in' station since it was supposed to be inside of the event hall unless he was mistaken and it was supposed to be outside of it. As he made his way through the crowd, he end up bumping into a woman on an accidental shove from someone else.

"I'm so sorry about that." He apologized. "It's really hard to move around here with all these people."

"It's no problem at all." The female said as she turned around to see the one apologizing to her.

When the two looked at each other, they ended up dismantling each other through their gazes to take in as much detail as they can. The woman had short black hair in a pixie cut with bright and sharp green eyes while wearing a red, strapless dress that hung around her neck as it flowed past her ankles and hugged her form nicely. She wore little to no make-up with her just having red lipstick along with a pair of earrings that matched the little ornament on her dress just above her breasts. In his honest opinion, she was rather stunning and he tried to keep a blush down. But something about her was nagging at him at the back of his skull that he had seen her before, but where.

On the woman's end, she couldn't help but admire his appearance as well and wondered if he was participating in this event so she could maybe buy a date from him. When she saw the blush, she couldn't help but found it cute with it brightening up his cheeks a little to pop out his whisker marks.

'They must be birthmarks since there is no way they can be tattoos or scars.' She thought to herself.

"S-Sorry and don't mind me staring. Didn't know if you were fine with that." Naruto said to her as he scratched the back of his head in his nervous habit.

"It's quite alright. In fact I was checking you out as well so don't feel too bothered by that."

"Well if you insist." He laughed a little before composing himself and held out his hand. "Naruto Uzumaki."

"Selina Kyle." She responded as she shook his hand before remembering where she heard that name. "Aren't you the owner and founder of Spiral Publishing?"

"Guilty as charged." He said with a smile with his eyes closed that made her think that he was imitating a fox.

"I gotta say, I really love many of the books you published and even enjoyed the ones you wrote. But pardon me for asking but why are you here attending this event?" Selina questioned the publisher.

"Well I'm here because of my girlfriend on her insistence for me to come here for the wildlife." He answered which got her to feel disappointed on the response.

'Damn, he's already taken and such a shame too since he is quite the looker.' She thought without even showing it before a question came to mind.

"But if you're in a relationship, then why are you even here exactly? You plan on cheating on her?"

This got him to quickly argue on her little accusation. "No, nothing of the sort at all."

"Then why are you here?" Selina pressed on for an answer with a slight glare.

*Sigh* "Like I said, she insisted on me to go to this event with her." He said with a straight face. "But earlier this week, she was in an accident and is now in a coma at Gotham General. I made a promise with her that I would come here because of her love of the environment, both flora and fauna."

His response shocked her a little as she didn't know his girlfriend was in such a state. "I-I'm sorry to hear that Naruto. Forgive me on accusing you in such manner."

"It's alright Selina. No harm, no foul." He stated to reassure her. "I should've said more of that a bit ago but tried not to go too deep on that subject."

"It's fine and I understand." The dark haired woman said before a familiar voice to both people called out.

"Selina! There you are. I was looking all over for you." The voice said as the person came closer to the two and Naruto saw a familiar sight.

"Sorry about that Shizune. It's quite hard to move around here with so many people." Selina said before turning to Naruto. "Oh Shizune, I should probably introduce you. Shizune, this is Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto, this is Shizune my assistant."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Uzumaki." The assistant said to the silverette as she held out her hand while the other was holding onto a folder of sorts.

To Naruto, she looked very similar to the Shizune he knew back in his old reality but the only differences were the lengths and styles of their hair along with their *cough* assets. While the Shizune in his old world had short, straight hair with being uh….small chested. The Shizune in front of him had long, wavy hair that was tied back into a high ponytail with her having D-cup breasts along with her wearing a pair of glasses. For the rest of her attire, she was currently wearing a business suit despite the formal wear everyone else was wearing making her stand out a bit.

"Same to you Shizune." He said as he shook her hand in turn before addressing the green eyed woman.

"Since you've known what I do for a living, what about you Selina?"

"Well I mostly do fundraising for charities, which are primarily towards wildlife preservation." Selina explained which got Naruto to smile on the information.

"Ah, good to know. I have a feeling you mostly go to these events or others of the sort to seek out wealthy philanthropists and spend their money on good causes. Primarily for the betterness towards animal life."

"Very much so." Selina said with a smile. "I have a feeling you have a similar experience in this sort of thing."

"Remember when I said earlier with my girlfriend being very compassionate with wildlife, both flora and fauna?" She nodded at his question before he continued. "Well she is a botanist who was researching and developing a serum for the betterment of plant life and in turn animals."

"Really? Well that's interesting." Shizune responded with her friend nodding in agreement.

"You said 'was' if I'm not mistaken. Are you telling me she is done with her serum?"

"Yes she is and….well it's the reason why she ended up in her accident." Naruto confessed in that particular detail causing the two women to let that sink in and understand what happened with Shizune asking a bit more on that detail to her friend.

"I-I'm sorry to hear and I wish for a speedy recovery for her." Shizune said to the hazel eyed man.

"It's fine Shizune and I wish the same thing." He said before looking at Selina. "You know, with how you two are compassionate with the environment, I have a feeling you two might get along."

"I think you might be right. Anyways I think the event is going to start soon and I need to use the restroom for a moment. It's been nice chatting with you Naruto." Selina said as she walked off.

"Same to you." He quickly said as she gave him a little nod with Shizune following suit.

As the event started, with Naruto forgetting to check in due to chatting with Selina for too long, many individuals of both genders were called out one by one and were bidded in various amounts that were being put towards animal rights. From what he could tell, a lot of the people being bidded on will end up in the tabloids by the end of the week with who is dating whom. After a dozen or so bids, things started to pick up a bit more.

"Next, we'll be auctioning off a date with Gotham's most eligible bachelor, Mr. Bruce Wayne." The auctioning host said into his microphone as spotlights were circling the crowd to find the billionaire. "Now if Mr. Wayne would be so kind to step up or make his presence known."

At this, most of the crowd was murmuring on where Wayne was currently at. "Oh now, now. Don't be shy good sir, the women won't bite I'm sure."

Eventually the host was finally able to spot him when one of the spotlights finally found its target. "Ah, there he is."

Bruce was in the spotlight now and decided to wave to the attendees for the event as he made his way towards the stage. From where Naruto was standing, he could see many women of varying ages and appearances were closing up on the billionaire.

"Remember, we got a lot of animals to save so we'll start the bidding at $500." The host said before women started throwing out numbers left and right.

"Five hundred."

"Six hundred."

"We have $600. Do I hear seven?"

"$700."

"Eight."

"One Thousand."

Hearing the amounts piling up, the host couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh ho. Well, well. That's $1,000. Going once. Going twi-"

"Ten thousand dollars." A familiar voice called out as everyone gasped and turned towards the source. With Naruto he already knew who it was as he quickly found Selina in the spotlight not too far away with a smile on her face.

'Damn. She really wanted to make a spectacle out of herself and put a lot towards the cause.' The publisher thought as he started to laugh to himself.

"Th-Th-Do I hear any more bids?" The auctioning host said with a stutter but there were no responses. "Going once. Going twice. Then sold for $10,000 to uh….Ms. Selina Kyle."

Things quieted down as Bruce made his way towards Selina and Naruto decided to meet up with them.

"It's ah, a pleasure." Bruce said to the black haired beauty.

"Well thank you."

*Cough* The two turned towards the source to see Shizune coughing into her hand for their attention.

"Ah, Mr. Wayne. My secretary Shizune." said woman opened up the folder and started writing something inside of it before ripping it out. From what Naruto is seeing, it was a check probably for bidding for Bruce.

"How do you do?" He said as he was handed the check. "Please, its Bruce and I'm very flattered."

Selina folded her hands together as she kept her face straight after receiving the compliment. "Please understand that this is purely for the animals Mr. Wayne. So you're off the hook."

As she was walking away, Bruce ended up grabbing her wrist before speaking out. "But you're not."

"I beg your pardon."

"What he means Selina is that you bought him for a date." Naruto said drawing attention to him.

"Naruto? You know her?"

"Well somewhat. I met her a bit before the auction started and we chatted a little." Naruto said before continuing. "Wasn't there something you were going to say to Selina Bruce?"

When hearing this, the dark haired man ended up blushing a little which Naruto couldn't help but find this hilarious and kept his composure.

Oh this is such a very rare sight to see indeed.

"W-Well like Naruto said, you bought yourself a date. So I am honor bound, and delighted, to receive. And I should warn you, I am not a man who gives up easily."

"Believe me Selina, the man speaks the truth. He won't stop at nothing to see things through." Naruto said backing up his friend's claim.

After a few moments to think to herself, the raven haired woman responded. "Alright then, how about lunch? Tomorrow perhaps?"

"Sounds good to me." Bruce said before gunfire could be heard from outside.

"I wonder what's going on." Shizune said.

"Same here. What do you think Bruce?" Naruto asked before seeing his friend was missing. "Bruce? Huh, where'd he go?"

"Maybe he went to the auction host to turn in the check to verify the date payment." guessed the assistant with a shrug.

"We should probably get going. Shizune, mind hailing us a cab?" Selina asked her friend.

"Sure thing."

"Would you guys be fine hailing a cab?" Naruto asked getting the two to stop their actions.

"Why would you ask that?" The raven haired woman asked with a raised brow.

"Well with that gunfire outside, I'm guessing that some firefight is happening nearby and even when it's over, some roads are going to be blocked off for who knows how long thus causing the cab driver to charge you more on the fair."

After hearing his argument the two women couldn't help but agree on his reasoning.

"It seems sound….but what are you suggesting we do instead?"

"Well….maybe I could give you two a lift." He said to Selina.

"Maybe if you're offering and you seem to be a very nice guy then I'll possibly take up on your offer."

"Great, well let's head up front and get my car."

The small group of three went towards the entrance of the building as he hailed the valet to bring up his car. It wasn't long before his vehicle arrived since a lot of the festivity is still going on inside.

Once they climbed into the car, Naruto decided to ask Selina a question. "So mi ladies, where should I drop you two off?"

"You can drop us off at the Skyline Towers?" Shizune said before noticing the look on his face. "What….is it something I said?"

"No, not really. It's just that I actually live there."

"Really? Well that is interesting to know." Selina said with interest before Naruto drove them to their destination.

 _ **-Skyline Towers-**_

It took a while to get to their destination due to traffic but they made it to their residences. On the way over, the three had a pleasant conversation on various topics that they were passionate towards.

"So you're currently sponsoring a wildlife preservation outside of Gotham? Man that is quite a project you have there."

"Yes it is. With the population of mountain lions present on this city's borders I would feel comfortable to have them along with many other animals to live there so both them and us humans be safe from each other." Explained the raven haired beauty.

"Well I wish you the best of luck. And if Pam was with us right now I bet she would say the same thing." He said as they drove into the parking garage for the towers.

"You're too kind Naruto and I wish she was here with us now. I would've been happy to meet her."

"Me too." Shizune said in agreement as they were walking towards the elevator. Once inside, she pressed the '50' floor button causing Naruto to look at in curiousity.

'Wait, she is a….floor below me.' He mildly thought before looking back at Selina as some memories started to seep towards the forefront of his mind. Naruto soon imagined Selina in lesser clothing and….. her soaking wet… wait.

'Isn't she…..Oh shit!' Naruto yelled in his head as he realized on why Selina looked so damn familiar. 'I saw her naked last month! Oh fucking Kami this is going to be awkward now!'

"Well once again it's been nice meeting you Naruto and thanks for the ride." Selina said to him not knowing what was going on in his head.

*Cough* Well thank you Selina." He said while trying to get rid of the image of her wet and naked out of his head. "Oh and I was wondering if I could make a contribution to the wildlife preserve."

"N-Naruto, you don't have to do that." She tried to decline his offer but he waved his hand in response.

"Mah mah it's quite alright Selina. It's the least I can do to help you out." He said as he pulled out his checkbook and pen from his jacket's pocket. "Besides, I didn't participate in the auction and Pam would scold me if I didn't at least contribute to the event."

"W-Well if you insist." Selina said as she tried to avert his gaze. Shizune wasn't even better as she was compassionate in her work alongside her friend/boss and wasn't expecting any contributions for today. But with Naruto being a very successful publisher, he obviously had more wealth above average society especially with the rumored and known connections the silverette has.

"So then, how does $20,000 sound to you Ms. Kyle?" He said as he wrote the amount onto the check.

This caused the two women to feel as time suddenly stopped on what he just said before turning their gaze at him in shock.

'$2-20,000?/'I-Is he serious?' Were their respective thoughts before Selina voiced their response. "I-I don't know what to say."

"You're welcome by the way and I hope you'll go far with this to help the environment."

Quickly composing herself, she responded with a genuine smile. "I very much will Naruto and thank you. This will possibly help me finish solidifying the offer on the the preserve outside of Gotham."

The elevator stopped and opened up as they had reached Selina's and Shizune's designated floor. The two women stepped out and turned around to see Naruto one last time.

"I hope you have a good night Naruto and thank you very much on your donation." Shizune said with a bow before the elevator closed on him.

*Sigh* "Man this night was really interesting. I hope my contribution to her cause could make a difference."

Unknown to either side, Naruto had made a donation to Selina twice in both of their alternate personas.

 _ **-Next Day, Selina's and Shizune's Loft-**_

It was appearing to be a pleasant day in Gotham as the sun was shining without a cloud in site despite the cold air hanging around the city. To Selina, it was pretty much a nice day for her to go out for her lunch date but some thoughts were still plaguing her mind. She was currently a dark purple blouse with a black skirt with a pair of one inch black heel shoes while brushing her hair in the mirror despite it being short.

"Aren't you a little excited for your date? I mean it's Bruce Wayne; tall, dark, and disgustingly rich." Shizune said to her friend as she was getting food out for Isis.

"I'd rather have it be with Batman." Admitted the secret cat burglar. "Oh Shizune, you should've seen him. He had the eyes of a lion."

"How would you know he has eyes of a lion? It would be hard to actually see them with that cowl of his." Shizune pointed out her friend's slight mistake.

*Chuckles* I guess you're right. I probably meant to say his 'gaze', not 'eyes'."

"And what about Naruto?"

"What about him?" Selina asked as the Uzumaki suddenly came into the conversation.

"Well he is very charming and cares much about the environment, probably as much as you do."

"But you forget Shizune, he's currently taken."

"And such a shame too, if he was available then I would try and snatch him up."

"Then you'll have to beat me first." Selina threatened in a jokingly manner.

"Or better yet, there's still that Nobody, still an odd name, you told me about."

Oh yes him. Ever since that Christmas night at the Gotham Clock Tower, there were times that Selina kept fantasizing about seeing the masked acrobat. With how he moved and reacted to the simplest things when he was performing his 'tricks'. He kept on doing things that made her stop breathing and her heart racing while even saving her precious Isis from certain death. All this made her want to see him even more to possibly have that little thrill again.

Not to mention of him practically giving her the Cat's Eyes Emeralds wasn't bad either. But alas, she hasn't been able to find the man ever since much to her disappointment.

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

They heard the phone go off as Shizune was making her way towards it while cutting Selina off from her thoughts.

"But honestly Selina, at least Bruce Wayne is a good connection. We might be able to use him." The assistant said before picking up the phone. "Hello, Selina and Shizune residence."

*Knock Knock*

"That's probably him now." Selina said to herself as she made her way to her door. "She's probably right….but still though…..I wish it would've been better if it was Batman standing behind this door."

Once opening up the entrance to her loft, she was just expecting Bruce Wayne but it was a surprise to see Naruto there as well.

"N-Naruto, what are you doing here?"

"Oh I was coming back from seeing Pam at the hospital when I ran into Bruce when he entered the building."

"We chatted and I was quite surprised that you two are practically neighbors." said the billionaire.

"And why would you say that?" Selina questioned with the tilt of her head. "I know you live here in the towers Naruto from what you told us last night but you never told me which floor."

"To tell you the truth, I actually live right just above you two."

"Really? Well that's quite interesting to know. Also sorry Bruce, it's very nice to see you." Selina said as she went back to her lunch date who waved her off.

"It's quite alright Selina." Bruce said to her as he handed her a bouquet of flowers. "Here, these are for you."

"Why thank you." She replied as she took a whiff of the flowers. "Oh where are my manners. Please come in you two."

The two men entered the loft with Naruto closing the door.

"You are even more stunning than I imagined." Bruce said to the raven haired beauty which got Naruto to raise an eyebrow.

'That's an odd thing to say out of the blue.' He thought before turning his gaze towards the green eyed woman. 'Though I do have to admit, she is rather stunning.'

Before anything else could be said, Shizune came up to them seeming urgent. "Selina, it's your lawyer. He says that the preservation deal is off."

"What?!" Selina angrily said getting a shocked reaction from Naruto on Shizune's statement.

"Are you serious?"

"I don't know but I intend to find out." the woman said as she handed the flowers to Shizune before going over to the phone and picked it up.

"Martin, what happened?"

…..

"But that's ridiculous! You need to call him back and tell him I would want to speak with him!"

…..

"But, it has to be today. He can't Martin. He can't sell the land to Multigon since we had an agreement."

"What's going on Naruto? You seem to know what's happening." Bruce asked his friend with Shizune not too far from them.

"Selina was negotiating land for a wildlife preserve. I had thought that the money I gave her last night would've been enough." The former shinobi replied back.

"It was Naruto, but it seemed that Multigon had muscled their way through and paid extra to topple over what you gave us. I'm so sorry though." The assistant said apologetically.

"But what do you mean he won't take any of your calls?!" Selina called out getting all attention back towards her.

…..

"You need to go over there. Even if you have to kick the door down, I need that land for the mountain lions." Selina said before slamming the phone down on the receiver.

"Why does this have to happen now? We were so close." The raven haired woman muttered as she sat down on the couch while rubbing her head in frustration.

"I-I'm sorry but I'm afraid that I won't be good company."

"Is there anything I could do?" Bruce said in concern.

"Not if you could land me a meeting with the chairman of Multigon International." She replied with a strained laugh in the end.

Bruce thought for a moment before walking over to the phone and started punching in a phone number. "So what time is good for you?"

The two women stared at the man in surprise while Naruto couldn't help but chuckle a little on the display.

"Huh, I'm starting to like him after all." Selina said as Shizune put a hand on her shoulder for comfort.

 _ **-Multigon International-**_

Bruce was able to set up a meeting a few hours later once things died down. Selina, Bruce and Naruto went over to the corporate tower of Multigon International to find the bottom of this. The raven haired woman told the publisher he didn't have to come but he told them that this concerns him as well that it affects the environment very much and Pam wouldn't want this to happen at all. The three were currently inside the office of Mr. Stern, the chairman of Multigon, which was littered with animal heads, feeling a tad impatient as the man was chatting with them.

"...but honestly Wayne I wish there was something I could do for you three. But the deal was quite set." The chairman said to them as he played a little bit of what Naruto believed to be part of Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' on a piano bit on his alcohol counter.

Once the little sequence was done, part of the floor opened up to show a display for what Multigon was planning. A vacation/entertainment resort.

"You see, we are committed to build a major resort: golf course, tennis courts, a spa, a swimming pool, the works." Mr. Stern said getting Selina and Naruto to feel disgusted.

"But that's insane. It's in the middle of nowhere and it's worthless except for the wildlife."

"Not to mention for environmentalists with how many acres of trees are there." Naruto said adding to back up Selina's claim.

The chairman only had a smug smile as he shook his head at them. "But you don't see the developmental potential….And as for the animals, we'll take care of them…. one way or another."

With his piece done, he walked over to the door and ushered them out. "Now you excuse me, I'm all out of available time I could spare."

Selina just hotly laughed in response to that. "Oh you'll find plenty of time with me Mr. Stern. Before I'm through, every environmental group and animal rights activists breathing down your neck. They'll be looking down on you and your project so closely that you'll look like a bug in a kid's glass jar."

Selina soon left with Naruto in toe, who glared at the man as he left.

"Hope you have a nice day." Bruce said as he soon followed the two.

Once the three were gone, the chairman went back into his office and waited by a wall before it started to rise up from the ground to show a very fit, musclebound woman in a red bodysuit with black arm guards, sash and combat boots walking towards him. She had long, black hair that reached the middle of her back with two white streaks. Her green eyes were those of a killer while complimenting several scars on her face. The last detail on her person was a tattoo of a red bear paw print with claws on her bare right shoulder.

For anyone who doesn't know who this dangerous looking woman is. Well she is Red Claw, international terrorist and one of the most wanted throughout most of the world.

"I'm afraid that Selina Kyle is going to be trouble madam."

"We've come too far for our plans to be jeopardized by some environmentalist and fanatic." Red Claw said in a thick Russian accent. "Have someone keep an eye on Ms. Kyle. I want to know every action she is taking whether she is going to work or going out for meals. I don't even care if I have to know when she takes a shit. I want her followed."

With that said, she walked back into the hidden hallway as the hidden wall closed back up.

 _ **-Meanwhile, Outside-**_

"I'm afraid I wasn't that much help after all Selina." Bruce said as they walked out of the building.

"At least we know what their cover story is." She replied getting Naruto to nod.

"But something else is going on and I feel it's something big."

They were near the parking lot when Selina gained Bruce's attention.

"It's getting awfully late for lunch. Can we have a rain check on it…..please?" She hopefully asked which got Bruce to smile.

"Of course and besides, this was more important to you than just some lunch mind you."

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Maybe we could reschedule for tomorrow perhaps." He suggested to her.

"Sounds wonderful." She said to him before continuing. "It'll give me some time to help take care of business this evening."

"Now that I think about it, I think I have some business to attend to as well tonight." Wayne said in a tone that seemed he had an ulterior motive. Selina didn't pick it up but Naruto did. Being a shinobi, even being a retired one, for years would get him to pick up subtle things.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow Bruce. Same time?" She asked.

"Definitely. Until then." The dark haired man responded before making his way to his car. He was starting to plan things out for the evening like squeezing information from a mob boss or two about Red Claw and why 'he' was in Gotham.

"So Selina." Naruto said as the two neighbors were walking towards his car. "Need any help on the things you have going on tonight?"

"No, I think I'll be fine doing it on my own but thanks for the offer."

"That's fine. Besides, friends should help each other out when needed." He stated getting her to look at him questionably.

"You consider me your friend Naruto?"

"Yeah, I consider both you and Shizune my friends. I do what I can to help them out to the best of my capabilities. With how things are going on as of late, one would need their friends for support."

She felt touched by this and smiled at him. "Thank you. It means a lot to hear that."

"Your welcome." A thought then came to him as he pulled out his wallet which confused the environmentalist. The publisher then pulled out a pen and wrote something in it before handing it over to Selina.

"What's this?" She asked as she saw his business card.

"Turn it over and you'll see my cellular and home phone numbers. You might as well start knowing them just in case you want to contact me on anything."

She was glad to get this information as it would help her out on a later date. They went into his car and made their way back to the Skyline Towers to do their own agendas not knowing that they'll meet up again later.

 _ **-Later, Multigon International-**_

Dusk had fallen in Gotham as the cold breeze filled the air with remnants of snow on the various rooftops and streets below.

The sound of snow crunching permeated the air before it came to a stop as the person in question stared up towards the higher levels of the corporate building.

"Well Isis, time to get to work." Catwoman said to her pet around her neck as she lept towards one of the ledges.

It was quite a distance to reach but the cat burglar pulled out her leather whip and had it latch against one of the building's hanging designs so she wouldn't fall down. Once having it steady, Selina started to climb up the whip before getting on top of the stone work. From there, she trekked her climb towards the top of the corporate building so she can be able to reach her destination. As she drew closer, she saw a light shining through the office window from above realizing that the chairman was still in his office.

Lucky for her for when she reached it, Mr. Stern was just leaving for the night….Or so she thought.

"If Mr. Stern won't admit what's going on, then we'll have to find out for ourselves." Selina said to Isis as she got off of her master. The thief used one of her sharp claws to cut into the glass big enough for a human to slip through it. Once safely on the ground, she looked around to see if anything was amiss as per her training.

"All clear?" Her master called out.

"Meowr." Isis called out with a nod getting Catwoman to fall down to the office floor.

"I think I believe Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' will do the trick." Selina said as she came up to the alcohol counter and played the tune on the piano keys. Like before, the one resort display rose up from the ground.

"I better thank granny Kyle for the piano lessons when I get the chance." She muttered to herself as she kept on playing the song before the counter and the alcohol display started to move to reveal an intricate control panel with a safe on the bottom.

Once the safe was fully on display, it opened for some reason as it scared off Isis to hide behind her master.

"Outstanding." Selina said at her apparent luck that she wouldn't have to safe crack this one as she pulled out her camera to take photos of many documents.

Unknown to her, through one of the animal heads had a hidden camera that was recording live in the security feeds.

 _ **-Meanwhile-**_

"Despite our loss of arms, thanks to Batman's interference, we will be proceeding according to plan." Red Claw said in front of her men in a hidden room of the Multigon Corporate building. She was going to continue when the door opened showing Mr Stern walking in feeling embarrassed in possibly interrupting his boss' speech/lecture.

"Anyways….Tonight at 2300 hours, a train under military escort will pass through Gotham." The terrorist stated as a map of Gotham was shown on the wall. "It will be transporting a strain of viral plague that Interpol had confiscated from our Eastern laboratories. I cannot overemphasise the importance of the plague to our cause."

She soon walked towards one side of the map and pointed towards a certain area of the train route. "We'll hit the train outside of the city at this point and we'll-"

"Madam Claw!" One thug called out.

"Yes what is it?! Don't you see I'm doing a thing here!" The Russian called out.

"You need to see this." He said getting his boss to come on over to see Catwoman taking photos from the safe in Mr. Stern's office.

"Who is that?" The Multigon chairman asked.

"A cat at the end of its nine lives." Red Claw said as she pulled out a gun and slipped in a fresh magazine into it before heading out of the room to greet their 'guest'.

 _ **-Back with Catwoman-**_

Unknownst to her impending doom, Selina kept on taking photo after photo of various documents that would not only destroy Multigon's reputation and career but to also save the land she had wanted for the preserve.

"Meowr. Meowr." Isis called out to her master feeling impatient.

"Alright Isis, I just got the last of them. We'll head back home now." She said before pounding on the office doors altered the two that they must've been caught.

Acting quickly, Selina grabbed Isis and went into the air ducts in hopes of making their escape. It was tight but it was worth it to possibly get away from security that would possibly want to follow them in here. Of course the thief would've been fine with it more if it wasn't for a few cobwebs here and there.

"I think we are in over our heads." Selina said as Isis seemed to give her a dirty look. "Oh don't give me that look. You are in this as much as I do."

Isis didn't really respond as she rolled her eyes before a sound came into the air ducts. The two navigated for a bit before they saw a man with an assault rifle.

'That's not a security guard.' Selina thought as the two cats went through another duct to get away from the man. For extra measure, the thief pulled off a pouch on her and dumped its contents on the air ducts showing metallic tacts shaped like cats.

"Hah and Shizune said these wouldn't be useful." She said with a smirk before moving forward. They soon reached a dead end as they ended up seeing an elevator shaft.

"Well, only way out is up I guess." The thief said as she reached out and grabbed the metallic rope and started climbing up with Isis wrapped around her neck.

They eventually made it to the top of the elevator shaft and went through another air duct that lead towards the roof of the building. Once climbing out, the environmentalist looked around to find an exit strategy as she heard pounding on the rooftops door. Deciding to take a chance, she ran towards a random direction.

"Hang on Isis." Selina said as her cat responded by tightening her hold before the thief took a leap off of the rooftop.

Unknown to her, Red Claw came through the rooftop door with her lackies and saw where the cat burglar was heading towards and pulled out her miniature grenade launcher and fired.

Once barely latching onto a rooftop ledge she told Isis to get to safety before the roof exploded causing her to fall. Selina tried to latch onto something but she was thrown off too far away to grab ahold of anything. She screamed as her life started to flash before her eyes as she plummeted towards her doom before something or someone caught her.

"I hope I'm not too late." A male voice said to her as she looked towards the helmeted man who saved Isis on Christmas Night.

"I-It's you." Selina said in surprise.

"Have we met before. It seems you have, yet I haven't." Naruto said in his Nobody attire as he had his 'grappling scarf' swing them around a building with all it's stretchiness. It wasn't long before he willed his scarf to let go getting them to land on a random rooftop.

"We're safe now miss. You can let go now."

Selina didn't say anything as she kissed his helmet getting the disguised publisher to widen his eyes.

"That's for saving my cat." Catwoman said with a smile. "I would give you a proper kiss if you took off that helmet."

"Nope, not gonna happen." Naruto said as he crossed his arms in a comedic 'X' gesture before remembering her saying something before. "Wait, your cat?" He asked before feeling something brush against his leg. Looking down he saw a familiar black cat.

"Oh hey Little One, long time huh." Nobody said as he picked the feline up and started petting her, causing the cat to purr.

"That's my cat you're holding just so you know." The thief said getting to look towards her.

"Oh really, well then I hope you enjoyed the present I left ya."

"I did actually and I appreciated the gesture."

"You're welcome then." He said as he kept petting her before slowly coming to a stop. "Wait….how did you get up here?"

"Yeah….I'm thinking the same thing."

"That would be because of me." A male voice called out causing the two to look behind them to see Batman coming out from the shadows.

"Hello there. Nice evening we have here huh Batsy." Nobody said in a cheerful tone, which didn't get a reaction out of the Caped Crusader. "Oh lighten up will ya."

Once again, he was pretty silent before responding to the two of them. "I heard gunfire nearby and came to investigate. I found your cat when I landed and took her with me. You're welcome by the way.

"Occupational hazard I'm sure." Catwoman said with a smile. "Nice to meet you again Batman."

"Sooooo you two met before?" The masked acrobat asked as he got no response from that question. Isis soon got out of his arms and climbed on top of his head and sat down. "So Little One….do you know how they met?"

Isis responded by nodding her head.

"Mind telling me."

Her response was no.

"Pleeeeease with tuna on top."

Once again, no.

"You're no fun." Nobody said with a physical, comedic pout causing Catwoman to giggle at the display while Batman was not responsive.

"I'm going to be asking this politely: why were you two at Multigon International?" Batman sternly asked them.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Nobody replied back getting the caped crusader to glare at him.

"While I'm at it, who are you?"

"You don't know?…..Well actually I think you wouldn't know. Well I'm Nobody." Naruto said as he willed an object into his hand.

"My card."

Nobody tossed the card at the Batman, who dodged it easily, getting Catwoman to see the opportunity to close in and grab the costumed hero. With a judo toss, she was able to throw Batman off the side of the building.

"Cheese it!" The masked man yelled out as he grabbed Catwoman in a fireman's carry and jumped off the building with Isis wrapped around his neck. He willed the 'grappling scarf' to show up and latch onto one of the walls of a random building and swung around.

"Hey, let me go." She said as she tried to get off.

"Really….You want me to let you go this high up?"

"Oh….sorry."

"But did you really have to throw Batman off the rooftop."

"Well I saw a chance to leave and I ended up taking action."

"But throwing him off the building?"

"He had that grappling gun of his. He'll be fine."

"Gotcha." Nobody said as he willed his scarf to let go getting him to land on a random rooftop a good distance away from Batman.

"Thanks for the ride by the way." Catwoman said as she got off of the man with Isis following suit. "Along with saving both me and my cat on separate occasions.

"Your welcome and I'll see you around." The disguised Uzumaki said as he ran and jumped off the rooftop before going to god knows where leaving the thief and her cat behind.

 _ **-Selina's and Shizune's Loft-**_

Catwoman landed in a crouch on her patio as she opened the door to see her roommate waiting for her.

"So how did it go?" Shizune asked Selina from the couch as she was reading one of the books published from Spiral Publishing.

"Well it had it's highs and lows, but I did get pictures of what is going on with that Multigon resort site." Selina responded as she handed her assistant the camera.

"So what did you see exactly?"

"Apparently there is an abandoned military facility underground."

"Interesting."

"With what information I gathered, we are one step closer to saving those mountain lions."

Unknown to the two occupants, one of Red Claw's goons was on a rooftop some distance away and saw the scene in the loft with a pair of binoculars and a listening device.

"But question is Ms Kyle: Who will save you?"

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **First off, I was actually very excited when getting to writing this chapter since I would finally be hitting show canon here that it would be easier for me to write. It's just a tad hard trying to come up with so many OC stuff on my own to fill things in before getting to events that I would be able to follow and alter to my liking.**

 **Second, I was planning on making this chapter longer but felt that I should cut it off here to be similar to how the canon episode ended in a way. That and I feel a tad stuck after writing so long that I needed to stop here before continuing with the next chapter.**

 **Now to clear things up from the previous chapter, yeah I decided to base Dr. Jason Woodrue from that *shudder* Joel Schumacher movie since there were comic adaptations of the guy but I couldn't find any proper source material for the guy asides from the film. A little bit of knowledge for you guys to know that Woodrue became a 'champion of the Green' in different adaptations and through different methods that he went by various names: Floronic Man, Plant Master, Floro, and the Seeder. Of course the guy was a villain and he was obsessed with Pam in a few variations while he was a hero for a very brief time, which I call bullshit but whatever.**

 **As for doppelgangers from of Narutoverse in the story, I won't be putting down too many of them but I'm just going to be spreading them out throughout the story so not that many would cause a bit of problems. I do have plans for a good handful of them to make their appearance later in the story and I won't say exactly when and all that fun stuff.**

 **For example, I decided to use Shizune to replace Selina's secretary shown in canon as I hinted back in ch. 4 in the flashback since Selina's canon secretary, Mavin, was rather forgettable and I thought Shizune would be appropriate due to her being Tsunade's assistant/secretary when she was the 5th Hokage. Besides, Mavin only shows in a handful of episodes in the animated show so it is pretty fine to replace her.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	8. The Cat and the Bat meet PT 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 8: The Cat and the Bat meet and Nobody else. Part 2**

"Well this night has been interesting so far and it's still quite young to even call it a night." Naruto said as he was swinging around after dropping Catwoman and Little One off of one of the rooftops some time ago.

His plan earlier was to head over to Multigon International and snoop around to figure out what dirt he could gather from them to help Selina out on her preservation project. It would've been easier too with his abilities to practically slip right through security and walking through walls, asides from him having to pay attention to security cameras since those don't get fooled at all with his 'memory manipulation. But of course things had to be held off till later for several reasons obviously.

For one, he had to make up for what work he had missed because of Pam's accident that he didn't feel like going to work, which a lot of his employees understood. Sure Naruto did do a lot of progress on Loveless, but he still needed to fill out a whole lot of paperwork and go to meetings that the publisher had to make up for. Even with all that, he ended up getting off of work pretty late.

The last reason was of him going to visit Pam for the second time today. When Naruto got over there, he had told his girlfriend on who Selina was and on how much she cared for the environment. Even though she was unconscious, he hoped she could've heard him explain everything he knew about her with her maybe wanting to meet the raven haired woman sometime after waking up.

With all that, Naruto had changed into his Nobody attire and made his way to Multigon International to get in and do his thing. But things didn't go as planned that as soon as he got nearby he saw Catwoman jump off of the building and eventually fall to her doom because of an explosion on the rooftop she clung onto. He saved her life and once landing on some rooftop, he was greeted again by Little One and eventually the Dark Knight of Gotham. Naruto did want to make a good impression but things didn't go all that well with him thrown off of a building and the silverette snagging the thief and her cat before bolting it.

It's probably going to bite him in the ass with what happened on there but too late now to complain.

"So where should I go to or do next?" He asked himself. "I haven't trained in the past few days and wonder if I have any other skills I have yet to know about. I could do that or maybe find some crime being committed and stop it."

He was going to say more until he saw a shadow move past him causing him to stop swinging around and land on a rooftop. Naruto looked around where it originated from and spotted Batman some distance away from him using his cape as….a glider?

"Huh, now he really does look like a bat there. But question is, where is he going to?" Naruto pondered to himself before a thought came to mind. "Maybe I could follow him and properly apologize for what happened earlier. Don't want the guy on his bad graces now do I."

With his little task set, Naruto ran and jumped off of the building in pursuit of the Bat of Gotham City.

 _ **-GCPD-**_

'Wonder why he's here?' Naruto thought to himself as he tracked the Bat to the police station without being seen. It was a tad hard trying to keep a good distance away but not too much so he would lose site of the costumed hero. He eventually stopped as he landed on the building's rooftop and climbed down to what appeared to be Gordon's office through a window.

Naruto got over there quickly and scaled down to be just outside of the Commissioner's window when he listened to the current conversation. Thank Kami that the window was opened or else he would need to phase through just to hear what they were saying.

"But there's nothing here on the schedules." The first voice said getting Naruto to know it was Gordon.

"A last minute change perhaps?" The second was recognized as the Batman.

"I would've been told otherwise."

"...What if it was a military train? Something that the government doesn't want us to know about." Batman said getting Naruto to wonder what they are talking about.

"Then this wouldn't be the first time I'm afraid." Gordon said in a peeved tone before Naruto heard the man start dialing into the phone of his office. "Blasted feds and their secrets."

'Oh I agree with you on that James like you wouldn't believe.' Naruto thought as he remembered past missions he did in the past for Konoha that he was kept in the dark on various details until he was allowed to learn in the end. Like the time he was sent to the Blood Prison without being told on why he was sent there until afterwards. Ugh that sucked big time.

"Then I'll see what I can do on my end Gordon. I'll head over and do everything I can to stop Red Claw." Batman said getting Naruto to be knocked out of his thoughts.

"Then good luck then Batman." The commissioner said getting Naruto to widen his eyes in surprise as Batman was going to exit out of the window and could end up spotted.

'Shit! I need to move now!' He thought before he phasing himself into the building so that he wouldn't be spotted.

Just in time too with him barely going through the wall just as Batman climbed out of Gordon's window and used his grappling gun to head off to the night. As for Naruto, he found himself in an empty office and decided to phase back outside and follow the hero once again to figure out what the hell is going on.

 _ **-Border of Gotham City-**_

It was pretty quiet and dark in the Gotham outskirts with the bridge connecting to the city from the mountains finally repaired after what happened on Christmas Eve. Soon light started to appear in the distance along with a sound growing in volume before a train passed over the completed bridge. The train in question was a militarized transport as it was highly guarded with patrol going through each train car and some in between them.

"You know Frank; when I saw those old recruitment commercials and deciding to join, I didn't expect this." One officer said to his friend.

"Yeah I know what you mean Marcus. I didn't expect we would be protecting this plague."

"But who would want to steal it anyways?" Marcus asked as he used his gun to point to where the plague is being kept. The bio-weapon in question was in a box with the biohazard sign on all sides.

Unknown to them and the other military personnel, once the transport went past a certain point, the tracks shifted before a track speeder went down the train line showing Red Claw with an assortment of goons. Once the speeder got close to the last car, the group jumped onto the back ladder one at a time with only the driver of the speeder left as he pulled back to head back to their hidden base of operations.

Once the terrorist group got on top of the train, one man had pulled out a grenade launcher and aimed at the connecting points between the rest of the train cars and where the plague was supposedly kept. He fired causing the connection to break and many of the military personnel to go into panic to figure out what happened not knowing they were no longer connected to the rest of the train. It wasn't long before one goon had cut open a hole on the top of the one car and dropped in a knock-out gas container as another goon in a rope went to the side and planted a small bomb to the door so they can access it.

As this was going on, Batman saw all this from above and tilted himself downward so he can get in closer from above. Once he got closer, he closed his cape turned glider so he could aim his feet towards a pair of goons and knock them off the train. He was successful causing confusion with the other Red Claw henchmen while only having Red Claw herself be mildly surprised before going through the broken door of the train car.

Soon a sound filled the air, asides from the moving military transport, causing Batman and the goons to look back to see a motorcycle come out of the forest below. It soon flew into the air just as the clouds parted to get moonlight to appear to reveal who was coming after them. The goons didn't know who the man was but Batman did….. well somewhat.

From what Nobody was riding was a motorcycle of an interesting design, probably custom made, of its black covers with some steampunk like designs with the handlebars being oddly placed on the grips.

'I'm so glad I researched motorcycles prior to today or else I wouldn't be able to make this sweet baby.' Naruto thought as he sped closer to the military transport. He felt accomplished to him crafting this beauty with his powers as it was a pain in the ass to get this right.

But hot damn it was completely worth it, especially now.

As he got closer to the train, he jumped from his motorcycle as it fell onto the train tracks and dispersed into wisps of black and white smoke before landing onto the train top with a roll. When he got up, Naruto made a pair of Escrima sticks and did quick successions of smacking the nearby goons' heads around. This was before he started hitting their hands to disarm them of their weapons on hand.

Not missing a beat, Batman engaged his own set of thugs as he threw the first punch towards the thug on his left before countering the one coming to him on his right by ducking and giving him an uppercut. This was before he grabbed the man's head and slammed it against another goon as he dashed to the next set of opponents that weren't remaining on the train. The Caped Crusader made quick successions with each of the goons with elbow strikes towards several areas of the body when quickly switching from opponent to opponent. Even dodging the various hits on his person with minimal ease since none of them had training on how to properly fight it seems.

Nobody blocked several punches and kicks with his weapons on hand before he ducked from a few opponents and spin kicked a few of them to get them off of the train. He even ducked several times before he headbutted them, quickly grabbing their heads and slamming them down on his knee before he threw them at the other thugs that were engaging against Batman.

"Hey goonies! This is gonna hurt." Naruto said with a hidden smile as he threw the sticks at the remaining thug's heads to knock them off the train.

Once things were clear, Naruto turned to see Batman staring at him.

"I could've handled them."

"I know but where was the fun of you hogging them all." Nobody retorted as he saw one thug grab a woman's arm and pulled her up. "Huh, seems we missed one."

"Red Claw! Watch out!" One of the goons called out to warn his boss.

"Red Claw? A woman?" Batman asked in surprise while Nobody was mildly surprised that the leader of this raid was a woman.

What, he had to fight against women back in his home reality so he wasn't sexist or that closed minded on the idea. Hell that Konan woman was a founding member of the Akatsuki terrorist organization for crying out loud.

"Do you have a problem with that?" Red Claw said as she had the plague's container in her hands.

"Not at all." The Dark Knight said as he got closer to her. "I'm an equal opportunity crime fighter."

"While I'm against hitting a woman, I'll make an exception with you." Naruto stated as he copied Batman's current action.

"Stay back!" She yelled as she pulled out the bio-weapon from it's container. "In my hand is the ultimate equalizer and it kills indiscriminately."

"But you'll die too." Batman stated to her as a helicopter quickly came their way as a rope ladder fell down from its door.

"Along with everyone else within a ten mile radius, but would you take that chance." She said as she grabbed ahold of the ladder before being lifted up into the air. "Come on, I dare you to call my bluff."

He couldn't do a thing as her laughs were slowly fading away into the distance. With his plan of catching Red Claw failed, he turned around to see Nobody still standing there.

"I thought you would've left by now." He questioned the helmeted stranger.

"I would've, but I wanted to apologize about earlier on that rooftop."

"And you followed me here….just for that?" Batman confusingly asked.

"Well….yeah. I wanted to make a good 'first impression' but I ended up botching it with my 'card' gimmick."

"And why did you do that if you wanted to make a good 'first impression?'"

"Would you believe it was a spur of the moment." Naruto said with a shrug while all he got in the end was a glare. "What, I'm telling the truth and Catwoman just followed through with what was on her mind I guess."

Feeling unsatisfied with not getting a response from the man, Naruto decided it was time to leave.

"As much as I would like to stay and chat more, I've already said my apologies and ready to go home now. I'll see you later Bats." Nobody said as he ran towards the end of the train car.

"Nobody wait!" Batman called out but it was too late as the man jumped off of the moving military transport. He was surprised to see what happened next as black and white wisps appeared underneath him to form the same motorcycle as before. He grabbed the handles and sat down before the motorcycle landed on the train tracks and sped off to god knows where.

"This night has been full of surprises isn't it." The Batman said to himself before radioing his old friend/butler to send over the Batplane to his moving location so he can inform Commissioner Gordon on what happened in person.

 _ **-Next Day, Spiral Publishing-**_

*Groan* "I really hate back up paperwork." Naruto muttered to himself as he filled out paper after paper from the stacks that were on his desk.

"I understand your pain Granny, even if it's just a fraction." He said as he started going over another document. "Now I just wish I could get drunk to ease the pain."

" _Sir, your 12:30 is here."_ Jillian said over the intercom speaker confusing the silverette.

'I don't remember making any appointments for today.' He thought before pressing the intercom button. "You can send the appointment in now Jillian."

" _Will do."_

*Sigh* "Might as well use this as a break from my workload." Naruto said before the door opened to see a rare sight. He interlaced his fingers and narrowed his eyes slightly before addressing the person

"…..Not that I mind you showing up here Kurama but why are you here?"

"What….Can't I come on by and visit my old 'landlord' for a nice chat?" The redhead replied with a whine.

"Right…...I expect some ulterior motive behind all of this since I distinctly remember you saying you're too busy with work to even try and chat with me in person."

"And I was right, but today is one of my rare days that I can do whatever the hell I want." The hybrid said as he made his way to the available chair in front of the publisher's desk. "So yesterday I thought it would be nice to come on by to chat with you."

"Ok….." Naruto drawled out before stretching a bit. "So, what do you wanna talk about?"

"Well I heard of what you did last night from one of my sources and I gotta say I'm pretty impressed on what you did."

"And how would you know that Kurama?" He asked since it seems impossible for anyone to know what happened on that train…..unless….."You have someone at the GCPD don't you?"

"Yup I do." Kurama said with a fox like smile. "But the real question you should be asking is: Where don't I have someone at?"

"So I take it you're inside man eased dropped on Gordon's conversation with Batman I take it?" Naruto asked while rubbing his eyes in slight frustration from both the paperwork and Kurama dropping these little bombs.

When he looked back at Kurama, the hybrid had Naruto's notebook on hand and reading some pages out of it.

How the fuck did he get his hands on it?

"I gotta say Naruto" The redhead said as he turned the page. "These sex scenes are really good. You should probably publish this."

"Hey! Give that back!" Naruto said as he dived towards the crime lord only to be intercepted with a boot to the face.

Though it didn't stop the silverette from flailing his arms in hopes of reaching his notebook.

After another minute of doing this action, Naruto decided to stop and went back to his seat with the footprint on his face.

*Sigh* "Would you please give that back?"

Kurama smirked at Naruto and handed back the notebook before replying. "Now wasn't that hard?"

"Bite me."

"Nah I don't swing that way. You would obviously know that since we last saw each other."

As he was putting away the notebook into his desk, Naruto had a question on mind that he wanted to ask. Naruto was going to find his former tenant about this but seems too good to pass up now.

"Well since you heard what happened, you might know who Red Claw is right?"

"Obviously." Kurama stated before adjusting in his seat. "So what would you like to know?"

"Everything."

 _ **-Skyline Towers, Night-**_

"I regret demanding to learn everything 'fuzzbutt' knew about Red Claw." Naruto tiredly said as he got back to the towers after a long day from work.

Naruto expected the conversation to last for a little bit of time but it turned out to last several…. hours….. long. Because of that, he was held back on his workload and had to stay in late to get it all done.

He did learn why Red Claw was in Gotham that it dealt with retrieving a bio-weapon that Interpol had taken from one of her labratories back in Eastern Europe. She had been tracking down her plague for months to intercept the transport to do god knows what with it. The terrorist had to nab it outside of Gotham City before it made its way to some heavily guarded facility where it could be studied and then disposed with. Even some unique information that Multigon is working for Red Claw behind the scenes.

Naruto was all fine and dandy with learning just that information….. but Kurama wanted to fuck with him in the end and started giving him unnecessary information that had lasted way too long.

"Why would he even tell me how much of a sex life she has….or lack of one…..or why he thought that was quite necessary…. I need a drink…. Nevermind I can't get drunk….. I hate him so much right now." He said as he pressed the button in the elevator for his floor, only to realize he pressed the one below his.

"Maybe I could go see Selina and ask how her date with Bruce went." He said to himself since he honestly didn't get her phone number yesterday.

Once making it to her floor, he went up to the door and was about to knock until he heard Shizune screech.

'Is she in trouble?!' Naruto thought as he was going to barge in until he heard someone's voice on the other side.

"I'm not here to hurt you." The voice said to Shizune. "Red Claw is after you and Catwoman."

'Is that Batman? And did he say Red Claw is after Shizune and….. Catwoman? Doesn't he mean Selina?'

"Catwoman? What are you talking about?"

"Shizune, you need to tell me where Selina has gone to. These people are killers."

'Catwoman's Selina?!' He yelled out in his head as he was shocked to hear this.

"She's….. She's gone to the Multigon site." Shizune said getting Naruto to go in alarm on that tidbit.

Not wanting to hear anymore, he rushed towards the stairwell and ran up to his loft so he can quickly change into his Nobody attire before heading out.

He needed to save Selina! He can't have another friend's life be at risk like this!

While getting dressed into his attire, his cellular phone went off and quickly answered it.

"Hello, Naruto Uzumaki speaking."

" _Naruto, thank Kami you answered."_

"Shizune what's wrong?" He said as he obviously knew what was wrong but had to keep up an act here.

" _I was attacked in the loft not too long ago."_

"Wait what?!" He yelled out but not too loud just in case so Shizune doesn't hear him from above. But he was surprised on that bit of information.

" _Luckily Batman was there to stop the assailant. But the reason why I'm calling is if I could stay in your loft for the rest of the night."_

"Why would you want to come here?"

" _Batman suggested I go someplace safe until this thing blows over and your loft is the only place I could think of right now."_

"Sorry but I'm not at my apartment right now since I'm still at work." He lied to her so he can get to the Multigon site quickly without her needing to find him. "But you could access my loft. You just need to find my spare key in the potted plant outside."

" _Ok, I'll do that."_ With that she hung up getting Naruto to finish getting dressed and used his phasing ability to go through the patio door before jumping off to swing his way out of the city.

 _ **-Multigon Site-**_

"Have to be careful now. There are guards everywhere." Catwoman said to herself as she quietly made her way through the forested area when she got closer to the clearing.

Seeing a man patrolling nearby, she snuck up from behind and knocked him out before hiding him in the bushes. She kept doing this to some of the guards near the edge of the forest so she could maneuver better when finding a way inside of the abandoned military complex. Eventually she did find an air duct cover some distance away but without any guards patrolling nearby had let her take her time in opening it.

After navigating through the air ducts, she soon made it to the inside of the hangar and saw a lot of commotion going on with the men still doing patrols while loading and unloading certain goods.

"Well this seems interesting." Selina muttered as she landed softly onto the rafters above and pulled out her camera to start taking photos. "These will probably enhance the photos for the resort brochure."

She was too focused in taking many of the photos that she didn't realize someone sneak up from behind until it was too late as one of the guards grabbed her camera causing her to look behind her in shock.

"Well what do we have here? One hell of a very, naughty pussy cat where she doesn't belong." The man said with a lusted gaze as he and his partnered looked up and down her form.

Too bad for the two guards; a shadowy figure came from behind and knocked their heads together, rendering them unconscious. Selina soon realized who her savior was and voiced her thoughts.

"And here I thought you didn't care after what happened last night." Catwoman said to the Dark Knight.

"Come on." He said as he grabbed her arm and started to run. "We need to get out of here."

"We? But what about you?"

"I need to take care of something here."

They would've continued onward until metallic bars slammed down from above blocking their path before several guards aimed their assault rifles at the two.

"Hello you two. Welcome to my comfy 'resort'" Red Claw said as she came up from behind her goons.

The two masked individuals turned around to run the other way but more of Red Claw's guards were right there blocking their path.

"I hope you enjoy your very, short stay."

 _ **-Moment's Earlier with Naruto/Nobody-**_

"I hope I'm not too late in getting here." Naruto said as he approached the site on his motorcycle before slowly coming to a stop some distance away so he won't be heard by any guards. Once stepping off, the vehicle slowly dispersed into black and white wisps as Naruto started walking towards the clearing. He would've walked further until he saw a mountain lion chewing on a corpse of a dead goon.

"Uh….nice lion." Naruto nervously said as he backed away slightly as the lion only stared at him for a few moments before resuming back into it's meal.

"Ok, seems I'll need to watch where I step now." He said as he fiddled with his helmet a little to get the multi-vision function to activate. With these mountain lions running around, he would need to watch his step more so he won't cause any problems with them.

The Multi-Vision function was quite interesting to find out on his own during training one night as it wasn't shown in the manual that came with the suit. The function allowed him to switch between Thermal/Infrared, Night and Electromagnetic Field visions on the fly instead of fiddling through his helmet manually. If he was able to see the helmet from the outside, he would've been greeted with seeing three white dots on his visor; one for each eye placement while the third is located on the forehead.

Once he got it activated, he was soon greeted with seeing some highlighted foot imprints on the snowy ground with one that stood out as it had a heel on the end.

"Catwoman…. no Selina, must've been here. Don't know how long ago but at least I got a trail." He said as he followed her footprints while making some adjustments when some mountain lions crossed his path. Eventually he found an air duct with it showing signs it was fiddled around and broken so someone could access it before he decided to enter it.

He would've walked through the front door and used his memory manipulation on the guards but Naruto guessed that there would've been security cameras by the entrance, reason why he is sneaking the same way Selina did.

Once navigating through the air ducts, he wound up inside of the complex where he saw the hangar. When he dropped down, Naruto was able to spot a handful of guards walking about in the center of the room and its borders with his elevated position. He ducked down as he followed where Selina's footprints went before realizing another pair walked alongside hers.

Naruto looked closely into the shoe imprint next to Selina's to see….'A bat symbol? He put a bloody bat symbol on the bottom of his boots?'

Ok….who does that? Sure he had heard of the man having his 'batarangs', his 'batmobile', his 'batplane', so on and so forth. But does the guy even go far as to have like 'bat toilet paper' or a 'bat toothbrush'. Does the guy even embroider everything in a bat theme of sorts?

'Focus Naruto. You can ask about his extreme bat fetish idea later. For now need to find them both.'

Getting out of his thoughts, Naruto followed the trail as he ducked behind several walls so he wouldn't get spotted by any guards. He would only allow a few mess ups so he could quickly use his memory ability on them, but if he used it too much for a set period of time will start causing him to strain for a while. Eventually making it the stairs, she went down to the lower level before seeing their highlighted imprints go around a corner where a few guards were stationed.

'Time to start clocking them out for the evening.' Naruto thought as he crouched down to out of their line of site. As he got closer, he soon saw an air duct by their feet.

"Gonna need to sneak up on them and make them go away for a moment.' He thought as he got as close as possible and waited for them to possibly turn around so he could work his magic. Patience was truly a virtue that after a minute both of them turned around getting him to use his silence ability to quietly sprint towards them and aimed his palms to the back of their heads getting a faint glow from them.

"You will not see or hear me for a few minutes." He said getting the command into their minds that they won't be seeing him for that designated time and it's all he needs.

Naruto crouched down and forced open the air duct cover and crawled inside before placing the cover back into place. With that, he followed the duct till he had to climb up and saw gaps towards the bottom to see the highlighted prints. He soon came to an end as he saw the footprints end at a doorway and assumed the two were in the next room.

He was right as he kept crawling to see Batman and Selina tied up together in chains while he saw Red Claw at the doorway.

"You must be suprised to see the accommodations here, courtesy of your US Government." The Russian terrorist said with Mr. Stern not too far behind her with the bio-weapon container in his hands.

"They've built this top secret complex to hide officials in case of a nuclear fallout. But since you've been so interested in our plague Batman," She said as she pulled out the weapon from its container, "...we've decided to give it to you."

"Then what would you use to blackmail Gotham if you would use it on us?" Batman questioned

"Why risk carrying such deadly contents when a placebo would do." Red Claw said with a sadistic smile as she pulled out some little container. "By the time they realize the vial is a fake, we'll be league's away and they can't do a thing about it."

As she said that, she pulled off the top of the little container to show a little air pump and filled it up with some liquid contact before putting a drop of it on the bio-weapon causing it to fizzle signaling its starting to activate.

"Soon…..this will fully activate in a matter of minutes." She said as she made her way to the room's door. "Mr. Stern, sound the alarms. We are leaving and need to seal up the compound."

"We wouldn't want the plague to affect the precious wildlife, now would we? Only the vermine is all we want to kill." The chairman said as closed the door to the room.

The two struggled in their bindings as it was really hard for them to break free.

"What I wouldn't give to sink my claws into them."

"If only I could get some slack then I could get us out of here." Batman said as he tried every trick he could think of to get themselves out of their bindings.

"If this was rope I would help out more but these chains will be impossible for me to cut through."

"Maybe I could be of some assistance." A voice called out from above getting the two animal themed people to look up to only find Nobody crouched down on the rafters.

"Hello." He said as he gave them a two fingered wave.

"How did you get in here?" Batman surprisingly asked him and Selina wasn't any better as she thought the same thing.

"I have my methods." Nobody said as he jumped down from his hiding spot before coming up to them. "Now let's get you guys out of this."

He grabbed ahold of the chain and the two animal themed people expected to feel a tug towards the helmeted man's direction. To their surprise they didn't feel a thing as they saw him pull the chain through them.

"H-How?" Selena asked while Batman was running thoughts in his head on how that was possible.

"No time you two. We need to go now!" Nobody said just before the alarms for the military facility blared to life. With the sudden alarm going off made all of Red Claw's goons to abandon what they were doing and run as their lives depended on it

It wasn't long for the three masked individuals to make it to the hangar to see everyone running out of the compound.

"You need to get her out of here." Batman said to Nobody.

"Not without you we're not." Selena said to the hero before he shook his head.

"I'll be right behind you two, but I need to destroy the plague." He said before looking back at the other two. "Now please go!"

"You heard the man." Naruto said as he grabbed Selina's hand and they both ran towards the hangar door while Batman ran towards the fuel tanks to take care of the bio-weapon.

As the two drew closer they saw the door barely closed.

"We're too late!"

"No we're not! Keep running! Trust me!" Naruto called out and she complied with his hand still gripping hers.

Before realizing, she ended up outside with her looking back in shock as she walked through the hangar door. She tried to reasonably think of an explanation when they were surrounded by Red Claw's forces with their guns aimed at them.

"Oh I don't have time for this." Naruto growled out as he let go of Selina's hand and focused power into both of his hands to form 'Void Rasengans' causing everyone to stare at the display in mixed reactions. Before any of the goons knew it, they were blown away when Naruto tossed the attacks at them.

Naruto grabbed Selena's hand and ran far away from the facility before making it to the nearby cliffs. Naruto willed his 'grappling scarf' into existence and used it to easily get him and Selena to the top without much effort. When they made it to the top, they heard a loud noise coming from the facility below to see a fuel tanker crash through the hangar door.

"That must be Batman." Nobody said getting Selena to nod before they saw a fiery trail following the tanker as the vehicle went towards the several military helicopter. It crashed into them causing the tanker and helicopters to explode before everything else in the facility and clearing soon followed.

Nobody and Catwoman saw it in concern as they searched for Batman with their eyes before they heard helicopters behind them.

"Get down." The helmeted silverette said as he pulled the environmentalist down to hide them as they saw police helicopters fly above them.

"This is Gotham Police Commissioner Gordon! We have you all completely surrounded! Give yourselves up!" James called out from the helicopter's intercom as the helicopters kept their spotlights on the many goons down below.

"Seems that this 'resort' is really going down under." Selina said before getting kicked to the side knocking Nobody off the cliff.

"You! This is all your fault you bitch!" Red Claw yelled out as she kicked Selina again.

"For years I have built my criminal network! I have brought down countries to their knees! And now it's all ruined all because of you interfering!... You!... Environmentalist!... Whore!" The Russian woman yelled out as she kept kicking at Selina.

She aimed another kick at Selena but a hand grabbed ahold on the offending limb.

"Hey!" Nobody said as he tightened his grip. "It's not nice to hit a defenceless woman you muscle bound bitch."

Before the terrorist knew it, she was thrown into the air and fell down the cliffside with her possibly having several broken bones at the end of it.

"You ok?" Naruto said in concern as he looked over her for any signs of injuries.

"I'll be fine. The armor I have in this suit helps." She admitted before shifting a bit to feel a bit of pain.

Seeing this, Naruto pulled out a medical pack from his belt and injected a mixture of morphine and painkillers into her to help with the pain.

She moaned in relief in this action. "Thanks. Seems I needed that."

"Your welcome." Nobody said before he looked towards the facility to see a shadowy figure. "Seems that Batman survived."

Hearing his statement, Catwoman looked down below and saw his figure in front of the roaring flames of the military base.

"We should head back to Gotham now." Naruto stated as he focused his powers to conjure up his motorcycle.

"My my. Aren't you full of surprises Nobody." Selena said as she looked at the vehicle in wonder.

"It's apart of my charm apparently." He said to her as she sat down onto the ride and hugged him from behind as they rode back to Gotham.

 _ **-Gotham City-**_

The two rode on in silence as they made their way back to the gothic city as they were tired from today's events. Eventually the motorcycle came to a stop several blocks away from the Skyline Towers so that Selina wouldn't suspect Nobody on him knowing her place of residence.

"Thanks for the ride….and for saving my life several times now." Selena said as she got off of the ride. She did miss the contact though as she felt his form nicely from what she could tell from his suit. 

"No thanks are needed Catwoman. As long as you're safe, I'll be thankful in the end."

"Why are you so concerned for my safety?" She questioned him. "Are you someone I know?"

"Maybe….Who knows." He said as he reved up his ride before taking off. "After all, I'm just a Nobody!"

Selena Kyle was soon left all by herself before she muttered something towards him without knowing. "But you're Somebody to me."

With that, she walked home not knowing that she will soon be brought into police custody by the Dark Knight for her actions.

 _ **-Moment's later, Naruto's Loft-**_

"Man what a night." He said to himself as he walked into his apartment through his patio with his attire on. He checked the rooms where Shizune was sleeping and saw her on the couch with a sleeping 'Little One' on top of her.

"Well ain't that cute." Naruto muttered as he used his silence manipulation around himself so he wouldn't wake up the two before making his way to his bedroom to change into his sleep wear.

Just as he got out of his Nobody attire, his cellular phone went off and he answered without looking at the caller ID.

"Hello, Naruto Uzumaki speaking." 

" _Mr. Uzumaki, this is Dr. Haruno. Something has happened to Ms. Isley."_ The doctor told Naruto making his heart stop and drop the phone in worry. 

_**-Earlier, Gotham General Hospital-**_

*Beep*...*Beep*...*Beep*...*Beep*…*Beep*...*Beep*

The sounds of the heart monitor filled the room as Pam's chest was slowly rising up and down with the other machine helping with her breathing.

The many flowers that was brought into her room to help color and lighten up the dreary feel slowly started to move towards the sleeping redhead as pollen came out of them. The flowers slowly dried up and died as their life essences spread over Pamela's form just as the branch of a Sakura tree from just outside of her room broke through a small part of the window to open it up. The same tree limb slowly went towards the botanist as it started to bloom quite early despite it being Winter.

The branch was soon joined by more as they went underneath the coma patient and lifted her to end up disconnecting the various tubes and wires keeping her alive and monitored. Acting quickly before the hospital staff arrived, the limbs drew the botanist outside in the cold air before the ground opened up to have large branches come out and encircle her.

The entanglement of branches shot down back where it came from as some smaller branches covered its tracks by moving the dirt and snow to cover its entrance while the Sakura tree closed the window just as the hospital staff came into the room to see it baren.

Soon…..Soon the Green shall have its Champion.

Soon it shall have its _**Poison Ivy**_.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **To clear up this question I was asked is that yes, he will be summoning lesser Nobodies at a later time since remember he is trying to figure out his powers and whatnot. So things develop till he ends up accessing that ability.**

 **Of course that it doesn't mean he can't summon something else for the time being. Hence Naruto able to conjure up a motorcycle with his powers because of a mixture of him researching some transportation vehicles to have better understanding how they work if he wanted to create them along with his powers making adjustments. But what motorcycle you readers are wondering, well it's Cloud's Hardy-Daytona motorcycle from Final Fantasy 7 of course, one of the most badass fantasy motorcycles around. Sorry if I can't do a better description on it but it's the best I could do.**

 **What….I did put down in the disclaimer that I will be using Square Enix elements in here and not just limited to Kingdom Hearts. I would've wanted to use the Fenrir motorcycle from Advent Children Cloud rides but felt that one would've been better to conjure up once Naruto had more void skill sets under his belt.**

 **I also decided to use the Multi-Vision goggle idea from the Splinter Cell series since I thought it would be a cool addition to Naruto's suit.**

 **Finally…..yes I do have Selina Kyle/Catwoman in the harem. I just wanted to put some development with her before I announced her status relationship wise.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	9. A Rose Finally Blooms

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 9: A Rose Finally Blooms**

Just by the palisades where most of Gotham's wealthy reside, showed a extravagant mansion in the dead of night. It looked quite quaint with its design of having a water fountain in front of the mannor, a swimming pool off to the side, a tennis court in the back, so on and so forth. One could say it was quite homey if there was a family living there, but there is not. The only resident there, asides from the staff, was a wealthy woman in her late 40's, early 50's shows off her wealth with how large her home is making the residence quite cold despite the Winter season.

Soon the front door of the manor opened up showing the owner of the house. Ms. Thomas appeared to be a heavy set woman as looking around for some reason before hiding behind a pillar. She was out of breath as she appeared to be scared for her own life while wearing a bathrobe. When thinking the coast was clear, she ran down the steps and almost slipped a few times because of the ice.

"Why did I have the staff take the week off?" She questioned herself as she got back up and ran down the snowy, dirt driveway.

Looking back, she saw a silhouette staring down at her from the manor and could feel the malice radiating from the gaze towards her making the wealthy woman run through her clipped hedges that decorated the lawn and into the forested property she owned. The cold, Winter air started to burn her lungs as she ran as best as she could causing the rich woman to stop to take a momentary rest.

Looking back, Ms. Thomas saw the silhouette some dozen feet behind her causing the heavy woman to scream in fright and stumble back to roll down the snowy hill. When she got back up with her spraining her ankle, she stumbled and limped her way into the forest in hopes of hiding from her pursuer.

She didn't know how long she had been running with the pain in her ankle but soon enough she tripped over an exposed root that seemed to move on its own. Falling face first into the snow as she started to hyperventilate and looked around to see where her pursuer is currently at.

"What do you want?!" The woman tried to call out with her burning throat as she kept looking everywhere in her frantic state. She got no response at all but her mind was still demanding answers.

"Why are you doing this?!" She finally yelled out.

" _ **Y**_ _o_ _ **u…..**_ _Y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **i**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _s_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _n_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _f_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **h**_ _g_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **M**_ _s._ _ **T**_ _h_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _s._ _ **"**_ A voice called out from just about everywhere that made it seem it was echoing two voices at the same time. _**"A**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _'s_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _o_ __ _p_ _ **a**_ _y_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _c_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **q**_ _u_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **c**_ _e_ _ **s."**_

"But you can't do this! I've-I've heard what you have done to the others!" Ms. Thomas called out to her assailant. "Please just let me go and I'll pay you anything you want!"

" _ **Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **f**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _s_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **g**_ _h_ _ **d**_ _a_ _ **m**_ _a_ _ **g**_ _e_ _ **w**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **m**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **y."**_ The person said as it appeared that the forest started to get denser by each passing moment.

"You wicked, evil-" _**"E**_ _v_ _ **i**_ _l?_ _ **"**_ The assailant questioned while interrupting her. _**"N**_ _o_ _ **….I'**_ _m_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **l**_ _s_ _ **a**_ _c_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **p**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _y_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **y**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d y**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **o**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **a**_ _f_ _ **u**_ _c_ _ **k**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **p**_ _m_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **e.**_ _N_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **at'**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _v_ _ **i**_ _l._ _ **"**_

Soon roots sprang forth from the ground and wrapped Ms. Thomas in a tightly snare as she struggled to get free and breathe.

" _ **Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **m**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **k**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **b**_ _i_ _ **g**_ _d_ _ **e**_ _b_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _M_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _N_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _f._ _ **"**_ The assailant said to the woman. _**"A**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _I'_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **e**_ _c_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _c_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **e**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **y**_ _b_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _f._ _ **"**_

Ms. Thomas tried to scream for help before one of the branches sprouted a leaf big enough to cover the woman's mouth before she was pulled into the ground to end up where all of the assailant's victims ended up at.

The bright, crescent moon soon broke free from its hiding place among the clouds to slowly shine upon the assailant in question for the first time this night. The person turned around to gaze at the moon's radiance to be reminded of someone that was truly cared for. The assailant was in fact a woman with long red hair reaching past her shoulders; glowing evergreen eyes with black sclera, and a pale green skin tone with green like vine tattoos going around various parts of her body. She was wearing a one piece leotard and arm length gloves that appeared to be made of leaves.

" _ **S**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **….W**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **l b**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **g**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **s**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **g**_ _h._ _ **"**_ She stated before her body broke down into dead leaves, flower petals and twigs leaving the forest barren and quiet.

 _ **-Wayne Manor, Morning-**_

"I don't care how much money we are going to lose!" Bruce spoke loudly into his phone. "Wayne Enterprises isn't going to be involved with an operation that'll destroy a rain forest! So shut it down or you're gone McCabe!"

Bruce slammed the phone down on the receiver before handing it to his long time friend and caretaker, Alfred Pennyworth. He was a man of good, physical stature with his steely blue eyes to match his peppered, black hair that has been balding for years now along with a mustache. He was currently wearing a pair of workout sweats as he was exercising with Bruce in the wreck room so he can keep his physical prowess.

Alfred was once a member of England's Secret Service for many years before he retired from intelligence work and started working for the Wayne family as their butler for a change of scenery. But after that dreadful night, Alfred loyally stayed by Bruce and supported him throughout many of his endeavors, even when Bruce donned the cape and cowl of the Dark Knight.

*Sigh* "That was one of my greedy directors that was making a deal with a slash and burn outfit back in the Amazon." The billionaire tiredly said to his butler.

"Then it's quite fortunate that you were able to catch it in time." Replied the retired intelligence officer getting his old charge to nod.

"I know but I hate it when things slip by me." Bruce said as he was wiping the sweat off his body. "Hell, McCabe should've remembered that we donate millions of dollars each year for the preservation of the rain forests. If he had gone through with the deal then it would make us look like hypocrites."

"And from what I can tell, this is just being added onto the list of problems that have been occurring this week hasn't it Master Bruce?"

*Sigh* "Don't remind me."

It's been a week since the terrorist Red Claw and her forces had been taken into custody by the GCPD and shipped off so Interpol and the government could take things from there. On the night after the abandoned military facility was destroyed, Bruce had made it to Selina's loft just in time for when she got into it. He assumed she could've gotten back sooner due to that Nobody person giving her a ride back to Gotham, but guessed Selina didn't want him to know where she lived. Bruce had arrested her because of the various thefts she had committed, despite his feelings towards her, and is currently residing at Gotham State Penitentiary until her trial a few weeks away.

Just as he got back home from dropping off Selina at the GCPD, Alfred had informed Bruce that Naruto had just called telling them that Pamela Isley has gone missing from the hospital. He had rushed over there as quickly as possibly to see what had happened to end up seeing his friend in such a broken state with all of the flowers in the hospital room dead. This confused Bruce greatly on what occurred and even the doctors were wondering the same thing since the flowers were all fine sometime prior to the abduction, but Bruce took a sample so he could study the anomaly.

Within a span of several days, Naruto had literally been through an emotional rollercoaster that could've truly wrecked him badly and that worried the billionaire greatly. From the accident at Star Labs, learning the truth of the incident, being happy on making new friends and now Pamela turning up missing along with Selina in jail. The publisher had tried to make improvements by somehow keeping up a smiling facade that seemed unnatural to Bruce. Naruto had been trying to get out of his funk by trying to keep his mind occupied with other things but Bruce could tell that his friend was barely hanging on and one more bad thing could send him over the edge.

Seeing Naruto in such a state reminded Bruce of himself when his girlfriend and short lived fiancee, Andrea Beaumont, had left him twelve years ago. He found out sometime later on the reason why she had to leave was that her father had problems with the mob and the man dragged his daughter with him into hiding. Bruce had been trying to find her but there was no such luck even after he had became Batman.

The last thing to add onto that list of problems was when he was informed by Commissioner Gordon last night that four industrialists had been reported missing with no ransom note, no 'good-bye' note, or anything that suspects foul play. From what Bruce was able to piece together was that the only connection they had were of them affecting the environment whether it was leveling trees or making a strip mine. Along with there being some dead leaves, flower petals and twigs found inside of their residences that some suspected to just be either a connection or as Detective Bullock put it: lazy cleaning.

Could there be a connection with Pamela's abduction and the industrialists turning up missing. Who knows for sure but he'll need to find out.

*Knock Knock* *Knock Knock*

The sound of the wreck room's glass door being knocked brought Bruce out of his thoughts as he and Alfred looked back where the source came from. There they saw a woman roughly Alfred's age keeping a jogging pace in sweats as she waved to the two through the clear door. The woman in question is Maggie Page, Alfred's girlfriend for about a month now.

Maggie was a British citizen that migrated to America seeking out work before she came under the employment of Spiral Publishing as an artist. During one of the few meetings Bruce had with Naruto, the silverette saw Alfred and Maggie some distance away and had a feeling the two of them were quite lonely. So he talked to the billionaire to see if they could get their employees to meet and interact with each other so they could at least have a friend to spend time with. Of course they didn't expect for the two British natives to start dating afterwards and both were glad they were able to find some love at their age.

"Maggie." Alfred said with a smile as he opened the door for her.

"Hello love." Maggie replied back as she kissed Alfred on the cheek before addressing the billionaire. "Morning Bruce, nice day we are having huh?"

"Yeah it is, helps to at least warm up the cold air a bit." The dark haired man said with a small smile.

"So Alfy, care to come on for a morning jog?" She suggested to the bulter.

"Sure, let me go grab my jacket."

As Alfred went to grab something warm for the outdoor exercise, Bruce decided to ask Maggie something that he probably knew the answer to.

"So, how's Naruto? He doing any better since you last saw him?"

Maggie held out her hand and made a 'so-so' gesture before replying. "Not much honestly. He's been holding out well for this past week and a lot of us at the firm are worried about him."

*Sigh* "Figured as much." Bruce said as he scratched his head. "I take it you and the others are trying to lessen his workload?"

"Obviously….He's done much for each of us that it's the least we could do for him in return. Naruto's a strong lad that's just been dealt with a bad hand as of late. Things will eventually turn around for him I'm sure."

"That's all I need to hear." The billionaire responded with a small smile before Alfred came back into the wreck room with a water bottle and his jacket on. The two British natives soon left to ride in Maggie's car to their usual jogging area for about an hour.

 _ **-Gotham State Penitentiary, Women's Ward-**_

"How you holding up?" Naruto said as he sat across Selina in the visitation area where a few guards were present by the doors keeping an eye on the inmates being visited by friends and family.

"Doing well though I wish I could see and hold my precious Isis in my arms." She replied as she wore a dark blue prison uniform. "I miss her very much."

"Well she does miss you Selena." He said with a small smile. "Every time I come back from work I expected to see her in my loft but she is nowhere in there. So I end up going into yours to find her on your bed. Shizune and I can only do so far without you around to cheer her up."

"Damn, now it makes me want to get home sooner."

"I know Selina but your hearing is in a few weeks. With your information brought up that you had a hand in saving Gotham from Red Claw's plague that it might sway public opinion you could be able to get out of here." He informed her which she gave a nod in return.

"Speak of, how about the preservation? I wasn't able to hear much about what is going to be done about that."

"From what I was told when I chatted with Commissioner Gordon and Mayor Hill on the subject when I tried to get you out of here sooner that the area needs to be cleaned up first before anything could be done about that."

"Because of all of the military components there I take it?"

He nodded at her guess before he continued. "When the environmentalists heard of the incident, they wanted that area cleared out of any military property if possible. Of course the government was already planning to do that with the abandoned place resurfaced in the raid. So we'll wait and see from there once the military detail is cleared out."

This got Selina some little closure on what occurred there that possibly soon enough the preserve will finally happen.

"But enough about me Naruto? How are you holding up?" The environmentalist asked her friend. She reached across the table and grabbed ahold of his hand slightly so she wouldn't get in trouble with the guards. He squeezed her hand in response which made her feel slightly happy.

"I-I'm hanging in there Selena." He said in a downtrodden look. "It's hard with what's going on and I don't know if I could take much more in such an amount of time. Isis knows when I'm sad and tries to make me feel happy but….well, you know."

"I can understand and believe me I had my fair share of times of me missing people I care for deeply." She replied before quickly adding in one last thing. "And I'm not talking about Isis you know."

*Chuckle* "Yeah I was going to say that and would've thought that you were somewhat shallow on the topic."

"Ass." Selina playfully jabbed at him. *Sigh* "No it's just that talking about my past makes it hard to deal with. Only Shizune knows a lot about it and she keeps a tight lip on it."

"...Wanna talk about it?" Naruto asked her. "Not all of it but only little snippets if you want. It might help."

"Thanks and besides don't want to talk all about it here you know." She said when gesturing the guards.

"Obviously." He said with a small smile.

"Well….I have a younger sister, who is currently happily married, and has a sweet little girl that is practically the light of their lives."

"Mind telling me their names?"

"Maggie is my sister and Holly is their adopted daughter. They tried for years to make one of their own but some complications happened which resulted in them deciding to adopt."

"That's nice of them. Do you contact with them often?"

"Sometimes…..With how things went when me and Maggie were kids, we couldn't really keep in contact that often." She started to feel a little uncomfortable talking about it but didn't show any signs.

"You don't need to tell me what happened if you want." The publisher suggested but she held up her hand in response.

"Nah it's fine. You said I don't have to talk about all of my past and we can talk more when I get out." She responded to him before continuing more into her little history. "It's just that after an incident with our parents, both me and Maggie had to go into witness protection and ended up separated for our safety. She was the lucky one with her ending up at a decent, religious foster home while I ended up in a crappy one. Won't get into details on that place but I ended up running away and joined the traveling circus." 

She looked at Naruto seeing his slightly, disbelieved face on that last bit. "What, it's the truth."

He frantically waved her off a tad bit in response. "No no no, I believe you Selina. I was just realizing on how you were able to possibly perform some of your skills since your a circus brat. I wasn't going to end up saying that you ended up in the stereotypical runaway bit with kids…..but seems I slightly said it."

*Giggle* "I'll let that one slide." Once calming down from her giggles she continued. "It was there where I learned the art of contortionism, gymnastics, magic and trickery…. Well with the magic bit I dropped out since I 'didn't have the spark' from what that old croon Xanadu told me. I would've had a blast performing some of those tricks."

Naruto couldn't help but found it cute on her pouty look with her arms crossed that she acted like a child that didn't get what she wanted badly.

"I take it that was where you ended up with your thieving habits?"

"Yup. Didn't want to stay in the circus all my life so I started pickpocketing attending audiences on most nights and when I got enough, I wanted to travel outside of the circus tent. Next thing I knew I ended up at Starling City trying to pickpocket this one guy who almost killed me back then. I was saved by this boxer named Ted who took pity at me and trained me how to fight. After spending some time with him and he couldn't teach me anything else, I ended up getting into environmentalism because of how my mom loved animals very much and wanted to get into that in her memory."

Naruto smiled at that since he now knew more about her and felt the need to tell her some stuff about himself like when he told Pam most of his altered life. For the rest of the time of his visit he told Selina of him being an outcast and times of pulling off pranks, which some made her laugh and astounded on the wild tales. He wanted to tell her of him traveling the world before ending up in Metropolis but their time was over and Selena had to go back to her cell.

It was good to chat with her that it made him feel slightly better. But similar to her, not all things heal easily especially with a fresh one.

 _ **-Later, Outside of Wayne Enterprises-**_

If one would be looking up towards the rooftops, they would see the Dark Knight perched on top of one of the ledges as he gazed towards his corporate building. After doing some investigating and research, he had concluded that the kidnapper is going to be targeting another industrialist this evening. The past kidnapped victims were high ranking of sorts and possibly the assailant is going down the list from high to low.

Now one might wonder, 'Why is Batman outside of Wayne Enterprises?' Well to answer that, several industrialists that are on the list reside within several block radius' from each other and his current placement would help get to either location in a matter of minutes. Using his vantage point, Batman was using a pair of binoculars to gaze at each and every one of the apartments to see if anything was amiss.

"Now where are you?" He muttered as he exhaled his hot breath into the cold air. "What's your plan for all this?"

That was the other thing that was bugging the Caped Crusader: Why kidnap the victims but have no random posted for their returns? It was usually the typical choice to do in this kind of situation with such wealthy individuals but something else was up and he wanted to know why.

 _ **-Meanwhile-**_

Sitting at the security desk were two employees of Wayne Enterprises as they were gazing at the cameras set around the building. Both of them had shaggy hair underneath their hats with one of them having a bang large enough to cover one of his eyes while the other had a bandage over his nose because of a cold along with some on his cheeks due to shaving.

"Hey."

"Yeah."

"You ever wonder why we are here?" The bang security guard asked.

"That my friend is one of life's great mysteries isn't it….. Are we the product of some cosmic coincidence?... Is there really a god that is watching over us.. You know with a plan or something. *Sigh* I don't know man, it keeps me up at night." The bandaged one stated as his friend blankly stared at him.

….

"What? No... I mean why we are working here man instead of taking some reefers back at the apartment."

"Oh…..Ah….Yeah."

"What the fuck was up with you getting all philosophical and shit. Usually that's my stick." The bang guard exclaimed

"No reason." The bandaged one said as he looked towards the side not wanting to look at his friend.

"...Wanna talk about it?"

"No."

"You sure."

"Yeah."

"But seriously why are we here?"

Rolling his eyes to get off from the little philosophical bit he decided to remind his friend on the reason. "Well Izumo, I would like to have a good paycheck that can cover not only our living expenses but also our pot habit after a long day's work."

Izumo just slumped into his seat at this. "But I don't wanna Kotetsu."

"Well suck it up since if I have to work here then I'm dragging your ass with me." Kotetsu jabbed at his roommate/friend. "Besides the job isn't all that bad at all with the pay and benefits that comes with."

"True but I would rather be sleeping right now." Izumo said as he tiredly looked back at the screens.

"Yeah yeah."

Suddenly the two heard a sound near them that sounded like leaves ruffling. They turned around to see a bonsai tree they had on their desk, out of its pot, before it waved at them.

…

"Izumo?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Yup."

"Ok good, because if I'm not going crazy or anything. If so, then I'll need to cut back on the weed laced with LSD." Kotetsu stated getting his friend to nod.

"Same here."

Before they knew it, both of them were held up into the air and thrown across the room knocking them out. The perpetrator to this was the little bonsai tree as one of its roots grew to a large size and wrapped around the desk to give the two guards a surprise. Soon the doors of the building were broken opened by large roots before receding back outside to show the redheaded assailant. She walked past the two unconscious guards and made her way to the elevator before the bonsai tree jumped into her arms.

As they made their way up to their target's destination, they didn't notice one of the guards slowly wake up and activated the silent alarm before radioing the police.

 _ **-Back with the Bat-**_

"Nothing has turned up so far. Maybe I'll need to come back later for any changes." Batman said to himself as he was on one of the rooftops of one of the supposed target's apartment.

" _Sir, I need to inform you that the silent alarm has been triggered at Wayne Enterprises and the police are on their way."_ Alfred said over the radio.

"What happened?" The vigilante said as he ran off of the rooftop and opened up his cape for the glider function to get at his corporate building.

" _The security guard, one Kotetsu Hagane, had called it in stating that a plant attacked them and when he woke up moments later he saw the doors of the building destroyed."_ The butler informed Bruce over the line.

"I see. Seems our assailant is targeting Wayne Industries tonight. But why? I don't know of any industrialists working for my company that could've…." He stopped speaking as some thoughts started going through his head.

" _Could've what sir?"_ Alfred asked and all he got was a growl in response.

"Seems that I'll be having some choice words with Mr. McCabe when this is all over." He said as he landed in front of Wayne Enterprises to see the damaged entrance.

" _I take it he went behind your back and went through that slash and burn outfit without your consent then."_

"Pretty much. Hopefully I can make it in time before the assailant takes him to god knows where."

" _Then good luck."_ With that the line went dead as Batman went further away from the entrance and looked up and aimed his grappling gun so he can get to his destination quicker. He fired and after a few moments it latched onto its desired target and Batman took off into the air. Once at the end of the line, he went back up onto the ledge and navigated through the outside to find McCabe's office so to stop the assailant from taking the man.

"What the hell do you get out of this you bitch?!" McCabe yelled out showing Batman that he was pretty close along with the assailant was already there.

" _ **I'**_ _m_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r v**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _c_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **g**_ _a_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _p_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **y**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **A**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _z_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **."**_ A dual, female voice said that seemed very unnatural.

"But I just called them earlier today! How the hell would you know I did that?!"

'Seems I'm somewhat thinking the same thing.' Bruce thought as he gazed through the window to see what is going on. He was greeted with the site of his one greedy director tied up in….roots? And plants from the man's office? He then looked towards the assailant that was in the shadows and Batman could tell the person was there when he saw the glowing green eyes in the darkness.

" _ **Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **k**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _f_ _ **i**_ _c_ _ **e**_ _p_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **s**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t._ _ **"**_ The woman said as she gestured the flora in the room. _**"T**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **d**_ _f_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **t**_ _d_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _w_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _p_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _n_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _c_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _p_ _ **. I**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _d_ _ **, I**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **p**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _I_ _ **a**_ _m_ _ **."**_

"You won't get away with this!" He said as he struggled to get out of the vine's grasp.

" _ **O**_ _h_ _ **,**_ _b_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **I**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l.**_ _O_ _ **n**_ _c_ _ **e**_ _I_ _ **g**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **, t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **I'**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _b_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _d_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **p**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **m**_ _o_ _ **v**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _s_ _ **."**_ She said with a chuckle.

'I need to stop her.' Batman thought as he tied his grappling line around one of the hanging ledges before swinging around hard enough to break through the glass.

"It's over, give up now." The hero growled out getting the assailant to aim her gaze towards him while McCabe tried to look towards his savior.

" _ **B**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **."**_ She said as all focus was on him now. _**"Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **f**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **w**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **m**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **."**_

"Like hell I will. You have much to answer for on kidnapping those people."

" _ **I**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _k_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **t."**_ She said before vines from outside of the building came rushing into the room and grabbed ahold of Batman. He struggled to get free as he saw McCabe be pulled out of the room by a large root before shooting down to the ground outside.

Batman didn't want to lose his chance in apprehending the assailant, who was walking towards the room's opening. So he pulled out his batarang and quickly cut through his bindings before dashing towards her. Once he got close to her, Batman grabbed her shoulder and turned her around so he could see who the person was at least…...

He didn't expect, however, was that he already knew her.

'I-It can't be!' Bruce shockingly thought as he saw her face.

" _ **B**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **l**_ _u_ _ **c**_ _k_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **x**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _e,_ _ **D**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _k_ _ **K**_ _n_ _ **i**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **."**_ She said to him which confused him slightly until she started to decompose and break down into dead leaves, flower petals and twigs.

Things started to piece together, with some loose ends, but it didn't matter….

"Oh god, I need to warn him." Bruce said out loud as he leaped out of the broken window and glided towards his batmobile so he can contact his friend and maybe reach there in time.

 _ **-Naruto's Loft-**_

The former shinobi had gotten back to his loft after a long day and he felt completely drained, both physically and emotionally. Naruto tried to keep a positive look all day when he visited Selina at the prison and at work but it started to take a toll on him.

Don't get him wrong on visiting Selina, he actually enjoyed it very well as it did raise his spirits up a bit on getting to know more of his kindred spirited friend. It made him feel comfortable to relate with her more on his past of both of them were practically raised on the streets and had interesting childhoods. Naruto needed every positive feeling he could get to get him through the day.

He didn't have much of a workload today but every so often he would keep shedding tears that it was hard for him to focus on anything. The publisher even tried to work out his problems by writing to help relieve the stress, but it wasn't doing any progress on getting better as it made it worse. Adding that to his sleeping problem started getting him to be a wreck.

In the past several days since Pam disappeared, he kept on having nightmares of her dead in his arms and her blaming him on not being there sooner to save him. Even dreamt of her being in his home reality in various parts of his past that she replaced those that died in front of him. From Haku being impaled by Kakashi's Raikiri, Ryuuzetsu trading her life to save his, Hinata impaled by Nagato/Pein…..

The last one lived though but still not the point.

Each and every one of those nightmares kept Naruto up at night and made it hard for him to sleep.

He rubbed his eyes in exhaustion as he made it to his medicine cabinet so he could take some pills to maybe help him sleep better.

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

'Who's calling this late?' Naruto thought before answering, "Naruto Uzumaki speaking."

" _Naruto! Thank god you're there! Listen, you need to listen to me!"_

"Whoa whoa Bruce! What's the matter?" The hazel eyed male said as his friend seemed frantic all of a sudden.

" _Do you know what's going on with the industrialist disappearances?"_

"Ah….I don't know about that Bruce. From worrying about Pam and not listening to the news as of late, it might've passed me by." Naruto replied to his friend. "And what about them anyways?"

" _There have been abductions going on for several days now and they have been all industrialists connected to harming the environment one way or another."_

"Question: Why would I be concerned about them?" Naruto asked in frustration. With the mixture of his exhaustion and frustration that the question is bringing up what Pam is very much against is getting him on the edge now.

*Knock Knock* *Knock Knock*

"Huh, wonder who's at the door." The former shinobi muttered as he walked over while still talking to his friend. "I'll ask again. Why should I be concerned about them?"

" _Naruto, you need to listen to me!"_ The billionaire pleaded. _"You're being targeted!"_

"What do you mean I'm targeted?" Naruto questioned. "I use recycled materials for my books and merchandise so I hopefully don't anger environmentalists."

*Knock Knock* *Knock Knock*

"I'm coming!" Naruto yelled out to the person at the door. "But seriously Bruce, why am I targeted by this assailant? It doesn't make sense since I'm not an industrialist."

" _It's not that Naruto, but the person doing the act?"_

"Then who is it?" Naruto asked as he opened the door.

" _Naruto, It's Pamela! She's the one behind all of the kidnappings!"_

…

" _Naruto?….Naruto are you still there?"_

There was no response as the cellular phone soon slipped through the silverette grasp before it broke on the floor. A state of shock came over the publisher as his heart seemed to skip a beat or two and his hands started to shake.

"...P-Pam….I-Is that you?" Naruto hesitantly said as he raised his hands towards her. He needed to confirm that she was real and not a waking dream. With each fraction of a second, his eyes started to well up with tears.

She smiled as she grabbed his hands and brought them to her face. "Yes it is Naruto, my love."

Hearing her voice, despite it seeming different, made him know that this was Pam... _his_ Pam. The damn broke and hugged her for dear life as he kept calling out her name.

"Oh Kami I'm-I'm so sorry Pam. Please forgive me." He cried to her as she ran her hand through his hair. "I-I wish...I could've-"

"Shh-Shh… It's okay Naruto." She said to him. "I'm here. It's all that matters."

"B-But how… H-How are you alive? How are you even standing here Pam?"

"Your voice my love." Pam said to him as he pulled back from the hug with confusion on his face. "Hearing your voice kept me going...Kept me fighting until I could wake up."

This brought a smile to his face as his tears kept on streaming as he truly felt happy that she had heard him during those days at the hospital….. Wait…

"B-But where were you Pam? Who took you?" Naruto asked in conviction as he hardened his gaze so he can track the people who did this to his flower.

"The Green took me. It fixed me up and made me all better…. Stronger even."

"The what?" He questioned. What was this 'Green' and did she just say it fixed her and made her stronger?

"The elemental force of all plant life on the planet my love. It deemed me worthy of being one of its champions."

"...And what would these champions do exactly?" A dreaded feeling started to surface in his chest when he heard that.

"To protect all plant life at any cost, even if it means to take the lives of those who harm against it." She said with a smile in her face.

Naruto soon remembered what Bruce told him over the phone that industrialists have gone missing and it wasn't hard to guess that Pam was behind it. He let go of her and started backing away from her with worry on his face.

"T-Tell me you're joking Pam. Th-This isn't funny."

"I'm afraid I'm not beloved." She said as she was walking towards him after shutting the door behind her so there wouldn't be any interruptions.

"T-Then you were the one who took them didn't you…. Those industrialists."

"Yes; they had it coming for what they had done. They will pay for their crimes soon enough." She said as she got closer to the silverette.

"They could be put on trial for what they had done." Naruto defended as he ended up hitting the kitchen counter.

"It's not good enough. Their crimes are too serious for the regular justice system to deal with. They must pay with their lives."

"Please Pam, you don't have to do this."

"But I must…. For the preservation of nature itself."

She was right in front of him now blocking his way from escaping….or so she thought. Naruto could phase his way through but he didn't want to do it in front of her and show her his secret. He didn't want to risk it.

"Please Pam…. you're scaring me."

"Then let me ease your worries." Pam said as she grabbed his face and planted her lips towards him. Naruto struggled a bit before he closed his eyes as he missed this feeling as her lips were on his while their tongues caressed each other.

But soon he felt pain like no other welling up inside of him as he started to shake uncontrollably. This got Pam out of her long awaited pleasure to open her eyes to see Naruto writhe in pain against her.

"Naruto!" She yelled out as she held her against him as he started wheezing and struggled for breath as his skin started to go sickly white with a green tint with lines on his face. Not to mention the green and black lines appearing on his face. He looked at her with teary eyes as he felt truly scared of her.

'No! I need to save him! I can't lose him! Not now!' She thought as she grew a flower from a seed in her hand and had it morphed into a stinger. It soon went to Naruto's neck and injected a serum in hopes of healing whatever cause that has happened to him. After a few moments, the lines started to slowly recede as his skin color started to return to its normal color.

'Thank Gaea. I didn't want to see him die.' The champion of the green thought as she held his unconscious form. The pain was too much for Naruto as he passed out even when the vaccine was injected to him.

"I need to take him to the garden. He'll be safe there, I'm sure of it." She said to herself as her body started to shift with her forest green eyes going evergreen with black sclera and her skin tone became pale green with vine like tattoos forming. The clothes she was wearing started to go into a green color to show they were leaves in the first place.

She waved her hand and the various plants in his loft grew vines and went to the patio doors and opened them. Soon a giant tree branch came from below the patio and into the loft near the couple.

" _ **D**_ _o_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **w**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _r_ _ **y**_ _m_ _ **y**_ _l_ _ **o**_ _v_ _ **e.**_ _A_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **w**_ _i_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **w**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **s**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **."**_ Pam stated in her dual voice as she and her beloved were lifted up from underneath and were wrapped around for protection. This was all done before the giant tree branch was taken outside and quickly shot down to the ground below.

As this happened, the Batmobile had just arrived to the scene.

"Dammit! I was too late!" Batman yelled out as he slammed his fists onto the steering wheel.

"I need to call Dick. I'll need his help on this." He said as he drove off to head back to the Batcave to prepare to get the industrialists and Naruto back from Dr. Isley's clutches.

 _ **-Later, Gotham Outskirts-**_

"I hope we are at the right place Bruce," Robin said to his father figure for nearly a decade, "If not then we might be too late."

"We won't Dick. We are at the right place." Batman said as he slowed the batmobile to a stop.

"How can you be so sure?"

"The dead leaves and flower petals for one. They come from a rare species of plants that only grow in certain parts of Eastern Europe and Asia. It would seem impossible for them to be located here in the states but where we are going have the nearest ones." The hero explained to his protege.

"If you say so."

Robin, otherwise known as Dick Grayson, was at his campus dorm room working on some homework when he had gotten the call that Batman needed help. There had only been several times when he did that when there was a big emergency that would require backup. Other times, Bruce didn't want to bother Dick ever since he got into college so that school came first and didn't want his foster son to struggle between both school and patrolling. Dick understood that notion and would only go out on patrols with Batman on either free nights or if something important came up….which tonight was one of them.

The two got out of the vehicle and walked to the back seat to pull out some equipment that they rarely used, which was primarily for when dealing with fires. But with the current situation, dealing with plants of all things, they would need to improvise. They made their way through the thick forest on foot since using the batmobile could only take them so far. Navigating through a river, a ravine and several other obstacles made things take longer than they should but they eventually made it to their destination: Wonder City's (Old Gotham) Grand Greenhouse.

When Gotham was originally called Wonder City two hundred or so years ago, there were many attractions to help promote the city for tourists and the sort. The Grand Greenhouse was one of them due to how diverse and exotic many of its flora was from being gathered from many corners of the globe. Unfortunately, the place was soon abandoned when Wonder City started to become Gotham City as it opened up a closer greenhouse within its borders, which soon became a botanical garden. Since then the place had been labeled as 'Private Property' and an occasional police car would stop on by to see if anyone broke into the place.

The dynamic duo soon came onto the chained up gate of the Grand Greenhouse and had cut off the chains for when the police to arrive to get the hostaged industrialists to safety. From there, the two used their grappling guns to get to the higher part of the greenhouse so they could survey the area below and see if there are any available entrances. They had to watch their step since the glass roof had various cracks on most of the panels and they didn't want to either break through them and get themselves cut up.

"Ok, I think I see something on the far end." Robin pointed out while standing on the metal frame of the building. "The glowing orbs of sorts help a bit with the condensed foliage here. Your call on what to do Batman."

"We should probably split up to not be caught that easily. Remember Robin, these plants are sentient now due to whatever happened to Dr. Isley. We need to watch our backs, detain her and rescue the hostages. She plans on killing them soon."

"Good to know, but what about Naruto? I wouldn't imagine her wanting to harm him in any sort of way."

"Me neither. But that doesn't mean that I don't want to know what she has planned for him."

The two saw broken window panels not far from them and they used their grappling lines to descend from them. Once on the ground, the two headed off to their own to get to the other side of the greenhouse but tried to keep visual contact with each other if needed. Making their way through, they saw many plants move about on their own that made them pause to see if there was any patterns at all in their movements before advancing.

It wasn't long until they got near their designated target when the light seemed to grow brighter. When both of them pushed aside some of the foliage, they saw Dr. Pamela Isley on a giant tree branch being moved around while all of the hostages were upside down inside of translucent green pods with some liquid underneath them. The two kept trying to find Naruto but there was no success, he must've been kept further away from the industrialists.

" _I_ _ **s**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _n_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _f_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **c**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **…."**_ Pam said to the captured industrialists with a smile before glaring at them. _**"B**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _w_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **l**_ _d_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u k**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **….Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _l_ _ **y**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **a**_ _p_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **y**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _k_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **q**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _c_ _ **k**_ _b_ _ **u**_ _c_ _ **k."**_

The hostages started to struggle causing the pods to move slightly. *Giggle* _**"**_ _Y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **k**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **, i**_ _f_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _e_ _ **r,**_ _I_ _ **s**_ _u_ _ **g**_ _g_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _m_ _ **o**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _m_ _ **u**_ _c_ _ **h."**_

Seeing their confused looks, she waved her hand and one of the pods opened up slightly to one industrialist with a pair of glasses. _**"**_ _Y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **e,**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **s**_ _i_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **n**_ _i_ _ **v**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **p**_ _l_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _s_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **y**_ _w_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **l**_ _d_ _ **k**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _p_ _ **t**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **l i**_ _n_ _ **s**_ _i_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _u_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **m**_ _s_ _ **q**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _r_ _ **m**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **."**_

The changed botanist soon grabbed the man's glasses and dangled them above the liquid. _**"O**_ _b_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _v_ _ **e."**_

The action presented itself that as soon as the glasses fell onto the liquid, it didn't take long for it to dissolve.

" _T_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **q**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _d_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e h**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _a_ _ **b**_ _o_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **f**_ _r_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **i**_ _r_ _ **'s**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _c_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **c**_ _i_ _ **d**_ _s_ _ **' a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **y**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _y_ _ **m**_ _u_ _ **c**_ _h_ _ **h**_ _u_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **r**_ _y_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r s**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _n_ _ **a**_ _c_ _ **k**_ _s_ _ **. S**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **I'**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _b_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _f_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **s**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **s**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _b_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **n**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **u**_ _p_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **b**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _m_ _ **y**_ _p_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _l_ _ **e**_ _b_ _ **a**_ _b_ _ **i**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _y_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **m**_ _a_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **."**_

This caused the other captives to squirm badly despite from what they just heard. Robin not wanting things to go out of hand drew out a birdarang and threw it with precise accuracy in hopes of cutting the bottom portion of the pods.

What he didn't expect was some of the tree branches to quickly move in the weapon's path, blocking it.

'Dammit Robin.' Batman thought to himself before Pam called them out.

" _ **Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **w**_ _o_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _c_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **. I**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **d**_ _y_ _ **k**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _w_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _w_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **m**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **p**_ _p_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **g**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _h_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **."**_ She said as she turned her 'branch bed' around facing the two. Batman and Robin decided to step out from their hiding places with them some distance away from the botanist.

"You need to stop this Dr. Isley, this isn't you at all." Batman said to the botanist as she leaned against her 'bed'.

" _ **I**_ _t_ _ **'s**_ _I_ _ **v**_ _y_ _ **a**_ _c_ _ **t**_ _u_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _y_ _ **….P**_ _o_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **I**_ _v_ _ **y,**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **I'**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **m**_ _b_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **c**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **I**_ _a_ _ **m."**_

"But what about Naruto Uzumaki?" He said getting her to flinch slightly. "Would he be fine with this?"

" _H_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **o**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **I**_ _a_ _ **m**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _s_ _ **e."**_ She stated. _**"**_ _S_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _c_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _w_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **l**_ _d_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **f**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **w**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **o**_ _I_ _ **c**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _l_ _ **y**_ _a_ _ **m."**_

"But what I don't get is why have you taken him?"

Ivy turned towards Robin on that question and replied with a smile. _**"**_ _E_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _y_ _ **q**_ _u_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _k_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _f_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ __ _b_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l.**_ _H_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **o**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **l**_ _y_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _w_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **l**_ _d_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _b_ _ **y**_ _m_ _ **y**_ _s_ _ **i**_ _d_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t.**_ _T_ _ **h**_ _r_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **g**_ _h_ _ **s**_ _i_ _ **c**_ _k_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _s_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _p_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **t."**_

'Whatever has happened to her made her loss it.' Batman thought to himself and unknown to him Robin was thinking the same thing.

" _ **Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **, w**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **m**_ _u_ _ **c**_ _h_ _ **d**_ _i_ _ **f**_ _f_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **f**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **l."**_ She stated as circled around the Dynamic Duo. _**"**_ _W_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _v_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **s**_ _p_ _ **u**_ _n_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _i_ _ **r**_ _c_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **s."**_

"From what I can tell Ivy, you want to go to the extreme." Robin stated.

" _B_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **. T**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _s_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **g**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _x_ _ **t**_ _r_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **p**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _g_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _s_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **. N**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _c_ _ **o**_ _s_ _ **t."**_ She stated with conviction.

"Then it seems we will need to take you down." Batman said as he and Robin readied themselves by closing their capes and attaching their equipment onto their arms.

" _ **I**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **."**_ Ivy said as she slowly glared at them. _ **"T**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **b**_ _a_ _ **b**_ _i_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **s**_ _h_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **l**_ _d_ _ **g**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u w**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **s**_ _f_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _m_ _ **y**_ _p_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **c**_ _i_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _g_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **n."**_

Soon vines and roots sprouted from the ground and started to form into various carnivorous beings that would attack at a moment's notice. As this happened, the two heroes opened their capes to reveal chainsaws attached to their arms and revved them up to show they mean business.

" _ **D**_ _e_ _ **v**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **!"**_ She commanded as two venus fly trap monsters stampeded towards them. The two heroes jumped and slashed their way easily before running forward to take care of Ivy.

Vines unwrapped themselves from various columns and shot their way towards the two men and ensnared them in their thorny grasps. The two were starting to draw blood because of how sharp the thorns are. They struggled to get free as they had to shift their arms carefully so the chainsaw blades won't hit them. Soon they had gotten themselves out before landing onto the ground for yet another problem on their hands.

Moss and algae from the moat crept onto the two heroes and ensnared them causing further struggles without them noticing vines throwing broken pillars their way. Robin was able to get out of his entrapment quick enough, but not his father figure.

"Batman!" Robin cried out as the pillar slammed into the Dark Knight closer to the changed botanist.

Ivy stepped off of her 'branch bed' and onto a giant root before it went towards the Caped Crusader. Once it got close, Ivy leaned forward and blew a cloud of pink spores onto the hero causing him to cough uncontrollably. As this was going on, more of her vines were tossing various debris towards the orphaned Grayson to distract him from what Ivy had in store.

" _ **Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _k_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **w…."**_ She said. _**"**_ _W_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _I_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **e**_ _r,_ _ **I'**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _y_ _ **s**_ _w_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _w_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **l**_ _d_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **k**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **w**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _f_ _ **i**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _m_ _ **e."**_

"Batman! Are you ok?!" Dick called out as he got closer until he saw an eerie green glow come from Batman's eyes and his skin turning a tad pale.

" _S_ _ **o**_ _b_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _f_ _ **i**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **p**_ _r_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _g_ _ **e**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **."**_ Ivy said with a sadistic smile before sitting back onto her root and went higher to enjoy the show.

" _As you command."_ Batman said in a dead voice before lunging at his foster son.

Robin had to dodge several swings of Batman's arm-chainsaws before kicking him away to end up hitting the gravel and damaging the equipment. The mind controlled hero ripped them off from his gloves before dashing forward to send several punches at the traffic light themed hero who tried to block and evade them. As this was going on, Dick had to take off the chainsaw equipment from his arms so he doesn't end up cutting up Bruce in the process.

"Batman! You need to fight it! Don't let her control you!" The college student pleaded as he blocked several punches and kicks before having to run away to think of a way to get Bruce out of her control.

" _ **H**_ _e_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u!**_ _H_ _ **e**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _l_ _ **y**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _u_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **I**_ _s_ _ **a**_ _y_ _ **s**_ _o_ _ **."**_ Ivy called out. _**"S**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **l**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **n,**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _f_ _ **u**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _u_ _ **k**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t."**_

As the two heroes fought quite a distance away, something else was going on. At a hidden part of the greenhouse where the changed botanist is keeping her 'king', something is going on inside of the silverette.

 _ **-Naruto's Mindscape, Insert**_ _ **My Heart's Descent Extended**_ _ **-**_

"...Well…...this is interesting." Stated the Uzumaki as he was walking through the darkness of his mind. "Last time I was here I was just floating….now I'm walking…..progress."

During the various times he had been inside of his mindscape for training, all he could ever do was just float through the void and not even touch a single thing. It was like he was in an endless abyss of water that he couldn't do a thing but let the currents move him. It eventually lead him to be able to access some abilities he has a good understanding in but felt there was more to him to tap into.

Now, after all this time, he no longer was swimming and being drifted along in the dark void to be led for Kami knows how long till he found something useful as he is now…..walking in the same scenario. With each step he took make a ripple on the ground with a slight shimmer. He kept walking for sometime before coming to an edge on his path making him having to turn to some random direction to keep moving forward.

"Pam….What happened to you?...What made you this way?"

Naruto was scared of what happened to his beloved flower of her turning out to be very different from the woman he grew to know and love. It made his heart heavy in guilt and regret that he truly felt he was to blame for what had occurred to her. As his sadness and despair grew, so did this abyss he was walking through. He didn't pay attention to his footing as he soon fell off the path and started to fall.

Naruto didn't care anymore now as he possibly could end up falling to his death. But as he kept on falling further, he ended up seeing little lights of all things in this endless void. His curiosity got the better of him as he reached out to one of them. When he did, he didn't expect to see something peculiar.

" _Mommy, Mommy." A young, redheaded girl cried out with a smile. "Look, the roses I planted bloomed just like you said."_

 _The older woman smiled at her child and ruffled her hair a little. "Yes they have my sweet little flower. Being planted and treated with love and care will help make them blossom into something wonderful."_

" _I hope I can make a garden as wonderful like this when I'm older or even better."_

" _I'm sure you will Pamela."_

"I-Is this….Is this Pam's memory of her mother?" Naruto asked to no one in particular as he felt something in his chest that made him happy. "B-But how am I seeing this?"

The memory ended as Naruto ended up touching a dark spark of sorts by accident and saw something dreary and horrifying.

" _Mommy…. Where are you?... I miss you." Child Pam muttered to herself with tears in her eyes as she was tending to the garden._

 _She soon felt something when her little shovel dug into the dirt. Her curiosity got the better of her as she dug a little further and moved the dirt around to see….hair._

" _That's odd….." She muttered as she used her hands to move more of the dirt until she felt skin. Moving a bit more out of the way until she saw her face…. her mother's face staring back at her._

" _Mommy!" Child Pam yelled in fright before she screamed and cried for her loving mother._

" _O-Oh Kami, Pam… I'm so sorry." Naruto said as he remembered when Pam told him on how her mother died. Listening to the story was one thing but actually seeing it…._

" _What's going to happen to her now?" A woman said off to the side as the funeral was taking place._

" _I don't know, but I hope little Pamela can be able to deal with the foster family she'll be living with now." The other person replied as the two stared at the redheaded child still sitting in her chair in front of where her mother was buried._

Once that memory ended, Naruto soon gazed among all of the lights, both the bright and dark ones, and soon realized they were all of Pam's memories. The light being her happiest of memories while the dark being the worst.

Naruto saw several dark sparks coming near him and he didn't want to see and feel any of them so he had to push himself away so he could maybe see more of her happier moments of her life. He was successful in seeing many of them as his heart started to feel 'lighter' on experiencing the smaller moments of Pam's greatest moments of her life. From entering her dream college, meeting her long time friends Alec and Linda, and so many others. Soon things started to change as Naruto saw something that made his eyes water and felt truly touched.

" _Hey mom…. it's been awhile." Pam said as she was tending the little garden on her mother's snowy grave. "Sorry that I haven't been visiting as of late to talk to you about my problems and whatnot as usual."_

 _There was no response but Pam continued regardless._

" _I-I've met someone." The botanist said with a nervous smile thinking her mother is going to egg her for answers. "He's very sweet and kind and is very supportive towards my work."_

 _Pam gazed at her finished work as she stood up and dusted herself off before sitting on her mother's headstone before looking up at the sky._

" _He's quite compassionate and loving towards those that he is friends and being with him makes me happy to just even be near him. He helps out what he can whenever possible till he gets his task done. Of what I can tell you might really like him since he was a lot like you when you were alive."_

 _A gentle breeze came by to make Pam feel that her mother was actually there now._

" _To tell you the truth, I…. I've started to fall in love with him." Pam said as she felt warm when confessing that. "I want to be with him always and make him happy no matter what."_

 _She got off of the headstone and walked off a little with a small smile. "I wish you could be here to actually meet him….So you could officially approve of him dating me."_

Once that memory ended, he couldn't stop crying with how touched and how loved he was. He made a promise then and there that he will find her mother's resting place and talk to her so that maybe her spirit could truly feel at peace that Pam found the love of her life.

As he passed by the last remaining sparks, he felt himself flip over and land softly onto solid ground. Not feeling he was in any water anymore, Naruto wiped away the rest of his tears to hopefully calm himself down but one stray fell off his cheek and landed onto the darkened surface.

 _ **-Insert Destati Extended-**_

Soon a bright light was shown causing the former shinobi to block his eyes so he wouldn't be blinded, but he would soon regret it as the current surface started to dissolve away to show a stained glass portrait. When the moment passed, he slowly opened his eyes to see the intricate portrait in all its detail until he saw two faces of the same person.

"Pam?" He said as he walked to one end to see the normal Pam he knew and loved but when he saw the other he saw differences that were present from the skin tone, the tattoos and the leaf like clothing. The two were surrounded by flowers and thorny vines with an reddish-orange background. The last bit of the portrait that was shown was the crack separating the two with vines trying to mend the damage.

"What is this?"

" _ **Her heart Naruto Uzumaki."**_ A voice called out from the darkness.

"Who's there?!" Naruto called out in surprise as he tried to pinpoint the source. "And what did you mean 'her heart'?"

" _ **It is like I said: her heart….or would you prefer her mind…. her soul."**_

"I-I don't know but it doesn't matter. Who are you and can I please get some answers?"

" _ **Very well."**_

Soon the surface started to shake causing Naruto to fall over before the silverette gazed to the side where the odd Pam was placed and saw a tree grow and form till it was roughly double Naruto's size. Once things settled down, Naruto gazed at the tree and inspected it when he got closer.

"A tree?" He questioned as he scratched his head and knocked it a few times. "Ok I'm confused."

" _ **Would you please not do that?"**_ The voice asked causing Naruto to step back a bit.

*Chuckle* "Sorry on that."

" _ **It's quite alright Naruto Uzumaki."**_ The voice addressed the silverette.

"So….You're a tree."

" _ **Quite the assumption you have there."**_

"I have a feeling you were being a bit sarcastic there."

" _ **Obviously."**_

Wanting to move onto his questions he wanted to state the obvious. "So….mind telling me your name since you clearly know mine."

" _ **Ah… how rude of me."**_ The being said as a glowing silhouette was formed from the tree to address the silverette. _**"My name is Yggdrasil…. and I need your help."**_

Naruto thought where that name sounded familiar until it finally clicked. "Yggdrasil….as in the Yggdrasil from Norse mythology?"

" _ **The same."**_

"Eh….Ok so why do you want to talk to me and need my help no less?" Naruto asked in confusion. This was a first that an actual tree is asking for his help.

" _ **I need your help to get your mate, Pamela Lillian Isley, under control."**_ Yggdrasil stated to the publisher.

"W-What do you mean?" Naruto asked in shock. "Do you mean to tell me that she isn't in her right mind?"

" _ **Indeed she is young sapling."**_ The being stated as he continued. _**"You see, on the night when Pamela was attacked by her late supervisor, Dr. Jason Woodrue, she accidentally injected herself with her serum both she and the Hollands had created for the benefit of all plant life. When it went into her bloodstream, it started a change that made the Parliament of Trees quite interested to see unfold similar to Alec Holland when he came in contact with the serum. But unlike him of dying and slowly becoming our agent among you humans, she actually survived and is among the living."**_

Naruto had some thoughts running through his head on what the Parliament of Trees were and how Alec Holland was involved but those could be answered at a later time.

" _ **We need champions to help serve and protect nature in our delicate balance or else all life will die. So by rare chances we can be able to find our champions and help protect things accordingly. But many of them have been limited due to their…. appearances and start causing panic among the locals."**_

Soon a faint image was shown off to the side getting Naruto see what Yggdrasil meant and….. yeah they were pretty monstrous. If those beings were seen in public, massive problems would arise and whatnot.

" _ **So when Pamela peaked our interests in her critical condition, we took the chance and had to change her to become our first human elemental of the Green."**_

"You mean to tell me you and your Parliament took her?!" Naruto growled out. "Do you have any idea what you caused me to deal with of practically losing her?!"

" _ **I know and we are sorry on doing such a thing as we were impatient at the time."**_ Yggdrasil said apologetically. _**"Even more so when we realized on her….. condition."**_

"...What condition?" The silverette asked not liking where this was going.

" _ **There was more to the head wound than it appeared as it had damaged her mind to separate a bit from the Pamela you know and love to the Pamela that is the darker part of her soul that now calls herself Poison Ivy."**_

The image of the monstrous form was replaced by both Pamela's side by side from the normal and the other one.

" _ **We wanted her to work alongside the humans to at least get things fixed up so future generations could survive and work from there. But with how damaged the world is, she would need everything to her disposal. So we ended up giving her more power than we realized when we remade her and that was mostly our failure."**_ The tree said with slight sorrow in it's voice.

"What happened?" Naruto asked in worry.

" _ **With the damage of her mind and the darker aspects taking control, Poison Ivy felt drunken with power and many of her buried urges sprang forth of her wanting justice towards nature in extreme fashion. We tried to reign her back under control but with how much power we ended up giving her, she just shrugged it off like we weren't really there. So we, the Parliament of Trees, ask you Naruto Uzumaki, to stop what she is doing in any way possible so she doesn't end up damaging things further."**_

Naruto processed all of the information he was given by the ancient tree that a lot had happened all because of them being impatient. They should've waited for Pam to get better in the head before coming to her and modifying her to their needs. Even when they would've done it then, he would've wanted to hear her opinion before anything progressed further. But what was done is done and nothing can go back and change things.

*Sigh* "Ok I get all that Yggdrasil and I'll see what I can do, but I have one question that comes to mind."

" _ **Which is?..."**_

"How are you able to contact me?" Naruto asked. "I figure this would be rare for you to do I take it."

" _ **Indeed it is."**_ Yggdrasil stated. _**"In the past, we have communicated to those that are connected to nature, which are very rare in few. It was also rare for some to get in contact with us if they weren't connected through any of the forces but we keep our methods a secret."**_

"That still doesn't answer my question." The silverette said in slight impatience.

" _ **There are a few reasons on how I was able to contact you. One is dealing with your physical body that is being suspended by Ivy's vines and it takes a while for one to be connected to the Green. Two is the love that both sides of Pamela hold deeply for you that it's practically a part of the foundation of her very being. Lastly….. Well how do I put this….. It matters with your soul."**_

"My soul?"

" _ **Yes….When I tried to use the first method of you 'hooked' up through Ivy's plants that normally it takes time to get through but something inside of you made the connection easily. During the time to fully contact you, I decided to search and I found traces of nature connected to it. In fact you had used it several times years ago and there is very little left as we speak."**_

Naruto closed his eyes and adopted a thinking pose to think on that reason before a thought came to mind.

"I think I know." Naruto said to the ancient tree. "Back where I came from, I had undergone Sage training and had to take in natural energy into my being so I could get stronger."

Yggdrasil hummed in thought before replying. _**"Plausible but I have a feeling that's not just it."**_

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked before he felt the ground underneath him start to shake slightly.

" _ **I'm afraid our chat has come to a close now young sapling and I must depart."**_ The tree stated as parts of the tree started to fade away.

"But how can I save Pam?" Naruto pleaded to the ancient being. "Isn't there something you could do to help me on this."

There was no response for a few moments before Yggdrasil spoke. _**"I might think of one way."**_

As the being said that, a tree branch shot forth towards Naruto's chest and went inside of him. There was no pain on the entry but the silverette felt something stir before the branch pulled out and receded back.

"What was that?" The man said as he rubbed his chest on the odd feeling.

" _ **Giving you better access to what nature energy you have left with me adding to it so it can stabilize."**_ Yggdrasil said as the rest of his 'tree form' started to fade away. _**"Use it wisely young sapling and save your mate from herself."**_

"I will and thank you." The Uzumaki said as he bowed to the ancient tree.

Once the tree faded, the shaking started to increase causing Naruto to fall to the ground as the platform started to tilt. The publisher started to slide off to the edge causing him to grab ahold of it with all his might but it wouldn't last too long. The increase of shaking caused his hand to let go and plummet into the darkness before a blinding light appeared.

 _ **-Waking World-**_

*Gasp* Naruto's eyes shot opened as he took in deep breaths since it felt he was suffocating for who knows how long. He looked around and saw where his current placement was at with him tied up in vines causing him to struggle.

"Dammit Pam, did you have to wrap me up too tight. *Groan* You want me to die with my ribs crushed or something."

Naruto decided to stop his struggles and focused his energy around him to slowly phase him through his holding before falling onto the ground with a thud.

"Ow….didn't realize my legs were asleep or else I could've landed that." He said as he started dragging himself to the nearest rock so he could climb back up. After massaging them for a bit of time and slowly standing up, he was able to walk again with some slight tingles.

"So….how can I get out of this?" Naruto said to himself as he looked around for an exit before seeing vines and branches. He was thinking to phase right through as a thought came to mind.

"I wonder…."

He closed his eyes before bringing his hand out and looked deep inside for what nature energy he had left. He eventually found it and drew it out before feeling a weight in his grasp. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted with a large, elegant looking scythe. The curved handle had a faded, grey-green color while the blade was silvery white giving the overall appearance of a plucked flower. The connection between the two parts was the sharp cross with a black background that was on his other summoned weapons.

"Well….didn't expect to see this." He said as he started doing some practice swings to see how to work with it. He started circling around with several swings and put in a lot of weight into them for more force. He staggered a bit but corrected his form so that he could hopefully not deal with that little problem later. Soon he decided to see how doing it one hand would work and started to spin it to make it appear like a pinwheel of sorts before having to use two hands so it wouldn't let go of his grasp.

Deciding it was enough doing this sort of thing, he swung his weapon at the vines and started making his way through the dense pathway to hopefully get out of the area. It took a while due to the maze like forest but he eventually found an opening that could possibly be the end of the wrap around.

"Man….Pam must've really wanted me hidden if trying to go through this area is being too much of a hassle." He muttered as he stepped partially into the light to see what was before him of Robin….fighting Batman?

"Batman! You need to fight it! Don't let her control you!" The traffic light themed hero pleaded as he blocked several punches and kicks before having to run away from Batman.

" _ **H**_ _e_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u!**_ _H_ _ **e**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _l_ _ **y**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _u_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **I**_ _s_ _ **a**_ _y_ _ **s**_ _o_ _ **."**_ Ivy called out. _**"S**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **l**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **n,**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _f_ _ **u**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _u_ _ **k**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t."**_

"Well….That's not good." Naruto said as he ducked back into the darkness. "Was hoping I could get out of here without being noticed but I can't leave those two guys out there fighting against each other."

He looked back down and saw his current attire and then his 'flower' scythe. "I could go out there and help out but then it'll draw too much attention to myself and my secret will be out in the open….If only I had my suit then I can assist those two stop Ivy."

Naruto thought on a way to fix all that before remembering his 'conjuring' ability and thought of possibly making his own outfit to as close as possible. Closing his eyes, he focused to cover himself up for the ordeal that is about to happen. After a few moments, he looked to see his vision darkened to show he was wearing something over his head. This caused him to look around for a reflection to inspect himself as he soon did from a puddle nearby.

"Damn I look good." Naruto said as he twisted and turned himself around to get a better look of himself.

He wore a black and white organic-looking bodysuit with faint, white lines on his chest and it transitioned from black to greyish-white on his elbows to show white forearms. The same was pretty similar on his legs of transitioning colors from his knees to form white combat boots. He also had a torn up cloth hanging around his waist that was held up by several grey belts. To finish off the outfit, he wore a dark glass like helmet with silver on the bottom to frame his jaw and wrapped around his head.

"Oh yeah….I think when this is all over, I'm gonna stick with this bad boy. Wonder if I could possibly merge this with my armor I got from Kurama to make it even better." Naruto said with a hidden smile.

Once his inspection was done, he decided to move his way upwards with his silent manipulation so he can assess the situation.

"Hmm….So Ivy is lounging on a giant tree root with those captive industrialists some distance away from her. The dynamic duo are entertaining Pam obviously so that will distract her long enough for me to cut them down before I help out." Naruto concluded. "Simple enough."

Naruto jumped down from his placement with his silent manipulation still active, he sneaked his way through before getting close to the first.

"….Seems I won't be getting them out easily since they are unconscious." He muttered as he saw the captives upside down with their eyes closed suspended above some acid like liquid.

"If I can't get them out that way then I might as well drain the pod." He said as he used his silence manipulation to surround each of the pods. With scythe in hand, he made big enough incisions to drain the pod causing the pods to move but with the 'sound barrier' around them, nothing was going to reach on through to Ivy.

"Now to help Robin out on this." He said as he willed his scythe away for the time being.

Naruto climbed his way up at a good height above the ground on a big enough tree for what he was about to do. He took several steps back before taking a sprint towards the Dark Knight and lept at him.

"Dynamic Entry!" Naruto yelled out causing the others to look at him in surprise before both of Naruto's feet hit Batman on the chest, sending him into the water face first. Not long after, the water went into a faint pink color before it went back to normal.

"Hiya." said the masked publisher as he waved to Robin and Ivy. After that he looked over to the prone form of Batman and started to freak out.

"Oh no! I killed him!" Naruto cried out as he pulled Batman from the water and shaking him like a loon. "I'm now a murderer! *Sniffle* Whatever shall I do?!"

Naruto soon let go of Batman from his grasps, causing the masked hero to end up back in the water. "Oh I know, I should take his place and defend Gotham to make up for what just transpired."

Soon Batman rose from the water and glared at the masked man with a twitch to his eye.

"What are you doing here Nobody?" The Dark Knight growled out in annoyance.

"And he's back." Robin said in relief as he walked towards his foster father.

" _I_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **k**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **o**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **I**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e."**_ Ivy called out to the new arrival. _**"B**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _I_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **p**_ _e_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _j_ _ **o**_ _y_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _s_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **p**_ _l_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **d."**_

She willed her carnivorous pods to rise up into the air until she saw what happened to them.

" _M_ _ **y**_ _b_ _ **a**_ _b_ _ **i**_ _e_ _ **s!"**_ She cried out before turning to the black and white themed arrival. _**"**_ _Y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **! Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _d_ _ **i**_ _d_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **d**_ _i_ _ **d**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **?!"**_

"Guilty." Naruto said in a cheerful tone.

" _ **I'**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _k_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _B_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **m**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **R**_ _o_ _ **b**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **e."**_ She yelled out as she summoned giant roots from the ground and slammed them towards the three masked individuals.

"So you're Nobody huh?" Robin said as he dodged one of the roots.

"Seems you've heard of me from Batsy." Naruto said as he had to roll off to the side as other plants started to advance to their positions.

"Yup and I gotta say I like the outfit."

"Thanks and you look not too bad yourself."

"Though I gotta say…." The orphaned Grayson said as he jumped onto one of the roots. "The name doesn't seem to fit."

"Wait what?" Naruto asked in surprise before getting hit by one of the roots. He soon recovered and jumped some distance away.

"Well it seems too simple and not imaginative. Needs to have something edgier I think." Robin said getting Naruto to crouch down and draw circles into the water with a dark cloud over his head.

"But it seemed cool at the time." The masked publisher muttered to himself causing Batman to rub his eyes in slight frustration.

"Will you two focus?!" Batman said as he had to dodge several boulders and vines aimed at him.

"Sorry!" The two yelled out in synch as they brought out their weapons and slashed their way through some of the vines heading their way. From Robin's birdarangs to Naruto's scythe, they made good work taking care of some of the targets.

"Gah!" Robin said as something latched onto his face and pried it off to see….a bonsai tree? He tossed it before slicing it with his bladed weapon not seeing other bonsai trees leaping at him to cause the masked protege to struggle.

"Wow….that is embarrassing." Naruto said out loud with a snicker. "Getting your ass handed to you by those little guys."

"Shut up and help me!" Robin yelled out to the black and white individual as he pried each of the little trees off of him.

"Would like to but…." Naruto drawled out as plant monsters were formed from the ground. "I have some weeds to cut."

He dashed towards the plant monsters and swung his scythe at them to make deep gashes into them before repeating the action by spinning the weapon quicker with more force. This made quick work out of most of them before some wised up and slammed their fists down onto the masked Uzumaki. He was forced to jump into the air only to see some giant boulders heading straight for him. Naruto swung his scythe on instinct and was able to cut right through them with ease.

"Damn." Robin said in surprise as he cut down the last of the bonsai trees. He soon saw the chainsaw attachments nearby and dashed towards them while no attention was on him for the time being. Once he got them on, he made quick work with various plant monsters as he tried to get closer to Batman.

As this was going on, Batman was dealing with Poison Ivy as he had to use his basic instincts to dodge from a lot of the plant obstacles in his way as he tried to get closer to the changed botanist. He wished he had his chainsaw arm attachments at the moment but those were destroyed earlier making him use his batarangs for support.

Naruto was gaining momentum as he slashed through his plant like opponents as he was starting to leave a mixture of black/white vapors with white flower petals in his path. To anyone viewing this, they would've thought he was creating a flower trail of death.

In the confusion of the fighting, Naruto landed near the entrance of the maze to take a slight breather to think of a game plan to get Pam to get out of her senses. One came to mind even though it'll hurt her but it should definately work. Before he left, he focused his energy in hopes of getting this right as he was able to make a clone of himself…..a void clone if you will. With it being similar to his shadow clone, it knew what the plan was as it dashed off with the weapon in hand as the real Naruto deformed his outfit and hid till the time was right.

The clone saw Batman in the distance, who needed assistance causing the masked publisher to focus getting there quicker. In response, he ended up surrounded by the black and white vapors and somehow teleported to their location causing the two combatants to have a momentary pause of surprisal.

Not wasting a moment, Clone Naruto swung his scythe hitting Poison Ivy with the blunt end of the blade causing her to hit the water.

"I think this is enough Ms. Isley." He said to her trying not to sound too cold in tone.

" _I_ _ **t**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **g**_ _h_ _ **w**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **p**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _p_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **k**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **w**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _k_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _p_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **f**_ _e_ _ **."**_ Ivy said to the masked individual.

"I know and it's human nature to keep doing that." The masked individual said to her. "But what about you? Will you keep doing this regardless of what everyone thinks?"

" _ **O**_ _f_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **I**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l."**_ She said with conviction.

"And what about Naruto? Will be fine with what you're doing?" Batman asked the botanist causing her to flinch a bit.

" _O_ _ **-O**_ _f_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **w**_ _i_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **. H**_ _e_ _ **w**_ _i_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **s**_ _u_ _ **p**_ _p_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t."**_ Ivy said to the both of them.

Clone Naruto shook his head before addressing her. "I'm afraid not….Of what I can tell he would be horrified with what you have become."

" _N_ _ **-N**_ _o_ _ **….H-**_ _H_ _ **e**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **'t….**_ _H_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **o**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **I**_ _a_ _ **m."**_ She defended herself on the statement

"Yes he does but not the current you. I have a feeling he would be truly heartbroken to see what you are doing. For all this time he has known you, he probably has known your sweet side and accepted all parts of you. But whatever happened to you since you disappeared in these past days changed you greatly and no longer made you who you were." Batman said as he decided to help push the argument in their favor.

"Face it Pamela, you probably have made him truly scared of you. Causing whatever hope you have in your relationship to wither and die. You might end up becoming like your father." The clone coldly said in a lie. He knew the truth of what happened to her and he will do whatever he can to help her so their relationship can still survive this dark time.

Off to the side, Batman raised an eyebrow on that last statement on how Nobody knew that tidbit of her deceased father. He'll need to figure out who the masked man is after all this with one guess coming to mind.

As this was going on, Poison Ivy was having so many thoughts going through her head as she was starting to shake.

'N-No...I-it's not true….It can't.' Pam thought as she was starting to well up in tears.

' _ **They are lying. He loves us for who we are. We need to get rid of them and be with our beloved….our consort...our king.'**_ The darker Pamela or Poison Ivy spoke out in their mind.

'But what if they are right. Am I becoming like my father?' The lighter Pam thought as this was starting to be too much to bear.

"Pam…." A voice called out causing everyone to look towards the silver haired male coming towards them.

"I think my job here is done. And Robin….I'll think of a better name than Nobody. Until then, later you two." Clone Naruto said as he gave Batman and Robin a two fingered salute before dispersing in black and white smoke.

"N-Naruto…." Pam shakily said as she broke out of her dual voice pattern. She stood up and hesitantly walked towards her beloved. "I-Is it true? Are you really scared of me?"

"I'm afraid they are right Pam. What you did earlier really scared me." Naruto said to her causing her to start shedding tears.

"O-Oh God what have I done?" She questioned as she fell down and started balling her eyes out on her actions.

Naruto came in close and hugged her before looking at the two heroes. "Shouldn't you two help out those industrialists? They should probably get medical attention."

The two nodded and went on their way before taking a quick glance at the silver haired/redhead couple. With Batman, thoughts were running through his head as his thought of Naruto being Nobody was thrown out of the window now. With Robin, he felt sorry on what happened and wished them the best of luck.

"Shhh. Shhh. It's alright Pam I'm here and things will be alright." He said in a hushed tone as he rubbed her back in comfort.

"No it won't." She said as she tried to push him away. "I-I almost killed all those people."

"But that Nobody person saved them didn't he?" Naruto responded as he kept her close to him.

"St-Still th-though….I a-almost went past that line Naruto." Pam said to her love. "I-I almost killed you as well."

Naruto pulled away slightly and lifted her head up so they could meet eye to eye. "But you saved me in the end Pam."

He then leaned forward and captured her lips with his causing her to widen her eyes in shock thinking she is going to kill him again. She tried to push him away but he kept her in place. In the end Pam realized that she isn't affecting him now causing her to hold onto the kiss as she kept crying for a bit longer. It held so much love and felt so right that her mind seemed to be mended a tad better.

"I-I need help Naruto. *Sniffle* I need serious help." She said as she tried to calm herself down after breaking the kiss.

"And we will get you that help….Won't we Batman." Naruto said as he addressed the Caped Crusader.

"Of course we will." Batman said to his hazel eyed friend. Whatever is happening to Pamela is clearly not in her right mind indicated earlier with her breaking down.

After a bit of time, the police arrived to the scene to help take care of things while Batman talked to Commissioner Gordon on what happened. In the end, Pamela was escorted into a police vehicle with power dampening cuffs with Naruto sitting next to her to help comfort her. The officers tried to separate the two but Gordon ended up insistent to let this happen this one time after hearing what occurred and Naruto being the one to calm her down.

 _ **-Arkham Asylum-**_

"...You know, I was quite surprised to hear you wanted to intern here at Arkham Asylum. Anyone who had gone through med school with your high grades could've written their ticket anywhere." A female doctor said as she strolled through the hallways of the building. She was of african american descent with short hair down to her jawline and bangs covering her forehead with dark eyes and pink lip gloss on. She wore a typical doctor's lab coat over her dark blouse with a black skirt and stockings while having a pair of one inch heels.

"Well I've always had quite the interest for extreme personalities. I feel they are more exciting, more challenging, more rewarding…"

"More high profile." The dark skinned doctor finished the intern's thoughts. The intern in question was a blonde woman with fair skin with her hair tied up in a bun with some hanging off into a bang covering part of her vision. She wore a pair of glasses that covered her sapphire blue eyes while wearing a lab coat over her red button up shirt, a black skirt, stockings and one inch heels.

"You have to admit that there is a form of glamor with these patients depending on how severe their cases are." The blonde intern replied back with a slight smile.

"Well I'll have to warn you now that these are hardcore psychotics and if you plan on cashing in on all of this by writing a 'tell all' book then think again." The doctor warned the new addition to the staff. "They will literally eat a novice like you for breakfast."

"Don't worry ma'am. I won't." The intern said to reassure her supervisor at her stay here.

" _Dr. Leland….Paging Dr. LeLand….We need you at the entrance as soon as possible."_ A voice in the intercom spoke out getting the two female's attention.

"Seems they are calling my name. Well it seems we have a new patient coming our way...or a returning one." The now identified Dr. LeLand said with the last bit in a mutter.

"Seems so."

"How about you come along with? Depending on who this new patient is I might assign the person to you tomorrow." Dr. LeLand said as she went on ahead.

"Thank you Joan. I hope I won't let you down."

The two made their way to the entrance to see some police officers there guarding someone behind them until the proper security could transfer the person to their cell. When looking past them, they saw Batman and Robin there and the two wondered who the person was now.

"I'm Dr. Joan LeLand, I can take it from here." The Arkham doctor said getting the police officers to head on back to reveal more of the Dynamic Duo. "Batman….Robin….Good to see you two again."

"Good to see you as well Doc." Robin said while Batman just gave a nod in response.

"So who is the patient this time? Victor Zsasz, the Joker, Jonathan Crane or just some new one that lost their senses." Dr. LeLand guessed.

"The later I'm afraid and this one's a special case."

"How so?" The blonde intern asked not getting much attention from the two crime fighters.

"Well….You might need to see this one." Robin said as he moved away to show Pam in her power dampening handcuffs with Naruto holding onto her.

"Uhh….I don't understand what's going on." The blonde woman asked while voicing the same thoughts as the Arkham doctor.

"This is Pamela Isley and she wants to be committed to Arkham till time unknown." Batman responded.

"And what's the problem exactly?" The intern questioned the Caped Crusader as her training was kicking in to assess the situation. Off to the side, Dr. LeLand had a small smile to see the new intern doing her work right off the bat.

"From what is concluded in our interactions so far indicate she is suffering from a split personality disorder due to a head wound she received last week."

"And why is she wearing….power dampening cuffs?"

"She is a metahuman with plant based powers. It's recommended that she will need to be in an isolation chamber so she doesn't interact with plants that much."

"But from what her boyfriend stated that she would be fine to limit herself to a vase full of flowers to help calm her down on most days." Robin added in getting the intern to look at him quizzically.

"Is that so….Well I'll see what I can do about that." She said as she gazed at the hugging couple with interest and wondered if she could be able to work on her first. Not known to her, her supervisor was already having plans now to let the new doctor have Pamela as her first patient here at Arkham.

The protege nodded before he ushered Naruto to bring Pam to some of the Arkham staff. Naruto had let go and gave her a nod, which she returned back as she was led past the doors. As this happened, the Dynamic Duo left the building to finally call it a night to let things be taken care of from there.

*Sigh* "I hope Pam will be alright here." The Uzumaki said in a tired voice that got the intern to think that a lot has happened as of late. She hoped she could talk to the new patient about it when possible.

"Don't worry sir, we'll do everything we can to help her out. You have my word on that." Dr. LeLand said to the publisher.

"Thank you doctor." He said with a small smile that seemed to make the intern blush a little for some reason.

"And I'll be having our latest addition to our staff help see to it that she makes a good recovery." The Arkham doctor said getting the intern to widen her eyes slightly but composed herself to be professional in the situation.

"Like my fellow doctor said, I'll do whatever I can to help her out."

"Of course and thank you ma'am." Naruto said to her with a genuine smile that seemed to be infectious as the intern smiled as well.

"I'm sorry. Where are my manners?" The silver haired male said as he held out his hand to the intern. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki and I plan to come by often to check up on Pamela."

"Good to know on that and I'll be sure to let her know Mr. Uzumaki." The intern said to him as they shook hands.

"You can call me Naruto ma'am."

"Sorry, force of habit."

"It's fine and I was wondering if I can get your name?" Naruto asked her. "I have a feeling it's something really nice and beautiful to match your personality."

She giggled on this as she tried to pull down her blush. She moved her bang out of the way and tucked it behind her ear before addressing the man before her.

"Sorry on not addressing my name sooner Mr...Naruto." She said to him before giving him a smile. "My name is Dr. Harleen Quinzel...But you can call me Harley if you want."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Sorry for the wait people. Been working quite a lot of hours at work and I've been hitting some writer's blocks every now and then.**

 **Now to clear up the confusion with what Pam is like now, she is going to be pretty similar to Jean Grey from Marvel comics with her containing the Phoenix of having the split consciousness. Pam will pretty much have a split personality because of the head wound she got during her scuffle with Woodrue that it caused her mind to be a tad damaged. If she didn't have the head wound then she would act in the norm similarly to how her other personas shown in the media and comics but would act differently due to interacting with Naruto. But the head wound has pretty much made her have the split personality with the one bit being her darker half.**

 **So in short, the Poison Ivy persona is going to be like the Dark Phoenix from Marvel comics along with Dark Naruto shown in the Waterfall of Truth that Poison Ivy is all of Pam's darkness.**

 **Even right now, I have her planned that she'll be like Caitlin Snow from Flash that after being stopped, Pam will want to be kept under control and try not to use her powers or else she might end up hurting she cares for. This will help develop her character more along with interacting with other characters like Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Selina Kyle (when they eventually meet and start chatting), Batman and Bruce Wayne, etc.**

 **With Pam injecting Naruto with the antidote/vaccine to her poisonous kiss, which is supposed to be the strongest concoction on the planet. I wanted it to be brought up that prior to that, Naruto is not powerful enough to shrug off any sort of diseases, toxins and poisons. It will take time for his powers to reach a level to combat each kind so I decided to get that fixed with Pam giving him the 'potion' that Harley has been given on various adaptations. With this, Naruto's now able to be immune to poisons/toxins along with him having enhanced speed, strength, agility and a small healing factor so he won't rely on his powers.**

 **If you want to imagine the 'Dive to the Heart' stained glass portrait of Pam, think of Aurora/Sleeping Beauty background and design and replace the Vanitas/Ventus people with both sides of Pam. That would be basically it I think.**

 **Also for those who don't know who the first champion of the Green is in DC comics is none other than Alec Holland, otherwise known as Swamp Thing. Just an info dump on how Alec came to become the Green's first champion is that during the attack on their home, Alec saw Linda get killed and ran off with their completed or somewhat completed serum. But of course he gets killed with the stuff splashed all over him and his body catching on fire before ending up in the Swamp. His body melds with the swamp with the serum starting the transformation process that sometime later he emerges as the Green's first champion.**

 **Yes I do plan to have Naruto conjure up the other weapons of Organization XIII but the opportunity has to arrive for him to do that. Technically he has been able to conjure up three of them prior to this chapter which are Luxord's card, Larxene's knives/daggers, and Zexion's book/notebook. I have brought up the next Organization weapon Naruto is now using which is Marluxia's scythe because of the whole plant/rose stuff of course.**

 **At first when I was thinking on how to use Marluxia's scythe into the story asides from just being a weapon that just looks like a flower and whatnot that it would seem odd from what Naruto could get out of it. I mean for example Axel has fire, Larxene has lightning, Luxord has the whole card probability stuff but Marluxia has rose stuff…..or so I thought. An Interesting fact that I found interesting with Marluxia's concept that it's not really roses at all but Cherry Blossoms/Sakura petals. In Japanese culture Sakura petals are a symbol of life and death in nature. Might explain why I keep seeing Sakura trees at some hospitals in real life and way too often in anime.**

 **So pretty much, I'm giving Naruto the power of both the Green and the Black….to a certain degree. For those who don't know what the Black is in DC comics, they are the death/rot of nature itself. Yeah…..gonna be odd on how to properly work that out and blend that concept with Naruto. I'll do the best that I can on this one people since my brain will literally kill me on this. But until then...**

 ***Bam* *Bam* *Bam* (Slamming head against the table) Why did I have to use the concept of Naruto using the weapons and powers of Organization XIII? Curse pain17ification for starting this idea and curse me for following it! UGH!**

 **But honestly I'm not cursing you pain17ification at all, it's just me trying to properly work with it and hopefully not have everyone nitpick on the idea.**

 **One last thing before closing this up. I have put picture links on my profile for character looks and whatnot of my choosing. Just copy and paste the links while getting rid of the spaces to access the images.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	10. Cat Scratch Fever

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 10: Cat Scratch Fever**

On a nice, winter day with the sun somewhat beaming past the clouds to still keep it's dark day, people were walking about on their daily lives with not much of a care on anything else but their daily tasks. With all of the commotion going on, no one would've even bother to look around in some of the most secluded areas of Gotham. From some of the more 'seedier' districts to back alley ordeals, no one would be keeping a close eye to many of their activities, except for few depending on the time of day.

*Meowr* A cat cried out as it walked through the alleyways looking around for it's goal. It's black fur and emerald green eyes made it blend very well into the dark area with just it's bright eyes and collar shining a bit to give off the hint that it was there.

One might wonder why is this cat important….Well this little one is named Isis and she is looking for her master. Her master being one Selina Kyle otherwise known as Catwoman.

She had been waiting for weeks for her master's return and she had been sorrowful during all this time. Sure there was her master's friend, long black haired woman that helped take care of her but she didn't have that kind of feeling given off like her master did. That woman was more of an aunt in her perspective while her master….was more of a mother in all sense of the word. Isis loved her ever since she was just a small kitten and took care of her every day to the point of the black feline imprinting on her as her mother and no one will replace her master.

On one night weeks ago when she and her master were going out for their 'nightly walks', she had caught sight of an interesting individual inside of the clocktower. Much like her master, Isis had watched the person with interest and amazement with her thinking that the person could've been better doing such tricks than her master. Then the bell of the tower rang causing her master to slip and latch onto something quickly on instinct. As for the feline, it fell off it's grasp while falling downward to its imminent demise were it not for the help of the masked individual.

Isis didn't know what had occurred as it was truly scared on what happened. She was shaking like a leaf and didn't know what to do. But the man's presence….it was….comforting and warm. He comforted her, cared for her, and fed her that made her slowly forget the frightening experience of almost losing all her lives at once. During the whole thing, she slipped something underneath her collar that seemed to itch a little but when her master found her and comforted her, she found what was in the collar that made her truly happy.

It wasn't until sometime later when she met the masked individual again when she was greeted by his warm comfort as he was petting her. It made her feel as she was being petted by her master, but that is impossible since she only has one master...one mother. It was quite confusing on how to figure that one out.

On the night when she last saw her master, her aunt took her to someone's residence and felt something in there that reminded her of the one person that had the warm comfort. That confusion was answered when the masked individual came in without the mask and he had the same radiated warmth as ever that made her enjoy it. Things didn't go so well as he felt sad...lonely that Isis had to do what she could to make the warm man happy so she can feel the comfort on those few days.

But as time went on, Isis was starting to wonder where her mother went to and when she will be coming back. It started to frighten her that she wanted to go out and look for her. At first Isis decided to break out of the warm man's residence and get back into her home and wait for her mother's return. But days rolled by in the same fashion and her master hasn't returned to bask her in her motherly love. Not even the warm man's comfort could help her out this time as she was missing her master….her mother…..she needed to find her.

So here she is for some time now, searching every nook and cranny she can access to so Isis can find her mother.

She heard a vehicle come into the alleyway as she moved out of the way so she wouldn't get squashed and whatnot. Then two people stepped out of it, a man and a woman, that radiated coldness and made her want to get as far away from them as possible. Of course they started to walk towards her and she was trapped on the dead end of the alleyway with no way out.

"Dirty, stinking furball. Keep wondering why we have to keep rounding up these vermine." The woman said with a net in hand.

"Cause the boss said so and we are paid to do so." The large man replied.

"Shut it Paunch and nab that cat." The woman said getting 'Paunch' to throw the net at Isis.

"Meowr!" Isis cried out as she was in the net, trying to get free but it was no use. The net was raised with the green eyed, black cat trapped inside.

"Alright Paunch, get that inside of it's cage and let's move on."

"Right Jessy." He said as he walked to the vehicle and threw the cat inside of its containment.

Isis soon got free from the net but was stopped when the cage closed shut making her cry out for help.

She cried out for her master….her mother….the warm man….anyone to save her and bring her back home.

 _ **-Gotham Cafe-**_

"Sorry I'm late, the traffic was terrible getting over here."

"It's quite alright Harley and besides I just got here." Naruto said as he saw Harley sit down at the cafe table. The Uzumaki was wearing a thick button up shirt with loose jeans and snow boots with his jacket hanging off from the chair.

"Good to know." The asylum intern said with a smile as she adjusted to her seat after taking off her coat. She wore a few layers to keep her upper body warm while wearing a pair of tight jeans and non-slip shoes. Harley had to take off her glasses and clean them off due to them fogging up when transitioning between the cold air to the warm.

"So did you order anything before I got here?"

"Just some water with lemons and limes. Didn't want to order anything to eat just yet." Naruto said to her getting the blonde woman to nod.

It's been a few weeks since the two first met at the asylum when Naruto had dropped off Pam. Things started out well on their first interactions with one another since they needed to work with each other in the coming times to get Pam back together. So during the various times when Naruto stopped on by to visit Pam, he would chat with Harley as much as possible. Those conversations were mostly focused on how much he knows about the botanist so Harley could try to delve into the shared personalities of the red head's mind and work from there.

In their first few sessions, things were going well on introductory phases and learning basic things about one another. Though when Harley brought up most of the information from what she learned from Naruto, it wasn't all that great…..

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _ **Where did you learn about that?!"**_ _Ivy yelled out at the intern._

' _Crap. Should've timed that bit better.' Harley thought to herself as she shortly berated herself on what she did._

 _Things were going pretty well for starters on how the session was going but with the recent outrage made Harley forget what led up to the blowout._

" _ **I'll ask again. Where did you learn on how my mother died?!"**_ _Ivy cried out demanding the answer._

" _F-From Mr. Uzumaki Ms. Isley." Harley said with a studder as she cowered a bit behind her chair in a comedic fashion._

" _ **H-How could he...How dare he tell someone about that sensitive part of my past?!"**_ _Ivy yelled as she started pacing around the room while pulling on her hair._

" _It wasn't his fault Ivy." Pamela said to her darker half indicating with the shift on vocal tones and body language. "He possibly didn't know that it was alright for him to tell someone about that. Surely you could forgive him on that."_

 _It was an interesting case with Pamela Lillian Isley from what Harley noted. With most split personality cases, the two consciousness' would speak to each other inside of their mind. But Pamela was an interesting one that both consciousness' actually switch back and forth at will. Practically instantaneously with no big breaks in between like most split persona cases. From what she learned from Naruto that when the two actually sync up, both voices are speaking at the same time._

 _*Humph*_ _ **"Fine… I'll forgive our consort on his slight mistake. But he better make up for it when he shows back up again."**_ _Ivy said with her arms crossed._

 _That was another thing that Harley found interesting when working with the 'two' was Ivy calling Naruto either her 'consort' or 'king' at times. But the intern thought it was just because Ivy thought she was the 'Queen or Goddess of Nature' itself so she just pushed that bit off to the side._

" _Please forgive my 'sister' on her outburst Dr. Quinzel," Pamela said apologetically to her, "but I would like to know why you thought it was good to bring that information up in this session?"_

" _ **I agree with my 'sister' on that and I ask the same thing obviously."**_ _Ivy stated as she harshly looked at Harley._

 _Harley stood back up and went around the chair while facing the 'two' with a downtrodden look._

 _*Sigh* "L-Look...I'm sorry on what I did was uncalled for and I shouldn't have brought up such sensitive information like that. I'm new at this and I want to try my best to get a good handle in the profession. I didn't think things through not knowing you would blow out like that. It's just that I promised Mr… Naruto that I would do everything I can to help you 'two' out so you can be with him happily."_

 _Both Pams stared at the intern as they could tell she really meant on what she said. Naruto really wanted the two of them to try and work out their problems and get things solved and Harley was wanting to help take care of it. It made Ivy feel like an ass while Pamela felt sorry for the intern._

 _*Sigh* "Look Dr. Quinzel, 'we' can understand what you're trying to do but please….try tread carefully on what you say from what you learned from Naruto." Pamela said to the blonde before Ivy took over._

" _ **Much of the information we trusted with 'our' king is very important to 'us' and would've been better to hear from the source than from the messenger."**_

" _I understand that and once again I'm sorry." Harley replied back to the meta._

" _ **T**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **a**_ _p_ _ **o**_ _l_ _ **o**_ _g_ _ **y**_ _a_ _ **c**_ _c_ _ **e**_ _p_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **d."**_ _Pam said in sych._

" _But shouldn't there be something I should do to make up for what I've done?" The intern asked._

 _This got 'them' to pause and adopt a thinking pose as 'they' discussed things in 'their' head on what the blonde should do in return._

" _There is one thing that came to mind." Pamela said to the intern._

" _Which is what exactly?" Harley asked in hopes it wasn't too bad or too demeaning._

 _Pam went up to Harley and sat her down onto the patient's couch as the meta sat on the doctor's chair. 'They' soon picked up the blonde's notepad and pen and said one simple yet complicated answer._

"' _ **W**_ _e_ _ **' w**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _k_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _y_ _ **."**_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

…..But the end result was pretty interesting that the botanist and psychologist started to become friends….with one hell of a rough start.

To make up to the Pams on what she did, Harley told 'them' a story about her past that was equally emotional to the death of Isley's/Ivy's mother. Isley/Ivy did promise though that 'they' won't tell Naruto what 'they' learned on that story since it was Harley's to do so when she is comfortable in talking about it.

Naruto was told of what happened in that session and he apologized to both Pam's on his mistake in hopes that Harley could get through to them easily. 'They' forgave him but in return for what he had done, 'they' requested for Naruto to bring more flowers and all of the plants from 'their' apartment to make it more homey. Not only that but needed one hell of a make out session to satisfy sustate their urges for the time being.

Suffice to say Harley ended up being the sole audience member to see how frisky both Pam's got to be. Poor intern had to run out of the room with an embarrassed blush that got the meta to laugh inside of 'their' head.

…..Anyways….. After that whole debacle, Pam had urged the two to at least spend time together out of the office so they could at least relax and get their relationship better than before with the whole 'Doctor/Patient' thing. They complied and had hung out a few times when they were available as per Pam's request. Naruto only learned a small amount about her during each of their times together from Harley being a fan of some of the writers under Naruto's employ, having a gymnastics scholarship to Gotham State University as a teenager and that she was a shy child when growing up.

Currently, Naruto was hoping he could learn more about the blonde intern since he had today off along with the next few days. As for Harley, today was the only day she had off for the week until who knows when. So Naruto wanted to use this time to the fullest.

"So what would like to get Harley?" Naruto asked as she browsed through the menu.

"A turkey club wrap with fries and a vanilla shake." She answered. "You?"

"A philly cheese steak sandwich with onion rings."

A waiter came on by once seeing the other person of the party finally showed up and took their orders before doing his other tasks. While waiting for their meals to arrive, they had small talk on things as of late.

"...Of course there is Selina's trial tomorrow that I plan to go to."

"Yes I've heard about her 'exploits' and it's quite interesting on how a thief could end up saving a city with some help." Harley said as she took a sip of her drink.

"Well life sometimes enjoy making some interesting scenarios that will surprise others." Naruto replied back getting her to smile a little in agreement.

"Point."

Once emptying his glass, Naruto had something to say. "So I've been wondering Harley….You know quite a lot about Pam from what I've told you and you know me more than I know of you…."

"And you are wondering what you can learn what you don't know about little old me then." The intern said to finish up the publisher's statement.

"If you don't mind sharing." He offered the suggestion to her.

She was about to answer when the waiter came back with their completed meals along with refilling their glasses.

"Well this looks delicious." Harley said as she munched on a few fries dipped in the milkshake before seeing Naruto giving her a look.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" He asked with a smirk.

"Oh yeah….momentarily forgot. Stomach was stronger than the mind for a moment." Harley said with a giggle that made her sound cute.

"It's fine Harley and I have the same problem when it came to my childhood comfort food." He confessed.

"Oh….and what is that exactly?"

"Ramen."

"Ramen?" She asked since that was not a food item she would expect a kid to have at that age to be his favorite.

Naruto munched a bit into his food before replying to her. "Back in my hometown, I was an orphan living in a rundown apartment with a allowance I got from the old man that checked up on me from time to time."

"Sorry to hear about that."

"Don't be." The silver haired male said as he waved her off. "With me being an outcast due to my looks, I wasn't allowed to eat at certain places and shop at certain stores. So I ended up finding this one ramen stand one day and I became friends with the owner and his daughter."

Harley could see the nostalgia run past his eyes and could tell that this part of his past truly meant something to him.

"They were so kind to me and gave me the first bowl of ramen to me free. I never had the stuff before so I was hesitant to try it but my stomach was demanding me to consume. After my first bite….. Man it felt like something was missing all my life and I practically devoured that dish without taking a breathe." Naruto stated as he was practically drooling at the memory getting the blonde woman to laugh this time on the display.

Naruto soon realized his current action and wiped off the drool with a napkin before continuing. "Ever since I was practically hooked on the stuff and spent much of my food money there."

"I sense a but coming." She said getting him to nod.

"But it's been ten years since I had their food and whatever ramen I eat every now and then doesn't hold a candle to their recipe. Got to the point that I eat ramen every now and then."

"Well it's good to learn about that from you Naruto."

"Good to know." He said as he munched into his food for a bit before replying back to her again. "Also I'm still waiting for getting some info out of you Doc."

"Drat." She said in a childish tone in hopes he would've forgotten it. *Sigh* "Might as well tell ya then."

Once taking a sip from her glass, she started to talk. "I believe I haven't told you why I became a psychologist in the first place."

"I think you haven't and it would be nice to know your motivation."

"It starts out with my family as like most people have in their career choices if they wanted to follow into family legacies or suggestions. For me it was something different. You see I didn't have much of a good childhood that things were not that great when growing up. Had a harsh, yet forgiving mother that tried to make things right for the family despite some naggings every so often. A younger brother that is a deadbeat, and fyi he currently is still one while living with dear old mom. As for my dad….lets just say that I have bad history with him and his tendencies of being a con-man."

"Sorry to hear that about your family Harley. I hope things got better when you moved out." The hazel eyed male said to her.

"Oh it did. Reason why I worked my ass off to get that gymnastics scholarship back in highschool and skipped a grade or two so I can get out sooner."

"Impressive." He kept munching on his meal as he listened to her tale.

"For years while living under the same roof, I wondered what made my family tick and wanted to understand all of their reasonings to the best of my knowledge. It takes a while to fully understand a person until something pops up causing you to rethink about the person more and more. Its pretty much what drives me now and to really push me to my limits and beyond that was for me working at Arkham to understand the real crazies there."

"Well it'll be one hell of a challenge for you to accomplish since it won't be an easy task to handle."

"I know but I enjoy challenges and it makes it more rewarding in the end."

After that, the two continued with their meals and had small talks before they decided to go around Gotham and see what else they can do to spend the rest of the day. They ended up seeing a movie to get some laughs out of it while Harley kept psycho analyzing the characters after the film was over. Eventually it was time for them to head back home since they had a big day in their own respective ways.

"You know you didn't have to walk me back to my car Naruto. I can defend myself quite well just so you know."

"I know Harley but then I wouldn't be such an overprotective friend now could I." He said getting her to stop in her tracks and look at him in surprise.

"Y-You consider me… your friend?" She said with widened eyes.

"Well yeah… why wouldn't I be your friend Harley?"

"W-Well… I don't know." The intern said as she rubbed her arm. "It's just that I never really had that many friends…. period. Pam and now you consider me your friend and it feels…. nice."

Naruto smiled as he held her close from the side getting her to blush without him knowing from the contact. Even helped when she tried to cover her face more with her scarf.

"Then I'm glad to be one of your first friends Harley and I hope I don't ruin it later on."

She smiled at this and hugged him back before they got to Harley's car. After saying one last goodbye, they went on their separate ways with the day being a pleasant part of their lives.

 _ **-Next Day, Gotham City Court House-**_

*Bam* The Judge's mallet sounded out in the courtroom as the verdict was being made. Selina was currently in the best civilian wear she had, not too gaudy or showy, but just something appropriate for the proceeding. Naruto and Shizune were sitting behind her for support for whatever verdict is placed upon her. Other people in the courtroom were consisted of animal rights activists and environmentalists.

"Selina Kyle….You have plead guilty to the charges set against you as Catwoman." The Judge said to the raven haired woman. "And you understand that you can serve up to twenty five years in prison?"

"Yes your honor." The environmentalist said.

"Regardless to the fact that you have committed these acts for the benefit of animal rights and wildlife." The lady Judge said as she adjusted her glasses. "Theft is still theft."

"Of course your honor."

"However….you did help save Gotham City from annihilation from a terrorist plot and District Attorney Dent had recommended a plea bargain..." The lady Judge brought out when pointing to Harvey Dent, who was helping out on the case on behalf of his friend Naruto. "I have decided to sentence you five years….of a probationary period."

This got the courtroom occupants to cry out in joy, for some reason, when hearing the verdict. Selina looked back to her two friends with a wide smile while getting the same reaction towards her.

*Bam* *Bam* *Bam* "I'm not finished yet people!" The lady Judge called out to settle down the proceeding. She looked around the room to see if anyone else was going to cause a fuss before she continued.

"Now I'm warning you Ms. Kyle….If you ever dawn your Catwoman costume again to violate the law….Then I'll not only revoke your probation, but I'll throw the book at you and give you the full sentence up to twenty five years in prison."

"I understand madam Judge." Selina said as she composed herself in front of her.

"You may go now Ms. Kyle." The lady Judge said getting the court meeting to end and getting the occupants to slowly disperse from the room.

"Thank you for helping me out on this Mr. Dent." Selina said as she turned towards the DA who just gave her a reassuring smile.

"Hey don't sweat it Ms. Kyle. You should be thanking Naruto for me seeing your case. It would've come up on my desk eventually but he made me go search for it sooner than later." The man said getting the environmentalist to smile towards her silverette friend.

"I think I will, but still thanks." The raven haired woman said getting the DA to nod as he started packing up his things for the next stops for his day.

Selina was then greeted by a smiling Shizune and Naruto, with the later holding her coat during the proceedings. The raven haired woman took it from him and placed it on as they made their way out of the courthouse only to be assaulted by various reporters on the issue but Selina didn't want to say a thing at all. She was tired and just wanted to get back home and see her precious Isis after so long.

 _ **-Selina's and Shizune's Loft-**_

"Oh Naruto, Shizune….I can't believe I'm finally free." Selena said as she walked through the door of her loft. It felt great for her to be back as she went into her bedroom and laid on top of its soft sheets and comfy mattress before rolling off to the side to look underneath the furniture. She ended up doing this throughout the loft as she was indeed looking for something...or someone.

"Huh, she's not here…." The environmentalist said to herself before calling out to her two friends.

"What are you looking for Selina?" Asked the Uzumaki.

"Why Isis of course. I don't see here here at all. Maybe she's in your loft Naruto." She said as she made her way to the door.

"Selina….there's something we need to tell you." Shizune said in a tone that didn't sound all that good to her roommate.

She stopped in her tracks as she looked at the two and something started to click as her features started to show worry. "Guys….where is Isis? Where is my cat?"

"We don't know Selena." Naruto said getting her attention. "I got back home from work when I saw my patio door opened with Isis' claw marks. I assumed she went into your loft and went down there but…."

"She didn't show up in here either when he stopped on by." Shizune picked up where Naruto left off. "I-I'm afraid she left to find you Selina."

"B-But how could you let this happen?!" She yelled out at them before she had to sit down and grabbed a picture of her with Isis when she was just a little kitten.

"We're sorry Selina and we looked everywhere for her when we could. We even checked out the animal shelters if she turned up there but there was no such luck." Naruto said as his friend hugged the picture frame to her chest for a few moments before she got up and went into her bedroom to open up the closet.

"What are you doing?" Shizune asked.

"What does it look like? I'm going out there so I can go find my baby." Selena said with determination in.

"Not alone you're not Selina." Naruto said to her, momentarily gaining her attention. "This is mostly my fault to begin with on not properly having the door secured after the several times she left."

She was about to say something but Shizune added into the conversation. "Besides, you need a friend with you and we don't know how long you'll be out. I would go with you but I'll stay here just in case of anything. Whether it's Isis coming back or of me calling the animal shelters again."

*Sigh* "Alright and thanks on this you two." Selena said as she closed the door to finish getting changed. When she got back out, she was in a pair of jeans with the bottoms rolled up a bit to show thick wool on the inside of the pants. She also wore a purple, turtleneck sweater with a leather jacket, a scarf and brown boots.

"Well, let's get going then." The environmentalist said as Naruto opened the loft door for her.

"Good luck." Shizune said to them as they walked out of the door.

 _ **-Hours Later-**_

Time passed for the two friends as they had been walking around Gotham in the various districts showing pictures of Isis on her own if anyone had spotted her. The same result had been going on with Naruto and Selina getting 'I'm sorry', 'Never spotted her', or responses of the sort. They not wanting to interrupt the search, Naruto went over to a passing food stand and got food for the two so time wouldn't be wasted.

'Even with all that training I've done in these past weeks, I can't seem to find Isis at all.' Naruto thought as he looked at Selena in worry. 'And now she's paying for my little mistake.'

After getting Pam admitted to Arkham, the silverette had been training again to improve his skills especially with the new found scythe he ended up getting from Yggdrasil. From what Naruto had noticed during his fight against Ivy's plants, he started to access into other abilities that started to make things interesting on how they were done. From running faster, able to cut through certain things with ease to finally being able to clone himself for the first time in years. It felt so exciting for him to finally be able to do all that after so long that he couldn't wait to train again to maybe make up for what he had lost since coming here. 

First part of his training was once again meditation since he wanted to check on a few things. Yggdrasil had done something to him while they were chatting on Pam's 'Heart Platform' saying that he made the hazel eyed male have better access to the nature remnants inside of him with it being better stabilized. Naruto went back onto Pam's platform and tried to figure out what he could do exactly but with the knowledge he could possibly access 'Nature Chakra' again after so long he decided to do his 'Sage Training' again.

Sure enough he saw improvements that he can somewhat tap into that ability again of drawing natural energy into himself. But with his expansive void inside of him and with what remnants there are, it would take a very long time for him to have a fraction of his old 'Sage Mode'. But he got time and would come back to that concept at a later day.

The scythe though was an interesting one that he had gotten from mix of his powers and from what Yggdrasil did to him. When he was training out in the woods on what he could do with it, he did indeed cut through trees and rocks with a single swing….but of course the silverette apologized to the trees he had slaughtered. Naruto maneuvered through the forest with his scythe on hand and seemed to get a bit faster than moments prior. When he stopped, he saw some white flower petals falling behind him and confused the silverette more until thinking it was an odd perk his scythe gave out.

In the end, Naruto thought of giving his weapons names at some point once he had a better idea on what they can fully do. So with his scythe, he decided to give it the name Lunar Rose because it had the appearance of a plucked flower and the blade seemed to glow a little at night that reminded him of the moon.

The second part of his training was with the most of his current skill set. Sure his silence and memory abilities stayed the same with no real changes along with his other abilities. But Naruto realized that his physical attributes seemed better than before from his strength, speed and agility. When he had been doing his salmon ladder workout, it seemed that he wasn't really breaking a sweat at all with how easy he was doing the whole process. His agility and speed improved greatly when he was doing his mid-air tricks late at night that could possibly make any acrobat truly green with envy if they saw him.

The next bit of his training was focusing primarily on his speed as he had wondered how fast he could really go now. He went to a vacant race track so he could time himself on his speed and figure out how much of a difference there were between each of the laps. It was quite….interesting when he was starting to gain speed with such a rush that the former shinobi didn't realize he ended up running into a tree. Sure it felt really, really bad when he made the impact and he swore he heard some animals and trees mockingly laugh at him. He didn't know how that happened but he made a clone to watch what he did moments prior. Naruto ended up in the same situation as before with those same laughs aimed towards him but this time he got the answer he wanted.

It turned out that Naruto gained more speed than he realized that he was on one part of the track and ended up teleporting or warping to the other side with him not getting better footing thus him crashing into the tree. The publisher soon guessed he would have been able to find the equivalent to his old body flicker technique to some extent or further than that. Who knows on what that warping ability of his was capable of to its full extent.

Lastly, he wanted to hopefully improve more on his presence sensing and clone abilities. He was pretty excited that he can clone himself again and hopefully could try to make more than one to maybe get some stuff done if needed. But the ability is quite 'fresh' that his limit so far is just one and just like his original shadow clone technique will split the person's reserves to make it, which he doesn't have that much apparently. With the sensing one, it took some time trying to get a better hang of it that instead of pinpointing generalized people in a room that now he can somewhat pinpoint to a rough location in one. Granted it still has come kinks to rough out but the silverette wished he could've mastered this when trying to find Isis.

"...I hope Isis is okay on her own." Selena said getting the former shinobi out of his thoughts with him catching the last part she said.

"She probably is doing fine Selina. I'm certain you did a lot in teaching her how to do certain tasks. I bet she swiped a big fish from a vendor and ate it all up while sneaking into some warm place to sleep at night." Naruto suggested getting her to smile slightly.

"You're probably right. I did teach her quite a lot….though I regret teaching her how to open certain doors now." She said as they ended up at one ally where she pulled out her cat whistle and blew with no results.

"She just misses you, that's all. Don't blame yourself on what happened."

*Sigh* "I know Naruto." She said before a rush of cold wind came at her, making her shiver. In response, Naruto wrapped his arm around her and brought her close to possibly get her warm. Realizing what he did, he let go a bit as he looked away.

"Sorry….didn't mean to do that." He said with a slight blush from both the cold air and from slight embarrassment.

"N-No it's quite alright." Selina said with a light blush on her features. "Y-You can hold me close if you want. It's colder than I expected it to be."

"I-If you say so." Naruto said as he hesitantly wrapped his arm around her to keep her close for warmth as they kept on walking.

'Why am I feeling this way?' The raven haired beauty thought as her eyes drifted to the handsome publisher. 'He's being a worried friend wanting to help me out is all...But why is my chest pounding a little harder?'

*Meowr* *Meowr* A cat called out getting the two friends' attention as they neared an alleyway.

"Isis?" Selena hopefully asked as she went into the alleyway in front of Naruto….only to see two cats facing against each other with a half eaten fish in between them. The two soon turned towards the raven haired woman and hissed at her.

"Hey….don't worry. We're friends." She said when she pulled out cat treats out of her coat pocket.

"When did you have time to get those?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. He never saw her grab those in her kitchen or from any shop they passed on by.

"You. Shhh." Selena said to him before turning back to the cats and placed the food in front of them. They ate it with gusto getting Silena to squat down and start petting them. Deciding to not feel left out, Naruto did the same action causing the two cats to enjoy the nice sensations.

The little enjoyment was interrupted when a van started pulling into the alley way, causing Selina to pull Naruto into a connecting corridor because of an old habit with her burglary jobs.

She looked back to see who came in before looking back to Naruto with him with a slight blush on his face. The raven haired beauty was confused before noticing their current placement of them very close together. Their legs were separated and were settled in between each other having their pelvises practically touching. Her hands were settled on his strong, firm chest with their faces being somewhat close that got her better details on his eyes.

'Have they always been that bright?' She thought as she kept looking at his powerful, yet gentle gaze. 'It's like looking into the eyes of a strong lion….Selina focus!'

'Her eyes….they look beautiful like deep, pretty Jade jewels.' He thought as he tried to focus anywhere but the other parts of the body right now that are touching Selina.

"Fleabags…." A woman's voice called out interrupting the two friends' thoughts. "Dirty rotten, stinking fleabags. Get them Paunch."

The two looked to where the voice was coming from and saw a woman in a blue, winters outfit with a large man in a brown one and they were trying to nab the cats in a mistreated fashion.

"Come to mama you stinking furball." The woman said as she got the net on the one feline cowering in the corner.

'Ok that's it!' Both friends unknowingly thought the same thing as they moved from their placement, with slight difficulty, before they moved in front of the pair of people nabbing the cats.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" Selena said as she stomped on the handle of the net.

"Catching strays." The woman said with a sneer. "What's it to ya?"

"Obviously you two aren't with any animal shelters since they have a better approach at this." Naruto said getting Selena to nod at the fact.

"So then why are you after these cats?"

The woman pushed the raven haired environmentalist away as she growled back. "None of your business! So piss off!"

"Fine." Naruto said as he grabbed the net from the man's grasp. "But we're taking these guys with us."

"Hey!" The man yelled out as he tried to grab Naruto, only to be met by the end of his boot when being kicked away to the other side of the alley way. Selena somewhat did the same thing when the woman tried to hit her but the environmentalist had grabbed her wrist and brought it behind the person's back.

"We'll ask again: Why are you after these cats?!" Selena growled out.

"Gah! Let go you stupid bitch!" The woman yelled out before turning to her partner. "Paunch! Do something you idiot!"

The man shakily got up as he ran towards the two friends, only to be met by his tossed partner as they ended up hitting the nearby trashcans. They shook out of their stupor and kicked the trash cans to the two friends as they fell over. Paunch then got up and picked up another trash can to hit the friends with it…..only to be hit with a batarang instead.

"Paunch?" The woman questioned as she ended up inside of a trashcan, courtesy of the Batman.

"Hey! You can't do this to me!" She yelled out as Selina hit the can from the side to disorient the woman.

"Oh put a lid on it would ya?" Selena said getting the woman to scramble away, only to hit the alley wall instead to end up falling over.

"You know," Batman said getting the two friends' attention, "you are supposed to stay out of trouble Ms. Kyle."

"Well it wasn't her fault Batman since those two are at fault for mistreating the stray cats." Naruto pointed out before Selena spoke up.

"If you've been following me to be my 'parole officer', how often do you want me to check in?" She said only to hear a police car pull up onto the scene with their sirens going off. The two friends looked to the source and when looking back they saw the Dark Knight had disappeared.

"Ass. Should've stayed to help explain things." Naruto muttered as a pair of cops came up to them.

"Alright. Mind explaining what's going on here?" The officer said to the two. She was of hispanic origin with her tanned skin with black eyes and her long hair tied in the back. The other officer's features were covered with his back turned as he was struggling to get the trash can off of the woman's body.

"Sorry about this officer….?" Naruto said in wanting to know their names.

"Right. Name's Officer Montoya and my partner is Officer Uchiha." Montoya said as she pointed out her partner.

'Uchiha?' Naruto thought as he looked to the side to see the person struggling to get the metallic can off. 'Huh...An Uchiha in law enforcement. Well there is that similarity from back 'home'.'

The woman soon got free from her confinement before pointing to the two friends. "Those two jumped us! I wanna press charges!"

"They were stealing cats!" Selina called out on their action.

"Stealing from who exactly you dumb broad. They don't belong to anybody." The woman said as she went up to her partner and got him up. "We were just rounding them up and get them to the nearest shelter when they attacked us."

"I call bullshit." Naruto said to the two. "You guys were mistreating them from what we saw."

"If they worked for any shelter, they would've done a better job handling them if what those two are speaking is true." The Uchiha spoke out getting Naruto to look at him now and saw that it was this world's Sasuke. He appeared to be in his early twenties with his hair cut short or had all his 'duck-butted' hair style tucked away into his officer hat.

'Hope this one isn't an 'avenging, broadening asshole' like back home. If he isn't then I'll be fine with him.' The Uzumaki thought as he was looking at this world's counterpart of his old 'friend'.

"Still though, we should bring the lot downtown." Montoya said as she pulled out several handcuffs.

"Downtown?" Selina questioned with slight worry in her voice.

"Please come along quietly and things will run smoothly if you do." Sasuke said as he placed the handcuffs on the two thuggish people.

"Selina do as they say, it'll indeed be better if we don't resist." Naruto suggested to his friend getting her to sag her shoulders.

*Sigh* "Ok." She muttered as Montoya placed the handcuffs on her. The group was then led to the police vehicle, which was a van and the lot was escorted inside of it for transport to the station. Sasuke had radioed in for a tow-truck so it can be taken to the station as well.

 _ **-Later, GCPD-**_

The doors were opened onto the darkened entrance as Naruto and Selena walked out of the precinct.

"Man I thought we'd never leave." Naruto said as he rotated his shoulder with it feeling locked while being in that cell with Selina.

"I agree." She replied back only to be greeted with Shizune with her coat.

"Shizune! Were you the one that bailed us out?" She asked her roommate getting her to shake her head before pointing to the car with a man standing in front of it. Naruto recognized the man as Alfred so that means….

"Seems that Bruce got us out of this jam." Naruto said as he walked Selina to the car. "You coming Shizune?"

"Nah I have some errands to run before heading back to the loft." She said getting the publisher and environmentalist to nod as they kept walking to Bruce's car.

"Hey Alfred, how's it going?" The silverette said as he greeted his employee's boyfriend.

"Doing quite well Mr. Uzumaki." The englishman replied back. "It's good to see you in better moods since I last saw you."

"Thanks, I appreciate it." The silverette responded as he opened the car door and ushered Selina inside. Once both were in, Alfred got into the driver's seat and went off.

"Thanks for doing this for us Bruce. I'll pay you back in full on the bail money." Naruto said as he greeted his friend.

"That won't be necessary Naruto." Bruce said as he tried to wave off the offer.

"But I insist."

*Sigh* "Alright."

"I gotta thank you as well Bruce. Your bail money went into good hands." Selina said to the dark haired man.

"But that's not important Selina. You are." He said as he placed his hand on hers getting her to jerk it back a little. Bruce saw this and felt worried if he did anything bad.

"Bruce… I like you a lot…. but only as a friend." She said as she tried to settle things down. "I hope you understand and I'm sorry if-"

"I understand completely." Bruce said as he held up his hand to calm his friend down. Though he seemed a little sad that a potential love interest settled that line but it was probably for the best. "Then as a friend. I want to say that this arrest will make it look bad on your probation."

"I agree and even on the very day you had your court hearing that this will wave a big red flag over your head." Added in the publisher.

"But I'll worry about that after I find my cat." Selena said getting Naruto to tell Bruce what happened with her pet cat making the dark haired man to nod on the details.

"But one thing that is bugging me is why those creeps from that alley way working for a big shot as a lawyer from Daggett Labs bailed them out." She questioned on that bit.

"Hell the guy came in too quickly to the station and got them out within an hour while the two of us spent time in that cell." The silver haired male said getting Selina to grunt in agreement.

"Roland Daggett is a dangerous man. You should be very careful when dealing with him."

"I know and I'll be sure to not be anywhere near him." The raven haired beauty said with a small glint in his eyes getting Naruto to notice this.

Before wanting to jump to anything, the silverette will need to track down Kurama again and find out what Roland Daggett is up to.

 _ **-Undisclosed Location-**_

"So how's the job going?" Kurama asked as he had the intercom speaker on when talking to one of his employees. Copperhead was not too far off from her boss/boyfriend as she was getting things organized in the room. Sometimes she hates it when they switch to so many locations at a time.

" _I gotta say ninety nine,"_ *GRAH* _"point nine percent done. Son of a bitch."_ The man said on the other end. _"Give me a moment."_

Running could be heard on the line before gunshots were going off before the man grunted like he threw something onto a burning pyre of sort indicated with the feint fire sounds in the background. _"Ok 100 percent done now."_

"Good then I need to talk to you about the guests that are arriving tomorrow." Kurama said to the man.

" _Are they hookers?"_

"No."

" _And like that, you lost me."_ He replied back getting the redheaded hybrid to rub his eyes.

"They are our financial suppliers. Even though we do well on most of our other businesses, it doesn't come cheap on what our other operations entail."

" _Good god, they must really hate us."_

"Yes...Yes they do. A reason why they canceled our budget." Kurama said with a twitch to his eye. 'All because of you.'

" _Oh that's bad."_ The man said. _"Copperhead, we need that right?"_

"Yes we do." Replied the assassin.

" _Thank you Copperhead."_

"You're welcome." She said as she went back to her organizing.

"Look, over the past few years, we've had some….expensive claims."

" _Like what?"_

"First off, the property damage we had to try to keep hidden from the public and most governments."

" _Ah~ Good times."_

"Spending about $20,000 for Candi- .and that's Candy with an ' _I_ ' by the way."

" _Yeah she really loved my treats~"_ The man said with a slight giggle. _"Hope Cobblepot isn't still too pissed on that."_

"Somewhat, with him out of his most reliable secretary for nine months or so." The hybrid added in, before pausing. "Then there's the fact of you painted some of our cars red and scrapped them."

" _What? I wanted to see if they were better red instead of black."_

"Even with the 'Hitler mobile'..."

" _Oh please, the man had enough blood on his hands. Why not have most of said blood in question on his car?"_

"...Even with goat's blood and rammed it to a Dairy Queen..."

" _Eh~ I was hungry and drunk off my ass at the time."_

"...There's also the killing of at least a dozen innocent people..."

" _Anthony Hopkins did that and got a fucking Oscar for that."_

"...the sexual harassment..."

" _...I'm not apologizing for that."_

"I know this is asking a lot from one of my top field operatives but…"

" _But~"_

"I need you to stay in your quarters until they're all gone." Kurama said, as he tried to control his breathing with how annoying his employee is at times.

" _...I get the distinct impression that you're embarrassed of me."_

"No shit!"

" _Then I'm going to go with no."_

"This is important," Kurama sighed, "And I don't need you to cause another scene."

" _And I don't have to take this. I can just go for a walk till this all blows over."_

"Oh no you don't you asshole!" Kurama snapped, since his man's one annoying habit was that he causes problems wherever he goes when he goes out for his 'walks'. A total bitch to clean up by the way.

" _And who's going to stop me?"_ The man questioned. _"Oh how about Michael Mc-Doesn't exist."_

"How about me when I literally find you on my own and rip your head off your shoulders." Kurama snarled, ignoring as Copperhead came up from behind him and started to massage his shoulders to calm him down.

" _And I'll reattach it back… in time."_

*Sigh* "What do you want?"

" _What~?"_

"What do I need to give you to stay in your quarters for the duration of the meeting?"

" _Well…..I need a few new guns for my collection."_ The man said to his boss. _"Oh and I need a cannon. Bitches love cannons, if you know what I'm saying."_

Kurama took a deep breath and exhaled, keeping calm as Copperhead kept working her magic on his shoulders. "What else?"

" _I would like to have Anko-"_

"Do I need to remind you the last time you requested her to touch your privates?" Kurama said with a small smirk on his face on remembering that… _very_ enjoyable experience.

" _...No."_

"Then is there anything else?"

" _I would like… one of those new wide screen TV's with the latest video games in the market right now. It'll keep me occupied to god knows when."_ He said before continuing. _"Other than that, I've nothing else that comes to mind."_

"Then I expect-"

" _Oh and I need a truck load of chimichangas ready for my consumption with the latest porn there is."_

"...Fine. Then I expect you to show up early tomorrow on time."

" _Will do. Bye~"_ He said as he ended the call.

"Sometimes I want to fucking kill him and be done with it." Kurama said as he leaned back in his chair and massassed his forehead.

"Then we'll be down one of our profitable assets."

"I know and don't care right now. We have others that can pick up the slack." He said as he downed the bottle of alcohol on his desk.

Why didn't he hire Lawton or Wilson into his group? Either one of them would've done a better job but nooo, he decided to hire the Terminator's crazy cousin with a mouth that won't fucking shut up. The guy's good and all but fucking hell he causes problems whenever he goes.

" _Hey honey… Naruto Uzumaki is here to see ya."_

*Sigh* "Send him in Anko."

" _Will do."_ She said in a happy tone. _"So Naruto what's the progress on that book?"_

" _Will you just stop?"_ Kurama's former container said as the intercom went dead.

"Wonder what he is here this time for?" Copperhead asked as her lover shrugged his shoulders.

Soon Naruto walked through the doors with a twitch to his eye as Anko waved at him from her desk.

"Sometimes I wonder how you put up with her." The silver haired male said as he closed the door.

"I don't. I just let things roll and I get some fun action afterwards." The redhead said as he looked at the publisher with an annoyed look on his face. "You look like shit."

"Well I was in a prison cell for a few hours."

"At least it's better than the Blood Prison." The crime lord pointed out.

"True." Naruto said to his former tenant. "At least I had some company."

"Oh~ Did someone in there decide to make you his bitch."

"Fuck you asshole."

"Once again, do I need to remind you that I don't swing that way." Kurama said with a cheeky grin. Having fun on the former shinobi will help brighten his mood a bit after the call from earlier.

"No I was with Selina you 'furball'!" Naruto said in a comedic yell at the man.

"Then how was it with the prison romp with her."

Naruto's eyes were starting to twitch badly as he wanted to kill the Bijuu turned human and didn't care if Anko and Claudia gets upset about it.

"Look, can I at least get some information from you and I'll be on my way?"

"Sure why not. Had my fill of your joking misery right now." The crime boss said as he looked at the publisher.

Taking a deep breathe so he can calm down the slightly boiling anger in his system before he spoke. "Is there anything new as of late with Roland Daggett and his company?"

"Daggett huh… Claudia do you know anything with the man as of late?"

"Well from what I've heard was that he has had his pharmaceutical company is coming out with a hot new drug. An anti-toxin apparently."

"What's so special about that?" Naruto wondered as Claudia rubbed her head on that.

"Don't know for sure. The guy has had a tight lid on it, and had his best scientists working on it." She replied back. "Sadly none of our agents in his company haven't been able to find out what it is for."

"From what I can tell, it's quite suspicious and I want to find out what. Thank you for the information and have a good one." Naruto said as he started to leave Kurama's office.

"Well have fun storming the castle." The hybrid added in before Naruto left. "Should've stayed longer and had a nice chat with me."

"I think you probably wore out his patience the last time you chatted with him when dealing with Red Claw."

"True."

"So is he going to be fine?" Copperhead asked her lover.

"I said I'm not working on that book Anko!" Naruto's voice rang out from the other side of the door.

"Yeah he'll be fine. Batman will probably show up to investigate or whatever." The man said as he went back to other businesses for the day.

 _ **-Outside of Gotham, Daggett Labs-**_

"Good god, is it cold or what?" One security guard asked his partner. "How cold do you think it is? I bet it's below freezing right?"

"Highly doubt it but there's….well ice." The other guard replied as he gestured the ice covered pavement with lots of rock salt on it.

"Patrolling in the ice and snow. Give me a fucking break." Guard one said. "Do you know who doesn't go out on patrol this late in the day?"

"I'm sure you'll tell me." Guard two said with a droll in his voice at his partner's rant.

"Jenkins…..I bet the asshole is sitting in his comfy chair in the nice and warm monitor room."

"Well that's him I guess." God sometimes his partner doesn't stop bitching and moaning about the guy. He walked off the side to get away from him when something hoisted him up.

"I mean seriously. I've been doing monitor duty for eight weeks straight and when he complains to the boss that I'm not pulling my fair share of work I end up in this while he gets to enjoy and relax inside without the cold, winter air. So here I am doing this thing here with…. You."

The first guard brought up his gun and searched for where his partner went to as he spoke out. "Hey Murphy where you go man? Quit hiding around since it's not funny."

"In here…. I thought I heard something." 'Murphy' said getting the security guard to the man's location.

"What did you hear exactly? A stray cat or something?" The guard asked as he walked into the empty storage space.

"Yeah you can say something like that." A voice said as it changed from a man to a woman before knocking the guard out.

*Cough* "God I hate doing that." She said as she rubbed her throat to make it feel better. "One of the least favorite tricks I learned at the circus tends to wreck the vocal cords."

Once moving the body to a better hiding place so she can proceed with finding what is going on.

After being dropped off by Bruce Wayne, Selina made it to her loft and quickly nabbed her Catwoman attire before getting to her car and drove to her hideaway that is near the labs. Once there, she changed and headed out to the place where she had to take care of some guards before proceeding further. Honestly it was quite easy making it through with the security being a tad lax, especially after she made quick work with the one security guard in the monitor room.

It took a bit to navigate from checking room to room where they were keeping the stray animals but she eventually found it.

"Oh god, these poor animals." Selina said at the site of them being in cages. Their appearances weren't looking so good. "What the hell were they doing to you all?"

*Meowr* *Meowr*

She recognized that cry anywhere as Catwoman turned around to find…

"Isis!" Selina called out in worry as she got closer to her beloved pet before opening up the cage. "Oh my sweet baby. What did they do to you my precious?"

All of a sudden Isis seemed to go nuts as she fussed and hissed at her master. Before Selena knew it, her beloved Isis bit into her hand where the costume had the least fabric.

"Ow!" She yelled out dropping her cat as she held her hand. Isis then ran off as she went through the other door to the room. Soon the other animals in the room woke up and started making a fuss with some showing they had something similar to rabies and other problems.

"Well look what the cat dragged in?" Catwoman turned around to see the two people from the alleyway from earlier with one other person with a bob hair cut.

"Wow, that's one nasty cut you got there pussycat." The bob hair cut man said sarcastically. "Aren't you going to lick it better?"

"What did you do to these animals?" Selina demandingly asked.

"Nothing compared to what we are gonna do to you pussycat." The woman said as the three started walking towards her.

Not wanting to be caught. Selena pulled out her whip and had it clung onto a rolling table filled with chemicals and pulled to make it fall and make smoke. Using the distraction she left through the other doorway where Isis went through.

"Let's *Cough* skin that cat." The woman called out as she walked forward to the doorway.

"No Jessy. We got other priorities to attend to." The bob hair cut man said to the two.

"What do you mean Dr. Milo?"

"If you two yahoos didn't notice but she had been bitten." The now identified Dr. Milo pointed out. "She can run away from us all she likes but she can't run away from that toxin."

"Oh yeah. Guess you're right." She said before laughing a little.

Back with Selena, she had been chasing after Isis for a bit where she ended up on the lab's rooftop. Once making it past the doorway, she saw her beloved cat standing on the ledge.

"Isis! Wait!" Selina called out only to have a hiss as a response before the black cat leapt off of the building.

She made to the edge and looked down to see where Isis went until her vision started to go a little foggy. The environmentalist soon lifted up her goggles so the fogginess won't block her vision but apparently it wasn't the goggles at all since it was her eyes.

"M-My head." She said as he head started to feel like it was spinning. Not wanting to jump off like she normally would, she pulled out her whip and had lit latch onto part of the building's exterior before swinging down. She tried to jump but slipped due to the snow and ended up falling down to the ground hard with her whip coming with her due to the bad support.

She got up and started to run after her previous cat into the woods as her body wasn't feeling all that great now. It didn't matter as she needed to have her Isis back in her arms.

"Isis! Please stop!" Selina called out to her.

*Meowr!* Isis called out and hissed at her before running further away from her master.

The raven haired beauty kept on running, while staggering as her world started to spin. She was feeling too warm for comfort as she pulled the mask back to reveal her face to the cold world before her with sweat dripping from her brow. Even that wasn't enough as she had to unzip the front of her suit half way so the cold air could help on her heat.

"O-Oh god, wh-what's happening to me?" She said as she was starting to feel out of breath now.

She kept on staggering forward with Isis barely leaving her sites before she hit a wooden fence and flipped over into the snow. Her will starting to get weak as she tried to stand up and keep walking until she collapsed onto the road. Soon a car started to come close causing the raven haired woman to feel paler than she already was in fright thinking she might die now.

It stopped in front of her but through her perspective it seemed to get closer through hallucination. She started to crawl back in fright as something got out of the car and came towards her with another being coming up not too far from him.

"Pl-Please s-stay away!" Selena cried out in tears from the mixture of pain and fear running through her system as the person grabbed ahold of her.

"Selina! It's me Naruto!" A man called out getting Selena to focus her eyes to see her silverette friend holding onto her.

"N-Naruto." She weakly said as she soon saw Batman behind him. "Batman too?"

"Yeah he ended up following me since I had a feeling you were coming over here." Naruto said as he put his hand to her forehead.

"You're extremely hot Selina." He said in worry as Batman got a similar reaction.

"Hehehe So are you." She said clearly not in her right mind now.

"We need to get you to the hospital."

"You can't! Daggett will have me arrested if I do." She said as she was in tears that made Naruto's heart ache when seeing it.

"Then what should we do then?" Batman asked her.

"I-I have a hideaway not far from here. By the lake. It's in t-the cat statue."

The two men nodded as Naruto carried her to his car where Batman opened up the back seat so they can lay her down till they get to her hideout.

 _ **-Selina's Hideaway-**_

"Y-You know. Y-You haven't t-told me why you decided to come after me Batman." Selina said as she was laid out on a small bed with a window behind her for view of the lake. "Don't tell me you're starting to go all soft for us criminals now."

"Clearly you're delusional." He said as Naruto drained a wet cloth to dampen her head.

"Clearly the escape artist I see." She said as she coughed a little into her injured hand.

"Selina… What's this?" The hazel eyed man said as he took her hand.

"Isis… S-She bit me… She wasn't in her right mind." The raven haired woman said. "She wasn't well I swear and so are all of the other animals. Those people did something to them."

"Don't worry Selena. We'll take care of them I promise." Naruto said as he looked at Batman for confirmation on this.

"Same here." He said as he stood up from his position. Once Selina heard this, she leaned back and closed her eyes to try and rest.

"Don't worry Batman, I'll stay here and watch her condition. You go find out what Daggett is planning."

"That's the plan Mr. Uzumaki." The caped crusader said as he started to walk out. "I'll also find an antidote when I'm there. They might have one if they are really behind this."

"Then good luck." Naruto said back as the hero left leaving the two friends alone in the one room.

With a bit of time passing, Naruto kept on changing the water to help clean off Selina's sweat with her breathing trying to go at a normal pace. Key word trying.

"He'll be back Selina. Just give him a bit of time." Naruto said to help reassure her as she looked back at him with her eyes reddened from the pain and crying.

"How c-can you be so s-sure?" She said with a slight stutter.

"Just a little bit of faith is all." He said to her. "Besides, I trust him to help one of my precious friends after all."

"That's another thing," She interjected, "why did you call me your 'precious' friend? I know we are good friends….but why the addition to that?"

Naruto realized on what he said when she stated that and decided to explain.

"When I was barely a teenager, I came across a coastal town and I slept in the nearby forest since someone stole what money I had for my little trip so I couldn't afford to stay in a hotel for the night. It was morning when I was woken up by this one 'girl' I thought was very pretty at the time since 'she' didn't want me to catch a cold and I was sleeping on some plants 'she' was gathering for medicine." Naruto said with some altered information as he remembered his time at Wave. Selina kept on listening onto the details as it seemed familiar to her but couldn't put it where exactly.

"We got to talk for a while, which I couldn't fully remember all of the details, but one thing stood out the most of 'her' talking about 'precious people'. 'She' said that when someone has something or someone else important to protect with their lives, it makes them stronger than they already are. It seemed to click with me very well and I wanted to keep that notion with me for the rest of my life. I helped 'her' out gather up what medical plants were around as payment before 'she' left." He finished explaining to his friend as things started to come together.

"Y-You had th-that in your book...didn't you?" She asked for confirmation.

"Yeah I did. I based what I had experienced at the time for my book since I consider it very important to me. *Sigh* There are people that I have met that I consider good friends but others I have considered my most precious people in my life. Pam became someone truly precious to me with how much I love her and…..well I consider you someone really precious to me as well." The publisher finished off as he scratched his face with a slight flush from the cold and admittance.

"So…"

"Yeah?"

"You had a crush on a boy didn't you?" She said with the straightest face she could muster at the moment.

…..

"Seriously! That's all you got out of that?!" Naruto yelled out as he comedically pointed to her with an accusing finger.

She couldn't hold it in any longer as she started to laugh hard with some coughs in between.

"Yeah...yeah...laugh it up Selina." He said with a pout as that was an embarrassing moment for him as he did consider Haku very pretty but that came on crashing down when Haku admitted 'she' was a boy.

"S-Sorry *cough* I needed that badly and I couldn't resist." Selina said to him as he looked back at her.

"Hey it's alright and I forgive you on that."

"But s-seriously though….you consider m-me one of your most precious people?" She asked him.

"Most definitely." He answered with a smile that warmed her heart.

With the time of him helping her out with that wildlife preserve, visiting her in prison and helping her get out of it; she truly considered all that to help back up that claim.

Soon the two heard barking in the distance as Naruto peaked through the window on what is going on. He felt Selina shift in her bed so she can see what is going on making him hold her up for a better view.

"T-Thanks." She said as she turned towards the scene of Batman running across the frozen lake with a rabid dog chasing after him. The hero dodged to the side getting the dog to skid on the ice before it tried to get back up while the Dark Knight slowly walked so he wouldn't fall or start breaking the ice. The dog soon got up and lunged at the hero, causing him to fall and made their worries worse with the hero fighting the mad beast off.

"Oh no!" Selina weakly yelled out as Naruto held onto her and rubbed her gently to calm her down.

Soon the two saw people exit from a van parked a bit away from the lake and walk onto the ice with one of them aiming a gun at the hero. The two were soon confused with what went next as the dog got off of the hero and just wandered around a little before the one person started shooting at the ice around Batman. The ice soon crumbled as Batman fell into the icy water getting Selina to cling onto Naruto for support.

For what seemed forever for the two only lasted for barely a minute as Batman soon rose up from the icy water after taking care of those thugs.

"T-Thank god he made it." Selina muttered as she started to feel droopier than before.

"Same here and he'll be here soon to help. Just like I told you." Naruto said as he awaited for her response.

"Selena….." He looked at her and put his hand to her mouth and nostrils to feel if she was breathing. There hardly was any at all.

"No…. No no no!" Naruto yelled in panic as he laid her prone form onto the bed and checked her pulse as it was starting to go down. Acting fast, he started to perform CPR on her as he placed his hands on her chest and started pressing it down to hopefully get her breathing and heart back up.

'Not again! I can't let this happen again!' The former shinobi thought as he was determined to bring her back long enough for Batman to arrive with a possible antidote. He placed his mouth on hers and blew into it before checking if she was breathing again. This action kept going on for Kami knows how long, which scared Naruto greatly.

He didn't want to lose someone precious to him. He almost lost Pam the first time and he isn't going to let that happen to Selina.

Just as all hope seemed lost, Selina took in a slight bit of breath before coughing a bit.

"Selina!" Naruto said in relief as he hugged her. "Don't scare me like that!"

"W-What do you mean?" She asked as she soon peeked over her shoulder and saw Batman coming towards them.

"I got the antidote. It's a viral anti-toxin and she just needs to breathe it in." He said as he came to the two. Naruto turned around to see the hero of Gotham with the antidote and nodded on the information.

"Ok then Selina, you're going to need to lay back down so your airways can be fully opened." Naruto said to her as she weakly nodded at the request. Soon she breathed in the viral anti-toxin as the effects were slowly appearing with her skin going into it's natural tone, her breathing getting back to normal and her no longer feeling hot. Not soon after, she started to fall asleep with how exhausted she is from today's events.

"It seems to be working." Naruto said in a hushed tone as he saw the caped crusader have a hint of a smile on his face.

"Then I need to get going and alert the authorities on what's going on." The hero said as he started to head out.

"You do that. I'll keep her here before I get her to her loft." The publisher said to the Bat. "Need to be sure the antidote fully works out or if something is amiss."

The Uzumaki looked back for a response only to hear the Batmobile's engines roaring into the cold night as it sped off to the GCPD and wherever else there is to do for the man's evening. As the sounds of the vehicle faded from the distance, Naruto turned his attention back to his friend and covered her back up with the blanket before wiping off any residual sweat so she won't get sick after she got better.

"Don't worry Selina, I'm here and everything will be fine." He said to her as he adjusted to his seat so he could properly rest as well from the long day the two had.

 _ **-Next Day, Selina's and Shizune's Loft-**_

"Well it says here and on the news that people are calling you a hero Selina." Shizune said as she held up a copy of the Gotham Times with the headline of 'Batman and Catwoman Uncover Medical Scheme'.

"Sooner or later they might start making Catwoman dolls and halloween costumes for little girls." Naruto added in as he came in from the kitchen with some hot tea for the three of them.

Yesterday was quite crazy for the two friends with what happened. After the two woke up, with Selina feeling much better, they went out to get themselves a hot breakfast at a nearby diner when they saw on the news that Batman uncovered a potential plot upon the city and that Catwoman assisted him. This at least got Selina to have a better public opinion from the Red Claw plague event and now this.

"I know but I wish it could've been better on the results." Selina said as she took one of the cups

"On the fact that Isis hasn't been found yet or that Daggett had gotten himself out of the hot mess." Naruto added in

It was stated on the news that Roland Daggett got away scott free on the accusations with him stating that the people of the one lab were making the one virus without him knowing. It was to make it look like he was innocent in the whole situation with him disavowing all of the employees working at the area. So for now the man is being investigated on what is going on but the silverette has a feeling that Daggett will rear his ugly head back one way or another.

"Both." She muttered as she opened up the patio door to get some fresh air and clear out the stuffiness of the loft.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Shizune asked as she got up and headed towards the door.

"Yes I'll be fine Shizune." The environmentalist said. "You go out and enjoy your date with that teacher of a boyfriend of yours."

"I will. Iruka and I had been wanting to go out for a while so this means a lot to us." The assistant said as she opened the door. "And don't worry, she'll turn up eventually. I know she will."

"I hope your right." Selina said as Shizune left for the day.

"She is right Selena, you just need to give it time. She'll turn up eventually and if not we can go out and keep searching for Isis." Naruto said to hopefully raise her spirits.

"But what if she doesn't come back?" She responded back at him with sadness in her voice. "What if she is….gone….and the virus…."

Naruto cut her off as he hugged her and he patted her head to hopefully calm her down more. "Don't say that Selina. She'll be fine and is a strong girl. You just need to have faith is all."

Selina slightly smiled at this while in his embrace as she felt a tad better despite what has happened. Ever since last night, she didn't know what was going on if it was just the sickness or something else. But she started to feel truly safe while being near the silverette and her heart starts to beat a little faster whenever she is in his grasp or touching him.

Unknownst to the two, a shadow appeared on the patio floor as a basket started to come on down from the floor above. The basket moved to show two green eyes poking out from the darkness of the sheet. It soon moved more and jumped out of it's placement to land on top of the silverette head.

"The hell?" Naruto said as a weight suddenly came upon his head. Selina looked up from the suddenness when she saw….

"ISIS!" She yelled out in joy as she took her beloved cat off of Naruto's head.

"Oh thank god you're alright Isis! I missed you so much!" Selina said as she kept on kissing her precious baby and spinning around in joy.

Naruto smiled at the interaction and couldn't help but be glad to see the two together again after so long. Hell he can see the happiness in their eyes shine brightly. But there was something that seemed to bug him now.

"How did she get here? And how did she get up high enough to jump on my head?" Naruto asked getting Selina to pause in the action.

"Yeah...how did you get here Isis?" She asked as her cat turned her head towards the basket on the patio floor. They soon saw the shadow move causing the two friends to move to the entrance to see who did this. Their questions were soon answered as heard some cloth ruffling and soon they saw Batman gliding away from the building.

The two gained smiles on their faces and got closer to each other as Isis started to loudly purr in their warmth. The warmth of a mother and the warmth of a comforting man.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Sorry for the wait people. Been working full time the past several days and errands have been a bitch while waiting to get them done. Even had to spend time with my sister for a usual get together, which was fine honestly since I rarely see her.**

 **So the bit with Yggdrasil brought up of 'nature' connected to Naruto's soul well I won't spoil it now would I on what I have planned with that.**

 **Also I fixed the bit on author's notes last time that I mean to say the Black, not the Grey for some reason and thanks to some of you readers pointing out my slight mistake. I also went back to previous chapters to fix some errors here and there since I look it over while on break so I could try to spot out any mistakes I left behind.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	11. Power Listings 1

Hey readers of A Nobody. Jebest4781 here.

Now of what you guys might be wondering on why there isn't a regular chapter here like you all expected. Many of you had been requesting me to have all of Naruto's abilities and weapons posted so far in the story. I was already planning on doing this but only posting up the listings every 10 chapters or so to show how big of a leap Naruto has been with his skill sets and additions to his inventory.

Note that things will get updated on the powerlistings since the abilities and weapons Naruto currently has would be similar to those 'skill trees' you find in most games and whatnot that some abilities are actually in fact apart of something greater. Later down the road, Naruto's powers will grow, develop and update to their full potentials with certain limitations no longer being a worry.

Don't know if I'm going to be super accurate on this guys just so you know. So please take it easy on me on this since this is the first time I'm doing this thing.

 _ **-Abilities-**_

Natural Physical Skill: Physically fit, along with reflexes and agility, despite him losing a lot of skills when he came to the current reality. Despite all that, Naruto's basic physical skills remained.

Enhanced Physical Skill: Due to Pamela's vaccine serum, it enhanced his strength, speed and agility that he can now jump higher with better reflexes, run faster and have better strength and durability.

Healing Factor: Originally, Naruto's healing was exponentially great due to Kurama's influence inside of the seal that he can practically have his skin burnt off due to using the Tailed Beast Cloaks and afterwards the skin grows back after a given time. Excluding Kurama's influence, it was also great due to his Uzumaki heritage. But due to coming to current reality, Kurama level healing factor was removed and went back to one of a normal person. Over time, the healing factor started to come back of slowly 'healing' the body by removing 'erasing' or 'fading' the pain away. Does have limits though…

Disease Immunity: Was given to Naruto by his girlfriend/lover, Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy, when injected by her vaccine serum. The user's immunity, digestive, and other organ systems are enhanced or evolved far beyond that of a normal human's. They are completely immune to every form of disease brought on by bacteria, viruses, or even parasites.

Brawler: Naruto's basic fighting style for many years due to not being properly trained in the academy. Helps make him unpredictable during confrontations but tends to be downfall at times with him not rationalizing through in physical fights by just relying on brute strength.

Frog Kata: Naruto's fighting style when he trained to become the new Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku to use Natural Energy/Nature Chakra to improve his physical strength, speed and agility. When Naruto came into the new world, this ability was mostly useless due to not accessing nature chakra but fighting style still works well despite being limited. When Yggdrasil had given Naruto access to nature energy again, Frog Kata could work to its full potential… in time.

Other Fighting Styles: Will be revealed at a later time.

Memory Manipulation: The user can selectively remove their presence from the target's memories as soon as they disappear from sight or can do so via other means. Will leave person to be partially invisible for a given time if needed.

Sound Manipulation: User can create, shape and manipulate silence, absence of noise/sound. Example would be creating a barrier of sound, or lack-of, around certain objects or on one's self.

Intangibility: User is able to move through objects and ignore most physical effects in their way, exact means how this is done vary between slipping partially into other dimensions, being able to make their own particles move between other particles, being non-physical being of energy, vibrating their molecules into a new quantum frequency, etc. Regardless the user is able to ignore most attacks, physical dangers and gravity. Of course the ability won't be able to work against certain materials and barriers depending on how powerful they are.

Defensive Capabilities: Naruto has a hexagonal barrier of sorts to protect him from oncoming threats to be similar to Gaara's 'Ultimate Defense'. Most projectiles can be bounced off but can be penetrated though if given enough force to break through.

Emotion Detection/Presence Sensing: User can sense the presence of emotions, including feelings, moods and their effects, of themselves, people, animals and other creatures. They can sense the presence of others by sensing their emotions. Naruto used to have really good mastery of this ability in a short amount of time after gaining Chakra Mode but was lost after coming to current reality. Currently he can detect how many people are in a building or room but not their location.

Void Rasengans: Variant of Naruto's Rasengan attack from home reality that instead of chakra manipulation it is comprised of void manipulation. There are variants of them like the varying sizes and strengths of them to the ever popular Rasen-Shuriken attack. Could even be powered down to be thrown to blow back some opponents without any real harm if needed.

Clone/Copying: Naruto had the ability to create Shadow Clones due to his vast chakra but after losing the ability to use chakra, Naruto can only make singular clones. They are primarily Void clones but with current skill right now he can only make one at a time with the same ability of knowledge gaining and reconnaissance. Given time he can create more with different ability variants like card, water, etc.

Warp/Teleport: Similar to the body flicker technique or shunshin, Naruto can go to one place to another quickly because of his speed and agility. But with his powers enhancing the technique that he can travel vast distances easily that could possibly rival his father's Hiraishin technique in terms of speed. Does have limits of traveling certain distances at a time that it sometimes is limited to visual distances up to roughly a two mile radius.

Sometimes could use weapons to warp to locations like Minato's Hiraishin technique or Noctus' warp ability from Final Fantasy XV.

 _ **-Constructs-**_

User can create objects from nothing by imagining object, or rather "idea of an object", and then removing non-existence from it, thus making object real. Is better to research on concepts of what user wants to create to have better understanding and use out of object(s).

Motorcycle: Hardy-Daytona from Final Fantasy VII

Twilight Thorn Scarf: Can be used as a grappling hook/gun to latch onto certain surfaces or objects to be pulled towards or pull the object to the user.

Outfit: Vanitas Remnant outfit from KH franchise with some changes from no logo on the mask and has a utility belt. Organic bodysuit to be like a second skin to user. Mask covering can 'disperse' to show user's face to the world. Pretty much is merged with the Stealth Suit MK II from Fallout series that Kurama has given him. Mostly named as a psychoanalytic cardiac-dampening sneaking equipment. There is supposed to be a built-in medical system that dispenses some stimulation and medical packs. Has a multi-vision function based off of the Splinter Cell series that has thermal/infrared, night and electromagnetic field capabilities.

 _ **-Weapons-**_

Similar to the construct portion on the list but this time is to create weapons. For the story, Naruto will have access to the weapons of Organization XIII but will take time to access them and use their full capabilities. Color scheme of the weapons will be White, Black and Silver/Grey with some regular color put into weapons depending on what they are.

Lexicon: Based off of Zexion's weapon in the KH franchise. It will allow the user to record knowledge into it like a notebook within it's unlimited pages. Things from regular notes, story writing, spells, schematics, etc. Current form is that of a notebook but later on it'll look like a regular thick bounded grimoire book and can be used as a blunt force object containing knowledge of previously mentioned stuff on the weapon. Other ability it will eventually have will help create illusions to make up for Naruto's lack of genjutsu handling in the past along with trapping other's within its vast pages. Can be used as a thick defensive barrier if needed since its contents are unlimited amounts of paper and never go away.

Fair Game: Based off of Luxord's weapon in the KH franchise. Playing cards or tarot cards that can be used as throwing weapons. They are sharp enough to cut through nearly anything from flesh, stone, bullets, etc. Act like like exploding tags if needed.

Lunar Rose: Based off of Marluxia's weapon in the KH franchise. Scythe weapon accessed after the meeting with Yggdrasil to have some limits with the Green and possibly the Black later on. When using the weapon, Naruto's warp/teleport ability will gain a white flower petal appearance to be similar to Ruby Rose from the RWBY series when she moves at fast speeds.

Foudre: Based off of Larxene's weapon(s) in the KH franchise. Throwing knives/daggers/kunai that can be used close quarter fighting. Later can have electricity running through them once training is taken care of with slight lightning manipulation… given time.


	12. Visiting the City of Tomorrow

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 11: Visiting the City of Tomorrow**

"So glad the snow is starting to let up now." Naruto said to himself as he was driving down the freeway. "It would've been a pain if the snow kept on going with all the ice."

Naruto had been driving for a few hours now from Gotham City because of the snow storm that hit last night. It was not a fun experience waking up to it and having to leave at a good time so the roads and traffic wouldn't be bad. When he stepped out of the towers, he saw the plow trucks were barely starting their jobs for the day, which pissed off the Uzumaki that his plans were going to be delayed.

Naruto had called the hotel that he was going to be late from his desired check in time and they understood since the storm hit them as well. He packed up a small lunch for the road since he could tell he would end up at his destination late in the afternoon instead of 10 or 11 in the morning. But as soon as he got onto the road, he was hearing radio reports of several accidents already happening due to the ice. So now the plans got delayed even further that he might end up at the hotel roughly three or four in the afternoon.

"One of the many things I despise in this world is the kami-damned roads with it's damned ice." He muttered as he was driving a tad slow with several other cars around him so that no accidents wouldn't occur. "I just hope that this storm didn't dampen my plans too much."

One might wonder why the publicist is on the road and of what the destination he has in store. Well it's quite simple really: he is killing two birds with one stone by going to Metropolis.

He was called up by his New York branch to see if he can open up a new location in Metropolis so that things could get processed better with certain dealings. Naruto understood that possibly getting a major business, or even a minor one, would make leaps and bounds if a location was opened up in that city so he decided to give it a chance. Of course he would need to go to the city in person so he could find a suitable building to open up the location at.

While he is there, he might as well check up on a few places to see how things have changed since he last been there.

"Don't know if I should've taken a flight to get over there instead of driving. But nooo...I didn't want to fly in a metal death trap. It would've been cheaper to drive." Naruto grumbled as he pulled out a sandwich and took a bite out of it.

"Should've listened to their advice and booked the damn flight." He said as he remembered his conversation at Arkham last week.

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _There's no way in hell I plan on flying to Metropolis when it would seem better to drive over there." Naruto said as he sat in front of his girlfriend of the visiting area of the asylum. He, however, wasn't alone however as the publisher was currently with a few people in the meeting._

" _Don't tell me you're scared of flying now, don't you?" Selina said with a small smirk._

 _Selina was in the group since she wanted to finally meet Pamela when it seemed good enough for the changed botanist to see other guests that weren't on her 'guest' list beforehand._

" _No….It's just that I really don't like being in a confined space while flying thousands of feet in the air." He said while looking away from the two women._

" _It is really quite rational of you not wanting to be in a vulnerable position for several hours on end." Harley said as she was sitting on one end of the table with a clipboard in hand._

 _Harley was mediating the meeting to see how progress is coming along on Pamela's condition. It wasn't normal of an asylum doctor, or an intern in the blonde's case, to be in the visiting area chatting in the party but she was rather insistent in wanting to be apart of them._

" _It's not just that actually." Pam interjected with a small smirk aimed at her boyfriend. "He just had a bad case of air sickness on a supposed first flight….among other things."_

" _Really?" Selina said with a gleam in her eye. "Mind telling us?"_

" _Pam…." Naruto said with a twitch in his eye._

" _Alright….'I' won't say it." She said to wave him off._

" _Ok good…" He said as he then realized when she said 'I'._

" _ **But I will~."**_ _Ivy said as she took over._

" _Oh no you don't!" Naruto said as he tried to lunge forward to cover her mouth when Selena grabbed ahold of him and put her hands on his mouth._

" _Don't listen to him Red." Selina said with a cat's smile. "Let's hear the juicy details."_

" _ **He told me that after traveling for roughly two years, he needed to fly into the states from Europe."**_ _The Green's champion started out._ _ **"Sure it started out alright but things started to go downhill…."**_

 _It was quite fun for the two women to hear Naruto's experience of his first flight while giving him some pity on most of it. From the usual air sickness due to the bad turbulence, bad food, actually being puked by several passengers, and several other problems that made the other two women understand his thoughts on flying._

 _As this was going on, Selina somehow had gotten ahold of her leather whip and tied Naruto up while duct taping his mouth shut so he wouldn't interrupt. He could easily get out of his bindings but this was one of those times he couldn't reveal his powers in front of anyone. Wish he could so the Uzumaki can stop Pam from telling the story he told to her in passing of embarrassing times he had dealt with._

" _You know Naruto," Harley said after the story was told with her taking off the duct tape, "you don't have to let just one experience ruin things for other ones down the road."_

" _I know Harley but for all my life I've been on the ground and been fine with not flying at all." He drawled out as he stretched out his mouth to get rid of the odd feeling._

" _But flying isn't you then." Selina added in from what she got from her silverette friend. "That's fine and all Naruto but you just need to suck it up at times and go through it."_

"' _We' agree with Selina here and you might as well just go with it to make things easier in the end." Pam said to back up the raven haired woman's response._

" _You could just take a sleeping pill if it makes you feel better." Harley said with a shrug. "Asides from the fact that it'll take you like an hours worth of flight to get from here to Metropolis."_

" _Look….I appreciate your concerns and take things under consideration, but I don't plan on flying anytime soon. So can we please just drop this?" He asked the three women._

" _Alright, alright. Have it your way." Selena said to him. "So asides from that, I think the preserve outside of Gotham got finalized…."_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

*HONK* *HONK* *HONK* *HONK*

"Alright! I'm moving!" Naruto yelled out despite the driver not hearing him. Caught up on his recent memories made him not notice the traffic was finally clearing up, causing the drivers to honk at him in irritation.

Asides from the discussion with him not enjoying airplanes in general, they ended up talking about the wildlife preservation slowly coming into fruition. After weeks of cleaning and removing the remaining military equipment from the grounds, Mayor Hill had given the okay for the land to develop into a wildlife preserve. It'll take a while for things to be properly taken care of from there but environmentalists are very much satisfied in the end.

During those discussions, Naruto noticed that 'both' Pam's and Selina were slowly becoming decent friends at best and it'll take time for them to enjoy each other's company despite having good care for the environment. The silverette knew the two wouldn't become friends by the end of their first encounter like with Harley and 'both' Pams, but it's a start at least.

As for Harley, she was starting to get out of her shyness, even if it's just only a little bit at a time. From what Naruto had learned from Selina, the two had met outside of the asylum by chance while running errands and had hung out for most of that day and on the following day with the two not having much to do. Once again, the progress of Harley having another friend was imminent.

 _ **-Few Hours Later-**_

"Feels damn good to be out of that car and on this comfy bed." Naruto muttered as he was sprawled out on his hotel bed with his suitcase not far from him.

Being in the car for close to five hours when the trip was supposed to be close to three all because of the weather can be quite tiresome. He got to Metropolis by roughly two in the afternoon, an hour or so earlier than he expected, with the city's roads roughly cleared out so it made things quick for him to get to his hotel. Naruto properly got checked in and the moment he stepped through the door he just wanted to be lazy and sleep for the rest of the day. But with him being cooped up in the car for too long made him want to at least stretch out his legs and go out for a walk….after taking a slight rest.

Once changing into a pair of warmer clothes, Naruto had started out his walk of the snowy streets of Metropolis for quite some time. Seeing a lot of familiar sites made things seem nostalgic when he lived here for roughly three years. Even with some other places got replaced made the silverette want to properly check them out when he had a better schedule idea for his duration here.

*Growl* Naruto's stomach sounded getting the organ's owner to notice the feeling.

"I should've packed more than just that meal for the ride over here." He said as he rubbed his stomach. "Now where is a decent place to eat close by?"

His eyes soon caught onto a diner with the name that seemed very familiar to him, getting the silverette to scratch his head to figuring it out.

"Bibbo's Diner…..if I remember correctly, that building was closed down before I left here." He said as he walked towards the restaurant in curiousity. When he opened the door to give off the little bell chime, he was greeted with a familiar site.

"Hello, welcome to my diner…." The man said before narrowing his eyes at the silver haired male for a moment before gaining a big smile. "As I live and breathe. If it isn't the little runt."

"Bibbo?" Naruto asked getting the man to smile a tad more. "Damn, it's good to see you. It's been too long."

"Indeed it has been kid." Bibbo said as he came around the counter to come close to the publisher. He was a short haired, blonde in his early 50's that towered Naruto by several inches with a physique that showed of a retired boxer with him having some weight added on certain areas. He wore a pair of jeans, black non-slick boots, and a red button up shirt underneath a white apron.

"So how've you been old man?" The publisher asked with a smile at his old friend.

"Doing well, obviously." He gestured with a wave of his hand of the diner.

"I didn't expect you to open up a diner Bibbo. I thought you would've gotten the bar….. Ace O' Clubs I believe."

"Oh I got that place as well." Bibbo said with a smirk getting the publisher to look at him in surprise.

"How the hell did you get both places with a fisherman's salary?" Naruto asked before quickly responding. "No offence."

"None taken kid and if you're wondering how….well let's just say I might've gotten some of your 'fox's luck' before you left." The old fisherman stated. "Not only did I win the lottery but I won a poker game to have the bar's deed. Used that money open up this diner and it took time to spruce up both places but it was well worth it."

"I take it that you're working part time at both places then? Here in the morning and the diner at night?"

*Chuckle* "Most definitely. Though during the spring/summer times, I would switch out of working the diner to going out and be a fisherman. Would have some people manage the diner while I'm out and all but I would always manage the bar no matter what."

"You can take a fisherman out of the sea but you can never take the sea out of the man." The Uzumaki said getting the man to nod at the little logic.

"So don't mind me asking kid but why are you in town? Business or pleasure?"

Bibbo's response was a 'so and so' gesture from the young man's hand before speaking. "A little bit of both actually. My company asked me to come over here to find a good location to open up shop. While I'm here, I wanted to at least see some familiar faces that I haven't seen in like 4-5 years."

"Sounds like you got a handful to deal with kid." The fisherman said with a knowing nod. "So asides from that: You hungry? My treat."

"No no no Bibbo." Naruto said as he tried to wave him off. "You shouldn't do that for me man. You should remember my eating habits."

"Oh I remember." Bibbo said in a smile with a twitch to his eye. "Broke my wallet the last time I treated you to a meal. Reason why I'll only treat you to pie."

*Chuckle* "Of course."

*Ring* The door opened up with the chime to interrupting their conversation.

"Hey Bibbo." A man's voice called out from the entryway of the diner. "Party for two if you don't mind."

"Yeah sure thing Tom…." Bibbo said before quickly remembering who he was chatting before turning the silverette around. "Hey Tom, you remember little runt Naruto?"

"Wait….Naruto!" The man said before giving the publisher a bear hug while cracking his back in the process. "Damn kid, its been ages."

"It has…." Naruto said with a strained voice. "Mind letting go? You're crushing my spine."

Tom let got of the Uzumaki's back before giving him a pat on the shoulder. *Chuckle* "Sorry about that son, but honestly why wouldn't I. It's been a long time since I saw ya."

"That it has." Naruto said to the older man. Tom was a man in his late 40's with greying hair with a beard to match his light grey eyes. He was well fit for his age due to him working as a fisherman practically all his life. He wore black pants and boots while wearing a grey shirt underneath a green button up shirt and coat.

But if Tom was here then where's…..

*Ring* "Hey, you get us that table dad? I'm practically starving." A voice called out from behind Tom getting Naruto's eyes to widen when seeing the person in the entry way.

"Arthur?" The Uzumaki called out getting his attention.

"Naruto?" The blonde asked and before he knew it, Naruto came up from behind and gave Arthur a choke hold. Arthur then fell back to get Naruto to land on his back before the two ended up roughhousing like a pair of brothers making Tom smile at the scene.

"I guess it's going to be a table for three then." Bibbo said as he looked upon the two youngsters meeting each other after several years.

"Definitely." Was all the patriarch of the Curry family said as he came up to the two and slammed his fists on top of their heads giving them comical smoking bruises.

The group ended up at one of the tables at the far corner of the diner so they can have more privacy. Once they were situated, Naruto decided to speak up first.

"Why are you two here? In the winter time no less?" The publisher asked getting the head of the Curry household to laugh.

"Oh we still do come by at those times for an occasional visit or getting away from Maine for a while." He said before going into a somber tone. "But the reason why we are here was that I had to come over to pay my respects for an old friend of mine and Bibbo's who recently passed."

"I'm sorry to hear that Tom and hope it wasn't too bad on his passing." Naruto said in sympathies.

"Oh it wasn't. He was in his late 70's and died in his sleep. Me and Bibbo lost a good mentor, who taught us everything we knew on being a fisherman and dock worker."

"Well that's good to know." The Uzumaki said before looking at the blonde haired son. "Not that I'm glad or anything to see you but why are you here?"

"I came along to help support dad at this time." Arthur said to his friend. "Tazuna was practically a grandfather to me. We even had to help support Kaiza, Tsunami and Inari at this dark time in their lives. They very much appreciated it very well though."

Arthur Curry is a year older than Naruto with shaggy, sun kissed blond hair with sideburns down to his jawline with oceanic blue eyes on his strong features that came from his father. His build was a tad bigger than that of an olympic swimmer's. The man was currently wearing a pair of green pants with several pockets in them, a grey long-sleeve shirt underneath an orange button up and black boots along with his leather jacket that was off to the side.

"That's great to know on how much you're looking out for his family guys." Naruto said before glancing at the menu.

"They are the only other form of family I have asides from dad here." Arthur pointed out before he too looked at the menu.

"Even though I keep telling Arthur to make friends but he tends to drive them all away." Tom said as he scanned through the list of meals on what to have for the early evening.

"Bar fights I take it?" The silver haired male guessed with a small smirk knowing it's probably the answer.

"Yup."

"But what about finding a girlfriend?" Naruto asked the older Curry, not seeing the younger Curry's eye starting to twitch. "Surely with his good looks and 'charm' he could possibly get one."

"Same result I'm afraid." The man said as he shook his head. *Sigh* "I even help set up some dates but nothing seems to work out."

"Maybe he's not finding the right girl. He should find one that could actually put up with him."

"Don't talk about me as if I'm not in the room." Arthur said with his eye starting to madly twitch.

The blonde actually forgot how annoying his old friend could unintentionally be whenever he is around him.

Things settled down once Bibbo came to their table and took their orders. The three eventually talked about what things have been like since they had last saw each other. With the Maine natives, it was mainly working at the family lighthouse and usual fishing jobs with not much of a change. After that, the former shinobi started talking about him founding and leading his publishing company.

"...You've done well for yourself in these past five years since we last saw you." Tom said to the publisher as their meals made it to the table. "First seeing you at the docks for a story for the Planet and now a book publisher."

"It's not easy that I can tell ya." Naruto said as he eyed his food. "A lot of times I drink a lot so I can try to numb the pain of paperwork. I even sometimes wish for a simpler life but what can I do exactly. I love what I do."

"I hear ya." Arthur said in agreement. "Sometimes I've wondered what it would be like to be in a different position in life but I've been born and raised in my current one. It would be hard for me to change from what I'm comfortable with."

"Even though I've told you that you should try something else." The eldest Curry told his son.

"But I have dad. I've worked around all over town in various jobs from the post office, the library, construction work…." The blonde listed off.

"But you feel more comfortable working near the ocean I take it."

Nodding at his friend's response, he continued. "I was practically born in the water and I work better in the surrounding areas. So if it means that I'll work as a fisherman, a dock worker or even at the lighthouse for the rest of my life then I'm all for it."

"Then you should keep doing what you love Arthur. There's nothing wrong with that."

"That's the plan Naruto." The blonde said before taking a sip of his drink. "So is there anything else going on in your life asides from work or are you just living day in and day out by the punch clock?"

'Oh if it was ever that simple.' Naruto thought as he reflected back to events that have happened for the past few months. "Well I'm actually in a relationship with someone."

"Really?" Arthur asked getting his friend to nod while taking a sip of his drink. "So who's the lucky guy?"

*PFFT* "Wh-*Cough* What?!"

"Who's the guy you're seeing?"

"You're saying that to get back at me for earlier aren't you?" Naruto said getting the young Curry to smirk at the question.

"Guilty."

With this going on, Tom had to laugh a little on the interaction since he missed seeing this.

"Okay we had our laughs here you two. But honestly though kid: Who's the lucky girl?"

"Her name's Pam and despite hitting a rocky part of our relationship, we still love each other very much."

The publisher started explaining to the two on how he met the botanist at the gala event in Gotham to a few things about her profession. Of course after remembering the little incident at Arkham, he decided to not bring up too much information other than the basic facts.

"Well it's good that you were able to find someone to be happy with kid and hope it works out for the best." Tom said at the end of the explanation.

"I hope so too." Naruto said as they finished up their meals. "Well it's getting pretty late and I need to get back to the hotel."

"Same here." The young Curry said before continuing. "We've gotta head back home in the morning and our flights at that time."

"We would've left today but due to the weather our flight got transferred for tomorrow." The elder Curry added in getting the silverette to nod in understanding.

"Well that's a shame. It would've been nice to hang out a bit more but we can't have everything." Naruto said with a shrug.

"True. But was nice seeing you Naruto and if you're ever in Maine, you know where to find us." Arthur said as he held out a fistbump to his friend.

"The old Curry lighthouse." The publisher said in confirmation as he returned the gesture. "Never been to Maine before but I'll be sure to look it up."

The Curry's nodded at this and said their goodbye's to Bibbo as they left his diner leaving Naruto at the table to pay for the party's meal.

"So since you're here in Metropolis, I take it you're gonna stop on by the Planet?" Bibbo guessed with a small smirk.

"That's the plan Bibbo and sorry to hear what happened."

"It's alright Naruto and no worries. Sure it did hurt hard when I heard Tazuna passed away but I can tell he's in a better place now." The diner owner said as he gave Naruto a box with a full pie inside. "Now don't forget your pie kid since this one's on me."

"Yeah I remember and thanks." The silver haired male said as he finished getting wrapped up for the cold weather outside. "So while I'm at the Planet, should I expect a few changes over there since I last been there?"

Bibbo adopted a thinking pose and thought for a bit before responding. "Asides from Ms. Grant no longer being there, nothing much has really changed….I think."

"Good to know." The former shinobi said as he headed to the door. "Hope you have a good night at the bar old man."

The man nodded before remembering something and called out making the silverette to stop. "There is one thing though."

"Which is?"

"Well...Ms. Lane has been rather moody lately and don't know what's wrong. Maybe you could cheer her up." Suggested the old sailor.

"With me here, she'll definitely be in better moods." Naruto said with a smile as went out of the door and headed back to the hotel. He was going to eat the pie in his hotel room while going over the documents of building candidates for the the future Spiral Publishing location. It will be a long day so he needed every bit of energy he can muster for tomorrow.

 _ **-Next Day-**_

*Sigh* "Well that one was a bust." The publisher muttered as he drove to the next stop of his 'building' shopping as it were.

He got up early and gotten himself a decent breakfast before making his trek throughout the city of the several locations that could be potential for his new Metropolis Branch. It was even better when the roads were cleared out of the snow than from the previous day so that made it seem better. But of course that only hid the difficulty Naruto had to deal with for the majority of this day.

His first stop was at St. Martin's Island, where the rich and wealthy of the city's denizens are located. Sure the location was pretty nice and spacious on what he saw in the tour but the price was practically ridiculous with it being worth a few locations all together. The second was a location in Hob's Bay where the river connects to New Troy, the central area of the city. It sounded promising when he was looking through the documents of the place but when he got there, the location was burnt to the ground due to some troublemakers burning the place up last night.

Currently, Naruto was on his way to New Troy where all of the city's main action was taking place and hoped this last location would do well.

When he pulled up to the building, he saw a pair of people walking out of the front door. One of them, the publicist guessed, was a realtor given the suit he was wearing, the badge and clipboard Naruto has seen in the past hours of today. The second one, however, got the former shinobi to groan knowing the man was going to buy out the building. Getting out of the car, he went up to the two like nothing is happening.

"...then it seems we've finished our business here sir." The realtor said as he shook the man's hand.

"But of course. I'll send over the rest of the payment and paperwork by the end of the day." The man stated until he saw someone walk up to them. "May I help you?"

"Oh nothing of the sort Luthor." The publisher said to hide his peeved feeling. "I just showed up for an appointment for a tour of the building, but it seems that you already bought it."

Luthor was a caucasian male in his 30's that had a good physical physique hidden underneath his dark suit. He was bald and the only form of hair he had on his head were his eyebrows. His strong, firm voice that he projects had hints of arrogance while his dark, grey eyes seem to hide hidden agendas.

"I'm sorry Mr. Uzumaki. I was indeed going to give you a tour of the building but Mr. Luthor already came forward and paid the downpayment upfront." The realtor said in a apologizing tone.

"No no no it's alright. Mr. Luthor beat me to it and I can't do a thing about it." Naruto said to the realtor before addressing the billionaire. "So don't mind me asking but what are you going to make this building into?"

"Well since you seem to be such a good sport, I'll humor you." Luthor said with a smile that seemed to annoy the silver haired man. I'll be outfitting the building into either another R&D or science division once I gut out some parts of the area."

"But why this location?" The publisher asked in interest. "Wouldn't it be better if it was in the outskirts of the city or in a safer area in general?"

The bald man took pause at this to quickly think of an answer. "Mr. Uzumaki was it? To tell you the truth, I was taking interest in one building in Hob's Bay but it was burnt to the ground. So I had to make up for it by taking interests in this building. I saw promise in both locations on varying ideas on what could be placed so I needed to snag them when possible."

It didn't take much to think that Luthor had some ulterior motives in this scenario given some small rumors he'd heard in the past years of some business deals but there was nothing to really back it up. So with that Naruto took a sigh of defeat and had to suck it up.

"Then I guess congratulations are in order for you Mr. Luthor and I hope your business decision today does well for you in the future." Naruto said as he held out his hand for good gesture.

The corporate man looked at the offered appendage for a brief moment before taking hold of it and shook the publisher's hand. "Your welcome and yes I do hope this does well in the near future."

Once that was over, he walked towards his car where a woman stepped out of the drivers side and walked around to open up the door for Luthor to step in. From what Naruto inspected of the woman, she was roughly a few inches shorter than him while wearing a black chauffeur's uniform to contrast her slight fair skin. She wore no makeup on to show her beauty with her sharp features with her light grey eyes. Naruto guessed she must have longer hair given the fact with how big of a hat she was wearing to show it was slightly bulging.

"Thank you Mercy." Luthor said before taking a pause and turned to the publisher. "Oh yes….now I remember where I heard your name before. Naruto Uzumaki of Spiral Publishing, one of the best known publishers on the globe. Took a bit for me to remember."

*Chuckle* "I wouldn't brag about me being one of the best Mr. Luthor."

"Oh but indeed you are Uzumaki. Given the chances that you have snagged the best writers, both veteran and upcoming, into your company that ended up making outstanding works. Not to mention of you writing a good handful of novels as well." The bald man said while getting Mercy to look at the silver haired male and gave him a smile with her eyes to light up.

"Well those were honestly good choices I had made with very lucky breaks mind you." The former shinobi said while scratching the back of his head.

"Indeed." Luthor said before continuing. "So pray tell why are you here in Metropolis? I'm guessing with you wanting a tour of the building seems that you wanted to open up a branch here."

Naruto nodded at this before telling the corporate man in front of him. "My branch in New York suggested me to find a suitable location here to help make things more profitable and I wanted to appease them. So yes I'm currently searching for a building to my standings but I'm afraid I've had no luck on my end."

"And such a shame too since as of right now nothing is available at this time."

*Sigh* "Guess so. I'll be contacting my branch and let them know of the bad news since they were hoping something would be available soon."

"Then good luck in the near future."

With that said, Luthor sat down into his car before Mercy closed the door with the realtor leaving the area to head back to his place of business. Naruto was about to leave as well but soon saw the woman walk up to him with a growing smile on her face.

"I take it you're one of my fans aren't you." Naruto said with a small smile knowing where this is going.

"Yes I am." She said as she had no restraint on her gushing over him. "Even though you must've heard this dozens or hundreds of times but I love how you wrote your works with very intricate details like you were there yourself."

"Chuckle* "Then I'm glad to bring you some form of entertainment." He said to her as he saw the sparkles in her eyes.

The publisher then saw Mercy walk over to the passenger's door of the car and opened the glove compartment to pull out something. He guessed it was one of the books but he didn't expect to see all five from the three Icha Icha books, the Gutsy Ninja and Ninja Storm. She practically skipped her way towards him and held them out to him.

"M-Mind doing me a favor and sign these for me. It would mean a lot to me." She said with a slight studder at the start making him laugh a little.

"Sure, why not." He said as he pulled out a pen from his coat pocket and opened up the front cover. "I know I usually say this every now and then, especially with me hearing your first name but: What do I make this out to?"

"Mercy Graves." Mercy said to him with giddiness in her voice. "My name's Mercy Graves."

He gave her a smile that made her blush slightly before looking down to the page before him he wrote inside of it. He then switched to each of the books and wrote down the same passage before handing them all back to Luthor's chauffeur. Once this was done, she opened up the cover to see the message below.

' _To one of my favorite fans and hope this brightens up your mood on the darkest of times.' -Naruto Uzumaki-_

Below the passage showed a little chibi drawing of Naruto waving at her with one of his smiles to which she couldn't help but find cute.

"Thank you Mr. Uzumaki." She said while holding the books close to her chest. "This means a lot."

"Your welcome and since you're one of my fans I could let you in on a little secret." He said in a cheeky tone that made her smile a little.

"Which is?"

"I'm practically done with my latest book and I plan on having it hit shelves in a matter of weeks." Naruto said getting her eyes to bulge out slightly and made her even more giddy than before.

"Really? Then what is it?" The assistant asked before quickly waving him off. "Wait don't tell me I want to have it as a surprise. But mind telling me what the book is called so I can look out for it?"

"The book is being called Loveless and the only thing I want you to expect from it is being an epic poem." He told her making her smile at the information.

"Can't wait. But anyways I hope you have a good day Mr. Uzumaki." Mercy said as she headed back to the car.

"It's Naruto. You can call me Naruto if you want." Naruto said making her look back with the kept smile. Once turning back around, she kept on walking with a small skip to her step with a small hint of her swaying her hips.

'At least she is better than some of my rabid of fans in the past.' He thought as he saw Mercy get into the car and drive off to whatever else Luthor has plans for the day.

*Sigh* 'Now what am I going to do?' He thought as he made his way to his car. He'll need to inform his New York branch of the latest developments that things will be put on hold on the new location by the end of his trip.

"I have a lot of time now to kill till I need to head back home." Naruto muttered as he started up the car. "But what should I do exactly?"

A quick thought came to the forefront of his mind getting him to snap his fingers before driving his car to the next destination.

 _ **-Daily Planet-**_

"I hope these can at least appease Lois and Perry while I'm here." Naruto said to no one in particular as he had bags of food from Big Belly Burger in each of his hands. He was currently in the elevator waiting to get onto the main floor of the business.

On his way over to the Planet, he had stopped on by a Big Belly Burger to grab some food from what he remembers on the various food runs he had to grab for Perry, Lois and Cat. Given the fact from what Bibbo told the publisher last night that Lois has been moody so possibly the food could help. As for Perry, well he might as well get him something if he is showing up unannounced or if the man is in a bad mood.

Once the elevator opened back up, Naruto was greeted to the old site before him of the 'ground' floor of the Daily Planet. The varying desks with the computers attached, the several large windows onto the side giving a grand view of the city, and the giant model of the company logo right above some of the elevators on the side of the room.

"They even have the same old green paint on the walls." He said out loud as he navigated his way to Lois' desk...if it was still her same desk.

"Well well well. If it isn't the old intern Uzumaki." A voice called out getting Naruto to turn around to see a familiar face.

"Hey Ron, how's it going?" The publisher greeted the reporter. Ron Troupe is an african american male with a soldier's haircut and thick moustache working for the Planet, wearing a cream sweater with a grey suit.

"Doing well kid." The man greeted. "It's been a while hasn't it?"

"You know it."

"Not that I mind seeing you but why are you here?"

"Well I'm here on business and I had time to kill. So thought I could come on by to see Perry and Lois." Naruto said before looking around the room. "So just wondering but is Lois here at the moment or can you direct me to her desk? Don't know if she still has her old spot since I interned here."

"I might as well show you her desk." Tom said as he ushered the silver haired man. "She's currently out at the moment but will show back eventually."

"Good to know. Just wanted to drop off her food before seeing Perry."

"I can tell." The dark skinned man stated. "You know….ever since you and Cat left, it's been a bit quiet."

"Yeah I bet." Naruto said, referring to all of the banter between his two female friends and some of his old antics.

It really didn't take long for Tom to show the publisher Lois' desk….with it not far from her old one if he remembered correctly.

"Well here it is." The male reporter said. "I gotta head back to do my thing now, so see you later."

"Later Tom." The former shinobi said as he waved the man goodbye.

The hazel eyed man soon set his gaze at his old friend's desk and saw a few pictures on display. The first one was a picture of Lois' deceased mother, Ella Lane, where Naruto could tell where all of beauty came from. The second one was probably an updated picture of Lois' family members of her father Sam and her younger sister Lucy. The last photo was the three friends together when Naruto and Cat were still apart of the Daily Planet.

'I should probably leave this here just in case she comes back soon.' He thought before writing a little note on her desk.

Once that was done, Naruto made his way to Perry's office to finally say hello to his old boss which was located at the far end of the current room. As he got near, the publisher started hearing some yelling coming from the room.

"Seems someone pissed Perry off really badly….either that or it's one of his off days." He said as he got to the door and knocked.

"Yes, what is it?!" Perry yelled from the other side of the door.

Opening the door, Naruto gave his old boss a reply. "Hope this isn't a bad time for a visit Perry."

Hearing the voice, Mr. White looked up from his desk to see the old intern that used to work for him roughly five years ago. When he set his gaze upon the silver haired male, he gave out a small snort with a smirk before looking back down onto his work.

"It's been a while hasn't it Naruto?" Perry said as he kept his focus on his paperwork. "Sorry if I'm not in a 'hugging' mood of sorts."

"I understand Perry and I hope I didn't come in at a bad time with me hearing you yell moments ago." The former intern said to Mr. White as he entered the office.

The editor and chief of the Daily Planet is an african american male in his early 50's with a 'heavy set' physique with his dark, short hair starting to grey out on various areas. He was currently wearing a white/grey plaid shirt with a red tie underneath a black sweater vest that went with his dark suit indicated with his jacket hanging from the post near his desk.

"It's nothing really." Perry said as he waved it off. "Just some issues in one of the departments."

"Well hope this helps make things better." Naruto said as he brought up a bag of Big Belly. "Got some of your favorites: chicken caesar, fries, and a cheese burger with special sauce."

"Well that saves me the trouble on what to get for lunch." The editor said as he snagged the bag from Naruto's hands.

"So how have things been since I've been gone?" The publisher asked as he sat down on the nearby seat. "I was told by Tom that things have been quiet." Naruto asked

"In a way, yes." Perry said as he moved a few things on his desk to the side for his food. "Nothing really has changed since you left asides from Cat and Lois bickering at each other more often. Though when Cat left things really died down on volume and 'excitement'."

*Sigh* "Yeah I figured as much."

 _ **-Meanwhile-**_

*Ding* The elevator to the main floor of the Planet opened up to reveal several people starting to walk out leaving one person at the very back of it.

"...I know, I should've listened to you sooner when you 'noticed' all of the red flags." The person said as she walked out of the elevator just as it closed. "Hell I should've noticed sooner when I was dating the man."

…

"Yes I'm glad I dumped his ass," she said as she got closer to her destination, "though I wished I could've done that sooner to at least save me the trouble."

…

"Anyways I'm at work now so I'll talk to you later." The woman said as she approached her desk.

…

"Yeah, love you too cuz. Say hi to your parents for me. Bye." She said as she ended the call and shook her head. "God….Chloe can be such a worry wart sometimes…..Wait, what's this?"

She noticed a bag of food from Big Belly Burger on her desk and slowly opened it up to see what was inside.

'With the lettering on the burger wrapper….this is my prefered meal….same with the salad.' She thought before noticing the note underneath the bag before reading it. _'Hope you enjoy your meal. -N-_ '

Something about this seemed to throw her off for a moment if there was someone that seemed to know her too well to get her meal just right. But even more so was the note.

'The only person who would do this….with the handwriting…..' She thought before her eyes widened as she started looking around for the person.

Leaving the food on the desk, she decided to make her way to Perry's office to ask if he saw _'him'_. Once opening the door she called out to her boss.

"Hey Perry…. Have you seen…. Naruto?!" The woman said getting the person in front of Perry's desk to turn over. Once the man looked back, he gained a look of surprise before smiling at her.

"Hey Lois." The publisher said as he got up from his seat and walked over to her for a hug. "It's so good to see you."

Overcoming her surprise, she started to feel very happy on seeing her old friend. Thus she returned the hug as well.

"It's so good to see you as well Naruto." The reporter said before she broke the hug with a smile. Not long her smile turned into a frown with her eyes narrowing that seemed to worry the silver haired male.

"Eh….is something wrong Lois?" He asked and all that he got in return was…

*Bam* *Slap* *Bam*

"Why didn't you tell me you were showing up?!" She yelled at his downed form with a twitch to her eye.

'I forgot of how violent she can be.' Naruto thought as he had comedic bumps on his head and a handprint on his face. 'I gotten more bruises from her than from Sakura and Tsunade back home combined.'

"W-Well I wanted to make it a surprise Lois." He said to her as he got up from the floor. "And I was mostly here on business."

"Really?" Lois said as she narrowed his eyes at him again to make him agitated.

"Yes really."

From there, she came up and quickly pulled him back into a hug.

"Oh god I missed you." She said making him chuckle at her antics. Even Perry chuckled at the scene in front of him for the slight entertainment for his meal.

"I've missed you too Lois."

When pulling away, the reporter started checking him out with an analytical eye before giving the publisher a smirk.

"You appear to have turned out alright since I last saw you Whiskers." She told him making him smile a little.

"Same to you I guess." He replied back as he inspected her as well.

Lois Lane looked well for a woman in her late twenties with hints of a fit figure underneath her winter attire which consisted of a slightly thick grey jacket, long black skirt, black leggings and a dark scarf around her neck. With her natural features, she had grown more beautiful in the past 4-5 years since he last saw her with her facial features more defined. Her sharp, purple eyes seem to pop out with her long, black hair that reached past her shoulders with a bang across her forehead. The only makeup she wore was the red lip gloss on her supple lips with no other add ons to her appearance, asides from her mother's earrings.

"So you said you were mostly here on business. So what's the reason?" The dark haired woman questioned him as her 'reporter mode' kicked in.

"Well I'm here since my New York branch asked me to find a location here in Metropolis to help improve certain dealings."

"Ah that usual excuse for most businesses."

Nodding at this, he continued. "Even though I could let my branch find a suitable location on their own here but I felt it would've been better for me to find it."

"I'm sensing an additional 'but' in there."

*Sigh* "But my search hasn't been successful…." Naruto said as he then explained to her, and unintentionally to Perry, of today's events.

"Sorry to hear all that Naruto and I wish it could've gone better for you." Lois said in sympathy.

"Thanks." He replied to her. *Sigh* "It's gonna be a while until I can possibly be able to get a branch opened here."

"You know," Perry interjected into the conversation as he ate a few fries, "I might know a spot that you can possibly do your branch at."

Hearing this, Naruto asked. "Really? Where?"

"It's this one spot at Queensland Park." The editor said as he took a bite out of his salad. "Hasn't been used in years and think it would be nice to have it opened again."

It took a few moments before the two friends to gain a realized look.

"Wait….you aren't suggesting…"

"The old printing plant?" Perry finished their thoughts getting them to nod. "Yes, that's what I have in mind."

"But don't you still own it Perry?" Naruto asked as the thought was trying to wrap though his head.

"I do," he said while taking more bites out of his salad, "but it's been collecting up dust ever since I transferred the whole staff over here in New Troy with the current building you two are standing here."

Scratching his head, Naruto thought for a moment before speaking. "So...Perry. Can I have it?"

"Sure." The editor said as he looked at the former intern. "If you can pay for the building itself and all that fun stuff for me to transfer the deed and rights to you."

This made the former shinobi smile at the offer and went up to his former boss and held out his hand. "Thank you sir and I hope you won't regret this."

"I won't," he said as he shook Naruto's hand, "you're a good kid and pretty responsible. Besides I need to get rid of that place sooner or later."

"Then I'll inform my New York branch to help get things settled with you for the building transfer."

"Good. Now do me a favor and leave my office." Perry said as he tried to shoo them away. "I want to eat the rest of this in peace before continuing work."

When the two old friends left the office, Lois was the one to first speak. "Well congrats on the new location Whiskers."

"Thanks….I need it given the stress I had today."

"So what are you going to do for the rest of the day?"

"Well I need to contact the New York branch on the latest development, but asides from that I have no clue what to do." He informed her as they walked towards her desk.

"So when do you need to get back to Gotham?"

"Well…. I was expecting to only stay for a few days just in case of searches, but with Perry offering to sell the old printing plant I could possibly leave sometime tomorrow."

Something about the last part of the statement bugged Lois a bit on how he said that he would be leaving tomorrow even though he had a few days being here. Soon things clicked together making her voice her thoughts.

"You drove here, didn't you Naruto?" She asked making him scratch his head before nodding. "Why haven't you gotten over your stupid airplane problems after all this time?"

*Sigh* "I do not want to go over this conversation again." He said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I already had this conversation with my girlfriend and I don't want to deal with it again."

"...Wait….you have a girlfriend?" She asked in surprise getting him to widen his eyes.

'Shit. I didn't want her to know I'm in a relationship.' He thought as he berated his slight mistake. 'Now she'll be bugging the hell out of me in her 'older sister' mode for more info.'

"Well…." Lois said as she wanted to know everything.

"Can we talk about this later Lois? I don't feel comfortable…. doing it here." Naruto said as he gestured the current environment. This caused her to notice on how he said it that talking about his girlfriend is a sensitive subject to him. "I'll tell you about her Lois. I promise."

Lois thought for a moment to process the information before replying. *Sigh* "Maybe after I get off, we can go hit the Ace O' Clubs so we can not only talk but also catch up."

"Thanks Lois." He nodded at her suggestion. "Hope you enjoy your lunch."

"Still thank you for the meal Naruto."

"You're welcome." The publisher said as he walked away before stopping. "Oh yeah, what time do you get off today?"

This made her slap her forehead before telling him her 'clock off' time. With that said, Naruto said his temporary goodbye to her as he left for the elevator while Lois started to dig into her meal.

 _ **-Later, Ace O' Clubs-**_

The sun was setting upon Metropolis when Naruto pulled up to the bar.

"Gotta say," Naruto said as he got out of his car and looked around the building, "this place looks a whole lot better than the previous place. I actually feel safer here."

At first, the publisher had thought that the Ace O' Clubs was still located back at the 'Suicide Slum' of the city. He was worried as to why Lois had suggested him meet up with her at that bar even though Bibbo had bought the place out. It turned out when he checked online for directions of the place just in case, the bar was relocated to New Troy from its original placement.

From what the former shinobi remembered of the old location, it was a mixed standing in that particular area of the city as _the_ hangout of the 'lowlifes'. Shunned by those who are 'better', it is often 'infiltrated' by up-and-coming reporters, bloggers and wannabes, eager to make the most of the 'loose lips' a few drinks often encourages. The problem for the infiltrators, though, was that they were quickly sniffed out and ejected. It was a loud place with loud voices, and underneath the din are the mutterings of plans, proposed escapades, and exchanges of information. Kidnappings, assassinations, leg-breakings and so on, are all discussed under the clamor of the latest ball games and heated arguments.

Naruto should've asked Bibbo more about the bar when he saw him yesterday at the diner but instead he ended up looking online for information. In a news article, dated shortly after Naruto had left Metropolis, a fire broke out in the slums and the bar was among one of the various buildings burnt to the ground. Since Bibbo had the deed to the bar when it burnt down, he got a lot of the insurance money and decided to move the bar out of the slums to a safer location.

When opening the doors, Naruto saw things like it was from night and day. From what Naruto remembered of the previous bar location, it was pretty outdated from the style and atmosphere that made things not appealing to most of the public. With the piss like smell, blood stains on various areas, and signs of damages due to the occasional bar and gun fights were the usual sight when entering the establishment. Now it was very different, with it up to date standards for a bar regulations, the clean atmosphere and much more that was hard to list off.

"I take it you like the place so far Naruto?" Bibbo asked as he walked up to the Uzumaki.

"Yeah I do Bibbo." The publisher replied as he looked around more. "Though I do wonder why you didn't mention more of this yesterday that the previous place was destroyed."

"Eh~ It slipped my mind honestly." The sailor apologetically said before continuing. "It's been so long since I talked about it that I hardly even talk about it."

"Hey it's alright and no worries."

"So why are you here kid? Just checking things out more of the city and getting a beer?"

"Something like that." Naruto said to the old man. "Lois wanted to chat with me more after work so I'm just waiting here until she shows up."

Nodding at this, Bibbo ushered Naruto to the bar and handed him a menu of what alcoholic drinks were available with a separate one for meals as per legal standings to having a bar opened. The publisher only asked for a water with lemons and limes before would show up and that's when the alcoholic drinks will be coming their way.

As the former shinobi was waiting for his friend, someone else had entered the bar with a bingle in his hand. With nothing going on, the person walked up to the bar just a few seats away from the publisher. He placed down his bingle to the ground, leaning against the bar's wall before calling out the owner of the establishment.

"Oh hey Oleth." Bibbo called out to the man.

"Hello Bibbo. I'll just be having my usual along with water during the wait."

"Alright. I'll get your order out as soon as possible. Though I wish you go to the diner to make it easier for me."

As Bibbo left to gather Oleth's order, after pouring the man a glass of water, things were pretty quiet at the bar asides from the music playing in the background and some other chatter in the surrounding area. Being a bit bored already on the wait, the man spun around on his seat until he saw the person sitting a few stools away from him. Getting a closer inspection, he soon recognized the man.

"You're the publisher, Naruto Uzumaki right?" The man asked getting the silver haired male to turn to the source of the question.

The man seemed to be at least a head or so taller than the former shinobi with his large stature making the 25 year old wonder how the stool is able to support his weight. Asides from that, Naruto saw that he's a silver eyed, redheaded man with his hair tied back into a ponytail and a 5 o'clock shadow with a goatee. He was currently wearing a green sweater underneath a leather jacket and a pair of jeans and boots. Naruto then noticed the bindle next to him and wondered why the man had that with him.

Taking a quick second to shake out of his thoughts, Naruto replied. "Yes I am."

"Hah, I thought I knew it was you." The man happily said as he got off of his seat and got a bit closer to the publisher. "I actually enjoy your works and those that you had published."

"...Thank you." The Uzumaki replied with a smile since he usually gets this sort of thing with most fans but still enjoys hearing the little praise. Of course with the slight hesitation was all because of how towering the man was when he got closer.

"I'm somewhat of a writer myself." Oleth said as he pulled out a notebook from his jacket. "I mostly write in passing since I've been working on my craft for quite a while."

"Everyone does at some point. Whether it's to vent out certain things, doing a 'brain dump' to put down what the person is truly thinking, expressing things, and various other things." The Uzumaki listed off getting the large man to nod at this.

"That I agree with." Oleth said as he opened up his notebook and flipped through several pages until getting to one section. "Just wondering but what do you think about this?"

As the redhead said that, Naruto was handed the booklet and read the following passage.

 _Basilisk and Cockatrice: A Moral Poem._

 _I dreamed I saw a Basilisk that basked upon a rocky shore,_

 _I looked upon the Basilisk with eyes of stone I looked no more._

 _I dreamed I saw a Cockatrice a chewing on a piece of bone,_

 _I gazed upon the Cocatrice one cannot gaze with eyes of stone._

 _To look upon a Basilisk is really never worth the risk,_

 _To gaze upon a Cockatrice Is permanent and never nice._

 _For it can never be denied life isn't pleasant, petrified._

"Well… what do you think?" Oleth asked the publisher as he read it again.

"Well, you used 'never' in the final stanza, making it seem to not really fit in my opinion." Naruto addressed to the tall man. "But other than that the poem reads well."

"Why thank you." He said with a smirk with his arms folded. "At least you're better than Barnabas on his opinions."

"A friend of yours perhaps?"

"A companion of mine for quite a long time actually." The redhead addressed. "Though I sometimes wish he isn't too straight forward on his thoughts."

"Everyone's a critic in one aspect or another." Naruto replied with a shrug.

"True."

Naruto took a sip of his water as a question came to mind. "I think I heard Bibbo said your name was Oleth right? Sounds Icelandic or Norse, I think."

"Actually it's short for Olethros." The now named Olethros stated. "I sometimes prefer Oleth at times."

"Then it's nice to meet you Olethros." Naruto said as he held out his hand, which the large man received and shook it in turn.

"So don't mind me asking but what do you do for a living?" The Uzumaki asked before pointing to the bindle on the ground. "Don't mean to offend or anything but with what you brought in I'm guessing you might be in-between jobs right now."

"Nah it's alright." Olethros said as he waved the publisher off. "I'm mostly a freelance artist if you will."

"Like what exactly?"

"Well I've done some pavement art in London and street art in Paris France. I've done some maintenance works at various Cathedrals in the world. Hell, I've even spent a month living in this one Spanish town and forged cave paintings over there so they can have some tourist attractions." Olethros listed off getting a reaction from the last one from the former shinobi.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that last one illegal?"

"Yes it is, but the town needed the help at the time and I couldn't say no exactly."

"Yeah….I get what you mean." Naruto said as he remembered past times he went out of his way to help others back in his home reality and during the past years here. "So is there anything else you enjoy doing?"

"I do enjoy doing restorative works by going to various churches and other places around the world and either touch up ruined works or make them appear what they were like when they were first made." He said as he gestured to the tab in his notebook in the silver haired man's hands.

Turning to the pointed out section, Naruto saw various photos that Olethros had taken of his various works with ones with him inside of the frame to show proof. Going through several pages, he took glances of the details of the works that he could try and see from the photos taken.

"These look very good." Naruto said with a small smile. "I guess you took a lot of pride when handling these works."

"Definitely…. Helps make me forget of what I did for my previous occupation." Olethros said getting Naruto to look at him in wonder what the occupation was.

"I'm guessing…. it's something that's really hard to get out of."

*Sigh* "You can say that." The man somberly said. "I enjoyed what I did in my previous career. It helped make things out of most to help progress…."

"I'm sensing a 'but' in there."

"But there was something I came across that made me no longer want to be associated with my job with the end result. So I left it all behind: my responsibilities, my home, my family. The only things I had kept from my departing are all in my bindle." The redhead explained getting Naruto to look at him and guess that he went through a lot before making a big change in his life.

"It must've been hard for you to do all that." The publisher finally said. "To drop everything and try to move on from that life. All because of one little instance."

"Yes…. Even with my abandonment of my former occupation; the end result still happened and it made me realize that even with me gone, things still kept going on without me being apart of it."

"Obviously. Some 'wheels' keep on turning without someone being there to keep pushing or turning it. Once the ball is rolling, it keeps on going." Naruto said getting Olethros to nod.

"I realized that fact a long time ago…. Even when I went into 'creating' things being the exact opposite of what I did."

"But what about your family?" The Uzumaki asked to change the subject. "Don't they miss you?"

"They probably are still missing me even to this day. *Sigh* I can tell that they would want me to come back home and even a few of them would want me to take up my old job but I would still refuse." The man said as he scratched his head and looked off to empty space.

"Then tell those siblings that you won't take up that roll anymore." Naruto blantly said getting Olethros to look at him with a raised brow. "You seem very fine with what you're doing and things are still going on with your old job that it probably doesn't really need you anymore."

The large man kept staring at the smaller one as the smaller one kept on going. "They think that you're someone of big significance that things won't really run properly without you, but they are wrong. Sometimes people need to be reminded that you don't always have to follow what destiny has written for you since you can make your own fate. We really can't know what we are doing, we just do things we feel are right and pretend that we don't."

After Naruto finished his piece, Olethros kept on looking at the man sitting in front of him to let it sink in before he couldn't help but chuckle a little before it went into a bellowing laugh for a few moments. This got varying people in the bar to look at their direction, but it was only temporary before going back to their own thing.

"Y-You know….*Cough* You sounded just like my sister just a minute ago and she actually told me almost the same thing you did." The redhead said getting the silver haired man to tilt his head in slight confusion.

"Really?~" Naruto asked him getting a nod from the man. "Then she must be one very smart woman."

"She is." Was all the man said as he kept his small smile on his face in remembrance of that same conversation all those years ago.

"But still Oleth," The publisher said getting the freelancer to snap out of his thoughts; "you should still see your family, even if it's for a little while. You should still visit them from time to time to at least settle their nerves and worries. It would make them happy to spend some quality time with them before you go back doing your own thing. Unless if some of those family members are complete and utter assholes, then to hell with them."

When hearing this, the man leaned back and thought things over from what Naruto said to him. The man scratched his brow a few times before he sighed from what was told to him.

"I think you're right Naruto." Olethros said with a slight defeated tone. "I should visit my family to at least get this out of the way. A few of my siblings would still want to see me and I know I can make them laugh and smile just the way I do to get them out of their funk(s)."

"Good to know. Though you don't have to see your family so soon, just go when you feel seems appropriate to actually see them." The hazel eyed man said to the silver eyed one. "I'm not forcing you on this at all since this is just a suggestion really."

"I know that but I will take your suggestion and try to see them eventually." The large man said as Bibbo came out from the kitchen with a few bags in hand.

"Well here you go Oleth. Took a while but got it all ready for ya." The sailor said as he handed the freelancer the food.

"Thanks Bibbo. Hope you have a good one." The man said as he fished out his wallet and paid for the order.

"Will do." The bar owner said as he went over to some other customers.

When Olethros got up from his spot, he picked up the glass of water and chugged it all down without taking any breaks before putting the glass down onto the counter.

"Well it's been nice chatting with you Naruto and I hope I won't be disappointed in what books you bring out to the masses." The man said with a smile as he picked up his bingle from the ground.

"Oh I won't," Naruto said with a slight laugh as he handed back Olethros' notebook, "I take pride in what I do now and I don't plan on ruining my reputation on that."

"I can tell." The silver eyed man said as he walked to the exit with his items in his hands before stopping for a moment. "There was one thing that my sister told me when I last saw her and it didn't make much sense to me back then but I understand what it meant sometime later."

"Which is what exactly?"

" _People always hold onto old identities and faces long after they have served their purpose, but you'll need to learn to throw away things eventually."_ Was all the man said as he headed out of the door. Once he was out of sight, Lois came in before looking for her friend.

"Oh there you are." She said as she walked over to the publisher. "Sorry I'm late, Perry had a few things for me to do at the last minute."

"Hey it's alright Lois." He replied as he waved her off. "I was having a nice chat with someone and made me think on several things."

"Like what exactly?"

"Nothing that you should really worry about."

"Alright." She said as she sat down next to Naruto. "So you promised me to talk about this girlfriend of yours back at the Planet. Mind telling me now?"

*Sigh* "Yeah I might as well." Naruto said as Bibbo came up to them and asked for their orders. As soon as the sailor left, Naruto put all of his focus on the coming conversation on what is appropriate to discuss. "Her name is Pamela Isley and I first met her at a gala…."

As this was going on, a woman was looking from the scene before her with a small smile on her black lips.

The woman in question appeared as an attractive, pale young gothic woman with hair as black as the night's sky that reached to her shoulders with some bangs coming across her face. She wore a set of black clothing which consisted of skinny jeans with a studded belt and a tank top. She also wore a leather jacket and boots with a silver ankh on a chain around her neck. The last distinguishing feature about her was a tattoo like marking similar to the Eye of Horus around her right eye.

"Thank you Naruto Uzumaki." She said towards the silver haired man with a voice that would make others feel happy to be drawn towards and feel safe. Even though he can't hear what she is saying, he suddenly felt happy all of a sudden while talking to Lois about Pam.

"Thank you for telling my brother what he needed to hear." The gothic woman said as she got up from her seat in the bar and walked out of the door to continue her busy work.

After all…. Death rarely has any time off.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Sorry on the late update people. Work has been eating up a lot of my time to the point that I'm really exhausted to not work that much. Also add to the fact in my exhausted free moments that I have a hard time trying to write through some parts of the current chapter.**

 **Ok so I'm bringing this bit up now so I can at least explain a few things that's been bugging the living shit out of me when trying to research for the chapter and some later parts of the story. If you're wondering what it is, then it's the placements of Metropolis and Gotham City.**

 **Various versions keep placing the two cities in different areas in the United States that made me and a lot of other comic fans confused on why things don't really match up at times. Like in the show Smallville they had Metropolis and Smallville be in the same state but seemed odd when seeing episodes dealing with the ocean….yeah odd headache there. Even with some versions had Metropolis be located in Illinois while the rest are on the East Coast. So yeah going with the East Coast bit here for the story so my head can rest….somewhat.**

 **Then there was the stuff brought up of people saying both cities reside in the state of New York to do the whole thing of 'Metropolis being NYC during the day and Gotham being NYC during the night'. Even with the famous Bill Finger, co-creator of Batman, stated that he wanted Gotham to be a somewhat replacement of the real life city.**

 **Hell I even looked up the 1990's 'Atlas of the DC Universe' to figure out the bloody placements with it apparently marking Metropolis in Delaware while Gotham is in New Jersey. Even more research states that Gotham is on the borders of lower New Jersey and Delaware across from Philadelphia while Metropolis is in the region of New York and New Jersey. Of course all this is just not fully accurate in the end with latest comic updates.**

 ***Sigh* My head hurts from all this honestly. So to just finalize all this and to rest my head, I'm going to have Gotham City be located in upper New Jersey (bordering New York) and Metropolis located in Delaware because of the coastal areas, piers and whatnot. If there is anyone out there that would like to help me fix this tidbit, let me know so I can make corrections. If not then I hope you are all satisfied with my placements and I'll keep it there.**

 **Now onto other things.**

 **I was told that I was mis-writing Naruto's hair color description from it being silverette. It would be fine if I was writing that on a female character but doesn't sound right on a dude. So went back to most chapters to get this fixed. If I forgotten to fix some errors well sorry but not gonna fix that.**

 **With The Black/Parliament of Decay, yeah will be interesting when I get to them in time but that is only when Naruto ends up activating their power aspects through his 'Lunar Rose'. I'll have to figure out how to get that to happen so be patient readers.**

 **I also decided to introduce the Curry family since I planned on introducing later in the story but wanted to do that now to show some familiarity towards the silverette. Besides, Arthur the various comics had been practically brooding and emo...especially in most parts of the new 52/rebirth and in the Throne of Atlantis animated film. So I wanted him to at least have a good friend at a later part of his life.**

 **Also decided to introduce the rest of the Metropolis people and whatnot so there's that.**

 **Lastly the last bit of the chapter I wanted to bring up since I'm at that point in life that I kept on thinking back on what I have read as of late when researching and planning out my story. It meant a lot to me when I read the details and wanted to at least put them in.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	13. Feat of Clay

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 12: Feat of Clay**

It the middle of the night in Gotham City, a car was going down the road to a certain part of town. It soon came to a stop in front of the abandoned Tramway of Gotham Island, which has been closed for nearly a decade. When the driver's door opened, a dark skinned man stepped out into the cold night air with a briefcase in hand before closing the door and locking it. Soon the man started looking around as he walked to the boarded up entrance of the building.

"Bruce?" The man called out in a distinctive voice. "Mr. Wayne?"

Soon a man stepped out of the shadows wearing a large, blue trench coat and a hat to cover his features before calling out. "Over here Lucius."

Lucius Fox, an african american appearing to be in his late forties/early fifties is the acting CEO who helps run the day-to-day business in Bruce Wayne's stead. He had short, pepper colored hair with a moustache to match with dark freckles on his cheeks. Lucius was currently wearing a dark suit with a blue bowtie underneath a dark, cream trench coat with a scarf and gloves.

"Bruce, it's three in the morning." The businessman said to his employer as he held up the briefcase. "I could've given this to you in the office."

All Lucius got in response was Bruce shushing him with him shaking his head. He then gestured the dark skinned man to follow him as the billionaire had moved some of the wooden panels out of the way so the two would enter the building.

As they were walking further into the abandoned area, Bruce decided it was time to speak. "I called you out here since my phones are bugged. My house, the office, everywhere Lucius. He knows we are onto him."

Thinking for a moment, the board member soon realized who his employer was talking about. "Daggett?"

"Who else?" The billionaire rhetorically replied. "You said that he was trying to take over the company."

*Sigh* "Of course….Insider trading." Mr. Fox replied as he looked at his briefcase before remembering what has been happening as of late.

Ever since what happened with Daggett's medical scheme to make a profit from infecting Gotham with a virus his company made, the man had been trying to buy stock from Wayne's company. But of course with how things have been going since then, the company had been refusing to sell anything to the company owner. As a result, Roland Daggett had started to scheme and plot to get Wayne Enterprises at any cost.

Both Bruce and Lucius noticed this, so they had been building up and acquiring evidence against Roland. One such evidence was connecting Roland to the incident last year at Park Row, aka Crime Alley, when he tried to blow up several city blocks for a redevelopment project of his. He was able to evade the charges and cover his tracks but the two Wayne executives were able to gather all of the sources. When the time was right, they would turn in their evidence to Harvey Dent and possibly take down Daggett for good.

"Once you give these papers to the DA, Daggett will be under indictment before he can even tie his own shoelaces." The board member said with a small smile.

"If I turn in the evidence." Bruce said with a smile that seemed to unsettle Lucius as he reached for the briefcase. "But I won't."

Soon several people started coming out from the shadows with guns pointed towards the two….or rather Mr. Fox.

"You see Lucius, I plan on destroying these papers and since you have brought them, we won't be needing you anymore." Mr. Wayne had said getting Lucius to get very nervous on what is going on while trying to get the briefcase out of Bruce's grasps.

"Bruce!" Lucius yelled out while hiding his anxiety of the weapons aimed towards him. "W-What the hell is going on?!"

"All that I can tell you…. is that I'm accepting your resignation Mr. Fox."

With that said, Bruce tried to pull the briefcase away from the man's grasp, but Lucius was able to pull it away when the handles broke off leaving the billionaire to fall onto the ground. The opportunity was knocking making the dark skinned man to make a run for it as several bullets were fired at his position. Of course one thug decided to fire upon several signs hanging above to make them fall onto the ground. As a result, one of them landed on Mr. Fox and made him groan in pain.

" _Two Baker Six, Two Baker Six."_ A woman's voice called out from one of the thugs. The man was wearing a headset with it connected to a pocket radio set to the police frequency. He had set it to the 'speaker' setting so every other thug got the message. _"Two O' Four at Gotham Island Tramway, Southside terminal. Please respond Code Two."_

"Come on guy's. Let's get this over with before the fuzz show up." The headset man said as he made his way down the stairs.

"Too late dirtbags." A voice called out from practically everywhere.

"Who said that?!" One of the thugs called out as he searched for the source.

Of course one of the thugs then realized it was coming from above as some light was shown up on top and a silhouette was seen. When seeing the person, he aimed his finger up on high and called out. "It's the Batman!"

"Shit! Not him!" One thug said as some of the men started to get closer to each other and aimed their guns at random spots just in case if one of them spotted the Dark Knight.

It wasn't long until Batman glided down and drop kicked two of the thugs to immediately knock them out before making his way through several opponents. The Caped Crusader then dashed towards several thugs at a time as he quickly kicked and punched them in vital areas to immobilize them before picking up one of them and threw the person at a group of them. Some of the thugs then opened fired with their assault rifles and shotguns but were not making their mark as the hero of Gotham was evading the stray bullets. Batman then got close as he slid on the ground to kick one thug on their mid-section and used that momentum as a slight springboard to jump towards another thug.

As this was going on, 'Bruce' saw that this was going nowhere now and he had to leave or else he'll get in trouble. So taking his cue, he slowly crept into the shadows and had to make a break for it.

As all of the thugs were down for the count, Batman was looking around for any clues to what is going on when he heard a shotgun get 'clocked' behind him. He used his quick reflexes to turn around and pushed the weapon out of the way as it fired off before knocking the man out. When everything settled down, Batman peered off to the side and saw someone down on the ground that was probably injured.

The masked hero would've gone down there to help the man out but the police broke through the makeshift barriers surrounding the building. Taking that as his cue, Batman pulled out his grappling gun and fired towards the rafters before being pulled up. Once he was on one of the beams, he ran towards one of the broken windows and left the building.

As the many officers were entering the building to round up the many thugs and send them to jail, they didn't see two thugs get up from their ground and bolted in the confusion to report to their boss.

"Sir, are you alright?" One of the police officers said as he got to the injured Mr. Fox.

"Wayne…."

"What was that?"

"Wayne….Bruce Wayne….He set me up." Lucius weakly said to the officer before he passed out from the pain.

 _ **-Morning-**_

*Clang* '75.' *Clang* '76.' *Clang* '77.' *Clang* '78.' *Clang*

The usual sounds of a morning workout in the Uzumaki residence were present as the former shinobi was doing his 'runs' on his salmon ladder. With his usual workout routine; he rarely did weight training as he mostly focused on running, body resistant stuff, chin-ups, abdominal work, various types of pull ups (salmon ladder stuff included), pushups, handstand push ups, tri-stand push ups, balancing work, planking, etc. Mostly stuff to help him manipulate his body weight to really show his test of strength. He is currently wearing a pair of gym shorts and a pair of Nike shoes. As he was doing his sets, he was focusing on recent events.

When he was at the Ace O' Clubs with Lois, he had told her as much as he could about Pam with what limitations he had placed on himself so things won't go overboard. No mentioning of her troubled past, no mentioning of her being a meta-human, and definitely not mentioning her being at Arkham Asylum. If he had slipped any of that information to Lois then things will be hard pressed on him and things will get complicated. Naruto did well on telling Lois about a lot about her with what limitations he had and Lois seemed pretty happy that he found someone really special.

When that was done, Naruto decided to ask if she was seeing anyone as of late. The reporter replied back with her recently getting out of a bad relationship, making Naruto realize on what Bibbo meant with her not being in the best of moods. He wanted to ask who it was but had a feeling she didn't want to get into that whole mess again so he had let that be. It was her thing to talk about and her's alone.

Asides from all that, the two talked more on various topics while they were drinking their beers and eating their food. Even with Lois at one point in their bar dinner bringing out her books that she wanted her old friend to sign with a slight, stuttery look when pulling out the Icha Icha works. It made him laugh at the sight but he still signed them none the less with it saying that she means a lot to him of being one of his closest of friends. This made her happy when reading it but didn't want to go all sappy and whatnot.

It did make him happy on having that same old feeling again when he worked for the Daily Planet, but he knew it wasn't fully there without Cat with them.

When the morning came, Naruto had headed straight back to Gotham so that he can get back to the office to not only work on his usual workload but to inform his New York branch on the recent events. They were less than thrilled when hearing on what went on with the previous building candidates but were glad on the opportunity to get a good location from the old printing plant the Daily Planet owned. From what he could tell after he ended the call with the branch was that they were possibly calling Perry White and getting things settled on the deal. It'll take time for things to be finalized but at least everyone will get what they want in the end.

He was too focused into this thoughts and workout process that he didn't hear the door to his loft opening up. If he wasn't, then he would've seen Selina walk through the door. She was currently wearing a pair of skinny jeans, black boots, and a white long-sleeve shirt underneath a brown jacket.

"Hey Naruto!" She called out as she didn't pay attention to what her friend was doing. "Sorry on barging in, but I was wondering if….you….Oh…"

Her thought process started to shut down as her eyes were glued on the spectacle before her as her friend was doing his exercises on the salmon ladder with his upper body on display. With each movement he was doing in the chin up exercises and bringing the bar up to the higher level before doing several pull ups made his body glistened with more sweat. Selina's eyes were drawn to his lean, compacted muscles that seemed to ripple with each sudden movement making her unconsciously bite her lower lip.

*Clang*

'Dear god.' The environmentalist thought as her eyes were locked onto his form. 'It's like chiseled stone…..and those abs.'

*Clang*

With the final 'clang', Naruto dropped down as he stretched his arms before seeing Selina near the entryway.

"...Hello~" He said in a little chipper tone with a wave getting her to snap out of her thoughts.

"Oh...Ah….*Cough* Hi." She said as she gained a small blush on her features. "Didn't know you had this here."

"Had this for quite a while actually." The hazel eyed male said as he grabbed his water bottle and and took a swig out of it. "I don't like going to gyms with their stupid membership traps."

"Yeah….same here."

Seeing her blank gaze, he guessed what she was looking at as he shook his head with a smirk.

"So Selina," Naruto started getting her to put his focus on his face again, "why are you here?"

There was no immediate response as she scratched her head while not looking at him straight in the face. "W-Well I came on by since I….well...I'm bored."

"You're bored?"

"Yeah…"

"But what about work?" Naruto asked her as he put on a grey shirt. "Wouldn't there be something from that to occupy your time?"

"There would, but things have been rather quiet as of late." Selina replied with a shrug. "Nothing in the surrounding areas are doing anything noteworthy. Asides from that, there aren't any major events coming up for a while for me to seek out any 'handouts'."

"What about spending time with Isis or even Shizune?"

"Isis is taking a nap and likes being on her own at times. As for Shizune, she is currently at her other job." Seeing his confused look, she explained. "She doesn't work for me all the time as she mostly works as an aide at the local college."

"So with that, you wondered if you could go do something with me for the day."

"Pretty much."

"Though I do wonder though why you didn't just knock. Instead you used the spare key I have outside to get in." He said with a raised brow. "You don't plan on stealing anything off of me are you?"

"What? No~...Unless the only thing I'm stealing is just some of your free time then you might as well arrest me." She jokingly said as she held up her wrists together.

"Nah it's fine Selina. Besides….I think I might as well kill some time with you anyways before I run a few errands."

Hearing this, she frowned slightly on what he's talking about. "Planning to go see Pam again?"

"Yup." He said to her before trying to say something else to her.

As this was going on, a stray thought went past through her mind. 'Why can't he spend more time with me?...Wait why am I thinking on that? He's seeing Pam…. but….'

"Selina? Hello?" Naruto asked as he waved his hand over her face.

"Hmm."

"I asked if you would like to spar with me?"

"What?" She asked in confusion at the sudden request. "Why?"

"Well~ I remember you telling me that you trained under a boxer named Ted…. and I bet that you had worked on your technique ever since he stopped teaching you. So with you being Catwoman, you must've had to fight your way out of some tight spots. I'm even guessing you haven't had a good spar in quite a while."

When hearing all that, she had to admit that he was roughly on the money and had to admit that she hadn't spared with anyone for god knows how long.

"It sounds tempting Naruto, but I don't know if I want to fight you being all sweaty and I'm not even dressed for the occasion." Selina said as she gestured their current appearances before thinking to herself. 'Though I wouldn't mind feeling those sweaty, tight muscles of- No! Bad Selena! Down girl!'

"That's fine," he said with a shrug before continuing, "though you should realize that some fights and scuffles might come out of nowhere and you might have to be prepared for the unexpected. So it doesn't really matter of your state of dress, or lack of one, that you would need to fight in any scenario."

"Point." She said before a thought came through her head. 'He must've had a lot of experience in this sort of thing.'

Oh Selina…..You have no idea.

"Well if you don't want to spar now, then maybe on a later day?"

When hearing his suggested offer, she immediately wanted to jump to the chance but she had to play it off cool to not sound all that desperate.

"Eh~ Sure, why not?" She said with a smile.

"Great." Naruto responded back with a smile of his own, "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to shower. You can hang out and do whatever you want. If you want you could even come with me later when I'm doing my errands."

"I'll think it over before you get back."

"Cool."

As he left for his bedroom, where as to one of the bathrooms is located, Selina got an eyeful of his backside.

'Mmmmm….I hate to see him go now, but I think I'll love to see him leave….What the hell is wrong with me?!' She yelled inside of her head as she felt like pulling her hair in frustration.

It's been like this ever since he saved her life with that fever incident. After what happened, she couldn't help but feel emotionally attracted to him with him being there for her practically every step of the way. From helping her on the animal reserve, her time in prison and being at her bed side when she was practically dying for crying out loud.

Hell, she's starting to feel jealous of Naruto being with Pamela. She fantasies of what it would be like of him being with her instead of the botanist. The two of them had a lot in common in their childhoods and times growing up but the environmentalist knew there was more underneath the surface and she should know since she still didn't tell him everything about her.

Now it's going to feel much harder to reel herself in after seeing his half, naked body exercising that she is starting to be physically attracted to him as well. Even right now, she is thinking of the many details on his body that she took note of and started to guess what else is hidden underneath the clothes that was going to be washed while in the shower.

*Groans* "I blame his Icha Icha works on this now." She said to herself as she rubbed her eyes in slight frustration.

*Ding Dong*

'Huh...Wonder who that is?' Was her thought as she went towards the door. When it was opened, she was greeted with a postal worker with a wheeler and a package on it.

"This is the Uzumaki residence right?"

"Yes it is."

"Great." The man said as he pulled out a clipboard and gestured for Selina to sign it. Once she did, the man went into the loft and dropped off the package before leaving. "Have a nice day."

With the man gone, the environmentalist was looking at the package with intrigue. Wondering what was inside of it, she hunched down and made the motion to cut it open with a pair of keys she had pulled out of her pants pocket before hesitating.

"I probably shouldn't be doing this." She muttered as her hand kept going back and forth on getting closer and away. "This is Naruto's package and it's considered illegal for me to open it without his consent."

She then started going around the loft to get her mind off of the package as it was actually a first for her being in his residence. Sure she had seen glances of it in the past when coming back from some night jobs as Catwoman and when picking up Isis from Naruto when she was out for work, but she had never stepped foot inside of the place until today. So with that, she decided to do a bit of exploring.

The living room was obviously in the center of the residence with a few couches, a TV set and the patio door on the far end to show most of the city to be the same design as her loft. On the left hand side showed the kitchen area with the island located onto the further right while there are some stairs to the upper level near the wall on the left hand side. On the right area showed the salmon ladder that Naruto was using earlier and it was near a few training equipment that was tucked away into the corner. Behind all that, showed Naruto's office with his desk in the middle with varying books in the bookshelves wrapped around the room. With the walls of said room that were for the entrance showed that they were 'backless' shelves so that the movies he owns would be facing the living room while the books were facing the office.

From there, Selina checked the upstairs area to see it mostly consisting of guest bedrooms and restrooms given the detail of the simplicity. She would've gone into the last bedroom but that one was indicated as Naruto's given the little plaque hanging off of the door with a chibi Naruto on it along with the door being closed. With nothing else to do after checking the loft's layout, with closets in varying places, she sat on one of the couches while staring at the package from earlier.

"What the hell is taking Naruto so damn long while in the shower?" Selina muttered to herself. "He's a guy. So he can't spend so much time in there unless he's doing something in there."

With the slight frustration going on for her, the previous question went over her head as she got closer to the box with her keys in hand to cut it open.

"Screw it. I'm opening this thing." She said as she dug the key into the duct taped part of the package. "He did say that I can do whatever I want while I'm here and I want to open this up."

Once opening up the flaps of the package; she didn't expect seeing, of what she guessed, were several dozen books. Taking one of them out of the box, she took a better inspection of the thick reading material. It was mostly a white cover with metallic decorations along the borders, the spine and on the covers. The word 'Loveless' was written on the front cover and the spine with...Naruto's name on it?

"Did he write a new book?"

"Why yes I did."

When hearing his sudden voice behind her, she let out a quick 'eep' and dropped the book onto the floor. At the sudden action, the publisher couldn't help but chuckle a little before speaking to her.

"And before you think or say anything; yes, I've been writing for quite some time and I've only told a few people about this." Naruto said as Selena got a look at his appearance.

He was currently wearing an orange long-sleeved, plaid button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up along with a pair of jeans and tennis shoes. His hair seemed to have an extra shine to it to indicate that his hair was still drying off after combing it a bit to give off the usual spiky look.

"So why are there so many copies of your book here Naruto?" Selina asked as she gestured the contents of the opened package.

"Early rights and sending selected people early copies of the book, asides from critics."

"But what's up with the decorations? Regular copies shouldn't have these on them."

"You're right….Regular copies shouldn't have these decorations on them." He said as he grabbed ahold of one of the copies and opened it up to point out a certain spot. "Unless they are first editions."

Opening up the copy in her hands, she looked for the same placement and there it was: 'First Edition'.

"You see Selina, these specific copies are very limited. Similarly to my 'Orange Editions' of my Icha Icha works, these will probably make a pretty penny once the books hit the shelves very soon. I decided to have all of the first editions brought here so I can send most of them out to those I wanted to actually give them to before I send the rest back to marketing and be sold to the public at a certain point." He explained as he headed into his office and grabbed a few pens with a piece of paper becoming coming back out to sit on the couch.

"I'm guessing you wanted to write something in them before being shipped out."

He nodded at this before replying. "The ones being sold will just have my signature but the ones I'm sending to will have a message or whatever."

Naruto started to write in the first book before ripping off a piece of paper and wrote on that as well. From Selina's position, she was able to make out the first name being 'Pamela' as he slipped that slip of paper into the book with the name sticking out. The environmentalist then guessed that Naruto didn't want to mess up on which books are sent to their soon-to-be owners. After that, she saw her friend do this for several others from Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Harvey and Grace Dent (an early wedding present for the couple), the Curry family, Perry White, Lois Lane, and Cat Grant.

Eventually Selina realized that each of the books are being sent to Naruto's closest friends and influential people in his life. She was going to wonder who else was on the list until she felt a weight placed on her lap. Realizing it was a copy of his book, she looked up at him with a questioning look.

"Wanted to give you one as well Selina." He said with a small smile on his face.

"But why?"

"Hmm?"

"Why would you give me one?" She asked as she demanded to know the answer.

"Open it up, read my note and you'll see." Was all he said before he pulled out another book and wrote another message for someone.

With her curiosity rising, she opened up the cover and flipped over a few blank pages till she found the message.

 _Selina,_

 _Things have been interesting for a while now hasn't it. With the odd ups and downs that both of us had experienced since we first met back at that celebrity auction. Have to admit that things would've been boring if nothing really happened since then._

 _Our pasts have similar factors that shaped us on who we are today, despite how some factors lead us in certain directions._

 _We have had our moments in our lives that we can feel vulnerable. That we need to stay strong for those who care for us. Whether it is big or small, every bit matters._

 _I wish things can go well for you in the coming future since things can go sideway at a moment's notice. With me being worried in past events why wouldn't I be concerned for your wellbeing. So I hope this can help you out in those dark moments in your life if possible._

 _Your friend,_

 _Naruto_

She had a small smile on her face after reading his note to her. She then turned toward Naruto, who was writing another message in another book, and tapped him on the shoulder. At this, he stopped writing and looked towards her to see what she has to say.

"Thank you. It means a lot."

"You're welcome."

"So how many more books do you need to leave messages for?"

Scratching at the top of his head on the question, all he gave her was a shrug. "Don't know for sure. All I've done so far were people I had at the top of my head and I'm just about finished writing the message for the last person on that 'list'. All I need to do now is writing my signatures on the remainder of these books and then I'll do my errands for the day."

"Maybe hold onto a 'hand full' just in case if you remember some people later." She suggested to him. "Wouldn't want to kick yourself over and regretting not doing it later."

"Yeah…. I see your point." Was his response as he continued writing. "So have you thought of coming with me on my errands today…..or are you going to read your new 'gift'?"

*Chuckle* "Oh I'm definitely going to be reading this." She said as she got up from her seat to stretched out her legs a little. "Gonna sit in my comfy chair with a bottle of wine and some food on the side with Isis on my lap as I read this."

"Well I hope you have fun on that Selina."

"Oh I will." The environmentalist said as she made her way to the door. "Have fun with those errands of yours and when you're at Arkham, tell Harley and Pam I said hi."

"Will do."

All he got in return was a wave from behind as she opened the door and then closed it on the way out.

"Well….time to get back at this." He said to himself as he rotated his wrist and flexed his fingers a little. "Gonna be a while till this is done."

 _ **-Daggett Industries-**_

"You sure Bell?" A man said as he walked down a hallway with two other men. "Are you sure our man that we hired doesn't know our operation?"

Not getting a response from Bell, the man turned around to see him with his headphones on and pulled them off before speaking again. "Did you even hear what I said?"

"No Mr. Daggett sir. Sorry but what was it you were asking?" Bell asked his identified boss.

"I said: Are you sure our man that we hired doesn't know our operation?" Daggett said with slight disdain from one of his employees.

"Oh yeah….well don't worry about him boss. The guy was just a 'hired gun' that he pretty much doesn't know our names." Bell said as the other man opened the door at the end of the hallway.

"Thank heaven for small favors." Roland said as he went through the entryway to his maintenance line. "But Mr. Hagen has disappointed me once too often. Hell, he botched this assignment completely.

"Obviously." The other man of the group said out loud. "The actor didn't even gather the documents from Mr. Fox."

"I know Germs and if Lucius Fox talks, he might as well incriminate us if the police can't figure out what's in those papers." Roland said as they kept on walking seeing some cream of sorts going into jars. "But I'm afraid it's time to let go of Mr. Hagen and be dealt with."

"But Mr. Daggett, the man is a master of disguise. He was one even before you gave him this stuff." The one man said as he gestured to the assembly line of product.

"I agree with Germs here. It's not easy to just change their looks with needing to actually act the part well." Bell said to back up his partner's statement.

The group soon got closer to their destination as Germs opened up a door with the word 'laboratory' labeled on the front. From there, the three men passed by several scientists as they were working on their own thing before Daggett stopped in front of a beaker containing a brown liquid.

"Oh don't worry you two. You don't need to bother searching for him." Daggett said as he pointed to the liquid container. "After all, this is the only place in the world where he can get what he needs."

 _ **-Arkham Asylum-**_

*Knock Knock*

"It's opened!"

"Excuse me Dr. Quinzel." A voice called out as the door opened.

"Yes Dr. LeLand?" Harley asked as she looked up from her desk with various papers all around.

"I'm just here to remind you that your evaluations with Pamela Isley are due by the end of the work day." The Arkham doctor said getting the blonde intern to nodd.

"Yes I know Joan. As you can see, I've been compiling everything in our sessions and interactions into this report and I wanted to make it as best as possible."

"I can definitely see that." The woman doctor said as she looked around the room to see the obvious evidence of condensed work. "Well I'll leave it to you to do whatever is needed to finish this up."

"Okay then."

As the door to her office closed, Harleen went back to work on her evaluation. It was a excruciating process for her with her wanting to make it as best as possible. She could've done it in smaller parts with how sessions progressed, but she had the odd idea to just mash it up into one large report. She's paying for it now and it's a complete pain in her ass.

*Sigh* "I would give anything to take my mind off of this right now." She muttered as she rubbed her eyes.

*Knock Knock*

"Did you forget something Joan?" The intern said without looking up from her work.

"Eh~ I don't think so Harley." The person said getting the blonde woman to jolt a little in surprise when seeing her friend in the doorway in a leather jacket with a 'visitor' pass and a messenger bag slung over his shoulder.

"Mr.- Naruto?! What are you doing here?!" She said in a small yell while trying to compose herself.

"Well I came on by to check up on Pam and while I was at it, I wanted to check up on you."

When hearing his response, she couldn't help but feel a little happy to help ease some of her stress.

"Then thank you Naruto. It's good to know that you wanted to see little ol' me." She said with a smile on her face.

"Don't mind me asking but what are you doing exactly?" He asked as he closed the door to her office and scanned the room of the various papers scattered about.

*Sigh* "I'm trying to finish up Pamela's psychological evaluation by the end of the work day."

"….That must not be fun at all I take it."

"Not really."

"But from what you've told me before with most evaluations, they would usually be small reports instead of-"

"Large ones? Yes I know." She said as she finished his trail of thought. "I wanted to make one report with all of the interactions to make the evaluation more condensed and more intriguing instead of usual snippets."

"And how is that going for you?"

"It's…..slow to say the least. I think it's about halfway or 3/4ths done." Harley said as she rubbed her eyes.

"You should take a break Harley…or at least take a nap." He said in concern as he got closer to her. "It'll be harder if you work on it for too long without any 'rest periods' and your head won't be able to work properly."

*Sigh* "I know you're worried about me Naruto but I'm not a little girl." She said with some frustration. "I can rest when I think so."

"So is there anything I can do that can change your mind at least?"

When hearing him say it, she narrowed her eyes a little before voicing her thoughts."What are you getting at?"

"If you can take a break and nap for a few hours, a few simple hours, then I'll give you something really special."

"Like what exactly?" She asked with her head tilted slightly.

After hearing this, he chuckled a little as he pulled out a book from his messenger bag.

"What is that?"

"This…." he said as he waved it a little with a smile, "is a first edition copy of my new book."

"...I didn't know you were writing a new book."

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle when he saw her widened eyes move in every direction where the new piece of literature was at. He even moved the book all over for a little humor and her head kept on moving with it locked onto the object in his hand. From what he remembered in some past discussions, she enjoys reading a new book if it seemed to intrigue her. Even more so when she has copies of the Gutsy Ninja and Ninja Storm that tends to help her relax at times. So with him having his new book in front of him, she would want to get her hands on it.

"Now Harley, you can have this if you take a break and a nap for a few hours." He said to her till he started to put the book back into the messenger bag. "But I guess you being too stubborn to keep working on your evaluation is too important to you then I can just give this to someone else."

"NO!" She yelled out with a hand stretched out towards the book.

"Oh~"

"I-I...uh."

Laughing to himself, he pulled the book back out and handed it to the intern. Once it was within her range, she grabbed ahold of it and then looked at in wonder on the nice covers. Even gliding her fingers across the intricate details before opening to see a message on the inside.

 _Harley,_

 _Thank you so much for what you've done for both Pam and I. It puts me at ease that we were able to move forward from our problems and I owe you so much because of it._

 _I know what it's like to be alone and not have others to actually rely on. I have to admit that it's scary and frustrating on those experiences that many times in the past I sought it out and I hardly got any in return._

 _What I'm saying is that you're not alone. I have your back and so does Selina and Pam. We are your friends and I wish you do well on your coming trials as an intern._

 _Sincerely your friend,_

 _Naruto_

After reading this, she closed the cover and brought it to her chest with a look of indifference on her face. This worried the former shinobi and he got closer to her to see if something was wrong. That was until she brought him into a tight hug and muttered a 'thank you' to him before breaking the hold.

"You're welcome Harley." Naruto said to her before ushering her to the couch in her office. "Now I believe you have to pay me back for wanting your new book."

When hearing this, she shook her head with a small chuckle and got up from her seat as she reached for the alarm clock in her office. She had set it to go off in a few hours before ushering Naruto out of her office.

"I hope I don't regret doing this or else I'll be in trouble."

"Don't worry Harley, it'll do you some good. By the time you wake up, your head will be cleared up and it'll be easier to wrap up your report." He said with a reassuring smile. Once Naruto left the room, Harley closed the door and locked it before going to her couch to catch up on some well deserved shut eye.

He made his way through the hallways without making eye contact to any of the inmates that were behind the see-through glass. Making it to the women's wing, he saw the usually small amount of inmates in this section before coming the usual sight of Pam's cell with a chair in front of it.

It was a standard, rectangular sized cell with the bed hooked onto the corner with a sink and toilet on the other side. The difference with her cell from others was the fact that it looked like a miniature greenhouse. When he got closer, he saw that she humming a little tune while watering the various plants around her.

"Hello Pam." The publisher said, making her snap out of her thoughts. "It's good to see you."

" _ **N**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **….I**_ _t_ _ **'s**_ _g_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **d**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **w**_ _o_ _ **."**_ The Green's champion said in 'their' dual voice. 'They' placed the watering can down before coming closer to the barrier that separated the two. Pam then placed her hand onto the glass getting Naruto to do the same thing to make it seem they were trying to interlock their fingers. The two people then leaned closer and placed their lips onto the glass for a brief moment before separating.

"You look quite radiant today." The former shinobi stated to her as he sat down on the chair.

" _ **A**_ _l_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **y**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _c_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **."**_ 'They' said with a pleasant smile. _**"S**_ _o_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **p?"**_

"It actually turned out well…" He started out as he then explained to her on what occurred to his recent trip to Metropolis. From running into the Curry's at Bibbo's diner, searching for the new location for his business, visiting the Daily Planet, and the interactions with both Perry and Lois. He did leave out the ones with Luthor and Olethros since he thought they weren't all that important from the earlier one being not that pleasant while the later seemed to be more of a personal topic.

"It's good to know that things are going to be moving forward with your company now." Pam said to 'their' boyfriend.

" **Indeed….Even catching up with your old friend must've been satisfying."** Ivy added in getting Naruto to wave his hand in a 'so-so' manner.

"Somewhat. To be honest, it would've been better if Cat was there to make it feel like old times. It would've been similar to how things were like with you and the Hollands."

*Sigh* "Yeah….I still miss them at times but I know they are in a better place now." She said with a downcast look as her eyes seemed distant now with memories of those old times coming back in. Ivy stayed quiet on that since 'she' felt the same way.

Naruto would've wanted to say something about that bit with him knowing that Alec Holland is another champion of the Green from his interaction with Yggdrasil but that would've raised some questions from his girlfriend. So he chose to change the subject onto a lighter subject by opening up his messenger bag to pull out the other copy of his book he had on him.

"Loveless is now done."

When 'they' heard this, 'their' head came up to see 'their' beloved hold the book up and wave it slightly.

" _ **I**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r '**_ _u_ _ **s'?"**_

"Yes it is." Naruto said with a smile as he went over to the one document/meal slot to her cell and opened it up. "First edition actually. I hope you enjoy it."

"' _ **W**_ _e'_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **e**_ _v_ _ **e '**_ _w_ _ **e'**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l."**_ 'They' said once getting the book in 'their' hands. Tracing it over before giving him a glance. _**"S**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **s**_ _a_ _ **b**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _g_ _ **a**_ _u_ _ **d**_ _y_ _ **, d**_ _o_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **hin**_ _k_ _ **?"**_

"True, but~ I wanted to make it special. The appearances just came to me honestly."

'They' snorted at this before opening up the book from the back in an old habit to skim through various pages before reaching the front. 'They' soon came towards the end of her light skim till it reached a particular page with 'their' name on it that caught 'their' interest.

 _Pamela,_

 _I am so lucky to have you in my life and I can't imagine it without you being apart of it. Not a day goes by when I don't think of you, both of you._

 _To be honest with you 'both', I was truly scared of what happened and I didn't know what was wrong with you as a whole. Your kiss….Your kiss almost caused me to die, but now I can't live without feeling your lips upon mine. It's just so damn intoxicating that each time we kiss, I just want to feel it more and never let go._

 _Over time, I've come to terms and accepted both sides of the woman I truly love. Both of you are the same person and if I didn't accept both of you, along with your 'gift', then I don't have the right to freely say 'I love you Pam'. I have more of an excuse that I need to dwell and learn more about you than before….to love you more than before._

 _I can't wait for the day for when we can be together again so I can show you how much I love you. It'll be excruciating but it'll be worth it in the end. Until then, I hope this book can show you how deep my affection can go._

 _Your love,_

 _Naruto_

*Sniffle* "If this barrier wasn't in the way, *Sniffle* I would give you all the kisses you want."

" **And then pull you onto this bed and rock your world."**

"I know you 'two' would." He said to 'them'. "So until then I hope you 'both' enjoy reading it."

"Will do Naruto." Pam said as she flipped through the pages till hitting the first page to start the reading.

"There's another reason why I wanted to come here today."

" **Which is?"**

"I want to know where your mother is buried."

Hearing this blunt statement coming from him made 'them' look at him in slight shock.

" _ **W-**_ _W_ _ **h**_ _y_ _ **w**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **'**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **' h**_ _e_ _ **r?"**_

"I….I wanted to pay my respects to her and even have some nice 'chats'." He said while scratching the back of his head. "I wanted to tell her several things, to let her know that I'm actually in a relationship with you and hope she can approve of me being with you."

Pam's questioning look soon changed to one of understanding as 'they' smiled. 'They' soon told Naruto of 'their' mother's resting place. It would mean the world to 'them' of having 'their' beloved finally meet 'their' mother, even if 'they' aren't with him on the first encounter.

Soon after, Naruto said his goodbyes and left 'them' to their own musings to read 'their' new book that will surely entertain them until 'they' can properly leave and be with 'their' beloved.

 _ **-Evening, Outside Daggett Industries-**_

A car pulled up some distance away from the facility nearby before it came to a stop. From there, a shadowy figure got out of his car before he crept on the walls to sneak past the entrance of the premises. Luckily for him, the one security guard up front was taking a nap. Taking the chance, the man slipped through the gate and started to run towards one of the closest buildings before ducking into the shadows as a patrol car came past him. Soon after, the man had to lean out into the light to see if there were any other security coming by soon. By this action, he revealed his disfigured face with various scars before running to another building.

One might ask who this man is and why he is sneaking around. His name is Matthew 'Matt' Hagen; a successful, versatile actor whose career was put on hold for some time due to a car accident he suffered from a few years prior. Most of his body was only suffering from some degrees of burns but the most damaging part was his face. It would've taken years worth of plastic surgery to get his face back on what it used to be, something that Matt didn't have that would've ruined his acting career.

Fortunately for him, he was approached by Roland Daggett while the actor was still in the burn clinic with the offer to become the first 'test subject' of the Renuyu cream formula. From what he was told, the cream would've been soaked up into the damaged skin and he can rearrange his face to make it appear what it used to be before the accident. How could he say 'no' to such an offer and he willingly complied once he got out of the hospital.

Matt felt as if he was at the top of the world once he got the Renuyu cream, with him accomplishing so much in his acting career with his best roles ever. Of course, his limited supply that he got from Roland ran out and the actor had to have more. The price to pay was for him doing various 'jobs' for the industrialist and with the threat of his career going down the drain if he didn't get more of the creme that he had no choice.

What he wasn't told though were the side effects to using the formula. When he started using it way too often, it caused the formula to not fully work out from the original 48 hours down to 24 hours. From there, the face would start to feel like putty along with the pain that starts coming up after the formula wore off.

It was excruciating and agonizing on what has been happening as of late. He would've gotten another good batch of the cream from the 'job' he did last night to pose as Bruce Wayne, but it backfired. Now he was out of the stuff and he had no choice but to go to the source and retrieve more on his own.

Matt soon found the building he was searching for as he opened the doors with it labeled 'Research and Development, Authorized Personnel Only' before entering.

'Now where is it?' Hagen thought as he navigated through the hallways. It took him a while but he soon found what he was looking for.

'The laboratory.' The actor thought with a smile on his face as he quickly opened the door and ran into the room. He quickly looked around for any hint of the formula in question until his eyes landed upon a large beaker with some bubbling substance along with some smaller ones filled with the same stuff. When Matt got closer, he saw that it was the same color and hue as the Renuyu formula he has taken all this time making him realize that this was probably it's raw form.

Not wanting to waste another moment, the damaged actor dug his hands into the beaker and grabbed a large amount of the raw cream and applied it onto his face. The result made him moan in ecstasy as his pain went away and he kept on rubbing his face with the stuff. Now all he needed to do was take the beaker and get out of there, along with some other jars of the formula if it was possible.

"Hold it right there." A voice called out making Hagen pause in his actions. "Turn around real slowly and step into the light so we can see you."

Quickly thinking of an idea to get out of this, Matt quickly rearranged his face into the only face he had in mind at the moment.

"I'm sorry about that," Hagen said as he changed his voice, "I was looking for Mr. Daggett."

The actor turned around to the person, or persons, at the doorway to reveal his changed face to them before speaking again. "I'm afraid we haven't met. Name's Wayne, Bruce Wayne."

Taking in a few moments, the two people looked at Hagen before the man with the headphones spoke up, Bell if he remembered. "Wayne huh. Sure….like we would believe that Hagen."

In a brief moment, Bell grabbed the actor's arm and brought it behind him before slamming him onto the table where the smaller beakers fell into the sink resulting in them going down the drain.

"NO!" Matt cried out as he tried to break free of his hold.

"Oh it's Hagen alright." Germs said as he walked around with a shotgun aimed at the damaged actor. "You've literally became quite the addict, haven't you."

"Yeah," Bell said in a taunting tone, "once they've hooked on this, they stay hooked."

"Come on Hagen, let's go out for a little ride." Germs said getting Matt to realize what they were going to do and headbutted the man holding him.

"Like hell I will!" Matt yelled out as he fought his way out. "I know what that means."

As the actor ran, Germs threw his weapon at the man's feet causing him to fall over before he and Bell ran to him and held him down. With all the fusing going on, they knew they needed to end this quick as their boss' orders. In the struggle, Bell's soon landed on the large beaker of the raw cream and got an idea.

"Germs….Hold him steady. I got an idea." The headphone wearing man said getting his accomplice to nod as he put more weight onto the downed man. It didn't take long for his partner to come back with the beaker in his hands.

"You know Hagen. If you wanted more of this stuff, you could've just asked." Bell said with a sadistic tone as he tilted the beaker to have it's contents start coming all over the actor's face.

"N-No!" Matt said as he struggled to speak. "Not that way! It's too much."

"Let's give him all he ever needs." Bell said as the cream soon went down Hagen's throat and nostrils causing him to choke and suffocate as he screamed at the top of his lungs before passing out or dying.

"Come on Germs. Help me get rid of the body."

"Do I have to?" The man said as he was a little squeamish.

"Yes."

*Sigh* "Fine."

It took a bit for the two men to carry Hagen's body outside of the facility. Luck seemed to be on their side as they found the actor's car outside of the grounds and they fished for his keys in his pockets before opening up the door and dumping his body in there. If they would've stayed a little longer, they would've seen some of his body parts start to slowly deform and 'melt' into puddles.

 _ **-Later, GCPD-**_

"What the hell were you thinking Bruce?!" Naruto asked his friend, who was currently in a holding cell.

The publisher found out about what happened this early morning when he was walking past a newspaper stand when he got out of the post office to ship out the other books. His eye caught a glimpse of the following headline: 'Bruce Wayne Sought for Questioning in Executive's Life. Lucius Fox of Wayne Enterprises Hospitalized.' After seeing the headline, he had to read the rest of the article to see what occurred but Naruto knew it wasn't all that happened.

The former shinobi went straight to Wayne Manor to seek answers from Bruce himself. But when he was there, the police were there as well wanting to speak with the billionaire. Alfred told both him and the police that he wasn't at home and try to come back later. The silver haired male knew Alfred was lying but he couldn't do a thing about it. He could've snuck into the residence to find where his friend was hiding but he had the feeling he needed to trust Bruce at this time.

Once all of his errands were done for the day, Naruto headed straight for the hospital to check up on Lucius and see how he was doing. Though when he went to see the executive, there were police guarding the room and wouldn't let anyone go in or out unless they were certified hospital staff. Since he couldn't do a thing about it, Naruto had to leave and wished things can go well for the man.

After leaving the hospital, Naruto decided to do one more thing before retiring back to his loft for the rest of the day. He called up Harley in her office if she did indeed take her nap and finish up her report….or at least be almost done with it. Sure enough, the blonde intern was almost done when he came on by and she thanked him on making her take that nap. It really did help clear out her head to get the process rolling better. She was just too stubborn to not do that sooner, but needed a friend to talk her into it.

So once he made it back to his loft, the former shinobi turned on his TV and switched it to the news while he would start preparing for his meal for the evening when he heard the latest bulletin that Bruce was arrested for breaking into Lucius Fox's hospital room. He stopped on what he was doing and headed back out to head over to the GCPD to figure out what was going on. It took a bit of convincing on his part when talking to the officers but he was able to get into the holding cells and confront Bruce on what the hell was going on.

"I wanted to check on Lucius and see what he knew on what happened."

"By breaking into his hospital room and scaring him half to death?!" The publisher yelled out with a twitch to his eye. "Do you realize how stupid that was?!"

*Sigh* "Yes I know that now and I wasn't thinking rationally about it." The dark haired man stated as he rubbed his head in frustration.

"No shit Bruce." The hazel eyed male exclaimed. "You could've just come forward and turned yourself in peacefully to save face, but now you literally made yourself look bad in the process. Hell you probably made Lucius more nervous about you than before."

"You don't have to keep telling me about it Naruto and it was a big mistake on what I did. But you have to believe me, I would never harm a friend at all."

"And he's been with you for like, what, close to a decade now?" Seeing his friend nod at the answer, the publisher continued. "Then a lot of trust that've been built up for all that time, but because of what happened could've toppled that down badly."

When that was said, Bruce gained a downcast look and Naruto could tell that he was berating himself on his foolish mistake. It must really be hurting the billionaire more than he realized by this.

"Look Bruce, you can tell me what's going on and what could possibly be related to all of this. I can even inform Harvey about it and things could maybe be worked out in the end."

Eventually Bruce relented a little and told Naruto that he and Lucius were complying detailed evidence against Daggett and were going to hand it over to Harvey soon. With the information being processed through his mind, Naruto soon voiced his thoughts.

"This is too much of a coincidence if you ask me Bruce. The timing with you two coming forward and this...impersonator trying to nab the evidence, I'm guessing Daggett could've been behind this."

"I'm thinking the same thing as well, but I can't prove anything at the moment. Even if I could, it would be harder to do so with the public's scepticism about me."

"True."

Soon the door to the holding area was opened up to show Officer Montoya and Uchiha in the entryway.

"Mr. Wayne, you're free to go." Sasuke stated as he walked towards the cell while fishing out the keys.

"You're butler made bail." Renee said as she held the door out and ushered the man out. "So off you go. And you should leave as well Mr. Uzumaki."

"I know I know. I'm going." Naruto said as he walked out of the door with Bruce not far behind.

After gathering his belongings, Bruce made his way out of the building's entrance where a horde of reporters and cameramen came rushing towards the billionaire. Asking various questions that were hard to hear with them asking all at once. Of course they stopped once Bruce got inside of his car, where Alfred was waiting for him, and drove off.

When the reporters started to disperse, Naruto headed towards his parked car nearby and had a destination in mind.

Seems he won't be heading back home anytime soon.

 _ **-Gotham General Hospital-**_

A car pulled over to the side of the road revealing two passengers, an ordinary man while the other was…..some creature of sorts.

"The hospital? Why are we here Matt?"

" _ **Sooner or later, Daggett will send someone to finish off Fox."**_ The creature who is now identified as Matt said before he continued. _**"Once I know who it is, then I'll….I'll take his place."**_

Matt soon shifted his form into his old appearance when a doctor was walking past the vehicle so he wouldn't draw too much attention to himself. The changed actor then took note of the various details of the passing doctor before shifting into the previous man.

"And if Daggett thinks I'm his henchman then bam….So long Mr. Daggett." The changed actor said with a chuckle before exiting the vehicle.

"You should head back home Ted since I don't know how long this will take." The man said before he walked towards the hospital. When the actor left Ted's pervisual view, he had thought back on what happened as of late before driving off.

Teddy Lupus is an actor and an occasional stand-in for his best friend, Matt Hagen. The two had worked in various projects together in the past and was the only person Matt confined to about his accident and his subsequent addiction to the Renuyu cream. Ted didn't like the idea at all of his friend having to keep crawling back to Roland Daggett for more, and having to do anything he wanted. So with what rational friend would do for an 'addict' was trying to hide all of the Renuyu jars at times and would only bring them out for limited use when necessary.

After the breakdown in Matt's trailer earlier that day, Ted had to keep an eye on his friend but lost track after shooting was done for the day. He kept on trying to find the damaged actor for several hours until a dreaded thought passed through his mind. Once arriving outside of Daggett Industries, Teddy found his friend in his car and in horribly mutated state.

After some struggle of getting the deformed man into his car, Ted got him back to Matt's trailer to offer support and compassion on the recent events since Matt needed them more than ever. That was when the two found out that Matt somehow became a metahuman because of the Renuyu formula saturating every cell of his body, giving him the ability to change his form into anything he thought like a muscle reflex or something. This happened when Matt was walking past various pictures hanging on his trailer walls of past roles he performed and his body started to change into said roles.

When this revelation came out, Ted tried to talk him that this was a blessing, that his acting career wouldn't end at all and could end up being better than before. Of course, things didn't go all that well that Matt's body reverted to its deformed state and caused the changed man to break down again and eventually swore vengeance on Daggett on what he had done to him.

"I just hope things turn out alright soon." Ted thought when driving off into the night.

As this was going on, Lucius Fox was currently asleep in his hospital room without any worry whatsoever. The door to the room slowly opened up to reveal an ominous figure before closing the door back up. The person in question then looked around for anything to use for his current job before finding a stray pillow off to the side. Once grabbing ahold of it, the person made his way to the sleeping executive with the intent to kill the man by suffocation. Things would've been done accordingly well...if a batarang didn't intervene by hitting the pillow and lodging it to the wall.

Seeing the sudden event, the man looked around to the source until he saw Batman right outside of the windowsill.

"Oh no!" The man yelled as he quickly ran towards the door and opened it before running through the hallway to reveal Germs, one of Daggett's men.

In his haste and confusion when trying to get away from Batman, he ended up in one room that would've been his worst nightmare to be in.

"Why did I run in here?" He nervously said as he tried to back away from all of these infection and disease samples the hospital kept. "I should've kept running."

Germs would've gotten out of the room safely but the Caped Crusader was blocking his way.

"P-Please, you gotta let me out of here." The man pleaded as he was backing away from Gotham's dark hero. "A-All of these virus' and bacteria, I could be infected."

"Oh...I know." Batman said as he walked closer to the thug. "Now I'll ask nicely: Who impersonated Bruce Wayne?"

"I-I do-don't know."

Knowing he wasn't going to be able to use the 'easy' approach on this one, Batman looked around until finding something useful for this situation. He grabbed ahold of the jar and read it outloud to the thug. "Crimson Fever….One lousy way to go."

To get his message across, the hero placed the container on the shelf above Germs with it edging to possibly fall off. "No possible cure so far. Now I want that name. Your friend Bell couldn't tell me, so what about you?"

"Okay, okay. It was Hagen, the movie actor."

Unsatisfied with the answer, Batman punched the wall causing the container to shake a bit and edge closer off of its shelf.

"It's the truth I swear!"

"Then how did he fool Fox?" Batman asked with his arm at the ready to strike the wall again. "He's good but no actor, no make-up, is that good."

"I-I don't know."

*Wham*

"Y-You're crazy!" Germs said as he ducked his head as the container kept on shaking closer off of the edge.

"Last chance! Now talk!"

"Alright! He-He has something...Something that nobody has that he could-"

The man would've said more but the lights of the room lit up and someone called on out. "Nice work Batman, but I'll handle it from here."

The two looked towards the entrance of the room to see one of the hospital security guards coming their way. Feeling a slight frustration on not getting his answers, he hit his wall against the wall again, causing the container to fall off of it's placement. The thug ducked down so he wouldn't get splashed by it's contents before Batman caught it.

"Relax...It's just dirty seawater." The hero muttered as the guard got closer. "Will you please give me a moment with him. I need some answers."

There was no indefinite answer that came from the security officer...until he turned around and stretched out his arm...really stretched it out and slammed Batman to the ceiling before letting go.

"W-What in the name of heaven?"

"Oh shut up." The 'guard' said before pulling onto his cheek and it stretched out before it detached from the rest of the body to form a small glob.

"G-Get that away fro-MMMPH!"

"Now let's ha _ **ve a nice chat."**_ The 'guard said to Germs before exiting the room.

When Batman got his wits together, he ran out to find any trace of Germs and the supposed guard before he saw the stairway door slam shut. He opened the door quickly and ran inside to see where the person went before finding an ominous figure several floors above him. The hero kept on running up the stairs to catch up to the figure and ended up on the roof to see the person holding Germs up in the air, ready to throw him to the ground below. The misshapen being would've thrown him off if it wasn't for a scarf of all things, wrapping the thug up and pulling him off of the being's grasps.

"I'm not too late in missing the party, am I?" A voice called out getting the two other individuals to look towards the source with the knocked out thug not too far from his position.

" _ **Who the hell are you?"**_

"The name's Vanitas." The now identified Vanitas said in his black and white, muscle suit attire before bringing his hand out and wrote it in the air. "V-A-N, I-T-A-S. Got it memorized?"

'When did Nobody decide to go by that now?' Batman thought before remembering their last encounter at the abandoned Grande Greenhouse last month that Robin suggested the masked individual to change his name. 'Nevermind.'

The deformed being kept focus onto Vanitas' form before it started to shift into a brown colored version of the new arrival.

"What in the world?" Batman said in shock as he gazed at the man and Naruto was having similar thoughts on what's going on.

'He can shape shift?'

The current form didn't last long as it shifted back into the large monstrosity the person was before he yelled out. _**"Back off!"**_

Batman dashed towards Vanitas and the downed Germs to get the captive to safety but the deformed man stretched out his arm, which turned into a 'brick wall', and slammed the caped crusader away. Vanitas grabbed ahold of the captive and moved out of the way as one of the deformed man's arms came down on their position in the shape of a giant hammer, causing large damage onto the roof. It wasn't long before the other hand formed into metallic spikes and shot out towards both individuals as they tried to get away.

"Hey! Over here!" Vanitas yelled out as he threw several cards at the deformed man before they exploded on contact.

" _ **Why you little?!"**_ The being growled out as his body was misshapen even more before it reverted back to normal.

With the being's focus now towards the muscle suited man, Batman ran towards the misshapen being and did a jump kick. It did land well but the hero couldn't get free from the being's body, even as the man grabbed ahold of the hero and threw him over the ledge. Vanitas then came up from the rear with his Lunar Rose and slashed at him, leaving deep cuts into his form before they 'healed' back up.

" _ **Stop that!"**_ The being yelled out as his arms soon shifted into blades and started swinging at his new opponent. Naruto kept on dodging and evading the swings while occasionally parrying them. As this was going on, Batman climbed up and saw the current fight.

"Surely you can do better than that." Naruto taunted before swinging his scythe upward to cut off one of the arms. The appendage landed in a loud thud before it started to move on it's own and launched towards the helmeted hero.

"That's new." He said before kicking the appendage towards the misshapen being before it absorbed into his very being and reformed his arm.

The being then shifted his arms into giant crab claws of sorts before they reverted back to normal when the person started groaning in pain.

" _ **GRAHHH!"**_ The man yelled out as he held onto his sides. He then brought his hands onto the rooftop and started breathing in and out in rapid successions, like he was starting to run out of breath.

"All that shape changing must've taken a lot out of you, hasn't it?" Batman rhetorically asked as he quickly realized what is going on. He would've said more before police sirens started to fill the air. Vanitas and Batman looked onto the side of the roof to see several police cars heading towards the hospital, no doubt on what is going on.

In their distracted state, the deformed being ran past the two and jumped off of the ledge.

"Stop!" Naruto yelled out as he tried to grab ahold of the culprit. Batman soon fired his grappling gun onto the being in hopes of catching him when it wrapped around him but the being was 'cut' in half due to the weight, speed and height of the fall before landing onto the ground like deformed clay.

"What in the name of…?" Naruto said in shock as the two heroes looked at the current display as the being rose up from his fall before it quickly moved to a sewer duct and slipped away.

"Well that was interesting." The masked publisher said as he rubbed his helmet to figure out what is going on.

"What are you doing here...Vanitas?" Batman asked as he wanted to interrogate the individual.

"Well I wanted to check up on good old, Illustrious Mr. Fox." Vanitas said in a cheerful tone while swinging his arm a little to emphasize his slight jokeful tone before shifting to a serious one. "After what happened with Mr. Wayne causing a scene here, I wanted to be sure the poor man was safer and to see who was after him."

The bat themed hero couldn't help but find the action similar to his own. When he gotten out of the GCPD earlier, he had the same idea and came over here as quickly as possible so he can watch over his friend better. Apparently Vanitas had the same idea of his own.

"I appreciate the gesture but I have things handled."

"You sure? Especially with what happened?"

"I'm sure."

"If you say so."

With that said, Vanitas ran towards the edge of the rooftop and jumped off causing the hero to look down to spot where the individual went….only to find nothing.

"Huh...So that's what it's like." Batman muttered as he went to the unconscious form of Germs and grabbed a sample of what was covering the thug's mouth and some of his body before leaving in his own fashion. If he stayed a little longer, he would've seen Vanitas climb up to the rooftop and chuckled a little.

"Nice trick. But don't know if mine is better." He said as he climbed on down the fire escape and summoned his motorcycle and rode back to his home for the evening.

 _ **-Next Day, Batcave-**_

" _Tonight on Gotham Insider: I'll be interviewing pharmaceutical king, Roland Daggett, who's new product can perform what plastic surgery can't. If you want to view the interview, you can tune in at our regular channel or come on in at the Balaxy Broadcasting studio. This is Summer Gleeson and I'll see you then."_

The news report was sounded out throughout the infamous Batcave as the caped crusader was currently working at his lab table with the sample he gotten from last night.

"I've acquired the Matt Hagen films you asked for Master Bruce." Alfred said as he walked down the stairs to where the now unmasked Bruce was at.

"Good...Because I'm sure that thing Vanitas and I fought at the hospital was indeed Hagen. His condition is a result of an experiment gone wrong by the hands of Roland Daggett." Bruce said as he gestured to the empty container of Renuyu cream on the side.

After the confrontation at Gotham General, he decided to follow up on the lead where Germs said on who the impersonator was. When arriving at the movie studio outside of the city, he came across Matt Hagen's trailer and found it wrecked with various containers of the pharmaceutical product lying about. He searched each one of them until he gathered enough of the cream to bring back to the Batcave to have it tested out.

"Hagen apparently transforms unconsciously sometimes, like a reflex action of sorts."

"Vanitas sir?"

"...Nobody goes by a different name now….You can thank Dick for that."

"I'll be sure to let him know when the time comes." Alfred said with a small smirk on his face. He had heard of this 'Nobody' fellow when Bruce encountered him during the 'Red Claw' incident and he too agreed with Master Richard that the man's name was odd.

"Don't mind me asking but what are you going to do with those films anyways?"

"Well…."

 _ **-Evening, Balaxy Broadcasting-**_

"...It sure is crowded here." Naruto said as he was in the line to get into the building as he wanted to see what was going on with the interview this evening. But of course so many women of various ages were in attendance along with various pharmaceutical business workers to see the latest product, so it was going to be hard to get into. Getting tired on the line not moving, he decided to leave and went to the side of the building to fazed his way in.

The reason why he was coming on by to see the event was because of Daggett making another scene. After hearing all of the details that were involved with the man from Bruce, asides from what he knew about the incident last month, he decided see the man on his next public appearance. From what happened at the hospital rooftop, Naruto had guessed the one misshapen being was going to strike again and maybe do it on live television.

Once no one was looking, Naruto focused on his energy and summoned his 'Vanitas' attire so no one would recognize who he really was. From there, he started to make his way up to the rafters to get a good angle on tonight's proceedings.

After what happened with the incident last month at the greenhouse, Naruto had wanted to keep his promise to himself and try and merge his two outfits together to make it become a techno-organic body suit. It took him weeks to get it to work with it being very difficult on the merge but it wouldn't work all that well. He summoned his bio-organic suit while wearing his stealth suit and it did indeed work but when he called off the organic suit, his stealth suit was still there. So after various trial and error attempts, Naruto decided to merge the pieces one at a time to make things less stressful for him on most of his free time at the loft. Eventually it became a success with both suits were finally one and would be good to possibly try things out this evening.

"3, 2, 1, Go!" The camera man yelled out to signal that the show was starting.

"Welcome to Gotham Insider everyone. I'm your host, Summer Gleeson and tonight we are discussing with Roland Daggett with his new product, Renuyu. Thank you for coming in this evening Mr. Daggett."

"Thank you Summer and it's a pleasure on being here." The man said to the hostess.

"So you have stated that your latest product is practically a face lift in a jar?" Summer Gleeson asked the pharmaceutical 'king' with skepticism.

"If you watch on the monitors, you can see Renuyu work out the wrinkles, work out the imperfections. Literally remake your face however you choose."

When the audience looked at the footage, the majority were very impressed on the applications while others wondered about some of the downsides. But it brought up a lot of clamor that made Daggett smile gleefully that he might do well in this product.

"This seems quite amazing isn't it." Summer said as she got up from her seat with a mike in hand. "Now are there any questions in the audience?"

There was one person that stood out as she got up from her seat and waved her hand out for Summer to come towards.

"Okay madam, what would you like to ask Mr. Daggett?"

"Thank you Ms. Gleeson." The woman said as she then addressed the pharmaceuticals. "I'd like to ask Mr. Daggett about the rumors I've been hearing about."

"Like what exactly?"

"I've heard that he's been selling Renuyu through direct marketing since stores won't carry it due to the harmful side-effects."

When hearing this, Daggett started to sweat a bit and tug on his collar to get some air. "W-Well that's a-absolutely not true madam."

"But what about the addictive properties of Renuyu Mr. Daggett," the woman said as she snatched the microphone from the reporter and made her way to the stage, "how once you're hooked on it that you can't stop using it without feeling the horrible pain."

"That seems like a very specific information for her to know." Naruto muttered as he watched the event unfold.

"What?! No...I don't know what-" Daggett said as he tried to save face.

When the woman came closer to the stage, some of Daggett's men came to get her to stop but she just shrugged her off and pushed them….far away from her, thus knocking them out.

"Ok...Think I know where the shape shifter is at." Naruto said as he got himself ready.

"Why don't you show them what an overdose looks like?!" 'She' said as 'she' got closer to Roland. "Why do _ **n't you tell them about ME?!"**_

As the 'woman' said that bit, 'she' shifted into a monstrous form for all to see, both in the audience and in their living rooms. This caused mass panic and everyone started to run out of the studio and possibly out of the building in fright as the misshapen being got closer to Daggett.

" _ **This is what you have done to me Daggett and I hope you suffer for what's coming to you."**_ The being growled out as the business owner soon realized who the being was.

"Hagen? Is that you?" Daggett questioned as he was sweating badly under the pressure.

'That's Matt Hagen?!' Naruto yelled out in his head. 'What the fuck happened to him?!'

" _ **Yes it is me...You've ruined me Daggett... My career and my life."**_ Hagen said as he shifted his arms into a mace and sharpened claws with a sadistic smile. _**"Now I'm going to ruin yours."**_

"That's enough Hagen!" Naruto yelled out as he dropped to the ground not too far from the two remaining people in the room.

" _ **You!"**_ Hagen growled at the sight of the black and white themed man. _**"You should leave this alone Vanitas! He's got to pay!"**_

"I know he does Hagen, but not like this." Naruto said as he tried to reason with him. "Let the justice system work this out."

As this went on, Daggett decided to make a break for it and run off. But Hagen saw this and whipped his arm out and formed claws to catch the man responsible for his fate. Once Daggett was in his grasps, he felt someone kick him onto the side and saw it was Batman who had done the deed. This caused Roland to be free from his grasps and tried to run….keyword being 'tried'.

"Oh no you don't." Vanitas said as he shot his arm forward and his grappling scarf took ahold of the retreating man from across the room. Of course the moment his head hit the ground, he was rendered unconscious.

"Oops….my bad." Naruto sheepishly said as Hagen got up from the floor and stared at the two heroes.

" _ **You again!"**_ Hagen yelled at the newcomer.

"Hagen. Listen to us…" Batman tried to say but the changed actor won't listen.

" _ **There is no Hagen anymore! There is only me now….Clayface!"**_ The meta yelled out as his fists turned into giant blocks of stone and slammed them down onto the stage.

Both heroes moved out of the way and had to think of something on how to subdue the man. Naruto had pulled out his cards while Batman pulled out his batarangs and started throwing them. The batarangs didn't do much but the cards exploded on impact and made the man tumble a little.

"I think you should get some exploding ones Bats."

"Don't remind me."

The two soon evaded giant axes in their direction before Clayface brought them up from the ground and started to twist and turn himself to form a 'merry go round' of death. Both heroes had to roll and jump out of the way in quick successions as the blades started to go in various directions and neither one of them wanted to deal with the fatal blows. During this time, Naruto had thrown many cards at Hagen's direction to try and wound him or distract him to get some chance on getting closer. Things soon changed as the meta brought his arms back to shift them into giant maces and slammed them down in rapid successions, thus causing the masked men to repeat their same process.

Soon Vanitas summoned his scythe and shot towards the misshapen man and swung his scythe in a pinwheel motion to cut the man up greatly. This helped wound the man greatly as various 'clay' puddles were formed onto the ground before Naruto jumped into the air and slashed at the changed man. All that was left in the end were the various puddles scattered about in the studio room.

"You didn't have to do that Vanitas." The caped crusader said as he approached the masked publisher.

"I know but you saw it as well last time that this guy can take it." Vanitas said as he rested his scythe on his shoulder.

To prove his point, the puddles started to move upwards and started to form human sized individuals with no distinguishable features.

"See! I told you!" Naruto said as he accusingly pointed towards each of them.

"I can see that." Batman responded as he shifted his batarangs into daggers/knives of sorts to deal with the new problem.

Without any response, the various clay bodies rushed at the two with the intent of ending them.

"Duck!"

Batman responded at this as Vanitas put a lot of strength into his swing to slice through a good amount of them before the scythe spun around quickly. Once the blade stopped moving, Batman dashed forward and started cutting up the various copies with his batarangs on hand. Vanitas did various pinwheel spins on several copies at a time while Batman kept hacking in rapid successions as he kept on moving through each of them. Both heroes were making good work out of the copies and before they knew it, all of them started to mush back together to form a large ball of 'clay'.

"Move!" Both of them yelled out as they got out of the way when the ball rolled in their direction and crashed through the one wall.

The two soon left the studio looking for any sign of Clayface but it was hard to tell where he disappeared to. Being precautious, both of them walked back to back without saying a thing to each other with their weapons on hand while keeping a lookout for the assailant. What they didn't know was that Hagen was hiding in the air ducts above them and when the two passed on by, he made his move. He 'slithered' out of his hiding place and caught them off guard by shooting his hands towards them and sticking them towards the wall before detaching his hands.

*Laughing* _**"See! I can finally manage on how to do this thing pretty good!"**_ Clayface said to them with sadistic glee as he got closer. **"Hell… When you had cut me up real good, it gave me so many ideas on how to work this now! So I got to thank you for that Vanitas!"**

"You're welcome." Naruto sarcastically said to the changed man.

Clayface soon got closer as he brought his hands together to form a drill and aimed it towards the two. Before he knew it, Vanitas phazed out of his bindings while Batman pushed his out of the wall and onto the metahuman. Using his momentum, he slammed Hagen through a door and onto the floor before making his way further into the room with Vanitas not far behind.

"What now Batman?" Naruto asked the caped crusader as he soon realized that they were in the recording booth of the studio.

Nothing was said as the two were soon slammed onto the large monitor by more of Clayface's 'clay' and couldn't move all that well. In his struggle, Batman reached out to some switches nearby and flipped them to get the various screens to switch from static to….Hagen's face?

'What do you have planned Bats?' Naruto thought as he saw Hagen's reaction when seeing one of his roles on the screen. When seeing this, Hagen was brought into shock as his mind was focusing on the current visual thus making all of the clay pooled onto them to recede. Once he was free from his clay prison, Batman started typing various commands in the room to make the monitors change to other images of Hagen's past roles.

" _ **What are you doing?! Stop it!"**_ Clayface yelled out.

"Look at them Hagen." Batman said as he gestured to the various images. "Look at what you used to be."

" _ **No! NO!"**_ The meta yelled in worry. _**"Please! Turn them off!"**_

Getting the idea on what Batman was trying to do, Vanitas decided to continue. "Listen Matt, you can play those roles again. Just let us help you."

" _ **N**_ O _ **! H**_ _a_ _ **G**_ _eN_ _ **'s**_ g _ **O**_ **n** _E_ _ **! S**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _p_ _ **m**_ **A** _ **K**_ _in_ _ **g hIM ha**_ _u_ _ **nt m**_ _e_ _ **!"**_ Clayface yelled out as he shifted into a past musketeer/pirate role.

This made the two reel back in surprise as Hagen started to shift through various forms in rapid succession from a cowboy, a spaceman, a detective, a soldier, and then a vampire. Soon things started to get worse as parts of his limbs started to shift into other parts of his past roles from a boxer's arm to a robot's leg, a warrior's chest to a knight's head.

" _ **St**_ _Op_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **!**_ _St_ _ **Op it! I-I c**_ _A_ _ **n't**_ **Co** _ **Nt**_ ro _ **l it! I**_ _CA_ _ **n't h**_ **a** _ **N**_ _D_ _ **l**_ E _ **i**_ _t_ __a _ **Ll at o**_ n _ **ce!"**_ Clayface yelled out as his body was changing rapidly to the point that it seemed he was truly in pain.

The meta kept on yelling as his body kept twisting and turning, causing Batman to rush to the computers and try to fulfill Hagen's request. But it was unsuccessful as he was knocked out of the way and was pushed onto the floor with Vanitas. Clayface soon became impatient and tried to turn it off himself by slamming his fists down onto the control panels, thus causing them to spark and the monitors starting to explode.

When this occurred, the security guards that came into the room and saw the ghastly sight before them.

"What the hell is that thing?" One of the officers said in shock as the meta soon shifted into a doctor's attire with his being one of a particular celebrity.

"Mother of Mercy. That looks like Bruce Wayne." Another officer said before seeing the being shift yet again into his regular form.

With the confusion going on, Hagen lunged forward and slammed his hands into a pair of monitors, resulting in him being shocked with untold volts of electricity running through his system.

" _ **A**_ a _ **A**_ _A_ _ **A**_ _Aa_ _ **a**_ A _ **AA**_ **RG** _ **HAHAhHA**_ _HG_ _ **gHAaHA**_ **H** _ **AHG**_ GH _ **AH!"**_ His yell was inhuman that would have frightened any other person present. It wasn't long until Clayface got out of his electrical shock and fell onto his back with smoke coming off of him.

Hesitantly coming closer, Batman and Vanitas went up to the man to see if he was alright before he spoke to them.

"You know...what I wouldn't give to have...a death scene like this." Hagen said as he shifted his head to the one he had gotten after his accident. "Too bad….I won't be able to….read the notices."

He left out a few haggard chuckles before gasping for air and dying right before them after his face shifted to that of Clayface. When this was done, the others held their heads down and gave their respective prayers for the men's departing.

 _ **-Next Day, Batcave-**_

" _...I'm just glad that it wasn't Bruce Wayne who didn't do the attacking."_ Lucius Fox said as he talked to Summer Glee in front of the hospital.

" _Thank you Mr. Fox."_ She said before focusing her attention to the camera. _"All charges that have been placed upon Bruce Wayne have been dropped. As for related news, a warrant for Roland Daggett has been issued for his crimes presented to DA Harvey Dent. From the arson work at 'Crime Alley' last year, the virus scare last month, inhumane experimentation, and various other crimes. This is Summer Gleeson, signing out._

"I'm glad that issue has been taken care of." Alfred stated as he turned off the monitor. "Though I do worry on what is going to be happening now with those cameras at the studio actually recording the whole fight on live television."

Last night was an interesting one as various people throughout the city kept watching the television event in their living rooms and in safer areas as they saw what happened. Seeing on what Daggett had done to a beloved actor was just small in comparison on what truly caught their eyes as Batman and the newly revealed Vanitas fought side by side and fought the metahuman. With what happened, many people are talking about the black and white themed hero now especially with how grand of a display he had pulled in the fight that was shown of course.

But hey….some heroes need to be introduced to the public one way or another.

"You know sir, if you wanted to play with some puddy, you could've boughten something else asides from….that." Alfred said as he saw his charge use an electrical device to shock the piece of clay. "What are you doing anyways?"

"Testing a hunch Alfred." Bruce said as he shocked the piece of clay again, making it shift into various forms in rapid succession before taking a dormant state.

"Electricity doesn't really have much of an effect on it?" The butler curiously asked.

"Exactly…..I wouldn't be surprised if the body that was taken to the morgue was only a shell." The billionaire said to his old friend.

Meanwhile at Gotham General, the morgue-tician was checking on Matt Hagen's 'corpse' as it soon broken down and turned into dust.

" _Don't forget that first and foremost, Matthew Hagen was an actor. He said it himself Alfred, he called it a scene. Probably the best scene he ever performed in his career."_

Cutting back to the outside of the hospital, Teddy Lupus looked at the building in sorrow at the loss of his best friend and co-worker.

"I'm sorry Matt….I wish things could've worked out better for you." The man said as he walked away from the site.

As he did, a woman passed by him for several feet before coming to a stop and looked back at the retreating man.

" _A death scene so real...it might as well fooled us all."_

"Hehehehehe." The woman let out a few chuckles before holding onto her sides as the laughing started to get more intense.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA _ **HAHAHAHAHAHA!"**_

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Ok so to clear things up, Naruto will indeed meet most of the Endless family members throughout this story. But here's the thing, he will not be learning much from them or not getting anything from some members. It's just that I don't know if things will properly work asides from what I already have planned out on what Naruto gets.**

 **As you guys have noticed, I'm using Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox in the story because the man is freaking dope and love the actor.**

 **Also decided to have Naruto's hero name be Vanitas since it works well with his main form of power. For those who are wondering on the name, it means 'emptiness' in Latin and it's also the name from KH: Birth by Sleep of one of the antagonists. Thought it is a badass name and I'm keeping it with it being fun and whatnot. Not going with suggested names like Null or Void since I think those are just too simple.**

 **Sorry about the wait as usual because of writers blocks and work eating up a lot of my time. Also this chapter actually was a tad difficult to write since a lot of the episode events was mostly focused on Clayface in general so I didn't have a lot to work with outside of that.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	14. Courting a Cat

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 13: Courting a Cat.**

"You want me to what?" This was the one question that reverberated in the women's wing at the asylum as Naruto was sitting in front of Pam's cell.

He had come on over as usual to check on Pam and fill 'them' in on the recent developments in the whole 'outside world' kind of thing. Sure...'they' can know what's going on obviously with newspapers that come on by everyday and nabbing one while in the cafeteria. Either that or watching the news while in the lounge area, but 'they' sometimes prefer hearing it from 'their' beloved boyfriend/king.

With the meeting today, Naruto was telling 'them' of what events happened the other night on Gotham Insider with the reveal of Daggett's latest inhumane crime to Batman and Vanitas fighting against Clayface. 'They' were confused on who Vanitas was, but Naruto filled 'them' in being the person who 'they' encountered at the Grande Greenhouse last month. When hearing that, both personas seemed to go through a bit of a fit from Ivy cursing his name for harming her darling plants to Pamela trying to calm things down. It did hurt a little when Naruto heard Ivy curse 'him' but he was trying to do what he could at the time.

He was pretty much going to plant more flowers and trees sometime after this meeting, that's for sure.

Asides from that tidbit, Naruto had asked Pam on how 'they' were enjoying 'their' new book. 'They', of course, loved it immensely from the drama, romance and adventure of the three men who were sought out on a quest to find the fabled "Gift of the Goddess". Since 'they' had nothing much to do, asides from taking care of the plants in 'their' cell and in the asylum, 'they' read the entire book within a day and a half. 'They' enjoyed it so much that 'they' decided to read it again being one of those novels that must be read more often.

This eventually lead to the current topic of their conversation….

"' _ **W**_ _e_ _ **' w**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _k_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _o_ __date/ **court** _ **S**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _H_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **y."**_ Pam and Ivy respectively said to Naruto, who was currently wide eyed on the request.

"B-But why?" He said in confusion. "Why would you 'two' want me to date them? I-I mean it's just that-"

"Naruto." Pamela interrupted him mid-speech. "The reason why 'we' want you to go out with them is for a few reasons."

Hearing this, he wondered what 'they' were talking about. So he stayed quiet and let 'them' start 'their' explanations.

"One….'We' don't know how long it'll take us till 'we' get out of here and 'we' don't want you to be alone for that time without 'us'."

"But I can wait that long Pam."

"' **We' know you do my Lord, but 'we' don't want you to suffer during the wait."** Ivy stated before she continued where her 'sister' left off. **"The second reason is that 'we' can tell that both Ms. Kyle and Ms. Quinzel have feelings for you."**

"...What?"

"'Naruto…. though 'we' can see through the plants and see various areas through them. But due to the power dampener on 'us', 'we' are pretty much blind through that. Being blind to seeing how they look and react towards you, 'we' are not."

" **Lastly…."** Ivy said as she wanted to wrap up the explanations. **"The reason why 'we' would even consider allowing this to happen….is because you have feelings for them as well."**

This threw him off into a loop on what was just said. Him having feelings for Selina and Harley?...Sure he was very oblivious to the fact with women he interacted in the past in some random times in this world had a thing for him just because of his good looks. But back in his home reality that he eventually started to realize that several women, when he was in the current reality, were in fact falling in love with him.

There was the whole thing with Lady Koyuki after he saved her from her bastard uncle during the Spring/Snow mission and when he came back to the country during his trip with Jiraiya, she was sending him hints at the time that she wanted to know him better. During the Pein/Nagato invasion on the Leaf, Hinata confessed her feelings towards him when she tried to defend him, but of course he never really got the chance to tell her afterwards that he only saw her as a friend. There was also the time at the Blood Prison that he got to know Ryuuzetsu and realized later on that he wasn't dreaming that she told him she eventually loved him as she gave up her life for him. Not only that but towards the end of the mission at the Land of Demons, Shion had asked him to help her out in making a new priestess to help guard the land.

….Yeah he didn't realize, till he got to this world, that she wanted him to knock her up with a kid.

Lastly there was Sakura. She told him she actually loved him in the Land of Steel but he knew that was a complete lie since she still had feelings for Sasuke. Hell Naruto told her off on that since even after all that time with growing up, him leaving and whatnot, she still loved the duck butted asshole.

But the real question was…..was he developing feelings for Harley and Selina?

He did interact with them more often than he realized when helping each of them out in several ways from uplifting Selina's spirits while in jail and helping her out on several projects after the whole Daggett virus scare. In turn, she was there for him during his times of need and was a big support for him to hang onto. With Harley, he helped her get out of her shell more with her shy attitude that made her more fun to be around. In turn, she seemed to a fun bit of sunshine for him that he rarely got to see in the dark atmosphere in Gotham. So did he actually get the two women to become attached towards him on an emotional side of things? This was too confusing to really figure out.

*Snap* *Snap* *Knock* *Knock* "Hello.~ Anyone in there?" Pamela said as she tried to knock him out of his thoughts.

"S-Sorry Pam...I was just trying to come to grips with all of this."

" **It's alright my king,"** Ivy said as she placed a comforting hand on the glass on a reflex as wanting to place it on his shoulder, **"it's perfectly natural for you to attract others without knowing."**

*Sigh* "Sometimes I now wonder if it's a blessing or a curse." Naruto said as he scratched his head to properly think straight.

" _ **P**_ _r_ _ **o**_ _b_ _ **a**_ _b_ _ **l**_ _y_ _ **b**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **."**_ 'They' said to him with a cheeky smile that caused him to twitch his eye.

"Anyways…. with it being Valentine's Day soon, 'we' thought it would be nice if you took one of them out on that day to make it even more special."

"You sure?" Naruto asked 'them' to receive a nod from 'both' of 'them'. "But answer me this one thing….why are you 'two' fine with this?"

"Well….it was more so with 'my sister' here wanting you to have more 'consorts'."

"...What?"

"Yeah…..it was odd for me too. Something about her 'king' or 'lord' should properly have consorts to be by his side or whatever." Pamela said with a shrug before Ivy took over.

" **It was more among the lines that since I'm the Queen of Nature and you are my….'our' 'king', that you should be allowed to have several women to be with while in relations with 'us'."** She explained to him.

'...That sounded a bit confusing if you ask me.' He thought as he tried to translate on what Ivy said to him. "So what you are telling me Ivy is that you want me to be with other women while we are together."

" **Why of course."** She said with a smile.

"And you're fine with this Pamela?"

"Yes I am. Though here was something of what I added into the agreement with 'my sister'. 'We' will only allow women into this open relationship of ours if you love them and they love you in turn, having our agreement of allowing that to happen, and you _always_ come back to 'us'." Pamela stated to 'their' beloved boyfriend/'king'.

" **And I couldn't help but agree more on this fact."** Ivy said while nodding her head in agreement. **"In recorded history in some parts of the world, some kings or lords would have several wives or consorts but things tend to go south when the king or lord shows too much affection over one consort over the other and even more so over the head wife. Let's just say that things don't go out all that well."**

'Yeah no kidding.' He thought as he had to read through all that stuff back in his world in the academy with some daimyos going through that route and it didn't go all that well on various cases. Sure there were like one or two but couldn't remember, even if he tried.

"Well….if you 'two' say so with you giving me permission to be with other with other women that aren't you 'two'….I'll need figure this out on my own. Besides, I don't know if they would actually be fine with this even if I tried to start dating them at all."

" _ **J**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **g**_ _i_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **N**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **. D**_ _o_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **p**_ _r_ _ **o**_ _c_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **s."**_ 'They' said to him as he got up from his seat.

" **Besides….I can only imagine what it'd be like to have more women join."** Ivy said with a coy smile that made the publisher red in the face.

"Ivy!"

" **What? You're thinking it too 'sister'."**

"W-Well *Cough* I-I gotta get going you 'two' and we can discuss about this later if you want." Naruto said to them as he leaned to the glass barrier with them following suit to place a kiss on the same spot. "I love you and see you 'two' later."

" _ **B**_ _y_ _ **e."**_ 'They said to him as he walked out of the women's wing.

"I hope this turns out well." Pamela said as she kept her eyes on 'their' boyfriend/'king'.

" **Same here."** Ivy said as she placed a hand on her shoulder to reassure her 'sister'. **"Now I think 'we' need to come up with some plans to be sure this could work out."**

"Like what exactly?" Pamela asked and soon the 'two' started to discuss inside of 'their' mind on what to do and it mostly involved with 'their' doctor.

 _ **-Next Day, Naruto's Loft-**_

Sounds of grunts and flesh being smacked were the constant sounds going on inside of the former shinobi's loft….

*Smack* *Smack* *Smack* *Smack* *Smack*

*Grunt* "Ease up will you…..I'm starting to get sore from all of this."

"No pain no gain." Naruto said as he continued with the previous sounds filling the air.

*Smack* *Smack* *Smack* *Smack*

"How can you have this much stamina and hardly break a sweat?"

"Years of training Selina…..Years of training."

*Smack* *Smack* *Smack*

*Grunt* "I can tell." She said while moaning a little.

…..as the two were having a sparring match.

What the hell is wrong with you readers? Get your heads out of the gutters.

"You don't have to hit that rough you know." Selina said as she walked around the room while nursing her arm.

This was one of their recent sparring sessions they had ever since their discussion on the idea to work out together. It was pretty productive on things were fairing that both were able to blow off some steam by actually fighting someone else instead of empty air. While he was wearing one of his usual workout attire of a black wife beater with gym shorts and shoes, she wore a black sports bra and yoga pants with shoes.

The two had been sparring this morning for about an hour now and they were actually having fun while doing it. The first bit was just a plain old spar to see how the two fought well against each other. In Naruto's perspective, this Ted person did one hell of a good job teaching her and with Selina improvising the rest of the way on adjustments. With Selina, in her perspective, thought that it was hard to get a readout of her silver haired friend and things were quite unpredictable with him.

They were currently fighting each other with rubber sticks that Naruto had with weights in them to help with exercises on certain forms and whatnot. Things were fun when trying to block each swing and parry while trying to land a hit on each other but things started to get more intense.

"Well you did say to try and not hold back." He said with a cheeky grin as he swung his weighted tonfa at her.

"And I was just joking." She said back as she dodged and was able to land a few strikes at him.

*Smack* *Smack*

"Oww...But it does help a little on pain tolerance."

*Smack* *Smack* *Smack* *Smack* *Smack* *Smack*

"You know…." Selina said as she ducked a few of the swings. "One of these days….You should tell me where you learned most of this."

*Smack* *Smack* *Smack*

"Maybe." He said before swinging around her and smacking one of the sticks on her lower back, which ended up hitting her ass. "But not today."

'Oh god….it hurts so much...but why did it feel so good on the ass.' Selina thought as she had to walk off the pain while rubbing her backside a bit.

Soon a thought came across her mind as she threw the rubber sticks at Naruto before attacking him with her 'cat fighting' techniques with more ferocity. Several punches and kicks were blocked by her sparring partner while some were evaded by millimeters. He even threw several which she was able to block and evade as well.

The environmentalist soon found an opening and took the chance by grabbing his wrist from a wayward swipe. She pulled him forward and flung her around her shoulder to land him on the ground onto his stomach. Selena held Naruto's wrists behind his back while trying to get her free arm around his neck. He reacted and was able to flip them over with her back on the ground and him hovering over her with her hands grabbing ahold of her wrists.

"What was that all about?" He curiously asked as he was trying to catch his breath a bit there as he stared into her jade green eyes.

"Wanted *Breathe* to get that info *Breathe* out of you." She responded as he chest kept on rising up and down as she gazed into his strong, hazel eyes.

The two soon realized their current positions from their faces being so close that they can practically feel each other's hot breath.

"...I-I think we are done for the day." Naruto said as he got up before holding a hand out for her to grab onto.

"Y-Yeah I think so as well." Selina responded as she looked away from him with a blush on her face once she got up from the floor.

*Groan* 'Why can't I think straight with her anymore?' Was the thought running through his head right now. Ever since that chat with Pam yesterday, he kept on thinking about Selina and Harley in a different light. He tried to distract himself with the spar with her but after seeing her sweaty form….with some droplets going down her- 'Focus!'

Even Selena isn't faring any better as she kept having a mental debate with herself.

'Why can't this be easier for me?' She thought to herself. 'I like him as a close friend and nothing more.'

' _ **Then why do you yearn for him?'**_ A voice called out inside of her mind. _**'Yearning for his attention…. his compassion…. to be near him for his warmth?'**_

'I-I don't know what your talking about!' Selena yelled in denial towards the voice. 'And I'm not yearning for him at all!'

' _ **Then why go through such lengths to deny your affection for him?'**_ The voice replied back like a whisper in the woman's ear. _**'You know you want to be with him and have him love you. It can be easy…. Just steal his heart from Pam like what you have done in the past with all those shiny jewels and riches.'**_

'I'm not listening to you.' The environmentalist said as she mentally put her hands to her ears. 'La la la la! Not listening! Not listening! I can't hear you inner me! Fingers in my ears! I can't hear YOOUUU!'

At this, inner Selina/Catwoman couldn't help but scoff at this while rolling her eyes before receding to the back of the mind. _**'Deny all you want, but sooner or later you need to realize your feelings for him or be hurt in the process.'**_

'I'm sorry….were you saying something inner me?' Selina thought back as she waited for a reply with her inner self but got nothing back. 'Good…. And I'm not denying anything at all…. Am I?'

"Hey Selina?" Naruto asked, getting Selina out of her thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"You have any plans later today?"

"No….why?" She asked as she grabbed her towel and started to dry herself off from the sweat.

"Well….I was wondering if you would want to go somewhere and hangout or something?" He said to her, getting a slightly confused look in return. "I realized we haven't spent much time together and done anything else really asides from the spars here or at your place….or even the few times you came here, unannounced, with you proclaiming you were 'bored'.

"Yeah….I guess you're right." She responded back in the slight realization.

The two really hadn't done much to actually hang out for a change outside of their lofts. She would've considered the times at Arkham but those were just meetings with Pam and Harley to be friends with them. The only person she really hung out with was Harley, during some of her off hours and days off, and she turned out to be a nice girl to be friends with when Shizune isn't around.

"So where would you like to go exactly?" He asked for a suggestion. "Anywhere is fine with me….As long as it's not too demining."

"Drat." She said in a joking fashion. "And here I was going to think of something fun out of your uncomfortableness."

"Yeah yeah."

She chuckled at the small response with his eyes rolling. "Hmm...well maybe we can go out for drinks? I know a pretty nice bar that I go to quite often."

"Eh sure….why not. I'm good for several drinks."

"Great."

"So where's this bar anyways if you don't mind me asking?"

"It's called The Stacked Deck and I'll meet you there….shall we say 6?"

"Sure." Naruto responded with a smile. "Sounds like a date."

"Then I'll see you later." Selena said as she headed out of the publisher's loft.

Once she left, Naruto had to facepalm and muttered a few things. "Sounds like a date. Come on Naruto, it makes it seem you're trying to lead her onto something…. Which is clearly not what you're trying to do….But you want to…. Kami dammit this is frustrating."

In the hallway, Selina felt happy at this that she could have some good quality time with Naruto. Just the two of them hanging out and whatever. It wasn't a date or anything of the sort….why did she think it was a date? Possibly because he said 'Sounds like a date.' and it could imply he thinks it's a date or unintentionally said that outloud.

Regardless, this might turn out to be a fun night after all.

 _ **-Evening, The Stacked Deck Bar-**_

Dusk had settled upon Gotham as street lights, neon signs, billboards and various other things around the city started to flicker on. The lively evening was starting to work its magic as the nightly events were going to go underway with crime being more active at this time of day and so does police work. If you mostly take those two factors away, then this city would probably be a boring place to be in like a small town or something of the sort.

Naruto was walking up to the designated bar Selina had selected for their 'get together' this evening since he parked his car some blocks away in a security parking garage since trying to park in this area of Gotham would probably have it stolen or broken into. It wasn't a chilly day, or night in this instance, at all so he wore a short sleeve button up shirt underneath his tight, yet loose leather jacket with a pair of boots and jeans.

When the publisher opened up the door, he was greeted with the site of several pool tables lined up around the center of the establishment with graffiti and typical bar decorations covering the walls. There were several people around the place from a couple of guys playing some games of pool while others were at the bar drinking their sorrows away or chatting it up with the bar keep. When looking around for Selina, he came across a jukebox and decided to take a look at the selections asides from what was currently playing.

'Okay… we got tunes for dancing, drinking and fighting….Not necessary in that order.' He thought as he was scrolling through the listings.

He decided to check the bar keep to get a few drinks for him and Selina when he bumped into one of the guys at the pool table.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." The man said he looked at the publisher closely. "Hey...Don't I know you?"

"Uh…."

"It is you! Ha I knew it." The man said as he went back to the pool table and pulled out something from his inner coat pocket. "You're the guy that wrote this right?"

Taking a look at what he's holding, Naruto thought the man was holding either one of his Icha Icha works, Ninja Storm or Gutsy Ninja. But in fact he saw it was a regular copy of his latest Loveless story. One can tell that it was a regularly copy of his book that was sold in stores with the light blue cover with the graphic of a woman in the background with three silhouettes in the foreground with the title towards the bottom.

The public copies of his Loveless novel had come out recently, several days before Valentine's Day. From what Naruto had gotten from reports of revenue and reviews back at the office was that it was a major hit amongst fans and other readers alike. It will pretty much be very popular in the times to come and who knows what might occur next because of it. This means though that he'll need to schedule for a book signing event or something if the fans demand it.

"Why yes I am." Naruto said getting the man to hold it out for him with a pen getting the former shinobi to take it from his hands and autographed it before handing it back.

"Thanks." The man said as he put the book back in its previous spot. "Now my wife will get off my back saying that I need to stop going to bars often."

"Glad to be of some help..."

"Frank. The name's Frank." The now identified Frank said he kept on talking. "Funny seeing a guy like you in a place like this. Shorter in real life as well."

"Okay…then." The publisher said as he didn't know on how to respond to that. Frank then grabbed his things and left the bar, probably going home and showing his wife the autograph like what possibly intends to do.

Once that was settled, Naruto went up to the barkeep to order a few drinks while he waited for his friend to arrive….or was she here already? Need to be sure on the later.

"Excuse me ma'am."

"Yeah." The barkeep asked as she looked up from her duties.

She seemed to be a lovely woman with straight brown hair, blue eyes, with slightly pale skin with faint pink blush, black and red eyeshadow, and red lipstick. Her attire, from what he can only see the top portion, consisted of a purple button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to show it had white and black stripes on the inside with the buttons unbuttoned to show off her *cough* assets. She also wore a black vest that hugged her body nicely and seemed to push up her cleavage more to possibly distract others. The notable features on her were her eyes seemed to scream out danger to those who messes with her and the heart tatoo on her left breast.

"Has Selena come in recently?"

"Like today or on a previous day?" She asked with her features getting a little stern.

Telling it was a question for what someone shady or someone of the collar would sometimes end up asking, he decided to rephrase it. "Sorry, I meant to say: Has Selina arrived yet or not? She told me she's a regular here and I'm meeting up with her for drinks."

After hearing this, the barkeep softened her features a bit before replying back. "Why didn't you say that in the first place? Well she's just using the little girl's room to freshen up. Said something about meeting a cutie, but I didn't expect the guy to be you. Hmm… You do seem to be her type."

Telling from the look she was giving him made him know she was practically undressing him with her eyes. Wasn't the first time a woman did that to him and she won't be the last.

*Chuckle* "Yeah that would be me." He said as he took a seat at the bar.

"So what can I get ya sugar?" The barkeep asked with a seductive grin.

"I'll just have some scotch on the rocks. I just want to have a pleasant night with her and don't know how long we'll be here."

"I hear ya."

Didn't take long for the drink to show up along with another one, probably Selina's prefered 'poison', next to his. Naruto pulled out his wallet and paid for the drinks before pulling out a hundred and put it in the tip jar near the barkeep.

"For the fine lady of the establishment." He said to her that made her smile a bit more.

"Why thanks for the tip and how did you know I owned the place?"

"Actually didn't know that till just now and you're welcome. Didn't want to be rude to a nice woman, such as yourself, and make her feel unappreciated for her hard work."

"Seems that I'm liking you a whole lot more now."

"Good to know."

"Also don't mind me asking, but didn't I hear Frank say your name was Naruto Uzumaki?"

*Sigh* "Yeah."

She ducked down behind the counter and came back up with each of his works along with the recent Loveless novel. Having done this hundreds or thousands of times, his hands went on autopilot and signed them before handing them back to their current owner. From there, she ducked back down before coming back up to show she pretty much put them in a safe place.

"A tip and a signing from one of my favorite authors. This night is turning out fine so far." The woman said with her usual smile. "Also I hope you don't mind me asking again…."

"Which would be?" He said as he took the glass to his lips.

"Have you and Selina fucked yet?"

*Cough* "W-What?! *Cough* *Cough* No!" Naruto replied as he tried to get himself under control after the sudden question.

"Really?~" She said with a surprised look. "Well I just wanted to be sure on that."

"What gave you the idea?" He said in slight curiosity.

"After getting out of the joint she couldn't stop talking about her friend, realize that being you now, on how great a guy you were. How you made her feel very special, appreciated and all that fun stuff. Of course during the past few times she was here, she got drunk off of her ass and started proclaiming her love for you and whatnot."

"I-I see."

"The way I see it, she has it in for you deep. I should also let you know that I have a keen sixth sense in spotting those who desire to get laid. During the past several visits, I could practically tell that she hasn't gotten laid in a long time and if left alone for much longer then things might not turn out pretty."

"I'll… keep that in mind…"

"So I suggest you settle things with her soon sugar, like within several days soon."

"Thanks." He somberly said as he thought over what the barkeep said to him. Even she knew that Selina has feelings for him, even though he didn't want to hear on how sexually frustrated Selina was. He took out his wallet again and pulled out a twenty and put it in the tip jar.

"For the advice."

"It was actually free advice to a friend of a loyal customer, but I'll take it. How about I'll give you and Selina the next few rounds on me?"

"I'll take that offer. Also I didn't catch your name."

"Oh how rude of me. The name's-" "Hey Moxxi! Has Naruto….Oh you're here."

Selina was by the bar when she saw Naruto sitting there while chatting it up with the now identified Moxxi. She was currently wearing a white shirt underneath a brown leather jacket with a pair of tight jeans and boots. From what other details he saw Selina in was the fact she had put on some light makeup to enhance her features and that her short hair was tied back to a small ponytail.

"Yeah I was just waiting here and talking with Moxxi here. She offered up several rounds on her for us."

"Well that's nice of her." Selina said as she skeptically looked at the bar owner on what they were talking about.

"Now you two got sit in a nice booth on the far side so you can have a nice, private chat."

"Planning on that."

Not long after Naruto grabbed the drinks to find a better seat, Selina looked back at Moxxi for a few moments before following her friend.

"She was right in those drunk moments." Moxxi said with a seductive grin. "He does have have a nice ass."

"So what were you two talking about while waiting for little old me?"

"Just wanted to know who I was and ended up wanting me to sign her copies of my books." He said to her while withholding more details on that conversation. Luckily she bought it as the two got situated in their seats before they started to talk on various things. With several glasses changed out, things started to shift gears a bit.

"...So why is Shizune flying out to Russia of all places?"

"There's an area in Eastern Russia where an area of Siberian Tigers reside." Selina answered as she took another sip of her drink. "It's supposed to be one of the few remaining, forested areas where the refugee felines take refuge in and I want to be sure it stays that way."

"I'm guessing she's there to be sure the request gets forwarded well….with bribes I take it."

*Sigh* "Yeah…. Only thing really that can make it happen these days and it's not great."

Seeing her discomfort, he reached for her hand on the table and grabbed a hold of it before speaking in a reassuring tone. "Don't worry Selina, things will go well. You'll see."

"I hope so as well."

Soon the door to the establishment was roughly opened as several thuggish like people came walking in with lead pipes and started pushing people out of the way….towards Naruto's and Selina's direction. By the bar, Moxxi rolled her eyes as she knew what was going to happen and grabbed her things before ducking down. Of course the two friends were able to hear her say "Don't wreck my bar!" over the commotion.

"Wonder what those guys are here for?" Naruto asked the obvious question.

"No clue."

"Selina Kyle…. The Penguin says 'allo'."

"Selina…. What did you do?" He asked as he recognized that particular name from one of his previous chats with Kurama.

The Penguin, aka Oswald Cobblepot, was a crime lord who originated here in Gotham from the esteemed Cobblepot family before moving to the UK. Years pass and Oswald eventually started his criminal business there with black market dealings before moving his operations here in Gotham. Once settling in, he opened up Gotham's hottest nightclub, The Iceberg Lounge to present himself as a reformed businessman. But after hours, he would do all his usual dealings of smuggling, black market works and other ruthless professions.

The question running through the publisher's mind is: Why is Selina involved with him?

"Promise you won't be mad at me when we're out of here?" She said with some worry in her tone towards her friend.

*Sigh* "I promise."

As this was going on, one of the thugs that was near the jukebox slipped in some money and selected a song that possibly seemed appropriate in the current situation.

 _ **-Insert**_ _ **Hitman Absolution: Welcome To Hope-**_

"Beat it. We're here for her." One of the thugs said towards the publisher. "If you care for your own skin, you'll get the hell out."

"She's with me." Naruto said in a stern tone before looking at the thugs. "Though I think _you_ need to leave."

With a snap of the fingers of the head thug, one of the underlings grabbed ahold of Selina. This ended up giving him a punch to the face by the woman and then spun kicked him onto the table before punching his head hard to render him unconscious. One thug came up from behind and was going to smash Selina over the head with a beer bottle if it weren't for Naruto grabbing ahold of his wrist. The publisher then punched the man across the face, nabbed the bottle and swung it back to hit one thug on the head before kicking the man Naruto was holding to the side of the room.

Another thug didn't take too kindly to this as he charged right at the silver haired male. Seeing this coming, Naruto grabbed the man by the collar and hoisted him up so Selina can kick him in the face. Once the current set of thugs were down, the two friends looked at each other with smirks on their faces as they were ready to face the next round of goons.

The two charged at them as Naruto had to dodge to the side from a knife stab before grabbing the knife wielder and slammed him onto a nearby table, breaking it in the process. He soon grabbed another thug that tried to tackle him to the ground and slammed his head to the nearby pool table. When he didn't see any other thugs nearby, Naruto looked over to see if Selina was okay, only to see her standing over a couple of downed thugs. She looked over to him and flashed him a smile before seeing more thugs coming their way.

"Seems we aren't over yet." Selina stated as they got ready for more. The environmentalist grabbed the nearby pool stick and slammed the one end over a knife wielding thug's head before the former shinobi punched the man across the jaw. Selina then jabbed the stick onto one man's stomach as Naruto elbowed the man to the face. Things were starting to wrap up as another thug ran towards the two but Naruto did a sweep kick to knock him down and slammed his foot onto the man's head for good measure.

"You know Selina….this song and dance number here is going well so far." He said to her as they went back to back with each other.

"I agree and I think they want more." She gestured as several thugs were getting back up.

"Then let's give it to them."

Naruto grabbed ahold of the pool stick in her hands and swung it around hard like if he was wielding Lunar Rose as Selina ducked down to avoid the strikes. The results were soundly proven as loud smacks were given off as the pool stick hit each of the surrounding thugs' heads hard to end up having them knocked on the ground. With what remaining thugs that were coming their way, Naruto decided it was time to wrap things up. So he slammed the pool stick down onto his leg to break it in half to use as escrima weapons to hit the thugs in quick successions.

"Head's up!" Selina called out as she ran towards his direction and quickly saw who was some feet behind him. He turned around and grabbed her arm to swing him over his shoulder to get her to kick the remaining thug over the head.

"You know….this was really fun." Selina said as she tried to catch her breath.

"Same here." Naruto responded back before going over to the bar and looking over to see Moxxi still ducked down. "You can come out now Moxxi, it's over."

"Thank god. I was wondering when it would end." The bar owner said as she got up and looked around to see the damage to the place. *Sigh* "This is the reason why I hate bar fights. Always takes money out of my tip jar."

The publisher soon gestured to the downed thugs before speaking to her. "Can't you just get these guys to pay for all of it."

"Oh I plan on that sugar. Now skidaddle before any cops show up."

"I can be fine to help pay for any damages if you want."

"It's fine now go." Moxxi said as she shooed them away. Once they went out of the back door to the place, the bar owner looked at the thugs with a small, sadistic grin. "Now to take you boys' wallets. No way in hell am I gonna let any of ya'll get away scott free from this."

 _ **-Selina's and Shizune's Loft-**_

It took them a bit to navigate their way back to the parking garage where Naruto's car was parked at due to the police. There weren't any coming by soon enough, but they were pretty precarious. Especially since Selina was still on her probation and she didn't want to get caught after being in a bar fight that could send her back to jaill. Once inside of his car, it was a quiet ride till they reached back to the towers. It was pretty uncomfortable with what was running through their respective minds but would've been better to say it all once they were in either one of their lofts.

When they got to Selina's loft, that was when Naruto broke the ice.

"So mind telling me what was going on back there?" He asked her in a neutral tone. He wanted to understand what was going on, but didn't want to raise his voice in the matter.

Selina complied and told Naruto the truth. It turned out that a while back, she took out a loan from the crime lord to help out on an environmental issue. She would've paid it back due to her getting some money back to pay off the loan by thievery. But due to her being on probation, she couldn't be able to get back into stealing to pay back the loan on time.

"You could've asked me for help on this Selena."

"I know, but….but I didn't want to get you involved."

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

They heard the phone for the loft go off as Selena went to answer it. She sent Naruto the still present, worried look before picking up the phone. "Hello, Kyle and Kato residence."

…..

"Oh Shizune, good to hear from you. How was the flight?"

…..

"Yeah I bet….half a day's worth of flying can do that to a person. So have you contacted the officials yet on the details?"

…..

On this part of the conversation, Naruto saw the look in Selina's face that made him realize something did not go all that well. It was very similar to what happened when she couldn't get the reserve outside of Gotham last month.

"That forest is the last refuge for the Siberian Tigers in the whole region of Eastern Russia. I can't believe they're going to cut it down just because we can't afford the cost of a few bribes for local officials." She said in a stern voice to remind her friend on what's what.

…..

"Can't we do something with the world press then? Put some sort of pressure on them?"

…..

"I know, forty thousand is a lot of money when you have to get it honestly Shizune."

…..

"I know, but keep after them. We can't give up on this."

Selina then ended the call with a tired sigh as with so much stress on her shoulders now. "You know, sometimes I miss the communists over there. They would've been cheaper to bribe."

He would've said something in response on this, but a voice answered from the dark parts of the loft.

"Money problems Ms. Kyle?"

The two turned towards the source and saw it was Batman.

"I told you that I'd be coming for you the next time you stepped out of line."

"What do you mean? She hasn't done anything of the sort since getting out." Naruto told the hero. 'Unless she did something without telling me.'

"She was seen by witnesses tonight."

"Seen? Doing what? Where?" She asked in surprise since this was all too sudden right now.

"The police are on their way. I thought it would be best if you-" Batman tried to say but was cut off.

"Whatever this is about, it wasn't me!"

"You have an alibi?

"She's been with me for the past hour having drinks." Naruto said to help back up Selina's innocence.

"And where was that exactly Mr. Uzumaki?"

"The Stacked Deck. You can ask the bartender over there if you have to. She's been serving us drinks for that whole time."

Silence filled the air for a few moments before Batman finally responded. "I'll be sure to tell Gordon on this then."

With that, the hero went to the patio door and exited the loft via grappling hook.

*Scoff* "Of course…Whenever there's trouble involving theft in Gotham, he would naturally come to me." She muttered under her breath before feeling Naruto's hand on her shoulder in a comforting fashion.

"Selina…. Don't worry….Whoever this copycat thief is, they'll catch the guy I'm sure."

There was nothing more than she wanted to do and try and be closer to her friend. But with recent events made her shrug off the shoulder and walk towards the door to her loft.

"Where are you going?"

"Searching for some answers."

Once she closed the door to her loft, Naruto ran out to try and catch her….only to find the hall empty. He looked in every direction to end up seeing the air duct above the door was slightly ajar to make him realize that she escaped from there. He sighed before going back inside of her loft so he can look for Isis and bring her to his place for the night so she wouldn't be worried in what's to come.

"Just be safe Selina."

 _ **-Next Evening-**_

"I hope I'm right of her being here." Naruto muttered as he wore a black on black suit that made his features pop out. He looked in various directions to find his friend and possible love interest in the crowds while avoiding varying looks of single women giving him hungry looks.

One might ask where he is at and why he is there. To simplify things, Naruto is currently at a party event where a man named Thomas Blake was throwing a big society bash and anyone noteworthy was invited to come without an invitation. Naruto thought that seemed to be quite the security risk having anyone at all slip in and possibly steal something from under the man's nose. He was going to pass it up when he saw the article in the newspaper this morning, but when he saw a photo of the man's collection with a solid gold statue of Bast Naruto knew that Selina and possibly the copycat thief might be there.

So to kill some time for the day, Naruto had went out to search for Kurama to ask for a few things. The publisher's sensing skills were improving as of late so it was starting to get a bit easier to find his former tenant. When Naruto found the hybrid, he asked if he knew who the copycat was. Much to his dismay, Kurama didn't know who the man was since it was just a small time thing and didn't focus on the subject at all. Though while he was there, Naruto had asked Kurama to talk to Penguin about the loan Selina still owed to the man and possibly take care of it in any form of fashion. The bijuu hybrid compiled on this, but he told his friend that there can only be a handful of favors he can do after taking care of the loan. After those, then Naruto will need to do some things for him on a later date.

So here he was, a worried friend looking out for a possible love in his life. It took some time of searching but when he got around a certain grouping of people he thought he found her. As he got closer to the woman, he saw she was standing in front of the Bast statue while shoving off a few men trying to distract her from inspecting the feline statue. Of course after the last man left, Naruto saw that the woman had long, blonde hair while wearing a slim dark blue dress that ended just above the knees while having a pair of arm length gloves and heels to match with stockings.

Taking a chance at this, he went up to her but not distracting her from her focused gaze at the work of art. As if feeling a presence near her to possibly ruin this moment, she turned around without looking.

"Will you leave me alone, I'm busy here."

"Not even for a friend."

When hearing his voice, she opened her eyes and saw Naruto smiling at her. "Naruto?"

"Hey Selina….Nice disguise by the way." He commented on the wig, necklace and the glasses with the edges look sharp to appear catlike. "Surprised no one has noticed you yet."

"Then I'm doing one hell of a good job." She said in a confident tone.

"I can tell why you're here. The copycat and the possible target being this little kitty." He said while pointing to the Bast. "But you do remember that there are police here. One slip up and you'll get detained."

"I know Naruto but I need to catch this person and clear my name. Even if I turn myself in, this will keep on going and my name could be dragged through the muck."

"I'm just looking out for your safety Selina. I don't want you to be hurt again."

When hearing this, she bitterly chuckled at his before responding to his comment. "What is it with you men thinking you can solve my problems?"

"A friend that deeply cares for you." He said under his breath. He hoped she didn't hear him say that but she did and looked at his hazel eyes to see he was telling the truth.

"Naruto…"

Soon the band by the dance floor ended the one song before starting to play another one that seemed to resonate with the two.

 _ **-Insert Assassin's Tango-**_

"….How about I take your mind off your worries with a dance." Naruto said to her suddenly as he pulled her towards the dancing couples.

"W-What?"

Once the two were on the dance floor with the two in their positions, Naruto took the lead and made Selina follow. Even though she didn't want to dance at the moment, it slowly drifted away with her being in such a moment with the man she started to grow feelings towards. Just the way he moved her around on the dance floor made it harder for her push those feelings down.

"I didn't know you could dance."

"You can thank Cat for the lessons." He said to her as he spun her around. "We had an assignment at a gala event one time and she wanted me to learn how to properly dance. So she took it upon herself to teach me a few dances just in case and the tango was one of them."

The dance kept on going between the two as everything around them started to fade away with only the music remaining. It felt as they were in their own little world to dance until who knows when but it didn't matter now. Both were captivated with the other and hardly took their eyes off of each other as they moved in their hypnotic dance with each other. There was one thing that came to the forefront of the publisher's mind that he needed to address to his possible love interest.

"You don't need to worry about Penguin anymore."

"What?" She asked in a slight haze with her mesmerized in the current moment.

"I said you don't need to worry about that loan to Penguin anymore."

This time she heard him and looked at him in shock. "B-But how….what did you…"

"I asked a friend of mine to take care of it. Got a call from him earlier saying that it was all sorted out and you no longer owe Cobblepot anything."

When hearing that, she knew there were no lie threaded into what he just said. She smiled at him and went up and placed a peck on his cheek before saying 'Thank you' to him.

"You're welcome."

The music seemed to build up to its climax as both realized that their little world was starting to crumble before them. So they kept on dancing on what they could to savor each remaining moment like it could've been their last. But as soon as the song was done and over with, there were some clapping from the viewers for both the band playing and for the couples dancing but it was mostly focused on Naruto and Selina. With how close the two were, the two could've practically kissed but the pressure seemed too much for her and she broke the hold with him.

"I-I'm sorry but I have to go." She apologetically said as she walked away from him.

"Selina…"

It wasn't long until he saw her bump into Bruce Wayne, who was in the crowd, as the two started to talk. He could barely make out on what was going on before she started to argue with him about turning herself in or something of the sort. He wanted to intervene but several people were coming up to him to chat. He tried to excuse himself to get closer to Selina, but one thing was called out ended up filling him with dread.

"Yoo Hoo! Mister Police Officer!"

*Crash*

With the surprised moment that occurred, Naruto was able to get out of the way from the crowd and saw a red headed woman on the floor drenched with drinks while Bruce was attending to her. That didn't matter now as he saw a few officers run after Selina, making him go after her while trying not to be spotted by the other guests.

It took him a little searching until he saw the security run towards a different direction after chatting with the host of the party. He was going to follow them until he saw a certain smirk on his face before closing the door. This made the former shinobi realize that his friend was in there but what was the man hiding. So he fazed his way into the room after hearing something loud come from the room to end up seeing it was empty. He would've looked harder to search if he didn't see the bookcase finally close up on itself.

When fazing through that one, he had ended up finding out the truth that the host of the party, Thomas Blake, was the copycat thief. He listened from the hidden entry way to listen on the details and learned that he considered Selina his hero because of her taking risks and seeking danger and sought out to get her attention. Of course he ended up being caught in his last heist and the one victim mistaken him as Selina in the cat themed outfit. There was some scuffle going on and didn't know what occurred, but in the end Thomas proclaimed that he'll steal the priceless Ming Tiger at the Peregrinator Club tomorrow for her.

There was nothing else to listen too as he fazed himself out of the hidden area of the estate and quickly left so that no one would know where he went to.

 _ **-Next Evening, Peregrinator Club-**_

"...And this takes care of the **cat** erwauling alarm system. *Laugh* **Cat** erwauling...I kill me." A man said as he was hanging upside down while adjusting the alarm system. He was currently wearing a suit that looked pretty similar to a feline fatale, yet entirely not. It was primarily grey with black gloves and boots with a utility belt around his waist. He had a pair of goggles on to be able to see in the dark while working on the security system.

"Now for the next step to make Selina fall for me." He said while giggling like a school boy.

The man in the odd cat themed outfit was none other than Thomas Blake, millionaire with a former big game hunter hobby turned thief. After working to capture various felines around the world and get them to zoos and circuses, he started to get bored with his profession. That was until the string of robberies were committed by Catwoman and her saving Gotham from the infamous terrorist Red Claw. He was so inspired that he decided to take up a life of crime and hopefully earn his idols love with him thinking they were meant to be together.

So here he was, attempting to steal the priceless Ming Tiger and present it to Selina and hopefully win her over.

After cutting through one of the glass doors of the building, he had to sneak past some of the other security measures. From laser grids, motion sensors and various other means that were in the way for his 'ticket' to Ms. Kyle's heart. After getting through all that, he came across the goal for the evening.

He pulled out a spray can from his belt and pressed down on the nozzle to see the laser grid.

"You know," a voice called out from the darkness, "when a cat starts to spray, you have to get them fixed."

The copycat was then punched onto the side to show that it was Batman all along. The thief then recovered as he used his hands onto the ground to bounce upwards and land back onto his feet. "Cat's also land on their feet Dark Knight. Now come at me, face me, try me and you'll see that I won't be that easily captured!"

"Really?~" Another voice called out. "Then challenge accepted."

A volley of cards and knives were soon thrown out as they were aimed towards the copycat thief. Thomas had to move out of the way with his 'cat like' reflexes as he dodged as many as he could but a few cards scratched him onto the side. This was all a distraction as Vanitas jumped out of the shadows and tackled the man onto the ground.

"Ah yes! Another worthy challenger indeed!" The man said in glee as he faced the two strong opponents. "Now I can prove that I'm more than just a lion but the king of beasts!"

The thief then came at them while swiping his claws at the two heroes as they dodged his strikes. Unfortunately for Batman, one of the swings landed on his cowl, leaving a few bloody cat scratches.

"Look at what you did." Vanitas said as he moved out of the way from another strike. He then summoned his escrima sticks and smacked one of them across the man's head. "You ruined the drapes. Bad kitty. Bad."

The thief kicked Vanitas away, who ended up hitting Batman in the process, as he ran over to the nearby sword display.

"Claws aren't the only weapon in my **cat** alogue of weapons." The man said as he pulled out a sword from the sheif. "Not while there's a japanese **katana** sword nearby."

"Oh my god, will you shut up with the stupid cat puns?" Vanitas said as he rushed towards the man and blocked a sword swing with one of his sticks. He quickly swing his weapons at the man's hands to disarm him before latching onto his head and brought it down onto his knee to knock him out.

"Huh...Seems this cat ran out of lives….or something…" The black and white themed hero said while trying to think of something. *Groan* "Dammit, the guy ruined cat themed puns and I can't think of any good ones now."

"Why are you here Vanitas?" Batman said as he came up from behind the other hero.

"Just wanted to clear Ms. Kyle's name. That's all." Naruto said as he started to walk off. "Have fun sending that bad cat to the pound. Bye.~"

Batman tried to grab Vanitas' shoulder, but it seemed to slip right through him before the other hero ran through the wall and out of the Dark Knight's site. With things now taken care of, Batman had to haul the copycat thief over his shoulder and left the building to turn him into the GCPD.

 _ **-Selina's and Shizune's Loft-**_

Selina, currently in her Catwoman attire, landed on her patio with a bag full of some items in Thomas Blake's collection. She had it planned out after meeting with the man at his party. While Thomas tried to steal the Ming Tiger, she went back to his home and stole not only the golden Bast but several other items in his collection that weren't reported stolen. It was the only way that she can be able to get the bribe money for the Siberian Tigers along with a future endeavor when the time comes.

Once she got what she needed and hiding the goods in a safe spot, she called the police as an anonymous source on what is going on. From there, Catwoman headed straight towards the Peregrinator Club to inform Batman on what she knew on the man along with the location of the stolen items. Selina had a hunch the Dark Knight would be there but she didn't know Vanitas, originally went by Nobody, had been there as well with him wanting to help clear her name. She wanted to thank him on what he was trying to do and wanted to meet the man ever since their last encounter from the Red Claw incident.

Once she got back into her loft, she went straight towards her phone and dialed the number Shizune left for her while staying in Russia as she pulled off the head portion of her outfit.

"Come on pick up, pick up." Selina said while tapping her foot onto the ground. Didn't take long for her friend to finally pick up. "Hey sorry if I'm waking you up Shizune."

…..

"Wait so it's lunch time over there?"

…..

"Sorry, sometimes hard to remember foreign time zones at times."

…..

"Oh that? I was able to clear it up an hour ago. The cops are actually happy about it and off my case."

…..

"Anyways….the main reason why I'm calling is that I want you to contact those officials. I was able to get the bribe money needed."

…..

"Stealing? No Shizune, this was actually an anonymous donation from a wealthy animal lover."

…..

"Really and he did say that he was thrilled to give it to me."

…..

"I'll wire you the money tomorrow on my end once the banks are opened. For now I need to go to bed."

…..

"Later." Selena finally said to end the phone call. She was going to head off to bed when a light turned on by her couch. The sudden action caused her to freak out and go in a fighting position on who broke into her loft.

"Had a fun night Selina?" Naruto said as he was sitting with his legs crossed with Isis on his lap. He was petting her gently enough to not really disturb her but not enough to make her fall asleep.

"W-What are you doing here Naruto?"

"I was just waiting up on you since I had something to talk to you about. But the one question running through my mind now is: What were you doing?"

"I was out doing a public service by catching that copycat thief." She replied with her arms crossed.

"I believe you on that. So next question: What's in the bag?"

"...Donations?"

"...I believe that as well." He said to her in a deadpan tone that ended up surprising her.

"Really?"

"Yeah, you did tell Shizune that Thomas Blake practically gave it to you willingly."

"Well that's good." She said as she let go of the breath she unknowingly held. Then she realized she never told Shizune she got it from Thomas but an anonymous donor. "Wait...how did you-"

"Know his name?" Naruto finished off the sentence as he slowly got up from the couch and gently placed Isis down to not disturb her rest before explaining to her in detail.

"When you ran off at the party, I went to follow you and hopefully get you out of trouble. Of course I knew something was up when I saw the host's smirk on his face and I checked the room if you were there but only found the hidden entrance slightly ajar. I ended up hearing quite enough on what was going on and I wanted to inform the police on my findings." He stated to her as he walked around her for a bit before coming in closer to her.

"But why didn't you?"

 _ **-Insert Mass Effect: Reflections Extended-**_

"Because you told me that you wanted to take care of this situation yourself, to clear your name. That's what I did since I wanted to respect your wishes."

She felt happy when hearing that and he trusted her to do this on her own and couldn't help but voice it. "Thank you Naruto….for trusting me."

"Your welcome."

"You know…. This makes it a few times now that you practically saved and helped me." She admitted as she sat on the other couch in the living room. "You just keep adding things to my list, don't you?"

"How so?"

"First was helping me out on the reserve outside of Gotham to help secure the land. Second was you visiting me in prison, asides from Shizune, to help keep my spirits up. Getting the DA to take my case. When….When I was literally dying and you stayed by my side the entire time." As she said the last one, he sat next to her and placed a hand on her's and gave a comforting squeeze, which she didn't mind.

Once she repressed that experience, she continued with a small smile. "And recently with you getting Penguin to get off my back with the loan. And just so you know Naruto, I don't like owing people."

"I know that Selina and I think you might've forgotten a few."

"How so?" She asked in curiosity as she wanted to know what he thought was additional to that list of hers.

"Nevermind. Forget what I said." He responded as he was referring to the times of her helping and saving her when he was Vanitas. "So are you going to try and make a fresh start with you trying not to steal that often?"

When asked this, she had to stop and think for an answer, but couldn't think of anything. "Honestly….I don't know for sure."

"Why's that?"

"Because there's no such thing as a 'fresh start'." was the response in a slightly bitter tone.

This made him curious on the statement since most people have said it often to start a new part of their lives. Having a clean slate… A new life... A new beginning.

"Would you mind telling me on why there's no such thing as a 'fresh start'?" He said while repeating her question. "I'm just curious, that's all."

*Sigh* "Well….Even though you try to start in a new location and try to change your life for the better. There will be things from your past that seems to creep up at you. Showing up unexpectedly and ruining your new life. We all have something to hide Naruto….There's always something…"

"I….I can actually understand that well and I'm starting to see that for myself." Naruto told her that she was practically right. There were people back in his home reality that he met that clearly had that happen to them. One of them was Lady Koyuki. Having her life flipped upside down when her uncle killed her father and started the coup. Having to flee the only home she knew and having a 'fresh start' as an actress, only to have it come crashing down when having to go home during a movie shoot. Sure things turned out well in the end, but that was only an example out of many he knew about.

"Even you have your secrets Naruto. Those things you hide from the world and won't let anyone else see…."

*Sigh* "I-I wish I could tell you everything about me Selina." He said in honesty in his voice. "Even Pam doesn't know all about my past and it hurts sometimes when I can't be fully honest with her."

Now this got her curious on that fact. He hasn't told his girlfriend _everything_ about him! His girlfriend, who had told her a few times whenever she visited her in Arkham, knows everything about him.

"You know, I have practically heard that statement in over a thousand ways and a thousand times. But you're actually the first person that I have met to actually mean it."

"Thank you Selina. It means a lot."

"You're a good man Naruto….but….but good men don't lie with thieves." She said in frustration that made him worried on what she meant.

"Selna…"

"I know what I am. No one of true noble intentions...just the thrill of breaking what they say can't be broken. Knowing there is no safe I can't crack. No fortress I can't infiltrate."

"But what about the wildlife and the environment?!" He said to her as he made her face him. "You told me you had stolen in the past so you can help flora and fauna whenever possible. Following what your mother was and loved to do in life."

"Naruto…."

"So I don't believe for one second that's all you are. That's what you keep telling yourself in what others end up labeling you as." He told her as memories of his previous life was like. Of being scorned by the villagers, being ignored, abused, mistreated…. all because of what he was…. being Kurama's container, his Jinchuriki.

"You really have put a lot of faith into someone who doesn't truly deserve it." Selina responded to his statement as she leaned back in her seat. "Sure...I've stolen from those that deserved it, but I've taken plenty from good people too."

She ended up chuckling a little before saying more. "And for what….Some nice stuff to make my life more comfortable. And before you say anything, yes I've also stolen for the environment but it's only temporary."

He kept being silent since he knew there was more to her explanations than she let on."

"It's like a drug now that I think about it. The high is nice, but it wears off. Then when things settle down, you look around and see….nothing. So you get back out there and try to chase that feeling down all over again…. But it never really amounts to anything."

*Sigh* "I know it's not the same Selina, but I know what you mean. There were things I just...kept running towards and never could grasp. I tried and tried to reach it, but it kept moving farther away from me. After everything I've done, everything I was capable of, after coming back home felt….disappointing."

Once hearing his thoughts, she threw caution to the wind and scooted closer to rest her head on his shoulder. He tensed a bit before encircling his arm around her to bring her even closer, which made her feel happier. They sat there like this for a bit, just enjoying the feeling of having a better connection with each other than before.

"Selina."

"Hmm." She responded as she didn't want to move from her comfortable position.

"There's something I….I need to tell you." He said with some slight hesitation with a hint of nervousness.

"Which is?"

She didn't get a verbal response right away as she felt his hand lift up her chin. She was confused on what he was doing before feeling his lips on hers. Selina opened up her eyes in shock at this and looked towards him as he pulled away. Even after his lips left hers, she could still feel the tingles as it slowly faded away.

"That I think I'm starting to fall in love with you."

That one sentence, just that one sentence, made all hidden self doubt Selina had about her feelings towards her friend be thrown out of the window. It was overwhelming to the point that she practically exploded in joy and happiness. She grabbed ahold of his face and slammed her lips onto his. Everything she kept hidden was finally released as she claimed his lips again and again and again.

'He loves me! He loves me! Oh thank god he loves me!' She yelled out in her mind as she kept kissing him. It even made her happier when he wrapped his arms around her to hold her closer onto him as he returned his kisses towards her. It was light a fire was ignited between the two and they needed to do this to extinguish the flames.

The two then separated as they had to catch their breaths to see the love in their eyes towards the other. It felt so right on what they were feeling, that they started to forget everything else in the outside world. With Selina, it was mostly Naruto's relationship with Pam. While with Naruto, it was him wanting to tell Selina of what Pam told him. The next action that was made was when Selina got up from her placement on the couch and straddled his lap before kissing him again.

 _ **-Lemon Start-**_

She parted from the kiss as she rested her forehead on his before leaning back and stretched to get a rise out of her love interest. It was clearly working as she felt a reaction from down under.

"Do I have to do all the work myself or are you going to undo this for me?" She asked as she gestured towards the circular zipper that she was playing with her finger.

"Let me help you."

"Yet another thing to add onto my list." She responded with a cheeky tone.

He chuckled at this before grabbing the zipper and started to pull it down slowly. It felt excruciating for her on what felt eternity for him to even pull down all the way.

"Are you trying to tease me?"

"Is it working?" The publisher asked with a smirk.

'Oh you cheeky bastard.' She thought before smacking his hand away and pulled down the zipper all the way down to release her chest from it's leathery bindings.

From there, Selina got up from her seat and walked away as she beckoned for him to follow. He complied as he came up to her and slammed his lips onto hers again. A squeak of surprise escaped Selina and she stiffened slightly as Naruto's hands ran over the small of her back, shooting sparks of pleasure down her spine and leaving goosebumps in their wake. Naruto grinned into the kiss as one of his hands made it's way further down to her rear and squeezed it softly. This made her open up her mouth from the action before it was assaulted by his tongue, which fought for dominance.

Their tongues dueled desperately with each other, vying for supremacy and dominance. They kept the connection as they awkwardly walked back to where Selina's room was at before she fumbled the doorknob to get it to open. They didn't break the kiss as they kept walking towards the bed before falling upon it with Selina on the bottom and Naruto on the top.

Naruto then broke the kiss as he separated with his current lover as a string of saliva kept things connected with the two. Once it broke, he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it off to show Selina what she was getting for part of her meal for the evening. She came up and surprised him by throwing him onto the far side of her bed as she crawled towards him with predatory eyes.

"I have to admit Selina, that looks very hot right now." He said to her as he kicked off his shoes off to the side.

She didn't say anything as she kissed him again with her hands placed onto his sculpted chest for support. Her hands then roamed around to feel the compacted muscles and with every twitch she felt made her more excited than before. They soon reached their destination as she then unbuckled his pants before one of them went into his boxer shorts. Once feeling his member, her eyes widened in surprise when she felt the hot member in her hand.

'A-Are you kidding me?' She thought as she tried to guess the size. 'I can barely wrap my hand around it!'

She then let go as went down towards his lower half and pulled his pants and boxer shorts down to release his member out of it's trapped confines. The size of his full masted penis was actually bigger than the men she had slept with in the past to relieve stress. Roughly ten inches in length and like her previous thoughts, thick enough for her hands to barely wrap around it. She then gazed downwards to see his ballsack being plump and full of his life batter.

'It looks like it's about to explode. He must not have done it since…. _she_ had her accident.' She thought as she stared at the globes in awe and wonder. 'It must've been a miracle for him to be sane after all this time.'

Just the thought of this….beast being inside of her made her hot and froffy. She inhaled deeply to take in its musky scent as she got closer to breath hot air onto his tool. He shuddered on the feeling before he started to moan when she started to move her hand up and down slowly. Her hand started to speed up in a pumping motion making him fidget slightly. Once it was truly hard enough, she brought her tongue to the base and licked upwards before licking the crown making him jolt upwards a bit on the sudden feeling.

"Oh you poor baby." She cooed to him as she tugged on him more. "Let me take care of this for you."

Selina then took his member into his mouth and held it there as she slowly took each inch by inch down her throat until her nose barely touched his public hairs. She was glad she doesn't have a gag reflex or else this would've been harder for her to do. The thief would've wanted to take her time and tease him but she has been repressing her urges for too long and wanted the main course out of this baby.

She then started to bob her head slowly as to savor the taste of her lover and it made it more sweeter when she heard Naruto moan loudly. Selina picked up the pace as she tightened her mouth around his tool while she caressed and fondled his family jewels. She wanted to fully taste him and have his batter now!

'O-Oh Kami….Th-This feels so good.' Naruto thought as he started to breath rapidly with his eyes glazing over a little. 'P-Pam has never done this before.'

With the new experience he was having, he grabbed ahold of Selina's head and started pumping his cock inside of her mouth in rapid successions. It went to the point that the sounds of gurgling and spit like sounds filled the air. The environmentalist seemed to actually enjoy it with her not resisting of her mouth being his cocksleeve as she slipped her fingers into her panties and inserted them into her wanting cunt. For what seemed like forever, which in reality was several minutes, she kept fingering herself like a piston without stopping.

'Come on. Give it to me baby. Fill my mouth with your-'

Her thought process came to a sudden halt as she felt hot cum squirt into her mouth. It came in rapid successions as it started to go down her throat. Just the feeling, the smell and taste made her eyes roll backwards as a result of her successfully cumming for the first time in god knows how long.

Naruto kept her head still as he unloaded some of his ammunition down her throat for about a minute or so. Once he let go and freed his spit covered tool from her orifice, she loudly gasped for air and heavily breathed in with drool and his sperm leaking out of her mouth. Feeling her 'cream' escaping her mouth, she brought her drenched fingers and started to 'wipe' the cum off of her suit and around her mouth. Selina then started to clean herself up as she sucked her fingers each time she wiped his essence off of her before sucking her fingers dry with a satisfying moan.

The display presented to the publisher made Naruto's cock return to full mast. In her current high, he came up to her and used his phasing ability to pull Selina's suit and underwear off of her. He didn't know nor cared if she saw him use that ability on her or not. The former shinobi felt something click inside of him that made him pounce on her like some sort of large cat. Ravishing her breasts and nipples with his tongue as he licked and bit; causing Selina to gasp and arch her head back against the mattress in passion.

Her sexual high was kept on an all time high as the trail of his teeth and kisses trailed up to her neck, where he bit her again while his other hand trailed down to first cup her buttocks and pull her against him. Selina's instincts started to kick in as she too bit, licked, and sucked on his neck and lips before gasping to match his growl as she felt her wet lips rub up against Naruto's hardening length.

Mewling and purring, she rocked her hips to slide up and down his throbbing member, making him groan as he felt her wetness hitting the most sensitive parts of his penis. They continued to devour each other's lips while rubbing themselves against the outside of each other, until their timing got messed up and they ended up seating his penis to split her dripping lower lips. Both groaned their eyes got so large as she felt the first three inches of Naruto's thick cock slide into her while he felt how tight she was.

Naruto not being with a woman for the majority of his life until New Years and not having sex afterwards. While Selina hasn't had anyone to 'pet' her pussy in several years. The current feeling alone was incredible, and like a dying man in the desert who just got a small drink from an oasis, they wanted more.

With their conscious minds still working as best as possible, they looked into each other's eyes as Selina had to slowly come down and adjust onto his tool. He brought his hand onto her face to make her know to take all the time she needed. Once things were settled for a few moments, she started to move slowly before picking up a rapid pace.

Their instincts took over again as they thrusted deeply against each other with Naruto's entire length diving into her to plunder the depths. He then growled and bit the side of her neck to stifle his yell. As a result, Selina clawed her nails up her lover's back; scratching him and drawing blood before his powers quickly fixed the problem.

The pleasure and pain, passion and heat joined as their pace picked up as meaty wet slaps were heard as his thrusts met her humps. She rode him for all she was worth as she sat back and smiled darkly down at him as she ground her clit against his lower pelvis with every thrust and slide; causing a deep purring sound to come from the environmentalist's chest.

Unbeknownst to either of them due to their sexual high, Naruto's hazel eyes seemed to glow into a bright yellow as his hands rested on her hips and helped to drive her up and down his length; meeting every time with a slap as they took passion from each other. His instincts then took over more as one of his hands left it's position before it slammed down hard and fast onto her rear. It made her squeak in her current action before she felt the pain, turned sensation, being repeatedly made onto her ass. Part of her conscious mind that wasn't focusing on riding him took note and filed away for later of enjoying being spanked.

Growls were met with pants, purrs were met with groans, and then the publisher felt he was going to come to his release so stopped spanking her and grabbed her ass. In one motion when she was coming down, he slammed his hips upwards, getting his penis to hit against her womb and caused a spike of pleasure and a bit of pain as her eyes got large at the realization that he unleashed his next load inside of her.

"O-Oh god." Selena barely said as her mind felt like it was going blank from the pleasure she just had with her cumming once again not long after Naruto came inside of her.

"S-Selina?" Naruto called out to her with a haggard breath. "A-Are you alright?"

She brought her eyes down upon him as the two looked into each other's gazes to see an odd mixture of love, worry, and satisfaction. Her mouth started to widen and smile greatly that could've been in leagues with the infamous Cheshire Cat.

"I-I've never felt better in my entire life!" She yelled out in joy as she started to gyrate her hips. This made him loudly groan on the feeling on his sensitive member.

Not feeling outdone, Naruto grabbed ahold of her waist and flipped them over with him being on top and her on the bottom. He then spun her while still inside of her to make her feel herself churn before he held her hips up as he plowed into her from behind doggy style… or 'kitty' style in this case. Selina's surprise was short though as this new position allowed Naruto to reach untouched depths of her sheath with every thrust, and the angle was just right to be almost too intense but oh so fantastic.

The two groaned and moaned deeply as they started to feel their pleasure rising once again. Bending forward, Naruto used one of his hands and grabbed Selina's head before turning towards him and gave her a soul-searing kiss. It felt so damn good on how the two were feeling right now as they started to reach their end.

"Selina…..I-I'm about to…" He growled out as he was ready to finish things off.

"T-Together….Please...J-Just a little longer." She pleaded as she kept on panting.

He kept on thrusting in hopes of getting her to cum one last time and he even spanked her rear quickly in hopes of getting the desired results. His hopes were answered as he slammed his hips onto her rear one last time as both of them came. Her eyes widened as she let out a silent scream as his warm essence was buried in her depths. Naruto finally released his grips on her as he fell to the side of the bed while Selina collapsed forward to end up releasing his member from inside of her.

She struggled as she crawled forward to his position with their mixed essences were leaking out of her. Once the thief got close enough, she fully collapsed onto him. Fully turning onto his back, Naruto pulled his friend closer to him as she rested her head on his upper chest. They huffed and puffed as they caught their breath. The sound of their rapidly beating hearts joining with their quest to pull oxygen into their lungs after their athletic escapade.

 _ **-Lemon End-**_

"Well….that….that was…"

"A mistake." Selina finished off as Naruto looked at her in worry while her face tried to stay away from his.

"No...of course not Selina." He said to her in defence. "It was just….unexpected. I just mean….what are we doing?"

"I thought it was fairly obvious..." She said as she tried to put up a smile. "Sometimes, sex is just sex Naruto. Two friends helping each other out and it's better to go to someone I trust…than to try and hook up with some random asshole at a club, isn't it?"

"Of course but that's not what I meant." He brought his hand to the side of her face as she tried to look away again. "Sure it was great but…"

"But what?"

"I had thought….that there was something clearly between us." Naruto said to her as he rubbed his thumb on her cheek that made her want to lean into his hand more. "I was completely honest with you that I have feelings for you….actually thinking that I love you."

The environmentalist wanted to say something but felt that he had more to say.

"I admit….I can be very oblivious to women around me." Selina snorted a little on the obvious statement causing Naruto to smile at that. "But being told by someone that I love that my friend loves me as well, along with being told that I was unknowingly felt the same way….it made me question if that was true."

"W-Who told you?"

"At first it was Pam." This brought her to a shock on hearing that his girlfriend told him she had feelings for him. "'They' told me that 'they' were fine with you being in love with me and vice versa….I was hesitant on this, but I grew to accept it as I realized that 'they' were right. Hell even Moxxi knew."

"She what?!" She yelled out in a strained tone as she realized that not only Pam knew she loved her but Moxxi as well!

"Yeah...Sorry that I lied about that but I didn't want to make things difficult when I was being with you."

He soon brought her into a kiss that seemed to take her breath away yet again, as she place one of her hands on his chest while the other on his neck. It wasn't long before the publisher broke the kiss and rested his forehead on hers.

"What I'm trying to say Selina….is that I would like to see if this is true….if we can work this out." Naruto said to her as she looked him in the eyes with possible hope and a tear escaping her eye. "Please, lets give us a chance at this."

"I….I would like that as well." She said as she brought him into a kiss before the two slowly drifted off to sleep.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **So I'm pretty much doing this chapter because I want to not only help progress the relationship with Selina but also for the fact that it's Valentine's Day….or for singles everywhere: Single's Awareness Day. The day of love, romance, and for every single out there to watch rom-coms with a tub of ice cream…..**

 ***Cough* Not like I would do that sort of thing…...Shut up.**

 **So with the bits with the harem starting to commence here, I wanted to at least get some stuff put in on the whole excuse on why Pam/Ivy thinks it's okay to start the whole open relationship. Doing the best I can on this bit so yeah….forgive me if I'm not doing that great of a job to start the multi-relationship train rolling.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	15. Secrets

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 14: Secrets**

The morning rays started to shine through the bedroom, as the light started to creep towards the loft's resident. The brightness of the sunrise had landed upon Selina's sleeping face, causing her to groan in discomfort from her well rested sleep. She tried to seek comfort from her pillow to block out the rays of the sun and it felt just right when turning her head a bit more into it.

Selina had thought it was just a cruel dream when those moments from last night come to the forefront of her mind as she tried to go back to sleep. She wanted to stay in that dream and never wake up, but Isis had gotten into bed and started to wake her up with her normal morning kisses for her breakfast.

*Groan* "I'm getting up Isis, just be patient please."

She tried to move as per muscle memory when she felt her lower half really sore. Not only that, but when she tried to move her arm, it grazed against something warm and firm. This confused the thief in her morning haze that once she rubbed the grime out of her eyes, she looked upon the naked, sleeping form of her only male friend turned lover. She then realized what her 'pillow' was exactly that made her realize what occurred.

"I-It can't be…." She muttered as her eyes started to water up as a smile graced her beautiful face. "It happened. It _really_ happened."

The sudden movements that were taking place started to stir Naruto from his slumber as he soon woke up to Selina looking up with him with unshed tears.

"Selina?..." He asked her in a concerned tone. "Are you alright? Did you have a bad dream?"

She shook her head before responding back to him while wiping her barely shed tears. "I'm better than alright and I didn't have bad dream. In fact it was a good dream….a great dream."

"What was it then?"

"You…. Telling me you love me."

She slided up a bit on his form and gave him a pleasant kiss on the lips that made him wrap an arm around her to hold her closer. Her breasts pressing on his muscular chest with their hearts quickening their pace to sync up like one organ. The publisher then broke the kiss as his unused hand went up to her face and held it in comfort.

"It wasn't a dream Selina." Naruto said to her with a small smile on his face. "It really happened and I'm glad for that."

"Meowr." Isis called out from the end of the bed. She then walked up towards the two while moving out of the way of the mess they made last night. Once the black cat came close, she started to lick Naruto's whiskered cheek and rubbed her head against it with a loud purr. 

"Hey Isis. Good morning." He said petted her head a little before she kept licking said cheek. *Chuckles* "Cut it out girl. It tickles."

"Really.~" Selina smirked at hearing this and out of curiosity, she brought her hand up against his cheek and started to rub it .

"N-No, d-d-don't do tha…A-A-A-A-Ooooooooo…" He was cut off by her strokes on his cheek before she pulls her hand back with odd look and a little pinkish tint on her cheeks.

"Did you just purr?" Selina asked in wonder, finding it a little cute.

"N-N-No, I do-O-O-Ooooooo…"

She kept on stroking his whiskered cheek and couldn't stop herself from laughing. "N-No way! *Laugh* I can't believe it!"

"I-I-I don't purr at all!" Naruto cried out as he lightly pushed her hand away. Of course the moment he did, he felt a paw on his cheek and started to rub it. This caused him to purr once again with the rumbling sound coming from his throat and chest.

"Ah~ That's so cute!" Cooed the thief as she found the sight adorable. "Isis thinks you're a cat as well."

"It's not cute at all!" He said in denial with his red embarrassed face. 'I thought I grew out of that years ago!'

It was, unfortunately for him and fortunate to others, something he was either born with or that was left behind for being 'bunny ears' container.

He first came across this discovery back when he was a little boy. Naruto had just started to go to Ichiraku's and he didn't have any money with him at the time. Ayame had offered him a free bowl of ramen to him for a price of her petting his whiskered cheeks. It was out of mild curiosity for the young chef that she wanted to feel what they were like. He didn't mind at the time since he was hungry.

After devouring his meal in good manners, since Ayame smacked his head with a ladle on the head for bad table manners one time, she collected her payment. It felt really nice with her soft hands rubbing his cheeks and with him in content with a full belly, came a surprise to them both: he purred.

They thought it was just their imagination and she repeated her action to get the results. When realizing that he indeed purred, she squealed in joy on how cute it was and kept doing it for a while, much to his growing dismay.

So every now again, when he went by there, Ayame would hound him down to 'pet' him and he would refuse. Even would offer a free bowl for the chance. It was hard to refuse on those times and he had to suck it up on those moments.

But since he never came to this world, he never purred at all and thought he grew out of it.

Some people might end up asking: But wouldn't he purr when someone caressed his cheek or something similar?

Well caressing and petting are considered two different things. I'm not going into detail about them. So moving on.

After the little moment in bed, the two had gotten Isis' breakfast out before retreating to the bathroom and 'freshen' up. Practically spent an hour in there by cleaning themselves up, dirtying each other before cleaning each other again. By the time they got out of there, the newly made couple were pretty shiny….well Selina was extra shiny due to her satisfied glow.

Once all that was done, the two were in the kitchen with Naruto cooking up breakfast for the two of them. While she wore a fresh pair of clothing for the day, Naruto had resorted to wear the clothes he wore last night. Not that he minded really since those were entirely clean, but he'll probably change later.

"So how is this going to work out?" Selina asked while sitting at the kitchen counter.

"On what exactly?"

"With us being together." She said to bring up the subject from last night.

"Right….Well Pam told me that I have one hell of a big heart."

"That's for sure." She quickly added as she remembered how the two ended up falling asleep after their continuation of last nights activities. His heartbeat was so strong and so relaxing that she was able to drift off to sleep easily. Add to the fact that Naruto turned out to be a very nice pillow with those ribs of his.

"And said that 'they' can be fine of me being with others as long as I come back to 'them' and show the other women the equal amount of love I have for Pam in general. Add to the fact that Ivy keeps saying that since I'm her king that I need to have 'consorts'."

"That seems odd."

"I know, right?" He said towards her agreement on that little statement. "But I want to respect 'their' wish and possibly see if this can work."

"Yeah….." She didn't say much as she was starting to make plans on doing soon. One of them being her seeing Pam and ask on her opinion on all of this. Possibly might do that today while running errands from the bank and something else to kill her free time.

"But hey, it's okay. We've got all the time in the world. We can take things slow if we have to."

The thief smiled at his happy go lucky attitude as he served her the starting meal of the day. He was right though about having all the time in the world. No one knows what the future holds but one can be happy if they patiently work on things at a decent pace. Which is what the two plan on doing in their new relationship.

'Possibly should plan a date at one point since we're now a couple.' Selena thought as she took a bite out of her delicous breakfast. 'Need to actually have that happen to show that we're now dating.'

The two had some small talks while they ate and nothing much occurred there….. That was until Selina asked a simple question.

"So was there anything else Pam said to you?"

"Yeah there was."

"Which would be…" The thief said while dragging on the answer. She ended up taking a sip of her drink when he ended up answering.

"...That apparently Harley has feelings for me as well."

*Cue Spit take* "What?!"

Selina's response was pretty normal to say the least, given with the new shocking detail revealed to her. She had thought it was just her that fell in love with the publisher, but she didn't expect the asylum intern to have feelings as well.

"Are you sure that Pam's right on her?" She questionably said to him. "Not to offend her or anything, but it's pretty hard to tell with Harley during the few times I've hanged out with her."

"I was wondering the same thing actually. So while I had to think things over on both you and Harley, I've been wondering how Pam noticed that with her doctor."

The thief took some moments to think while chewing down her food before swallowing to respond to that. "For some odd reason, this is making me think of an odd soap opera thing of the doctor going after his/her patient's girlfriend/boyfriend or the other way around."

This got Naruto to think it over and came to the same realization. "I guess you're right on that."

"Even though I had been coming in terms to my feelings towards you, I think she might not know she has any towards you at all."

"What you mean?"

After taking a sip out of her drink to clean out her palate before explaining to him. "During the few times we hung out and during the moments being with the gal at Arkham, I could tell she has a secret. One that might've affected her deeply and could've buried any romantic feelings towards anybody. I don't know what it is exactly, but I've seen my fair share of variations to roughly guess that it deals with death on a loved one."

"...I see."

This... could make a bit of sense now he thought about it. Sure he knows that she has started to keep a neutral appearance at times while at work so she won't show that much of a reaction at all. Harley could've used that subconsciously when dealing with certain feelings and end up burying it down and not dwell into them.

"So my little advice for you is this: just keep doing what you're doing and don't try to date her too quickly. Just take things slow and things might go well." Selena said before taking a bite out of her meal. "I mean *Swallow* you're opening her up from her shy attitude and trying to get familiar with her. So just keep doing that."

"I'll take what I can get Selina and thanks."

"You're welcome."

The two ate in relative peace after that before finishing up their meals. They cleaned up the dishes and had to finish getting ready for the day before doing their own respective things. From Naruto heading to work and Selina doing her thing with her one dealer, the bank and now seeing Pam because of recent events.

 _ **-Later, Arkham Asylum-**_

"Hello, I'm here to see Pamela Isley."

The security guard then pulled out the patient's guest list and asked the usual question. "Name?"

"Selina Kyle."

"And may I see some identification?"

"Of course." The environmentalist complied as she pulled out her wallet and handed the guard her Driver's License. After a few moments, the guard of the asylum handed the item back to her before handing her the usual guest pass. From there, Selina navigated her way through the building and made her way to her destination.

Though along the way, she came across Harley's office and this made her come to a stop. She wanted to see if her friend was in or not like in her usual habit when she came on by alone the past several times. But after remembering what Naruto told her from what Pam told him, Selina hesitated in wanting to chat with her at the moment.

'I should probably tell her, she's my friend after all and should probably deserve to know.'

' _ **And then what? Have things get complicated between you four or five, if you consider Pam counting as two?'**_

'Oh great, you again.' Selena thought with a sigh escaping her mouth. 'I thought you went away when I got together with Naruto.'

' _ **It was only temporary really.'**_ The inner Selina/Catwoman simply said. _**'I am, after all, your inner instincts and subconsciousness. And I should tell you that telling Harley now instead of later will ruin the relationship in the group.'**_

'So what should I do then if I meet Harley next time?'

' _ **To simply put it: just be her friend and act like what you normally do with her.'**_

Selina could only sigh in defeat with her inner self winning. 'Ok….I'll keep this secret a little longer.'

' _ **Good girl. Now you have someone you had planned on seeing.'**_ The inner Selina said before the voice receded to the back of her mind.

'Right.'

She made her way to the women's wing of the asylum and was able to see Pam in 'their' green house styled cell with 'them' lying on the bed reading 'their' copy of Loveless.

*Knock* *Knock* "Hey Pam. Hope I'm not interrupting."

The changed botanist looked up from the novel to see 'their' fellow ally towards nature and gave her a smile. _**"N**_ _o_ _ **... n**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **. S**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **b**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _s_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _S_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **a?"**_

*Sigh* "I….I wanted to come clean and tell you 'two'…."

" _ **T**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **?"**_

"That me and Naruto made love last night." Selina finished off on what she wanted to say. She had somewhat expected Pam to go through a bit of a negative response of some kind. The only she got in return was a smirk upon the botanist's lips.

" _ **A**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _h_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _i_ _ **t?"**_ Pam replied as she got up from her cot and walked towards the glass barrier.

"E-Excuse me?"

" _ **H**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _x_ _ **?"**_ Pam replied with the ever growing smirk at 'their' friend's flustered face. _**"I**_ _t_ _ **'s**_ _j_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _p_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **q**_ _u_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **S**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **."**_

"Uh...I-It was good."

"Really? **Just good?"** Both Pam's respectively asked with a tilt to 'their' head.

"Wasn't it supposed to be great?"

" **Mind blowing?"**

"Heavenly?"

" **Orgasmic?"**

"Okay fine! It was amazing! It was perfect! It was the best sex I've had in my entire life! It was even in fact: the greatest experience of my life up till now! Happy?!" Selina yelled out at the slight taunt with her realizing she was being joked around a little.

" _ **S**_ _e_ _ **e."**_ They said to her with a smile. _**"**_ _I_ _ **t**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _d_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **s**_ _w_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **."**_

The eyes of the dark haired beauty started to twitch before she pointedly accused the 'two' of 'them'. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

" _ **G**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **t**_ _y_ _ **.~"**_

"So why do that?"

" _ **B**_ _e_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **e '**_ _w_ _ **e'**_ _w_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _b_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **."**_

The response seemed a tad familiar to the cat burglar as she said a similar thing to Naruto.

"Mind explaining please."

"As you can tell Selina, things aren't all that exciting being here." Pamela started off the explanation.

"' **We' do enjoy watering the plants around the asylum, interacting with 'our' favorite doctor Harley, along with 'our' king's novel. But after a while, things tend to get boring and one needs to find entertainment in anything really."** Ivy jotted into the conversation.

"If you don't, you go mad."

"Sounds perfect if you're in here." The environmentalist said before quickly replying back to 'them'. "No offence."

" _ **N**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **k**_ _e_ _ **n."**_ 'They' responded to 'their' environmental ally.

"I have a feeling there's something else you wanted to talk to 'us' about. Asides from you and Naruto joining in 'our' relationship."

"That's actually what I'm here for really. Why go through this with him and me as a supposed 'consort'? And don't say because you're the 'Queen of Nature' and all that stuff. Just….please tell me so I can have more sense on this asides from your odd excuse."

*Sigh* "She does have a point Ivy. Might as well tell her."

"Tell me what exactly?"

" **Selina...** _ **What 'we' are about to tell you, you must promise 'us' to not tell 'our' king."**_ Ivy said to the fellow environmentalist in a stern gaze. " _ **If he finds out….'we' don't know if it will shatter him and unlove us."**_

Selina looked at Pam and saw how serious the gaze was to realize that 'they' are going to indeed gonna tell her something big. This made her wonder how bad of a secret this was going to be. But like any other person, there was one thing that came to mind in this situation."

"What do you mean exactly?"

 _ **-Few Days Later, Evening-**_

It was a pleasant night in Gotham, to say the least, with the sky ever so clear from the clouds to reveal the lunar rays upon the city. With the cold light casted upon Gotham, it seemed to make the setting right for what crimes are being committed in the moonlight hours. Various ones would be committed from robberies, murders, attempted rapes, you name it and it could be happening at the very moment.

Take for example in a random warehouse as the sounds of a man being electrocuted while writhing and screaming in pain. When coming closer to the source, we would see the man being strapped down to a chair with a contraption on his head with electrical sparks coming off of it, to reveal it being what's causing the pain and suffering for the man. Standing not too far away was the person that was doing this to the poor man.

"That's a good boy Joe." The person said with a small, sadistic smile. "Just a little longer."

Once the electrocution torture ended, the man passed out from the pain as he fell down onto the ground with a mild thud. Soon a pair of feminine hands came out from the barely lit room to pull the device off of the man's head. She then brought it closer to her face to marvel the glint of the moonlight reflecting off of the reflective surface.

"Shiny~ Shiny~." The woman said with wonder in her gaze.

With what bit of light that was shone in the room revealed her identified form. She has shoulder length white hair in a bob cut with black make-up around her eyes and on her supple lips. She wore a black leather outfit with feathery wing-like ornaments on her shoulders. With the leather portion of the outfit though was unique with it only consisting of arm length gloves, mid-thigh length boots, women's bloomers, a corset vest that uplifted her breasts and a fishnet material that covered the majority of her body asides from her mid-drift.

She placed the device into the pouch she had strapped around her shoulder before something glinted in her peripheral vision. Taking a closer look, she saw it was an oddly shiny stapler with it labeled 'Property of Miskatonic Psychiatric Hospital' before she too placed it into her pouch. The woman then ran out of the room with her goal for the night already done. Before she could get any farther, she was kicked onto the side by surprise and seemed to fly a bit into the air. She quickly recovered and twisted herself upright to land onto several boxes up above.

"Hey!" She yelled out to whoever assaulted her. "You just hit a girl!"

"No. I just hit a criminal." The woman's assailant calmly said to her. When he stepped closer, the person was then revealed to be Batman.

"You know, you've given me quite the run." The Dark Knight said to her before coming to a complete stop. "Six warehouses and stolen technology that roughly estimate in the hundreds of thousands."

"Really?" She curiously asked on the new information. "I've only liked them for how they sparkled Mr…."

"Batman."

"Magpie." As she introduced herself, she caught her eye on something on his person. "Oh~ Nice belt. Shiny~ Shiny~. Can I have it?"

"Sorry, I'm using it right now. How about a shiny pair of handcuffs instead?" He told her as he pulled out a pair of batcuffs.

Magpie narrowed her eyes a bit and jumped off of her placement to try and land a kick at the Gotham hero. He rolled onto the side to evade the blow when Magpie landed onto the ground. She stood up and wiped her hands onto her sides to have her nails elongate into sharp weapons before diving towards him for her assault. She swiped and kicked towards the hero as he tried to dodge and evade her quickened blows. He soon had to block the claws with the bracers on his arms before being kicked onto the side.

When he recovered from the blow, Batman pulled out a few batarangs and threw them towards the bird themed criminal, who knocked them away with her claw like weapons. When she got closer, he pulled out the batcuffs and quickly placed them on one of her wrists and attempted to put them on the other. Magpie got angry at this and spun around to kick him at the head. It was successful and he landed onto the ground with a mild thud.

Not wanting to see him get back up, the white haired woman ran towards the dark themed hero before leaping towards him. He saw the attempt she was about to do and shot his feet out and kicked her belly into the air. It was good, at first, to get her away from him but he momentarily forgot about the support pillar nearby as she landed her feet on it and used it as a springboard to launch herself back at the hero.

Batman had to dodge yet again from her diving towards him, but this gave Magpie a clear path to a hanging rope that was behind him. She grabbed ahold of it and used it to swing around to land a powerful kick onto her assailant, which sent him straight to the support pillar that ended up knocking him out.

With her opponent out of the way, she swung towards her parcel that was lying on the ground and would've caught it if it wasn't for someone else snagging it before her.

"Sorry pretty bird, but you need to do better than that." The person said to her as she let go of the rope and glared at him.

"Who are you?" She questioned at the shadowy man.

"Moi? Alright, I'll tell you." He said as he stepped into the moonlight coming from the ceiling windows with the bag in hand. "The name's Vanitas. Got it memorized."

She inspected his form before her eyes were then drawn towards his dark glass like helmet. The moonlight gleamed off its surface and made it seem to glow and radiate in her eyes. When seeing this, her gaze then adopted a look of wonder and awe like before.

"Shiny~ Shiny~."

"Shiny? What's shiny?" He asked as he then remembered his reflective helmet with the moon out tonight. "Nevermind."

"I have to have it!" Magpie demanded as she came towards him in a surprising amount of speed.

She leapt off of the ground and wrapped her legs around his head and circled around him before throwing him off to the side. In the process, he dropped the parcel from his hands making it free for Magpie to take it back.

Once she landed onto the ground, she made her way towards her property before several daggers were thrown towards the bag to hold it in place. She glared at the black and white themed hero before attempting to hit him again with her claws this time. Vanitas moved out of the way before grabbing ahold of her arms and held her down.

This unsettled greatly as she hissed towards him before swinging her leg up to kick him from below. This knocked him back a bit before she came onto his back and attempted to stab him with her claws. Magpie's attack was blocked, however, with his arm before she kept swiping at him several times. She grew tired of this and wrapped her legs around his neck to render him unconscious. He surprised her by phasing himself out of the hold and attempted to take her out.

She got out of the way and in a last ditch effort, she went towards the ground and sent her legs towards Vanitas to send him flying. It was a successful hit with him flying towards a large stack of boxes that toppled all over him. Knowing he'll come back up soon, she went towards her parcel again before escaping. She had to pull out the daggers that held it in place and placed them into her bag before grabbing ahold of the rope and climbed her way towards her exit. By the time Vanitas got out of his toppled box holding, the bird themed criminal was long gone.

"Damn, she took me by surprise back there." Vanitas muttered as he had to pop a few kinks out of his shoulder. "Should've fought better against a female opponent. Then again... there is sparing against Selena, but she never done any of that in our 'fights'."

The masked publisher then heard Batman groan a bit as he tried to get up from his placement by the support pillar. He came up to the downed man and helped him up for support.

"You alright Bats?"

"I'll be fine." Batman told Vanitas as he held his head a bit. "Where's Magpie?"

"The bird girl? Well she's long gone Batsy. She's surprisingly agile though."

"I get that."

The two then heard a groan from the other room before making their way over to see what happened. When getting there, the one man was hunched over in a fetal position with the ground around him seemingly scorched due to the electrocution torture on him.

Placing his hand onto the man's shoulder, Batman spoke to the man. "Are you okay? What's your name?"

"I….I don't know." The man said as he looked around with uncertainty in his eyes. "Who am I? Where am I? What happened?"

This ended up leaving more questions than answers for the two before Batman placed his hand towards his ear and called for the GCPD on their current placements. Once that was done, he turned towards Vanitas to only see empty space to indicate the man already left. Batman could only sigh yet again on not getting the chance to talk to the mysterious man as he pulled another one on him. Once the police arrived, he informed them on what happened before he left for the night to do his own investigation on the matter.

 _ **-Hours Later, Naruto's Loft-**_

*Sigh* "Glad that I don't have to go to the office today." He said to himself as he was sitting at his desk, going over various documents he brought home yesterday.

Going over several revenues to see on what's up to date and if they seemed accurate or not. Looking over a few books that were waiting for approval before being sent to the editor. Going over various resumes of potential new employees for the Metropolis location and current ones who would be fine on transferring there.

Naruto was glad these were the only ones he had to deal with for the day. Especially on what he had to deal with for the past several ones.

It had been a few days since he and Selina had shared their very intimate moment together with them starting out their relationship. Both of them hope this can work since they truly care for each other after all the time the two had spent with one another. Things have been memorable in the early stages it's going through a decent start and they were fine with it.

While he was at work on that first day, he had gotten a call from Selina and asked if they should have dinner at either one of their places for just a dinner and whatever else they could do. He complied and told her to come by his place after he got off from work so he could cook dinner for just the two of them. The evening was pleasant and they decided to just cuddle up on the couch to watch a movie before falling asleep in each other's arms.

The next evening was relatively the same, but this time it was at her place with her wanting to cook dinner and afterwards having an evening romp to burn off the food. It was very enjoyable for the two of them, but the morning after wasn't all that great….

 _ **-Flashback-**_

 _Naruto was breathing in the morning air inside of Selina's bed and reached out to grab ahold of his 'second' girlfriend, only to grab empty space._

' _Huh, wonder where she went.' He thought as he looked around to rub out the grime out of his eyes. He looked around the room to see how oddly messed up it was with their clothes thrown about and wondering how certain articles got stuck on certain places. Like how the hell did his boxer shorts stay hanging on the wall without any hooks or how her bra was swinging on the hanging fan away from the bed._

 _He heard the door open and looked over to see Selina, wearing his button up shirt that was too big for her, with two cups of hot coffee. Once again, she looked radiant in the morning after and had the pleasant smile on her face when she got closer to the bed._

" _Hey. Made some morning coffee."_

" _Thanks." He told her as he grabbed his cup from her before they both took a sip out of them. Not too hot and not too cold, just right that they could just take more than just a sip._

" _I was wondering….was last night a dream."  
_

" _Oh it was definitely real." She said with a small, growing smirk._

" _Then you were right, about everything. I had no idea."_

" _So you liked it?"_

" _Yeah." He immediately responded to her on the question._

" _Even with the part where-" "Especially that part, yeah"_

 _She giggled on that bit as he brought his lips onto hers for a few moments before separating._

" _You know… I don't have any plans for the day." The thief said as she unbuttoned the shirt a little._

" _Really?~"_

" _Yeah." She replied with her biting her lower lip a little while unbuttoning a bit more._

" _Well since I'm my own boss," Naruto told her as he pulled part of the shirt off of her shoulder, "I can probably call in sick for the day and no one can tell me otherwise."_

" _That would be nice having the day to ourselves."_

" _So what would you like to do for the day?" The publisher asked as he brushed his lips on her shoulder before biting slightly, much to her pleasure._

" _W-We could cuddle up and r-read." She tried to muster as he nibbled onto a sweet spot between the shoulders and neck. "W-We could just ea-eat in."_

 _Naruto kept on nibbling and kissing along the trail before reaching her ear and whispered towards it before nibbling. "Or….We can maybe spend the day doing nothing but work up a sweat before having fun in the bed."_

" _Y-Yeah...we can do that." Selina responded as she was breathing heavily and cursing herself on Naruto learning all of her sweat spots already._

 _They were about to get frisky with one another until the door opened and slammed with a voice calling out._

" _Selina! I'm home!" Shizune called out to signal who came into the loft._

" _Oh Shit!" Both of them cried out as they ended up falling off the bed. It wasn't long until both popped back up from the floor with wide eyed looks with both of them covering each other up with the blankets._

" _Oh god!"_

" _I thought you said she was still in Russia for another day!" He whispered loudly to her as he tried to run around the room and snag his clothes._

" _I thought so too, but I must've gotten the time wrong and she came back today!" She responded back in the same tone while getting her clothes as well._

" _Hey Selina? If you're here, can we talk about something?" Shizune asked out loud into the loft._

" _You need to hide."_

" _What?!"_

" _Hide."_

" _Are you serious?"_

" _You need to hide in my closet Naruto." She told him as she was pushing him towards the closet in her room._

" _I am not hiding in your closet Selena!"_

" _Just hide!" She whispered back just as she pushed him in and closed the door by that time Shizune walked in._

" _Oh hey~. How was the flight?" Selina asked her roommate as she tried to keep herself cool in the moment._

" _It was alright and before you ask yes Russia was fine as well."_

" _That's good." Was the response as the thief awkwardly nodded her head._

" _What were you doing?" Shizune skeptically said as she looked at her friend's behavior._

" _Nothing really. Just got up and needed to make the bed."_

" _Naked."_

" _I was feeling rather hot last night and had to go stark nude." Selina said the excuse on the fly before her eyes caught sight of Naruto's boxers on the ground. She swore she saw him grab them, but he must've let go slightly out of his grasps when she pushed him into the closet._

" _Okay…. Anyways I need to talk to you about a few things."_

" _That's fine, but can I at least change first? It would seem awkward if I was naked."_

" _Oh yeah right." Shizune said as she quickly got out of the room before calling out from the other side of the door. "I'll be by the kitchen counter when you're ready."_

 _Once Shizune was some distance away, Selina quickly went to her closet and opened it to see Naruto holding a certain piece of lingerie._

" _I didn't know you had these." He said as he felt that material. "Were you saving these for another occasion."_

" _What are you doing?! Don't touch those!" She responded back with her face starting to go red._

" _Like I had no choice in the matter since you shoved me in here!"_

" _I'm not talking about this now. So get out of my closet and get changed."_

" _But what if I don't want to get out of the closet?" He said with a coy smile before she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him out. "Ow ow ow."_

" _Don't start with me on that and just do as I say." She responded back as the jokes weren't going to work at the moment._

 _Once things somewhat settled down, the two had to quickly change as fast as possible before Selina got out of her room first to distract Shizune long enough for Naruto to get out of the loft. It was….somewhat easy with Shizune kept turning slightly and Naruto had to quickly hide without being spotted. Luckily for him, he used his sound manipulation around him to keep himself quiet so he wouldn't give out any noise before reaching the door and bolted._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

…..that both realized the harsh reality that they needed to keep their relationship a secret from Shizune. Sure they could tell Shizune that they were in a relationship, but they didn't want to reveal it to her too soon. Just only when things seemed comfortable.

So now both needed to try and fix their dating schedules around the roommate.

Like for example, they decided to go out and properly eat at a nice restaurant last night. It was nice, simple, quiet and pleasant that nothing really went wrong at all. Selina did apologize in shoving him into the closet that morning since she practically acted on instinct….like a sophmore in highschool. Her words, not his. It was just that the relationship was still new to her and she wanted to keep this between just the two of them, asides from Pam who is on the know, before they come out on the information.

Asides from all that, things were relatively normal. But there were two things that somewhat bugged him the past few days. One was Selina acting like she had something to hide. She did have secrets just like everyone else and he respected that since he had his own for that matter. But from what he saw was that the secret she had seemed uncomfortable and she wanted to tell someone about it. Naruto would've pressed onto it but decided to let it be and let her tell him when the time comes.

The second, however, was the fact that he ended up sleep writing those intercourse moments he had with Selina. It infuriated him that he ended up doing this ...again… and there was no way into stopping this at all. Seriously though….Is Jiraiya making him write these moments with both Selina and Pam and possibly any other person he does the deed with from beyond the grave. To make him want to write the continuations of his Icha Icha works?

Unknownst to him in the afterlife, Tsunade and Kushina were trying their very best in trying to maim and harm Jiraiya to the best of their abilities for what he has done to their precious Naruto. The deceased Toad Sage keeps denying that he is involved with that habit now, but the two women aren't buying it at all. They do not want Naruto to pick up on that trait from his godfather and will do whatever they can to make it not occur.

Asides from all that, he went out on patrols after seeing Selina off at her loft when they got back from dinner. He wanted to get rid of a lot of energy he had on him and both had in mind of them having sex in his loft. But they didn't want to have Shizune seem suspicious on her staying over at the other person's place after a date and there was no way in hell they were gonna try and do it in their loft. So both held it off for the time being, but not after giving each other a kiss good night.

For the patrol that evening, Naruto had stopped a few muggings and a robbery. He thought it was considered a slow night since he didn't know the whole standard thing on what Batman would've done on these kinds of nights...or on a busy one for that matter. The publisher was going to call it a night until he heard some screaming when he passed by the warehouse district and went to investigate. What he came across was Batman getting knocked out by that Magpie character and he needed to stop her and figure out what was going on. His attempt failed and she got away in the end.

After helping Batman up, they came across the man from the other room with his memories gone apparently. While the Dark Knight wasn't looking, Naruto saw a box on the nearby table with Blackgate Prison labeled on it and saw a file placed on top of it. He would've looked into it then and there but he didn't want to get questioned by Batman again. So he ended up grabbing the oddly placed file and phased himself through the floor to the basement level and waited till the coast was clear for him to head back home.

Naruto realized that it probably wasn't the smartest idea at the moment to take evidence from the scene of the crime. But he wanted to try to start investigating on his own without relying on Kurama too much. He already got the notice from his former tenant before that he now had a 'favor limit' that the hybrid will do for free, but will want to save those for a rainy day.

Now regarding the file, he had looked into it and saw that it belonged to a man named Lunkhead. From what Naruto got from his files, he was a tall, bald man that was roughly 7 ft or so in height and had some pain tolerance and super strength of sorts as his meta abilities. But the downside was that he was dimwitted. Odd trade off he supposed of 'all brawn and no brain' sort of thing along with the bit of excuse of being hit too much on the head. Would explain the large bump on his head though.

After he was done with his workload for the day, he was going to search for Lunkhead and see what he knows asides from what was in the file dealing with him in an experiment in Blackgate with mind control.

 _ **-Wayne Industries, R &D Division-**_

The elevator to the section of the building sounded off as the doors parted open to reveal Bruce Wayne with a case on hand before he walked out. Before coming here in the past, he always had to sneak in through his masked persona and take what he could get to supply his arsenal back in the Batcave. He had to do that the hard way since he didn't want to be caught stealing from his own company. The process was difficult but manageable.

That all changed when his friend and CEO of his company, Lucius Fox, was attacked by Matt Hagen/Clayface. It made Mr. Fox start losing his trust in his long time friend and that point was dug even deeper when Naruto sternly lectured him. After thinking long and hard into this, Bruce decided he needed to bring Lucius into the fold and revealed to him that he was Batman.

Suffice to say, Lucius was pretty shocked on the new information given to him. But after several moments thinking things over, it did make sense on all of the details that would've fitted things together. The CEO did ask why his friend was revealing such a big secret to him and he explained his reasonings with the Clayface event and what Naruto told him when he was in GCPD for his charges. Not only that but he also asked Lucius if he can have better access to the R&D division/Wayne Tech since Lucius was the previous head of the division before being made into the CEO of the company.

The man complied but if Bruce wanted better access to that part of the company, then he'll need to bring the current head of that division and his daughter into the fold as well. It was only fair with Lucius not wanting them to be left out. The disguised hero hesitantly complied but accepted it since they were pretty familiar with his alter ego.

"So Mr. Wayne….How'd the new gadget's work out so far?" A female voice called out as soon as Bruce came near the person's field of vision.

The person in question was an african american woman in her late 20's with poofish black hair that wore a standard mechanic's uniform with the Wayne logo on the cap and shirt. She had a well fit figure for her age, given the fact on what her previous occupation was with the heavy lifting and how hard she worked.

"They worked out well so far Marva." Bruce said to the woman before handing her the case with said gadgets. "Though I think they might need a bit of tweaking."

"Understandable with them still prototypes." The now identified Marva replied as she opened up the case to see what remains there were in there. "Most of them are still unstable and I'm trying to fix all 'em bugs. They work out well in the testing area, but…"

"They sometimes would work better to test in the field."

"Definitely." She replied with a smirk. "Sometimes one would need to consider all of the variables that we don't have here."

"True." Her boss told her before looking around a little. "Do you know where your father is exactly?"

Marva thought for a moment before shrugging her shoulders as she replied to him. "I'm guessing he might be by the garage again sir."

"Good to know. Hope the next batches turn out better."

"Same here and I know you've heard this several times already, but thanks again for taking us in." As she said that, she went back to doing her work load for the day as the billionaire walked off to find the woman's father, Earl Cooper.

One might be wondering how this Marva and Earl Cooper, a daughter/father pair, know that Mr. Wayne is the legendary Batman. For that, we must got back by several years.

Earl Cooper as a top-flight engineer for Global Motors till he predicted that their latest sports cars had serious safety defects. He protested it to the company board, but they refused to listen to him so he decided to quit right on the spot. The executives were afraid that Earl will reveal to the press on what is going on, so they sent thugs to take care of the engineer. Batman intervened and saved Earl's life, but it didn't come without consequences.

Before Global Motors closed down because of the scandal, they had blacklisted Mr. Cooper as a whistleblower and he wasn't able to find work in the auto industry afterwards even after 20 years in the business. The man was literally down to his last dime, no job, no supporting wife due to her dying some years prior. But Batman came in and saved his life yet again by offering the engineer the challenge of a lifetime: build him a new car.

Earl was paid upfront in cash to get things started from paying off his mortgage and all of his bills from past ones till the next six months on just the design specs alone. After that, Earl was hired yet again by the vigilante to actually build the car and yet again paid half now, half when it was done. It fitted everything that Batman could ever dream with all of his needs and expectations and both men were satisfied. Of course after the vehicle was finished, Earl was still out of a job.

So Batman suggested Earl talk to Mr. Wayne and get an interview from him personally for a position there. Mr. Cooper protested in thinking the man wouldn't help him due to his blacklisting. But the Dark Knight told the man that Mr. Wayne had hired wrongfully, blacklisted people before along with down on their luck people and there were no problems in the end.

Earl was hired into the company and later on in his new career, he was promoted to become the new head of the R&D division. Even Marva joined the company when she was old enough and she enjoyed working at Wayne Tech alongside her father.

When Bruce got closer to his destination, he heard the sounds of engines running with the gears grinding before hearing someone cuss out loud a few times as things settled. Bruce then saw a car leveled up as a man, who turned out to be Earl, working on the underbelly of one of the vehicles.

The R&D head was an african american male in his early fifties with him balding on the top of his head with the only remaining hair being on the sides. He had his mechanic's uniform he wore while working in the building as per habit over the years. Underneath the suit, he had a well built form after years of heavy lifting and working hard throughout his life.

"...Seems I'll need to get that fixed up as well." Earl said to himself before spotting the new arrival. "Oh Mr. Wayne, good to see you again."

"Having problems Earl?"

"Just some minor problems, that's all." Mr. Cooper said as he wiped his hands off with a spare rag. "So what can I do you for sir?"

"I came on by to not only drop off the latest prototypes to your daughter, but I needed to access the systems."

"I understand that Mr. Wayne." Earl said as he threw the rag onto the sides before ushering his boss to follow him. "Right this way."

On their way over, Bruce decided to ask a certain question he had while coming over here. "Don't mind me asking Mr. Cooper, but how's the progress coming along on the new suit."

"The suit….well it's doing alright on designs but it's going to take a while to properly figure out a proper way to blend things together to your specifications." The engineer turned division head said as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"It's alright. You can take your time just so you know." Bruce said as he didn't want his employee to feel rushed.

"I know that Mr. Wayne. Just wanted to make things as safe as possible for you. That's all."

"Earl….If you or your daughter are uncomfortable-"

"Mr. Wayne…. I know what my daughter and I signed up for when Lucius brought us into this. The risks we are taking in helping you out. We are committed to help you out for as long as possible and we won't take no for an answer. We take great pride in what we do." Earl said to the billionaire hero before he continued.

"We weren't stupid when you came to us in previous times to fix up your car. With all the parts that needed replacing or fixing weren't cheap at all and you paid up front when the repairs were done. We eventually realized who you were under that mask so please do us a kindness and don't consider us as idiots."

After hearing all of this, Bruce had let it all sink in and sighed deeply before giving the mechanic turned Wayne Employee a subtle nod as he spoke. "Fair enough."

The two then made it to their destination as Earl started typing into the keyboard to get into the better systems of the place.

"So Mr. Wayne, what do you need searching for anyways?"

"I need to look for everything there is to know of a man named Joe Braxton and his connection to Blackgate." Bruce said as Earl typed things down onto the computer.

"Okay."

As Earl started typing away, he decided to tell his boss an obvious suggestion in his mind. "You know Bruce, if you want, we can come on by your Bat Cave of yours and do a proper upgrade to your systems so that you can have better searches to whatever else you're doing. It would save you the trouble in coming here way too often."

"I would like that very much, thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. Thank Marva when the job is done. She was more of the tech wiz than I ever will. Pretty much got it from her mother." The man said with pride in his voice with hints of sorrow.

"You're wife must be very proud in what you two are doing."

"Oh we know, there's no doubt about that." The mechanic replied before the search was complete. "Bingo."

Bruce then looked onto the results on the screen to see what they were. Joe Braxton was apart of a research team at Blackgate Penitentiary, but it didn't say what they were researching in. Possibly the files where physical copies and not much were fully put on record. Might explain why Magpie was at the one warehouse, but for what reason. Asides from that, the only other person in the team is a woman named Bethanie Ravencroft and she currently has a practice here in Gotham.

"Thanks Earl. This is all I need."

"Glad to be of service Bruce."

"Hope you two have a good day." The billionaire said as he made his way towards the elevator to head back home and get ready for the stake out this evening.

 _ **-Meanwhile-**_

"Took a while but I think I found you." Naruto said as he stood near an alleyway with Lunkhead's file on one hand and a grocery bag of candy in the other. He was currently dressed in one of his usual attires of a leather jacket and a button up, but he also wore a hat to try and cover most of his features. Further down from the Uzumaki's position, he found the man he was looking for unloading packages from a freight company he was currently working for.

He had to go to a few shady bars to find Lunkhead's location, but none worked well so far. He almost gave up on his search until he decided to go to the Stacked Deck and ask Moxxi if she knew the man he was looking for. She was very willing to help out on his search. All that she asked for in payment was hearing from his mouth on how far he and Selina had gone to in their relationship. Suffice to say, the bar owner was very happy to hear the thief had gotten laid and was in a relationship with the publisher.

After getting his required information, Moxxi had asked why he needed to know where the man was at. It took some pressuring from the barkeep to make him tell her that he was helping out 'the new hero' in an investigation. It was complicated on the explanations but in the end she bought it and suggested to him if Vanitas needs any information, she would be willing to help the man on information depending on what it is exactly.

'Glad that I possibly have a new informant that I can get in touch with.' Naruto thought as he made his way to the large fellow.

From what Naruto read from the man's files, he was easily startled so he needed to be weary. Not only that, but he tends to willingly comply to various things if someone gives the man candy of any variety. So before attempting to confront the man, Naruto went to the nearest grocery store and bought several bags of candy just in case.

As he got closer to the large man, his cellular phone started to go off to end up alerting Lunkhead that someone is behind him.

"RAAAH!" Lunkhead yelled out as he swung a box towards the person behind him.

"Gah!" Naruto cried out as he narrowly dodged the large package before hiding behind the dumpster.

"Who the hell is trying to call me?" The publisher asked as he checked the caller ID. "Oh, it's Selina."

"Hey Selina. Sorry if I have to cut this short but I'll call you back. I promise." The silver haired male said into his phone before ending the call.

"What's the big idea sneaking up on Lunkhead like that?" The large man questioned in a broken speech.

Naruto held up his hands with his items on hand before coming out of his hiding spot to address the man in front of him. "Hey big guy. I don't mean any trouble at all. I just want to talk. I even brought candy."

To authenticate this, Naruto tossed the grocery bag of candy towards Lunkhead who caught it in his grasps and saw it was true once he opened it.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." Naruto said as he got closer to the man who was unwrapping a piece of sweets. "Now reason why I'm here is that I have a few questions to ask you."

"Which would *Gulp* be?" The man said while digging into the first piece of candy.

"I have a file on me about you while you were in Blackgate Penitentiary." The publisher stated as he waved the file a little. "It said that you were in an experiment dealing with mind control."

"Uh huh." Lunkhead simply said with a nod. "Wanted to help Lunkhead's brain….didn't work."

"Sorry to hear about that."

"Thanks." Was the response as he opened up another candy wrapper.

"Now just two more questions and I'll be out of your way."

"Okay."

"First off, were there any other people in the experiment with you? Second, what was the person's name who did the experiment?"

Lunkead scratched his head a bit before nodding towards the man who gave him the bag of sweets. "With first. This one lady. She was nice to Lunkhead. She was in cage next to me. They took her away."

"I'm sorry to hear that and what was her name for the first question?"

"Margaret *Gulp* Sorrow."

"Good and what about the second question?"

"What was that *Gulp* again?"

"What was the person's name who did the experiment?"

"Eh….something that dealt with bird." The man said as he tried to remember. "Lunkhead's brain hurt."

"Hey take it easy buddy. You don't have to rush."

Suddenly a lightbulb seemed to light up in his head and it made him feel happy to hear it. "Oh I remember, I think, it was a black bird."

"A black bird?" Naruto said in thought. "Was it like a crow or a raven?"

"That's it. Raven. Raven something."

"Thank you Lunkhead. You've been a big help." The publisher said in kindness as he walked away from the man. He would've used his memory manipulation to make the guy forget he was there, but with how badly damaged his mind was, the former shinobi didn't want to hurt him any further.

"You welcome." The man replied as he ate more candy before going back to his work.

 _ **-Evening-**_

Perched on a ledge outside of the building Bethanie Ravencroft currently performs her practice at, Batman was looking through a pair of goggles to view the office of his target for the evening. He was waiting for any clue whatsoever on what her connection with Magpie was and nothing has turned up so far. All that he has seen for quite a while was Dr. Ravencroft sitting by her desk and going over various documents before calling it a night.

Batman's concentration was suddenly broken when he heard some yelling from the street below and saw two kids tagging graffiti in an alley. Wanting to get the simple thing done, he pulled out a batarang and with precise aim, he threw it and it knocked the spray can out of the one punk's hand to end up scaring them off. When he returned his gaze back to the window, he saw Ravencroft heading out of her office.

In his slight distraction, he didn't notice someone right behind him until it was too late. As a pair of his batcuffs came into his field of vision to make him turn around to see Magpie right behind him with a grin on her face.

"Shiny~ Shiny~."

Once she said this, she punched Batman across the face with the batcuffs and made him fall onto the ground with a loud thud. The hero had to get back up from his place on the ground as he berated himself on not noticing the bird themed criminal behind him.

"You know, after we last met, I couldn't help but wonder: What makes a man wear a bat costume?" Magpie started to say as she gave him a curious smile. "Got something to hide?"

"Who says this is a costume?"

This made her hum pleasantly towards the response. "Oh~ I like that."

She jumped down from her placement above and started to walk towards the Dark Knight with a sway to her hips. "You and I should be friends. We have so much in common."

Once Magpie got close enough, she started to lean closer to the hero of Gotham with the intent of kissing his lips. All that she got in return was a shove away from him that made her glare at him a little.

"Not gonna happen."

"What's the matter Batman?" The white haired woman asked. "Too much bird for you to handle?"

"I believe he already has too much to handle from other matters in his life to deal with women." A voice called out from nearby to reveal Vanitas landing onto the rooftop with his grappling scarf going up in smoke.

"Oh~ And how would you know?"

"Lucky guess I think." Vanitas replied with a shrug.

"Hmm. Too bad. I wouldn't have minded to get my talons on your shiny shiny belt of yours." Magpie said to the Bat before directing her attention to the other man on the rooftop. "Or that shiny shiny helmet of yours. I would've settled a bit with those daggers I kept, but they went up in smoke."

On the last bit, she sent him a glare that made him chuckle a little. "Yeah….they tend to do that if they stay away from me too long. So no shiny shiny daggers for you birdy."

Without any warning, she kicked the Bat away as she tried to focus her attention on the black and white themed man to swipe her claws on him. Vanitas had to dodge her clawed swipes as she kept onto the assault before Batman came to land a strike on her. She was too agile for either men to land a blow on her as she kept maneuvering away from either of them.

'Don't tell me that she's becoming too unpredictable for me!' Naruto thought as he tried to evade and get a decent hit on her. 'That title is supposed to me dattebayo!'

Naruto kept on his dodging until he realized what he just thought. 'Wait. Did I just think dattebayo? I thought I got rid of that verbal tick unless its now a mental one.'

His thoughts ended up betraying him as he got himself distracted enough for Magpie to kick him off of the ledge of the building after she did the same towards the Bat.

"Goodbye my little bat and shiny man." The bird themed woman said as she skipped across the rooftop. If she would've looked down from the ledge, she would've seen the two heroes grabbing ahold of the building.

"So….how's it hangin?" asked the helmeted hero. All that he got in return was a blank stare before Batman pulled himself up. "What. I'm just trying to be punny here."

The two got back up to the rooftop through their means of travel, from grappling gun and scarf respectively, and dashed towards Magpie's current placement. Once they got close, both men had her surrounded from standing on either side of her.

"Why did you wipe away Joe Braxton's mind?" Batman asked as he walked towards her with Vanitas doing the same.

"The bastard stole something from me and he had it."

"Which would be what exactly?"

She looked back at Vanitas and gave him a smirk. "Catch me and maybe I'll tell you."

She ran and slipped underneath Vanitas' legs before taking a leap off of the building. This made the two men go after her as they raced across the rooftops to hopefully capture her. As this was going on, she kept on laughing the entire time like it was one big game for her to play.

"I wonder if either of you can fly!" Magpie yelled out as she started to get closer to a building without another one nearby.

"Don't tell me what I think she's doing." Vanitas growled out as he threw his arm out to get his scarf to latch onto her as she leapt off of the building. With the sudden pull from her legs, she ended up pulled back to leave her dangling hundreds of feet above the ground.

"A little help here." Naruto said as he used his other arm to keep the cloth in his grasp. Batman complied with the other's request and tried to pull Magpie up.

"No one, and I mean no one, will cage this bird EVER AGAIN!" She growled out as she swiped her clawed hands at the cloth a few times till the fabric finally ripped and plummeted her to the ground below.

"NO!" Vanitas yelled out in shock till he ended up hearing her body impact onto a car with a loud crash. "She killed herself instead of being captured."

The dark hero narrowed his eyes on the site before saying something to the other man with him. "I don't think so."

"What do you mean?"

"Keep looking."

The disguised Uzumaki did just that to see Magpie's body start to twitch fanatically before she lifted herself off from the wrecked vehicle. Once on stable ground, she moved her body a bit to pop several joints back into place before looking up and waved at them. After that, she ran to get the two men to lose track of her.

"...What the fuck." Naruto spoke out on the sight.

"Caged again?"

"Now why does that sound familiar?" The disguised Uzumaki asked outloud onto which the disguised Wayne picked up on.

"You know something, don't you?"

"And what if I did."

"Then tell me or I'll get it out of you one way or another."

"Sheesh~ You don't have to sound too angst all the time you know." Naruto said as he waved the guy off a bit.

"Then mind telling me what you know."

"Fine~" The disguised publisher said before getting into a serious posture. "From what I had gathered, Magpie used to be an inmate at Blackgate."

"There's more to that, isn't there?"

"Quite. Magpie's real name is Margaret Sorrow and it's all I know about this situation so far."

"Good to know." Batman said as he pulled out his grappling gun and fired at some random direction. "Thanks for the tip."

"Anytime batsy." Vanitas said as he got back into his joyful tone before jumping off of the ledge and summoned his grappling scarf to swing away.

"Then I'll need to figure out who this Margaret Sorrow is then." Batman said as he pressed the button on his gun to get zoomed towards the end of the line before gliding into the night's sky. "Saved me the trouble of searching for a name."

 _ **-Next Day-**_

From what Bruce was able to gather from the Bat Computer and the GCPD databanks, Margaret Sorrow was a kleptomaniac that was sentenced to ten years for her repeat offences. The odd thing that Bruce was able to find out was that Miss Sorrow only served two of those years before she disappeared. And that was roughly five years ago.

With him hitting a road block, he decided that he needed to possibly gather enough intel from the source: Dr. Ravencroft herself. He could possibly be able to find any clues to Magpie's whereabouts and the reason why she targeted Joe Braxton. He did know that the doctor took something from her, but what exactly it was he didn't know. For now, he had to improvise and be sure this all plays out well in the end of this meeting he had scheduled yesterday.

"Mr. Wayne, I just want to tell you how big of an honor it is to meet you. I admire all of the good your company does." The receptionist happily said as she lead Bruce to Dr. Ravencroft's office.

She was a shorter woman that appeared to be in her 20's with short cropped, dark brown hair. She had innocent grey eyes that seemed to fit with her sharply features. She wore a black sleeveless shirt and a beige, knee-length skirt to maintain her appearance as Ravencroft's receptionist.

"Thank you very much….uh…"

"Cassie. The name's Cassie."

"She's been fluttering about it all day." A voice said when the door opened up to reveal the good doctor. "After all, we hardly get any celebrities over here."

Dr. Bethanie Ravencroft appeared to be a woman in her mid-thirties with her shoulder length pale, blonde hair that framed her face with her supple lips. She had dark grey eyes hidden behind a pair of thin rimmed glasses. She also wore a light blue button up shirt with a light grey knee-length skirt that showed off her long legs.

Once entering the room, his eyes scanned every detail that he could gather to figure out more about the good doctor than she appeared to be. From her diploma hanging on the wall, a photo of her colleagues with Joe Braxton in it and several other items to pick up small forms of information.

"So tell me….Out of all of the therapists available in Gotham, why me?"

"Wanted to find someone out of the public eye is all." Bruce said with a slight chuckle. "With all of the tabloids out there, don't want to ruin the company image with going to well known ones."

"Fair enough." She responded as she took no offence to that bit of detail. It was quite common with some well known therapists these days to not really hold onto their doctor/patient confidentiality and just sell the information from sessions to newspapers to get some entertainment out of it.

As Bruce kept scanning the room until getting to some 'paintings' on the wall. "Huh...didn't realize you would have these."

The therapist looked towards the billionaire's direction to see what he was referring. "You mean my inkblot/rorschach tests? More of a curiosity really. Everyone would have their own interpretation on what they see."

He nodded at this before his eyes drifted to a particular inkblot that made his mind flash to his parent's dying on Crime Alley in front of him. He had to take a subtle breathe to hold down that particular memory until he looked towards the next one that looked like a bat.

"See anything interesting?"

"Nope, not really." He said to defuse his trains of thought. His eyes then caught onto something on the nearby table and couldn't help but comment on it. "Still playing with dolls doctor?"

She came up to him to see what he commented on to see what he had in his hand. It was a black and white doll with a circular head dress with feathers coming off from the bottom. "That's a Molatian dream warden. Some cultures believe that she can protect you from bad dreams."

He didn't say anything as he kept staring onto the object as he looked at the various details.

"Would you like to have one Mr. Wayne? To help ease your dreams?"

"No... not at all." Was his response as he placed the doll back into it's placement.

She then ushered him to the patient's chair to get the session started. As he made his way there, he pressed a certain button on his watch to get his plan further into motion.

 _ **-Meanwhile-**_

'Wonder if she's in right now.' Naruto thought as he exited out of the elevator of the building to the designated floor.

After what Lunkhead told him yesterday, Naruto had to go back to his loft and do some research online to find out what the former inmate told him. He had a guess that he wasn't going to find out who Margaret Sorrow is with a lot of details possibly locked up somewhere so no use trying to go through that route. So the publisher decided to look up people with the name 'Raven' in their names, to see if there were any connections at all.

There was a surprising large amount of people with 'raven' in the name. But after filtering everything down to the best of his knowledge, he was able to find the 'raven' he was looking for: Dr. Bethanie Ravencroft. It even helped out that the woman resided here in Gotham and used to work for Blackgate before opening up her private practice.

He had looked up her contact information, along with the address and office number, so that he can show up there, unannounced, and play off as a man that came on by to 'window shop'. Looking to see if he would be 'comfortable' into having Ravencroft as his doctor or not. Though in reality, he wanted to see if there were any available sessions opened any time soon so he can inspect her office when she was there. If not then he'll need to break in during the after hours.

'Well here it is.' He thought as he found the door to her practice. Once opening up, he was greeted with the sound of a door chime indicated with the bell attached to the top of the door along with the sight of a brown haired receptionist taking care of a few documents.

"Oh hello there." The woman said in a chipper tone as she looked up to see him at the doorway.

"Hello to you too." Greeted the silver haired publisher as he came towards the desk. "I was wondering if Dr. Ravencroft is in today."

"She's actually having a session right now in the other room."

"Good to know….er…"

"Cassie." She said while holding out her hand towards him.

"Naruto." He responded in kind. "Pretty name for a pretty girl."

*Giggle* "Thanks." Cassie said as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"You're welcome."

"Don't mind me asking, but why have you come here personally instead of calling to set up an appointment?"

"For one: I was in the 'neighborhood' while running errands and I wanted to see what is so great about this doctor out of the various other ones in the city. Been wanting to get myself checked out with me having some problems as of late."

"I see. Well Miss Ravencroft takes her profession seriously and does her best to dwell into her clients to help understand them better." The receptionist said to the publisher.

"I can understand that, given the reputation she currently has."

"So are you wanting to set up an appointment with her?"

"Possibly. When's the next available one?"

When hearing this, she pulled out the planner and flipped through several pages until coming to an empty slot. "About a few weeks from now."

"I see." Naruto said while mentally sighing. Seems he might as well break in tonight to find some clues. "Then I'll call sometime later if I want to properly set one up instead of on the fly."

She would've said something of a response, but her desk phone started to go off. "Sorry."

"No worries, you got a job to do."

Picking up the phone, she answered. "Hello, Dr. Bethanie Ravencroft's office."

…..

"I'm sorry but mind repeating that to me again."

In the next few moments, Naruto saw Cassie's face seem to adopted an alarmed look as she tried to compose herself and put the caller on hold and dashed towards the office while in session.

"Cassie! What have I told-" A woman said in the other room with a raised voice before composing herself. "You know I'm with Mr. Wayne right now."

'Bruce is here?' Naruto thought with mild interest. 'Didn't know he would want to see a shrink.'

"I know but….." Cassie said before she lowered the tone of her voice that made Naruto guess the receptionist was whispering something into the doctor's ear.

'I think I should get going. Whatever came up in that call seemed urgent or something and I don't want to interrupt.' The publisher thought as he exited the office.

With the thoughts of therapists on the mind, Harley ended up at the forefront of his thoughts. Naruto hasn't seen her since he dropped off her copy of the first edition copy of Loveless and even with that last phone call with her. He tried to see her when he was at the asylum on his last visit, but she was out sick that day.

"Might as well check if she's better."

 _ **-Arkham Asylum-**_

*Groan* "Getting out of that stomach flu was a total pain in my butt." Harley said as she was drinking another water bottle in her office. This was the fifth one since she's gotten to work today. "Last time I ever eat sushi from that place."

It's been a little over a week since she had finished up Pam's evaluation report along with gaining her copy of Loveless directly from Naruto. To her, it was a successful day of completing a strenuous assignment and having a nice reward in the end with a new book. To celebrate on accomplishing her task, the intern decided to treat herself to sushi from this one restaurant she usually went to while reading some of her new book there. It did go well that night of finishing up several chapters, but the morning after was not that great to waking up feeling like she was going to die.

She already knew what she had because of a previous experience several years back and it was not fun at all. Luckily for her, it was her day off so she had to call work and let them know that she might not be able to come in for the next few days with what she got. They told her to come back in when she was in better condition, but they'll have some assignments for her when she gets back. So during the whole time she was stuck in her apartment; she did nothing but rest, eat, drink plenty of liquids, watch tv and movies along with reading the rest of her new book. It was odd for her to admit but she was glad to be sick for those days.

Being able to read the entire book from start, had to start over due to losing her placement on one...uneventful moment, to finish and it was a very excitable read. She hardly let the novel out her grasps, asides from having to empty her stomach a few times, since she felt like a little kid watching an epic saga unfold in front of her eyes and didn't want to stop the excitement. It felt so great that it made her read it again and again.

During one of the run throughs, she thought she heard Naruto tell this story to her while reading it's contents. Might've been the sickness hitting affecting her head, but she was hearing his voice while reading its pages. But for some reason, she didn't mind it at all and it made her feel happier. Even to the point that she started to imagine herself being one of the characters that was being romanced with another, that took on Naruto's appearance.

"Ugh...why would I even try to think of that now?" She mumbled as she uncapped a bottle of aspirin to get a few pills before washing it down for her headache.

*Knock Knock*

"It's opened." Harley said getting the person to open up the door to reveal one of Harley's supervisors: Dr. Serrano.

She is a woman of hispanic descent in her early forties with her shoulder length dark hair with them curling up on the ends. Even has signs of stress on her features as she constantly works on a day to day basis and hardly has any time off for herself. The doctor was currently wearing a cream colored sweater underneath her labcoat with a pair of women's business pants and shoes.

"Hello Ms. Quinzel." The arkham doctor in a blank tone. "Feeling better I hope."

"Yes I am ma'am. Just getting out of it at the moment."

"Good." She stated before going out for a quick moment before coming back in to drop a stack of files onto the intern's desk. "Then I hope you do well to take care of these."

"I-I'll do what I can doctor." The intern said as the doctor left the room. *Sigh* "This is going to fun."

*Knock Knock*

"Did you forget to give me something else Dr. Serrano?" Harley asked out loud before taking another swig out of her water bottle.

"Who's Dr. Serrano?"

Hearing the familiar voice from the door made Harley choke a bit with the water before she coughed to expel the liquid trying to enter the wrong pipe.

*Cough* *Cough* "Naruto! Don't do that!"

"Sorry Harley." He apologetically said as he entered the office. "Didn't know what you were currently doing."

"It's alright." The intern said as she grabbed a handkerchief to wipe away the water from her mouth and anywhere else the water landed.

"Are you feeling better Harley? I tried to call you several times, but you didn't answer."

"I am. Just getting out of my flu now." Harley said before waving him off a bit. "Also sorry on not responding. I've drifted in and out while in bed and on my couch, so I couldn't have answered at those times."

"Don't mind me asking, but who was Dr. Serrano?" He asked in mild curiosity. "Was it that woman that was walking away from your office like she had a stick up her butt?"

When hearing that, the blonde intern couldn't help but snort at this and gave out a laugh that made Naruto think it was cute.

"Yeah that was her."

"So what was her problem? Shouldn't she try to act better towards you?"

*Sigh* "She should but not entirely I think. It's probably because of me snagging Pam off of her hands on my first day that made the ending evaluations turned out really great."

"That doesn't really explain why she has so much beef on you."

"She's pretty much like that towards most of the staff on being hard on them. Some of the higher ups just ignore it with the train of thought being: 'Oh she'll just push them to be better doctors.' Or something." She replied with a mocking tone in the end. "It's more so with her reputation."

"How so?"

"She tends to target 'hard' cases so she can feel satisfied in the end. Especially with it looking good on her record." Harley said before taking a swig of her drink. "From what I have learned with some of the other workers here is that Serrano wants to have a better position here, like in the board or something, so she can have a lesser workload."

After her little explanation, Naruto was scratching his head to process what Harley "I think I get it. So asides from that doctor, how'd the evaluation report go in the results?"

Feeling better on the change of subject, she answered with a smile on her face. "It turned out better than I expected. The board were very pleased with it and have given me permission to take on a few other patients now."

When hearing that, Naruto gave her one of his infectious bright smiles as he spoke. "That's great Harley. We should go out to celebrate this. My treat."

"Thanks for the offer Naruto, but I don't know when I'll be available." She responded with an apologetic tone. "With getting new patients to take sessions with, it'll start to fill up the majority of my coming weeks."

"It's completely fine Harley and this is good for you to be on the next step of your internship. We can celebrate when you have the next day off if you want to."

"I'd like that."

"So until then, I wish you the best of luck on your coming trials." The publisher told her as he gave out a sigh in remembrance of his times as an intern. "I sure as hell needed it when I worked for the Planet."

"I'd bet." The intern responded back with a small smirk on her face before looking at the stack of files that made it droop into a frown. "Now if you'll excuse me, but I got some work to do here."

"That's fine. I'll leave it to you then." He said as he headed towards the door to her office while she opened up the first file.

"I hope your chat with Pam goes well like the other times."

This made him stop for a moment and look back towards her. "Actually…. I didn't come to visit her today."

Harley then looked up from the file with mild curiosity on his statement. "Then who? There's no one else on file that I'm aware of you visiting anyone else."

Naruto chuckled a little as he scratched the back of his head before responding. "Actually… I came on by to see you... Just you."

She felt happy on just hearing this. Even to the point of her blushing a little and had to try to hide her features from behind the file. He thought it was rather cute on her reaction to him saying that to her.

"Well got to get going now. Have a good one Harley."

Once the publisher left the room, Harley placed the file back onto the desk and looked back towards the door where her friend was last at. "Really? He came on by just to see...me?"

Her question was left unanswered as she tried to get her mind back onto her workload for the day. Keyword being 'tried'. For the rest of the work day, her mind would keep drifting off as her silver haired friend would keep plaguing her thoughts.

 _ **-Evening, Miskatonic Psychiatric Hospital-**_

The sounds of the Batmobile roared as it sped towards an abandoned part of the city before it slowly came to a stop.

'This is the place.' Batman thought as he got out of the vehicle and made his way into the abandoned building.

The hospital used to be a joint operation with Blackgate penitentiary for several years so the prison would go up against Arkham in the mental medical field. It didn't last that long apparently with Arkham being the more well known and popular institution in Gotham and the surrounding areas. So it has just been sitting there, collecting dust, and having the occasional thug or punk come across the place and spray paint various areas.

Bruce was able to find out the place when he was searching through Ravencroft's desk after he had gotten Alfred to call the office to distract the good doctor. He was able to find a few items of interest in one of the drawers: a key with an "A" inscribed on it, a wristwatch, and a stapler with the hospital's name on it. When he had placed his eyes on the watch, he remembered seeing Braxton have a pale spot on his wrist that matched the outline of the watch from the drawer. This gave the detective the guess that Ravencroft is indeed associated with Magpie or, at the very least, being framed by the bird themed woman.

As he ventured further into the building, the Dark Knight missed the the darkened form watching his every move.

It took some time to explore some sections of the building until he came to a dead end. He was going to go back and search again for anything he might've missed when he heard something from up above. Batman was glad that he caught onto the sound as he had to move out of the way from Magpie's downward assault.

When she got back up from her fall, the criminal threw several punches at the hero before he caught both of her wrists. She twisted herself around to free herself while using that momentum to kick the man across the head. It missed it's target as the man ducked before kicking the woman to the far side of the room, where some medical equipment were stored.

Seeing the objects beside her, Magpie threw each of them at her opponent in hopes of distracting him. It was more of a nuisance as Batman blocked and dodged each of them with ease before punching her to the ground. She recovered quickly by placing her hands onto the floor to steady herself as she kicked the dark knight from below before wrapping her legs around his neck to toss him to the side. That was her mistake when he used that momentum to bounce off of the wall and knock Magpie onto the other side of the room.

"I have no interests in hurting you Magpie."

"Have you even figured it out?" She asked as she got up from some of the equipment that she landed on, even with a scalpel deep within her chest. "I can't feel pain." To emphasise the point, she pulled it out without even flinching to show that the blade was coated with her blood before tossing it to the side. "It is yet another thing they have stolen from me."

"Then let me help you get it back." Batman said to her as he started to walk towards her. "I know what it's like at times to fight against your nature and you're going to lose it if you don't get help."

When hearing this, she wrapped her arms around herself like she was cold before turning her back towards him. "But I'm afraid."

"Of what?"

"That I've already lost."

Without warning, she brought her hand out and stabbed her nails into his neck before quickly pulling them out. Batman grunted with pain as he stumbled back to hold onto his neck and cursed himself for letting his guard down on that moment. He soon started to feel drowsy and everything around him started to look foggy.

"What….did you….do?"

"Hush little bat. Let the curare do the work and go to sleep~."

And just like that, he was out like a light. She chuckled at the sight before her as she moved towards his body to unstrap his belt and placed it onto herself with joyful glee. She then started to move things around the room to her liking, while getting the Batman onto the operating bed. Though it wasn't long as the Dark Knight started to stir, it made her feel more excited for what's to come.

"Wakey Wakey, eggs and bakey." Magpie said as she saw the man slowly start to wake up with an audible groan. He started to fidget around as he tried to get himself free, but it was useless with him strapped down tight with the metallic locks in place. "Don't worry Batman, I didn't peak behind the mask. After all, a person's secrets are sacred."

"I meant what I said Magpie. I can help you." He said to hopefully convince her to possibly let him go. Though given the reaction she's about to give out….

"QUIET!" She yelled out as she kicked him across the face.

….wasn't all that great.

"Oh, sorry. That was rude." Magpie said as she quickly composed herself. "I do appreciate the offer, but I've already got it covered."

As she got closer to him, Magpie pulled out a device from a bag and waved it in front of the hero's face. "See this little gizmo? Braxton made it to remove memories, reformat the brain, and wipe it clean in the process." She then placed it onto Batman's head before settling her hands onto the sides of his face. "It took some time, but I figured out how to reverse the process. To put all of those back."

As she drew her face closer to claim his lips, a scream rang out in the building to halter the bird themed woman's action. "It seems that my other guest has finally awoken. It's time to reclaim what is mine. But before I go…" Magpie placed her lips onto his and moaned in the process before pulling away with his bottom lip in between her teeth. She then let go and let out a chuckle at his narrowed gaze. "I would say that it's been a pleasure, but you won't remember a thing."

When she walked towards the nearby panel, Batman moved his hand a little to get a little tool out of his glove and placed it at the ready to free himself.

"Tata for now Batman." Magpie then flipped the switch with a sadistic smile which then sent the thousands volts of electricity to surge through the table and the device. This caused the Batman to yell out in pain and let go of the tool in his hand onto the floor. Seeing this, Magpie gained a bigger smile as she ran out of the room towards her other captive.

'Need...to….focus!' Batman thought as he tried to get himself free, but it was hopeless.

….That was until the switch was flipped again to shut off the power.

"So….How was your brian's shiatsu massage?" A joyful said getting Batman to realize who saved him. "I would assume you enjoyed it, but then I would be lying."

"Mind getting me out of this Vanitas?"

"Yeah yeah. Don't get your bat panties in a twist." The black and white themed man said as he gripped Batman's shoulder and phased him out of his bindings. "You're welcome by the way."

Batman soon felt a burning sensation around his head and pulled off the device off in response. It started to spark off like crazy before smoke started to come off of it.

"Huh, must've been faulty." The disguised publisher said as he crouched down to inspect it without touching. "Wonder if Braxton had a warranty on this thing."

He then heard something drop onto the floor. In response, he looked towards the source and saw Batman run out of the room with a file by the room's entry way. With mild curiosity, Vanitas went towards the file and picked it up to inspect it before his eyes widened underneath the helmet.

Back with Batman, he was running through the hallways to hopefully get to the other kidnapped person in time. He was getting closer and closer as the screams grew louder. Before he knew it, he came to the targeted room and ram his way through. This sudden occurrence caused Magpie to pause her advancements towards a bounded Ravencroft before a batarang flew past her head and imbedded itself towards the nearby mirror.

It was then that Magpie saw Ravencroft's shocked face, making the bird themed woman tilt her head in confusion before looking at the mirror to see….

"What the hell is going on?!" She growled out as got off of Ravencroft and walked towards the mirror. "Who is that?! Who's face is that?!"

"You don't know? Did you?" Batman said as he walked towards her.

"Know what?! Tell me!"

"Two different personalities in one body. Totally unaware of the other's presence."

"What the hell are you going on about?!"

"Margaret Sorrow was in an experiment conducted by Ravencroft and Braxton. For _your_ cooperation and participation, _you_ were given early release." He said to Margaret as she looked back towards the mirror to see Cassie staring back at her. Apparently the white hair she had before was actually a wig.

"Lies! It can't be true! They took my memories! They stole them from me!" She yelled out as she kept staring back at her reflection.

"I'm sorry but you did this to yourself Margaret. You volunteered for the experiment." Batman said to her as she kept glaring furiously at the reflection. "The experiment was supposed to strip the 'bad' out of criminals and in your case it worked….for a while anyways"

When hearing this, her features softened before tilting her head downwards to not let anyone see her features. "They gave you a new identity, a new face, a new _life_ ; but it seemed that the bad was too strong to really let go. It came back different, something else….or rather _someone_ else."

"LIES!" She yelled out as she slammed her hands onto the mirror, cracking it to end up making her hands bleed. "I want to know who I am and only she can give it back to me!"

Magpie then punched Batman out of the way, onto the ground, before running towards the bound Ravencroft and prepared to skewer the woman with her elongated nails. That was until a few playing cards came in contact with the sharp appendages and sliced through the nails in a clean cut.

"Sorry that I'm late." Vanitas said as he summoned a few daggers into his hand. "This place can be hard to navigate without you guys talking."

The bird themed woman looked down onto the ground and saw her 'clipped' nails to see them glisten from the mixture of their previous shine along with her blood coated on them. She then started to pick them up one by one with perverted wonder dancing through her eyes.

"Shiny~ Shiny~" Margaret said as she started to laugh a little before throwing her broken claws towards Vanitas. In this sudden move, he blocked the projectiles with his daggers. But this was all a ploy as she ran towards the masked publisher and kicked him out of the way to run through the hallway.

"Now that was rude." Vanitas said as he got up from the floor before he got pushed out of the way to end up back onto the floor. "Seriously!"

"Help the doctor! I'll stop Magpie!" Batman yelled out as he ran to catch up onto Magpie without getting a response.

He ran and ran as fast as his legs can go to catch up, but she was too far ahead of him. He then realized where she was going and _what_ she was going to do. Briefly remembering what Vanitas said about the device being faulty made him push himself to the limits to reach to crazed woman in time.

"Come on! Come on!" She growled out as she tried to get the device to work. "What the hell is wrong with this thing?!"

"Stop!" Batman yelled out as he got closer to the room.

"You will not stop me from becoming whole again!" She yelled out as she stopped what she was doing and jumped kicked the Batman.

He blocked this and pushed her towards the other side of the room to get several oxygen tanks to get loose from their placements. She came towards him again and he dodged in response. Batman then threw several batarangs towards her, in which several were blocked but one strayed off of it's course and hit the nozzle of an oxygen tank. With the sudden release of oxygen, it propelled forward and slammed against Magpie and sent her towards the electrified operating bed before the container slammed against the control panel to activate it.

Soon thousands of volts of electricity soon sprang to life and traveled through the entire bed and reached the device on Magpie's head to activate it, despite it being damaged. With how damage things were for the control panel and the device, the power intensified to the point that it engulfed Margaret's entire being.

" _ **A**_ a _ **A**_ _A_ _ **A**_ _Aa_ _ **a**_ A _ **AA**_ **RA** _ **HAHAhHA**_ _H_ _ **HAaHA**_ **H** _ **AH**_ H _ **AH!"**_ Her screeching started to intensify as the device overloaded and exploded, sending her off of the operating table and onto the floor to render her unconscious.

Batman got closer and crouched towards her downed form and checked for a pulse to see if she was alive. He then sighed in relief to feel one before eyeing his belt around her waist.

"No more shiny, shiny for you." He said as he unbuckled it and placed it back onto himself to feel the familiar weight of it around his waist.

"Is Magpie alright?" Vanitas called out as he came into the room. "I heard the loud screech."

"She's unconscious, but with the device overloading I don't know if she'll be mentally fine." Batman answered before speaking again. "What about the doctor?"

"She's pretty shaken up, but she's alright." The disguised publisher stated. "Ravencroft had no idea that her receptionist was Margaret Sorrow."

"Makes sense." The Dark Knight said as he adopted a thinking pose. "Different face, different memories. I'm guessing that Margaret subconsciously drove her into doing those acts for revenge against Braxton and Ravencroft."

"Now Margaret, Cassie, Magpie or whoever she now calls herself could go back to jail…"

"But it would only bring her back into her cage that created her." Batman said in a stern voice making Vanitas to hold up his hands up to calm things down.

"Hey I said could, _could_ ….go back to jail. But with her mental sickness, I'm suggesting she should be put into Arkham. It's the only place that could help remedy her of whatever she has now." The masked Uzumaki explained getting the masked billionaire to nod in agreement. "So while you go call GCPD to do whatever they need to do, I'll go take the little bird here to Arkham."

"No you're not." Batman growled out before black and white smoke appeared to reveal Vanitas' motorcycle with the owner on it with Magpie leaning towards his chest. Multiple scarfs then sprung around the two to tie Magpie closer to the black and white themed man. Soon the engine of the vehicle came to life as the rider revved its engines.

"I wasn't asking!" He said over the loud noise before moving his motorcycle and drove through the wall without breaking it to make the man head towards his destination. This made the Batman sigh in defeat on not having things done his way again from the masked individual as he ended up calling the GCPD for the heads up.

 _ **-Next Day, Arkham Asylum-**_

"...I still can't believe Vanitas was here and I didn't get the chance to meet him." Harley groaned out as she was sitting next to Naruto in her office. Both of them were eating something Naruto cooked for the two of them since Harley couldn't properly go out and eat something healthy with her new schedule. He already dropped off something for Pam to eat in her cell before coming into Harley's office so the two could at least bond a little.

It was sometime after Harley got off from work when Vanitas showed up to the asylum. Causing an uproar with him riding his motorcycle through the main doors of the building made security be on high alert and surround the black and white themed hero with their weapons towards him. He stated that he was only here to drop off a mentally ill criminal and be on his merry way. Of course Dr. LeLand came in to help defuse the situation and ask what was going on. From there, the new hero explained the situation of what occurred earlier making the good doctor to get security to get Margaret Sorrow into her new cell. It wasn't long until Vanitas kept onto his promise and left the building to god knows where.

"Don't feel too bad Harley. *Gulp* You might get another chance if you're lucky." Naruto told her in between bites from his home cooked meal.

"Yeah I guess you're right Naruto." The intern replied before taking another bite out of the delicious food in front of her. "Given the chances with him being a new hero and sometimes how frequent some inmates escape, I wouldn't be surprised he'll show up quite often."

"So what's this I hear about you having this Margaret/Magpie as your new patient?" He asked getting Harley to send him a curiously surprised look. "When I was coming back from Pam's cell, I heard some doctors say that the new inmate is now your patient."

"Dammit..." She cutely pouted as one of her feet kicked across the ground. "And here I wanted to tell you and now the surprise is ruined."

"Sorry on that."

"It's no problem really. I wanted to tell you on me having a new patient so soon." She happily said as slight joy came across her bright blue eyes. "I know it sounds odd to most people, but for me it's a big accomplishment in a way."

"That's great to hear Harley." Naruto said as he hugged her from the side, missing the blush that soon came across her features. "Don't mind me asking but who assigned her to you and when do you start?"

"In order: Dr. Bartholomew did since he was very impressed with my evaluation on Pam's split personality. That he wanted me to try and work through Margaret's case which could be similar. As for when I start, I'm guessing it might be later today." Harley explained as she kept digging into her food to savor each bite.

"I have an odd guess that Dr. Serrano was rather pissed when you snagged that case."

"Oh you have no idea."

"Then I wish you the best of luck with your new patient."

"Thanks. I'll need every bit of luck I can muster for this one since this will not be as easy like with Pam." The blonde intern stated as the two continued on with their meals and onto other topics before Naruto had to leave.

As this was going on in the women's wing, the newest inmate was staring into nothing behind the glass covered cell with metal bars added in. The addition to her cell was put in just in case if she had any bright ideas if she tried to cut her way out of the glass barrier with her extremely sharp nails that seemed to chip off and regrow at every other attempt.

"Shiny~ Shiny~"

Even with the straight jacket she had on wouldn't last long as it was torn to shreds because of her nails. So with every attempt she's done to try and escape, she would keep gathering her broken nails and place them onto a pile in her cell. The glistening of the sharp objects gave her eyes a nice spectacle to admire in placement of her broken mind.

"Shiny~ Shiny~"

Of course if one would to look from up above, the broken nails were rearranged to look like the shiny helm of a certain hero. With what she saw last night of the moon reflecting off of it's surface made her desire it even further before drifting back to unconsciousness with its image in her mind.

"Shiny~ Shiny~"

So look out Vanitas. Margaret Sorrow is gone. There's only Magpie now.

"Shiny~ Shiny~"

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **So how did you guys like the chapter? Fun right?**

 **Anyways I need to explain a few things that are on the top of my head regarding specific details for the story.**

 **First off is the stuff regarding Batman/Bruce and his equipment (Dick/Robin is included in this as well). In the DCAU showing for the 90's show, we can obviously tell that even though Bruce is the owner of the company and whatnot, he is very limited on access from R &D and whatever department is with the company. He had to slowly gather parts and equipment from his company to build his stuff that we would obviously see in not only that show adaptation, but in the various other series as well. If he tried to take parts and equipment too quickly then he'll be caught and he'll be in deep trouble.**

 **So I decided to have the Clayface episode be brought in at an 'early' stage of the story. Reason being that this should give Bruce the final excuse to contact Lucius Fox and bring him into the fold, like of what other Batman adaptations have done in the past from the Nolan Trilogy, The Batman 2004 series, Arkham series, and even the TellTale game. With Mr. Fox being in the know, things would be a whole lot smoother for Bruce to get better equipment from his company and he'll get some better shit for you readers to enjoy.**

 **But I also needed to explain one other thing on this bit of the subject. In the DCAU, Lucius wasn't that much of an R &D guy unlike of what his other incarnations are like from other Batman related sources. So I had to try and blend things on that with two not well remembered people from the 90's show: The Coopers. I had stated in the chapter that they helped make the Batmobile that we see in the show and I liked that idea very well so I decided to incorporate them into the story. If you want to see their only appearance in the show, check out the Mechanic episode.**

 **I hope you guys don't get too rowdy in my decision here since I have stated before I'm trying to blend things to the best of my ability here for the story.**

 **With the bit of Pam telling Selina her secret from Naruto….Well I'm not going to tell you readers. I want to have it be a surprise and it shall be revealed soon.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	16. It's Not Safe here

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 15: It's Not Safe Here**

Tonight could possibly be a very important night at Wayne Towers. Many people are in attendance to the event from news crews, business owners, people of science, environmentalists, etc. You might ask of what's so important going on at that location that it needs so much attention. Well let's find out, shall we?

"Thank you all for coming tonight here at Wayne Towers." Bruce said to address the audience. He was currently standing behind a podium with flashes keep going on and off to indicate the press taking photos of the event. "I'm proud to announce that Wayne Industries continues it's quest to advance the human condition with the latest technology it can muster with the innovation to not only address the nation's energy needs, but also the world's."

"Wonder what the latest 'solution' is going to be this time?" Naruto asked in a low enough tone of voice for only Selina to hear. "People in the past have said different variations and some succeed in their goals while others crash and burn."

"Who knows for sure, but we'll have to wait and see." Selina responded back while both of them were sitting next to each other in the audience.

Naruto had gotten a call from Bruce a few days ago to invite him to this press event. From what he vaguely stated, he'll be releasing a possible new solution to help the world's energy crisis. Sure...there isn't one now, but with how the world's population tends to waste energy and go through various means of needing to acquire it can be rather costly. So the publisher decided to take up on the offer for the exclusive press release.

As for why Selina is with him; Naruto thought that since this possible solution would dramatically affect the environment in a positive way, so he decided to bring her along for the ride. He would've also invited Pam to the event if she wasn't still admitted into Arkham. She was still considered 'mentally unwell' and can't be released until kami knows when. Naruto also invited Harley as well, but with how complicated her sessions were with Magpie. He could understand that she needed every ounce of focus on the damaged woman.

Soon the image of an interesting, looking battery was on display with some animations following after. "The Zephyr. A high output, perpetual energy source, since the sun, all wrapped up in the form of a battery."

"Ok this seems interesting." Naruto stated as he unconsciously scooted further from his seat with Selina mirroring his action.

"One might think that this little battery would give you a never ending flashlight, but it can power much more than that. Just one of these can be able to power an entire city for years, saving millions and practically billions in each form of currency. Even to the point of giving the world an energy surplus after eliminating the energy waste we do every day in our lives. No more harming the environment, but instead help heal it by leaving it alone through the Zephyr." Bruce explained getting many audience members to react positively on the applications on the device.

"I thought you might like that. So don't take my word on it. Meet the man behind this breakthrough: Simon Feck." The billionaire stated as the man of the hour was presented. When he came out from the back area, it came to quite a shock to everybody that the man was actually a teenager, practically out of highschool even.

Simon Feck appeared to be in his late teens, reaching early twenties, with his long brown hair combed back with hints of peach fuzz on his face after shaving this morning. He wore a pair of wire framed glasses for his brown eyes that showed hints of nervousness and anxiety, but mustered up his courage to stand at the podium in front of everyone. Simon also wore a blue button up shirt with a cream colored suit to fit his form.

*Cough* "Thanks Mr. Wayne for giving me this opportunity to speak to you all." Simon said into the microphone as some people that were in the first few rows could see the teen fidget a little before taking a deep breath to continue. "Throughout the world, we are wasting various resources incorrectly and not using them-"

*Clang*

A throwing star suddenly appeared out of nowhere and sliced through the microphone to imbed itself onto the podium, causing an uproar in the sudden occurrence. Soon several hooded men came down from the ceiling before they tossed smoke pellets across the stage and onto the audience to make things more complicated. From distracting the oncoming guards to getting people to flee in terror. Some guards were able to nab Simon and flee from the stage while others stayed in place to hold off the hooded men. They weren't that lucky as they were either knocked out or killed with bladed weapons for getting in their way of their goals.

"Selina!" Naruto called out as he tried to find his friend in admist to the chaos of the crowd. "Selina! Where are you?!" His question as soon answered as he looked towards the side to see her running after the hooded men and Simon with the security detail. "Dammit!"

The security detail were running as fast as possible while covering the young genius towards the exit. But Simon had stepped wrongly during the run and fell towards the ground getting the security team to try and get him up.

"Mr. Feck, we need to get-" One guard said before being kicked to the side and knocked out while the other guards were knocked out or killed in the process.

"You will be coming with us." One of the hooded men blankly stated as he grabbed ahold of the teen's arm and tried to take him away.

"Hey!"

The yell was the only warning one of the hooded men got before being pounced on by Selina and wrapped her legs around his neck before using her momentum to throw him into another hooded man. She then jumped towards one of the men and swung her legs around to hit the man several times before landing on the ground to sweep kick another. When both were on the ground, she dived towards them and landed her knees on their chests to hopefully knock them out before moving onto the next few of hooded men.

"H-Help!" Simon pleaded as one of the men was dragging him to god knows where until someone else showed up. Grabbing the assailant's arm and twisting it around to let go of the teen before kicking the man towards the wall hard.

"Sorry for the wait Mr. Feck." Vanitas said to the scared teen. "Traffic was a nightmare. Look for cover and come out when it's over."

He didn't get a response from the teen as the masked publisher dashed towards the closet hooded man and elbowed him in the stomach. He then grabbed ahold of his head and tossed him over his shoulder onto another man coming towards him. Seeing several assailants coming at him, Vanitas summoned various cards and daggers into his hands and threw them to pierce non lethal areas of the body to hopefully put them out of commission. Didn't work as he had hoped, the masked Uzumaki then had to run towards them and make quick work out of them before moving onto the others.

"Mind if I join this dance?" Vanitas rhetorically asked as he dived towards one of the men and in a somersault like move, threw him onto another man before summoning his escrima sticks.

"Not at all." Selina grunted out as she grabbed another man's head with her arms while her legs grabbed another man's head and twisted them to subdue them. "Would appreciate the help really."

Blows were traded and blocked as the two were making good work out of the hooded men. Some were getting back up and were ready to take more punishment. That was until a dark figure fell down from the ceiling and kicked one of the men onto another.

"Seems Batman finally showed." Vanitas called out to get Selina's attention on the new arrival.

"Wonder if he'll play along with us." She said as she blocked a few punches and tossed the man towards Batman, who had punched him in the air.

"Like we have a choice in the matter."

Things seemed to be wrapping up as the enemies dwindled down to just a handful. Knowing they weren't going to win, they threw tons of smoke pellets onto the ground to cover their escape along with gathering what men they could gather. When the smoke cleared, there were a few hooded men lying on the ground that seemed to have been left behind. Vanitas came towards one of them and saw what the man was wearing after things settled and the outfit seemed familiar to him.

'Isn't this the same outfit….that Minato wore?' Naruto thought as he remembered his encounter with this world's counterpart of his father. It looked very similar to the man's lying on the ground if he added on lightning designs on it. Coming closer to the man and pulled off the hood before questioning him. "Who sent you?!"

He didn't get anything of a proper response as the man started to speak in a foreign language. It was odd at first before Naruto saw the man open his mouth to flick something from his tooth and bite hard on it. Coming to the realization on what the man was doing, the black/white themed man tried to pry open his mouth, but it was too late as foam started to come out.

"Fuck!" Vanitas yelled out in frustration. "He used a cyanide pill!"

"And he's not the only one." Selina said as she saw the other hooded men foam in the mouth as well. "Seems whoever they were, didn't want to get questioned."

"Guess so." Batman said once he got back up to inspect one of the hooded men. "Custom made clothing, several weapons each, etc. Dangerous men by the likes of it."

"No kidding." Vanitas said as he walked walked towards Simon Feck's hiding spot and knocked a few times. "It's safe to come out kid."

"T-Thanks." Simon nervously said. "You guys saved my life."

"It's what we do." The masked Uzumaki stated before he fazed himself into the walls to get away.

*Groan* "Again I keep missing my opportunity to thank him." Selina frustratedly said before feeling a weight wrapped around her. Looking down she saw it was Simon and heard him mutter 'thank you' to her. "Yeah...that's fine. Not to be rude but mind getting off."

"Sorry." The teen said as he unwrapped himself and saw the mixture of dead and unconscious bodies on the floor around him. "Can we get out of here please?"

"Yeah follow me."

When the two of them were outside, they barely saw the police arrive onto the scene with several officers running inside. The two were then approached by a pair of officers that were pretty familiar to the thief. They were about to be questioned until someone called out to her.

"Selina!" Naruto called out as he got closer. "Thank Kami you're alright. What happened? I lost sight of you when everyone went nuts."

"Thanks Naruto and I was about to tell these two about what happened." She said when she pointed towards Officers Montoya and Uchiha.

"Yes, we were going to ask what happened as well." The Uchiha said as he pulled out a notepad and pen. "Would you mind telling us?"

"Not at all." Selina said as she recalled the events that happened on the inside with Simon adding in his point of view of what happened. As this happened, Bruce came onto the scene with a worried expression on his face.

"Everyone okay?" The billionaire asked as he also looked towards the teen genius. "Simon, are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine." Mr. Feck responded to the business owner. "But why were they after me? What did I do?"

"Making the Zephyr I'm guessing." Naruto answered getting slight attention onto him. "It seems that whoever targeted you either wants it for themselves or wants you out of the picture for possibly ruining their businesses."

"I agree. With the Zephyr having untold potential of saving power for the world, various people would feel threatened on losing a lot of money in the process." Bruce nodded at his friend's thoughts.

"Since he's a target, perhaps police custody for the time being?" Montoya asked with good intentions. "I'm sure that the GCPD can do everything that we have in our disposal for your safety Mr. Feck."

"No offense officer, but from what I saw in there I'm guessing that you guys won't be able to protect him well." Selina stated getting the officers to look towards her, especially with Detective Bullock and Commissioner Gordon overhearing the conversation.

"Are you saying that we ain't good enough to protect the kid?" Bullock said as he felt pissed off and offended on what was just said.

"Not that I trust the police or anything," the thief said to hopefully cool off the detective a bit, "but those hooded men were professionals and could maybe slip through and do whatever goal they want with minimal ease."

"I see your point Ms. Kyle. So what should be done instead?" Gordon asked as he tried to think of something with recent events.

"Simon could stay at Wayne Manor until proper help arrive and get him to a better location." Bruce offered getting varying looks from the group.

"Are you sure about that Bruce? I know your home is big and whatnot, but is it well protected?" Naruto asked the obvious question.

"With my latest security added into my home I think so. But if it makes things a bit better, the GCPD could come help out if they want."

"Will she be there?" Simon suddenly asked as he gained a slightly hopeful expression. "I-I would maybe feel safer if she or one of those heroes that saved me were there."

Selina was about to say something when Bruce suddenly spoke. "Of course she'll be there. She won't leave your side for the night."

'What?!' Selena and Naruto thought as they looked at the billionaire with semi-shocked looks.

"...Okay then. I'll be sure to help transport Mr. Feck to your residence and get security brought over there for the evening." Gordon said as he looked at the two friends and knew he should probably get out. He already had enough experience with his daughter and late wife to know that kind of look. "Come on Simon, let's head out."

As the others started to leave, both Naruto and Selina were practically burning holes into the billionaire. To which, the same man gave them a questioning look. "What?"

"What were you thinking to say that I'll help out in protecting him?" Asked the thief with a similar thought going through the publisher's head.

"Just hear me out okay."

Knowing Bruce might be going somewhere with this, Naruto stood down a little and placed his hand on Selina's shoulder to calm her down. She relented and awaited for Bruce's reason for doing this without her consent.

"Reason why I jumped the gun was because Simon is very scared on what happened and he needed someone a bit familiar to keep him safe. You were there to protect him and this made him feel safer around you Selina." He told her as she tried to process this.

"I can understand that Bruce, but it made it seem that I'm a bodyguard and I'm not all that great protecting people. Animals and the environment I do what I can, but humans can go so far."

The billionaire thought this over and came up with an idea. "How about a compromise?"

"Which would be what exactly?"

"You help protect Simon for the night and in return I'll pay for whatever cause you plan to help next."

She thought this over on the pros and cons. While this was going on, Naruto pulled Bruce to the side and quietly spoke to him. "You sure about that Bruce?" Naruto asked as he seemed to see the twinkle in Selina's eyes on that offer. "You basically making a 'blank check' offer to her and she's probably going to exploit it."

"I know that, but it's the only thing to possibly help her comply to the current situation."

'I hope this doesn't turn out where I think this might end up?' The publisher thought as he started to think of the worse outcomes if his secret girlfriend complied to all of this. He didn't want to see her get hurt, or worse.

"It's a deal." The environmentalist said getting Bruce to nod before walking towards his car that had recently pulled up.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this Selina?" Naruto asked in a worried tone.

"I'll be fine Naruto. You don't have to worry about a thing." She replied before feeling his hand grab ahold of hers.

"Yes I do have to worry. I just don't want you to get hurt tonight if those hooded men come back for Simon."

She saw the look on his face and gave him a kiss on the lips to calm his worries a little. "I know honey. I can take care of myself and when push comes to shove, I'll think of something."

Nothing was said after that as Naruto sighed in defeat before giving her a worried look. The two made it to his car and made their way to Wayne Manor for the coming events.

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

In a dimly lighted room, several figures were crouching down in a spot light seemingly waiting for something. Upon closer inspection, they were the same hooded men that came to Wayne Towers. None of the men moved at all until a voice called out from the shadows making them stand up to attention.

"The Zephyr holds so much potential for our cause. Reason why each of you, along with your fallen members, were sent to retrieve the battery along with it's creator: Simon Feck." The voice said all around them to make it hard to pinpoint where it's originating from. "Yet each of you came back empty handed. All because of one woman before Batman and this new comer, Vanitas, showed up. Some failures can be overlooked, reason why each of you will be sent back out for this mission…..under someone else."

Once that was said, a figure stepped out of the shadows to reveal a unique outfit that wasn't a standard attire of the group. The man wore a set of ornamented black and silver body armor that was fitted around his body to show no restrictions on his body movement. The other unique feature of the man's outfit was the silver ape mask with flowing white hair to cover up a lot of his features.

"Qarrad Alfidd…. Your mission is simple: get Simon Feck and the battery. You can do the option if you want to either get the inventor or the battery on their own."

"It will be done Lady Shiva." Silver Monkey replied as he nodded towards his new 'team' and ushered them to follow for their mission.

 _ **-Wayne Manor-**_

"...Did not realize that Bruce was so much into dog art." Selina said as she saw the various works of art in the Wayne estate.

"They were his father's actually, along with ones from the past several generations of the Wayne family." Alfred replied as he gave a small tour to the guests. It was comprised of Commissioner Gordon, Naruto, Selina, Simon, and a well dressed man that screamed 'security detail'.

'Yet he doesn't have a shred of cat themed work at all from what I'm seeing.' The thief thought as her little habit of inspecting works of art kicked in.

"But are you sure this place is secured?" Simon asked the butler as he tried to calm his nerves and played with something in his coat pocket, possibly the Zephyr battery.

"You could say that Wayne Manor would actually be called 'Wayne Fortress' Mr. Feck." Mr. Pennyworth said before pointing to a security camera above. "Security cameras monitor the house and grounds at all times. Current military grade with prototype Wayne Tech motion and heat sensors in every room. Even have an emergency lockdown to be sure no one can come in or out."

"Seems a bit 'overkill' if you ask me." Naruto said in a hushed tone to his secret girlfriend which made her nod a little. She had broken into fancier residences before but this seems over the top. If she ever wanted to do such a thing here, she'll have her work cut out for her.

The group soon came towards a bookcase with nothing on it before touching the side of it to make the piece of furniture move out of the way. "And here we have our panic room. An impenetrable vault filled with supplies to last for six months."

"Paranoid much Alfred?" Naruto asked out loud making the butler chuckle a little.

"Indeed, but you can't be too sure with being the owner of a multi-million/billion dollar company. Could possibly be targeted at a given notice." The former secret service operative replied back towards the publisher. "Of course with recent events, we have not only the GCPD here to keep young Mr. Feck here safe, but also the hired help of Mr. Reese and his security team to be sure that nothing bad will happen."

"That's correct and it won't." Reese replied in a bland tone.

"So Mr. Feck, I hope you feel safer during your stay in Wayne Manor." Alfred said getting the teen genius to nod a little.

"Then I am confident that they, along with Ms. Kyle, will be more than enough to keep you safe until I get back." A voice said from behind the group. When they turned around, they saw Bruce finished getting ready… for a date?

"And where do you think you're going Bruce?" Asked the publisher.

"Hot date." The man replied as he kept adjusting his cuff link. "Well as hot a date could be when going to a museum reception."

"And what about Simon?"

"Too young and not my type."

Naruto soon facepalmed at the odd joke his friend made before pulling him away from the group to talk to him alone.

"First off, bad joke there Bruce. Second, you don't joke in this kind of situation since Simon's life is in danger. And third, what the hell is wrong with you?!" Naruto said with his growing frustration towards the billionaire.

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? I'm talking about that you're not staying here to be sure Simon is safe and sound for the evening until the proper authorities arrive in the morning. And you're going out tonight to have a kami-damned date?!" Naruto yelled out in a low tone as to not draw too much attention to them.

"Is there something wrong?" Selena asked as she came up to the two men.

"Nothing's wrong Selina. I'm just going to leave now." The publisher said as he made his way to the entrance of the estate.

"Let me talk to him." She said before glancing back at the business owner. "I'm sure I can try to help him cool off." She didn't wait for a response as she went after her secret boyfriend.

"Well that could've gone better sir." Alfred said as he came up to his charge.

"Yeah….it could've." Bruce said as he walked some distance away towards the old grandfather clock that hid one of the entrances to the Batcave.

"So what are you going to do now Master Bruce?"

"I need to find out who's after Simon Feck."

"Might I suggest searching his lab. See if anyone might go there to take what they can't take from the source."

"Thank you Alfred, not like I've done this before." Bruce responded as he as he was about to pull a secret lever in the grandfather clock to open up the passageway.

"Before you go I do have something to say to you sir."

"Which would be…"

"That I think you should figure out better methods and excuses to get out of certain spots. Like dates being one of them."

"Don't see what's wrong with that method, since they've turned out fine in the end."

"Unless you look at it in a certain perspective sir." Alfred said before elaborating his claim. "You need to realize that if you keep leaving from certain events, dates, and whatnot; then it might draw suspicion towards yourself. So do try to think of a better way to get yourself out if possible from an important business meeting that you can't miss out on or something else. Even if you plan to find a future Mrs. Wayne, then you can't keep using that old excuse or else you'll end up breaking the woman's heart and start a trend among other bachelorettes that you don't plan on commitment."

Once that was said by his faithful friend and father figure, Bruce had thought things through in quickened detail. *Sigh* "I see your point Alfred. Once this situation is over with, I'll try to think of better excuses."

"That's all I ask sir."

"So are you sure the latest security system Earl and Marva had set up will do the job?" Bruce asked as he opened up the entrance.

"I'm pretty sure about it Master Bruce. If not, then they'll need to come on by quite often to do more installments to the systems to make up for the mistakes."

"Then I hope it doesn't come to that." Was all Bruce said as he stepped into the pathway before closing the entrance to be sure no one noticed.

 _ **-Meanwhile-**_

"I've told you Selina that I'm fine." The publisher said as he tried to shrug off her slight concern.

"No your not honey and I can obviously see it." She said to him as she held onto his hand. "I'm upset too on what Bruce did, but I'm trying to not actually 'voice' it out."

"I know Selina, but I just don't like how this is turning out so far."

"Same here, but I'm sure that things might go well by morning."

"I hope so." He said with a slightly downcasted look upon his face. *Sigh* "I just don't want another woman that I deeply love and care for be hurt. I already had that scare with Pam and I just don't know what would happen again because of it."

Hearing this made Selina feel hurt on what Naruto was saying. He does love them a lot but he doesn't know what she knows that could get those feelings to possibly worsen. She wants to tell him so badly but she doesn't want to see his reaction on that information.

Shaking those thoughts aside, she gave Naruto a reassuring smile before briefly kissing him. "I'll be fine honey. If those hooded men come back, then I'll do well to hold out on my own. With our sparring matches at either one of our places, it's been getting me to stay in my 'A' game."

"Good to know." He said to her with a small smile. "Just promise me that you'll do what you can to stay safe."

"No promises, but I'll try to make it work."

"Another thing I should say before I go."

"Which is?"

"That Reese fellow, he seems off to me." Naruto said getting his secret girlfriend to look at him funny.

"How so? He seems pretty fine to me."

"I don't know, but just stay weary of him ok?"

"Will do." She said to him before making her way back to the teenage genius.

Once out of his peripheral vision, Naruto frowned a bit as he made his way out of the door and into his car. He needed to get his mind focused onto something and one started to creep onto his thought process. The publisher needed to find out who those men were and who sent them. With how they fought and worked, they were obviously assassins/shinobi like from his old reality. Even with how they dressed made him make some connection with what Minato wore, that the man was affiliated with the group.

So with that in mind, Naruto needed to make his way to Simon Feck's lab and possibly see if he might catch them there. Since the source is under lock and key, his lab might be the next best source to possibly nab whatever information there was on the Zephyr project. He can tell that this was going to be a very long night.

 _ **-Simon Feck's Lab-**_

What Batman saw once he came into the lab was that it was a complete mess. Glass was everywhere along with various papers and materials. It seems that he was already too late that whoever was behind the attack already came by to hopefully grab the Zephyr. Hoping to find better clues out of this, he brought his hand up to his mask and pressed a little switch to activate his 'detective vision' prototype that Marva has been working on.

From what the female Cooper told him when he was handed the device was that it could help him survey a crime scene better than before just in case if he possibly missed something. The initial plan on the final version, with some initial 'upgrades', would have Bruce be able to have an x-ray vision of sort to see how many crooks there are in an area so he could take care of them easier. Not only that but also do the crime scene analysis that once all clues have been gathered, the scene of the crime could be 'played' out in front of him in real time per say. It was an interesting idea for the caped crusader and he seemed pretty forward with the idea to maybe help him out easier depending on certain situations.

So far with the prototype he has in his cowl was that it is very limited so far until another model would come out, but it will suffice. When going through the room, Batman saw various footprints highlighted on the floor and moving all over the place until they ended at certain spots. It was then he realized that they were in the ceiling, causing him to duck down when a pair of katanas came down towards him.

He was able to block them with his arm braces, but the weight placed on them caused him to struggle a little. Once pushing himself free from the bladed entrapment, he punched one of the hooded men while kicking the other before he realized they had him surrounded.

"Who sent you?" Batman growled out to seek out an answer. All that he got in response were the hooded men to drop various smoke bombs onto the ground to cover their escape. He looked around for any sign of them, but there were any. That was until he heard something clatter onto the ground and rolled towards him until coming to a stop. Once looking down, he saw that it was several grenades…. And they were primed to blow.

Seeing that he needed to get out quickly, he ran towards the nearby window and dived through it so he wouldn't get caught up in the blast. He was lucky to make it out just in time as a few seconds after breaking through the glass barrier, the room blew up in a fiery blaze.

By the time he glided back towards the ground, he heard several motorcycles coming his way to make him realize those hooded men were escaping. Running towards his motorcycle he had nearby, he quickly started its engines and raced off to catch up to them. Unknownst to him, he missed another motorcycle coming after the same targets once he sped off.

 _ **-Wayne Manor-**_

The sound of humming was coming from a certain part of the panic room. Selina had been dealing with it for a bit with Simon listening to his music from his cassette player. It at least kept him preoccupied as she was mostly left alone to do her own thing, which was looking through the surveillance footage being recorded live. It seemed odd that she was on this side of the monitors that she would always try to stay out of the feed. But this time, she needed to rely on them to be sure Simon was safe and sound.

This gave her the opportunity to think on recent events with her relationship with Naruto and how great he has made her feel. The love they have for each other is real and is growing at a good pace. She enjoyed the dates they have gone to with the ones they had at restaurants having to be done in private so they won't draw attention towards themselves. But of course part of her thoughts keeps drifting back to what her eco-friend/shared friend towards Naruto's affection had told her that made her feel uneasy on top of what's currently going on for the time being.

She soon heard the humming stop as the young genius got up from his seat to stretch his legs a little by walking around the room. Probably looking around to keep his mind off of the current predicament he was having. He soon came to a stop when he saw a toy train in the room of all places and started to play with it a little.

"Always found trains to be fascinating." He said to break some of the silence by making small talk. "Being a huge leap in technology in the industrial revolution and things started to progress from there. Asides from that; I just enjoy the sense of feeling of the rush, speed, intensity, metal-clanging and greatness some people enjoy being inside of it. Like leaving for a world anew; being in it gives this rush to see new sites that makes people imagine what will show up next."

"Everyone has their interests I suppose."

"Yup." Was his short response before looking out of the bullet and blast proof window to see most of Gotham in the distance. "Seeing all those lights out there makes me think of how much is being wasted and what could've been done as a good replacement. When thinking back on my love for trains on my thoughts when I was younger, that they never really stopped moving, I ended up with the idea for my battery."

"Reason why you're being targeted now." She blantly said which made him feel depressed for a bit. *Sigh* "Sorry Simon, just too many things on my mind right now."

"Same here ma'am." He said to her apology. "I just have so many thoughts running through my head that I just need to preoccupy myself the majority of the time. Whether it's listening to music, writing in my notebook of mine, or anything else for the most part. Reason how I was able to think of the idea for my battery for the most part."

"Speaking of the battery, mind if I see it?" Selina said as she got closer to him. "Don't worry, I'll give it back to you."

He complied as he reached into his pocket, pulled out a little fabric like case, and handed it over to the raven haired thief. Once opening it, she saw it was black in color and wanted a better inspection of it, so she pulled it out of the case to let the light shine upon it. The moment she placed it on her hand, she couldn't help but comment on the feeling.

"It's warm."

"Yeah, a lot of power running through that little thing." He said to her as she handed back the little device. Once it was placed onto his hand, he soon gained a questioning look and started to mumble several things that Selina couldn't quite make out.

"Is something wrong?"

"It seems warmer than I expected." Simon said as he was fiddling around with it in his hand. "It seems to be getting hotter."

"Should we get some ice for it then?"

"Would be the best idea." He said to her before letting out a yawn. "Right before I go to bed. It's been a long day."

Both of them soon exited the panic room as they made their way to the kitchen to grab a cup full of ice before making it to Simon's assigned room for the evening. Along the way, the two ran into Alfred and told him that Simon was going to retire for the evening. Once making it to the guest bedroom and before attempting to lie down on the piece of furniture, Selena started to inspect the room for anything that seemed amiss to her. Call it a slight case of paranoia, but with what is going on that one can't be too sure to be safe.

"If you need anything Simon, just yell. I'll be outside to make my rounds." She told him as he got situated on his bed with the cup of ice by the bedside.

As this was going on, Alfred was meeting with the head of security to inform him on the latest form of detail.

"I am here to tell you that Mr. Feck is in his room." Alfred said getting the man to nod at this. "You can lock down the property for the night on your end. I already informed Commissioner Gordon on this and he's doing his duty on his end."

"Good to know." Reese said before both men went their separate ways. When making it towards the gate, he saw several police officers there with some of the other security detail. "The package is set in for the night. Is there anything else to report?"

"Nothing at all sir." One of the security detail said with some nearby officers roughly saying their own thing respectively.

"Good." Reese told them as all of the men turned their backs towards him.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

The sound of the silencer went off as each of the men guarding the entrance fell down to the ground dead with blood spilling from the empty cavities in their heads. The person responsible was Reese as he placed the gun onto the ground and whistled lowly to get some hooded men to jump over the gate. Once they landed, they quickly hid the bodies while Reese went to the side where the bushes were at to change. During this time, something fell onto the ground nearby to reveal Reese's' face.

"Always hate wearing those." The man muttered as he slipped on his metallic ape mask. "Time to move."

 _ **-Meanwhile, Insert Final Fantasy VII Advent Children: The Chase of Highway-**_

The sound of motorcycles filed the air, as they were racing through the streets of Gotham. Several hooded men were on their respective motorcycles to get away from the scene of the crime of Simon Feck's lab exploding. They were possibly on their way of getting scott free, if it wasn't for Batman being on their tail. They tried to shake him off by losing him through various streets, but they forgot one thing: Batman practically knows these streets like the back of his hand.

For every turn the motorcyclists made, he would cut them off from another street. It was frustrating for them to try and get rid of him on every chance they got. That was when they went under an overpass when _he_ arrived.

Vanitas' motorcycle flew into the air from the overpass above to land in front of the hooded group, having them boxed in on both the front and back. The group then pulled out their katanas from their sheaths and were aimed towards the man in front of him to possibly cut him down. It wouldn't be that simple really as Vanitas swerved around to momentarily face them. In those brief moments, he used one of his hands to summon a handful of daggers and threw them at the tires. The results were instant with them being cut and punctured to send the motorcyclists either skidding into a wall, going off the road, or hitting a nearby parked car. When this was done, Batman drove towards one of the closest hooded men and picked the man up to question in.

"Who sent you?! Talk!"

"It's too late Batman." The hooded cyclist said. "You'll never stop them now."

In his frustration, Batman knocked the man out with a punch before speeding off with Vanitas not far behind. The disguised billionaire started to punch some numbers on his motorcycle to try and call the manor, but it seems that whatever group these men are must've cut the lines. He then decided to punch in another set of numbers to call the communicator Alfred has on him and hopefully answer as soon as possible.

" _Hello?"_

"Alfred!"

" _Master Bruce. What's wrong?"_ Alfred asked in an alarmed tone.

"You need to activate the security systems and to get both Simon and Selina in the panic room now! Even inform Commissioner Gordon if you can!" Batman said as he yelled into the speaker in his helmet.

" _But how will you get inside of the manor when the system is up?"_

"I'll find a way." Bruce said as he saw some more hooded motorcyclists coming from behind him and Vanitas. "I'll have to get off now. Seems I got some tailgaters."

" _Then good luck sir."_

Once the call was ended, Batman saw Vanitas swerve his motorcycle around momentarily to try and perform the same action he did before. It was successful on one of the hooded men, but the others moved out of the way and onto another street to hopefully cut them off. It was then Vanitas drove a little faster to get close to the Dark Knight when he spoke out to him.

"I'm guessing they are after Mr. Feck?!" The masked publisher asked out loud to hopefully get the masked billionaire to hear him.

"They are!"

"You go on ahead while I'll try to hold these guys off!"

"You sure?!"

"I'm positive! Now GO!" Vanitas yelled out, making Batman to nod and pushed his motorcycle to it's limits as he went further ahead. "Now to buy him some time."

The hooded men were starting to catch up to the black and white themed hero with their weapons aimed towards him. Vanitas occasionally swerved around to throw several cards and daggers their way, but they were starting to wise up to what he was doing and they started to counter. Some of the motorcyclists pulled out some handguns and started firing at the masked Uzumaki, but they ended up hitting his invisible barrier around him.

*Chuckle* "They should think of something better before they run out of bullets." Naruto muttered as they continued with their bulleted assault. He then needed to get them off of his tail soon before wising up yet again that guns won't work on him. So he brought his hand out and charged up a void rasengan before turning back to aim it towards the hooded men. "Time to see if this works now."

Vanitas then pictured in his mind's eye a gun's trigger going off as a bullet went out of the barrel. In the outside world, the idea ended up the same as his arm acted like the barrel of a gun and fired off several void rasengans towards the men. They were caught off by surprise by this action as they ended up getting hit by the blasts with a few falling off of the bridge they were on, while the rest ended up crashing into each other.

"That takes care of them." Naruto said as he looked on ahead and saw Batman ride up the giant metal wires to support the bridge before jumping off of his vehicle. With the motorcycle plummeting towards the ocean below, Batman spread out his cape to activate it's gliding function to fly towards Wayne Manor. "Show off."

 _ **-Earlier, Wayne Manor-**_

Selina was walking through the hallways to make her rounds while also looking at the various works of art present in the Wayne estate. She did recognize some works, while others she did not. She would've been interested in them, but the feline part of her only desired feline themed works of art and jewels. Hell there was even that one Van Gogh she saw in one of the hallways, but upon closer inspection turned out that it was a believable fake.

"Real one must be hidden in a vault somewhere in the manor." The thief muttered as she kept checking every other corridor. As she was expecting to see another security detail or police officer in one of the hallways, she ended up not seeing the person. "That's odd, should've run into one of them by now."

She was going to keep moving forward until her foot ended up hit something on the ground to make it skid a bit. Upon closer inspection, it was a police gun. When looking around a little, she ended up seeing the unconscious body of one of the officers tucked away in a poor fashion making her realize that the hooded men were here.

The thief made quick work of getting to the guest room and opened the door to see Simon sleeping in the bed. She went up to him and gave him gentle nudges to get him out of his sleep. It wasn't long until he did and felt alarmed when seeing the darkened figure above him.

"Hey it's me, Selina." She told him, making him calm down a bit. "Something's wrong, we need to move. Now."

"Okay. Let me get the Zephyr." The teenager said as he glanced over to the cup of ice...well cup of water now and pulled out the device. "It's warm now. I don't know what's wrong with it."

"Worry about it later." She said as she placed several pillows underneath the covers.

"You sure that would work? I think I'm shorter than that." He said before being pulled out of the room.

"Come on." She urged as she led him to another hallway and crouched down when she saw someone get closer to the room.

In said room, the door opened up to reveal Silver Monkey. He surveyed the room and spotted the bed where the teenager was at. The monkey themed assassin then pulled out his blow dart and blew into it to fire the tranquilizer dart towards the figure inside. Once that was done, he got closer to retrieve the drugged up kid only to be kicked from behind and land face first onto the ground.

When Selina's surprise attack was successful, she quickly closed the door on the assailant and broke the handle. "We need to go to the panic room. Now."

"Right." Simon said as he followed her towards their destination. If they stayed any longer, they would've seen the assassin shove his fist through the door.

After navigating through several corridors of the manor, they eventually made it to the dining hall. From what Selina remembers from the brief tour she was given, they were almost close to the panic room. They would've gone further, but Selina heard something in the room and pushed Simon out of the way from two tranquilizer darts aimed towards them.

"You missed." She said as she looked towards the monkey masked assassin from the other side of the dining room. "Simon, stay down and look for cover."

"Right." He said as he quickly looked around and hid by one of the room decorating furnatures.

"Give me the boy and you will have a swift death." Silver Monkey said as he came closer to Selina. "If not, then it shall be as more painful the longer the delay."

She hummed in fake thought for a brief moment before giving her reply. "Sounds tempting, but no. Not gonna happen."

"Have it your way then." Was all Silver Monkey said before jumping onto the table and spun into the air to deliver an ax kick towards the thief.

Selina rolled out of the way before grabbing onto one of the dining room chairs and swung it towards the assassin to hopefully stagger him. Didn't work all that well due to his armor, but she didn't relent on her assault. WIth the remains of the chair on hand, she started to attack him with her impromptu escrima sticks.

Her time sparring with Naruto were paying off a little as her assault kept the assassin at bay, but it could only do for so long. He found some openings to her form and exploited it by sending quick jabs and kicks to those spots to send her back a little. With the slight frustration she was now having, she threw the impromptu weapons at her opponent. The monkey assassin blocked them easily before making a grab at the woman, who was able to snag his hands.

The two kept each other at bay without being able to move an inch. WIthout any warning, Silver Monkey had brought his head back and slammed it onto Selena's. With the slight daze, she was left open for him to whip out a hand claw and slashed her side.

"AAAH!" Selina screamed out as she held onto her side. Before she could do anything else, the assassin added more to the pain and kicked her in the abdomen, sending her straight towards the nearby wall.

As he got closer with his clawed weapon to finish her off, a sound of a gun went off as his bladed weapon was broken. Looking onto the side, he saw the Wayne butler with a shotgun on hand with smoke coming out of the barrel with a scowl on his face. The assassin then whipped out a kunai from his sleeve and would've thrown it at the butler, but another gun went off to knock the weapon out of his hand. This time it was the newly arrived Gotham Commissioner with some of his officers not too far behind him. Seeing as his luck went out, he fled from the dining room with bullets flying towards him.

"I sometimes think the ones that dodge bullets would always be a bother." Alfred said as he rested his weapon.

Gordon then saw the teen genius nearby and came up to him. "Are you alright Mr. Feck?"

"Yes I'm fine, but I'm more worried about her."

When he said that, the others looked towards Selina leaning against the wall. Montoya went to check on her injuries and saw the bleeding wound on her side. "We need to get her to the panic room stat." The hispanic officer said before addressing her partner. "Sasuke, please help me out here."

"Sure." He replied as he went to the other side of the downed thief and helped her up.

"We'll help cover you. Mr. Feck, please stay close to Officers Montoya and Uchiha until we get to the panic room if you would." Mr. Pennyworth said as he had his shotgun at the ready. With him in the front, Alfred had led the group towards the panic room with Officers Uchiha and Montoya carrying Selena in the middle, Simon not far behind and Gordon covering the rear. It wasn't long until they got to their destination and they went inside before the butler started medical attention on the injured thief.

Unbeknownst to either of them, when Simon was leaving the dining room, part of the broken chair got caught onto his pocket and left a rip big enough for the small battery to fall out by the panic room's entrance.

Navigating to the rendezvous point in the manor was a little tricky for the monkey themed assassin, knowing that there were some remaining security detail still active. When he got into the designated room, he was greeted with a handful of his fellow assassins for the mission at hand. They were about to discuss their next move when a figure dropped down from the ceiling, knocking one of the assassins down for the count.

"It only gets worse from here." Batman said as he stood ready for the fight at hand.

"Worse for whom I wonder?" Silver Monkey taunted with there being more opponents against the Bat. He then dashed towards the hero with a downward punch before sending up a kick towards his abdomen with some other strikes. They were blocked before the Bat grabbed ahold of his offending arm and kicked the assassin's sides and leg joints before tossing him to the side to focus onto the other assassins in the room.

With the Batman distracted, Silver Monkey pulled out a small pellet and timed it correctly to toss it towards the hero's face. It was successful as the green gas came off with the hero groaning out when he tried to look around. With the Bat temporarily blinded, Silver Monkey was going to attack the hero when he heard something and looked towards the source coming from…. outside?

"Dynamic Entry!"

That soon to be the assassin's downfall as he was suddenly kicked to the side and slammed against the wall, hard. Landing on a slight crouch, Vanitas came back up and seemed rather cheerful given his body posture. Seeming oblivious to his current surroundings, he seemed to brush off the imaginary dust off of his person.

"Man, I can't believed I nailed that one. Getting past that security system was not easy." The black and white themed hero said before looking at the occupants in the room. "Hiya."

One of the hooded assassins got out of his momentary shock and threw several shuriken at the new arrival. It came to another shock for the other assassins to see the weapons go through him. They soon realized why there wasn't a broken window in his arrival since he somehow phased right through it.

"Now that's just rude." Vanitas said before punching the one assassin's lights out. "Didn't your parents tell you not to throw sharp things at people."

None was responded back as the assassins went back towards their assault with Batman now out of his temporary blindness. The two heroes once again worked together to take care of the home intruders. Without them looking, Silver Monkey got back up from the ground and decided to leave for the panic room to collect the teenager and the battery.

 _ **-Panic Room-**_

"Well….this will have to do for now." Alfred said as he looked over the work he had just finished. It took a bit to close the wound with what he had with the medical kit inside of the panic room, but it worked out in the end. "Just need to get these IV's attached to her and she'll be good as new.

"That's fine and all Mr. Pennyworth, but what are we gonna do now?" Renee asked as she helped the butler clean up. "All of our men have been subdued, either unconscious or dead, and that security system you said earlier is still up. We can't get anyone else to come to the manor at the moment. So I'm asking again: What are we gonna do?"

"For one, I'm going to deactivate the security measures so that Commissioner Gordon here can properly call in for help." Alfred said as he went to the nearby computer and rapidly started typing the commands to shutdown the system.

"Help? But I thought we were safe in here." Simon said as he was starting to get more nervous with every moment.

"You're never completely safe I'm afraid." The butler said before glancing at the security monitor for outside of the panic room. "Especially with the man at the door." The others saw what he was referring to-to see Silver Monkey set up a bomb to hopefully blow up the entrance. "Now would be the time to call in for help Commissioner."

 _ **-Outside of Panic Room-**_

Once setting up the bomb, the assassin quickly got far away from the estimated blast radius so he could be safe once he set it off. Pulling out the trigger, Silver Monkey flipped off it's cover to finally prime it. He was about to press the button if it wasn't for a batarang hitting it out of his hands. He was going to quickly react to this, but a pair of black and white boots kicked his back, sending him towards the panic room entrance.

"I know this sounds cliche and all, but you should give up." Vanitas said as he and Batman started to walk closer to the downed assassin.

"From what I'm seeing, that door is a titanium blast door." Batman said once the two of them came to a stop. "That bomb of yours might as well be a firecracker."

There was no response on this as Silver Monkey wasn't really focused on the two heroes, but on the object his eyes had caught once he was face down on the floor.

"The Zephyr." The assassin said in realization on what he is seeing.

"What?" The two heroes said before the assassin quickly moved from his spot and kicked the bomb towards the other wall to automatically explode on impact. When the smoke was cleared, the two heroes could only see a gaping hole to the outside with the assassin gone. In response, the two ran after the retreating monkey without any further thoughts.

"I can't believe the Zephyr was just outside of the panic room." Silver Monkey said as he raced his way towards his escape with the battery in his hand. "Couldn't let the opportunity slip from my grasps."

He would've run further ahead, but one of his legs got caught from underneath him, causing him to fall. In response, he quickly pulled out a kunai and slashed at the foreign object from his leg as the two heroes caught up. Once caught up, the two heroes tried to apprehend the assassin, but he held his ground as best as possible by blocking their kicks and punches. It wasn't until Vanitas ended up kicking the one hand that had the battery, causing it to let go and fall over the edge.

"NO!" Silver Monkey yelled out as he jumped above the two heroes and plummeted down towards the sea to reach it. As he got closer with his arm stretched out towards the prized battery, he saw the faint glow coming off of it until it was too late….it exploded. "AAAAGH!"

From up above, the two saw what happened and were confused on what they just saw. Once the explosion cleared, they saw that the man either escaped or possibly died due to the close contacted explosion. But one question that was on their minds was: what caused that to happen?

"Did you two apprehend him?" Gordon said as he, his two officers and the teen genius came onto the scene.

"I'm afraid not Commissioner." Vanitas said to the bespeckled officer. "He got away with an explosion that oddly went awry."

It was then that the teenager gained a realization and fumbled around his jacket pocket to feel for something.

"Is something the matter Mr. Feck?" Montoya asked as she saw what he was doing.

"The Zephyr. I must've lost it earlier when getting to the panic room."

"Why bring up the Zephyr now?"

"I just realized on what that explosion was." Simon said as he rubbed his head in slight frustration. "I messed up, my battery became unstable and it was starting to deteriorate."

"Resulting with it exploding." Batman concluded with the new information. "All that raw power was building up too much without being used until it needed a way to escape."

"Not a good way to go though." Vanitas said before seeing the teenager's face. "Hey don't worry Simon, you're a smart kid. You'll figure out the problem in time."

*Sigh* "I guess you're right."

"Well I better get going. Nice seeing you Commissioner, officers." The disguised publisher said before he summoned his motorcycle and rode off, making the others move out of the way.

"HEY! Warn us next time!" Officers Montoya and Uchiha yelled out from the sudden action.

"Well I already called the nearby hospitals and other precincts to help take care of the wounded and the deceased Batman. Don't know how many there are still alive or not." Gordon said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Good to know. Then I hope your night gets better because of it." The Dark Knight said as he jumped off of the ledge and glided down from the cliffside so he could get to the hidden entrance to the batcave.

 _ **-Outside of Wayne Manor-**_

"I'm definitely going to hate doing this whole 'backtracking and waiting' thing." Naruto said as he drove towards the gate leading to the estate.

The publisher had to leave the palisades to get back to his parked car and drive all the way back after waiting for the police and ambulances to arrive at Bruce's home. He would've gone back sooner, but he didn't want to draw too much attention towards himself if he arrived too soon. Once coming closer, he saw the various vehicles on the grounds with doctors and officers all around to gather the wounded and dead bodies to the hospital and the morgue respectively.

"There must've been more than I thought." He muttered before his eyes landed upon a sight that made his heart slow down and go pale in the face. Naruto quickly pulled over and got out of his car before running towards what he just saw moments ago. "Selina!"

"O-Oh hey Naruto." She weakly said as she was on a stretcher with several bags of IV attached to her. "Sorry that you have to see me like this."

"But what happened to you?"

"I was protecting Simon from one of them in this monkey mask that slashed my side. Luckily for me, the panic room was very well equipped and Alfred got me all patched up."

After Selina said this to him, Naruto felt a burning anger growing inside of him. 'If I ever see that monkey masked guy again, I swear….' He shook himself out of his thoughts when he felt her hand grab ahold of his.

"Don't beat yourself out honey. There was nothing that you could've done. Whatever happened, happened." She told him while gently squeezing his hand.

"So what's going to happen now?"

"From what I was told, Simon's going to be sent to the GCPD until morning where he'll be placed into protective custody. Probably going to be moved around for a while to ensure his safety."

"And you?"

"Going to stay at the hospital for like a day or two. *Chuckle* "I prefer recovering at home, but the doctors would've wanted to keep an eye on me so I won't pull my stitches with how I got them."

Naruto chuckled at this as he briefly remembered some of his times at the Konoha hospital once Granny Tsunade became the Hokage. Both she and Sakura would confine him to his hospital room until he made a full recovery. If he tried to escape the place, either one of them would hunt him down and strap him down on the hospital bed.

*Sigh* 'Good times.' "Well I'll be sure you'll be fine Selina. I'll come on by tomorrow and check up on you." He told her as he leaned in and kissed her cheek before leaving. That is if she didn't grab ahold of his wrist.

"Naruto….there's something that I need to tell you."

"...You could maybe tell me about it tomorrow when you're feeling better." He said to her since he could tell it's a private matter and he wouldn't want the doctors to hear this. Even though they are professional in not saying anything.

"No. I need to tell you this _now_ Naruto." She said with more conviction in her voice. "I felt like I almost died earlier and there was so much I wanted to tell you. So I swore to myself that if I made it out of that mess earlier or was dying, I needed to at least tell you this one thing Pam asked me not to tell you."

Hearing this, Naruto gained a confused and worried look before asking her of what she meant and what Pam told her exactly. She ended up telling him when the doctors left to check on the other wounded before driving off to the hospital. It was definitely quiet in the vehicle at this time before Naruto left and made it to his car to drive off to his next destination in mind.

 _ **-Arkham Asylum-**_

"Almost done and I'll finally go home for the night." Harley muttered as she was writing up her latest session with Magpie.

It's been nearly a week since Harley had gained Margaret Sorrow, or Magpie as she desperately prefers to be called, as her new patient. She has been trying to break through the damaged woman to at least get some results in the first few sessions. From what she was told prior to the first session was that Margaret had suffered from a split personality syndrome with a case of amnesia along with no longer feeling pain of any form. Instead of the one Harley was more used to because of her interaction and friendship with Pam, there were two personas sharing Margaret's body without being known of the other. She was even told of what happened prior to the woman being admitted to Arkham.

She had hoped to speak with 'Cassie', the 'lighter' half of Margaret, in the past sessions but it came to a failure. Then she remembered after the last attempt that Magpie tried to use a device to gain back her lost memories, but it was damaged and malfunctioned when it was attempted to be used again. Harley eventually came to the conclusion that 'Cassie' possibly died that night and all that remains is the bird themed woman, Magpie.

From what the intern had observed from the sessions so far is that Magpie is a total wacko. Well wacko isn't a proper thing to say actually. In a technical standpoint, she suffers from an obsessional syndrome with potential homicidal tendencies. Her uncontrollable obsession with shiny objects tends to send her mind in a pleasant state of sorts that would preoccupy most of her time. Even decorated her cell with her clipped off nails along with other shiny objects she tends to steal whenever she gets out of her cell. A lot of the guards have learned to leave her alone and not touch her shiny possessions after one guard came in to try and claim back a set of keys she stole from him. Nearly scratched his eyes out the moment he took them back.

Since then, the guards and most inmates tend to stay away from the woman with a 5-10 ft. pole and hide away any 'shiny' valuables they have on hand whenever near her.

It would've been simpler if that was all that was wrong with her. From the lost memories and her uncontrollable obsession with shiny objects. But it seems that there is more than that since she had ended up being obsessed with the new hero, Vanitas.

After a few unsuccessful sessions, Harley was heading home for the night when her eyes caught the glimpse of the security footage outside of Magpie's cell. It wouldn't be much of a problem if it wasn't for Vanitas standing in front of it. The blonde intern had asked why the guard didn't inform security about this, but he replied that Batman had actually done this a lot in the past with several inmates. It was all good in the end so every other guard that sometimes sees this happen doesn't really report it. This made Harley's mind boggle on such a thing and when she made her way to Magpie's cell to defuse the situation, that's when she heard it…..

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _...but I don't like being caged." Magpie said towards the hero. Her words lingered in space. Paralyzing the world with the tone of voice of her feeling hurt, broken, lost and most of all: afraid._

 _When hearing this, Harley came to a stop when she heard this and hid behind a pillar so she wouldn't be seen. Why did she do this? She was supposed to go out there and stop what they were doing, but why? Why is she just hide and kept on listening in?_

" _I remember that Ravencroft and Braxton had kept you in a 'cage' when they were studying you." Vanitas said with his helmet filtering a bit of his voice. This was actually the first time Harley had heard his voice and from what she could tell right now, it had a sense of comfort that made her want to trust the man. Even though she isn't interacting with him._

" _Yes." The bird themed woman answered with her voice seemed very distant. "I never liked tight spaces."_

" _So you do remember. You were stripped of your memories, but you remember the cage."_

 _Nothing was said in the long silence. No sound at all to the point that possibly a pin could be heard if it was dropped. It was so quiet that if this moment was to be hung up in a museum, it would've been passed as a prized painting._

 _After a few more moments, she spoke with a shaky tone to it. "I….I remember the cage."_

" _Is that all that you remember?"_

" _No….Only the cage."_

" _Then is that what you're afraid of? Being dragged back into the cell that made you?" The hero pressed on with the information. "Please….Magpie. Let me help you."_

" _I-I'm afraid of it all." Her voice wavered in the answer._

 _It was then Harley realized that this was her chance in gaining the information she wanted. So she quietly opened up her lab coat and pulled out her notebook and started writing quickly from what she just heard. It helped out even more that Magpie took a moment's pause to think of what to actually say so that Harley could finally catch up before moving forward._

" _Imagine waking up one morning….not knowing who you were... Imagine standing up to look at yourself in the mirror, only to find an unfamiliar face." The patient said as her voice seemed to indicate that she was in a trance of sorts. "Imagine trying to tell someone else your name, only to find that you can't seem to place it at all. Only to find that you can't remember even a hint about it."_

 _Harley then heard some clinging sounds against the bars and glass barrier of her cell before hearing Magpie speak out again. "Then as the panic overtakes you, you begin to question everything. Who am I? What am I? Where and when was I born? Where do I live?" Her voice started to quiver soon after. "Who are your parents? Are you married? In a relationship? Do you have children or siblings…. Are you an only child or the only person you consider yourself as family?"_

 _As this went on, Harley couldn't help but feel her eyes start to water when hearing all of this? It truly felt heartbreaking to truly hear from someone that has a case of amnesia to actually say their feelings about this outloud. It was honestly the first time listening to such a thing and it made her want to know more._

" _Then….Then you ask the most important question of all."_

" _Which is?"/'Which is?' Vanitas and Harley asked/thought at the same time on wanting to know Magpie's final thought._

" _You stand there with tears in your eyes and you ask yourself." She whispered out like she seemed to be truly haunted by an unfamiliar spectre of her past. "What have I done to deserve this?"_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

After being in that unofficial session, Harley had gone out there and talk to Vanitas and tell him to stop, only to see that he was gone. She had returned to her office and debated with herself on what to do exactly with what she heard moments ago. It went to the point that she wanted to throw away the pages of notes she had put down, but she couldn't do that at all.

When it was time for her next session with Magpie, she tried to get through to her like in the past sessions to ask on what she could do to help her out. Nothing was successful at first until a stray thought passed through her mind. She didn't want to say it with it possibly making things worse, but it ended up coming out. The blonde intern told the patient that Vanitas was in the other room, listening as they spoke.

When hearing that, Magpie perked up and seemed to be happy all of a sudden. It seemed disturbing at best on how she changed at a flip of a switch and seemed to be more compliant. From there, Harley ended up asking the same question to what Vanitas had asked Magpie and it came out with the same results.

As the follow up sessions had gone, she ended up using the same tactic of saying that Vanitas was in the other room and it felt wrong every time Harley said it to the woman. She didn't like being manipulated and in turn Harley didn't like to manipulate others. But it was the only way she could get results from her patient. So until further notice, she had to swallow her pride a bit and try to pull through.

Up till now, she had gained more information that she could really get prior to using that 'dirty' tactic. The intern ended up to the conclusion that Magpie truly adopted things similar to that of a bird, asides from her attire she likes to wear underneath her shredded up straight jacket. The claustrophobia discussed prior with her fear of small cells would bring up why she tends to think of herself as a damaged bird, she just wants to be free to do as she pleased.

It was even then that she heard about the supposed nightmares of being back at Blackgate. It was hard to make out, but the intern was able to piece it to the best of her ability. Magpie ended up remembering small fragments of her time being experimented on by Braxton and Ravencroft. It could've been considered a miracle that she remembered anything prior to her memory loss, if you didn't consider the 'torture' sessions.

Even towards the end of the latest session with the nightmare discussions, Harley was able to learn that Braxton and Ravencroft were actually taking orders from someone else to conduct further experiments that wasn't what they originally planned on the whole 'mind control' aspect of removing the bad from the person. There wasn't anything else after that and Magpie couldn't remember anything else from the nightmares.

"What most doctors would do to get their desired results." Harley bitterly said as that painful feeling came back towards the pit of her stomach. *Sigh* "I wish I could tell someone about this, but I don't know if anyone would believe it.

Harley did indeed wanted to tell someone about it but there was no proper way to tell them from what came to mind. Sure she could try to contact Batman, but there was no way to do so. Even on the past several days when Vanitas came on by for his late night chats with Magpie, she couldn't be able to go out there and try to tell him. She felt vulnerable and undefended by all of this.

Glancing towards her clock, she realized that it was time to finally go home and try to sleep this off. She got up and started to pack up her things before heading out of the door to lock it up for the evening. The moment she walked past the service desk, she saw Naruto rush past her in a hurried pace like a man on a mission.

'What's wrong with him?' The blonde intern thought as her curiosity drove her into following him. The trail eventually lead towards the women's wing, right in front of Pam's cell. 'What's going on?' She internally asked as she ended up hiding yet again. It's going to be an odd habit for her from what she could tell by this.

"Pam!" Naruto said in a loud tone. "Pam please talk to me!"

"Naruto? What's wrong?" Pamela groggily asked as she got up from her bed.

"Is it true?"

"What's true?/'What's true?' Pamela and Harley asked on what Naruto was referring.

"There was an incident earlier this evening that Selina got hurt in the process. Before you ask, yes she's fine and she's resting at the hospital right now, but that's not important at the moment. What is important is what she told me in fear that I wouldn't know the truth."

This gave Pam pause to process this slight moment. *Sigh* "So you know."

"Then please Pam. Tell me why you didn't tell me before?" Pleaded the publisher.

" **Because 'we' didn't want you to feel hurt beloved."** Ivy said with a downcast look.

"I would've handled it if you told me sooner." Naruto argued with pain evident in his voice. "I thought you trusted me."

" _ **B**_ _u_ _ **t '**_ _w_ _ **e'**_ _d_ _ **o!"**_ 'They' said to him with tears welling up in 'their' eyes.

"Then why didn't you tell me?!"

" _ **B**_ _e_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **e '**_ _w_ _ **e'**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _b_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **a**_ _c_ _ **h**_ _i_ _ **l**_ _d_ _ **!"**_ 'They' said to him before 'they' started to cry in the process.

Nothing was said after that and from her hiding place, Harley was in shock when hearing this and wondered how this could've happened. From what she was told by the medical doctor, Pam was in good health and nothing was wrong with her. Did she leave this part out of the medical examination? Did Pam ask her to not reveal this to anyone else?

She needed to know. She has to know more about this. The blonde intern was about to get out of her hiding place to demand the answers, but Pam spoke up.

"It was several weeks after 'we' were admitted here when 'we' first noticed something odd about 'us'; that 'we' missed 'our' period. 'We' wondered what was going on, so 'we' went to the regular medical doctor here to do a more extensive examination. She complied and did a full examination without 'our' power dampeners on to get better results. She tested the blood work, did a pelvic examination, everything to check to fully see if 'we' were a healthy woman.

The majority of things turned out fine that 'we' were truly a healthy woman, but after that she gave 'us' the bad news. Before telling 'us' this, she asked on how 'we' became this way and explained what occurred prior and during 'our' transformation. After that, she brought up and compared 'our' medical sheets prior to coming here made her come to the conclusion that whatever happened that made 'us' this way ruined 'our' reproductive organs. Mostly with the toxins within 'our' bloodstream would practically kill off any possible chance 'we' would get into bearing. Not to mention that 'we' are basically more of a plant than human now and it would be truly hard for 'us' to create a child through a traditional manner." Pamela said as her voice seemed like it was breaking as she got further into her conversation. Harley took a peak from her hiding spot to see Naruto placing his hands on the glass barrier with him wanting to hold her in his arms.

"'W-We' dreamt of having a family of 'our' own with you Naruto. Dreaming of carrying our child for all nine months, through the good and bad experiences of being pregnant. Being able to hold onto your child for the very first time. To see them grow up throughout the years. To see them find love and have our ways to find enjoyment in teasing them. All of that….All of that 'we' dreamed of truly experiencing. Something 'we' would truly kill for." Pam said as she started to choke on her words. Those words made Harley think of the same thing, that it would truly be horrible for even her to lose the chance in experiencing those priceless moments.

" _ **B**_ _u_ _ **t t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **b**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **d**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **k**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _f_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **m '**_ _u_ _ **s'**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _n_ _ **i**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **! W**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _d_ _ **r**_ _u_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **i**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _d_ _ **, b**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **s**_ _u_ _ **c**_ _c_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **s**_ _f_ _ **u**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t '**_ _w_ _ **e'**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _u_ _ **l**_ _y_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **m**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **j**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _u_ _ **m!**_ _H_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **k**_ _a_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **y '**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **' c**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **c**_ _e_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **v**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **c**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **!"**_ 'They' yelled out as 'they' balled their eyes out. Nothing was said after that as the sounds of her crying filled the quieted wing of the asylum.

"Pam….You know that no matter what, I would still love you. I didn't care of what you have become and what you're past was truly like because I would still love you." Naruto told her that made the botanist look towards him with her reddened eyes. "So what if you can't bear me a child Pam. We could always adopt a child and love him or her like one of our own. Did you think that I would be so shallow that I would stop loving you because of that?"

"N-No 'we' didn't. 'We' wouldn't even think-"

"Then was that the other reason why you wanted me to seek out other women? So that they could be lucky into having my children?" He asked causing Harley to gasp out in shock from her hiding place. This ended up blowing up her cover getting Naruto and Pam to look towards her direction. "Who's there?!"

'I-I might as well show myself now.' Harley thought before moving out from her hiding place.

"H-Harley?!" Naruto asked out in surprise as he saw his friend and doctor to his girlfriend. Even Pam was surprised at her appearance. "H-How long have you been listening?"

*Gulp* "F-From the beginning." The intern stuttered out. "Please don't hate me. I didn't mean to listen in, but you rushed past me earlier and I wanted to know what was going on."

"Harley, I didn't mean to let you hear this. I don't even hate you at all. I was just so consumed of wanting the answers that I ended up getting you to follow. So I forgive you on that."

" **Even 'we' forgive you Harley. You have been so good and kind to 'us' and 'we' didn't want to push you away if you ended up hearing this."** Ivy stated as mental ideas on what she and Pamela had planned out for Harley to possibly join their group were starting to shatter. Things have possibly been ruined with 'their' doctor hearing this, even the last bit.

"B-But is it true on what you said Naruto? That Pam wants you to be with other women?" Harley asked as her mind was reeling over the new information. It seemed a bit much for her to handle.

He wanted to look away with shame on his face, but he couldn't look away from her blue eyes that held so much innocence in it that it would be wrong for him to lie to her. "Somewhat from her perspective."

"Then….Then what about you?"

"'They' want me to be with other women that I actually love and care for Harley. And…. And I agree. I don't want to be with women that I won't truly form a connection with. I wanted to deny such a thing about this, but 'they' pointed out that Selina actually loves me and that I love her just as much."

Harley's mind started to process this and it seemed so confusing for her to work out and if this was a lie at all, but Naruto was telling the truth to her. "I see…. But is there anything else?"

*Gulp* "There is one thing?"

"Which is?"

"...Pam has the impression…. that you have feelings for me….and vice versa."

And just like that, things seemed to go sideways for the blonde intern as her mind overloaded and had shut down on the process. Without any warning, she fainted on the spot. If one would see her face right now, it seemed to take on a slightly redder tone with her eyes being replaced by swirls and steam coming out of her ears and mouth.

"Harley!/ _ **H**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _l_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **!"**_

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

"So….It seems you have failed to get either Simon Feck or the Zephyr." Shiva said after being debriefed by her subordinate on the mission. From what could be seen from the assassin's appearance was his arm being heavily bandaged because of the scars and burns from the exploding battery. One would've also seen the bandages on his face of the same injuries if it wasn't covered up by one of the man's spare masks he had at the base.

"Forgive me on this Lady Shiva. I won't let you down again." Silver Monkey said to the woman in the shadows. "I'll make another chance in retrieving the teen scientist."

"There is no need to do so anymore Qarrad Alfidd. We already have gotten what we needed."

"Pardon me my Lady, but I don't understand what you're talking about."

"...I might as well tell you since you had thrown things off for Batman and this Vanitas fellow." Shiva said getting a confused look from behind the monkey mask. "We had figured that things wouldn't be successful in the end as we hoped. So I had ordered some of the men you brought with for the mission to raid Simon Feck's lab. They were able to locate all of the research notes pertaining to the Zephyr project before destroying the lab like planned for cover. So now we will study them and make our own Zephyr batteries to our heart's content."

"...I see." Silver Monkey said as he tightened his fists in anger that he wasn't informed of this part of the mission.

"You may go now Qarrad Alfidd. Rest up until I or Ra's call for you." She told him, making him bow in the process.

"By your leave Lady Shiva." The assassin said as he walked out of the darkened room.

As he was walking towards his quarters for the evening, he was practically seething behind his mask on his humiliating defeat by the likes of Batman and Vanitas. Not only that, but he was left out of part of the plan on getting the Zephyr notes from the lab. Don't get him wrong as he understood the idea, but it infuriated him that he wasn't in the loop about this.

When he went past a certain part of the complex, two columns of four glowing green eyes (eight in total) lit up as they watched Silver Monkey give out so much hate.

*Chuckles* _**"Seems I might have found someone of use here after all."**_ The person muttered before the eyes went out like a candle, to add the monkey themed assassin into his plans.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **I should probably address this now to get this out of the way. Magpie is not going to hook up with Naruto since she's gonna be apart of Naruto's rogues of sorts. She's pretty much a villain obsessed with Vanitas and will want to kill others that gets in her way. She was like that way in the Beware the Batman show of her obsessed with Batman and attempted to kill Katana, his partner in the show, in the process thinking that Batman and Katana were together together.**

 **Also yes like everyone already stated for the reviews on the last chapter that Pam became sterile and whatnot to match up with stuff in the comics. It's just that with her pretty much a plant now that things would get complicated with poison in her veins and all that fun stuff. I just had that odd urge really that stated the obvious to put it down in my last AN.**

 **If you're wondering on the whole Simon Feck thing with the chapter, he's only going to be in the story this one time and he is somewhat of an OC, but not entirely. Got the idea of using this character from the Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz film: Knight and Day when I was watching the episode for this chapter. Since this story takes place in the 90's, the idea of the AI bit from the original episode wouldn't fit all that well and wanted to incorporate something better as a proper replacement. Especially since the concept of AI stuff won't happen till later in the story. Had to try and get things as close as possible here. So yeah...that.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	17. A Creature of the Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 16: A Creature of the Night**

It has been a rather cloudy night so far as it was hard to see the full moon that was supposed to be shown. The only source of light that could be seen in the city were from the buildings, the cars, and the GCPD blimp hovering above several miles above the city. The blimp in question is out on patrol as two officers were doing their business and checking in as usual.

"This is Gotham Air One reporting in. Things are actually quiet for once." One of the officers said into the radio for the usual check in procedures.

*Blip*

"Hey, did you see that?" The second officer said to get his partner to look at him funny.

"See what?"

"I got a blip. Right here." The second pointed to the generalized spot on the radar. "It just ghosted across my screen."

"I didn't see anything."

"But it was there." The officer said before peering out of the window. "It must be right below us."

*Whoosh*

"See! I just saw it Mark." The same officer said as he pointed towards the distance of the dark silhouette his eyes caught onto.

"There what is?"

"It looked like….bat wings?"

"Bat wings?" Mark questioned before a slight thought came to mind. "Could be Batman flying over Gotham Frankie, for his patrols or whatever he does on most nights."

"But this high up?"

Mark hummed in thought for a moment or two before speaking to Frank again. "Then take us through those clouds just in case."

Frank did just that by pulling the controls to make the blimp go higher and higher into the sky. Passing through several clouds before breaking through the higher atmosphere. With the moonlight shining upon them now, this gave the two officers a better chance of seeing things.

"Sorry Frank," The one officer said as he kept on looking, "seems that nothing is up here."

"But I swear I saw it Mark. Something was definitely flying up here."

If the two had looked further down, they would've seen the darkened silhouette officer Frank had seen, latching itself to the metal hull on the bottom before it released its grip and plummeted from such a height. With the speeds it was reaching, it soon opened itself up to reveal batwings as it glided and soared through the night sky. No one was ever the wiser from some pedestrians seeing the slight shadow come across them and assumed it was Batman. As the mysterious figure soared through the air, it started changing directions with it's destination in mind: Phoenix Pharmaceuticals.

In the building's darkened halls, a security guard was making his rounds for the night. With most evening/graveyard shifts, one would need something to entertain yourself so you don't lose that much interest in your job. Some would draw sketches, some music play in a low volume to not fully distract them from work, others dance, etc. For this one security guard, he had a tape recorder in his hand and was fiddling around with it.

"Testing: One, Two, Three. Testing: One, Two, Three." The security guard said into his recorder before speaking in a better tone of voice. "And you too can dream to be a high paid radio personality in your spare time. Just like me. So call *Cough* *Cough* So call the Gotham Institute of Broadcast Arts." He stated before chuckling a little. "Oh yeah, that sound so much better than the last run."

*Bang* *Rattle*

Hearing the sudden noise coming from behind him, made the guard quickly pull out his gun with his recorder in the other hand. He slowly made his way towards the source of the noise to see if anyone was trying to break into the place. When getting to the designated room, he quickly went in with his gun aimed to be greeted with….nothing. Nothing at all.

"Phewww! For a second there I thought something was in here." The guard said as he walked further in to see if anything seemed amiss. "Might've been my imagination. *Sigh* Need to stop taking too many of these graveyard shifts. Starting to get to me."

If the man was paying any attention, he would've noticed a slight light be reflected from the ceiling. It slowly came down and landed onto the office floor with a low 'thump' that ended up alerting the guard. He turned around to see where the source came from and saw a large, shadowy figure, walking ever closer to him. From what he could barely make out as it got close enough seemed….monstrous.

"AHHHH! Get away!" The guard screamed as a deafening roar reached his ears. Making him bring his hands to the sides of his face to hopefully cover up most of the sound.

 _ **RAAAAAAAARHHHH**_ The figure bellowed out in a loud volume, before it swung its arms to knock the security guard back. In the process, the guard had let go of the tape recorder in his hand, which skidded across the floor to stop underneath the nearby desk. In a brief moment of courage, the guard aimed his gun and fired upon the figure several times….

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

….but he didn't know if they were successful or not. It didn't matter in the end as a scuffle ensued in the one office with yelling and screaming before a chair was thrown, break the nearby window in the process. More yelling and screaming could've been heard if someone was nearby.

"NO! NO! What are you doing?!" The guard screamed out as he was lifted above the ground and carried off to the nearby, broken window. "Let me go! Let me go!"

….Very poor choice of words Mr. Security Guard….. Very poor choice of words.

"AAAAAAAAHHH!" The guard yelled as he was thrown out of the building and plummeted towards the nearby river with a loud splash.

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

 _With the sun setting in the distance, two individuals are bathed in it's warm colorful wonder. Seems so much better to see from far away in its picturesque appearance, but coming closer to the scene seems hard to see without being moved. As the two people are facing each other with one holding a duffel bag over his shoulder, while the other had a pleading look on her face._

 _"Do you really have to leave?" She asked with tears welling up in her eyes._

 _He looked at her with his strong, caring gaze. Showing that his actions are never wavered. Not wanting to back down with what he must do._

 _"I promised. The people I love, are waiting." He responded with a firm voice._

 _"...I don't understand. Not at all. But…. please take care of yourself."_

 _He saw her shaking, trying to contain her emotions from spilling out. He placed his bag onto the ground and closed the distance to bring her into his warm embrace. His strong heart beating against his chest made her heart slowly synch with his in tandem._

 _"Of course I'll come back to you. Even if you don't promise to wait. I'll return knowing you'll be here."_

 _She looked up with her pure, blue eyes to study his bright hazel ones. With the sun reflecting off of each of them made their appearance more beautiful for the other. Their lips were slowly being drawn closer together as to hopefully savor a kiss that they won't experience for god knows when._

" _Then come back to me Naruto."_

" _It's a promise of a lifetime Harleen."_

 _Their lips inched closer until-_

*BEEP BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP BEEP*

"GAH!" The blonde woman woke up suddenly when her alarm clock blared by her nightstand. Panting heavily with the breath she supposedly held during her sleep as she tried to get fresh air into her lungs. Once calming down, she turned off her alarm as she raked her hand through her hair while trying to process what she had just seen in her dream.

"It felt so real." The intern muttered as she placed her fingertips towards her lips to feel a hollow feeling like it seemed to be missing something, but what. She then looked towards her first edition copy of Loveless by the nightstand and recollected her thoughts of what she could try to remember from that dream. Mentally comparing from the one passage she read in the book to what she saw in her dream before realizing the differences. "Those last bits were…. from my subconscious?"

She shook her head, trying to get those obscene thoughts out of her head. There was no way she could really like Naruto in such a way. There wasn't…. But every time she seemed to deny such a thing brought back that hollow feeling in her heart.

He's been her friend since she first started out at Arkham. Unknowingly helping her out through so much both in and out of work. Making her feel so happy after so long, after…. After that night. The one night that things went downhill on her self-esteem and sent her into a dark place. But, somehow, Naruto had been able to drag her out of that pit and help ease her pain. His comforting warmth helped ease the pain she has kept hidden from the world. Naruto became a great friend to rely on.

….But after what happened at Arkham might end up changing things between them.

She apparently fainted after hearing from Naruto confessing that Pam is allowing him to be in an open relationship with other women. It is very scandalous on what she heard, even though there was a reason behind it with Pam being sterile/barren. But the thing that possibly got things more complicated was the statement that there was an impression of both she and her friend have feelings for each other.

It's completely ridiculous….right?

Once out of her odd fainting spell, the intern denied such a thing and didn't wait for either of them to talk to her as she ran out of the asylum. She unintentionally made a spectacle out of it, but she didn't care as she couldn't face or hear them at all. She just needed to figure things out.

It didn't help that Naruto had been calling and leaving voicemails for the past few days, but she hasn't even bothered to listen and respond to them. She assumed that her friend wanted to explain things to her, but fear got the better of her and she didn't want to listen to his kind and caring voice. The blonde wanted to, but for some reason she couldn't play the messages.

She just needed time to sort all of this out. She just needs something else to focus on. She just needs a distraction from her frustration.

So after making herself a nice omelet to help start her day, she went into her daily exercises to start the day. Even though she is no longer into gymnastics, doesn't mean that she wants to be out of practice. Harley does a lot of stretches and her typical workout routine consisting of: push ups, sit ups, squats, handstand push ups, raised push ups, weight training and several other exercises that she has done for years.

Harley was pretty much done with her routine when all of a sudden….

*Ding Dong*

*Groan* "It better not be her again." Harley said as she got up from her floor and wiped off some sweat off of her person.

*Knock Knock*

Narrowing her eyes a little, she marched up towards her door as she loudly spoke out. "Mrs. Fernandes…. I already told you I haven't seen your cat!"

When opening the door, she had expected to see her neighbor….except she was greeted with….

"I haven't seen him either…." Naruto said as he looked at the hallway of the apartment floor. "Or is the cat a girl? Was I being misogynist just now? Or is it misogynistic? Never really knew on that."

"N-Naruto!" The intern said in surprisement as she didn't expect seeing him here. "W-What are you...How did you find my apartment?"

"Well I remembered some of our previous chats on some places you liked going towards that was near your home. Took some bit of digging to eventually narrow things down. After that, I just ended up chatting with some people nearby that were your neighbors." He said to her, which was partially true. The publisher actually broke into Arkham last night to find Harley's address. It was just that he had a tough time narrowing things down to several blocks and needed to get the last bit of info from her workplace.

Not that she would ever need to know that tidbit.

"But why are you here?!"

Her response changed his mood drastically as he went from slightly cheerful to a worried one. "Can we talk Harley?"

Not wanting to have any of her neighbors see or hear this conversation, she ushered him inside before closing the door behind him.

Taking a look around, he couldn't help but say something. "Nice place you got here Harley. Lots of space."

Her larger than standard studio styled apartment had a nice fixture of descent furniture to fit with the style and theme she had going on with the decorations to lighten up the residence. There was an elongated couch separating the kitchen from the living room to help make it be a wall of sorts. There's even a hallway, with the opening connected to the living room, which lead towards the bathroom and her bedroom.

"Mind telling me why you're here Naruto?" She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"...You haven't responded to my calls and I was getting worried. Even checked in with Pam and Selina if you had spoken with them, but they said that you haven't." He said to her as he scratched the back of his head. "So I wanted to see if you were okay."

"Well I am, so you could go now."

"Can you please listen to me Harley?"

Harley looked at him for a few brief moments and just sighed in response to his pleading look. "Fine, what do you need to say to me?"

Naruto released a small breath as he felt a bit better that she would be willing to listen to him now. 'Man I thought this was going to be easier to say.' He thought before speaking to her. "Look…. I'm sorry on what happened the other night and I didn't expect things to go the way as it should."

"That's a complete understatement." She said as she rolled her eyes at him with her frustration coming back. The intern then glared at him for a moment before opening up her mouth. "If you possibly thinking that there's something between us, then you got another thing coming buster. So say what you need to say and go."

He felt hurt when hearing this, but guessing on how she is feeling he can understand what she's possibly coming from. "But that's the thing Harley. I don't know if there is anything between us."

The intern quirked up an eyebrow as she didn't expect hearing such a thing from him. "Excuse me."

"I mean…. I just don't know if I think I do."

"...What do you mean exactly?" Harley asked with her curiosity seemingly baited now for what he has got to say.

*Sigh* "It's just that…. It's just that I consider you a great friend of mine Harley. For as long as I've known you; I admired how hard you worked when wanting to get to your current position, with what you wanted to truly get. Hell, I know I worked hard with what I wanted to have in my life and it's not easy like everyone else…. I even guessed that I have known you long enough to know that you need to have someone special in your life." The publisher stated getting a little reaction out of her on the last bit as one of her hands tightened around her arm a bit.

"So when Pam told me that she assumed that you have feelings for me and vice versa, I didn't know what to do. 'Should I go after or not and possibly risk what we currently have'. That's what I thought Harley and I had been going over that for quite some time now.

Sure... I think you're very beautiful with how I see you the majority of our time together. With your angelic look of yours, that shade of blue your eyes have that seems to sparkle a little when something interesting comes across your field of vision and I think your laugh is very cute. But that's just putting you on this sort of pedestal…. I think, and makes me wonder if I like the image of you or what you really are. So I-I don't know if you should be me since…..since I don't want to risk our friendship Harley."

'...He thinks I'm beautiful?' She thought with her fighting down the blush that tried to come across her cheeks. But she had to bite her inner cheek to keep that feeling down with wanting to hear more of this. Luckily for her, somewhat, he didn't see this reaction as he gained a downcast look and didn't look at her in the eyes at this point.

"I've learned that the hard way when I was younger of going after this one classmate I had a crush on…. and from what I tried to do to please her, had hurt our friendship in various aspects. *Sigh* I first started crushing on her when we were younger, with me thinking that she was very pretty and I wanted to gain her attention. I did become her friend and from there I sought out her feelings, but she was interested in another classmate of ours. The guy wasn't all that great at all and she had deserved better, along with the other girls that were fawning over him.

There is, in fact, a whole list that I could tell you about him on those reasons, but I don't want to get side tracked on this…. My friend had fawned over him too much that I just wanted to appease her and did what I could to bring him back to her, but in the end he didn't even bother at all with him so focused on other things. Even years later, she was still hung over him that I still don't even realize why she likes the guy after all of the bullshit he pulled. It even got to the point that she up straight lied to me, that she liked me instead to help comply on this one thing going on at the time." Her friend said as his tone of voice had a hint of anger towards the end.

'Why does that sound familiar?' The blonde thought before her eyes glanced towards her bookshelf towards her copy of 'Ninja Storm'. 'Was that part of the story actually from his life?'

He calmed down a bit as he noticed that he was starting to get angry when remembering the times Sakura was chasing after Sasuke. So he shook his head a little before continuing on with his explanation. "So when that happened, the pedestal I had for her broke and my friendship with her was over. We still worked together before I left home, but I considered things between us to be done. There was nothing that could be done to fix things between her and I and everyone else we knew the same thing.

So what I'm trying to say here Harley, is that I would like to bury the hatchet and maybe move on. I would like to still be friends with you and get to know you better since I think there's more to you than I know about and vice versa. You've done so much for me and Pam and I want to help you out in return for the 'three' of us. I just don't want to lose and drive you away. But if it's too late then I'll be fine to leave and we don't have to speak to each other ever again."

Once he said his piece, he walked around her to get towards the door, but was stopped when he felt Harley grab ahold of his arm.

"...I'm sorry Naruto. I really am." Harley said to him as he looked at her now with her calm expression. "I didn't know on all that and wished I could've heard it sooner. I was just shocked and confused on what was going on, that I needed time to myself. I ignored the only friends that I have right now and it hurts knowing all that. I was just afraid of things moving too fast and I didn't want to get into a relationship too soon….after my last one."

"...Harley…. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Naruto said as he realized that it was going to end up in _that_ territory right now and he didn't want her to feel uncomfortable in voicing it out.

Rubbing her arm a little, she looked away from him for a moment before speaking again. "Thanks. I don't know if I want to talk about that right now."

"It's okay Harley. You can tell me when you feel ready." The publisher responded, which made her smile a bit. "So what do you say? Will you still want to be friends?"

"...Yeah. I'd like that."

When hearing this, he brightly smiled at her and chuckled a little. "Great to hear. So I was wondering if you're free for the day."

"Well I need to finish getting ready before I head over to work." She said, getting him to nod as asking that bit right off the bat seemed too much at the moment. "While I'm there, I'll go talk to Pam and apologize to ignoring her for the past few days. After that, I'll go see if Selina is still in the hospital and apologize to her as well."

"Actually, she got out yesterday and is just at her loft now."

"Then I'll call her while I'm on my way to work." Harley said as she mentally added that to her list for the day. "But as for the next day I'm off, well I'm free tomorrow."

"How about I treat you for a day of your choosing on what you want to do. I'll be fine of doing whatever your heart desires, no matter how odd it might be. If you're fine with that."

"Are you sure?" She said as she tried to wave off his offering. "I don't want to possibly make things uncomfortable for you."

"Nonsense." Was his immediate response as he shook his head at her. "Besides…. I still owe you something to celebrate with you doing well on Pam's evaluation along with you getting the Magpie case so soon. So doing a full day on whatever you want to do, I'll be fine with paying it and I won't take 'no' for an answer."

"If you say so." She drawled out and thought for a few moments before nodding. "Okay then, you got yourself a deal. I would like to have you pick me up tomorrow morning and I'll direct you to what I want to have for my little holiday."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow morning. I'll call when I'm getting close." The former shinobi said before leaving her apartment to do his own things for the day.

*Chuckles* "Then I can't wait." The intern said to nobody in particular as she went to take a shower. "Because there is a lot that I wanted to do for a while and I intend to do them."

 _ **-Mayor Hill's Office-**_

"I didn't authorize this statement Bullock." Commissioner Gordon said towards his detective with not only them, but District Attorney Harvey Dent being inside of Mayor Hill's office.

With what Gordon was referring to was the a copy of the Gotham Times laid out on the mayor's desk with the headline of 'Gotham Police Declare War on Batman' with a brief statement from the injured security guard saying that a 'Manbat' harmed him. With what has been brought into speculation, made into public fear that Batman is possibly harming innocent civilians and workers now. You could thank Harvey Bullock for that.

"Come on Commissioner." Bullock said as he tried to sweeten his way out of this one. "Someone just asked me a couple of questions and all I did was answering a couple of them."

"Yet you gave them without my approval." The auburn haired man said as he shook his head with frustration building up. "If you would've kept quiet, then he wouldn't know that we are moving against him."

"Well I'll find him Commish'. All I just need is a little extra help….If you wouldn't be so kind, your honor?" The detective asked the mayor, who was currently thinking current events thoroughly.

"What kind of help detective?" Hill asked, which got a more determined look from the pleasantly plump detective.

"I want my own tactical squad for the sole purpose of throwing the net over Batman."

Hill then brought his eyes towards the other bespeckled man in the room before addressing him. "Commissioner? What do you have to say in this?"

"I've already denied the request." Gordon plainly stated with his arms folded across his chest. "Nobody's going to make an anti-vigilante task force on my streets."

"But your honor, this nutcase in a bat costume was probably going to snap sooner or later and I'm surprised we hadn't bothered to do this sooner." Harvey Bullock said to try and defend his part of the argument.

"Look….I can understand what you're trying to do here Bullock, but this isn't Batman's MO."

"Oh yeah! Well tell that to the guy that was tossed out of the window and landed straight into the hospital!"

"Enough!" Hill said in a firm tone. This got things quieted down from the little argument as Gotham's Mayor got up from his desk and looked towards the auburn haired male. "I'm sure we could spare a few men Commissioner Gordon. Detective Bullock does have a good record and a reputation on getting results."

'To a certain degree.' Gordon thought as he mentally rolled his eyes.

"So I'll be granting him the task force. But is there anything else you need out of this detective?"

"Yeah….I just want to be sure that the DA's office will give me an airtight case here sir." Bullock said as he drew his attention to Gotham's DA himself, who was currently sitting a bit away from the group while fiddling around with his old coin .

As this was going on, Harvey Dent was mentally going over what has happened recently. Supposedly Batman has gone rogue and attacked a security guard last night. There was no security footage in that part of the pharmaceutical building to fully authenticate the claim. All that the victim had claimed was a 'bat like figure' or a 'bat creature' attacked him while doing his rounds. It could've been the Dark Knight himself or could've been someone else trying to pin the blame at the bat themed hero.

But things have been pretty confusing with this whole problem that he couldn't make heads or tails on this entire mess. If there was more evidence to this, then the case would end up better handled instead of….this. Harvey could dismiss the warrant out for Batman's arrest with how things are like now; but with the DA elections coming up very soon, he'll need as much public support and pull towards his side so he can be elected for another 4 years in office.

Once coming down to his decision, he stopped playing with his coin and looked towards the black haired detective in the room.

"If you can catch him Harvey, then I'll send him to jail for you."

 _ **-Chinatown-**_

Coming out of the door to a particular shop in the Chinatown district in Gotham showed the Wayne butler holding a package in his hands while keeping the door opened long enough for his ward to step outside of the asian area.

"...Sounds to me that whatever happened last night was possibly the old corporate sabotage sir." Alfred said as he walked alongside Bruce.

"With how this bat imposter got in and out without being fully noticed, until the end, could be possible. Even with the two very quiet burglaries at the other pharmaceutical companies this week."

Looking at the package in his hands, Alfred looked towards Bruce with a skeptical look. "Remind me again sir, but what did we just purchase in there?"

"Hormone-free bovine glands." Bruce stated as he opened the trunk for Alfred to put the case in there. "I'm experimenting my need of sleep. Currently it's roughly four hours, but I would like to cut that down to two. Most glands are supposed to be rich in adrenal fluids."

"Then I'll be glad to blend them up for you before you go to bed sir." The butler said as he closed the trunk. "Though I do wonder if I should even bother to do so Master Bruce. Given the fact that things have been rather quiet in the city since the attack at the manor, asides from the incident from last night. This could give you the opportunity to actually get a full eight hour sleep after so long."

It has indeed been quiet since the manor incident. When word had somehow gotten out on what happened, handfuls of criminals had the bright idea to not go out at night to not incur Batman's wrath of so many dead security and police officers. It was a small ratio of sorts of how many deaths against the ones that lived.

From what was brought up on the reports along with the security footage Bruce had given to the GCPD, after he edited out of him going into his Batcave, that the only people that were killed by those hooded assassins were done as last resort. Many of the assassins had only knocked out other security and police personnel as a priority so that there wouldn't be much of a commotion. The ones that were killed was when things apparently seemed out of their hands.

Speaking of dead bodies…. With the hooded assassins that committed suicide at Wayne Towers that night, their bodies went missing from the GCPD morgue when the morgue-tician went out to go use the restroom. When he got back, those bodies were gone and security footage was erased to hide on who took them. Bruce guessed that the assassins quickly went in there so that no one would get information on what could be scrounged up on their group.

Asides from that mess, crime had seemed pretty low especially when Vanitas had been making appearances to take care of some thefts, robberies, an attempted rape and murder and several other things. Even Dick called when he heard of what happened and expressed his concerns that he wasn't brought in to help out into his home for nearly a decade. But Bruce told him that things were taken care of in the end. His foster son relented, but grudgingly accepted since he had some issues to deal with at the college and had let off some steam at Bludhaven by taking care of a handful of crimes there for the past few days.

"Maybe you're right Alfred. I could maybe get some more sleep….after this bat imposter thing is taken care of." The billionaire stated before a voice called out to him.

"Mr. Wayne….Small world."

Looking behind him, he met the gaze of the blonde therapist that he had helped save with Vanitas at the abandoned hospital. With his usual habit, he looked around her form to see any other detail and came across a bag in her hand.

"Dr. Ravencroft." He greeted to her with a small smile. "Nice to see you again. Don't mind me asking, but what are you doing here?"

"There's a variety of herbal teas I enjoy and I can only procure them from here." The blonde therapist said to him. "Don't mind me asking the same thing but what were you doing?"

"Trying something out a friend of mine suggested." Bruce lied on the fly with a shrug. "He said that it helped relax him more when sleeping and I thought I could possibly need it as of late."

The doctor nodded at this to show that she bought the lie. "I can understand that given what we had discussed in some of our sessions."

To be sure that Bruce wasn't using Dr. Ravencroft for the one time thing and not let her dwell into suspicion, he had decided to hire her for several other sessions before ending things from there.

"So since you're no longer my patient. I think it would be fine for you to drop the 'doctor'." Bethanie said as she got closer to the billionaire.

"Only if you drop the 'Mr. Wayne'."

"Consider it dropped, Bruce." She said to him with a small smile before linking arms with her. "Nice car."

"Thank you."

"A little extravagant for one, don't you think?" Bethanie said in a coy tone, making Bruce chuckle in the process with what she had in mind.

"I'd be more than happy to help give you a lift, Bethanie."

"How about tomorrow night?"

He knew what she was referring to dinner and chuckled at this. Quickly thinking this over, he guessed that he could possibly get this imposter business done tonight and be free tomorrow evening to help out on his 'playboy' cover. With his mind process done, he nodded and gave his response. "Sure, why not. But don't mind me asking but why tomorrow night?"

"There's a fundraising dinner downtown. 8 o'clock and it's black tie. So don't forget your checkbook." As she said this, she let go of the billionaire's arm and walked away from him with a sway to her hips.

Bruce didn't know how long he looked; but when he turned around with a smile on his face, it quickly went into a questioning frown. Reason being….well by Alfred's cheeky grin.

"Don't you say one word." Bruce ordered as he stepped into the back seat of the car. He didn't meet his old friend's gaze after that since he didn't want to add ammo to his gun.

"What…. And to make you more flustered sir?" Mr. Pennyworth rhetorically asked with his grin growing with every passing second.

"I'm not flustered." Bruce defensively said as he briefly looked up, only to quickly look away. "I'm not."

"Then I'll be sure to put your bovine glands on ice until further notice sir." Alfred said as he closed the door with a chuckle escaping his lips. "Can't wait to tell Maggie about this."

 _ **-Night, Phoenix Pharmaceuticals-**_

Batman had to be extra careful this evening when getting to the pharmaceutical building that was attacked last night. He had to hide his batmobile outside of city limits and glide his way through most of it without being scene or else he'll complicate matters. It wasn't easy but he got there with the building in his sights. He fired his grappling gun towards the building and before making his way in a zip line motion, he had to tuck in his cape just in case if anyone down below were to glance up.

Unknownst to him; a pair of doctors, whom were getting frisky with each other in the late night hours, caught sight of the bat themed hero and quickly called the police before making themselves scarce.

Once the Dark Knight was successful into entering the building from the rooftop, he navigated his way through the hallways until he was able to find the entrance to the crime scene. It was easy to get the guards stationed there knocked out with his tranquilizer darts that Marva had developed for him. It would leave the targets to be asleep for half an hour until the agents wore off, leaving plenty of time for him to investigate the crime scene. So once inside, Batman had activated the next prototype detective vision in his cowl to start investigating the room.

"Now then, I should start searching for clues for what occurred in here." The disguised playboy said to himself as he looked throughout the room in his vision. "From what reports have stated so far, security guard Marcus Bowden heard a noise and came into this room to investigate. A fight broke out, resulting with a chair going through the window and in the end, Mr. Bowden was thrown out of it and fell into the river below. Need to know what else occurred here."

As his eyes glanced throughout the room, he saw the broken window with the police tape and tarp covering it so the wind wouldn't tamper with the evidence. He got closer to see if either the victim or the imposter had come in contact with the broken glass and moved the tarp away from the edges to see if there was. Unfortunately there wasn't any at all.

He then moved closer to the desk to see a broken vase there and when he took a closer look, he was greeted with the site of hair follicles. Knowing this could be as good of evidence he could get, he pulled out a little bag from his utility belt and placed the hairs into it before putting the bag back into it's pocket. Batman looked around the desk and found several gun shells on the floor, but didn't see any blood in the room at all. Which was strange since there should've at least been some droplets from the fight. Either the assailant had good body armor or the bullets went into him but he had contained them as long as he could before leaving. Had to be either one of them with there being no bullet holes in the surrounding walls.

That was when he saw….claw marks?...on the ground around some parts of the room. They were feint to the point that anyone could've missed them, but not him and his analytical eye. One would have to crouch down real low to possibly see them. With his current position, his vision picked up something that was lying under the desk. Once reaching under, he grabbed ahold of it and brought it closer to his face to see that it was a tape recorder.

"Wonder why this is here?" Batman asked as he played the tape.

" _Testing: One, Two, Three. Testing: One, Two, Three."_ A male voice said like he was trying to practice for something. _"And you too can dream to be a high paid radio personality in your spare time. Just like me. So call *Cough* *Cough* So call the Gotham Institute of Broadcast Arts." *Chuckle* "Oh yeah, that sound so much better than the last run."_

Batman pressed the pause button and realized that this was Marcus Bowden's recorder. "Seems he was practicing for an assignment or an audition for the radio station." Once saying that, he played the tape again.

 _*Bang* *Rattle*_

Paying close attention to the tape this time, Batman closed his eyes to possibly visualize what went on in the room. All that he could hear was the guard's footsteps and him pulling out his gun from its holster before hearing the man's voice again.

" _Phewww! For a second there I thought something was in here….. Might've been my imagination. *Sigh* Need to stop taking too many of these graveyard shifts. Starting to get to me."_

It was there when Batman heard a slight 'thump' in the background with some slight scratching sounds and flesh hitting against the floor following after it.

" _AHHHH! Get away!"_ Marcus screamed out.

 _ **RAAAAAAAARHHHH**_

Once hearing the roar, Batman stopped the tape and slipped the device into his belt before adopting a thinking pose. "Hmm, seems that whoever this imposter is might be a metahuman. Don't know what that sound might indicate, but I'll need to go through the bat computer for more details."

He would've investigated more, but the sounds of police sirens and helicopter blades started to fill the air just as a search light came shining through the office window.

"I need to get out of here." Batman said as he shut down the 'detective vision', rushed out of the room and down the several hallways to reach the elevator to try and make his escape. He soon made it towards his goal and grabbed ahold of the openings of the elevator to make his escape. Luckily he was able to open them wide enough to slip right through, because a handful of SWAT team members came busting through the stairwell.

"There he is!" One of the SWAT members called out when the person barely saw Batman slip right through the barriers. "We need to go back down now!"

"I don't think so." A voice called out from behind making them turn around to see a cloud of smoke covering the area. In their confusion, each of the SWAT members were being picked off one by one. Shots were being fired in the confusion and all but one SWAT member was left standing.

"Where are you?" The man said as he was frantically looking around, as the smoke dispersed, for the man that did this to his fellow teammates.

"Here."

This made the man quickly turn around, only to be met by a fist to knock him out.

"Well that was rather interesting." Vanitas said as he looked at his handy work. "Haven't done that to a bunch of cops before. Thugs yes, but cops…. well there's a first for everything." The masked publisher then looked towards the window where the police were stationed and spoke to no one in particular as he fazed himself through the floor. "Now I need to help Batman out of this mess."

Shots were being fired upon Batman as he was running for cover. When he had gotten out of the elevator shaft, he came across a group of SWAT and they fired their assault rifles when he came into their sites. He had to run through several hallways to hopefully get away from them, but there were too many. Batman eventually got into a room that could possibly help hold him out for a brief moment.

And how brief that moment was as a SWAT member came into the room to see if the Dark Knight was there. The officer caught a glimpse of the hero and yelled out a call for help, but the Bat's hand covered his mouth to keep him quiet. That little bit of noise was all that was needed as the other SWAT members heard their teammate and rushed towards the room. Once getting close, they hugged the wall outside of the room, ready for their next course of action.

"The Bat's got to be in there sir." One of the SWAT members said to his commanding officer. All that the man got as a response was his commanding officer to pull out a cannister from his belt. "Tear gas sir?"

"We'll flush him out. So get your masks on." The commanding officer said as he gave out the order before tossing the tear gas container in there.

The container had landed into the room and skipped several times till it came to a stop to a few opened containers of flammable gas. Batman and the one SWAT member saw this and panicked. So Batman grabbed the man and dashed out of the nearby window for their safety.

As for the other SWAT members outside of that room, they were ready for the gas to go off. But they didn't expect someone to run towards them, skid to a halt and shoot his hands out towards the sides. They were mildly confused at this and aimed their weapons towards him.

"GET DOWN!" Vanitas yelled out as the room ignited and sent a shockwave towards the entire floor as the entire area was sent up in flames. The SWAT members thought they were goners, but saw a shimmering barrier of sorts all around them. Vanitas protected them from the blast.

"You guys are complete morons!" The disguised publisher yelled at them as he canceled out the barrier. When that happened, they felt the full heat of the flames. "Didn't you guys even look at the sign?" Vanitas questioned as he pointed towards the flammable hazard sign outside of the room. "Get your men out of here and onto safety! I'll go get your other guys from the upper floor!"

Vanitas didn't wait for a response for this as ran and focused his powers into a dagger before throwing it upwards. It might've stuck towards the ceiling, but it went fazed right through it and landed on top of the upper level. The disguised Uzumaki then focused onto his powers again to focus on the dagger up there and before he knew it, he warped onto the upper level. It was lucky that the flames haven't reached this level yet, so he went towards the window and broke it to give him a better way of getting the downed men outside.

The masked hero had grabbed ahold of the dagger on the ground and focused more power into it before stabbing it on the wall behind him. With what he has planned for this needs a good anchor on both ends. So with that, he brought out another dagger and did the same thing before throwing it towards the ground below where all of the police were at. He then grabbed ahold of two SWAT members before warping his way towards the dagger outside.

"What the devil?!" Bullock yelled out as Vanitas somehow appeared near him. At first he thought the dagger seemed too much when it landed next to him. He went to see what it was, but the other hero of Gotham showed up there with two of his task force members. "Where the hell did you come from?!"

"From the building. Where else would have I been?" Vanitas responded in a cheeky tone. "I'll be right back."

This confused the detective and Commissioner until he warped away from them for a few moments before coming back with two other SWAT members. This happened a few more times until all of the downed members were placed right outside. Even the security guards that were stationed outside of the crime scene that Batman had knocked out.

"Well here you go."

"Thanks for the assist Vanitas."

"No problem Commissioner. Just doing my job." Vanitas said as he summoned his motorcycle in a plume of black and white smoke. "Have a good night you guys." He told them before revving up his bike and drove off with the sounds of Bullock cursing at the top of his lungs with him wanting to take out Vanitas as well.

 _ **-Next Day, Gotham Zoo-**_

"Come on Naruto." Harley said in a giddy tone as she eyed the next part of the zoo. "I want to see those next."

"Alright Harley, I'm coming." Naruto said as he was practically being dragged along by his blonde friend. "We can take as much time as we want. They aren't going anywhere."

The Gotham Zoo is the current place the two are at in Harley's little holiday. Since Naruto offered his friend that everything they do for the day will be on him, she decided to exploit it to her heart's content. With some exceptions of course.

Naruto had picked up Harley around eight in the morning and the first place she wanted to go to was Paula's Diner for breakfast. It was a simple meal really that Harley told Naruto that she had called Selina and talked to Pam to tell them that she was sorry on how she acted and not seeing them. She explained everything to them on what she was feeling and they forgave her since it was a practically a normal reaction for anyone if they heard such a thing. It made Naruto feel better that Harley was able to explain her feelings on the whole matter.

After breakfast, Harley had wanted to go to the arcade of all places. Something about wanting to get rid of some angst she had been building up for quite some time because of work. It was pretty understandable, so the two of them had been playing through several fighting games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Marvel Vs Capcom. That was all before going onto some of the regular arcade games that Naruto had gotten enough tickets to get Harley several plush toys with some left over for him to grab one for Pam and Selina. It was rather cute to see Harley hold a pirate fox plushie and gush over it along with the other ones he one her. With the ones he got for Selena and Pam, they were a Rocket Racoon and Groot plush respectively.

Though there was an odd feeling he got when playing at the shooting gallery to get one of Harley's prizes. Naruto had never used a gun before in his life, even a standard arcade one, only used his kunai, daggers and cards as his projectiles. But when he was aiming down on his sights, some purple circles appeared to help pinpoint his target. When he fired, he did it in rapid succession that could've made any sharpshooter green with envy. Naruto wondered what the deal with that was, but he didn't complain since he gotten Harley one of the bigger prizes in the end.

Once leaving the arcade, the two went out for lunch before going to Harley's next stop on her list being the Gotham Zoo. It was fun seeing Harley be so energetic throughout the day that it could've been a crime to see her depressed all of a sudden. Reason why he wanted to make his friend happy was to not only help her celebrate all of the good she has done so far, but to also help uplift her spirits that she has been having for quite a while.

The two had finished going through several areas of the zoo from the reptile house, the aviary, the aquarium and the insectarium. So now they were going to the regular animals on display from the lions, tigers, and bears. Oh My….

…..

(Sorry, couldn't help myself. Moving on.)

When seeing most of the animals here in the cages, Naruto couldn't help but frown a little as part of Selina's environmentalist influence was rubbing off on him. Wanting to get the animals out of their cages and find a way to get them back to their natural habitats. But it wouldn't do them any good.

'Maybe I should bring Selina here when I get the chance.' Naruto thought before he was dragged again by Harley to their next stop.

Things were normally going well until they suddenly stopped…. Well more like Harley stopped with Naruto bumping into her. He gained a questioning look as he gazed his sites at his friend. He then looked towards what she was staring at and saw it was the hyena pen. Or more importantly, what was in the pen.

*Squeel* "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" Harley yelled out as she practically gained stars in her eyes. "Look at those babies! They are so cute!"

Naruto let out a small laugh as he saw Harley run up to the pen and gush over how adorable the two hyena babies were while being fed by the animal handler.

"I have a feeling I now know what your favorite animal is Harley."

"Yeah. Always loved them when I was younger." The blonde intern said as the nostalgia kicked in. "They were an interesting bunch that I wanted to interact so when I did a study on them for a school assignment I felt connected to them in a way. Whenever they are stressed, they would always laugh. Would always give out an interesting sound to get others to recognize each other. Even thought of having one or two as a pet."

"I can understand that." He commented as he looked at the scene along side her. "I've been meaning to ask this Harley, but why the arcade and the zoo? I would've expected going out on a shopping spree on books and clothes, but not those." He didn't get much of an immediate response as Harley's eyes were still glued on the hyenas, but one came up a few moments later.

"Well~ the shopping spree did come to mind, but I figured it would've been better if we were actually dating." She said as she started to chuckle a little at the thought before things went on the different route.

*Sight "... But I didn't have much fun in my childhood, with me not having not that many friends at all. With how things were like at the time, I eventually had to grow up rather quickly. From working hard so I could try and have a better life once I got older. Had to sacrifice a lot of my free time working on gymnastics and school work so I could get into college.

So today I wanted to at least…. Well hopefully try to at least feel like like a kid again. To feel what I had missed all those years ago. Even if it's only for a handful of times, it would at least make me feel better without having to deal with work for the time being."

Once that was said, Harley had felt Naruto wrap his arm around her to bring her close to a side hug. She didn't resist at this, as it felt nice to be in his warm embrace. After having the chat yesterday morning, Harley felt better that Naruto wanted to stay friends with her. It really did, don't get her wrong about that as a large weight came off of her from her worries.

But with what went on today, spending time with Naruto as a friend, made her wonder if those feelings she had before went away for a time or started to slowly come back. With not having the feeling of life bringing her down and feeling like a free spirit, Harley felt a bit connected with her inner self. So when Naruto had given her all of those gifts/prizes and made her day all the more wonderful so far, it started making her have this bubbly feeling inside of her. She didn't know if she liked Naruto as just a friend or possibly…. Possibly something more.

" _The Gotham Zoo Tour tram will depart in five minutes."_ A voice from the intercom spoke out, breaking the semi-quiet moment between the two. _"Adventures of Curoptery in the Bat Exhibit will begin in thirty minutes."_

"Well I think we stayed here long enough Naruto." Harley said as she broke hold. "I would like to maybe get onto that tour if possible."

"That's fine Harley." Naruto said with a small smile. "It might help wrap up what we haven't seen here today."

She nodded before both of them walked together towards their destination. With the density of people moving all around each other, the two had missed seeing Bruce walking right past them. But it didn't matter to them as they were more focused on each other.

But you might be wondering why Bruce is at the Gotham Zoo in the first place. Well let's find out, shall we….

He had arrived to the Gotham Zoo a handful of minutes ago as he was making his way through the crowds of people that were attending to attractions for the day. His destination in mind was the Bat Exhibit as he had an appointment he scheduled earlier in the day. When he had entered the building, it felt like he was somewhat back at home in his Bat Cave. With the dark and brooding feeling he experiences in there every day, minus all of the expensive equipment he has in there.

"Hello!" Bruce called out into the darkness as he navigated his way through the pathways. "Anybody home?! Dr. March?!"

"Yes….who is it?" A man called out, making Bruce turn around towards the source. He was greeted with the site of an old man, probably in his fifties, with his white hair and short stature. He was currently wearing a lab coat with a Gotham Zoo name badge on it. He also wore a typical pair of black pants and shoes with hints of bat guano on them with a white shirt and green tie.

"Bruce Wayne. I have an appointment. Called about having a bat problem."

"Who do you think we are? Pest control?" Dr. March said in a grumpy mood.

"No I just need to-" "Yeah yeah….follow me."

Bruce did just that as he followed the good doctor until coming to a darkened doorway that would've been hard to notice, if you weren't used to seeing in the dark.

"You donate a few million and you think you own the place." The doctor mumbled as the two entered the lab. "I understand that I need to analyze something for you."

"Yes doctor, I've been hearing these squeaks coming from my chimney and I've found these in my fireplace." Bruce lied in a cheerful tone as he pulled out the bag with bat hairs from his coat pocket. "They looked like hairs and I was wondering what you could tell me about them if I have a bat problem or not."

"And what is wrong with having bats Mr. Wayne? And what then? Destroy them like the _pests_ they are?" The man said with an angry hiss. "We won't be able to survive the next evolutionary cataclysm, but bats will. They are survivors Mr. Wayne. Not pests! You should understand that!"

"Dad! Will you please cut that out." A female voice called out, getting Bruce to turn around to see a beautiful woman in her mid to late 30's. Shoulder length blonde hair with curls throughout its length. She wore a standard lab coat with her name badge present over the purple attire she had underneath. She also wore a pair of red rimmed glasses to cover up her green eyes. "I hope that Mr. Wayne means you no disrespect."

"Of course not Miss…."

"Mrs. actually… more like doctor. Dr. Francine Langstrom." The blonde greeted the billionaire. "You had actually spoke with my husband earlier on the phone."

"Why yes. Yes I did."

Like calling on the devil and he shall appear, Francine's husband had walked into the room. He appeared to be around his wife's age with being a head taller than her. His light brown hair was combed back to make his face appear longer with his high cheekbones and square like jaw.

"Oh Mr. Wayne. Good to see you. Sorry that I'm late, had something else to take care of." Her husband said as he came up and shook Bruce's hand. "Kirk Langstrom. So did you bring the sample you acquired?"

"I actually gave it to Dr. March." Said man had walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. "Eh…. Where'd he go?"

"Probably starting up on his analysis and if it's a bat problem then we'll let you know by tomorrow at the latest." Kirk said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Dad was just lecturing on the virtues of chiroptera, bats in english if you were wondering."

"Yeah….I hope he didn't get too carried away on that." Kirk groaned a little when hearing that. "He's rather protective on all of this. I think he enjoys their company over people any day of the week."

"I'd can't imagine." Bruce said with a small chuckle. 'If you only knew doctor.' "Oh and I also brought this as well." He said as he held up the tape recorder from last night, with some editing he took out to only focus on the roar. "I got a recording from my chimney and sorry if it sounds a bit off. Tried my best for a good recording." He said before playing the tape.

 _ **RAAAAAAAARHHHH**_

When this was played, Francine was rather startled when hearing this. But with Kirk, Bruce noticed he didn't shaken up when hearing this at all. Something seemed off about that. Bruce then stopped the recording and handed the device to Francine.

"That doesn't sound like any bat I've ever heard Mr. Wayne." She spoke while trying to come up with some thought to all of this.

"We have an animal sound library here at the zoo." Her husband said as he took the recorder from her. "I'm sure the guys over there will be able to identify the sound. So we'll let you know once the results come in."

"Thanks. I appreciate it." Bruce said as he left the lab and went straight back home to figure things out this evening.

 _ **-Batcave-**_

The sound of the roar was playing throughout the cave as Batman was trying to work things out on his end if he can't get the results in before going out on patrol.

"I never depicted you to listen to rock and roll sir." Alfred said as he came over to switch out the empty pot of tea he left earlier.

"You know, I had compared some of the sounds to any known bats. Even the computer can't make any heads or tails out of it." The hero said as he scratched his head in slight frustration.

Before he had left to the zoo earlier, he had his computer go through the samples found at the crime scene and things weren't all that conclusive. So he resorted to contacting the experts in this sort of thing when one little result came through that the hairs came from a bat. Even when he came back, he did the best he could to figure out the source of the sound. From what Bruce could tell was that he'll need to get more equipment when possible.

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

The sound of Bruce's phone went off in the cave, making him turn off the sound playing on his computer. With Bruce being closer to the phone, he picked it up and answered.

"Hello. Bruce Wayne speaking."

" _You have bats Mr. Wayne. Common brown bats."_ Dr. March said over the phone. _"They shouldn't pose a problem as long as you don't_ smoke _them out. But once the weather starts getting colder, they'll move onto a warmer area."_

"But what about the sound on the tape?"

" _Believe it or not, but it's actually two sounds spliced together. Starlings and brown bats. Probably fighting over a nest in your chimney."_

"Thanks for the assist doc. I'll be sure to pay you back when you're raising funds again."

" _Good to know. Have a good night."_ Dr. March said as he hung up the phone.

"Well that narrows the sound down a little bit, but the computer would've picked up on it. I went to them if they knew something I didn't and that hair wasn't that of a typical brown bat."

"And those melodic sounds?" Asked the Wayne butler.

Bruce typed up the designated bat species and pulled up their natural sounds before playing them at the same time. They sounded similar to the one from the recorder, but it didn't match up at all. More monstrous due to what Bruce concluded as the bat imposter being a metahuman.

"I'm afraid that we are facing an incongruity here."

"Incongruity? No… Dr. March is lying and I intend to find out."

 _ **-Evening, Gotham Zoo-**_

Inside of the Bat Exhibit's lab, a shadowy figure had his lab run a variety of chemicals through various tubes while he was handling the samples Mr. Wayne had brought in earlier. With the burner on, the person had brought out a pair of tongs to grab ahold of the tape before putting it over the open flame to destroy the film inside. Once placing it back onto a safety tray on the side, the person then used the same pair of tongs to do the same process again on the bag of hair samples.

Once that was done, the person started to pant and groan a little. In response to this, the person pulled out the vials that were stolen from the pharmaceutical buildings and struggled to open them up before pouring them into the chemical fixture. With the chemicals doing their work, they traveled along their glass pathways with the person's eyes following them in an impatient struggle.

"Come on. Come on. Hurry up." The person said as the concoction finally reached it's goal and the entire thing went into a glass beaker. As this went on, the person licked their lips in anticipation. Once the very last drop fell into the container, the person carefully picked it up to their lips and drank down the whole thing.

*Cough Cough* *Panting* *Cough* "That should probably do it." The person said while taking off the safety gloves before going into the other room.

Without being noticed, Batman came out of his cover from the outside and slowly opened up the window to get inside of the lab before closing it back up. He was going to search the lab for clues, but the sound coming from his cowl was going off. With the particular tone going off in his ear was coming from his phone.

"Need to keep this low." Batman muttered as he crouched down before answering the call. "Hello."

" _Did I catch you at a bad time?"_

"No...I don't think so. Why you ask Bethanie?" He asked with his mind mostly focused on the task at hand.

" _What are you wearing?"_

This threw him off his game a little as he didn't know how to respond to that. "... I'm sorry but what?"

" _I'm hoping it's a tux since it's 7:30 and I'm expecting you in half an hour."_

'Dammit, I forgot. The fundraiser dinner.' Bruce thought as he quickly answered her back. "With my checkbook right?"

" _Yup."_

As this went on, the door to the lab opened up violently.

"Who's there?!" The person said before scanning the room. "Don't bother try and hide. I heard something in here."

Berating himself on this, he decided he needed to end the call now. "Bethanie…. I'm going to call you back."

" _Bruce? What is goi-"_

With the cover being blown, Batman came out of his hiding spot to address the person from the doorway: Dr. Kirk Langstrom.

"I'm here to see Dr. March."

"Well he's not here Batman."

"Then where is he?"

"Giving a lecture on human extinction and bat evolution at the college as a guest speaker for a friend of his that teaches there." Kirk plainly said as he closed the door behind him and walked further into the lab. "He's really quite brilliant you know."

"He's misguided and a thief." Batman said as he held up a chemical vial.

"My father-in-law is just a theorist, since he was afraid to put it to the test. But I wasn't." The doctor said with a small chuckle as he walked past his work table. "We'd discovered a formula to create a totally new species. Neither man nor bat. And once I started taking it…. *Panting* I just couldn't stop. I honestly wanted to stop *Cough Cough*, but _**it**_ took over."

"What are you saying?" The Caped Crusader said as he slowly readied himself for whatever is going to happen.

"Francine and her father tried to protect me, but it was too late. *Panting* The beast already knew what chemicals it needed to bring itself about. It was out of my control." He said defensively before he started to groan. "It took over and I was thrown into the backseat to make me get what it wanted. Now *Groan* it's all in me!" Kirk yelled out as his body started to spasm to make him fall onto the lab table and try to get himself back up. Batman went closer to possibly help him but Kirk yelled out to him. "StA **y** **b** _ **a**_ **cK!** "

With that final warning, his body started to shift and churn as his body started to enlarge itself with his hair starting to grow out. The clothes were straining against the fabric as his eyes started to dangerously dilate with the veins of his eyes showing up drastically. His ears started to shift into a sharpen tip with his hands starting to gain more skin in between his elongated fingers before it seemed to spread underneath his arms.

" _ **GRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"**_ Kirk yelled out in a mighty roar like screech as the Man-Bat soon took over. It raised its arms free as the clothing shredded like a pseudo cocoon before it swung its arms across the table, spilling all of it's contents onto the floor.

"My god." Batman said as he saw the horrid spectacle before him. He then readied himself yet again as the Man-Bat jumped into the air and came down to him with its clawed feet. Batman ducked out of the way, only for the creature he's now facing glided across the room before coming back at him in high speeds. It brought down its talons on the hero as it ripped through part of his cape and costume to show some of the skin underneath.

"Going to need a new suit after this." He said as he then saw Man-Bat lift the table and quickly threw it at him. This time, Batman wasn't able to dodge in time as he was then pinned down with nowhere to run. He struggled to get himself free, but the creature jumped on top of the ruined piece of furniture to possibly finish off the hero.

"Kirk?!" A voice called out. Both turned towards the source to see Francine in the doorway. She gasped at the sight before speaking in a shaky tone. "W-What have you done?"

The creature didn't react well to this and bellowed out a screech and opened up its wings to fly out of the room. Batman knew what Man-Bat was going to do, so he pulled out his grappling gun and fired at the man turned beast's leg to have it be wrapped in it's hardened coil. He braced himself as he was then pulled out from underneath the desk and was sent flying with the Man-Bat flying out of the window.

With the Man-Bat flying higher and higher into the night sky, it soon realized the weight it had as it was pulling him down from its leg. It looked back in confirmation to realize that the Batman was still on him. With that in mind, it started to shift and turn to hopefully get the hero of Gotham to let go so that it can be free to do whatever it wants.

As this was going on, the GCPD blimp was doing its rounds for the evening.

*Blip Blip* *Blip Blip* *Blip Blip*

"I'm getting something strange here Mark."

*Groan* "Oh not this again Frank."

"I'm serious Mark. It's right below us."

As he said this, the Man-Bat flew right in front of them with its monstrous screech that got the two officer startled at the sight.

"What the devil?!" Mark yelled out before a loud bang was sounded off in their miniature cabin. The two officer soon saw the source as they saw Batman pressed up against the glass. With the impact he made had gotten it to web out before he was pulled out of his placement and was dragged back out into the night's sky.

"Gotham Command! We need choppers now! We just spotted Batman and some sort of man-bat thing!" Frank yelled out into the radio as his eyes were locked onto the spectacle before him.

 _ **-Meanwhile-**_

*Sigh* "It's practically quiet out tonight." Vanitas said as he was perched on top of his corporate building. The full moon was bright out tonight, making him gaze upon it's beauty. "Nothing really going on so far. Might as well call it a night and see what Selina would want to do for the evening."

He was ready to jump off of the building when he saw a bat like creature flying across his vision, with someone dangling from it's clawed foot. Naruto used his helmet to hone onto the figure and was able to see…. Batman?

'What the fuck is going on?' He thought as he saw the creature fly closer to his position. 'I might as well get some answers now.'

As the beast flew closer to the building, Vanitas jumped off of his placement and threw his arm out to summon his grappling scarf. It extended as far as it could and grabbed ahold of the unoccupied leg. With a jolt, the disguised Uzumaki was then dragged along for the ride.

With the new added weight onto the beast, it looked back to see another person trying to bring it down.

"Well ain't this a blast so far!" Vanitas yelled out as he looked towards Batman, who was holding onto dear life.

"What are you doing here?!"

"Apparently helping you out Bats!" Vanitas said as he had to try and move himself from not hitting a nearby building. "Seems that you're not the only 'bat' here in Gotham?!"

Batman didn't respond to Vanitas' joke as he was more focused on staying alive and stopping the Man-Bat before it causes any problems.

 _ **-GCPD-**_

The sound of helicopter blades were starting to rotate at high speeds to indicate that it was starting to take off. Soon the door to the building's rooftop was violently slammed opened to reveal Bullock running towards the helicopter.

"Come on! Let's go! Let's go!" The detective said as he tried to open the door of the chopper.

"I can't do that sir!" The pilot said getting Harvey to look at him oddly.

"What do you mean you can't do that?!"

"I just got word not to let you in here without the commissioner!"

"Who told you that?!"

"I did!" Gordon yelled out as he ran across the rooftop. "Get out of here detective! The mayor may or may not let me fire you, but I'm not taking the heat for your fiasco!"

"You heard the mayor, Commissioner! This is my case!"

"Then why don't you take it up with him?!" Gordon yelled out as he made his way into the chopper. "I've got a job to do and if you want to tag along, then go ahead!" Once the bespeckled man got inside, he told the pilot to take off.

"Hey! Wait up!" Bullock yelled as he jumped inside of the chopper.

 _ **-Back with the action, Insert Kingdom Hearts 2.5: 13th Dilemma Extended-**_

The Man-Bat was flying all over the city to hopefully get rid of the pests latched onto its legs. Swinging around with a lot of effort to finally let go, but they were very persistent. It soon realized that it needed to fly into some hazards.

What it didn't know was that both 'pests' have been knocking into each other quite often on this 'joyful' ride of theirs. It would've been easier if only one of them was latched onto the legs, but with two…. Well the two are realizing how 'fun' it is hitting each other.

"I swear…. *Groan* I would throw up right now if I didn't have this helmet on." Vanitas said as he tried to stabilize himself, but with the Man-Bat being the one steering this whole time is making things harder to do so. Didn't even help that he kept hitting against Batman. "Would've enjoyed being in an airplane over than this. *Smack* At least I would've had something to stay sturdy on."

In his mild nausea, he barely missed the warning from Batman on the construction site ahead of them. While Batman was able to move his body better to move away from some of the metal beams, Vanitas kept smacking against them.

*Smack* "Ow!" *Smack* "Ack!" *Smack* "Fuck that hurts!"

Soon the Man-Bat went upwards to make the two heroes soar into the upper levels of the construction site before going through several loop de loops in fast speeds.

"AAAHHH! We're gonna diiiiieeeee! We're gonna diiiiieeeee! I'm going to throw up! And then I'm gonna diiiiieeeee!" Vanitas screamed out with him not enjoying all of the spinnings and twirls any longer. "Maaa Maaa!"

"Will you just shut up?!" Batman snapped out as he got frustrated on Vanitas' yells and complaints on this entire struggle.

"Maaaake meeeeee!"

An opportunity soon presented itself as Batman had he let go of his grappling gun, making him fall onto the Man-Bat's back. With this new surprisement, the beast flew out of the construction site before doing the same tactics as before to shake off this 'pest'. But this time, Batman was fighting for control of the 'wheel'.

As this was going on, the GCDP chopper was flying through Gotham in search of Batman and that man-bat thing one of the officers reported. Their wait was over as the occupants of the helicopter soon saw several figures approaching their position. They soon saw an odd spectacle of Batman riding….something.

"What the hell is that thing?!" Bullock yelled out, voicing the other's thoughts.

"That thing is what we are after!" Gordon said before he noticed that they were coming closer. "Move!"

On the sudden command, the pilot did just that to move out of the way as the Man-Bat took a dive, sending Vanitas higher into the air. Because of that, his grappling scarf soon met the path of the helicopter blades, making them slice through the fabric. With losing it's connection to the beast, the helmeted Uzumaki was sent flying higher into the air.

"FUCK!"

With the spinning Vanitas was experiencing, he wasn't be able to focus properly to shoot out his grappling scarf. He was then resorted try to latch onto a nearby building, but he banged off to the side and fell farther away from said building. It seemed that the masked Uzumaki wasn't going to make it with the wind accelerating him towards his demise.

"I can't die here like this!" He yelled out as he tried to focus his powers to at least survive the fall, but it wasn't responding. Like something seemed to block his connection. He focused harder and harder with more determination before he yelled out in frustration. "Come on! Give me something! Anything at all!"

And just like that, something clicked inside of him. Something that felt lost seemed to have returned to him as the surrounding air felt natural to him after a decade. A dark torrent of air started to form around Vanitas' hand before he grabbed ahold of it out of instinct. Once doing so, he jerked mid-air due to the sudden stop from his fall that made it feel like his arm almost got ripped out of it's socket.

"Dear Kami, that is going to fucking hurt for the rest of the night." The masked Uzumaki groaned out before he looked upwards to see what helped save his life.

At first, he thought it was an odd colored pole with its blue and purple tones on the metal surface. But when he was inspecting the length, which seemed to be roughly his height, there were blades coming out from the ends of the pole to get the former shinobi to realize it's a lance. With one end of the lance had the one symbol he kept seeing on his summoned weapons and notebook. While the other end had an odd metallic dragon's head of sort to finish off the rest of its appearance.

"...I did not expect seeing….that." He thought out loud as he didn't know what to do exactly with it. It was just sitting there in the air while he was dangling several hundred feet above the ground. "What should I do with this?"

' _Get on it.'_

"What?" Vanitas questioned as he didn't know where that voice came from.

' _Get. On. It.'_

"...Okay…"

With some hesitation, he pulled himself up and was going to sit down when the lance started to move all on it's own. It forced him to balance onto the pole with his feet as he soon zipped across the sky like he was riding a surfboard or a skateboard. Vanitas wondered if he was going to feel sick again, but oddly enough he didn't feel any bit nauseous at all. In fact, he felt better than before.

"I don't know why I'm like this now, but I'll figure that later. I need to find Batman and that Man-Bat thing." He said as he soon scanned the city for any sign of the two 'bats' all the while getting his lance to go higher for a better view. As it climbed higher, the masked Uzumaki soon saw the pair of 'bats' some distance away. The lance moved without warning again as it bolted through the sky to get towards it's target. It wasn't long for Vanitas to get closer to see Batman punching Man-Bat's face while steering away from several buildings.

"That must not be fun at all." The former shinobi muttered as he got closer to the two and brought his arms out to get the grappling scarves to latch onto Man-Bat's legs. He pulled as hard as he could while getting his lance to slow things to a complete stop. The sudden halt caused the 'bats' to end up crashing against a parking garage, leaving a large indent against its wall with the masked rider thrown off of his lance. They soon landed onto the ground with the two heroes shaking the cobwebs out of their heads while the Man-Bat was rendered unconscious.

"Finally…. It's over." Vanitas groaned out before a spotlight shined upon them. "Spoke too soon."

"This is the Gotham Police! Hand over the Man-Bat thing now!" A loud voice called out from the speakers before it was suddenly cut off to another voice.

"What did I say about messing with the speaker without permission Bullock?!"

"...Not to touch it."

As this went on, Batman had ushered Vanitas to help carry the Man-Bat. He then pulled out several smoke bombs and threw them onto the ground to help cover their mistake. Even Vanitas had to disperse his lance, which was nearby the helicopter, which made a large amount of smoke that was hard to get rid of with the rotating blades of the chopper. By the time things were cleared up, the three were gone.

"You know," Vanitas started to say as he was walking for a bit of time with the other hero of Gotham, "you didn't have to ask me to help you out."

"Well I needed to since I think I might've sprained my ankle on that fall."

"Ouch." The masked publisher said with a sympathetic hiss. "Yeah that would explain that now….. So how much longer till I can leave you two be for the evening?"

"Just a little more." Batman said before bringing one of his hands towards his belt and pressed a button to get his batmobile to roar to life with the hood opening up. "Here is good."

"Great because whoever this guy is-is bloody heavy."

The two carefully placed the beast into the passenger seat of the batmobile before Batman pulled out a tranquiliser and stabbed it into the creature's neck. It was so that it would stay asleep a whole lot longer for what Batman had planned to do for the rest of the evening. Vanitas didn't want to know as he summoned his motorcycle and drove off into the night to parts unknown.

 _ **-Batcave-**_

When getting back to the cave, Batman had a bit of a struggle to get Kirk out of the vehicle. Luckily Alfred was there for the assist before placing the changed man onto the medical table. After that, Batman had hooked the beast up to his computer to run a diagnostic on him.

"I take it that you didn't make it to dinner with Bethanie Master Bruce?" Alfred rhetorically questioned getting his charge to look at him. "She called the manor after you supposedly hung up on her."

"She called at an awkward time." Bruce defended as he focused on the readings the computer were displaying on the screen so far on Kirk's condition.

*Sigh* "What am I ever going to do with you Master Wayne?" The ever faithful butler said with a shake to his head. "You better call her back when possible to make up for…. what's the phrase I'm looking for…. 'standing her up?'"

"I will after I fix Dr. Langstrom here."

"Good."

"It helps a bit that I have a list of all of the stolen chemicals that ended up being used to make Kirk…. Into a monster." Bruce said as he brought up said chemicals onto the screen. "I just hope I can undo what has been done upon him Alfred."

Alfred could only look onto the screen as several scenarios were played out to possibly figure out the cure. "Then does it appear feasible sir?"

Once that was said, a result came through making the 'playboy' to give out a smile. "It just might."

 _ **-Sunrise, Gotham Zoo-**_

The sound of the Batmobile's engines roared as it came through the service entrance of the zoo before it came to a complete stop near the Bat Exhibit. As the hood of the vehicle opened, Francine rushed out of the building in a worried state. She drew closer as her eyes were landed on the wrapped up form held in Batman's arms.

"Is he…. Is he alright?"

The only answer she got was Batman unfurling the wrappings to reveal her husband back to his normal form with some stitches and bandages on him. She sighed in relief to see her husband was human again since what he became…. It scared her greatly. Speaking of…

"Is he going to change again?"

Batman shook his head as he walked towards the entrance of the Bat Exhibit. "He won't... the formula is out of his system. So things are over for now."

She didn't know what he meant and asked him as she opened the door for him to get her husband inside. With the sun starting to rise from the horizon, a figure was slowly revealed from the building's rooftop. To show that Vanitas was hiding on the building's rooftop this entire time.

After what happened hours ago, the masked Uzumaki had to leave and patrol the city again. Reason being was that when he got that lance of his, he felt a storm brewing inside of him that needed to settle down. The only thing he thought was to bring out his new weapon and ride it until he felt it calm down. Like before, nothing else happened since the Man-Bat had come out and the police were heavily patrolling the streets making all crime lessen for the night. But that didn't mean Naruto stopped what he was doing.

With nothing actually going on, he rode the lance like weapon at a decent pace. First with just riding it like it was a surfboard or a skateboard for a while before sitting down on it to ride it like a stereotypical witch or wizard. Riding at various speeds to try and settle down the storm for all it's worth. During all that time, it felt truly satisfying to feel the wind rushing through him even with his helmet put away to get the full feeling.

Time had past as he saw the sun start to rise from the horizon and he was ready to go home when he somehow spotted the Batmobile. His curiosity had peaked as he wondered where it was going. So he rode his lance to follow the trail before it ended up at the Gotham Zoo. From there, he saw what occurred outside of the Bat Exhibit and got all of the answers he needed before using his lance to fly back home without any problems of air sickness anymore.

 _ **-Evening-**_

"So are you going to tell me why you blew me off on our first date last night? And hang up on me?" Bethanie asked as she was seated across from Bruce at a nice restaurant.

After dropping off Kirk Langstrom at the Gotham Zoo, he went home and rested for a few hours, especially since he needed to ice up his sprained ankle. When it was an appropriate time, he called Bethanie and apologized and asked if she would be willing to go to dinner that night. The therapist said yes but would want to hear his excuse face to face.

"I was helping someone out that needed my attention. Didn't know the man all that well, but felt the need to do what I can to possibly save his marriage."

"I see." She said as she took a sip from her wine glass. "But did it work?"

"I think so. The two might be going through some counseling for the time being." He responded with a shrug. "Never really has been my strong suit. Relationships that is."

She chuckled at this when remembering that little tidbit from their previous sessions. "Well let's see what we can do to change that."

"Then I'm glad that I'm not your patient anymore." Bruce said, making her smile a little.

After saying her piece, Bruce's eye caught onto something that surprised him and voiced it.

"Naruto? Selina? What are you two doing here?" Bruce called out, making the secret couple look towards the source.

"Oh hey Bruce. Nice seeing you here." Naruto said as he and his girlfriend got closer with smiles on their faces. But underneath their smiles, they were freaking out a little that they were spotted but they knew that someone might spot them sooner or later. Reason why they came prepared.

"Nice seeing you as well." The playboy said to his friend before looking at the environmentalist. "How's your side Selina?"

"It's doing alright," she said with a shrug, "have to try and not move in certain angles or else the pain will come back. Would've been worse if the stitches didn't settle."

"Then I'm glad to hear that." Bruce said with a smile to see her feeling better. "Like I promised in our arrangement, I'll send you what I owe you on whatever charity you plan to donate next."

"Great to hear that Bruce."

"But that still doesn't answer what you two are doing here?"

Naruto chuckled a little as he brought up the excuse. "Well I had promised Selina to take her to this one fundraising event last night, but I was held up at work all night long for some projects coming up soon."

"So he apologized to me and offered to make it up with dinner." Selina quickly said before adding in one more thing. "As friends that is."

"Funny…. Somewhat the same excuse Bruce gave me." Bethanie said to get the secret couple to look at her. "I'm sorry. I haven't introduced myself. Dr. Bethanie Ravencroft." She said as she held out her hand for the two.

'Where have I heard that name before?' Naruto thought as Selina shook the blonde's hand as she introduced herself. A thought then came to the forefront of his mind and remembered the Magpie incident along with his chats with the bird themed woman. 'Oh…her.'

The publisher then saw the greeting end between the two women, before Naruto shook the therapist's hand. "Nice to meet you Dr. Ravencroft, Naruto Uzumaki."

"The owner of Spiral Publishing." Bethanie said with a smile. "I enjoy a lot of the works your company has published, especially with your latest book."

"Why thank you doctor."

"Why don't you two join us?" The therapist suddenly asked getting the others to look at her funny. "It might be fun and I don't mind having the dinner be a 'double date'."

"Are you sure on that?" Selina asked since she had hoped to have another private dinner with just her and her boyfriend. "We don't want to intrude on your date."

"I'm really fine with it, really." Bethanie said before putting her attention towards Bruce. "What do you say Bruce?"

Seeing the pressure was on him, he sighed before nodding and called the nearby waiter to combine the two parties. When the tables were being set up, Bethanie excused herself to go use the restroom. As she was on her way, she pulled her phone out of her purse and dialed a number before bringing the device to her ear.

…..

"Yes it's me."

…..

"I'm having dinner with him now as we speak."

…..

"I practically got him hooked."

…..

"There's another thing that I should mention."

…..

"I'm having dinner with Naruto Uzumaki as well."

…..

"Then I'll wait for further instructions." The therapist said before she hung up the phone as she went to use the restroom to freshen up.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **With the previous chapter, tried to do the best that I can in the ending bits to do the whole explanation and whatnot of Pam's problem. I might not be that accurate on why she became sterile/barren, but it was the best that I could come up with so sorry if I didn't hit it right on the nose.**

 **Anyways just wanted to move on from that little bit and yes I know a way for Pam to have kids, but I won't spoil how so just wait for when the time comes.**

 **So I hope I did well on the whole explanation earlier since my brain had to go haywire on how to properly get it all written out. I ended up coming to a realization that Naruto and Harley were going to be on the same route as his previous relationship with Sakura and I wanted to get into that bit with her. When I first started reading/watching the Naruto series, I was rooting for Naruto and Sakura to hook up. But as time progressed, I realized that things were starting to crumble between them. Especially when it got to the Land of Iron arc when Sakura dropped that bullshit excuse of a confession to get Naruto to try and move on. So to me I considered that as an end to their relationship and the whole SasukeXSakura thing was a stupid cop out with how the writer made that go on throughout the series.**

 **Said my piece here and I thought of doing the kind of connection with Naruto and Harley that he doesn't want the same thing to happen again since he is developing his friendship with her. It'll progress to her joining the Naruto bandwagon in time so be patient people. Especially since I just got Selina to join just a few chapters ago.**

 **One thing I should address is the Marvel stuff I briefly brought up in the chapter. Marvel is somewhat present in the DC universe; not the actual Marvel characters, but the comics. Idea came up when I was watching Legends of Tomorrow when dealing with the episode that the team needs to save George Lucas in the past when he was in film school. They had brought up that since George Lucas is in that reality that he had done the Star Wars series and even done the horrid Howard the Duck film. As for those who forgot, Howard the Duck is a Marvel property and so with that, Marvel does have semblance in the DC universe. Odd thought there but just saying.**

 **Speaking of Star Wars, I find it a little funny that since I'm using the powers and abilities of Organization 13 for the story that Naruto will end up having Xemnas' powers and weapons. I find it a little funny, yet odd, that Xemnas practically has a lot of powers in his standard form to be a lot like a force user with his lightsabers and force lightning like attacks. Will be fun when I have Naruto see Star Wars after having his powers activated, that he'll end up having a familiar feeling coming out of the original trilogy.**

 **Another thing to address is when Naruto will interact with other villians and heroes outside of Gotham. Answer is being some chapters later when I get to it. So please be patient since I want to get into several other Gotham chapters before I have Naruto travel to another city.**

 **One more thing to mention before I go….**

 **I have uploaded this chapter on my Birthday. So Happy Birthday to me!**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	18. Two Face

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 17: Two Face**

 _The sounds of running could be heard in the darkness as a man was trying to get away from something…. Or someone. He didn't know how long he has been doing this with the indication of his sweated face and frantic eyes looking around if he lost the person following him. He eventually tripped on something, or moved his foot at a certain angle, causing him to fall onto the ground._

 _*Panting heavily* "I need to keep running. *Panting* I can't stop now." The man said he got back up to run again._

" _ **Harvey…."**_ _A voice called out from the darkness._ _ **"Harvey Dent…."**_

" _NO!" The now identified Harvey Dent yelled out. "Stay away from me! Just leave me alone!"_

 _The DA kept on running as the sounds of demented laughter filled the darkness. Seeming to originate everywhere at once. He just needed to get away from_ him _._

 _*Demented Chuckle*_ _ **"Where do you think you're going Harvey?"**_ _The same voice called out once again in a taunting tone._ _ **"You can't get away from me that easily."**_

 _Harvey kept on running and some sweat had come into contact with his eyes, making him bring his sleeve onto his face to wipe some of it off. That seemed to cause him to lose focus for a brief moment in his run, as he bumped into someone and fell onto the darkened ground. When looking up, he saw the man he was running from._

" _AAAHHH! Stay away!" The DA screamed out as he crawled backwards, away from the man towering over him._

" _ **See what I mean Harvey."**_ _The man said as he drew closer to the downed DA._

" _I don't want any part of you." Harvey said as he tried to regain his composure._

 _There was no vocal response, as the shadowed man reached into his pocket and pulled out…. A coin. He positioned it into his closed hand and flipped it into the air. The sounds of it coming down seemed to agitate the DA as he didn't want to hear more of it, making him cover his ears in the process. Once it landed, the shadowed man kept flipping into the air to repeat the process over and over again with the sounds of the coin getting louder and louder._

" _STOP IT!"_

 _Of course the other man didn't stop what he was doing for god knows how long, until…._

" _ **It's time Harvey…."**_ _The man said in an ominous tone that seemed to scare Harvey even more._ _ **"It's time…."**_

 _One more flick of the coin went into the air, but this time it was coming down towards Harvey. The coin seeming grew bigger and bigger by each passing moment to possibly flatten and kill the cowardly man. When it got much closer to his impending doom, he screamed._

"NOOOO!" Harvey yelled out as he woke up in a sweated mess. He brought his hand over his face to end up feeling the sweat coming off of him badly, but it didn't matter as he tried to calm himself down from the horrid nightmare he just had.

"Calm down Harvey….It was only just a dream." He said to himself as he got up from his couch to grab a glass of water from the other side of his office. His throat felt raw and in pain with how much he possibly could've screamed. So he needed the pure liquid to help moisten it up and help him feel a little better.

*Knock Knock*

"Ye- *Cough Yes. Who is it?" Harvey asked as his throat tried to adjust itself.

The door soon opened up as a voice called out. "Harvey, it's Carlos."

"Oh, Carlos. Good to see you." The DA said as he tried to compose himself a little more. "What do you need?"

"Harvey, it's time." Harvey's aide told him, getting the DA to shaken a little on that last bit.

"I-In time for what?"

His aide looked at him funny and decided to voice his thoughts. "Are you okay Harvey? You seem shakened up."

"I'm fine. Just a bad nightmare." Harvey said to get his aide to nod at this. "So I'm asking again, but in time for what exactly?"

"The raid sir." Carlos said getting the DA to perk up at this. "Gordon called and said that the raid is happening now."

"I see…. Then we better get going."

 _ **-Abandoned Apartment Building-**_

Police sirens filled the air as searchlights were hitting across the surface of the heavily defended building for any sign of any thugs present in the building. For what is going on exactly, men that work for criminal overlord Rupert Thorne had stolen weapons and supplies from Gotham's Army depots. Commissioner Gordon, with the help of Harvey Dent, had organized the raid to get the supplies back.

"This is Commissioner Gordon! We have the place surrounded! So come on out with your hands up and no one will get hurt!" The auburn haired male said inside of the loudspeaker.

"Fuck off Gordon!" A thug called out from one of the broken windows.

Soon, Harvey had rushed over to the scene where Gordon is currently standing. It took him a bit to get there because of the traffic, but it seemed that he didn't miss anything yet.

"Hey Jim, how's it going?" Harvey greeted before sounds of gunfire were present with several bullets hitting the police car in front of them. This caused the two law officials to duck behind the car while some officers returned fire.

"Could've been better Dent." James said before one of the officers came up to him.

"Sir, the SWAT team is ready. Just give the word and we'll enter the building."

"Good, but wait on my orders. I don't want anyone to jump the gun and risk their lives without my approval." The Commissioner ordered getting the one officer to nod and head back to repeat Gordon's order.

As this was going on, the thugs inside of the derelict building were opening up several crates of weapons to be ready for the oncoming onslaught headed their way.

*Chuckles* "Man this is going to blow a hole in their barricade." One of the thugs said as he pulled out a rocket launcher from the army crate. *Grunt* "Mind helping me out here? Need to get this by the window over there."

"Sure." The other thug said as he helped lift the weapon.

"Guys!" One of the thugs near the window called out, getting their attention. "They're ready to move!"

*Chuckle* "Let them try." The rocket launcher one cockily said. "There ain't nobody gonna get in here alive."

As one of the thugs was loading up the rocket, another thug pulled out his walkie talkie and spoke into it. "You guys down there ready?"

" _Definitely man."_

"Then be ready when the cops start coming up since you boys are our defense up here."

" _You got it."_ The thug below spoke out before the call ended. Just as the radio thug put his device, he was grabbed from behind and was knocked out. Coming out from the shadows revealed the Dark Knight as he was going to punch the living day lights out of the thugs on this level.

Down on the floor below, all of the thugs were at the ready with their assault rifles for when the police start arriving from the doorway since the only way to get to the upper level is through them. Things were pretty tense with how quiet things were, asides from the noise coming from outside. Just as they were waiting for the boys upstairs to start things off, a blast emanated from the floor in the center of the room.

"GAH!" Several men cried out as most were sent away from the blast, while others fell down through the hole. In the middle of the confusion, Vanitas had jumped out of the hole and grabbed ahold of the rafter beam in the ceiling before throwing several explosive cards at the thugs' weapons. The moment they came in contact, they exploded and sent them either away from the thugs' hands or breaking them instantly.

One of the thugs thought the person responsible was still down in the hole and started firing into it, causing him to kill a few of his fellow thugs in the process by mistake. Said thug was then grabbed by Vanitas' scarf and pulled high into the air before smacking against the floor's ceiling and plummeted back down to knock him out. When the hero came back down from the ceiling, he grabbed ahold of one of the thugs and twisted his arm to get the man to let go of the weapon, but he wasn't budging as he started to open fire on reflex. The helmeted Uzumaki soon spun him around to empty the weapon's clip before flipping the man over his shoulder and throwing him into the hole.

Shots were soon fired upon the publisher as he dodged out of the line of fire before sliding on the floor and shot out his grappling scarf to latch onto one of the thugs. Once it was successful, Vanitas pulled hard sending the thug towards him and kicked him into another thug. They tried to get back up, but with the thug still attached to the scarf, he was sent flying back to the hero and was kicked again into the same thug to render both of them unconscious or not moving that much.

In the corner of his vision, Vanitas soon saw one of the thugs aiming his weapon at him. The black and white hero summoned a dagger and threw it at the man's hand to make him drop the weapon as he held his hand in extreme pain. The hero then turned his attention towards the thugs coming towards him as he ducked and blocked several blows on his person before returning the favor and kicked each of them in the process.

One of the thugs pulled a knife at him and attempted to stab him several times, but on the last thrust his arm was caught and he was sent flying towards the wall hard. Shots were fired once again as Vanitas had to weave right through them. He soon ran towards one thug and grabbed ahold of his shirt as he jumped over a crate and slammed the man down on it. Once on the other side of the box, he used his scarf to latch onto the box behind him and threw it towards a group of thugs huddled together to get them knocked out in the end.

Once that was done, Vanitas scanned the room to see if there was anyone else still standing. He then realized that there were none left since he had expected there to be more. Then again there were, but they were on the upper floor. There were a few thugs that tried to get back up, but for good measure the hero summoned a few daggers and threw them down to keep the thugs in place.

"Now you boys stay right where you are and don't go anywhere." The hero said as he saw them groan out in pain or attempting to pull the daggers out of their places. "It's not like you're going to leave or anything."

*BOOM*

"What the fuck?" The masked Uzumaki said out loud as he wondered what that was. He then went up the stairwell towards the upper level and saw a rocket launcher with a smoking barrel near him. From there, he saw other thugs lying on the ground either knocked out or groaning in pain with Batman standing in the middle.

"So…." Vanitas called out, gaining Batman's attention. "Did you have fun up here like I did down there?"

As that was said, a group of SWAT team members came into the room and aimed their weapons at the ready. Of course once they saw all of the downed thugs, they lowered their weapons, but kept them at the ready as one of them called it in that Batman and Vanitas took care of the problem. From there, a mixture of SWAT and cops were handcuffing and escorting all of the thugs out of the building and into police custody.

Several minutes had past as the last of Thorne's men were taken out of the building while being put into the various police vans that were arriving onto the scene. As this went on, a horde of reporters and photographers started to arrive and started to ask questions to the DA and Commissioner. None were answered so far until Harvey brought up his hands up to signal off that he was going to finally speak.

"As your district attorney, I would like to commend Commissioner Gordon and his men for their fine work." Harvey said with joy in his voice that the reporters ate up gleefully.

As this went on, Gordon looked up towards the roof of the ransacked building and saw Batman's figure in front of the moonlight before he went to parts unknown. "And thank you." The bespeckled man muttered before seeing a figure floating in the air on a stick of sorts and waved at the man before shooting off into the night's sky. "And you too."

"Excuse me Mr. Dent, but was it you that had planned this raid?" A reporter asked, getting the DA to nod at this.

"Why of course and I'm glad to say that one of Rupert Thorne's criminal rings has now been broken." Harvey said as various cameras went off making him temporarily blinded by the brightness. "As I've stated in my re-election campaign: 'I will not rest until Gotham City has been 'dethroned' once and for all.'"

Once that was stated, the various people in the area from reporters, varying officers and officials were clapping and cheering. Of course not everyone in the surrounding area was cheerful as one of the handcuffed thugs looked onward in disdain while being escorted into the van. He wrestled free from his hold before speaking out.

"You talk big pretty boy, but you ain't gonna be once Rupert Thorne gets through with you." The thug said before kicking a nearby, muddy puddle to send most of the gunk at Harvey's suit. "He's chews and spits out fuckers like you for breakfast!"

"Okay that's enough out of you." The one officer said as he tried to get the thug into the vehicle.

Things seemed to slow down to most of the world as Harvey started to get angrier by the second. Hearing the laughs of the detained thugs from the surrounding vans at the display. Then all of a sudden, the DA snapped.

"Why you little-!" He yelled out as he rushed towards the thug from earlier and grabbed ahold of his jacket and threw him across the pavement and into the muddy puddle. "I'm going to tear your measly little body apart!"

"Hey! What the fuck are you doing?!" The thug yelled out as he tried to get free from the DA's grasp. "Isn't someone going to help?!"

"Hey! Break it up sir!" One of the officers said as they tried to separate the two.

"Kicking mud in my face will ya?!" Harvey yelled out again as he was going to throw a punch at the thug's face before it was caught by Commissioner Gordon's grasp.

"Harvey that's enough!" He said to the DA. "Get ahold of yourself!"

And just like that, Harvey seemed to snap out of it and revert to his courteous, amiable self. But just the way his eyes darted around on the scene, Gordon saw that something was off about the DA. Like he was a different person from before as the man in front of him seemed truly scared on what he had just done.

"J-Jim…" Harvey tried to say as he saw the various people around him look at him in shock at what they just seen. "I...I..."

"Come on Harvey, we need to leave now." Gordon said as he pulled Harvey away from the reporters. "You can't afford a publicity like this."

"Hey! That guy should be sent to jail! Not me!" The assaulted thug cried out before being shoved into the van and the door slamming into his face to shut him up.

Once they were a good distance away, Gordon decided to voice his thoughts. "Harvey, what the hell were you thinking back there?"

"I-I don't know Jim." He nervously said. "I guess he hit just the right button."

"Then that's got to be one hell of a button." Gordon muttered as he saw the DA walk away from the scene and towards his car to head home for the night.

 _ **-Rupert Thorne's Office-**_

" _Well it's been another wild night in East Gotham as police intercepted an arms shipment, which district attorney Harvey Dent is trying to connect to Rupert Thorne. Unfortunately 'Handsome Harvey' has earned a new nickname, 'Hot Head Harvey', when he attacked one of the suspects."_ Summer Gleeson said over the television before it got muted via remote.

"My oh my….that man is crazy." A shoulder length, black haired woman said off to the side of the room. She appeared to be in her late twenties, early thirties while wearing a red office business attire with a grey shirt and black tie around her neck.

"Yeah….Crazy like a fox." A man said as he placed the remote off to the side. He was a man in his mid to late fifties in a heavy set look wearing a dark suit with a green vest and black tie to oddly match his white hair. "That little tantrum might as well bought him another ten thousand votes."

"Then why don't we get him to swim in a cement soup boss." A thug suggested off to the side.

"And bring down even more heat on us? I don't think so." The man said as he paced around the room a little. "I want him in my pocket boys. I want you to find some dirt on our dashing DA. Something really juicy if possible."

"Then I'm afraid that's going to be a problem Mr. Thorne." The woman said getting her boss to look at her. "He's so clean he could practically squeak."

"Just stay on his tail Candice." Rupert Thorne said as he was staring at the TV monitor with the news still playing. "All men have something to hide. As most people say: The brighter the picture, the darker the negative."

"Of course sir." The now identified Candice said as she left the office to do as she has been ordered while dragging everyone out of the room to help plan things out for the coming times.

 _ **-Few Days Later, Wayne Manor-**_

The sounds of clapping and cheering filled the air as the current DA was walking up on the podium. Once things had settled down, he took several deep breaths, which resulted in him coughing for a brief moment or two. When that was settled, he spoke in a loud firm voice.

"Hello and thank you all for coming to this event today people. It means a lot to see many of Gotham's residents here to support my cause for a better Gotham with your votes. If we want this city safe again, then we'll have to come down hard on these criminals. I will not see the people of Gotham…."

"Bruce, it's so nice of you to sponsor this fundraiser for Harvey." Grace said as she stood by said 'playboy' along with Naruto and Selina in amidst of the crowd of people. Since this was mostly a public event, Naruto had decided to show up to support his friend and to properly donate the money he had promised Harvey back on New Years. Hell, he practically wrote out the check and handed it to Harvey himself. As for Selina, she tagged along after being convinced by her boyfriend that she could possibly gather money for any charities coming up or to at least give her a better image after the past incidents that involved around her.

"Well Harvey and I go way back." Bruce said with a smile. "He's a great DA and a better friend."

"I can tell." Selina said as she got into the conversation now. "You two work well together and your relationship is a good, strong one Bruce."

"Why thank you Selina. Though to tell you the truth… Something seems offly intense."

"You're not the only one Bruce." Naruto jotted in as he stared at Harvey with narrowed eyes. For the past several days, he had been feeling these negative emotions rolling off of him in waves. They are suppressed, but he could tell that something seemed off. Especially with the news report of Harvey attacking one of Thorne's men after the raid. "Are you sure nothing is wrong with him Grace?"

"I'm guessing it's just the stress of the campaign that gets to him at times. I do what I can to help relieve it, but it seems to come back at a later point."

"Fair point."

"Though he doesn't seem to be really himself." Bruce said his two cents before the sounds of clapping filled the air once again as Harvey stepped down from the stage and into the mass of people.

"Mr. Dent. Mr. Dent." An elderly woman said as she came up to the current DA. "I want to let you know that I have voted for you two times and I plan for a third."

"Then I hope that those were from separate elections." He responded with a joking tone that got others to laugh.

"Mr. Dent." Grace called out as she sauntered her way towards her future husband. "When are you finally going to marry that gorgeous fiance of your's?"

The only response she got out of that question was her fiance to wrap his arms around her and spun her around that made her giggle a little while the masses laughed at the display.

"I hope you do it fast Harvey. I might just _steal_ her myself."

"Do that and I'll prosecute Bruce." Harvey responded as the engaged couple were walking further into the crowd.

"Harvey." The DA's assistant said as he moved closer towards him. "Harvey."

"Yes?" The DA asked as he acknowledged his assistant. "What is it?"

"I need to talk to you privately for a moment."

"Are you sure? You could tell me in front of everyone else."

"No sir, I _really_ need to talk to you."

Hearing that tone of voice, Harvey excused himself and walked some distance away from the masses as everyone else started to get into their own conversations.

"What's wrong Carlos?"

"You're not going to like this, but the judge just threw out the case on Thorne's men." His aide said as he pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to his boss. Once reading more on this to see if it was a joke, the results were instant.

"W-What?" Harvey questioned in shock as he reread it again and again to see if there was anything wrong. "But why Carlos?"

"The warrant wasn't complete. The judge had no choice but to let them go."

"Had to?!" The DA yelled out as his breath started to grow harder and his dark eyes started to darken even more as his eyes seemed to dilate. But all that he could see was red. "But I planned three months on that raid! He can't overturn on that! He's blocked just like the rest!"

The man was going to throw his aide towards the serving table, but someone stopped him from the process. "That's enough Harvey!" Naruto said as he was able to separate the two. "This isn't going to look for you if you do this."

"Stay out of this!" The angered DA said as he was going to punch Naruto in the face. But the sudden appearance of his Grace came in front of the publisher to defend her friend.

"Harvey!"

Seeing her in the forefront of his vision seemed to snap him out of it. Everything went clear again as he then realized what he just did. "G-Grace…. Naruto. I-I'm sorry. I-I don't know what…. Excuse me, I need some time alone."

As he said that, he walked away from the masses whom were filling the airs with hushed murmurs. Naruto, Selina, Grace and Bruce looked on in worry as they soon followed the DA inside. Unbeknownst to either of them due to the confusion going on, a particular dark haired secretary smiled at the scene with what she can now inform her boss about.

As the group was getting further into the manor, Bruce was the one that called out to Harvey. But he wasn't responding at all as he kept on walking. Eventually they went followed him into one of the studies when Bruce decided to ask again, but using a bit of his Bat persona in the works.

"Harvey, what was that back there?" The 'playboy' said in a lower voice to finally get his friend to respond.

"I just blew off the handle, that's all. So don't worry, I got things under control."

"Harvey, you didn't just lose your temper out there. You were a completely other person."

"I said I was sorry." The DA said to try and push the situation aside, but no one else was having it.

"Tell that to that Carlos person back there along with the masses." Selina bluntly said getting her secret boyfriend to look at her.

"Selina." Naruto said in a slight warning tone.

"No, no it's alright Naruto." Harvey said as he came to look at them. "She practically said it and I do need to apologize to them, asides from you and Grace."

"Maybe you should get some help." Bruce suggested.

"He's already getting help." Grace said getting her fiance to look at her in surprise.

"Grace. You didn't need to-" "But Bruce and Naruto are your friends honey."

"Hey don't be embarrassed Harvey." The environmentalist said to possibly help out on the situation. "A lot of people see psychologists and therapists, whether they are important or not."

"But not when they are running for public office." The DA countered his former client. "You know how most voters feel about… shrinks."

"Well I, for one, am proud of you and relieved." The billionaire said in a lighter tone of mood. "It takes a strong man to admit that he has a problem."

"Yeah I can understand that, but please keep this under the hat will you."

"Don't worry Harvey, if there is one thing I know is to keep a secret." His dark haired friend defended while getting the others in the room to nod and promise the same thing.

When things were said and done, the group went back outside as Harvey had first apologized to his aid before telling the masses about his outburst. It was a moment of stress and things gotten out of hand. The people attending the event seemed to accept it, but seemed weary on what still occurred earlier. Overall, the rest of the fundraising event was practically normal before things ended.

 _ **-Night, Nora Crest's Office-**_

It was a rather stormy night so far as it was practically raining cats and dogs while the wind was howling. Most people would try to stay in their homes for the evening, but it seemed that there was some people still working. Especially one that was very suddenly scheduled earlier in the day.

"Now…. You are falling into a deep sleep." The doctor said as she swung back and forth her watch. "Can you hear me Mr. Dent?"

"Yes Dr. Crest." Harvey responded in a sleepy daze.

"Good." The doctor said as she placed her watch back into her jacket pocket. The woman in question is Nora Crest, a woman in her late fifties with her greyed out hair tied into a bun while wearing a blue suit. Harvey has been seeing her for years and she knows all about Harvey's _condition_. "Now Harvey, I would like to speak to your other personality. To speak with Big Bad Harv."

The man's breath seemed to labor a little as he struggled to hold him in. "I-I don't think it's a good idea. He doesn't want to talk."

"But we must in order to help you." Nora said making Harvey gulp and accept the fact.

He dwelled inside of himself before his body started to twitch and spasm a little before it went back to a relaxed state before the eyelids slowly opened. Once was a pair of good natured vision were now replaced with hate and malice as the rest of his features seemed to match with a ever present scowl. To finish things off, the man that replaced the DA reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a coin before he started to play with it.

"Big Bad Harv?"

Her response wasn't immediate as his scowl slowly went into a crooked smile before voicing the answer in a growl like tone. **"Speaking."**

With Nora getting the confirmation that the persona switch was successful, she had finally brought up the issue of the meeting. "It appears that you and Harvey are having trouble again."

*Chuckle* **"The man is a complete wimp."**

"Well Harvey has a lot of special problems." Dr. Crest simply stated before getting out of her chair and walked towards the window, with the rain hitting against it and flashes of lightning occasionally lit up the sky. "When he was young, he felt very guilty about his angry feelings. So guilty that he had buried them deep inside until it became something else…. Or rather someone else." She paused as she turned around and looked straight at the man in front of her. "You, Big Bad Harv, came out from these angry feelings. Everyone feels anger and it does no harm, as long as it doesn't end up as a bad behavior. Once Harvey understands this-"

" **Then maybe I'll go away."** He concluded as his fists started to clench with his coin leaving an imprint in his hand. **"Right?"**

Unsure on how to fully answer this with her knowing where this is going, she had to at least say something to Big Bad Harv. "W-Well…"

" **Well I'm not going anywhere you bitch!"** BB Harv yelled out as he kicked the nearby coffee table to the side. The man then picked up the nearby floor lamp and brought it closer to her face. Nora felt scared now with what he was going to do to her, but before she could do anything, he bellowed at her. **"If anyone is going anywhere, then it's Mr. Goody Good!"** To prove the point, he slammed the lamp towards the window to get it to break with the broken light fixture aimed right back towards her. **"And maybe you along with him."**

Once that was said, BB Harv plunged the broken office appliance at her. She barely dodged out of the way getting the broken appliance to leave a mark on the floor. Nora then ran towards her office door to get away from him, but BB Harv was quick enough to grab ahold of her arm before he started to twist it. She cried out in pain and before anything could escalate, she snapped her fingers with her free hand by his ear to get BB Harv to go away and the DA to return.

The results were instant as the body seized up as it twitched and spasmed like before while letting go of the coin in his hand to end up clattering on the ground. The man's hate filled eyes briefly dilate to end up back at it's normal, calm state. Once the man came around, he scanned the room and saw the damage that was caused.

"O-Oh god. D-Did I do this?" Harvey asked out loud as he then looked at his doctor to see her nurse her arm. "Dr. Crest, I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to, I swear."

"I know it wasn't your fault Harvey." The doctor said as she sat back down to try and relax herself. "It seems that your other personality is getting stronger than I suspected."

Hearing this, the DA clenched his head in frustration as he sat back down. "Oh god, what am I going to do? I've always been able to suppress him before."

"Harvey. *Sigh* I want you to admit yourself to the psychiatric ward at County General for a few days." Nora suggested, getting Harvey to look at her in shock.

"But I can't Nora. You know that I'm trying to get re-elected." He said while trying to defend himself. "If the people find out about this, then it'll be hard to keep my position. I can't save them if I'm not the DA."

"But what about saving yourself Harvey? If you can't at least do that, then you could possibly lose your position and other things in the process."

Once hearing this, several things came through his mind. His DA position, his friends, and even his sweet Grace. The doctor was right, he does need to save himself or else everything else will be ruined. *Sigh* "I understand, but isn't there any other way doctor?"

*Humming in thought.* "Maybe if you cut back on your campaigning and intensified our sessions. Then we might be able to-" "Perfect!" He interrupted as it seemed like the best idea there is. "I'll take that. You just set up the schedule and I'll work everything around them. Those are practically my main priority along with my campaigning. Just so long as this remains a secret."

Unbeknownst to either of them that right outside of the office door, Thorne's secretary was right there writing everything down on a little notepad of hers. As she wrote the last bit on her entry, she quietly left the hallway as fast as she could so no one would notice her.

 _ **-Days Later, Campaign Party-**_

The sounds of chatter were present in the room as everyone that helped support Harvey through this entire election was there. It was a very important evening as the votes were being tallied and it was practically a nail biting experience if Harvey gets to serve another term as DA or not.

"Excuse me. Excuse me. Can I have your attention please?" Carlos said into the microphone as everyone else in the room quieted down. "Thank you. Now ladies and gentlemen, I have gotten word that the latest count has shown that Harvey is receiving a mandate from the citizens of Gotham in a form of a landslide. If this keeps up then we'll be seeing another term of Harvey as our district attorney."

When that was announced, everyone present was cheering in excitement as it was probably time to celebrate now.

"Hey now everyone. Don't celebrate just yet." Harvey said out loud, but it was washed away with how loud everyone was cheering and clapping. With his fiance in his arm, the two of them walked down from the stage as they wanted to mingle with the guests.

"Congrats Harvey." Bruce said as he came up towards them with his hand extended. The DA took it in his grasps and shook it with glee. "I must say that you seem very calm and collected as of late."

"I told you that I can be able to handle myself."

"And it shows Harvey." Naruto said as he came up to the engaged couple. Selina wasn't with him this evening since she had some other things to take care of that evening for a possible charity. "Everything seems rather peaceful with you as of late."

Indeed it has, ever since Harvey had taken his doctor's advice by doing the various sessions with her and cut back on his campaigning. It helped him out immensely as things were turning out for the best and it showed. Not once has his other persona affected him in the slightest and it made things all the easier during the remaining days of his campaign.

"Glad to know that you have noticed." The DA said to the silver haired male. "I'm practically in such good spirits that I might just announce a certain wedding date this evening as apart of my acceptance speech."

When hearing this, Grace turned towards Harvey in shock as her face morphed into one out of joy. "Oh Harvey. Do you mean it?" She hopefully asked as tears welled up in her eyes. She had been hoping that the two could finally get married after so long. The blonde's prayers were practically answered as her beloved fiance had nodded at this, making her capture his lips with her own.

"Then congratulations are in order you two." Naruto said as he greatly smiled at them.

When the two separated from their joyful kiss, they smiled at their friend before Harvey responded to him. "I know. It's been a long time since both of us had been engaged and I kept on holding off our wedding date. But now with this win, things will finally be solidified."

"Glad to hear about that Harvey."

"And there has been something that I wanted to say to you Bruce."

"Which is?"

The DA took in a deep breath before addressing his long time friend. "For years you've helped me out as long as possible. Supported me when I was first campaigning for my first term as the district attorney. Helped Grace and I through our various challenges we had to deal with ever since we had first met. Nothing could ever repay you for what you've done."

The 'playboy' smiled at this and he was genuinely touched. "Thank you Harvey."

"Which is why I want to ask you one simple thing." Harvey said in dramatic effect. "Will you do me the honor and be my best man?"

Bruce was surprised to hear this while Naruto wasn't. The former shinobi had guessed on how this was going. The two of them have been friends for years so it wouldn't be hard to realize that Harvey planned Bruce to be his best man for the wedding.

Once regaining his composure, he chuckled a little and gave his answer. "Of course I will."

"Then I hope I get invited to the wedding." Naruto said getting Grace to nod at the publisher.

"You're definitely on the guest list Naruto."

"Thanks." The former shinobi said as he, along with Bruce, started to walk away from the couple.

They were going to kiss each other again when Carlos came up to them.

"Yes what is it?"

"You got a phone call Harvey." The aide said getting his boss to nod before turning back towards his fiance.

"Hold those lips for me till I get back." Harvey said as he walked off towards his office. After stopping a few times to thank a few voters and supporters, he finally made it. He saw the phone off of the receiver to show that the phone was still on hold. Once in his hand, he spoke into it. "Hello, Harvey Dent speaking."

" _Hello Harvey."_ A seemingly familiar voice said on the other end. _"This is Thorne. Rupert Thorne."_

Once having the confirmation, Harvey's face turned into a scowl. "What do you want you slime?"

" _Now, now. Is that anyway to talk to someone that wants to offer you a deal?"_

"I'm not interested in any of your deals Thorne."

" _Oh~ Well I think you will be. Unless you would be fine with me chatting with Big Bad Harv."_ The moment that name came through the man's lips, the DA went into a state of shock as he must've stolen his file from Dr. Crest's office. _"Or perhaps would you like me to talk to the press first."_

Steeling his nerves and taking a few slight breaths, he answered back. "What do you want?"

" _There's a limo waiting in the alley outside of your office building. Take it while you still have a career ahead of you."_ Thorne said before he ended the call.

"Darling?" A voice called out from behind, making Harvey turn in surprise to see Grace at the door. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong dear. I just need to see someone." He said to her as he needed to get this meeting over with. "Would you mind seeing to our guests?"

"But the returns are just coming in."

"I'm sorry but I won't be long." He said as he made it around her to leave. This made her worried as she went to go after him, but he already made it back into the crowd of people.

'Harvey… What was in that phone call that made you this way?' She thought before someone pumped into her.

"Sorry about that Grace. Too many people around to make it hard to navigate through." Naruto said as he saw her worried face. "Grace, is something wrong?"

"Yes, it's Harvey. I-I think he's in trouble." She told him as she started to play with her necklace a little. Nervous habit with playing with a gift of hers from Harvey. "I barely heard that something about a limo taking him somewhere."

Hearing that from her made him drop everything he planned on doing for the evening. He excused himself while saying that he will find her fiance while also calling the police. Once he did that in another room, the publisher shifted into his Vanitas attire and phased himself out of the building. As he was falling towards the ground below, he summoned Kazekage (his lance) into his hand to keep him in place.

"Now where are you?" He muttered as he scanned the immediate area until his eyes saw Harvey exit out of the building and into the limo in question. "Gotcha."

WIth the vehicle in his sights, Vanitas willed his lance to rise higher into the air while he got his helmet to keep track of the limo. As it took off, so did the hero with going at moderate speeds so that he could stay within it's range. With the twists and turns of the streets, Vanitas had little to no problem with following it. But when it was reaching towards the underpass, the hero saw something peculiar show up in his vision.

"Is that Batman? Why is he here?" He curiously wondered as he saw the caped crusader jump ontop of various vehicles to get closer to the limo where Harvey is riding in. Things started to change a little as the car Batman was on was going to go somewhere else, so he pulled out something and fired at the limos bumper as it went through the underpass. "Is that some sort of tracker?" He asked to himself before shaking his head. "Nevermind that now, I need to keep focus on the limo."

With that, he made Kazekage go faster to catch up with the vehicle to find out some answers.

 _ **-Chemical Plant-**_

After following for about fifteen to twenty minutes of flying, Vanitas ended up seeing the limo drive into the grounds of a chemical plant. He didn't know who owned the place or what it's operating under, but he might learn soon enough. Once the vehicle parked, the occupants got out to see some thuggish looking people escort Harvey inside. When the coast was clear, the former shinobi landed on the ground with a mild thump as he ran close to the entrance before hugging it's wall. He phased right through to end up on the other side as he quietly navigated his way through the building.

He was rather surprised that no one was actually guarding the place, but he guessed that possibly the person behind all of this ordered all of his/her men to be wherever Harvey might end up in. Possibly to intimidate the DA if he could try to fight back or if the man refused in on what the person offered. It didn't matter now as Vanitas kept on moving forward while trying to stay in the shadows.

It eventually lead him to a room where large containers of chemicals were placed with a bridge sat in between them. He walked across it to see that on the other side of the room had an opened door to an office where the lights were turned on. As Vanitas got closer, he started to hear a conversation go on.

"...Stealing someone's psychiatric file is pretty low Thorne, even for a swine like you."

'Well that's Harvey, that's for sure. But Rupert Thorne is here?' The hero thought as he walked towards the wall and hugged it. 'And did Harvey say his psychiatric file?'

In the other room, Rupert was sitting on the edge of his desk with most of his goons present along with his secretary sitting on the other end of the desk. Not too far from either of them sat Harvey as he glared holes inside of the smug man with his file on hand.

"But it does make such a fascinating read." The criminal overlord said to the DA in a mocking tone.

"How in the hell did you acquire it? I doubt my doctor willingly gave it to you."

"Eh we practically stole it when that doc of yours wasn't there." One of the goons said before another one smacked him across the head.

"Shut up Mikey."

"Sorry."

Rupert just rolled his eyes at this and focused at the task at hand. "It was quite interesting on what is jotted down in here. Like this for example. It says that when Harvey was a little boy, he was bothered by a bully. Everyday the bully would bug him after school until one day, little Harvey got so mad he slugged him one."

"Oooooo~" Was the response the other goons gave out in a mocking tone. All the while Harvey was clenching his fists with his arms crossed.

"Of course the bully ran away after that incident, which made little Harvey very proud for the first time. That was until he found out the bully was in the hospital." Rupert said as he turned towards the DA with the ever present smile.

"Must've been one hell of a punch." Candice said as she filed her nails.

*Chuckles* "That's what Harvey thought at the time. Except it turned out that the bully was at the hospital for appendicitis." The crime overlord said as he let out some more chuckles. "But poor Harvey felt so guilty that he never showed his anger again. And that was the start of Big... Bad... Harv."

As this went on, Harvey was starting to lose control but he remained focus as he tried to control his breathing. "What the hell do you want Thorne?"

"Just a few favors from the DA's office, that's all."

"In your dreams." Was the immediate response.

"Then as a concerned citizen of this fair city that I feel compelled to turn this into the press. I mean, it should be fair for the people of Gotham to know what kind of person, or should I say _persons_ , that they elected."

Once that was said, everyone else in the room started to mockingly laugh at him. Everyone staring at him like they practically have him by the ropes now, but in reality they were adding fuel to the fire of Harvey's inner turmoil. The DA was starting to lose control of his anger as his eyes started to dilate with his vision starting to turn red.

"So what do you say Harvey? Do we have a deal?" Thorne asked as he waited for the man's response.

"There seems to be one problem with that Rupert." The man said in an eerily calm voice.

"And what would that be?"

*Chuckles* **"That you're talking to the wrong Harvey."** BB Harv announced before grabbing the crime boss by his jacket and surprisingly threw him across the room and into a group of the man's thugs. **"And now I'm going to fucking kill you, you son of a bitch."** He growled out as he walked towards the downed man.

"Get him!" One of the thugs said to get the others to go in for the attack.

"And that's my cue." A voice called out as Vanitas ran inside of the room and punched a few of the thugs across their faces.

BB Harv grabbed Throne by the scruff of his shirt and was going to punch the living daylights out of the man, but Batman dropped down from the ceiling and grabbed the offending.

"No Dent! We need to get out of here!" The Bat said but he was shrugged off with the amount of strength the man before him has.

" **Get away from me!"** The darker persona stated as he clocked Batman a good one before focusing back on the crime lord. **"Thorne is mine!"**

The commotion was ever present as the two heroes and BB Harv were up against several of Thorne's goons at a time. Dodging and weaving through them to take care of things. Even though BB Harv had little to no fighting skill, his adrenaline fueled rage was able to help out in terms of strength. The darker persona had knocked the one last thug to the side as he saw Thorne run towards the file on the desk before retreating out of the room.

" **Give me that file Thorne!"** He growled out as he was on hot pursuit. The two men were running across the bridge that separated the many chemicals in the room. Of course, one thug came out of the room and aimed his assault rifle at the possessed DA.

"I'll get him." The thug said as he opened fired.

"Look out!" Batman cried out as he pushed the thug out of the way to get them to miss their mark, but the bullets still flew into the air. One of the bullets still hit the DA, but only on the leg to get him to stumble onto the ground and land onto his face. The other bullets hit the nearby voltage station, making it explode to end up disconnecting the wires connected to it. They soon fell down into the nearby vat of chemicals and things seemed to settle down. That was until….

*KABOOM!*

The blast propelled upwards to destroy part of the bridge where Harvey was at to send him high in the sky before slamming back down onto the stable part of the bridge.

"HARVEY!" Batman yelled out in shock as he ran towards his friend.

Vanitas heard the yell after he took care of the last thug in the room. He ran out to see what was going on and saw the DA on the ground with Batman hovering over him.

'No… No! No! No!' The masked Uzumaki thought as he ran to see his friend's condition. As he got there, we was there just in time to see Batman turn the man over to see….

'Oh dear god/kami.' Batman and Vanitas thought respectively as they saw their friend's condition.

"We need to get him to the hospital NOW!" Vanitas yelled out. Batman didn't need to be told that as he carefully picked up the injured DA and rushed him towards his batmobile as fast and safely as he could. As this happened, Vanitas covered him to see if any other thug was going to come their way.

 _ **-Gotham General Hospital-**_

"Doctor….W-Will he be alright?" Grace asked as she, Naruto and Bruce were in Harvey's hospital room.

The injured DA in question was lying in the bed asleep as bandages were wrapped around his head, part of his upper left torso and his entire left arm. There were several wires attached to Harvey to help monitor his heart. Luckily there were no tubes attached to the man to regulate his breathing and eating, but there was an IV drip attached to help out a little.

"He'll pull through." The doctor said as she checked on the man's charts. "He's damn lucky that Batman got him here quickly so we could help stabilize him."

"But what about his face and arm?" Naruto asked getting the doctor to place her attention towards him momentarily.

It seemed that similar to his world, Sakura would be a doctor in this one. She appeared to be in her late twenties to show her youthful appearance that could possibly turn heads. With her exotic looks made things eye catching from her green eyes and oddly pink hair. Most people would think the hair was dyed, but time and time again she keeps telling people that it's all natural due to her odd genes of her father having red hair and her mother being blonde that the two hair colors mixed to give her the pink hair. Hence why she was called 'Sakura' when she was born.

*Sigh* "That's a completely different matter I'm afraid." Dr. Haruno said getting the others to look at her oddly.

"What do you mean?" Bruce asked as he was generally curious on what the doctor has to say.

"The burns and scars had damaged the skin significantly. An odd combination of first, second and third degree burning. We'll be sure to get a good plastic surgeon within the next few days to help fix up what we can along with skin grafts on the rest of the damaged skin." Sakura stated getting the others to nod.

Of course the two heroes in the room basically had the same thought in mind….About the mental scars.

 _ **-Next Day-**_

It was another stormy day in Gotham as the doctors and nurses were working hard throughout the day. In one particular room with Harvey Dent residing in, Dr. Haruno and her nurse were there to check up on him. They were surprised to see him awake, but they took it in stride to see that he was a bit better.

After giving him a decent meal or two for the day, the doctor was ready to take off the bandages to see what they'll be dealing with. Especially since she needs to replace the dirty ones with clean ones.

"Now you understand Mr. Dent, that there will be a surgery to help repair most of the damage correct?"

" **Yes."** He simply growled out. *Cough* "Sorry. Yes ma'am."

When Sakura heard this voice, she seemed slightly startled but guessed that Harvey must've had his throat damaged in what accident he had and hasn't fully healed yet.

"Good since I already scheduled a surgeon." She calmly said as she had cut off the last bit of the bandages to get them to fall off of his face, along with the medical eye patch to cover up his eye.

The medical tray the nurse was carrying fell onto the ground as the nurse saw the gruesome sight before her before she let out a loud scream.

"Kaori! What did I just say earlier?!"

"What's wrong doctor?" Harvey asked as he was worried that something seemed wrong.

"There's nothing to worry about sir." Sakura tried to say to keep her patient calm, but it seemed he started to get suddenly frustrated.

" **Then give me a mirror."** He growled out.

"Mr. Dent I suggest you-" **"Give me a fucking mirror NOW!"**

Harvey seemed too impatient for a response as he pulled off the medical wires off of him and rushed towards the nearby mirror on the far side of the room.

Just outside of Harvey's room, Grace was currently wearing a raincoat with an umbrella in one hand while the other hand a bouquet of flowers along with their first edition copy of Naruto's Loveless. She had come by today after getting off of work to see her beloved fiance in the hospital. She didn't know if her Harvey was awake or not due to her dropping her cellular phone earlier into a puddle of water, making it no longer work. Either way, Grace was coming over to read some Loveless passages to him to see if he would wake up with the book that both of them loved dearly.

She was nearing his room when she heard a loud scream. 

" **RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"** Someone yelled out before the sounds of crashing and breaking could be heard.

Grace was wondering who that was until the door to Harvey's room was roughly opened as a man in a medical gown ran out of it. She then realized who it was and felt happy on seeing her fiance awake. But that happiness was quickly replaced by worry as she saw his state of duress with him hunched over and seemingly covering his face.

"Harvey?" She called out, making him flinch. "What's wrong honey?" There was no response, making the blonde come closer to her beloved fiance. "Please look at me Harvey."

He hesitantly complied to the request as he turned his face around. The moment that he did, a flash of lightning filled the darkened sky to reveal the horrid part of his left face to her.

"H-Harvey…" She said as she was in a state of complete shock at what she just saw. As a result, she fainted right on the spot.

The sounds of footsteps came closer to her unconscious form before a bandaged covered arm came towards her and caressed her face a little.

"I'm so sorry you had to see it." Harvey said to her as he got up and walked away from her before coming to a stop and looked back. **"Goodbye Grace."**

And just like that, Harvey went to the nearby window, opened it and climbed out of it. The sounds of the thunder covered his escape as doctors and security personnel came rushing to the hallway. They were soon greeted with the sight of Grace's unconscious body lying on the floor before checking Harvey's destroyed hospital room with the unconscious bodies of Dr. Sakura Haruno and her nurse Kaori.

 _ **-Three Weeks Later-**_

It was rather quiet in the darkened streets of Gotham with only very little sounds being present. The quiet atmosphere was soon broken as a car was driving through. It kept going on like this for a few more moments before it came to a complete stop once it pulled to the side of the road.

"This is it boss." The driver said as he looked into the rearview mirror. "Rupert Thorne's booking joint."

The shadowy figure just looked on ahead as the man contemplated on what to do next. The next thing the man did was reach into his coat pocket to pull out a double sided coin. It seemed different from the rest as one side seemed rather normal with it's normal face. But on the other side was rather charred and scratched out.

"Good heads…. We leave them alone. **Bad heads…. We hit'em hard."** Was all he said, getting the driver and the man riding shotgun to nod their heads in agreement. The man flipped the coin up in the confined space before it landed back down into the palm of his hand before bringing it down onto his other hand. Once opening it back up, the man saw the result. **"Bad heads it is then."**

Inside of the booking joint, things were pretty normal as to what one would see inside of an establishment like this. Seeing races or matches going on through the television screens, drinking and laughing at the various tables while on the far side of the room were people handling the bets and money. Everything seemed rather peaceful on what was going on until…

*KABOOM*

The front door to the business was blown wide open due to a small explosive attached to the door. The man guarding the door was knocked back with splinters of the door were all over the place. Anyone else that was nearby were coughing from the smoke and were ducked down for their own safety.

"Everybody down! And nobody move!" Two voices called out before firing their assault rifles into the air getting everyone to do what they said. As the smoke was cleared, everyone saw who was the cause of this being a pair of twins in light brown suits with one half seemingly darker than the other half. They were fair-skinned and straight, shoulder length grey hair with a light blue tint to them with long bangs covering each different eye of their bangs being polar opposite from the other. They both had dark markings around their eyes along with odd marks around their mouths, giving them an androgynous appearance.

Both of the twins looked around to see if there was anyone going to resist or any other form of security, but they found none.

"Coast is clear boss." "You can come in now." Both twins said after the other getting man of the hour to walk on into the establishment which caused several people to gasp at the sight of him.

He was a fairly tall man with combed black hair with light grey eyes. But that was what seemed normal with the man on the right side of his body until you would focus on the other. With the burnt red skin with his gaping eye without an eyelid making people wonder how it's still in there along with showing most of his teeth. His suit was custom tailored being white and pristine with the sleeve rolled up with the black button up shirt underneath on the right side. But when looking at the right showed that it was black with various parts of it scorched and the left sleeve seemed to be ripped off along the elbow to show the red skin of the arm.

"Don't bother to do anything at all people. So don't touch the dials or switches at all. **For the next five minutes, Two Face is in control."** The unidentified man announced with an assault rifle in his hand. **"Now go get the money."**

"Right boss." The twins said as they went towards the back of the room where the money was being kept. Once over there, one of the twins started emptying out the cash registers and drawers of anything of value as the other went towards the safe to crack it open. Then one of the twins noticed something at the corner of his eye.

"Hey boss. Look at this."

"Yes. **What is it Ukon?"** Two Face said as he got closer while keeping an eye on most of the people present.

Said twin lifted up a wooden tray and presented it to his boss. "There must be a couple hundred silver dollars here."

" **Then bring it."** The scarred man growled out getting the twin to nod and placed the tray to the side before he kept doing what he was doing before.

As this was going on, the other twin was finally able to crack the safe and opened it up before emptying its contents. That was until he spotted an expensive looking ring on one of the man's hands.

"Well lookie here." The twin said as he slipped it off of the man's finger. "I'll take that."

"Taking jewerly wasn't apart of the plan Sakon." Two Face said as he glared at said twin. **"You got to flip for it if you want that ring."** The scarred man pulled out his coin and flipped it into the air before catching it. Once opening up his palm, he saw that it was the good heads. "Leave the ring."

"But boss-" **"I said leave it!"** The man yelled out getting the twin to comply and place the ring on the ground by the man's body. It wasn't long until the three men got everything they came for and the twins ran out of the door to get the car started. Just as Two Face was leaving the establishment, he turned back around to announce something. "Now before I go, **I want you all to give Rupert Thorne a message."** He then brought his assault rifle up and started firing at the TV monitors to end up destroying them in the process.

" **That I'm him taking him down."** Two Face growled out before going to the getaway car and he and the twins drove off into the night.

 _ **-Rupert Thorne's Office-**_

*Bam* "God!" *Bam* "Fucking!" *Bam* "Dammit!" *Bam*

Those were the sounds present in the office as the crime overlord was cursing up a storm. He had gotten the latest reports of his establishments earlier that he had been hit again by Harvey Dent, or what he now calls himself Two Face.

"How much did he take this time?" Thorne growled out.

"Two hundred thousand sir." Candice simply stated.

"But I thought we got rid of this guy?" One of the thugs said getting the assistant to look at him with a slight glare.

"If you forgot, we actually created him that night three weeks back."

It has been indeed that long as Rupert was glaring at the newspaper with the headline 'Two Face's Wave of Armed Robbery'. He was completely pissed on what the former DA was doing to him as of late. From hitting his nightclubs and gambling rings, that it ended up costing him a fortune along with it being utterly humiliating.

Two Face Harvey kept on hitting various establishments he owned in this city and things were starting to come down hill for him. It got to the point that he decided to seek out help from his fellow crime lords in the city. But none of them would even budge a finger due to the man they work alongside with. The man who practically controls a lot of their actions as their allied group leader: Kurama Otsutsuki.

He came onto the scene a decade ago after killing off Gato and absorbing his group and assets over in the Asian territories before moving to Gotham a year or so later. At first he was not that noticeable, but things started to escalate as he changed things drastically towards his liking. In the end, Kurama had gained complete control of drug trafficking in Gotham and had eliminated human trafficking as a whole. This made him a threat towards several competitions trying to muscle their way in and had sought to eliminate him, but that was their downfall. The red haired drug lord had taken care of those problems personally just to make a statement: don't fuck with him.

Then one day, he had sought out the various crime lords in Gotham and offered them an alliance so that things could be easier to handle. The smaller ones had joined and were eventually absorbed into Kurama's network. Reason being was that those smaller groups couldn't handle too much pressure and it was easier for them to report to someone higher than them. Eventually he came and offered the deal to the major crime lords of Gotham: Rupert Thorne, Roman Sionis, Carmine Falcone, Sal Maroni and Oswald Cobblepot; that he won't absorb their groups but just have a good relationship with each of them. Thorne and Sionis had turned down the deal and the feral crime lord had left them be while Falcone and Cobblepot had joined in on the allied force.

As for Maroni, well he felt right out insulted and did an assassination attempt on his life along with his two snake themed girlfriends. Well that caused a bit of a problem and Kurama brought down his entire fury on the man and his followers. Suffice to say, he truly lived up to his statement. For good compensation, he had let the other major crime lords of Gotham take whatever they wanted from the late Maroni group. Everyone was fine with it and things went on with their separate ways since it was shown as a sign of good will.

Now one might wonder why bring up Kurama into the explanation? Well Thorne had contacted Kurama the previous week due to Two Face making things difficult for Rupert. He wanted to discuss the offer the crime lord offered back then so the redhead could help him out. But the feral man had said the offer went off the table the moment Thorne and Sionis had refused to join the group. He tried to get into the man's good graces, but the man refused especially with the heat coming down on the man as of late among other things. So with that, Rupert was practically on his own.

With the stress getting to him, Rupert rubbed his chest in remembrance of this event is just adding onto the pile of crap heap he had been dealing with ever since his brother Matthew left his employ. After his brother helped get rid of the tumor near his heart with the help of his old schoolmate Leslie Thompkins, the man left and was placed into protective custody with his newly registered medical license. Without his brother being the 'crime doctor', moral for his group dropped along with problems with health and medical were getting too risky in the end.

"Three weeks have been long enough." The crime lord said as he stabbed a knife into the newspaper a few times before settling down. "Spread the word that I'm putting out a contract. One million…." He said before pausing for a brief moment. "Actually make that two million dollars. One for each 'face' for the man who brings me Two Face."

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

 _The sounds of running and panting could be heard in the darkness as Harvey started to weave through the streets of Gotham._

" _Harvey!" A voice called out getting the DA to run faster before realizing he is now standing on a rickety bridge. He went back around to get off of the bridge until he saw a shadowy figure coming closer to him._

" _NO! Stay back!" Harvey said in worry._

 _The figure kept on walking forward until it came under the nearby lamppost to reveal that it was Batman with a truly worried look on his face._

" _Harvey, please. Let me help you." The masked hero pleaded only for the man on the bridge to scoff at him._

" _You?! Help me?!" Harvey said as he walked closer with an accusing finger pointed straight at him. "You saw what was going on! You knew that something was terribly wrong with me! But I thought you were my friend, my closest ally here in Gotham! You should've helped me more! Yet you didn't!" He yelled out as he covered his face during most of the accusations before revealing his scarred face towards the hero._ _ **"NOW LOOK AT ME!"**_

" _But I tried Harvey. I truly have. I-" Bruce said to his oldest friend. He then heard the sound of rope snapping, making the hero realize what's going to happen. He ran towards the rickety bridge but it seemed to be farther away than he realized or was kept in place. Bruce pushed himself to his limits to hopefully make it in time, but the bridge gave out letting his friend fall. "HARVEY!"_

" _ **WHY COULDN'T YOU SAVE MEEEE?!"**_ _The man cried out as he fell into the fiery pit below._

 _Once coming towards the ledge, Bruce peered down below to hopefully see his friend down there. The only thing he saw was something that truly scared him the most. Making him collapse onto his knees as he felt truly young and helpless like he was eight years old again._

" _No…. No…." He said at the sight before him... Seeing his parents lying down on the ground with their eyes staring right back at him._

" _Why couldn't you save us son?" His father, Thomas Wayne, said to him in disappointment._

"NO!" Bruce cried out as he woke up from his sleep in the batcave. With the intensity and volume of the yell echoed throughout the cave, making all of the bats wake up and flutter all about. He tried to control his breathing as he placed his hand on his sweaty brow.

"Get it together Bruce… It was just a dream." The 'playboy' said to himself before his eyes met the various documents laid out on the bat computer's desktop from various psychology newspapers, books and even copied reports of Dr. Harleen Quinzel that he acquired from Arkham. The last one was a little difficult with him breaking into her office and taking photos of her evaluations on Pamela Isley and Margaret Sorrow/Magpie from her locked cabinet, but it was something he has done before. He just needed to know everything he could about multiple personalities to try and understand his friend more.

"So... What are you dreaming about this time Harvey?" Bruce asked in slight curiosity, as he finally controlled his breathing to a good pace. "Peaceful dreams…. And nightmares all at once? Could be possible with his two personas. Especially with what Dr. Quinzel has stated in her notes…. But whatever the case may be, I hope you sleep well my friend. No matter what you have become, I will save you…. I swear."

He then gazed at the clock nearby and saw that it was time for him to get ready for the day and head to his morning 'job'. Getting up, he stretched about and made his way towards his bedroom with the previous thoughts still present in his mind. It was going to be one of those days he figured.

 _ **-Morning, Grace Lamont's Apartment-**_

The sounds of sobbing and moaning could be heard in the residence as Naruto was present to help console his friend. Ever since Harvey's disappearance from the hospital and his crime wave three weeks ago, the blonde lawyer has been a total wreck. Naruto, with some occasional visits from Selina, have checked up on her so that she wouldn't do anything rash.

"I know that this has been difficult Grace, but you shouldn't give up hope."

"H-How can I when Harvey hasn't bothered to see me o-or doing all of these things." She said as she continued to sop with her reddened eyes.

He didn't know what to say exactly since she was right. For all this time, Naruto had been wracking his brain over with everything, but nothing could work for a good response. He just sat there for her to have a good friend to hold onto. She didn't have that many social or work friends and her relatives lived on the other side of the country so it was hard for her to get better support.

"Just…. Just keep holding onto what you have Grace and things might pull through to the end." The publisher said as he broke the hug and grabbed her a few more tissues. "I need to get going now Grace. Like I asked before: If anything comes up, please let me know okay?"

*Sniff* "Okay." The blonde weakly said as Naruto gave her one last hug before exiting the apartment.

She got up on her feet to at least stretch her legs as she walked over to the far side of the room. There she picked up a framed photo of both her and Harvey on the day he proposed to her. It was practically one of the happiest days of her life with her being so much in love with him.

*Knock Knock*

'Who could that be?' Grace thought as she put down the picture frame back down and walked towards the door. Once opening it, she was greeted with the site of a redhead police officer with some dark haired woman in a detective looking attire with the trench coat and business suit and glasses. "Yes…. May I help you?"

"Grace Lamont. I'm detective Leopold." The identified detective stated. "It's about your fiance. I would like to talk more, but I would like to do so outside of prying ears."

*Sniff* "Right. Of course. Come on in." The lawyer gestured as she ushered the two to come in. "May I offer you some tea or some water?"

"As kind of an offer Miss Lamont, but we hopefully don't want to take up too much time." The female detective said as she sat down on the couch while the officer stood not too far away.

"So mind telling me what this is all about?"

"Of course…." The woman said as she through various details pertaining to the scarred man and Rupert Thorne. Most were a bit detailed while others quite simple, but Grace was getting the gist of it all. "...So we would like to get to Harvey before Thorne does since he won't have much of a chance."

"I wish I could help, but I haven't seen or heard from him since that terrible day at the hospital. So I don't know where he is."

"I understand that Miss Lamont, but it is possible that he might come around at some point and contact you." Detective Leopold said before pulling out a device from her pocket. "If he ever does, activate this beeper and we'll trace the signal wherever you are."

Grace didn't know what to do at this point, but what choice did she have in the matter at this point. Her response wasn't immediate but she hesitantly held out her hand and grabbed ahold of the device making the detective smile at the action.

"Then it's all in your hands Miss Lamont. So for now get some rest ma'am." The woman said as she and her partner left the grieving lawyer in her apartment.

Once outside of the building, the police officer and detective got into their car and slowly drove off. At that time, the officer pulled off his hat and partial disguise to reveal some scars present as the detective pulled down her hair and removed her glasses.

"So what makes you so sure that he'll show up Candice?" The thuggish looking man questioned as the now identified Candice gave him a smirk.

"Oh trust me, men tend to always come back to the ones they really care about."

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

"Sixty-four eight… **Sixty-four nine…** Sixty-five thousand." Harvey 'Two Face' spoke out as he was organizing the money piles for both him and the twins. One of them, sometimes hard to tell for the scarred man with them switching outfits and parting their hair differently at times, reached out to grab a pile. To which the scarred man intercepted by grasping the hand before giving it a firm squeeze. **"Don't touch anything until I tell you to."**

"Sorry boss." The twin said as the man let go, making the grey haired twin rub his wrist to ease the pain.

*Sigh* "You two have always been greedy, haven't you Sakon and Ukon? Even when I prosecuted you two as DA." Harvey said as he remembered taking on their case a few years back.

Sakon and Ukon were trouble making kids that tended to steal off of the street and from various stores. The two were sent to juvenile hall for a year or so until they were released. When Harvey had gotten out of the hospital, he came across them as they were trying to find work. He offered them to work for him and explained the benefits of doing this. They agreed since they were a bit desperate for money and they wanted to get back at Thorne for screwing them over at a previous time.

Once Harvey pulled out his wallet to put most of his pile away, his eyes caught the glimpse of a photo with him and Grace. Just seeing her face, even from a photo, made his one good eye well up with tears while the other just dripped on down right away without an eyelid.

On the side, the twins looked at their boss with slight worry as they already guessed what was going through the scarred man's head.

Two Face broke out of his concentration as the corner of his eye caught onto them looking at him. He placed the wallet onto the table and gave them a dirty scowl. **"What the hell are you looking at?"**

"Sorry boss." "But if you miss her so much." "Why don't you go see her?" The twins spoke to finish each part of the sentence. The two of them nodded at this as they could see their boss at least be happy and get off their case at times. "We could even bring her over if you want."

Harvey contemplated on this as he looked back onto the photo before reaching into his jacket to pull out his coin. 'Good heads, she comes. **Bat heads, we leave her be.'** He thought as the coin was flipped into the air and landed onto the table with the bad heads up. "Forget it you two…. **We got other matters to attend to."**

Seeing this, both of them sighed before one of them spoke out. "What would that be boss?"

"I've decided that it's time to finish off Thorne once and for all."

"Really?" "How?" "You gonna finally kill the bastard?"

Their response was a shake of the head that it wasn't what he had thought. Even though it would've been a quicker solution. "No… **Let's just say that I'll do to him what he did to me."**

"Even the whole 'burn' thing boss?"

"Possibly. **If I'm lucky."**

 _ **-Naruto's Office-**_

*Sigh* "What a day. What a day." The publisher said while stretching his arms. It's been a decent so far with him going over the various documents for the day. From usual magazine workings, progress reports on remodeling the Metropolis branch location, to possible novels that need to be approved before sent to editing.

Nothing unusual or interesting has come up recently for work asides from one of his authors wanting to get his latest book out. What made it interesting was it being American McGee's rendition of Lewis Carol's 'Alice in Wonderland' novels. Naruto read the entire first book and he thought it was an interesting take in a darker tone than from the original works. Very much so that the former shinobi approved it and had it sent to the editor to have the book hit shelves within the next few months.

Another thing that came up was when one Masamune Shirow came from Japan to see him. Reason being was the writer was hoping to make a deal with the former shinobi for an english publication of several series of his. From Black Magic, Appleseed, to Ghost in the Shell. It was appealing on the idea with Naruto buying some of the original translations from overseas and he'll need to discuss the offer with some of his staff if they would like to work on the project.

Naruto looked towards the clock and noticed that it was near lunch time. He rubbed his stomach with slight anticipation as he pulled out his lunch box. Normally the Uzumaki wouldn't be that excited for a home cooked meal, even if it's one of his own home cooked ones, but this one was made by Selina this morning.

Before both of them left for work this morning, she gave him a boxed lunch she made without him noticing. Then again, it would explain why she wasn't in the shower with him this morning. It was rather cute to see the thief give it to him with a slight blush on her face. Saying that she wanted to pay him back for all of the home cooked lunches he made for her and wanted to start making him ones.

WIth the past dinners Selina made in their 'home dates', Naruto wondered what he'd get for a lunch. So before he could even open up the box, a voice called out from behind him. Scaring the living shit out of him.

"My oh my." A familiar voice said getting Naruto to fall out of his seat with a slight yelp. "A boxed lunch, from Selina no less. How cute."

Getting up from his placement on the floor, the former shinobi glared daggers into the bijuu hybrid. "What are you doing here Kurama? Wouldn't you normally make an 'unannounced appointment' with Jillian before coming on by for a chat of some sort."

"Oh I would but I wanted to have slight pleasure of scaring you." Kurama said with a cocky smirk that made Naruto's eyebrow start twitching. "As for me being here, wanted to discuss a few things."

"Which would be what exactly?"

"For one, congrats on getting back your wind element after a decade." The redhead stated as he sat down on the couch several away from the office desk. Once sitting down, he lifted up his hand and a small swirl of fire came about before it died down to reveal a bag of Big Belly Burger. He turned to the side and saw Naruto give him a quizzical look, making the hybrid roll his eyes. "What. I eat."

The publisher only threw his hands up in the air before replying to him. "I wasn't judging really."

"Yeah well it's one of the only places that gives me enough calories _and_ is delicious to help me go through a third of the day." Kurama said as he took a bite out of a few fries. "Most of the time, I just three orders of the stuff and be fine for the day."

*Chuckles* "Seems that you found your 'ramen' Kurama."

"Shut up."

"Well getting back on topic, thanks." Naruto said as he popped open his box lunch to see the nice little spread. 'Mmmmm. Looks good.'

"Must not have been easy given what reports I saw on how you got that back."

The former blonde nodded as he took his first bite out of the meal and mentally sighed in bliss before speaking. *Gulp* "Falling several hundred feet in the air and getting desperate will do that. *Sigh* Reminded me of the time when Jiraiya threw me off of that cliff and had to summon Gamabunta in the end. *Groan* Not a fun experience."

*Gulp* *Cough* "No shit Sherlock."

"But I got this out of it." Naruto said as he held out his hand and summoned Kazekage into his grasp to get Kurama to look at quizzically.

"Huh… Interesting lance you got there." The hybrid said as he got up from the seat on the couch to come closer for an inspection. He didn't touch it, but his eyes looked through every detail and felt the power coming from it. "So how much training have you worked on this thing."

"Well asides from riding this puppy, I've been looking up bo staff and lance fighting styles and try to work from there. Obviously can't try to find someone to teach me or else things might seem suspicious. So have been going through instincts on how I should fight at least."

Nodding at this, Kurama ushered Naruto to continue with his explanation as he went back to his seat and eating his meal.

"As for the wind based stuff, had to go to the mountain ranges to see what I could do exactly. For my training so far I was able to find out that I could summon more of these, up to six in total to be exact. Don't know why that number, but not complaining. Been able to experiment on some wind based techniques that I remember from back in the home reality."

"I'm sensing a 'but'..."

*Sigh* "But I found out that when I tried using those powers when I don't have the weapon out, it doesn't show up at all. No matter how hard I tried. Even tried using what I know so far with my scythe without having it out and nothing came out at all."

Getting that bit of the explanation made Kurama hum in thought on the implications. "Possibly your 'toys' don't like you using their powers if you don't let them out to play. They could but it'll be a long road till you could maybe use them without having your 'toys' out."

Hearing this made Naruto scratch his head on this bit of realization that his former tenant might've hit it dead center on that one. If he does unlock other weapons, he'll need to start figuring out a better way on his fighting style when trying to switch them out during certain fights down the road. Even with all of the training he has been doing with his weapons and powers, he still has a long way to go.

"I guess you're right Kurama." The Uzumaki said as he dispersed his lance. "So asides from talking about my powers, what did you want to discuss?"

"About what's going on with Harvey 'Two Face' Dent." As the hybrid said this, Naruto tensed a little bit before getting back into a relaxed mood.

"Why do you want to talk about Harvey Kurama?"

"From what I have noticed is that he's targeting various fronts of Rupert Thorne's businesses." Kurama stated as he ate some more fries before holding out his hand to motion of counting things off. "Club 22, Gemini's Jewelers, Two's Company and several other places. Some people might speculate that Dent has a thing for robbing places with a relation of 'two' in the title like his next stop being the Second National Band, but he's only targeting Thorne specifically."

"Wanting to hurt the man hard where it hurts the most, his wallet." Naruto surmised getting the redhead to nod.

"Yup and I'm actually glad that Thorne is getting humiliated in such a way."

Naruto raised a brow at this and couldn't help but ask. "Why?"

"Well Rupert has been trying to slink his way into my businesses and thought I wouldn't notice. Even with him asking if I could help him out from one crime lord to another from what Two Face has been doing lately. But in fact I'm actually enjoying how this is turning out so far. *Chuckles* Harvey is practically doing me a favor of ruining Thorne in the way he is doing. So I thought I would want to owe the man a favor or two down the road. Especially since he's one of your friends Naruto."

"And he is still a friend of mine Kurama. Deep inside his scarred form is still the friend I've known since I moved here to Gotham."

Kurama didn't say anything right away as he finished the last of his meal before speaking. "Well you better keep your guard up since he might not be the man you know anymore. It'll make him more dangerous to you if you let it down." The crime lord simply stated as he got up from his seat. "Don't want him to end up like the duck butted asshole of an Uchiha we both despise and have him stab you through the chest."

As he said this, Kurama went up in a pillar of fire before disappearing from the room. Keeping his eyes on his former tenant's placement, Naruto kept on thinking about what was just spoken to him as he was eating the rest of his meal. He hoped that Kurama was wrong to keep his damaged friend at arm's length or more so that he won't be hurt again, but he is probably right.

But asides from that, Naruto realized from what the crime lord said that Thorne has been humiliated for a while now and his businesses have been hit hard. Sooner or later Harvey will run out of places to hit to the point that he'll want to get rid of Thorne for good. And as a trained man of the law, the only way to really get rid of a crime lord is through cold hard evidence.

So with nothing else to do for now, until Jillian comes in with more things for Naruto to take care of, he went onto his computer and started looking up details about Rupert Thorne on where Harvey will finish things off for good.

 _ **-Night, Office of Thorne's Attorney-**_

Small spots of light were shown through a broken office door late at night. When one would look inside, the lights were revealed to be a pair of individuals with flashlights in their hands. One would ask on what they are doing exactly and to simply put it, they were searching through the office for something as they were going through the attorney's desk and filing cabinets.

"Hey boss."

" **Yes Ukon."** A voice growled out to reveal Two Face, even as a flashlight was pointed towards his face on accident.

"Take a look at this. I think it's Rupert Thorne's confidential file." Ukon stated waving the file in his hand.

"Let me see that." Harvey said as he was handed the file. Once opening it up for confirmation, his eyes were scanning through the pages as he was growing an ever present smile. **"For years I've been trying to subpoena all of this. Money laundering, payoffs, blackmail and it's all here.** Two Face said as he started to laugh a bit in joy. **"Now I'll destroy Thorne with his file like he destroyed mine."**

"Well that's great and all boss, but we should probably get out of here." Ukon said as he made his way towards the door, only for it to be blocked by someone else. "Shit! It's Batman!"

The twin pulled out his gun and was ready to fire, but the hero of Gotham grabbed ahold of it and tossed it out of the way. Ukon then lunged at the Bat, but he dodged out of the way getting the grey haired man to hit the wall instead.

"You're coming with me Harvey." Batman said as he approached the scarred lawyer. "I just want to help you."

"Help me?!" The former DA surprisingly asked before growling out at the man. **"But you don't even know me!"**

"I know that you have friends Harvey. Friends that love and care about you."

" **Well Harvey's friends are no friends of mine."** Two Face said as he grabbed ahold of the table lamp and was ready to bash Batman's skull in.

"But what about Grace?" Batman asked getting Two Face to pause in his advancement.

"G-Grace." Harvey said as he placed the lamp back down on the table. "What do you know about Grace?"

"I know that she still loves you Harvey. She keeps your picture and everyday she waits and prays for you to come back to her." The disguised billionaire said to him. "There is so much that some of her closest friends can do to help, but only you can help put things at ease for her. All that she wants now is just wanting you back."

It seemed that things were pulling through for the Bat, that he might be able to get his friend to comply. But that came crashing down as someone came into the room.

"Hey what's taking you two so long?" Sakon asked as he peered inside and saw Batman standing in front of his boss.

Batman turned around on instinct to take care of the other twin, but was hit from behind by his scarred friend to get him to tumble onto the ground.

" **Come on. Let's get out of here."** Two Face said as he ran out of the office with the file on hand while the twins were ahead of him.

"Harvey! Come back here!" The Bat called out and grabbed ahold of his coat pocket.

Feeling the snag on his coat, Two Face turned around and snarled at him. **"Let go of me!"**

In response, he kicked the hero in the chest to send him into the nearby janitorial cart. Upon impact, Batman had been hit on the same spot as the kick to get him to get knocked out in the process. Seeing as the hero was down for the count, Harvey ran off to catch up towards the twins to make their getaway.

It's been about ten or so minutes later when Vanitas came down through the hallway when he came across the prone form of Batman on the ground. Along the way, he had seen the one attorney's office in shambles and realized that he came by too late to stop Harvey from what he was planning on doing. So once coming to the Bat's form, he tried to nudge him awake.

"Hey Bat's, you okay?" Vanitas asked as he hoped for a response, but didn't get one. "Come on Bat's you better wake up." He said as he tried to shake him a bit. "If you don't wake up then, I'll paint your batbike pink." No response as well on this.

"Okay then…. Seems that I'll have to do this the hard way. It's going to hurt me more than it hurts you." Vanitas said as he popped the knuckles in his hand. "So It's time to wake up Batsy!"

*Slap*

"Rise and shine!"

*Slap*

"Wake up!"

*Slap*

"Up and at 'em!"

*Slap*

"Fine then."

*Slap*

"Be a brooding asshole."

*Slap*

"See what I care."

*Slap*

"I'm not doing this to replace you for the fucking teme."

*Slap*

"I just feel like it."

*Slap*

"Not like you deserve it."

*Slap*

"SO!"

*Slap*

"WHY!"

*Slap*

"WON'T"

*Slap*

"YOU!"

*Slap*

"WAKE!"

*Slap*

"UP?!"

As one last bitch slap was about to come on down to the Bat's cheek, the appendage was grabbed by said man's hand as he scowled at the man hovering over him.

"Why are you slapping me?!" Batman yelled out making Vanitas phase his hand out of the hero's grip.

"I was just trying to wake you up."

"I was halfway through." The Bat growled out.

"Well why didn't you say anything?" Vanitas innocently asked.

"You kept on slapping me!"

"Geez... you don't need to shout you know."

Batman tried to get up but groaned out in response. He brought his hand to the side to feel for where the pain was coming from and found out that he possibly has a cracked rib or two.

"Hey you shouldn't get up with your injuries man." The masked Uzumaki said getting a dirty look in response. "What?"

"Like you have room to talk with you giving me slaps across the face."

"Oh will you just let that go already." The man said as he wanted to change the subject. "Seems I came in too late seeing as the office was wrecked."

Hearing this made Batman remember what happened earlier and quickly turn to Vanitas and spoke. "Have you seen Two Face?"

"No, I'm sorry on that Bats."

Batman respond well to that as he started walking down the hallway so that he could get back to his motorcycle to keep on searching for Harvey. On the way over there, he looked down into his hand and opened it up to see a matchcase with the 2 of Hearts printed on it. In a brief moment, Vanitas saw the case as well, making him guess that he got it from either of the twins or Harvey himself.

 _ **-On the Streets-**_

The getaway car containing Sakon, Ukon and 'Two Face' Dent was calmly going down the streets of Gotham so that nothing could be drawn towards them. Whether it being the police, citizens, Batman or Vanitas. Eventually the group stopped at a red light when the small silence was broken by one of the twins.

"Wait until the police get a load of this stuff." Sakon said as he rode shotgun while Ukon drove the vehicle. "It's even got his Cayman Island and Swiss Bank accounts in here."

"Nice."

As this little chatter was going on, Harvey was blankly looking around through the passenger window when his eyes glanced upon something. Something that made his eyes slowly widen and start to well up a little in tears with his left eye already shredded them: a wedding shop. He didn't know what was going on, but he saw himself and Grace replace the mannequins on display in a wedding ceremony scene. Envisioning himself and his beloved fiance saying their vows and placing their wedding bands into the other's hands before sealing things with a kiss.

The little scene playing through his head started to end as the car was starting to move forward to turn around the corner. Shaking out of his stupor, Harvey soon told Ukon to pull the car over. Following his boss' sudden order, the driver did so as the scarred lawyer pulled out his coin and flipped it into the air.

 _ **-Grace Lamont's Apartment-**_

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

Grace was in the kitchen getting something to drink when the phone started to go off. She wasn't expecting any calls that she could think of and it's just been a tiresome day so far, or rather a tiresome few weeks. Crying throughout most days and nights, having her mind feel depleted after a long day at work with both her work tasks and worries plaguing it. She just wished that things could be over and her worries put to rest.

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

"I'm coming." She said towards the phone as she walked over towards it before picking it up to answer the call. "Hello? Grace Lamont speaking."

There was no indefinite response on the line as the silence seemed to pass for several moments. With how exhausted and tired she was for the day Grace seemed to get a little upset at this and spoke out. "If this is a wrong number, then I'm sorry you dialed it wrong. But if this is a prank call, then I'm not happy on what you're doing." She said as she was going to hang up the phone when a voice spoke from the other end.

" _Grace?"_

This made her pause as the voice was really familiar to her. Her eyes started to well up in tears as her breath felt caught up in her throat along with her hands seemingly shook a little. The only thing that she could say didn't filter through her mind as it came out instinctively. "H-Harvey? I-Is that you?"

" _Yes Grace. It's me."_

Once getting the confirmation, her legs gave out as she fell onto the nearby couch for support. Just hearing his voice made her heart quake in joy. As a result, she started to sob a little as she couldn't contain it any longer with her tears starting to finally shed.

" _Grace,"_ he said in a sorrowed tone, _"I'm sorry that I haven't seen you."_

"Harvey…. Where are you?" Grace spoke out as she wanted to see him so badly. To at least have him hold her in comfort and for her to be with him again. "Please. I want to see you honey. I miss you so much."

" _I want to see you too dear."_ Harvey said as Grace could hear it cracking a little making her know that was truly upset as well. _"No. Not want. I need to see you."_

"Yes! Yes of course!" She cried out in joy. "Where Harvey and I'll come on over as soon as I can."

" _Look out of your window Grace."_ He said, getting her to comply on the slight request. Once pulling the curtain back a little, she saw a car parked on the empty street. _"The men in the car will bring you to me. They won't lay a hand on you, but I swear if they do-"_

"I-I understand what you're saying Harvey and I'm sure they won't." She spoke into the phone as her eyes soon landed upon the device detective Leopold gave to her earlier this morning. The blonde lawyer picked it up and didn't know what to do with it now, but she needed to say something. "Harvey…. No matter what happens, you know that I always love you right?"

" _...I'll see you soon Grace."_ Was all that was said before the line went dead.

Once hanging up the phone she immediately grabbed her coat and went out of the door as she activated the device before placing it in her purse. With nothing else but seeing her beloved fiance, nothing else seemed to come to the forefront of her mind. But of course, she would end up forgetting the promise she had made to a certain publisher this morning for her to call him if anything came up.

 _ **-Meanwhile, Rupert Thorne's Office-**_

"HE DID WHAT?!" Rupert Thorne yelled out as he was starting to go red in the face in anger. Without anything else being spoken, the crime lord started pulling on the phone connection to the wall until it broke free and threw the device to the other side of the room. "DAMN THAT SON OF A BITCH!"

"Cool your jets boss." One of the thugs said as he tried to get his boss to calm down.

"I don't want to hear it!" Thorne said as he slammed his fists onto the table. "If he brings those files to the police, then I'm completely ruined! We need to stop him now!"

"But how boss, we don't even know where the guy is." Another thug said before a sound started to fill the air.

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

"What the hell is that?" A thug said as he pulled out his gun on instinct.

"That would be my insurance policy." Candice said as she pulled out her device from her purse.

"What insurance policy?" Her boss asked as she gave him an ever present smirk on her lips.

 _ **-Wild Deuce Club-**_

It was rather odd that it started to rain suddenly during the drive over to Harvey's residence, but it didn't matter to Grace as she kept her mind focused on seeing him after so long. Once pulling to the side of the road, the twins got out of the car and opened her door with an umbrella on hand.

"Thank you Ukon."

"I'm Sakon, he's Ukon." The twin said as his brother went to the door of the abandoned establishment and unlocked the door.

"I'm sorry." She apologized, but the twin waved her off.

"It's fine Miss Lamont. We do this all the time to confuse everyone so we're used to it." Sakon said as he helped get the blonde inside. "Right this way ma'am. Harvey's been waiting."

"Thank you two for bringing me here."

"You're welcome." They both said as they got inside, out of the rain. Once inside from the dry rain, Ukon had then locked the door behind them to be sure that no one would get in that easily.

"He's right in there ma'am." "We can take your belongings if you want." Both of them said to her which she started to take off her coat and handed it to one of the twins.

Once passing through the doors, she was greeted with an odd sight with one half of the large room being carefully groomed, neat and organized while the other is violently destroyed with the dark atmosphere of destroyed floorboards, carpet and tables. After scanning the room, she wondered where her beloved Harvey was located. It wasn't long as she saw the door at the far side of the room open up showing Harvey walking through it. Upon closer inspection, Grace saw that part of his face was covered up with a sheet with an eyehole cut out for him to see her.

"Hello Grace." He said to her with his kind, gentle voice.

"H-Harvey." She said as she slowly walked up to him with a growing smile on her face. She was going to hug him, but when she was within arm's length he stopped her. "W-What's wrong."

" **I'm not Harvey anymore Grace. It's Two Face now."** He said, getting her to shake off the odd growling voice coming from him.

"No Harvey, it's not. Your name is Harvey Dent, the man that I love. A man that is a big part of my world." Grace said to him. He shook his head towards her in response to this.

"I'm sorry to say this, **but this is my world now."** Two Face stated as he gestured her the oddly designed room. "A world of order and **chaos. Just like me."**

"Harvey," she said to him with a look that made her think he was crazy, "what happened to your mind? Your feelings? You used to listen to your feelings."

Nothing immediate was said as the man she still loves pulled out a coin from his pocket and started to flip it in the air. "This is what I listen to now: chance. **Chance is everything I listen to now Grace.** Whether you are born or not. **Whether you live or die.** Whether you're good or bad." He said to her before he stopped playing with his coin. **"It's all obertrarie."**

"That's complete and utter nonsense Harvey!" She said to him with a raised voice. "Was it chance that made you district attorney?! Was it chance that we had met?! Was it chance that made you fall in love with me and me with you?!"

"G-Grace I-" "Please. Just take control of your life Harvey. You don't need a coin." She interrupted him as she grabbed his scarred hand and brought it to her face. He trembled in the process but kept it in. "You don't need this mask either."

"Grace, don't." He said to her, making her stop from taking off the sheet. **"I-I don't want you to see."**

"Harvey…. You know you never had to hide anything from me." She told him as she brought her hand to the sheet and slowly took it off, to reveal his damaged face to her. "I love you Harvey Dent, no matter what has happened to you."

Just hearing all of that made him start to shed tears as he started to choke and sob a little. He even started to smile as he brought his hands around her face. "Grace. I… I…"

*Bang* "Boss!" One of the twins called out with the other following him into the room.

" **What is it?!"** Harvey yelled out as he was going to berate him for ruining this moment.

"You two need to go now!" The other twin said before he was shot from behind and stumbled onto the ground holding his leg with his brother doing the same.

"Fuck you, you son of a bitch." One of the twins said before a thug came on through the door and kicked both of the twin's heads to knock them out.

"Oh shut up." The man said before he ushered the other thugs to enter the room and surrounded the couple.

"So…. This is where you have been hiding Dent." Thorne said as he calmly walked into the room. "We finally meet at last. Face, to face, to face."

Grace didn't know what was going on and how Rupert Thorne found them. Her eyes went around in confusion before her eyes landed upon a familiar face. "You?!"

"Hello Miss Lamont." Candice said as she walked closer to the blonde.

"Grace? **What's going on?"** Two Face asked seeing his love's face drain of all color.

"You did well to lead us right to him Grace." The secretary said as she grabbed Grace's purse and pulled out the tracking device.

"Grace?!" Harvey questioned in shock as her eyes were welling up in tears with her shaking like a leaf.

"You should know that she thought she was leading the police here." Thorne said with a growing smile on his face. "She thought that she could save you."

"Harvey. I'm so sorry. You have to believe me." Grace said to him as she hugged him to try and make him know that she didn't mean it. In response, Two Face broke the embrace and turned her back to her, making her silently cry on the action.

" **So much on control. Huh Grace."** He said to her as Thorne actioned for his goons to search the place for what he came for. It took a while as each thug went through every nook and cranny to find the file, even went through the safe kept in the one large room, but it was nowhere in sight.

"Can't find that file of yours boss." One thug said as he placed the wooden tray of silver dollars onto the nearby table.

"Oh I know that file is here alright." Thorne said as he glared at the man that has ruined him these past weeks. "Now where is it?!"

" **Not a chance asshole."** The scarred man growled out. Thorne still glared at him before turning his attention towards the blonde woman in the room. **"NO! DON'T YOU DARE!"** He tried to reach her but the thugs came up from behind and grabbed the man by the arms to keep him in place. **"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!"**

*Chuckles* "My oh my." Rupert said as he came up to the scared blonde as she tried to back away from the crime lord. "You've got a such a pretty face. Would hate to see it all messed up."

" **GET YOUR DISGUSTING HANDS OFF OF HER!"** Harvey yelled out as he tried to get free.

"Then give me the file Dent."

Nothing was said as Harvey 'Two Face' looked at the love of his life before hanging his head downwards and motioned that he'll comply. The thugs let go of him before the scarred man went to the roulette table and opened up a hidden compartment to retrieve the file in question.

"Here's your stinking file." Harvey said as he handed it towards the crime lord. The man opened it up and started to inspect it to see if it was the real deal or not.

"This is genuine. Even has my lawyer's handwriting. Hard to possibly copy that." Thorne stated as he closed the file. "Get rid of them."

" **But you said-"** Harvey growled out as several guns were quickly aimed towards him with Grace pushed towards the side.

*Chuckles* "You'd think that I would let you two live after all of the mess you caused me Dent. No, I'm going to have you both killed."

"I suggest the ugly boyfriend should die first." One of the thugs said as he came closer to the scarred man. He was going to fire, but a figure dropped from above and kicked him onto the ground to render him unconscious.

"Not today assholes." Vanitas said as he dashed towards the nearby thug. At this sudden action, several thugs aimed their weapons at the arrived hero only for smoke pellets to explode underneath them and a figure came from it to attack them.

"Shit it's Batman!" One thug said before he was punched by said man.

"This is the last time you messed with me Batman." Thorne said as he grabbed the fallen assault rifle and aimed it towards the hero. He was about to open fire, but Two Face came from behind and kicked his leg in to end up having the crime lord shoot the hanging chandelier. With the hanging support damaged, it came crashing down and collapsed onto the crime lord, capturing him in it's metal embrace.

With the downed Two Face, several thugs tried to dog pile the scarred man but Vanitas and Batman pulled them out of the way and threw them into the other thugs before making quick work with them. Once Harvey got up from his place on the floor, he decided to join in on the fighting to take care of Thorne's men for some displaced aggression. During the scuffle, Batman started to hold onto his injured side as his ribs were starting to get to him. That momentary distraction costed him with a thug knocking him onto the ground and was about to shoot him if it wasn't for Vanitas' intervention on knocking the weapon out of the man's hand before knocking him out.

"Thanks." The Bat said as Vanitas held out a hand for him to grab ahold of.

"No problem." The masked Uzumaki simply said before going to another one of the thugs.

As this was going on, Harvey was dodging and evading several punches and kicks from several thugs. Without him knowing, Candice was coming up from behind with a vase in her hands to knock the scarred man out. She would've succeeded if someone didn't pull her hair from behind.

"You fucking bitch!" Grace said as she pulled the dark haired woman to the side. "You tricked me by playing with my feelings!" Nothing else was said as Grace kicked the woman from behind to send her crashing to the nearby wall to drop the vase overhead. The piece of pottery crashed onto her head and with the impact, it ended up knocking her out. "Damn that felt good." She said before seeing Batman holding his side and went to him to help support the hero.

It didn't take much longer for the remaining thugs to be subdued. When everything had calmed down, Two Face grabbed ahold of one of the thugs' weapons and aimed it towards the trapped Thorne.

"N-No! Please don't!" The downed crime lord pleaded as he didn't want to die this way."

" **Shut up!"** The scarred man yelled out with the weapon still aimed towards him.

"Don't do this Harvey!" Pleaded the masked publisher as Grace and Batman looked onward to see what was going on.

"What are you doing?!" The blonde lawyer asked.

" **Taking control of my life."** Harvey said as he glared daggers at Rupert Thorne. "He took away my life, so I'm taking away his."

"Let the law handle this Harvey." Batman said getting Two Face to look at him with a snarl.

" **The Law?!"** He said as he pulled out his damaged coin. **"This is the only law I follow. The law of averages. The great equalizer."** As the scarred man said this, he flipped the coin into the air to do his next course of action on Thorne's fate.

When it came tumbling down, Batman saw the nearby wooden tray of silver dollars and threw the container to mix those coins with Two Face's.

"NOOOO! **WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"** Two face cried out as the coins laid on the ground. "My coin! **Where is my coin?!** Where is it?! **I can't decide without it!"** He said as he was running his hands through the coins in hopes of finding it while screaming out in the process.

As this went on Grace had to turn her head away from the event happening before her as she didn't want to see her love be this way. Harvey was crying out in frustration during this whole process, thus getting Grace to let go of Batman to come towards her love. The hero stumbled a little but Vanitas came up and grabbed his side to help support him.

"It's alright now Harvey." Grace said to the scarred man as she brought him into a hug. "I'm here. I'm here."

It wasn't long until the police started to arrive due to Vanitas calling them ahead when he got to the building earlier. Thorne and his men were in handcuffs and were escorted into the police vans. The ambulances showed up as well to help take Sakon and Ukon to the hospital with their wrists handcuffed to the stretchers so they won't escape custody. Soon Harvey was escorted out of the building with Grace holding one of his arms with a doctor in an Arkham Asylum uniform to get him into another car to head towards the mental institution.

"Poor Harvey. So filled up with anger for all these years." Gordon said as he watched the scene before him. "Do you two think that there is any hope?"

"Where there's hope, there's love Commissioner." Vanitas said as Batman walked towards the nearby fountain and held out a coin in his hand. But not just any coin, Harvey's coin. The Dark Knight flipped it into the air before he spoke out.

"But a little bit of luck wouldn't hurt." The bat themed hero turned away as the coin landed face up in the water as both heroes silently prayed that their friend will be saved.

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

Search lights were present in the sky as they moved across the various surfaces in the darkened night. Roaming around in spotting anything out of the ordinary asides from the various guards doing their patrols. After one of the search lights went past a certain point, a figure then ran out from the shadows to get to the next point of coverage.

It zipped through cover to cover in the open area before getting inside of the compound before knocking out one of the guards and taking his keys to get further into the building. Watching for any guard and security camera present, the mysterious figure kept on moving towards his objective.

The person eventually made it to the security room and looked for what he was looking for before typing several commands to turn off the security camera in front of one particular cell. Before leaving the room, he grabbed a device from the nearby table before going to his destination. Once left the room, he quickly made his way towards his destination to see the man in the cell loudly snoring.

"Seems that after you left, you let yourself go." The person outside of the cell said getting the snoring to stop.

"Oh I haven't let myself go. It's just a force of habit of snoring in front of guards checking up on me. Trying to pull a Ferris Bueler here without a mannequin to buy out the act." The person said as he got up from the cot before seeing the person he was speaking with. "Oh… It's you monkey butt."

"I'm not talking about the snoring habit you idiot. I'm talking about you breaking out of here." The now revealed monkey themed assassin stated making the person in the cell roll his eyes.

"No shit Sherlock. I knew what you were talking about."

"Then why haven't you broken out before."

"Well this collar on me for starters." The man said as he gestured the collar around his neck. "If you forgot, a lot of my skills were based around my powers."

"Then why not use your other skills acquired from the league?"

"This place is so tight that it could've rivaled a tight virgin asshole you prick." The man said with a slight growl towards Silver Monkey. "During the times I've been let out of the cell to do my 'recess time', there were guards everywhere with those fucking remotes of them just in case if I tried to escape. Even watching me and strip searching me whenever I get out of a certain room if I tried to smuggle something out."

This made the assassin to hum at this before chuckling a little bit. "Seems that this place is good enough to actually do that now." 

*Sigh* "Tell me about it. Missed those days where most prisons didn't have the power dampening crap so that it'll make things easier to escape."

"Well tonight's your lucky night. I'm here to get you out." Silver Monkey said as he unlocked the cell getting the person inside to raise an eyebrow at him.

"Why the fuck would you want to do that? Since I left the league, no one has bothered to come and get me. Figured that Ra's didn't want to deal with me anymore and hoped I get killed off on my own."

"Oh trust me, he still has that mindset."

"Then why bust me out monkey nuts?"

Ignoring the usual jib against him, due to him being used to the man for several years, he opened up the cell before entering it. "I have a proposition for you."

"Which would be what exactly?"

"Have you heard about the new hero in Gotham?"

"That Vanitas character I heard on the news? Yeah I have." The person said before growing a cocky smirk. "You have the hots for him or something?"

"No. He's the reason why I'm getting you out and before you ask, no. Ra's or Shiva doesn't know I'm doing this."

"Okay. I'm confused."

"I want to get back at him for what he did on my last assignment. Both him and Batman. Normally I would be fine taking care of the Bat, but with that metahuman in Gotham will make things difficult. So I'm here to get you to help even out the playing field."

"And what would I get if I help you out on this?" The man asked getting Silver Monkey to chuckle a little. 

"Why getting my help on killing the man that helped get you in here of course." Qarrad Alfidd said getting the man to flinch at the man before snarling a little. "He humiliated you on your attempt to kill him for glory and getting more contracts. A simple celebrity that somehow bested a trained meta-assassin of the league. So if you help me on getting rid of Batman and Vanitas, then I'll help you get rid of Naruto Uzumaki."

Hearing this, the man in question stepped closer to reveal himself as a familiar blonde haired assassin with months of facial growth on his face with a more shaggier hair. Silver Monkey then pulled out the device on his hand and aimed it towards the man to deactivate the power dampeners. Once they were fully deactivated, the man started to chuckle a little as his power coursed through his system after these past months.

"You got yourself a deal Silver Monkey." Minato 'Hiraishin' Namikaze said with a growing smirk coming from his lips and exited the cell so both would leave the prison.

If the blonde assassin had bothered to look back at the man who got him out, he would've seen a faint green glow coming from the mask's eye holes before they faded away in the darkness.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Well here is one of my favorite episodes in the Batman 90's series that brought in one of the most depressing of Batman's Rogues Gallery members into the villainous spotlight. What made this character and episode so good in the first place was actually transitioning well before the initial episode that made the person an actual villain since he was established some episodes prior to the one I'm basing the chapter on. He was engaged, helped out on several events here and there that got many of us viewers at the time to enjoy the guy. I mean I remember seeing the show back then and I did feel shocked as a child to see the demons Harvey was dealing with.**

 **I mean I didn't read any of the comics back then and the animated series was the introduction to me into DC Comics as a whole. So I was going to enjoy writing this chapter when it got to it, especially other ones on the planned timeline I have so far.**

 **Also someone asked me what kind of persona Harvey/Two Face will be for the story and I'm having the guy be mostly based off of the DCAU but his voice and appearance is taking part from Troy Baker's take from the Batman Arkham series.**

 **You readers might've noticed I had brought in Sakon and Ukon from the Naruto series into the chapter as being Harvey's two henchmen. Well I thought they were perfect for the spot with them being two halves and whatnot. Even in the anime/manga that when they separated with their curse marks that half of their body goes all darkly armored and thought they could work well on the whole 'two halves' thing Harvey has going on. So expect seeing them to be brought in for future chapters when dealing with Two Face.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	19. Worst April Fools Day Ever, of all Time

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 18: Worst April Fools Day Ever, of all Time.**

It seems to be a beautiful day so far in the city of Gotham. With the rain that has been going on for several days now, has actually helped clear up the air and wash away some of the filth in the city. Hard to tell sometimes since wherever one goes; whether it's high in the sky, on the streets or down in the underground, the city is always dirty.

But most people would want to try to forget how dirty the city is like at times. From the crimes committed, the horrors, and even it's history. Most try to look for the bright light through the muck and grime so they could try to be clean in such a place.

Reason why today could possibly be a good day to do so. One might wonder why exactly. Well today is actually April Fools Day and everyone could use a good laugh to possibly help lift everyone's spirits, even if it's just for one day.

With the sun rising in the east, everyone is starting out their day from shops opening up and everyone heading to work, things seem to be rather normal. Well as normal as this city could try to be with it's bleak past. But something seems to be a amiss as a barge carrying oddly green garbage is floating through the river. What seemed even stranger about it's waste cargo was that's emanating large amounts green gas. So when it started to pass under one of the many bridges of Gotham, a lot of the gas was passing through the area like an armored truck driving to the first destination for the day.

*Cough* *Cough* "God damn. *Cough* Something smells disgusting." The armored truck driver said as he kept on coughing with the smell coming through the open window of the vehicle. He had thought that with such a nice day, he would risk opening up the window to smell the fresh air, but ended up smelling something bad. So as the man kept on driving, the coughs started to change into something else… something unnatural.

*Cough* *Cough* "Heh. Heh. Ha. Haha. Haha. Hahahah. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA…..."

The sounds of wheezing laughter were starting to fill the air as the driver was starting to swerve around the lanes. Luckily no other driver was present but if there were, a big accident would've happened already. The action kept going on as the truck had almost hit a few workers on the bridge before it passed by them.

"Hey! Watch where you're going asshole!" One of the workers yelled out before he started to cough along with his co workers. "God damn. Did someone die without anyone knowing?"

"I know *Cough* right? *Cough* Heh. Heh. Ha. Haha. Haha. Hahahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA…..."

The laughter seemed to be rather contagious as everyone nearby was starting to laugh. Each person that was laughing out loud were holding their sides in pain with how strong it was going to the point several people had to either sit or lie down to help support them. It was like everyone affected by the laughs were losing all senses asides from the pure joyous laughter.

The one armored truck driver was even feeling the pain just now as he started to lose control of the car when passing through the rising part of the bridge. It was too late for him as the vehicle drove off of the raised part of the bridge to send it down to the river below. Once it landed in the water, the driver soon realized what happened and had to get out of the car to swim for safety.

 _ **-Naruto's Loft-**_

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish*

Sounds of drifting air were being made as Naruto was swinging around a rubber staff during his early morning training. He had been doing this for about an hour now since he'd been focusing on staff fighting in general ever since he got his wind lance. It has been a bit of a struggle to switch up his staff fighting style since he has been used to doing a scythe and the weight is mostly placed on one end, but now the lance is evenly weighted out on both. So having to adjust the swings and movements had been tricky with his muscle memory trying to go straight into the scythe techniques.

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish*

Off to the nearby couch has various books checked out from the Gotham Library that have some stick/staff fighting styles. Ranging from some styles from asian and african countries to help him a little on figuring them out better. He ended up copying down the various depictions down into his growing notebook to reference back to at a later time once he turned back the library books. He did find it odd that the library has them, but he can't argue with such a good chance like this.

Speaking of books, his notebook had started to change from that of a notebook to a regular sized hardcover book. There was nothing oddly special on the covers except for the symbol present in his weapons being on it. He guessed the change happened after he got his next weapon and it needed to contain more apparently. Who knows for sure, but it didn't stop him from sketching inside of its various blank pages.

One of the things he was starting to sketch was something for him to ride on if he doesn't want to rely on his lance all the time to go into the sky. It was something of a safety thing that came up the other day when getting people out of a burning building. He had to summon his five additional lances to help get people down safely, but it was rather difficult since some couldn't hold onto the weapon or properly sit on it until getting onto the safe ground.

With him wracking his brain, Naruto ended up with an idea of an air glider of sorts and a sidecar for additional passengers. It's a pretty good set of designs he had managed, but only on the exterior. If he wanted to possibly create a better one, he'll need to know what kind of inner mechanics would probably work to make this function. But there's the thing, this kind of an idea with it's technology is not really known in the world right now. The only places he could think of that might be coming close to this idea are LexCorp and Cyberbiotics, but he heard through some tech grapevine that they're just in the same stages as the publisher: just on sketches.

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish*

Naruto didn't have anything going on today with it being his day off and he had hoped to spend time with Selina. But it turned out that she and Shizune had to leave the country for a wildlife opportunity that he can't remember at the moment on where exactly. His girlfriend did say that she's cashing in what Bruce owed her now since she hasn't gotten any donations lately and wanted to take care of this thing quickly. The Uzumaki didn't fault her really, but he and her had some good _quality_ time the other night before she left that morning.

*Sigh* "Seems odd to not have her around after a while now." Naruto said as he stopped his swingings before turning to his only companion at the moment. "Isn't that right Isis?" His only response from the black cat was a nod before she got off of her placement on the couch and went to her feeding bowl to keep eating her breakfast. "Yeah I thought so."

With him finishing up his training for the day, he went to take a shower so that he could possibly head over to Arkham to check up on Pam and Harley. Naruto would've also gone over there to check up on Harvey, but things are at a very delicate stage at the moment with him. Unlike seeing Pam right away with her mind mostly stable when she willingly checked herself in, Harvey's mind was not along with him being charged for his three week crime spree. With how things have gone so far, the scarred man could only have Grace on his guest list and various doctors assigned to him. Luckily for him, Harley was one of the doctors but she only has limited access this time so the more professional doctors could work over Dent.

Once getting into the shower, he started it up to get rid of the morning grime off of his body. It wasn't long before he turned on the radio to listen to some music. But nothing seemed to be good at the moment so he kept changing channels.

" _...traffic is at a standstill on the Gotham Expressway with a truck full of eggs were turned over."_ A voice from the radio started getting the publisher to raise an eyebrow.

"Okay…. Have no idea how that happened, but whatever." Naruto muttered as he was about to change the station, but something came up.

" _This just in…. Gotham Police is investigating a series of near fatal accidents by the riverfront. Initial reports that hundreds of Gothamites have inexplicably acting like total laughing fools. More details as they become available."_ The reporter said before he signed off and some music started playing.

"Sounds like a dirty April Fools prank…. What happened to the good old pranks of old?" Naruto muttered as he was washing his hair before thinking about the supposed holiday.

April Fools Day was…. Interesting to say the least. When traveling through Russia in his first year in this world, he learned about the holiday and thought it was a prankster's dream come true. So he ended up pulling some of his old pranks from back home, like breaking into this Russian mob compound owned by some group called Bratva or something, and dyed all of their clothing into bright colors…..

….Yeah…. It was not fun running like hell away from them with bullets being fired upon him. He was so damn lucky that he made it out alive and that was the first time he learned to check the hallways for security cameras for future references. Though he does wonder if they still have that bounty placed on him or not.

'Should probably ask Kurama if I get the chance.' He briefly thought before getting onto other stuff on the holiday. Supposedly his level of 'pranks' were considered too extreme and could end up getting him either killed or put into prison. So after that incident, he learned that he had to do small pranks and silly jokes that wouldn't be too bad to deal with; along with the holiday's supposide start with several theories.

Some believed the first association between April 1st and playing tricks can be found in Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' from 1392. One passage called 'The Nun's Priest's Tale', it seemed to get many readers think the characters were talking about thirty-two days after March which ended up landing on April 1st. Others believe that April Fools' Day was the result of a desire to celebrate the turning of the seasons around springtime. In fact, many cultures have historically held such celebrations around the beginning of April.

Like some ancient Romans doing festivals around the end of March, Hindu festivals being held mid-March to celebrate Spring's arrival, and some adoption situations of the new calendar system in its transitional period. It was just too damn complicated for the silver haired youth at the time to fully understand so he had no real desire to learn any further from there. Though Naruto did give some props to some Swiss farmers back in 1957, fooling thousands of people that there were such things as 'spaghetti noodle' trees until they came out clean by the end of the day.

Once finishing off his shower, he quickly changed into his attire for the day. Naruto was about to leave his loft when his eyes caught something from his patio window. He wondered what it was, so he walked onto his patio for a closer inspection to see a growing green cloud of smoke coming from the riverfront.

"That doesn't look good." Naruto muttered with narrowed eyes. He didn't know what was going on, but something didn't seem right about it. So he quickly went into his Vanitas attire and brought out Kazekage before turning back to Isis staring blankly at him. "Keep an eye at the place Isis and I'll throw in a tasty tuna for you to feast on." The only response he got from the green eyed cat was a lick to her lips with a nod as Isis' eyes seemed to sparkle a little. *Chuckle* "Good kitty."

And with that, Naruto closed the door to his patio and jumped off before riding Kazekage into Gotham to figure out what the hell is going on.

 _ **-Meanwhile, Riverfront-**_

The river broke from it's slightly calmness, asides from the garbage barge passing through, as the armored truck was sinking deep into the watery depths before it stopped on the rockbed. If one would look up from the underwater scene, there would've been a miniature submarine attached to the garbage barge. Not long after the armored vehicle stopped moving, a hatch opened up from the sub and two figures came out before heading towards the truck. Once close enough, one of the figures pulled out an underwater torch and used it to help break the lock before opening it's doors to reveal bags of money and golden bars.

As the two figures were gathering what they can before starting the process of transporting the goods, something else was going on inside of the submarine.

" _...Gotham City is in the grip of insanity. Everywhere, people are turning into lunatics."_ The person on the radio said as a shadowy figure was listening to every word being said. _"Reports say that a wave of foolish hysteria is moving down 7th Avenue towards_ *Cough* _towards_ *Cough* *Cough* _the financial district. Hehehe. Hehehaha. HAHAHAHAHA!..."_

*Click* "My.. Oh.. My.. *Chuckles* I believe that's my cue." The person said as he had went to his console and picked up the radio. "Punch, Judy. If you're getting this, then grab what you can down there and head on up. It's time for the show." Once hanging up the radio, the man went over to the periscope and waited for his lackeys to show up all the while he was laughing to himself with how much fun this day will be.

"Hmm, no not there. Oh wait…" The man said as he pressed a button near him. "Oh Captain Clown, dock over yonder will ya. Thanks." Once hanging up he looked through the periscope with glee before the hatch of the submarine opened up to signal the man's lackeys have come back. "Ah Punch and Judy. Perfect timing, we're about to hit 'wall street'. So get everything ready with your shopping carts."

The now identified Punch and Judy nodded as they went towards the back of the submarine to gather their gear. From what lighting that could be seen inside of the vessel, the two men in question are large muscle bound men dressed up in purple and green jester like outfits with the sleeves ripped off to show their large arms. Both of them appeared to have white face paint over the visible skin of their appearance with red circles on their cheeks and their hair either dyed or painted on green.

Once they were docked, the two men grabbed their designated face masks with smiles spray painted on them before they pressed the button on the other hatch of the vessel to open up the doors to the surface.

"Now remember where we parked boys!" The mysterious man said as the two large men grabbed their shopping carts and pushed their way up the ramps. It wasn't long for the man behind this operation walked into the surface with a large red grin on his face.

He was a tall, thin looking man with a sickly pale complexion on his narrow and sharp face. The dark coloring around his eyes made his insanely green eyes pop out to help match his plastered grin. His green hair was seemingly combed back, only for it to stick back up in a spiky mess. He wore a white button up shirt with a green vest and black tight pants underneath a purple leather trench coat and black leather gloves.

"When the going gets tough, the tough goes shopping. HAAHAHAHHAAHHHAHA!" The man laughed out loud to his own joke before speaking out loud for anyone unfortunate to hear him. "Look out Gotham! Joker's back in town! HeheheHAHAHAHA!"

As Joker, Punch and Judy were walking towards the financial district, they were greeted with the sounds of loud laughter filling the air making the Clown Prince of Crime smile even wider to see his gas truly working like he planned. As everyone was laughing their hides off, the three were cleaning out the various pedestrians of their money and jewels on hand before breaking into a few jewelry stores along the way. It was quite easy with everyone losing all of their other senses as they could only focus on the laughter.

*Sigh* "And who says that crime doesn't pay?" Joker said before letting out a few little fits of giggles to escape his lips.

 _ **-Batcave-**_

Time has past since the news reports this morning of hundreds of Gothamites being affected by the laughing epidemic coming from the waterfront. When Bruce Wayne was getting ready for the day, he had listened to the report while taking the shower. He would've taken a bath due to how stressful things have been the past several nights, but Alfred tried to prank him this morning by stating that he 'drew' him a bath. Well he drew one alright, but not one in the tub, but actually on a piece of paper.

Not much of a good joke apparently…..

Anyways after hearing of the incident, Bruce realized that the Joker has finally shown his face again after breaking out of Arkham around New Years. No one knew when he would show up, but apparently he wanted to come back when it's April Fools Day. Wanting to bring an odd form of panic through Gotham in the form of mass laughter. So Bruce canceled all plans for the day and went straight into the batcave to start working on what should be done. During this time, he had sent out a prototype drone to go over Gotham to record as much data as it could on the laughing gas.

" _Airborne gas emanating from riverfront district. Analysis: Lengthy exposure to the gas will possibly result in permanent insanity. Other possible result would be suffocation and death."_ The batcomputer sounded off as Batman was working on some equipment.

*Sigh* "Seems that it's indeed Joker's laughing gas." Batman said as he stopped working on his equipment and checked through the detailed analysis that wasn't sounded off. "He must've improved it since the last time he used it."

In the past experiences Bruce had to deal with the Joker's laughing gas, it only caused to be a temporary problem that could be solved through cleaner air to help ventilate the lungs and administer a few things here and there just in case. But it seemed that the deranged clown changed his concoction to make it possibly deadlier on a larger scale. Possibly categorizing this as not just a Joker Gas, but a poison of sorts. A Joker Venom if it seems appropriate to name it now.

Once looking through the analysis, Bruce pressed the intercom button on the bat computer to call his faithful friend. "Alfred. I had left the hex-key upstairs in the den. Mind bringing it down please?"

" _Oh get it yourself. PFFFFT!"_

'What?' Bruce thought as that didn't seem right with Alfred at all. Must still be in that 'April Fools' gag going on and wants to possibly get a laugh out of him. So he pressed the button again and called out to him. "Very funny Alfred, but I have no time to play."

Soon the sounds of crashing and breaking could be heard on the other end getting Bruce to get worried on what is going on. He didn't know what was going on until….

"Ha. Haha. Haha. Hahahah. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA…..."

Until he heard the laughter. Hearing that sound made Batman run out of the cave and into the house so he could try and find his long time friend. He eventually found him in the study with various potted plants and small works of art broken with the rest of the room being wrecked with Alfred swinging around a broom.

*Laughter* "Time for some spring cleaning." Alfred said as he kept on swinging the cleaning tool around in his joyous laughter before destroying more things in the room.

"Shit. The gas!" Batman said as he covered his face with his cape before pulling out the gas mask he was working on earlier. "He must've opened up the windows by accident."

Once closing the windows in the study, he rushed towards his butler to stop him, but he moved out of the way and slipped onto the ground. Clutching his sides as he continuously laughed himself to the brink of tears from how painful it was. Bruce soon remembered of what the gas analysis was from the batcomputer, making the 'playboy' carry his butler into the batcave and help relieve him of his problem before going out to save Gotham from this epidemic.

 _ **-Arkham Asylum-**_

" **So…."** Ivy drolled out as she glared at the person in front of her cell. **"What does the new hero of Gotham want with little ol' me?"**

"I need your help Pamela."

" **Well she's not in at the moment. She doesn't want to talk to you for the time being, so I decided to step in."**

From what Ivy just said, Naruto could tell something was up. "What happened?"

" **Nothing of your concern Vanitas!"** She yelled out in a hiss like tone.

'I'll have to figure that out when I get the chance.' He thought before speaking to the darker 'sister'. "Please Ivy, I need your help."

" **From where I'm standing, you need a miracle."** The darker persona said with her arms crossed.

"I'm guessing you heard what's going on in Gotham right now." Vanitas said making the changed woman nod in response.

" **Yes. If there is a certain 'big event' going on, then this place goes under lockdown with every inmate taken back into their cells."** Ivy stated as she paced back and forth inside of her cell. **"With it being a widespread form of Joker gas, why wouldn't this place go through such lengths if an inmate tries to use the opportunity to possibly escape."**

The disguised Uzumaki knew of this during a previous chat with Harley when discussing certain protocols in the asylum just in case of certain cases. Some would be mandatory lockdowns, others being light warnings, and others that she hasn't even experienced yet and doesn't wish to do so anytime soon. With what Naruto could tell on the last one was probably a big time asylum breakout or something of the sort.

Now one might wonder why Naruto's at the asylum in the first place. Well he had been going throughout the city trying to help on the various accidents that occurred, due to everyone losing their sanity. He had tried to blow away the gas, but it ended up spreading it further. Without any idea on how to possibly fix this, he was running out of ideas when he ended up hearing a familiar voice. A voice that he hadn't heard since gaining Lunar Rose: Yggdrasil.

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _Dammit!" Naruto yelled out as he dodged out of the way from a speeding car and getting several people off of the road. He and his clone were trying to take care of things, but with how much chaos being ensued that it was really difficult to handle. "This is getting out of hand."_

" _No shit Sherlock!" His clone yelled out as he threw daggers into people's clothing to keep them in place._

" _Hey! Don't make me dispel you!"_

" _And deal with all this crap by yourself? Yeah right."_

" _Well I don't know what to do to stop all of this."_

" _ **Might I suggest something."**_ _A voice called out from out of nowhere._

" _What the… Who said that?" Vanitas said as he and his clone looked around for the source, but couldn't find any._

" _ **I did."**_ _The voice called out before the disguised Uzumaki felt a familiar weight in his hand. He looked down in confirmation that it was Lunar Rose in his hand, but that would only mean…_

" _Yggdrasil?"_

" _ **Hello Naruto Uzumaki."**_ _The now identified ancient tree spoke via mental link from Lunar Rose._

" _What the hell Yggdrasil?" The disguised publisher said as he glared at the scythe. "You ignore my 'calls' when I tried to contact you on asking why you guys made Pam sterile and I got nothing in return. But now, out of nowhere, you decide to contact me. What gives?"_

" _ **I am sorry about that Uzumaki, but some issues were taking place at the time of your 'calls' and neither my brethren or I could answer back on your issue with your mate."**_ _The ancient tree spoke._ _ **"But we will take care of that problem at a later time. I need to inform you on what's going on now."**_

 _Knowing that trying to get that specific information on Pam's condition wouldn't be good now, it would be better with what Yggdrasil needs to inform him now._

" _Alright, what's the problem?"_

" _ **Whatever this gas is that's permeating the air, is causing problems for the various plant and animal life. Both the Parliaments of Trees and Limbs are worried on what this might do as a whole and we need your help in stopping this."**_ _Yggdrasil said in a worried tone._

" _The Parliament of Trees and Limbs? What are those? You mentioned the Tree one before, but never explained it"_

 _*Sigh*_ _ **"The Parliament of Trees deals with the plant life on the planet while the Parliament of Limbs are our animal equivalents. I hope that at least sums it up a little."**_

" _That's fine for now, but I would like to learn more about these Parliaments at a later time. So getting back on track, you said that both groups are worried on what's going on. Correct?"_

" _ **Yes."**_

" _And why would you need my help?"_

" _ **Because you need to get your mate out of her shackles and help her to solve this issue."**_

" _And what would she know on how to take care of this problem?"_

" _ **She would know what to do."**_ _Yggdrasil vaguely said to the publisher._ _ **"Once things are started, you'll need to bring out your 'scythe', connect with her to help out in the process and deal with what's taking advantage to this event."**_ _The ancient being said before ending the connection._

" _...That sounds rather ominous... Doesn't help on what he meant." Naruto said before he dispersed his scythe and summoned his motorcycle to head to Arkham while his clone remained to help take care of things._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

The champion of the green suddenly gained a realization and smirked at him. **"You are scared, aren't you?"**

"Of course I am, for all of the people in Gotham."

" **And I should trust you why?"**

"Because without your help, not only every plant in the city will die but also Naruto Uzumaki."

She gritted her teeth at this and glared holes into the man in front of him. **"You lie! Naruto should be immune to that toxin wafting through the air. 'We' made sure of that."**

"...What do you mean?" He asked, only for her to scoff at him.

" **Like I would tell the likes of you."**

"But wouldn't you want to help the people of Gotham if he asked you to?" The hero asked, getting her to pause and trying to have an inner debate with herself. "And like I said before that without your help, all plant life in the city will die."

A few moments had passed before Ivy brought her focus back onto him with a glare in her eyes. **"Fine, 'we' will help. But after this, 'we' want to come back here so we can wait for Naruto."**

"And why's that?" He asked knowing what the answer was, but he had to keep up the act.

" **Because he wanted to personally take 'us' from this place and bring 'us' into our home when it's 'our' day to finally be released."** She said to him as he nodded on the 'new' information.

Vanitas then used his phasing ability to pull Ivy out of her cell before using the device he procured from the security office to deactivate her power dampeners. In a force of habit, Ivy had rubbed her wrists and neck from the odd feeling of not having those cuffs on her. Before going any further, Naruto pulled out a blank card and wrote down what was going on and that Ivy will be brought back after things in Gotham were taken care of. Once that was done, he placed the card next to the power dampeners before the two of them made their way out of the building via phasing.

"So… About that miracle."

" **Believe me or not but when 'we' were going through our transformation process, we had a lot of scenarios put into 'our' head to know what to do if certain events were to occur. A lot of them were old or odd, but some 'we' could be able to improvise if done correctly."** Ivy said as she breathed in the somewhat fresh air.

"Which would be what exactly?"

" **Grabbing a sample and creating a spore to counteract the Joker Gas. It's easy when you know how, along with knowing how to manipulate plants at a molecular level."** She stated making Naruto realize that was probably how she made him immune that one time, but will ask about it later.

"So could it be enough to protect the city?" He asked as he summoned two Kazekage lances for them to ride on. He would've summoned one, but with Ivy's distaste towards Vanitas, it would be better for her to have one of her own.

" **Theoretically yes, but I don't know if 'we' could produce enough on 'our' own."**

"So where do you need to go exactly?" He asked since he might know why Yggdrasil had mentioned for him to be the extra help, but doesn't know for sure.

" **The Botanical Gardens. They're the oldest plants in Gotham and they'll help me on what I need to do."** Ivy said as she eyed the lance. **"What is that supposed to be?"**

"Your ride." Vanitas bluntly said to her, making her looking at him oddly.

" **You don't expect me to actually ride that?"**

"I'll take it as slow as possible till we reach our destination. Unless you want to hold onto me."

" **Hell no."** She quickly said as she grabbed the weapon from him and sat on top of it. **"The only person I would rather hold onto is 'our' beloved king."**

It wasn't long as both of them were sent into the air and went towards their destination.

 _ **-Riverfront-**_

" _Hello, this is Summer Gleeson and I'm in downtown Gotham where many corporate CEOs have gone stark raving mad. It would appear that the collapse of the stock market is now imminent. Now question remains, will April Fools Day mark the end of Gotham? Or will Vanitas and Batman save the day from his terrible nightmare?"_

*Click* "Well the only things gaining now are the stock markets." Joker said as he turned off the radio in the submarine with a few giggles here and there to his own joke. He would've laughed more if the submarine attached barge didn't violently shake to the point that the mad clown fell down onto his face.

*Groan* "What the hell was that?" He asked as he got up and went to the periscope to see what was going on. He kept turning around the scope to see anything out of the ordinary. Just water, seagulls, garbage, water, rocks, Batman, rocks, junk, water…. Wait…. Batman?!

"GAH!" Joker yelled out as the Bat slammed his hand against the periscope to knock the homicidal clown off of his feet and onto his ass. He was going to get back up, but there was a sudden pull to the ship that made it not a great idea to get back up suddenly.

Back onto the surface, the Dark Knight had been in a foul mood for the past hours that he had been trying to come up with a synthesized antidote to the new strain of Joker Gas/Venom. It was successful when he had gotten Alfred cured from it's effects. It would take too much time to make more of the antidote with how widespread the epidemic was, so he needed to find the source and stop it from spreading. So he had brought his batboat to search for the Joker and found that the garbage barge was the source of the epidemic. He tied one of the towing cables he had against the barge and had his batboat go through autopilot to move it away from the city as fast as it can go.

"Well.. Well.. Well.." Joker's voice called out from behind as Batman had finalized the destination he had in mind to his boat. "Look who's come to trash the place."

"A fitting setting for you Joker." The Bat said as he looked towards the clown to see Judy, Punch and a clown captain behind him.

"Well I just love to get down and dirty at times Batsy." The man said with his ever present grin. "Now boys, it's time to play."

The two large men nodded at their boss' order as both ran towards the masked hero. One of them (will be Punch) threw a punch at the Bat, but it missed with him hitting a nearby broken fridge upon impact to cave it in a bit. Punch pulled out his fist and went to hit the hero again, but Batman kneed the man in the stomach before tossing him aside as Judy slammed towards the hero's back.

When the hero tried to recover from the blow, he was grabbed and thrown into the air to hopefully get him into the water. That proved unsuccessful as the Batman grabbed ahold of a metallic pipe sticking out of the garbage and used it to swing around to kick the offending henchman. Once getting back onto the barge's floor, Batman had to move out of the way from Punch throwing a fist at him before slamming his arms towards the ground to cave in the metal below.

Both of the large men threw punches and kicks at the hero as the Joker just sat back and watched the fight before him. He kept cheering his boys on as Batman sent three consecutive hard hits across Punch's face before moving out of the way from a thrown stove. Judy and Punch then grabbed thick planks of wood from the pile of garbage and swung them around to hopefully hit the Bat. But in the end, they ended up hitting each other across their heads to knock them out cold for who knows how long.

"Well aren't you the party pooper Batman." The Joker said with a slight frown before it went back up. "How about you take that mask off and we'll have loads of laughs to share. HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"I think not Joker." The hero growled out as he marched his way towards the villain.

As the fight was going on earlier, Captain Clown made his way towards the towing cable attached to the barge and somehow tore it with ease. With the release of tension, the batboat went faster as it sped away from their present position with the barge slowly coming to a halt. Seeing this happen in the corner of his eye, the Joker laughed a little.

"How about you have some fun with our dear captain of our maiden voyage." Said captain made his way towards the Bat in a walking pace as the Joker just sat on the canister at the start of the confrontation. When the captain got closer, Batman jumped up into the air to deliver a downward punch to the man's face, only to hit metal instead.

'The hell?' The hero thought as he held onto his hand in pain. But this seemed to cost him as the 'captain' grabbed ahold of him in a hoisted him up into the air before spinning in a rapid pace. Batman tried to do something, but he was starting to feel too light headed to even try and fight back.

"Well then…" Joker started to say as he got off from his seat and dragged the cannister towards the spinning Captain Clown. "It's time to take out the trash. Hee hee hee."

In one swift motion, the Joker opened up the canister lid just as the 'captain' slammed the Bat into the container. Without waiting for the Bat to try and fight back, the deranged clown slammed the lid down and locked it up tightly before kicking the container several times. The vibrations emanating inside of the container seemed to make the dizziness and lightheadedness worse with the ringing sounds amplifying the effects a bit.

"Now it wouldn't be good to let you suffocate in there Batsy." The Joker said in a baby like tone before pulling out a razor sharp knife from his jacket's pocket. "So let's give you some air holes!" He yelled out as he kept stabbing the container with his deranged laugh.

At each puncture towards the container, the Batman was barely able to dodge the stabs with only a few scraping him in the process. Feeling satisfied with leaving enough holes in the container, he signaled for the 'captain' to come closer. The 'captain' responded and slowly made it's way towards its master before stopping to await its next order.

"Now el' capitan, time to give the ol' heave ho." The Joker ordered getting the 'captain' to nod at the request before grabbing the container and throwing it far into the river. Once making contact with the water, it started to sink towards the bottom of the river. *Mocking Gasp* "Oh no~ It seems my air holes were water holes too. What a shame~ Hehehe HAHAHAHAHA!"

 _ **-Gotham Botanical Gardens-**_

"Here we are Ivy. So what now?" The disguised Uzumaki said as he landed the both of them just outside of the place. It's been a long time since the both of them have come here on one of their last dates before the incident that made her who she became. It was one of her favorite places for her to go to on some of her days off and he enjoyed it all the same whenever they went. From what he can tell in the look in her eye, she was having the same thoughts.

Knocking out of her remembrance, she walked closer to the main tree of the garden. **"Look at her. She's been here since before man walked the Earth. I can feel that she still holds great power."** She spoke out before an angry tone took over. **"But she's weak…. poisoned after decades of pollution. So she won't be able to fight off this gas on her own."**

"Are there any others in the city?"

" **There aren't any others like her left! Not anymore."** She stated as she walked closer to the tree and placed her hands on the trunk with sorrow taking over her features. **"Man cutting them down, built over them, stopped them from reaching the sun. It's hard to see on how she was able to survive for all these years."**

It was hard for him to resist taking her into his embrace and telling her he's sorry. But he wouldn't know how she'll react on such a thing and things will become complicated in the meantime. So for now he'll have to hold it off until such time.

" **I've been meaning to ask this, but what gave you the idea that 'we' could possibly help you in this epidemic."**

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Vanitas said making her scoff at this.

" **Try me."**

"A tree."

" **...A tree told you?"** She asked with a skeptical look. **"I didn't even know you could talk to trees."**

Naruto didn't get fazed by her tone of voice of her thinking that he was an idiot or something, even though she should talk to plants. He shook his head on this before replying in full on this. "Well more specifically, an old tree... named Yggdrasil."

Once saying that name, changed her features drastically to a shocked one before narrowing her eyes at him. **"Like I would believe that** _ **he**_ **would grace his presence onto you."**

"Well I did chat with him and he asked for my help to get you here." 'Among other vague things apparently.' He thought since he was still confused on that tidbit. "So are you going to start this or what?"

Ivy didn't say anything as she kept her eyes on him in wanting to possibly know what is going on. Knowing that she won't get anything out anytime soon, the changed botanist turned around and got the trunk of the ancient tree to open up to grant her passage inside. Once it closed back up, Naruto saw the tree change with it starting to glow and flowers started to sprout from various parts of it.

"Well I think it's time for my part now." Vanitas muttered as he summoned Lunar Rose and walked up to the tree before getting into a meditative pose. "Wonder how long this will take?"

Just as he said that, he blacked out.

 _ **-Meanwhile, Junkyard-**_

"Get ready boys cause here it comes." Joker said as he flipped several switches on a control panel that he procured from Ace Chemicals that was filled with his concoction. "This will give April Fools more smiles per gallon. Hee hee hee!"

Once the final switch has been flipped, the hoses that were connected to large containers came to life as Joker's concoction was sprayed onto the garbage barge. Punch and Judy kept the hoses in place as their boss had set it to full blast in hopes of emptying the containers for one last run. More would've been sent out if a batarang or two didn't cut the lines, causing the concoction to be sprayed all over the two henchmen.

The Joker saw from the readings that something seemed wrong and ran over to his two lackeys to see what was going on. "What the hell are you fools… Batman! How the hell did you get out of that container?!"

"Trade secret." Was all he said as he moved out of the way from Judy, making said man to fall into the water to end up washing the concoction off of him. Punch then came up from behind to knock the Bat out, but he kept ducking and evading each of the throws. The hero got tired of this and caught one of the oncoming punches and used that momentum to throw Punch into the water. In an odd chance, Punch ended up landing on top of a recovering Judy to end up getting both of them dazed out. Especially since both of them smacked their heads against each other.

"Of course this would happen." The Joker muttered before focusing his attention to the Batman. "Oh Captain Clown! Come over here and help out now! On the double!"

Hearing his master's command, Captain Clown came towards the Batman to subdue him like before but the Bat came prepared this time. He saw a nearby lead pipe, grabbed it and swung hard against the disguised robot several times before running further into the junkyard. The disguised 'playboy' knew the robot was too strong for him, so he needed to lure him to something that'll take care of the mechanical clown easily.

Looking around for a possible solution, he glanced back to see Captain Clown gaining up on him. Acting fast, he slid onto the ground to get the robotic clown to crash against several broken cars to help buy him some time for his personal search. Not wanting to lose on the chase, Captain Clown grabbed ahold of one of the cars and threw it to the side with ease before continuing on with the chase.

It wasn't long for the hero to find the solution to his current ordeal as he came across a car crusher. As he jumped onto the conveyor belt of the piece of machinery, the robotic clown grabbed ahold of his cape. It was then that Captain Clown started a tug of war of sorts with the bat themed hero from the high to the low ground.

"Well well well Batman. It seems that Captain Clown has grown quite attached to you.~" The Joker yelled out from the mechanical crain nearby. He seemed a tad winded, given the fact that he was running after them to see how his robotic henchman was faring against his long time rival.

The little tug of war continued as Batman was trying to get himself free from his cape. It would've been easier if he had clips to get it detached from himself, but he needs to cut himself loose. Once pulling out his batarang, he grabbed ahold of his cape and quickly dug into the material to get free. It was a little tough, but he managed to get free to run along the conveyor belt with Captain Clown climbing up and following its target.

Once high enough, Batman started smacking the robot's head with the metallic pipe until it's clown like face caved in and revealed it's true one with a Star Labs logo pasted onto the side. Seeing the logo made Batman realize that Joker must've stolen the piece of machinery prior to this event for some additional muscle. Well it would be wasted once he was done with 'Captain Clown'.

Batman started to smack the stolen robot some more before hitting its leg joints to make it fall down into the compactor down below. Not wanting to waste a chance, the masked hero went to the side and pulled on the main lever of the machine and pressed several buttons to fully activate the machine. It did it's primary function and crushed the stolen piece of technology into a small cube.

"You killed Captain Clown?!" The Joker yelled out from his placement as he pulled out a handgun from his inner jacket pocket before unloading it's ammunition at the Caped Crusader before speaking to him again. "You killed Captain Clown! Do you have any idea how annoying it was trying to steal him from that lab?! And just for that, I hope you enjoy this!" He yelled out as he pulled on several levers that ended up dropping a large amount of garbage onto his foe in hopes of killing him.

Batman somehow survived this as he jumped out of the way with some garbage landing on top of him. Once coming out from the small pile of filth, he saw the Joker run along the conveyor belt into the main building of the junkyard. Not wanting to lose sight of the deranged clown, he gave chase in hopes of catching up to him. After several minutes of running, Batman saw the Joker within his sights and was about to grab his jacket, but he jumped out of the way making the hero to fall onto the conveyor belt. Once shaking himself off on the failed attempt, his eyes were soon greeted to a large vat of molten metal.

Not wanting to die in such a fashion, the Bat jumped into the air and managed to grab ahold of a hanging bucket. With some struggle, the hero pulled himself up and got inside of the empty container. And just in time too as the bucket was soon assaulted by bullets fired from the Joker along with several swinging cabled hooks.

"I've always loved the crane game and shooting bats out of the barrel!" The Joker said out loud as he laughed while he continued with his assault.

Batman grew tired of this and got back up from his crouched position to grab ahold of one of the hooks and swung his way towards the clown. He was just about to make it, but the Joker pulled a lever and caused the piece of machinery to drop in hopes of the Bat to fall to his doom. Unfortunately for him, Batman leapt off of the falling hook and landed onto a variety of gears and worked his way up to the stable catwalk. Seeing that his foe was getting closer, the Joker ran off and jumped into a hole with Batman not far behind.

"Wheeeeeeeee!" The Joker sounded out as he rode along the makeshift slide with the Batman following behind him. With the exit soon approaching, he spread out his arms and managed to grab ahold of the chain rope before swinging upwards to the catwalk above. "Hot damn that was fun. I must go again! Hee hee hee!"

It wasn't long for the Batman to realize where the exit will lead to. So he placed his hands and feet onto the metal walls to slow him down, but it didn't slow him down quick enough and he almost fell down into the incinerator below. He tried to pull himself up, but the heat of the room was making it difficult to do so.

"Justice is served hot Batman and you'll burn for what you've done to my precious Captain Clown!" The deranged clown yelled out as he started firing upon the hero from his position. But he kept missing due to sweat hitting his eyes, making it hard to properly aim.

As the clown kept on missing, Batman tried to pull himself up but ended up slipping and almost fell to a fiery death. Luckily, at the last moment, he fired his grappling gun into the air and it caught onto the metal railing above and zip lined towards it. Once on stable ground once again, he stalked towards the criminal with a heated glare.

"Justice will be served Joker. For all of the lives you have possibly taken this day." Batman said as he ended up dodging several razor sharp playing cards at him. "So clean up your act."

"Wait… Did I just hear that right?" The Joker asked in bewilderment. "You, Batman, finally told a joke? Oh good god it finally happened! HAHAHAHAHA!" In his momentary laughter, he threw more cards at the hero, but he dodged each and every one before catching one in his hands. The Joker then pulled out his gun and was ready to fire again with a fresh clip, but one of his playing cards was thrown right into the barrel to block the bullets.

Seeing as his remaining weapon was now useless, he ran off to possibly escape and fight again on another day. But his foot got caught from some rope and ended up tripping over the railing to end up head first into the inferno below. The criminal thought he was going to die this day, but a snap came from above to show that the Joker wasn't going any further.

"BATMAN!" The deranged clown yelled out. "YOU WOULDN'T LET ME FRY, WOULD YOU?!"

There was no immediate response as Batman adopted a mocking thinking pose and spoke out with a smirk on his face. "Maybe.~"

"NOT FUNNY!"

 _ **-Naruto's Mindscape-**_

Coming to this place has always been an odd occurrence in the past; from training, searching and exploring. It never really made sense to the publisher when it dealt with figuring out this place's mysteries with him only scratching a little bit of the surface. With said 'scratch', it came up when he 'dived' into Pam's heart on that one incident that made him see many of her memories. Naruto would've liked to possibly experience that again, but it hasn't really occurred ever since.

For example, he woke up on Selina's 'Heart Platform' after the both of them got together that one night, but he didn't 'dive' into it per say. Didn't get the chance to see any of her memories to fully connect with her. Naruto just woke up here and didn't know what to do exactly; just inspected her 'Heart Platform' and just like Pam's, it was pretty interesting on the design.

It was mostly a purple colored background with a magenta like color for the border. There were many circles framing an image of Gotham's landscape, if he had it correctly, switching between dancing poses, cat icons and varying items that looked like jewels and artwork. Above Selina, who was in her Catwoman attire minus the mask, was another set of circles with portrait images of Shizune, Isis and some woman he doesn't know. But from what he could tell from some physical similarities, Naruto guessed the woman was Selena's sister Maggie.

But let's get back on track on what's currently going on here….

After Naruto went into his meditative position by the ancient tree, he woke up in a blinding light before it died down to have him realize he's back in this place. He inspected the platform below him and saw that it had a picture of the same tree in the waking world on a green background. Some additional differences were present with it being more integrated on the tree's appearance to indicate it being in it's prime from how exotic it truly was.

After his little inspection, Naruto looked around for few moments before calling out. "Yggdrasil! Are you there?!" There was no response from the ancient tree of the Green, only the slight echo from the distance from Naruto's call. "Yggdrasil!"

" _ **I am here, young sapling."**_ The ancient tree spoke out from the void, making Naruto breathe out a little into his helmet. _**"I'm glad you have brought Ivy to start the process."**_

"Your welcome, but I need to know what's going on. You said earlier that something was coming to take advantage in what's happening in Gotham right now."

" _ **I'll explain later young one, but they are already here."**_

 _ **-Insert Fragments of Sorrow Extended-**_

The warning was rather sudden as several spots on the platform started to burst to the surface. From what the masked publisher saw, they were oddly grey colored dwarves with pot bellies, skinny limbs and large bulbous heads that were glowing blue. They screeched a little before lunging at the black and white themed hero with their fungal looking hands.

Before they could get any closer, Naruto summoned Lunar Rose and swung his weapon around to knock the grey men away from him before going after them. He slashed at each of them in either pinwheel motions or simple slashes. It didn't matter as these fungal looking beings were pretty resilient until they were finally cut down into nothing. Once looking around for any other foes, after the previous ones bursted into odd looking smoke, Naruto was going to call out to Yggdrasil when he heard it….

*Click* *Click* *Groan* *Click* *Groan* *Click* *Click*

The sound was rather sudden as Naruto something climb up from the edge of the platform and onto the stable ground. From what he was seeing, the being looked like a disfigured looking person with shredding clothing and fungus looking growths appearing on several places on the body. Even the face had those growths and the only remaining thing that was human about it was the one visible eye and the jagged teeth present.

It screeched and clicked again before running at the masked publisher, causing him to slash at the odd creature. Without him realizing, several more of those things started to climb up the platform and started coming after him in small groups. They were rather persistent in trying to harm him while he was mowing them down. Somehow one was lucky to grab ahold of him and tried to take a bit out of him, but Naruto struggled free and kicked the fungal being away before cutting it's head off.

As the last of them were done and over with, a stained glass pathway started to form from the side of the platform.

" _ **Well done Naruto Uzumaki."**_ Yggdrasil said from the void. _**"You have done well against some forces of the Grey."**_

"What were they by the way?" Naruto asked the ancient being. "Were they the beings that you tried to warn me about?"

" _ **Some of them yes they were. The Grey has sent forces to try to seize the opportunity with the gas in the waking world to destroy one of the last ancient trees in your region."**_ The tree spoke out to the human. _**"But you must hurry, they must not take this tree from us."**_

Without giving a response, Naruto ran onto the pathway to see where it would take him. It didn't take long for some of those grey fungal beings to burst out of the pathway to block his way, but the scythe wielder did quick work with them. More and more of them started to come out along the way that they started to mob up against him in droves.

'These fungal things are gonna be very annoying.' He thought as he slashed several at a time in the confined space. 'It's like they are a mob or something. Maybe I should call them that, fungal mobs'

He eventually slashed through the last of the 'fungal mob' before his foot came in contact with a darkened platform before it lit up. Like the previous platform, it was the same design of the tree's prime, but this one had a yellow background instead of green. If there was going to be theme with this, then at least he wouldn't have to worry as he heard that noise again….

*Groan* *Click* *Click*

….To indicate that more of these 'Grey' forces were showing up. And they did as more fungal humans crawled up onto the platform and screeched out at him like before. Naruto kept his guard up this time so none of these things won't surprise him like the last one. He'd seen enough zombie flicks to stay away from zombie looking mouths and didn't want to risk this healing factor of his to fix the problem.

So he swung Lunar Rose around quickly to drive some of these 'clickers' back a bit before he used a bit of speed to 'teleport' behind each of them and slashed at their backs. This caused them hard as they screeched and groaned louder before he severed their heads from their bodies. More 'clickers' started to crawl from the darkness and onto the platform, but Naruto wasn't having any of that as he threw several cards at them to explode on impact.

Another pathway soon formed itself to the platform, but without any wait this time more of those 'fungal mobs' came out of the glass like ground and came at him. It was getting a little repetitive to the point that Naruto jumped above them and ran past them to get onto the next platform with the 'fungal mobs' following after him. The moment Naruto's boot came in contact with the darkened platform, he heard more 'clickers' crying out before coming up in smaller droves to possibly box him in.

Naruto kept doing his process over and over again of dodging the 'clickers' before slashing and kicking them off of the ledge into the darkness below. At the corner of his eye, he saw the various 'fungal mobs' running up the pathway with some growing out of the reddish-orange platform. Not wanting to deal with them again, he threw several cards onto the ground in front of them to explode to possibly be rid of them. All that he wants to do now is be rid of them and hopefully get things taken care of on his end so Ivy can finish her task.

He didn't bother looking back if they were gone or not as he kept running forward to complete his part of the task. He heard the 'clickers' coming from ahead this time as they lunged at him. He evaded this tactic by sliding underneath one of them before doing a horizontal spin in the confined space. Other ones kept coming out from the darkness in front of him as he threw several exploding cards in their wake before running towards the sudden chaos to make quick work out of them.

Once landing onto the platform, it lighted up to reveal it's darkened blue appearance and he expected to have more enemies coming up from the sides of the platform. All that he heard was some scuffling from behind, making him turn around to see a lot of the 'fungal mobs' staggering up the pathways.

"Seriously?!" He asked in bewilderment as he readied himself. "Those guys didn't die from before!"

Naruto walked further back so that he could just take care of all of them once they were on the platform. It was a bright idea at first, before he saw odd fungal threads coming out of their heads and connecting with each other as they were getting closer to his position. All of a sudden, they seemed to all mess into each other to form one giant version of itself making the scythe wielder to have a twitch to his eye.

"OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Naruto yelled out as it stomped its way towards his position. He had to 'teleport' out of the way as it jumped up a bit to come back down onto the rose petals where he was previously at. Seeing as it missed it's target, the large 'fungal mob' swung around to possibly grab ahold of Naruto, but he rolled out of the way before slashing it's legs.

"RAAAARH" It cried out in pain as it stomped its feet onto the blue platform before running after him in the small space. Naruto had to dodge out of the way yet again as he kept slashing at the monstrosity before him. In this time, the large 'fungal mob' soon grew its 'hair' out in each passing moment, making Naruto not like what might come up.

So without not wanting to know what it was going to do next, Naruto jumped into the air and slashed at the fungal beast's bulbous head several times to sever most of its 'hairs' in the process while leaving deep gashes into its mass. Once landing on the ground, Naruto had to recover quickly during the little time he had as the monster held its head in agony before coming at the scythe wielder once again.

"Time to end this." The hero muttered as he put a lot of strength into this last swing as he jumped into the air and made an upward slash towards the monster's neck to finally end it. It was successful as the body fell onto the platform before going up in an odd spore like smoke as the head fell into the darkness below.

*Phew* "That was one hell of a 'run'." Naruto said as he slammed his scythe onto the platform to give himself something to lean onto as he wanted to catch his breath. Once that was done, a pathway started to manifest itself as Naruto eyed it carefully. "I just hope I can be done with this soon."

He picked up Lunar Rose and carefully made his way through the pathway to what could hopefully be the last he'll be dealing with. There was nothing that has come up on the last bit of the trek. No 'fungal mobs' or 'clickers', which was good and all but it left a bad feeling in his stomach that something was right ahead of him.

The moment his boots came in contact with the last platform, it lighted up in an array of colors to reveal the same design as before of the ancient tree in its prime. But what made it more unique this time was the mixture of the previous platform backgrounds were meshed together into this much larger area. With the reds, oranges, yellows, greens and blues put together into a nice ordinate look that made all of the previous themes work together well.

 _ **-Insert Darkbeast Paarl Extended-**_

*Bang*

"... the hell?" Naruto thought out loud on the sudden sound. He looked around to see where it was coming from. It was hard to tell with it sounding like it came from everywhere at once.

*Bang*

"There it is again." He said as he got himself at the ready for what might be coming.

*Bang*

"Where is it?" The scythe wielder said as he kept on looking. "It can't be above… I think. Or the sides…. Then it must be…."

*Bang* *Screech*

"Below!"

As that was called out on the realization. A large hand came up from the edge with a resulting *Bang* before another hand came out and did the same action as before. Soon a large figure pulled itself up from the darkness, in a clattering mess, to get Naruto to see what it was once it stood up on it's four legs.

It was a skeletal looking beast with patches of flesh and fur on every other spot. It's human like skull was grotesque with the sunken flesh hugging the bone and revealing the sharpened teeth. This made things hard to tell what kind of creature this was before it's demise and became…. This….. Chimera zombie of sorts that was practically towering over him.

" _ **R**_ _O_ _ **O**_ _O_ _ **O**_ _O_ _ **A**_ _A_ _ **A**_ _A_ _ **A**_ _A_ _ **H**_ _H_ _ **H**_ _A_ _ **A**_ _H_ _ **R**_ _R_ _ **!"**_ The monstrosity screeched/yelled out as various sparks of electricity came from it's form before it slammed its hands onto the platform to shake it up.

Naruto had to try and keep himself steady, but he had to move out of the way when the beast swiped its electrified claws at him. The hero had to swing his weapon to parry some of the oncoming blows that he couldn't dodge from. Once it made contact, it was hard to fully keep his ground with how strong the beast was pushing. It soon wrapped it's other hand around his form and threw him up in the air to try and smack him across the darkness, but he wouldn't let that happen from what he could tell. So at the last moment, he swung his scythe at the offending hand to smack it away before cutting the monster's face a bit with a lot of his strength.

" _ **R**_ _O_ _ **O**_ _O_ _ **A**_ _A_ _ **H**_ _A_ _ **A**_ _H_ _ **R**_ _R_ _ **!"**_ It yelled out as soon glared at the hero once it regained his bearings. It lunged at him with a spark like dash, but Naruto dodged out of the way before slashing its frontal leg. This action caused the monster to fall down and end up falling over the edge of the platform.

"I hope that got rid of it." Naruto said as he had to catch a few breaths.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

"Spoke too soon!" He yelled out before the pillar shook some more seeing the monster leap up with a large ball of lightning in it's mouth and fired at him.

"Shit!" Naruto said as he needed to dodge out of the way, but there was no time with how big that ball of energy was. So he thought of what he could only do by throwing Lunar Rose at the lightning ball with a lot of built up energy. "Hope you like this!"

Once throwing the weapon, it gave out a saw like sound in the air before it came in contact with the lightning ball. Two forces met with each other, resulting in a massive explosion. When the smoke somewhat cleared, Lunar Rose landed onto the ground before the monster as it landed hard. It struggled to move, but it wasn't getting up that quickly

Not wanting to lose his chance, Naruto ran towards the beast as he picked up Lunar Rose before slashing the monster's head in various strikes. Some were powerful swings and some were pinwheel style motions but either way, they were being very effective. Soon several sparks of electricity sprang to life on its form, making Naruto deliver a few more blows before jumping away from the beast.

The monster got back onto it's hands and feet as power started to get charged up throughout it's form before it released it all at once as it gave out a mighty roar like screech. It was rather deafening if one wasn't prepared on the obvious sign. The resulting discharge of power covered part of the platform with Naruto being in the safer area of it. The monster soon turned it's grotesque head back at him and snarled before coming at him again with it's electrified hands.

Knowing where this was going, Naruto made made a void rasengan in his hand and quickly fired onto the monster's face to knock it off it's path. It didn't seem to like it, but Naruto didn't care as he kept firing more and more void rasengans at the monster. But it seems that the electricity coming off of it's fur was dampening some of the void blasts onto it's being, getting Naruto to realize that physical attacks are the only way to defeat this beast.

With not wanting to deal more on Naruto's attacks, it lunged at him once again. Like before the hero slashed its other arm in the same fashion causing it to fall and slide off of the platform. Naruto soon guessed that the beast will maybe do the same trick like last time, making him ready for what is coming.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

"I'm ready for you this time you rotten sack of bones!" He yelled out as he saw the monster leap up into the air like before with a large ball of electricity before firing it. Naruto tossed Lunar Rose at the ball of energy with more strength into it so it'll get to the blast faster and possibly harm the monster a whole lot more. The results were the same as before as the scythe came clattering down onto the platform with the beast landing on it with a loud thud.

Naruto dashed towards his weapon and quickly swung his weapon at the monster's head to deal more and more damage. With each swing he was delivering, he was seeing more of it's skull cracking and rotten brain being revealed. There was just enough room made for Naruto to try to end this now. So he focused a lot of his void power into his hand with the scythe keeping the gap open as much as possible before slamming his void mini rasen-shuriken into it.

The results were instantaneous as the attack grinded through the skull and destroyed the brain on impact. The monster gave out a screeching sound before it started to finally die out. Once pulling the scythe out of the monster's head, the creature started to crumble into dust and fade away into the darkness.

"Damn…. That was…. Really tough." Naruto said as he was catching his breath. He didn't know if he was done or not, but the answer was soon given to him with the platform starting to grow brighter and brighter into a blinding light.

 _ **-Waking World-**_

Naruto soon woke up with a gasp as he didn't know how long he was in his mindscape. It took him several moments to get his breathing back in order before looking around to see if he and Ivy did it. Apparently he did as everything was a bit quiet without the sounds of laughter and chaos going around along with the green gas being replaced by feint red specks of light.

"Well…. I think we did it." He said as he got up and dusted himself off before hearing the tree behind him opening up. The masked Uzumaki was then presented with the site of Ivy looking rather winded as she stepped outside. She stumbled a little and was going to fall down if it wasn't for Naruto to grab ahold of her.

"Hey…. Take it easy Ivy." He said before letting out a little chuckle. "Well congrats, you saved the day."

" **Hooray."** Ivy dryly said as she soon glared at the masked hero. **"Don't touch me Vanitas. Like I said before, only 'our' beloved 'king' can touch 'us'."**

"Yeah yeah." Vanitas said with a roll in his eyes before getting her to stand back up. "Well let's get you 'two' back to Arkham before things get hectic.

" **Let's."** Was all she said before the masked publisher soon summoned two Kazekage lances and helped her get onto the weapon. Once she was steady enough, they took off into the sky at a slow pace while seeing the nice spectacle below of the sun shining upon the feint red specks of light.

At least for the time being from up above, the dirty city down below looked a whole lot better.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Well here is the chapter that a lot of people have been waiting for: Joker finally making an appearance in my story.**

 **I've been wracking my brain on a good way to introduce the guy to be able to keep rolling on the timeline and the only one that I could think of is what I'm doing on this chapter. Sorry if it's not good and all to a lot of your standards readers, but cut me some slack please. Also I know the April Fools thing won't work unless I'm posting the chapter on April Fools Day (April 1st), but we all don't have the patience to wait that long.**

 **Now before you guys ask on the appearance on the guy, I'm pretty much doing Troy Baker's persona of Joker from the Arkham series. Also before you guys start throwing the molotov cocktails at me, the guy will transition to the Mark Hamill Joker we all grew up with. It's just that I want the guy to age more as time progresses like of what they depicted with the Arkham games with Origins, Blackgate Origins and Assault on Arkham show a younger Joker (Troy Baker) and when it went to the later games in the timeline it was the older one (Mark Hamill).**

 **Also since I'm not having Harley become Joker's lackey for the story, I'm going to have her be replaced by the Joker's henchmen from the 2004 Batman series that goes by the names Punch and Judy. They were the silent, yet strong hired muscle Joker keeps hiring so I'm having the two work for the Clown Prince of Crime for the story.**

 **So with Selina's Station of Awakening, imagine Cinderella's backdrop but on the image borders have it switch between the dancing poses, cats and expensive trinkets. With the upper circle placement have the Cinderella ball images be replaced by Shizune, Isis, and Maggie Kyle with Selena covering up the rest. Also replace the stairs in the deeper background with a Gotham backdrop.**

 **Now I want to address that in comics and shows, villains and enemy groups would sometimes take certain advantages to some events and opportunities. It's bound to happen without other people knowing about it. So I wanted to have Joker's gas epidemic to be used as an opportunity for the Grey and the Black to take ahold of for their own means.**

 **Also speaking of Joker's gas, I wanted to bring up that in the episode I based this chapter on that there must've been gas still present in Gotham while Batman was trying to take down the Joker. Not only that but it reminded me of the Fear Toxin stuff in Arkham Knight so I wanted to use a bit of that element into the chapter events. But instead of Ivy dying in the end, she lives because the gas wasn't as intense and militia wasn't there to stop a lot of her progress.**

 **If you guys have also noticed on some of the forces Naruto had to deal with inside of the Station of Awakening, they were fungal looking beings that I decided to bring in to help out as forces of the Grey. If you haven't guessed, they were the celestial mob/emissaries from Bloodborne and the clickers from Last of Us. Of course you guys would probably guess what the 'boss' monster was from the song title.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	20. Let's Have a Tea Party

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 19: Let's Have a Tea Party**

 _This is Summer Gleeson coming to you live from Gotham's Botanical Garden; where minutes ago, the main attraction of the garden opened up it's ancient flower pods after god knows how many years. After this happened, red spores were shot into the air before it started to dissipate the gas epidemic. We honestly don't know what caused this to happen, but…"_

" _Wait! What's that?!" A hand shot out into the view of the camera._

" _What's what Joe?" Summer asked her cameraman._

 _Joe didn't give her a verbal response but she followed where he was roughly pointing towards to see… a woman stepping out of the tree looking rather exhausted and looked like she was falling over. She was just about to do so when the hero, Vanitas, caught her and helped her back up. The cameraman and reporter duo started running in hopes of catching the two to see what went on, but they somehow flew into the air on metallic poles._

" _Damn." Summer muttered in disappointment on her face. "Well it seems that we somewhat know now who saved all of us in Gotham, but several questions have now come to mind. Who was that woman? Is she a metahuman? Why was Vanitas here while some stable people reported him being all across the city helping citizens out? And what did that woman do exactly? Well my guess is as good as yours people. This is Summer Gleeson, signing out."_

This was what the batcomputer recorded hours ago by Alfred, when he was stable enough to move about once the synthesized antidote cured him of the Joker Venom. He had the news channel on to see what was happening in Gotham while Batman was taking care of Joker. While this was going on, the former British secret agent was also monitoring the systems on how much longer the larger antidote would be made before being sent out via batplane.

Alfred eventually got word that his charge was successful in apprehending the crazed clown. After that message came through, the antidote was just about finished when the news report came in that the Joker epidemic was over. He didn't know what was going on, but he immediately recorded the news coverage so his long time charge could look further into this. When Bruce got back from handing Joker back over to Arkham, he was filled in on the details while looking over the recorded news coverage.

"So were you able to figure out who that mysterious woman was sir?" Mr. Pennyworth asked as he brought Bruce a small meal. The 'playboy' was going to take a shower once he got back, but once getting word on the details he held it off until he figured out what happened.

"Yes." Bruce simply said as he typed several commands onto his keyboard to zoom into the freezed frame and magnified it. Once the picture was cleared up a bit, it showed a rough image of Pamela Isley. Or more accurate her 'darker sister' Poison Ivy given the skin tone and vine like tattoos.

"So it seems that Ms. Ivy was able to save the day through a very noble act." Alfred commented in realization. "Though it seems that it took a lot out of her."

"Indeed it has Alfred. Though I guess how Ivy got out of Arkham."

"With Vanitas obviously." The butler said once placing the food next to the dark haired billionaire. "With what you told me on his powers you know so far, I'm guessing he pulled her out of her isolation cell."

For the obvious answer, Bruce typed another set of commands to pull up security footage from Arkham that was set in front of Pamela's cell. There the two saw the feed of Vanitas phasing Ivy out of her cell and deactivating her collar before writing a note that he'll return the metahuman after this event was over. The hero kept his promise and brought her back later with said woman seeming pleased to be back in her cell.

One would think that the sight to be off of an Arkham inmate to be back in their cell, but from what Naruto told him was that Pam/Ivy wanted to properly leave the asylum with 'their' boyfriend. It was a good reason and he hoped that if people realize that Ivy was the hero that it could bring her into a good light than from the hidden event that went on when she abducted those industrialists. He'll probably need to stop on by Arkham and check on Pam/Ivy to learn what happened earlier and what 'they' did to save the city.

'That will probably be for another time.' Bruce thought as he was eating his meal. 'For now, I need to shower… badly. I'm probably caked in garbage and soot.'

 _ **-Few Days Later, Wayne Enterprises-**_

Inside of a dimly lighted laboratory, a man was writing through a series of notes on hand before tinkering on several devices. It didn't take much longer before the man felt satisfied enough with his work to possibly start the next phase of his work. Opening up the cage near him, he plucked out one lab rat at a time and strapped something onto their heads before putting each of them back into the cage. Once his little task was done, he saw each of the lab rats wear little metallic fez's as they scrambled about in their little home.

"Alrighty then." The man muttered as he pulled out an object from his desk. "Let's see if this works."

Opening up the cage once again, he had set down a miniature table before placing a little tea set onto the little piece of furniture. With his hand cleared from them, the rats behaved like they normally did and one of them knocked over some of the cups by accident. The man sighed out a little on the display before opening the cage once more to fix up the table set.

"Such table manners." The man spoke as his hand left the cage before it grabbed ahold of a red metallic band on the table. With it's cool outer texture in his hand, he placed it around his head to feel some of the little electrodes come in contact with his skin and hair. "Perhaps I can make you lot act a bit more civilized."

Once that was said, he focused his mind onto the lab rats the band around his head started to glow a little to show it was activating. It wasn't long until the metallic fez's lighted up to get the rats to freeze up on their current actions. From there, they soon walked over to the table set, started pouring tea into each other's little cups and drunk from them.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Bravo!" The man cried out as he felt truly delighted in how his hard work has been paid off. "Ah~ They all laughed when I said that I'd find a way to tap into another creature's mind." He pulled out the band off of his head as it snagged onto some of his hairs. "Ow. Ow. Need to possibly fix the band a little or clean up my hair more so the band won't pull anymore. But nonetheless, with this band and electrodes, I could possibly control anything."

For who might this man be exactly; he is Dr. Jervis Tetch, a neuroscientist working for Wayne Enterprises. Jervis is a lanky looking man in his early thirties with shaggy shoulder length brown hair with a small goatee surrounding his mouth. He was currently wearing a lab coat over his small attire of a white button up shirt with dark pants and shoes.

With what he was currently working on, Jervis had been hoping to improve the brain's potential and figuring out what the true capacities were. He had studied a lot on this work with various journals and studies done on the human mind from the analytical left and creative right, parts adapting to loss of function, the current capacity theories of people only truly using 10% of the brain, etc. He had to read them all to get a better idea on what to do exactly.

But as he was working on this latest project of his for the company, Jervis started to come up with revolutionary ideas on brain chemistry and free will. He theorized that all of a person's emotions and loyalties could be altered and even controlled with the right chemicals. Asides from that, Jervis had even looked into the three forms of brainwashing: persuasive, educational and suggestive to get a better understanding on a mind functions.

With persuasive, or operant conditioning as it's technically termed, it's just basic things of learning right from wrong and getting people's behaviors to change on certain rewards and punishments. Behaviors aren't different but expectations are like bribing someone for something that is against their morals. They know that things aren't right, but they are getting rewarded in the end and every time they possibly expect when breaking their moral code.

With the educational method, it's quite drastic with torture and isolation working to alter how the mind thinks and feels. Literally reprogramming the concepts of right and wrong in the human mind. Taking weeks or months for someone to be affected by this method, which is where cults and the like indoctrinate people over the course of years until they are asked to fully comply with different tasks out of their 'free will'.

With suggestive, or hypnotism as others actually know it as, deals with having one's mind be opened to become more focused and attentive while being less distractible. Making a person look back if they can't remember a certain event and be able to eventually remember every detail. Getting a person to possibly do certain acts that a conscious mind wouldn't really do by giving simple commands to people. It even gets people to sometimes lose their sense of will if the hypnosis is strong enough.

Each of these were fascinating for Jervis and helped him get further into his research into what he has been able to do thus far. By manipulating neurons and brainwaves, thus changing the person's brain chemistry, one could manipulate a person's actions and thoughts. So in the end, he was able to fully create the band and electrodes to possibly excell his field of work. He could go far with these. He could….

*Knock Knock* *Knock Knock*

"Yes, who is it?!" Jervis called out as he snapped out of his exciting trance. The door opened up to reveal a blonde haired, blue eyed co-worker in the Wayne Enterprises division as a secretary named Alice Pleasance. Seeing her coming in made the neuroscientist fumble a little as he ended up hiding away his headband on habit. "A-Alice… *Cough* What a pleasant surprise."

Not noticing his smile towards her, she just fumbly waved him off with her eyes focused towards the doorway. "Yeah, yeah. Look busy Jervis. Bosses are here."

Hearing this, the scientist then scurried towards his work and covered up the lab rats as Alice called out 'Dr. Cates, Mr. Wayne.' Once he was done, he saw said individuals walk towards him and saw Alice mouth to him 'good luck'.

"Bruce, I hope you remember Dr. Jervis Tetch." Dr. Cates said as she introduced the brown haired neuroscientist. She's a redhead woman in her late thirties in a standard blue business suit attire with glasses and her hair tied back.

"Why of course." Bruce said with a small smile as he shook the neuroscientist's hand. "I've read your proposal on using microchips to enhance the brain's potential. It sounds really intriguing."

"T-Thank you Mr. Wayne." Jervis said with a small studder. Always shy and trying to open up was pretty noticeable to others, but a lot of people didn't mind. "Boosting the m-mind and helping out through certain causes could help out a lot of people if needed. Like amnesia patients to possibly remember who they originally were. I-It's only the tip of the iceberg I'm sure."

Smiling at this information, Bruce decided to ask the obvious thing on his mind. "I was wondering if you have a working prototype at the moment. I was hoping I could see it in action when possible."

When hearing this, Jervis fiddled around with his fingers for a few moments as his mind quickly went through if he wanted to show Mr. Wayne what he had so far or not. In the end, he lied. "I-I'm sorry sir, but the prototype isn't ready yet. Tried it out e-earlier and there are some kinks I need to work out before I could possibly present it to you."

"Tetch… I think we owe our employer and founder, Mr. Wayne, a little more than lame excuses." Dr. Cates said making the neuroscientist look a little downcast.

"Sorry…"

"It's alright Dr. Cates. He's a valued member of our research team." Mr. Wayne said to his employee's defense. "I'm sure we can spare him more time."

"As you say Bruce."

"Th-Thank you sir." Jervis quietly said as Dr. Cates and Mr. Wayne walked out of his lab. That was until his female boss poked her head back in with a slight glare.

"You got off easy this time Tetch, but heads could roll if you slip up again." Dr. Cates said before leaving to catch up with Mr. Wayne for other work.

Once the coast was clear, Jervis to release the deep breathe he unconsciously held as he rubbed his head in frustration. After a few more moments, he decided to get out to possibly clear his head from all this mess he was dealing with. He just wished things could be easier for him.

"Hey cheer up Jervis." Alice said to the neuroscientist as he walked past her desk. "She's always like that whenever the big boss shows up. Mr. Wayne knows what you mean to the company."

*Sigh* "Sometimes, Alice, I think you're the only one to understand me." He said to her with some relief, making her giggle a little that he found rather cute.

"Yeah well that's what my boyfriend keeps telling me whenever my day feels down in the muck."

'B-Boyfriend?' He thought as he widened his eyes a little and end up seeing the framed photo and a rose on her desk. When seeing such a thing, he tightened his fists while grinding his teeth a little.

"I guess I'm lucky to have two such amazing men in my life." Alice said as she got up from her desk. "Well I'll see you after lunch Jervis."

He waved her goodbye, even though it's for a short time. Once she walked around the corner, the neuroscientist harshly glared at the framed photo on her desk before slamming it face down. Jervis needed to unwind his head a little with the new fact that she only considers him a dear friend.

So Jervis took a break in his lab by opening up his copy of American McGee's Alice to read it's wonders, but his mind kept coming back to his sweet Alice. She was so beautiful and innocent that made his heart flutter whenever he was around her. He had hoped to pursue her for sometime now, but with his nervous and shy attitude he couldn't have the guts to ask her out. But it seems that he was too late that she was in a relationship for who knows how long.

It's just that she reminded him so much of his late sister, who also had the same given name. His sister was so full of life and he loved her dearly. They did a lot together as children and even reacted scenes from the Alice in Wonderland novels from Lewis Carol since those were their favorites. Alice portrayed Alice, obviously, while he would mostly portray the Mad Hatter as the two would sometimes have loads of tea parties whenever they had any free time.

To really get into their roles, they had studied hypnotism to possibly get more integrated with their favorite characters. It was such a joyous time for the two of them. That was until one day, during one of their playtimes in the front yard of their home. Alice ran onto the road to catch their pet cat named Bandersnatch and the two of them were ran over by a delivery truck. It was a tragic day for him and his family that things could never be the same ever since.

Of course as years passed, Jervis got more closed off and had a hard time making friends. Just focused on work and couldn't do anything else for obvious reasons. But when getting into Wayne Enterprises, he met the blonde secretary and he ended up falling in love with her.

"...But of course, intellectually, I know it's all wrong." He muttered to himself as he used his headband to make the mice bring him a cup of tea to help calm his nerves while reading his book. "She's got a boyfriend, after all. *Sigh* It's better to withdraw like a gentleman and forget her. Turn my heart onto other pursuits."

He kept on drinking his tea and focusing his eyes into the book, but his mind kept going back onto the blonde secretary. Her sweet smile coming into the forefront of his mind before it shifted to the framed photo on her desk. Jervis stopped his current actions as his eyes started to narrow before he threw his cup to the other side of the room, making it clutter on the floor.

"Never!" The neuroscientist yelled out as he slammed his fists onto the nearby table, startling the mice in the process. "Oh I'm sorry little ones, but look at these." He pulled out ordinary white cards from his lab pocket before presenting them to his lab rats. "I've already started working on circuitry cards powerful enough to control a human brain. I just needed to see if your little test run earlier was a success before I continued working on these ones. *Chuckles* It would be so easy to make her forget her boorish beau and love me. *Sigh* But that would reduce her to a soulless shell. No.. no.. no.. Not my sweet Alice. It's completely hopeless..."

His self debating was interrupted when he heard the sounds of crying coming from outside of the lab. Being curious as he may be, he decided to check out what's going on exactly. The sounds of crying got a little louder when he got closer to the breakroom to end up hearing someone else in there.

"Hey, it's going to be alright Alice."

'Isn't that Dr. Cates?' Jervis thought as he leaned against the wall so he wouldn't be noticed. 'And Alice is crying?! What happened to my sweet Alice?'

"I-I just wanted to talk about where our relationship was going during lunch and Billy got so defensive." The secretary cried out as she was balling her eyes out.

*Sigh* "Classic male fear of commitment."

"A-And the ne-next thing I knew; we were shouting, screaming, and saying we never wanted to see each other again." Alice said as she tried to keep herself together.

Unbeknownst to either of the female co-workers, Jervis' eyes and mouth widened enough to belong in the leagues of the cheshire cat. He quietly ran to his lab before slamming the door behind him. With what he had just heard had possibly lifted up his spirits inconsiderably, despite the current situation to his sweet Alice, but he couldn't contain his joy any longer.

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" Jervis yelled out as he let out several chuckles in his wake. "Now she's mine for the asking and I didn't have to do anything to separate them! I'll sweep her off of her feet, treat her to a night on the town and…. And…."

He stopped mid speech when his eyes landed upon the poster of Alice having a tea party with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse. "And nothing… Oh what could a beautiful girl like her see in me? How can I impress her?"

Jervis' eyes wandered through the lab until they landed upon his headband and the circuitry cards on his lab table. Soon various ideas started to come into his mind as a grin started to form. *Chuckles* "Oh how indeed…."

 _ **-Naruto's Office-**_

"...So asides from you and Shizune sightseeing some areas in China, how's the trip so far?" Naruto asked over the phone as he was going over several documents in his daily workload.

" _It's doing quite well actually. We were able to secure a good amount of land for the wildlife preserve. Though I wish the negotiations would've gone better."_

"Yeah I bet."

" _So was there anything interesting that happened while we were gone?"_

Thinking for a quick moment, he might as well tell her since it would be common knowledge once coming back. "Well the day after you left, Joker came back into Gotham and caused a gas epidemic."

" _...Tell me you're joking."_

"I'm not Selina. You'll even hear about it once you're back in time for your meeting with your parole officer." He said to her as he leaned back in his chair. "I still wonder why you went on this trip when it's too close for your monthly parole meeting."

" _For the wildlife preservation in a remote area in China of course."_ She defensively said. _"It needed to be taken care of as quickly as possibly and you know how much I care for that."_

"I know honey."

" _But asides from that, are you and Isis alright? Also how's Harley and Pam?"_

"Isis and I were fine Selina. When the epidemic hit, I stayed with Isis in the loft with it being air tight so no gas could come through."

*Sigh* _"That's good to hear."_

"With Pam however…." Naruto took a brief moment to think things over, but it seemed to not go well with Selina on the silence.

"What's wrong with Pam Naruto?"

*Sigh* "She lost her job at Star Labs."

" _What?!"_ The environmentalist yelled out making Naruto pull his phone away from his ear for a moment. _"But how?! How could she lose her job from over there? Didn't they pay off her medical bills and whatnot?"_

"They did Selina and the board was hoping for their star botanist to come back after being discharged from medical leave. But Pam found out through a letter they sent to inform of her that they had to let her go. They grew tired of waiting and had no choice, but to give her the 'pink slip'.

" _...Damn. She must've been in one hell of a rough patch."_

"Tell me about it. Ivy told me, when I went to check up on 'them' the other day, was that the letter came in the day before the gas incident and the document inside was dated a few days prior. Pam felt so miserable when reading it several times that she got reclusive and Ivy became dominant until Pam got better."

" _So were you able to cheer her up at least?"_ Selina asked out in concern for her share friend.

"I did my best to try and cheer Pam up. But when she spoke out, it was very hard for her to deal with. Sure she was able to heal a bit, but the pain was still there."

"With losing a job that she worked at for a long time? Hell yeah I would feel the same way. Reason why I'm mostly self employed."

"Well it was unfair on how they fired Pam. So I went over there and tried to talk to most of the board members that were at the building at the time. It was mostly a majority vote that got Pam to no longer work there. It was a pain in the ass, but I was able to convince them to let Pam reapply for the company once she's out of Arkham."

" _Well that's a bit of a silver lining right there."_

"Yeah and it's the best thing that could be done for now. Pam knows and it lifted her spirits a little that she might get her job back."

" _Regardless if she gets her job back or not, she'll be moving into your loft once she's out of the asylum."_ Selina commented as she remembered that information from a previous conversation with the changed botanist. _"Especially since she hasn't paid her bills and rent for a couple of months now that she's practically homeless."_

*Sigh* "I know. Reason why I had to hire a few movers to help me get all of her furniture and belongings moved into a storage unit ever since she got into that place. Not the way I envisioned us moving her stuff out of her apartment and into mine. But hey, nothing's perfect."

" _And what about me having sex at your place once she's moved in?"_

"...I think that would be best to put a pin on that until she's out of Arkham."

" _Yeah I could see your point."_

"Speaking of, have you told Shizune about us yet?"

" _Unfortunately yeah, I had to."_

Hearing this raised one of the publisher's eyebrows before the obvious question was voiced out. "Had to?"

There was nothing immediate on the response, but Naruto heard some shuffling on the other end. _"W-Well, you remember the last time we did it in my bedroom?"_

*Chuckles* "Oh how could I forget _that_." Naruto said with a cheeky grin and had a feeling Selina might be blushing on the other end. "With how we tried out those new poses and you finally wore that langerie~."

" _Yeah…. Apparently Shizune caught sight of us doing it."_

"What?!" He cried out as he ended up falling off of his chair and onto the floor.

" _Naruto?! Are you alright?"_

Getting back up, he picked up the phone and answered back. "Yeah I'm fine, was just surprised is all. But getting back onto topic, you said Shizune saw us. Was that right?"

" _Yeah."_

"How?"

" _To sum it up honey, doors were unlocked and weren't closed all the way. Thought someone broke in and investigated till she heard us doing it. Ended up seeing us in the act and Shizune quietly left, but wanted answers once we got to our hotel room."_

"That….must've been awkward."

" _Oh it was Naruto."_ His girlfriend groaned out and imagined her rubbing her temple in the process. _"Had to tell her how long it's been going on and why we got together. She thought that you were cheating on Pam, but I had to clear up that mess on my own. Ugh… Wish you could've been here to help."_

"I'm sorry Selina."

" _It's not your fault Naruto. Just wished that it could've been taken care of earlier to save me the problem. But moving onto a different subject, how's Harley?"_

"She's doing fine, but with Joker now in Arkham…" He said to let it hang in the air for Selina to know what he's leading to.

" _...Oh... Oh Shit… That's not good."_

"Yeah I know. I'm hoping that she doesn't get him as her patient. If she does, then I pray to Kami that she'll make it out alive."

" _Same here."_ She said to him before a tired yawn escaped her mouth. "Sorry honey, but it's roughly midnight over here and I need to go to sleep."

"Yeah, I'll let you go now Selina. Just get some rest and enjoy the rest of your time in China before you and Shizune get back."

" _Th-_ *Yawn* _Thanks. Well goodnight honey. Love you."_

"Love you too." Naruto said as he ended the call before getting back onto his workload. It was during most of this time that his weariness was starting to get to him, with the thoughts of the Joker being at the Asylum and Harley's safety. He tried to keep his mind focused at the task at hand, but he just couldn't shake off this feeling with his psychologist friend.

"I should probably call her and see if she wants to go out tonight for dinner or see a movie at least." He said to himself as he picked up his phone and dialed her cell phone number. After several more 'rings', the intern answered.

" _Hello, Dr. Harleen Quinzel speaking."_

"Hey Harley, it's Naruto."

" _Oh hey Naruto, what's up?"_

"Nothing much." He briefly told her. "Hey, I was wondering if you want to do something tonight."

 _ **-Night, Alice's Apartment-**_

*Knock Knock* *Knock Knock*

"I'm coming!" Alice called out as she made her way towards her door. Once opening up the door, she was surprised to see the man before her. "Jervis? What are you doing here?"

It was odd to see her co-worker dressed up in such a way, with her being used to seeing the neuroscientist wear a white shirt and black pants and shoes underneath his lab coat. But this seemed very odd for him to wear. His current attire consisted of a white button up shirt with a black bow tie and a red vest to fit with his dark brown plaid suit jacket and pants. To finish off his attire, Jervis wore a black top hat and there seemed to be a pocket watch in his vest pocket indicated with the chain attached to one of the vest buttons.

Feeling that she has probably gotten an eyeful on his new attire, he took off his hat and took a deep bow before her. "Good evening, Miss Pleasance. I'm here to help you forget your recent heartbreak. For Gotham can be a Wonderland Alice. So let me be your guide for tonight."

The blonde secretary gave the co-worker an odd look as this was rather sudden. Of course the obvious question came to mind on how he knew on what happened earlier today. But then again, she was practically crying out loud on the details of the breakup so everyone knew by the end of it. She was told by a few friends of hers earlier that evening to go out and clear her head from her worries. So after thinking things through for a few more moments, she decided to give Jervis her answer.

"I'll go get my coat."

 _ **-Gotham Park-**_

"It was nice of you to take me out tonight Naruto. I really needed someone to spend time with after a long day's work."

"Hey, it's no problem Harley." The publisher said as the two of them were walking through some areas of Gotham Park that were safe to travel through. Naruto would've driven his car towards their destination, but he felt that the two should go out on an evening stroll till they reached their destination. "So mind telling me about work as of late? I hope things have been decent at best."

"They somewhat are from the usual stuff I'm doing over there. Chatting with Pam and Ivy, trying to figure out more on Magpie before I have to give her to another doctor, waiting for my turn to deal with Harvey 'Two Face' and doing my other tasks till I'm done with my internship."

"I'm having a feeling that's not all that has been going on recently."

*Sigh* "Ever since the Joker came back into Arkham, things have been a bit complicated at best with some of our best staff members not really getting a good read out of him. Hell even Dr. Serrano hasn't really cracked his shell. But that's not the half of it."

"...Something's telling me that I'm not going to like this." Naruto said as Harley started to rub her arm without looking at her friend in the face.

"Yeah…. I'm actually assigned to take on Joker's case this time and earlier today was my first session with him." Hearing this made him feel dread and wished this wasn't really happening. Resulting him to stop in his tracks, making Harley look towards him in response. "Naruto?"

"Why didn't you tell me earlier that you were assigned to him?" The publisher said with concern in his voice.

"I was assigned to him after our phone call earlier. It was really sudden and I didn't know what to do." The intern defended getting her friend to look at her to see if she was lying, which there were no hints in her eyes.

Seeing a nearby bench, Naruto walked over to it and sat down before Harley followed suit. When both were comfortable, Naruto decided to ask the obvious question that came to mind.

"What happened in that session Harley?"

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _Dr. Quinzell…"_

" _Yes Dr. Serrano? Dr. LeLand?"_

" _Are you ready?" The hispanic woman asked the intern with a stern gaze. "You're qualified Harleen, but I don't think anyone is ever ready for… him."_

 _The three female doctors were behind a one way mirror with a few security guards for good measure. Reason behind all of this was plain and simple: a Joker session. Harley was assigned by some of the Arkham staff to do a handful of sessions with the crazed clown till they say otherwise. It was rather frightening for her to take on such a big case, but she's gotten enough experience so far that she might be able to handle herself in there._

 _Of course the security guards would be there if anything seems amiss._

 _After taking several deep breaths, Harley composed herself and had started to plan things out on what to possibly do in this first session with the man. She was given an hour of preparation time by going over his files and it was a lengthy ready, but Harley got it down to the best of her ability. "I think I'm ready doctor."_

" _Just so you know, the Joker isn't someone that anyone here could properly categorize."_

" _I understand that ma'am." She simply said as one of the guards was ready to open the door for her."_

" _Well good luck in there." One of the officers said before opening the entryway to the session room. Once the door behind her was close, she made her way to the chair in front of her new patient with only a desk separating the two of them._

" _Hello there Mr. Joker. My name is Dr. Harleen Quinzel and I've been assigned to be your doctor for the time being."_

… _.._

' _Not much of a talker today I guess.' Harley thought as the man was sitting rather still with a blank face. One could consider it rather, unnerving, but she had to push forward with her task at hand._

" _Well I've read your file. The beatings from your father with the occasional change ups of him being happy from going to a circus or an ice show performance. The abandonment by your alcoholic mother which tends to get some sympathies from the occasional parole officer or two. The failed criminal career and even your little 'accident'." Harley said with a completely straight face towards the Joker's neutral one to see if there was any response to any of them. "Each and everyone of them being the building blocks to your psychotic and murderous mind. But we both know that is a complete load of bullshit."_

… _.._

" _From what I understand, it's all about control from you with being quite the performer. You do everything you can with your mayhem so that you can be the very eye of the storm. Because in that storm, everything is flipped upside down... except for you. Hiding behind your madness is control. So the way I see it, you're just a control freak with a sense of humor."_

 _Once saying her piece, things started to change a little as the Joker's mouth started to slowly shift into one of his signature grins before releasing a few chuckles to fill up the quiet room. It wasn't long until…._

" _HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_

 _It was like an odd joke to him with holding onto his sides, but in that brief moment both Harley and the guards noticed the crazed clown have a razor blade in his hand. The guards were heading straight to the door and tried to unlock it, but something else happened._

" _That won't be necessary guards. I can handle this from here." The intern said getting the security guards to possibly stand down, but stay at the ready._

" _Well aren't you an interesting one." The Joker finally spoke towards the blonde doctor in training. "Different from the usual privileged, blue-blooded eunuchs they send down here. *Chuckles* You've got spunk kiddo, but you had to where you came from." He stood up from his seat and started walking around the room, but not close to the blonde woman. "Your accent screams New York, but none of the whole Rockefeller variety."_

' _Seems he's going to pick me apart, piece by piece to fully figure myself out.' Harley thought as she remembered reading it in a part of the clown's file with doing this on some past doctors who tried to treat him._

" _Let me guess…. Hmmm…. Local girl done good. National honor society, scholarships, blah blah blah." He said as he started to get a little closer to her. "But it seems that something is missing with you. Something that drives you. Something that you want, but can't have."_

" _Well, Mr. Joker, we can't always have what we want." Harley said as she gathered up her things and started to head towards the door. "So I think that tomorrow, let's start with what that is for you. And one other thing…" She turned around to face him dead on with his hands behind his back. "If you think on wanting to stab me or cut me with that razor of yours, you better hope you don't miss. Because if you do, then I'll kick your nuts so hard through your mouth and show you how we do it in canarsie."_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"...And once I got out of that session room, with the guards locking it up for proper transfer, I just needed some fresh air." Harley said to Naruto, who was currently holding onto her hand in comfort with her squeezing hard in the process. "I was able to keep up a strong appearance in front of him, but once out of that room I couldn't hide how scared I was. I don't even know how I was able to last so long being in the same room with the man."

"But it's alright Harley." He said with a reassuring smile. "You were able to do a good job in there and I'm proud of you."

She only gave him a small smile in response. "Yeah… Dr. LeLand said the same thing when she came by to console me. It's going to be a while though if I can fully diagnose him. So yeah I'm going to need a lot of luck in that department to help understand his chaotic mind."

"Well enough about that now Harley." Naruto said to her as he stood up and she followed suit. "We got dinner plans and I hope I can take away your problems, even if it's for just one night."

"Yeah, lets."

The two friends went on their way, but if they would've stayed any longer they would've seen a carriage come through the park with Jervis and Alice riding in the back of it. It came to a stop, getting the two co-workers to exit out of the ride. The neuroscientist paid the caddie before the man went on his way to other businesses for the evening.

"This is really a surprise Jervis." The blonde secretary said as she walked alongside her co-worker through the park. "You're just so... quiet at work."

"Heh… Still waters run deep my dear. It's been a little philosophy of mine that people should take what they want from life."

"Well that's good to know I guess."

"Well that just so happens to be ours." A person said from behind the co-workers, making them turn around to see two intimidating thugs. "Well Mr. Hat, give us what money you have."

Seeing these two thugs coming closer to their position, Jervis brought Alice behind him and had things at the ready. "On your way you currs or else I'll be forced to teach you a lesson."

"Jervis, you can't."

One of the thugs thought this was funny on the display, making him chuckle a little. "Well it's funeral, you nut boy."

The two thugs grabbed ahold of Jervis by each side of his coat before bringing him to them. Watching from the sidelines, Alice couldn't look on what might become towards her friend. So she brought her hands to cover her face from what could possibly be a gruesome sight. As the two thugs were about to beat the living hell out of the neuroscientist, the man quickly brought out two of his circuitry cards and placed them on the thugs' heads. The results were quite instant as the thugs stayed in place without moving a muscle.

'Now I need to make this look convincing.' The scientist thought before he focused his thoughts into the two thugs.

With their new commands, they started to beat up each other while crying out things like 'Stop Mr. Hat. Go easy on us.' or 'We're sorry.' for a few more moments. When things look satisfying enough, Jervis mentally commanded the thugs to run away and possibly jump into the Gotham River.

'Seems that takes care of those two.' The man thought before going over to check up on his sweet Alice. "It's quite alright my dear. You can open up your eyes."

She did so and looked to see the retreating thugs getting out of the park. "Are you alright Jervis?"

"I'm quite alright, but I'm sorry you had to possibly witness such a thing." Jervis briefly said to her with his arm wrapped around her shoulder for comfort. "They had to be taught a lesson.

 _ **-Beret Rouge Club-**_

After the little scuffle outside, the pair of co-workers eventually made it to the restaurant that Jervis had made a reservation earlier that day. It would've been difficult to do such a thing with how much a meal or so is like over there, but he has his ways. And by ways meaning using his circuitry cards on the staff then yes. The two soon went towards the reservationist desk to finally check in for the evening.

"Ah Monsieur Tetch, it is good to see you again." The host said with a circuitry card sticking out from the side of his head. "I'm guessing you want your usual table?"

"Of course my good sir." Jervis said as he silently commanded the staff to keep doing what they were doing to not arouse suspicion with others. The mind controlled host then ushered them to a table near the VIP section of the establishment. Once on his way, someone soon came out to greet the two.

"Monsieur Tetch." A man came towards their table to indicate that he was the head chief of the establishment with one of the same cards placed in his hat. "I am glad that you have come back to our fine restaurant. I have created an excellent dish for you and it seems that I'll be making another for your date for the evening. All on the house of course."

"That is very kind of you Antuan." Jervis said with a smile towards the man before he went on his way towards the kitchen to make their meal.

"Monsieur Tetch." A woman called out as she approached the couple with another card placed in her hat. "Would you mind if I took a picture for our celebrity wall?"

"Not at all." The neuroscientist said as he pulled Alice closer to him for the photo. With a quick *Snap* of the camera, the woman left to do her own thing.

"I didn't know you were such a big hit around town." The blonde secretary said in wonder as her co-worker just chuckled at this.

"Well this is a side of me that I only share with those closest to me."

Things were pretty pleasant for as their meals soon came out from the kitchen and they dug into their meals, with some violinists coming over to play several songs while they feasted.

 _ **-Storybook Land-**_

After their very pleasant meal, Jervis was able to hail a cabby that was passing by to take the two towards their next destination. It was a bit of time getting there, but there was no rush at all with their belly's working to digest their meals for example. When they did reach their destination, the two were greeted with a security guard with a card in his hat by the entrance of the establishment: Storybook Land.

The place was made a few decades ago with the intended purpose of a fantasy land/fairy tale theme park for many alike, but mostly focused towards children. It succeeded in that aspect that many have attended the grounds for years. Some things have been taken out for updates to help get with the times, but they still come back with that nostalgic feeling whenever anyone looks at the displays, rides, etc.

"Well don't forget to lock up when you leave Tetch."

"I won't and have a pleasant evening Andrew." Jervis said as he and Alice walked past the guard.

Even though Jervis had his destination in mind to wrap up the evening, he decided to take Alice through the various parts of the theme park. It was quite interesting on how things appear to be without so many people walking through the place. But after looking through all of the different sections of the place, the two made it towards Tech's prefered area of choice.

"You know… Alice in Wonderland has always been my favorite story since I was a child." The neuroscientist said with nostalgia being laced into his speech. "Do you remember the mock turtle song my dear Alice?"

"No. I don't think so Jervis."

"Really?" He asked with mild surprise at this. "But surely you must've at least remembered some of it. It's actually quite simple really: 'Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, join the dance?'" He briefly sang to her before grabbing her hand and going into a waltz with music playing in the air.

It was rather nice on how things were going, but Alice was getting slightly confused by all of this. Especially since throughout some of the night, he had been saying 'My Alice' and things of the sort. She wanted to at least clear up what's going on and decided to voice it.

"Jervis."

"Hmm."

"Why do you keep saying 'my Alice' with such familiarity?"

"I don't know what you mean Ms. Pleasance." He said to her as they spun around a bit more.

"What I'm saying is that I'm getting a little confused by what you are saying so far tonight." She said to him as they went around the Caterpillar's den. "I mean it's just that tone of voice you're using I somewhat recognize of you mistaking me for someone else."

After this was said, Jervis slowly came to a stop in their dance as he let go of his co-worker to let his hair cover his eyes.

"Oh… I'm sorry Alice. I-I should've have done that."

"Whatever do you mean?"

*Sigh* "If you must know…. I used to have a sister that was very much like you."

Getting the idea on what he meant, she placed her hand on his shoulder with a gentle squeeze to it. "I'm sorry Jervis. I didn't know on that."

The neuroscientist just waved her off without really looking at her. "No, no. It's quite alright. It's been years since I've talked about my sister's passing."

"Well… May I hear about her?" Alice asked peaking Jervis' attention. "It's just a suggestion really."

The scientist could only smile at this as he went back to the Caterpillar's mushroom seat with the secretary sitting not too far from him as he started to recount his times with his late sister.

 _ **-Batcave-**_

Things were rather earlier that evening while he was doing his nightly patrols. He figured that it was just a slow night or that Vanitas was taking care of things on some other parts of town. It was hard to be sure, but he couldn't fault for the other hero to do what he wanted to do to help the city.

He was going to call it a night when he his batmobile picked up on the police emergency signal. It was reporting that two people were going to commit suicide by one of Gotham's suspension bridges and it just so happened to be the one closest to him. Batman obviously responded and was able to use his car to propel him into the air to land in front of the possible suicidal men. It was quite odd with their blank stares on their beaten up faces as they kept mumbling 'Mr. Hat ordered us to jump.' while walking in a zombie like state.

He tried to get them to stop, but both of them seemed rather strong all of a sudden to push their way through and to fall off the highest part of the suspension bridge. Batman was lucky in grabbing ahold of the thugs and did the best he could to glide back onto the bridge. The impact was rather rough, but each of them were safe.

It was rather odd though after the landing, the two thugs came out of their odd state and started flipping out on how they got to the bridge. He quickly questioned them with them stating that they were originally in the park hustling some man in a top hat with his girl and the next thing they knew, they were on the bridge. The Dark Knight had let them go with a warning and as the two left, he saw odd circuitry cards lying on the pavement.

So that's what he is doing now, looking over the cards with a '10/6' insignia placed on the other side of the piece of equipment.

"You know sir;" Alfred said from behind the Batman with a book in his hands, "when you showed me those cards, I recalled an image from my childhood."

"What do you mean Alfred?"

The response he was given from his old friend was placing a book in front of him with the title 'Alice in Wonderland' before opening up to a certain chapter of the story. "It seems those near suicides must've run in with a self styled 'Mad Hatter'."

"Wait a minute." Bruce said as he brought one of the cards closer to the image of Alice attending the Mad Hatter's tea party. "I saw that same scene earlier today in one of my employee's labs. A scientist who makes circuitry similar to this."

"So what are you going to do Master Bruce?" The butler asked as his young ward adopted a thinking pose for a few moments.

"Well…..

 _ **-Alice's Apartment Building-**_

"Thank you for a wonderful time Jervis. I needed someone to spend time with to get out of my worries." Alice said as Jervis escorted her back home. "You're one hell of a great friend."

"Until tomorrow my dear Alice and thank you for listening to my sad tale."

"It's no problem at all." Was all she said before her co-worker brought her knuckles towards his lips and kissed them briefly in a gentleman like fashion.

"Still though. Tomorrow and everyday afterwards." He said as she walked up the stairs towards her apartment complex. As she went, Jervis waved her goodbye while dancing in an odd way. What she didn't know was that the co-worker was going back to all of the places they went to earlier to get back his circuitry cards so nothing would seem out of the ordinary.

"Heh, what a sweet guy." Alice muttered to herself as she went inside. Once closing the door she ended up hearing someone behind her. Turning around, she came face to face with….

"Billy? W-What are you doing here?"

Said man was a head taller than her with combed dark hair dressed in a black suit. From what she could see from her ex-boyfriend was some tear stains on his face with a rose in his hand. He came up to her and said a simple sentence to her.

"Hey Alice…. Can we talk?"

 _ **-Morning, Wayne Enterprises-**_

Jervis couldn't have felt happier in his entire life as he walked through the doors of his work place. He was so happy, in fact, that he wore the same suit he had on last night to work today. Sure he'll be needing to wear a lab coat over it, but he didn't care at all. The neuroscientist came through those doors with the biggest grin he could muster with a bouquet of roses he had gotten earlier that morning.

"Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, join the dance?" He sang softly as he walked through the several cubicles of the building, while also saying positive things to various employees along the way. It was rather odd for what everyone was seeing, but they eventually went back to their own things for the day.

'Will you, won't you, will you, won't you…." He said as he got closer to see Alice at her desk, seemingly a lot happier from last night. "Good morning Ms. Pleasance."

"Oh Jervis, good morning." The secretary said in a very cheerful tone. "I've still got to thank you so much from last night."

"It's no problem at all."

"Well listen since I have the best of news to tell you." She said which peaked his curiosity, but ushered her to continue. "Billy was there after you dropped me off and he apologized to our big fight yesterday. I forgave him and *Giggles* And then he gave me this!"

From what Jervis saw in her hand, or more importantly her finger, horrified and infuriated him greatly: an engagement ring.

"I'm getting married Jervis. Isn't that wonderful?" Alice said in joy, not knowing what was going through her co-worker's mind. Of course she eventually noticed the neuroscientist's hand starting to bleed due to the thorns puncturing his skin. Especially with a drop of blood came in contact with the framed photo of the now engaged couple. "Jervis, you're bleeding!"

"Oh… I-It's nothing really. Forget it Alice." The man said as he walked past her and went into his lab. "Congratulations on your engagement."

She felt really worried for her friend as she called out his name several times, but they fell onto death's ears while several things were running through the man's head. Once closing the door to his lab, things were starting to boil greatly inside of him. Next thing he knew, he tossed his bouquet of roses to the side and slammed his hands onto the nearby table.

"That fucking son of a bitch!" Jervis yelled out in a harsh whisper. "He swooped in without me knowing and took her from me!" From there, he paced around the lab with several thoughts coming to mind as he ended up saying them outloud. "I can fix this! I can still win her heart!"

His thought process was interrupted as the door to his lab opened up violently with Dr. Cates walking through the door.

"Tetch! I don't know what you did, but Bruce Wayne wants to see you now!" The redhead yelled out, not knowing what was going on with Jervis at the moment. "I swear to god that it's your head if you got this department in any trouble-"

"Shut the fuck up Dr. Cates!" The neuroscientist growled out as he rushed at her and placed one of his cards in her hair to get her in his complete control. "Now if you would be so kind as to follow me since we've got work to do."

Nothing went on for a while now as Alice was in her self indulgent bliss as she kept herself busy in her work. So much in fact that she didn't notice someone was approaching her until it was too late. With a tap on her shoulder, the blonde secretary jumped in her seat with a slight 'eep' before turning around to see who did the act.

"Oh... *Phew* It's just you Mr. Wayne."

"Sorry on doing that to you Alice." The 'playboy' said in an apologetic tone.

"Nah, it's quite alright sir." She said in a forgiving tone before putting all of her attention towards her boss. "So what can I do for you?"

"Well I was wondering if you've seen Dr. Cates or Jervis Tetch?"

"Yeah I have, but they left together like half an hour ago I think."

"Together?"

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

"Oh sorry sir. Got to take this." She said before answering the phone. "Hello? Alice Pleasance speaking."

…..

"Oh hi sweetie." Alice said before turning to Bruce in a cheerful tone. "My fiance, we got engaged last night."

"Congratulations." Bruce said in a happy tone to see his employee like this. He'd heard of what happened yesterday through the grapevine, but it seemed that Alice and Billy patched things up in a great way. As Alice was speaking on the phone, he couldn't help but notice the little bloodstain on the framed photo and wondered what that was about. Bruce was going to ask about it when he heard his employee in a worried tone.

"Billy? What's wrong?"

…..

"You sound so…."

…..

"But…. But why?!" She cried out before the line went dead. "Billy!"

"Alice. What's wrong?" The dark haired man asked while seeing the blonde secretary starting to shed tears in front of him.

"S-Sorry Mr. Wayne, but I-I think I'll need a minute alone." She said before bringing her hands to her face as she balled her eyes out.

Bruce didn't know what was going on, but he had the sinking feeling that something was completely wrong here. But for now, he came up to his employee and gave her a reassuring hug, which she didn't refuse to take. She needed a shoulder to cry on right now with what has just happened to her.

 _ **-Night, Alice's Apartment Building-**_

Alice was coming back home from a long day's work. It wasn't all that busy at all mind you, but with what went on earlier that day seemed to make every minute and hour seem an eternity for her. Feeling like she was at the top of the world, only for it to come tumbling down to land her in the gutter. Mr. Wayne was so kind to let her go home early with what just came up, but she refused the offer since she wanted to work a full honest day despite what happened.

So throughout the entire day, Alice had been trying to focus on her workload. But all that she kept thinking about was Billy and what made him change his mind on their engagement. The blonde even thought about it once she got off and went to her usual ice cream place to eat a little to sooth her problems. After that, she slowly walked back to her apartment complex with her reddened eyes and tear stains on her face.

Once opening up the front door to the building, she was greeted with the hallway entirely covered in a variety of flowers. She was utterly speechless with what was in front of her. As Alice navigated her way through to the door to her apartment, she didn't notice someone was approaching her from behind. Once opening the door though, she heard it.

"Alice! You're finally back!"

She screamed in fright as she turned around to see Jervis staring right at her with seemingly odd joy present in his eyes.

"I had to come back once I've heard that cad of a fiance abandoned you again."

"H-How did you know?" Alice said in bewilderment. "I didn't tell anyone at all." 'Asides from Mr. Wayne.'

She felt uneasy right now and needed to get away from Jervis immediately. So she quickly opened up her apartment door and went inside, but he got inside before she got the chance to close the door.

"It doesn't matter my sweet Alice." He said with an all too sweet tone to his voice. "What matters now is that we have each other and nothing will tear us apart."

The secretary started to back away from her crazed co-worker when she ended up bumping into something solid. For a quick moment, Alice thought that it was her couch or even her floor lamp, but it was entirely something else. Turning around, she saw a dark figure there and she screamed until she realized who it was: The Batman.

"What have you done with Marsha Cates and this woman's fiance Tetch?" The Dark Knight questioned as the neuroscientist backed away slightly from the new arrival.

"Hmm I would play along with your little game, but I think we should play another." Jervis said as he started to play with his hat a little before the sounds of pounding started to come from the apartment's door. Soon a giant sledgehammer came busting through, causing Alice to shriek out in fright. With the door demolished, two figures stepped on through wearing bodysuits of a walrus bodysuit in a tux and a carpenter.

"I have anticipated this moment sooner or later." The neuroscientist taunted as the two people walked towards Alice and the hero of Gotham. "So I decided to enlist for some help. Let me introduce you to a few friends of mine: the Walrus and the Carpenter."

Without any warning, the carpenter ran towards the Dark Knight with his weapon aimed towards his head. The attack was soon evaded as the hero rolled out of the way before grabbing the coffee table and slammed it against the dressed up man. Soon the walrus came rushing in for the offense, but Batman yanked off the window curtains and threw them onto the man before jumping onto him. The struggle was intense with the dressed up man frantically moving around and ending up slamming Batman against the wall a few times.

As the fight went on, Jervis sneaked up from behind and grabbed Alice's arm. She screeched in fright before asking the obvious question. "Why are you doing this Jervis?!"

"For us my sweet Alice." He said to her as he placed his mind control card in her headband. "Trust me my dear. I didn't want it to go this way." With the card in place, he focused his thoughts on her to put the blonde secretary to sleep. With it successful, Jervis carried her like a bride and rushed out of the apartment as the hero of Gotham was being kept busy by his two mind controlled lackeys.

Batman was struggling against the Walrus as he seemed stronger than he appeared to be. The Bat was soon thrown to the side of the room with the Walrus coming ever much closer to him with the intent to skewer him with his mighty tusks. When coming down with them, they were blocked by another piece of furniture lying around, but they were torn into bits. The disguised 'playboy' was going to get back into the offensive if it wasn't for the Carpenter to slam him from behind and onto the ground.

With the hero disoriented for a brief moment, it gave the Walrus all the time he needed to grab the man in a bear hug in the attempt to skewer him once more. But the Bat saw this and grabbed the costumed head to stop the advancement. It was rough, but with all his might, he threw the Walrus over his head, whom impacted with the Carpenter to end up knocking each other out on the floor.

With both of them incapacitated, Batman went down and removed their masks to reveal… ordinary people? But that seemed rather odd, even for him. Of course, once looking closer, he saw the same circuitry cards from before placed on their heads. Batman removed both of them of course just in case if they woke up anytime soon. With that out of the way, he soon checked the costumes to see where they originally belonged to and found his answer. He looked at the tags by the collars, which had the custom writing depicting that the suits were property of Gotham's Storybook Land.

 _ **-Storybook Land-**_

Batman didn't know how Jervis Tetch was able to arrive at the park before him, but it didn't matter once he walked past the opened gates. With the logical conclusion where his former employee is located, he would obviously reside at the Wonderland section of the theme park. Though of course which part exactly was the question. As he got closer to the nearest attraction, being the Royal Card Maze, the speakers sprang to life.

" _Twinkle Twinkle little Bat.~ I ever wonder where your at.~"_ Jervis said over the speakers. _"Hope you can find me soon Dark Knight."_

He navigated through some of the attractions when he ended up at the giant chess board area of Wonderland. When he did, he saw an odd sight to behold of a variety of mind controlled people dressed up in Wonderland themed outfits. From the Dodo, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, and the Gekko.

"Now this is a game more to my liking." Jervis said from up high with Alice by his side. From what the Batman has seen, his employee was now in an Alice in Wonderland costume as the main character from Lewis Carol's story. What was more odd about her was that she was unmoving and seemed like a soulless shell.

'What have you done Jervis?' Bruce growled in thought before his ex-employee spoke again.

"Are you, the famous Batman, so intent in destroying my happiness that you'll harm these poor mind-warped innocence to get to me?!" The Mad Hatter yelled out. *Chuckles* "Well let's find out, shall we."

Without a warning, Batman's senses seemed to be on the alert as he ducked and moved out of the way as a bladed weapon came sailing through the air and sliced through several statue heads. Looking for the person responsible, the disguised business owner saw who it was.

"Off with his head!" Dr. Cates, now dressed up as the Red Queen of Hearts, yelled out as she sliced through several Pawn statues with her sharp axe.

With her mind controlled advancement, the others followed suit as they lunged at the Bat. He didn't want to harm any of them at all, but he might come down to no choice if it comes down to it. When he was able to shrug off the grasps of the Gekko off of him, he was sent flying into a display mushroom by the March Hare's kick.

"Oh~ I might've forgotten to tell you one itsy bit of information Batman, but the control over them has increased their strength." The Hatter said as he laughed at the display before him. "So I guess you found that out the hard way then."

"Then maybe some backup would suffice." A voice called out from above before two scarfs grabbed ahold of two of the mind controlled people. The Bat and the Hatter looked towards the source to find Vanitas standing on a floating spear with his arms stretched out.

"How did you find us?" Batman asked as he dodged a blow from the Gekko.

"You were practically speeding over here while I was patrolling Bats." Vanitas said as he struggled to keep his hold on the costumed people. "Lucky for you, I followed."

 _ **-Insert Alice Madness Returns: Puppet Master Extended-**_

"Red Queen!" Jervis yelled out as he mentally commanded his former boss to slice the bindings with her axe. She complied as the action caused the black and white hero to end up falling off of his placement and onto the ground below.

"Well that wasn't very nice." The hero said as he dodged one of the blows of the Red Queen's axe.

"Off with his head!"

"No I would like to keep my head thank you!" Vanitas yelled out as he rolled out of the way from the woman's swings.

"Don't hurt them Vanitas! Their mind controlled into doing this!" The Bat yelled out as he dodged several blows from the mind controlled people.

"Well tell them that!" Vanitas yelled out as he ended up dodging another axe strike before kicking the woman away from the weapon.

As this went on, the Mad Hatter saw the new addition to his game and gritted his teeth at him. With the new hero in the mix might hamper his plans, but luckily he came prepared for just the occasion. So he focused his mind to the forested area of the theme park as a good dozen or so people started walking towards the giant chessboard.

"I won't let you ruin my game Vanitas!" The crazed man yelled out, getting said hero's attention. "So how about you play with my white rabbits!"

Wondering what the man was talking about, he looked around to see a large amount of people wearing White Rabbit masks. What seemed odd though were said people's attire to reveal them to be in ordinary clothing of the thuggish variety. It seemed that the man with the top hat must've gotten them off of the streets and onto this place somehow. So he willed his escrima sticks into his hands and dashed towards the closet White Rabbit drone and started his assault on him.

There was so much that he could do on damage against the drones. He would've done more, but these were considered innocent in all of this and weren't really doing any crimes. So Vanitas needed to just incapacitate them. It was lucky during his assaults on these men that they didn't have any weapons on them at all so he'll make quick work with them.

Vanitas dodged and rolled out of the way before slapping his sticks against various parts of their bodies before grabbing their heads to slam them into each other to not only knock them out, but to also break the masks in the process on several. He even had to sweep some off of their feet before slamming his weapons onto the masks to keep up on the process. Of course a horde started coming after him, causing the disguised publisher to pull out smoke bombs from his utility belt and threw them onto the ground to create a large amount of coverage for not only him, but also for the Bat.

In their confusion, Batman needed to get out of his hold from the Gekko, whom grabbed him moments ago. So he reached down and pulled off the large mask off of the man's head. In response, a mind control card fell onto the ground with the the man releasing his hold. Once that was done, the Bat looked onto the man and recognized him from Alice's framed photo and said woman's fiance: Billy.

"Oh god, my head." The now revealed Billy moaned out before seeing the hero of Gotham in front of him. "Batman? What's going on?"

"There's the nave." The Queen said through the smoke. "Off with his head!"

"Oh my god! Will you shut her up?!" Vanitas yelled out as he took care of the various white rabbit drones.

Ignoring the other hero for the brief moment, Batman turned his attention towards Billy. "They are only programed to attack me, but not you..."

"Yeah I got ya Bats." Billy said as he carefully walked around one of the mind controlled people and pulled off the head piece to deactivate the mind control. Said man ended up doing the same process on the other victims to end the unknown misery that fell upon them.

From up high, Tetch gritted his teeth once again as Alice's fiance was ruining things once again for him. So he grabbed Alice's hand and ran off of the platform with her as he spoke towards her. "Come now my dear, it's time to get away from this mess."

As Tetch was running towards the maze, he had picked up the fallen Queen's axe before entering the card themed area. It wasn't long for Batman to follow after the Hatter as he entered it's confusing hallways in hopes of finding the mad man with the captive secretary. Unknown to him, the Hatter and the mind controlled Alice were actually on the other side of one of the walls beside the hero.

After navigating through the maze for a few minutes, the card walls started to move on their own to box in the Batman.

" _You're mighty in Gotham Batman! But here, in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter reigns supreme!"_ Jervis yelled out over the speakers before he bellowed out a madly laugh of his own.

Knowing he wasn't going to go far from his placement, he climbed up the card themed walls and started jumping across various ones till he got accustomed to a leap like run. Batman almost fell a few times in this run with the walls changing way too quickly, but he started to grow accustomed to this new happening. He continued with his search until he saw Jervis hunched over a set of controls of the changing maze.

Seeing the Bat's shadow from above, Jervis quickly grabbed the Queen's axe before he was tackled by the hero. The two soon crashed through the metal walls and into an opened area where Alice was sitting at a dining table. Batman would've reached out towards his employee, but Jervis yelled out from behind with the intent to kill the Dark Knight. Said hero was able to grab his former employee and tossed him over head, whom landed onto the dining table causing all of the dinnerware to fall off and break upon impact on the ground.

Once getting back up, Tetch growled out with his eyes glaring holes into the Bat. "I'll cut that cowl off your neck before you take her! I've waited my entire life for her!"

"Then all you've waited for is a puppet Jervis. A soulless little doll."

In response, Jervis looked towards his sweet Alice's unmoving form on her placement in her big chair. "But it didn't have to be this way! You and that bastard Billy made me this way!"

Soon the Mad Hatter ran towards the Batman while swinging his axe around in hopes of lopping the hero's head right off. But with how fast the man was going, he wasn't able to quickly change directions as the Bat moved out of the way to cause Tetch to run into one of the card walls. The Bat soon went inside to find his former employee, but it seemed the man ran off somewhere inside of the maze.

While he was searching for the neuroscientist, he didn't realize the walls of metallic cards falling over until it was too late. One of the cards fell ontop of him and caused him to topple over to get trapped between the fallen walls. Batman tried to get out, but Tetch came running in with his axe raised up high to cleave the man's head wide opened.

That would've been the case if a razor sharp card didn't sail right through the air and cut the rope holding the hanging Jabberwock statue. Seeing the enlarging shadow from below, Jervis looked up to see the falling Jabberwocky. He screamed in response as he was slammed down onto the ground with him being entrapped by its mighty claws. Batman struggled to get out of his placement, but he felt a hand grab ahold of his arm and pulled him out quite easily.

"Your welcome by the way." Vanitas said as he helped Batman get onto his feet. "Would've liked it if you helped me take care of those drones, but whatever."

Ignoring the other hero for a moment, the Bat went towards the top hat and slammed his foot down onto the piece of clothing. There was a crunching noise that soon followed before he kicked the hat to the side to reveal the broken pieces of the mind control headband on the ground. Vanitas wondered if that was what was controlling all of those people and was going to ask about it, but his eyes caught onto Billy walking closer to the seated Alice.

Said man reached out and took off the headband placed on Alice's head before the woman shook out of her stupor and looked towards the man with loving eyes. The couple embraced each other and kissed each other's lips while saying sweet nothings to each other in the process. The disguised publisher couldn't help, but look at it with a smile and the same reaction went on with the Bat.

"Would not, could not." A voice from behind said getting Vanitas and Batman to see Jervis looking at the sight before him. "Would not, could not, oh could not join the dance..."

"The Mocking Turtle's song." Vanitas mumbled in recognition to what that phrase was from as he peered to the side to see the statue of said fictional character weeping rivers of tears. He was going to say something else, but felt something coming from the distance and looked towards the source…. Only to find nothing.

'Must've been my imagination.' He thought as he saw Batman call the GCPD on what has just occurred.

If Vanitas kept looking at the previous spot, he would've seen a dark portal form from the darkness as a figure stepped out. Something seemed rather mysterious about this person as he gazed onto the scene inside of the card like maze. With what little light there was in the park, one would've seen more details of the individual, but all one could've seen was what the person was wearing.

Said attire was a full length black coat with a hood covering up the person's head entirely with a waist-high slit riding up the back to be similar to a duster. There was a large silver zipper that fastened at the top and zips down to seal the coat. It has silver drawstrings for the hood decorated with a large silver bead hanging from the end and a silver chain ornament adorned with four large cylindrical silver beads that fastens to a loop on either side of the collarbone region. Everything else that could've been visible was covered up by leather gloves and black boots and pants.

The figure did nothing at all as he stood on top of a tree branch before several cards slipped out of his sleeve and into his hand. He started to play a little card trick with them before tossing the cards into the air. Said objects soon enlarged themselves and encircled the mysterious figure in a slow pace.

" **Let the games begin."** Was all the man said in a whisper ss the cards soon dispersed themselves to show the man was gone.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **With the bit dealing on the last chapter of having it set on April Fools Day, I have a timeline set after a lot of fixing and whatnot. I didn't want to wait till April Fools Day to release the chapter since I wanted to get onto having Joker get sent to Arkham and whatnot. I have a plan guys so bare with me on that. Also from what I have done for the story so far was actually flowing well on dates and whatnot because of a lot of research I had to do to make things work with some slight tweaking here and there.**

 **With the last chapter, yes it would seem odd for most people like Naruto not fighting the Joker. Well I do have plans on them confronting and whatnot so there's that.**

 **Also I keep being told on the whole chakra echo thing. Yes I know about the concept and I'm using it, but I want Naruto to eventually learn about it on his own with the whole elemental stuff with his weapons. So please don't remind me.**

 **With progress for coming chapters, it'll be a bit slow for a while since I'm going to be playing Mass Effect Andromeda, which is coming out this week. Big fan of the series and can't wait to see how the gameplay and story turns out.**

 **One more thing to add in before signing off. Found out that the DCAU has turned 25 this year.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	21. Pick a Card Any Card

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 20: Pick a Card. Any Card.**

Things have been rather quiet over at Arkham as of late... Well as how quiet it normally is for such a place. With actual patients with unsound minds screaming out at random times or the usual commotion that goes on with some of Gotham's super villains inmates. So nothing much could be said entirely….

But whenever the Joker came back into Arkham, things tend to go off around the crazed clown.

Some doctors, security officers, and staff would try and be on their guard for whatever the man would possibly do something at a moment's notice. It is hard to tell at times with his unpredictable mind and behavior, but many of the employees there try to adjust to things around him.

As for inmates, it can be iffy at times with the clown that they are just too used to him or something else. Like trying to appease to the man so things could possibly work well in their favor with the clown on a later date. Either that or just keeping their distances with a ten foot pole for good measure.

It can be odd really on how things go over there, but what can do you.

That's practically what Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy thinks about the whole situation with her experience in the asylum. 'They' would either try to get used to the Joker or just stay away from the creepy clown since the man is too unsettling for 'them'. Not only that, but 'they' don't want the man to get close in her 'social circle' and fuck things over.

Ever since 'they' had been admitted into Arkham, there was so much 'they' could do on 'their' hobbies of gardening and reading to the point of getting bored with them for a time. So 'they' needed to at least have some people to interact with until 'they' properly got out of this place. 'They' do enjoy having Naruto and Selina coming over for their usual chats so that helps a little. But asides from them, the changed botanist had to force 'themselves' to mingle amongst other inmates and staff members.

Dr. Harleen Quinzel, or Harley as she prefers being called by friends, was the first person 'they' befriended and gotten close to since being admitted here. Their friendship was sealed that after the mistake on Harley and Naruto talking about 'their' mother's death, Harley had to tell the botanist a really dark secret and it's hard to not be swayed by such a story. So after that little incident, things have gone rather well between the two.

But with 'their' friendship with the blonde intern, had made things rather protective ever since hearing what occurred in the first Joker session. Even more so when hearing from Harley that the Joker somehow got out of his cell and placed a rose inside of her office with a little note. It was rather unsettling even after Harley confronted the man first before telling the doctors and staff about it. It seems that the Joker took a liking with the blonde intern and even called her Harleyquinn after the spirit of fun and frivolity. It was odd for the botanist to hear that, but after taking out certain letters and fixing things a little that it would make it sound that way.

Hearing all of this made 'them' want to kill the clown, but 'they' were better than that since 'they' wanted Naruto to see 'them' in a better light. So 'they' had to keep the urge buried away and just be fueled for 'their' imaginations of giant venus fly traps tearing apart and devouring the crazed clown. It actually helped her sleep well at night at times….

'Yeah…. Shouldn't be watching Little Shop of Horrors anymore.' Pam thought while thinking things over in the recreational room in the asylum.

' **Oh come on sis, it's a classic and it gave 'us' some good ideas on how to punish those against nature.'** Ivy thought with a little whiny tone.

'I know, but should be thinking of other things or at least do something.' Pam mentally replied back as she walked over to the TV and changed it to the gardening channel before sitting onto the nearby couch.

' **Ugh…. I'm so bored.'** The darker sister groaned out as the start of their show came on. **'I just want 'our' king to take 'us' home now and give us some good loving.'**

'Same here, but 'we' did end up signing on for a five month stay and 'our' time here is almost up.'

' **True.'** Was all Ivy simply said before their focus was mostly towards the gardening show. Every few minutes or so, the 'two' would drift their eyes onto the other people in the room. With some of the activities that went on, 'they' could see some little humor or very little interest in what is going on with said activities. Like with Jonathan Crane and Jervis Tetch playing a game of chess or Harvey 'Two Face' playing cards with Victor Zsasz, Magpie and a few other unnamed inmates. 'They' had interacted with some of these people and thought of basic information from what she got from some of them.

Victor Zsasz is a bald serial killer with the majority of his skin covered up with cloth because of his odd mentality of cutting himself. He wasn't always just a serial killer, but before being a crazed killer he used to be the main hitman for Carmine Falcone. No one knows how the man went from hitman to serial killer, but they didn't want to know exactly. All that the staff knows was that every time he killed someone, he would leave a line on his skin. But if he gets cut on accident or by someone else, then he needs to kill someone in the process. Luckily the Batman stopped the man several weeks after the botanist got admitted into the place.

Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka the Scarecrow, was once a medical professor at Gotham University but was fired for his inhumane experiments dealing with fear. After getting fired, he swore revenge against the university by trying to get it closed down or mainly focused on the faculty board that ruined his career. He adopted the Scarecrow persona and used his fear gas to cause panic. The Batman stopped him and got him in Arkham, but he escaped sometime before the botanist came into the place. Of course he was stopped again by the same man when he was trying to do taint the city's water supply with his concoction.

Magpie was an odd woman that seemed to put the botanist on edge. She was practically borderline crazy and obsessed with anything shiny. Margaret Sorrow was originally a kleptomaniac but got experimented on with her mind fucked over several times over. The botanist did sympathise with the woman, but was creeped out on with her some weeks later. It's just that she is no longer just obsessed with shiny things, but is also obsessed with Vanitas. Even to the point of screaming his name out in the women's ward while fucking masterbating.

Yeah…. She was that kind of woman. Even bleeding down there due to her sharp as hell nails. Got even more annoying when Magpie tried to get into the botanist's personal space and asking about Vanitas due to her seeing the two leave and coming back on April Fools Day. Being all territorial and whatnot claiming that Vanitas was all hers and no one else's.

The only person she recognized more and felt rather good on seeing was Harvey, despite the circumstances. 'They' sought the former DA out to at least still be good friends due to them being friends with Naruto. It was rather good on their interactions, but it was hard at times when dealing with Harvey's darker half. But at least things were mutual between the two inmates.

Then there was Dr. Jervis Tetch, aka the Mad Hatter as the newest addition to the asylum. All that she knows about the man was that he tried to mind control several people so he could get his co-worker to love him. Other than that, the former Wayne scientist was brought in recently by both Vanitas and Batman. 'They' tried to interact with the man, but he kept preoccupying himself with arts and crafts along with trying to get revenge on the two heroes.

So after going over the brief thoughts on those inmates, the botanist placed all of 'their' attention on the gardening show.

" _...So be sure the bulbs are placed far apart from each other for proper root growth."_ The woman on the gardening channel lectured with Pam watching to ease her boredom. _"Also don't forget to give the seedling's plenty of sunlight. Both will help nourish these little darlings into good health. So just add enough water and-"_ *Click*

" **Hey! I was watching that!"** Ivy yelled out towards the person who did the act. Only to realize that it was the Joker who did the deed. With her slight anger at the moment, helped hide Pam's worry at the man's sudden appearance.

"Well now you're watching my program toots." Joker said with his widened smile as always.

" _Next, we will show a dog drinking water out of his owner's mouth."_ The man on the TV said with the audience laughing.

"Change it back now Joker!"

"Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. I don't want to~"

" **Guard!"** Ivy yelled out towards one of the security guards placed in the rec room. The nearest one responded and walked over to the changed botanist.

"What's the problem ma'am?"

"Oh don't look now sunny Jim, but the plant lady has gone wackers again." The Joker said with an ever present smile that made Ivy glare at him more.

" **But he started it."** Ivy stated. **"I was only sitting here and watching my show till he changed it."**

"Oh that's right. You always blame me for everything."

" **Well I got the right since you've been stealing all of my tatertots during breakfast for the past few weeks. Not only that but you keep harassing Dr. Quinzel whenever you're not in a session with her."**

The man's only response was quickly clasping the botanist's hand and bringing it closer to him in a sickening sweet fashion. "And the children wonder why we fight."

" **Don't you dare touch me you crazy clown!"** She growled out as she ripped her hand out of his grasp.

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"Okay, okay you two. You guys watch this show quietly or else you both end up in your cells." The security guard said as he went over to the TV and switched to a random channel.

"Yahol." Was all the Joker said in a sailor like accent. Soon both men turned their eyes towards Ivy for her response.

" **I don't care.** "

As the guard left the two, the clown scooted over awfully closely towards Ivy before speaking to her. "You hold my hand and I'll slug you one. Heh Heh."

" **Guard!"**

"Woah, just kidding. Just kidding." He said as he tried to quiet her down. "Sheesh, lighten up will you?"

" **Not in your dreams clown."**

" _This is Summer Gleeson live from Gotham Palisades Boardwalk, where it's opening night for millionaire Cameron Kaiser's latest show flix resort. Total price for this mecha is nearly three hundred million dollars. So Mr. Kaiser, what do you have to say for yourself?" Summer said as the camera focused more towards said billionaire._

" _It's true Summer. I've set out to create the most opulent gambling resort in the world. After all, what's a few million here and there as long as my guests are happy."_

'I would hardly say that.' The botanist thought as she and her 'sister' glared at the billionaire with distaste of doing such a thing on a nice piece of land outside of Gotham.

" _Well Gotham's elite has shown up in style this evening." Summer said before the camera followed her towards one of the attendees of the event. "Bruce Wayne, mind telling us the top secret theme for Mr. Kaiser's casino."_

" _Well my guess is as good as your Summer." The billionaire 'playboy' said with his date wrapped around his arm._

'Wait… Isn't that…' Pam thought as she and Ivy saw Naruto in the background with Selina in the shot. It would be hard to tell, but 'they' would recognize Naruto's hairstyle anywhere.

' **Seems 'our' beloved brought Selina along to the event.'**

'I think it's not just her.' Pam said to her 'sister' as her eyes focused on the other person with Naruto.

' **Wait… Is that...?'**

'Yup. It's Harley.' She thought in confirmation of seeing the blonde intern near the couple. 'Naruto must've brought her along.'

'' **We' should ask them on the reason when 'we' see them next.'**

'Definitely.' Pam finally thought before the sounds of clapping filled the sounds coming from the TV set.

" _Ladies and Gentlemen, the wait is over." Kaiser said as he held a giant pair of scissors to cut the ceremonial ribbon for the big reveal. Once cutting the ribbon, he grabbed ahold of it and started pulling it down to reveal the theme of the establishment. "I officially welcome you all to… Joker's Wild."_

" _ **S**_ _a_ _ **y**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t?**_ /Say what?" Pamela and Joker said at the same time on what they were seeing. It was quite a sight to behold with not knowing how to fully respond to that. With what both individuals, and people at the sight, were seeing was a large pillar with a laughing effigy of Joker's head on top. In the background for the building, various neon lights were blinking on and off in display for various card and Joker themes.

" _Oh dear god, that's disgusting." Summer muttered loud enough for the camera to pick up on that._

" _Psst, Summer… We're still on the air." The cameraman said to his co-worker making the reporter look back from the sight before her._

" _Oh, right. Well there you have it folks. Kaiser's new casino theme. Let's hear what some guest have to say about this." Summer said as she went back to Bruce Wayne. "What do you think about this?"_

" _...No comment." Bruce said as he walked away with his date for the evening._

" _Well that was odd." Summer muttered lowly before turning her attention to the owner of the establishment. "Mr. Kaiser. Why build a casino in honor of one of history's notorious outlaws."_

" _Summer please. My Joker is a classic symbol associated with cards and games. So I can't help that it holds a passing resemblance to a nutty fruitcake."_

Nothing else was said from the TV set due to a small potted plant being thrown towards the screen, resulting with the equipment getting destroyed in the process. The sudden impact on the device sounded off throughout the room causing everyone to look towards the source. Though it wasn't that much of a surprise on who it was exactly.

"How dare that smug, pleading fool try to catch on my image!" The clown growled out with red hot anger running through his eyes.

" **I suggest you lighten up Joker."** Ivy stated with a smug look on her face as she and Pam thought the sight was quite entertaining, along with everyone else in the room.

The response she got through got the man closer to her face with a snarl. "Don't get cute with me Red." Joker said to her as he pulled away before pacing around the rec room. "He's ripping me off. I'll sue, protest and then I'll carve out his chest to rip out his lungs."

"Okay I think that's enough Joker." The one security guard said as he tried to calm the inmate down. The pale clown calmed down somewhat, only to fakely groan out in pain while holding onto his side.

*Groaning* "Oh god, I feel dizzy… and my side is killing me." The inmate said before grabbing the security guard's shirt. "Everything seems to be spinning. *Groan* I need a doctor."

*Sigh* "Alright… let's get you to see the doctor." The guard said as he hauled the pale inmate towards the exit of the rec room.

" **Oh Joker."** Ivy said getting the man to turn around towards her. **"Thanks for the smile."**

The Joker's eye started to twitch at that, but he had to keep up his act for what he has in mind.

It didn't take long for the guard to get the 'sick' Joker into the medical area of the asylum. Once inside, he laid the inmate down on the medical bed before speaking to the man. "You just wait right here while I go get one of the doctors to do a check up on you."

As the man left, the Joker had let out a quiet chuckle before it got a little louder. It seemed that his little plan worked, but he'll need to tread carefully to escape the place. Once peaking out of the doorway, he looked around for any sign of guards coming his way but there seems to be done.

*Chuckles* "Sucker." The clown said with a bedpan on hand as he carefully walked through the corridors for his escape. Unbeknownst to him, he was seen by the same guard as before with a smile on his face.

"I know you are, but what am I?" The guard muttered before pulling out his phone and dialed the number in mind. After waiting for a few rings, he spoke into it. "The guy's gonna head your way Kaiser. I hope you already transferred the money to my account…."

Things were going well on navigating through the corridors and nothing was going to be in his way for his escape. There was a few guards that were coming in close, but the Joker went around and quickly knocked them out with his trusty bedpan. Once he made it towards the exit, he opened the door before breathing in the fresh air.

*BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE*

"Oh… Right." Joker said as he facepalmed. "Forgot about the alarms….. Eh~."

As the alarms went off throughout the facility, the now escaped inmate ran across the grounds towards the chain linked, barb wired fence before pulling out a long trail of handkerchiefs from his pocket and tied it around a large rock on the ground. Just as he secured his escape plan, the Joker saw an oncoming truck coming by the asylum.

"Very convenient. Heh Heh Heh." The pale clown stated before throwing the tied up rock over the fence and towards the truck. It was successful in getting it hooked before the escaped inmate was sent flying. Sure his pants got caught on the barb wire, leaving a tear into the article of clothing, but it didn't matter as the Joker was now out of the asylum.

"WEEEEEE! This is so fun!" He said as he pulled onto his makeshift rope and planted his feet onto the roof of the vehicle. Didn't take long to reach the front of the truck before pulling out the driver out of the vehicle. Once securely inside, he drove off not seeing if the one driver was dead or alive.

"Now to treat Cameron Kaiser to a real blowout opening! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

 _ **-Joker's Wild, Naruto's Hotel Room-**_

"You know," Naruto said towards the two women present in the room, "I would be lying if I said that this room seemed comfy."

"I agree with you on that." Selina muttered as she looked around to see the various Joker themed decorations around the room. It was rather unsettling with those eyes seemingly staring right through your soul.

"I think I've seen worse." Harley said as she placed her suitcase on one of the beds to claim as hers for the night. Her simple statement got odd looks from her two friends causing the blonde intern to roll her eyes a little. "I have an estranged relative who has her entire interior walls painted pink with cat decorations everywhere. Even met someone back in college that had his apartment decorated in Christmas all year round."

"Your relative seems alright with her style." The ravenette said as she walked into the restroom.

"You would obviously say that Selina with your cat fetish, but you'll change your mind on how strict and mean she is." The intern said as she shuddered at the last time she visited her aunt.

Nothing much was said after that with Selina taking her friend's words for granted on the subject. The environmentalist looked around and envisioned what Harley described her aunt's place and could guess that it would seem too much on the decorations. She is a cat person, but even she has limits on what she would keep that is feline themed. Reason why she only has Isis as her pet.

With shaking off that thought, Selina thought back on why the three of them were here in the first place.

It was earlier that week when Naruto had gotten an invitation from Cameron Kaiser in the mail for the unveiling of the new casino. He was going to decline on going, but he had nothing else going on that day so he decided to attend. It also came with the option that he could bring up to two additional people in his party. There was no second thought that Naruto had invited his second girlfriend, but he ended up inviting Harley as well.

In his reasoning, Harley had been working very hard ever since the Joker became her patient. So the publisher got the idea of wanting to get her out of the asylum for the weekend. The intern wanted to refuse, but after one very good compelling argument Harley reluctantly complied and joined the couple for the weekend.

So here they are all dressed up and going to have some fun in the process. Naruto was wearing a charcoal grey suit to help compliment his semi long hair and pop out his hazel eyes. With Selina, she was wearing one of her long black dresses that reached her ankles with some jewelry to complement her attire. As for Harley, she wore a red strapped dress that reached past her knees with no jewelry present on her.

It was quite interesting to see Harley in the dress, especially with her hair out of the bun to see some of the natural curls come out from it to frame her face. As a result, Naruto couldn't help but blush when seeing her looking like that. Of course he had to shake the thoughts out of his head, but he did compliment her when he and Selina picked her up. It was rather cute for Selina to see her blonde friend blush as well on the complement.

"I'm sorry that you had to end up seeing the Joker's face during this weekend Harley." Naruto said in an apologetic tone as he was raiding the mini-fridge for some snacks. "Or at least any reference to his ugly mug. I was hoping that you would be out of that mess for the time being."

"It's alright Naruto and there's no harm done at all since from what everyone's reactions were, they weren't expecting Kaiser to have his casino in this kind of theme."

The publisher nodded at this as he handed Harley a water bottle on her bed before sitting next to her. "So speaking of the Joker, how's sessions with him coming along?"

*Sigh* "It's been quite shaky ever since I supposedly got his interests and my mini scare of finding the rose in my office." She said before taking a swig out of the water bottle.

"Yeah you told me about that and I'm surprised that he somehow got out of his cell to do that."

"Well given the history of his various breakouts, I eventually realized that he would've done that often to other doctors working there."

"But still though, how were your sessions?"

It took a few moments on a thinking process before the intern spoke. "With how the sessions have gone, I can pretty much tell you how one of my earlier ones went…."

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _...Is the patient ready?"_

" _Inside, handcuffed and all yours Dr. Quinzel." One of the guards said as he pulled out his keys to unlock the door._

" _Thank you." Harley said as the door opened to show the Joker with his ever present grin on his face._

" _Ahh…. Dr. Quinzel~. Good morning and what a beautiful day it is." The pale clown said to the intern. "Not that they've let me see daylight all that often, of course."_

" _Well I've got some questions to ask you Mr. Joker and then we'll be on our way." The blonde said as she walked towards her chair with Joker's file on hand with some pen and paper. "Now first question: When things go wrong in your life, for example, experiencing rejection… do you do things to hurt yourself?"_

 _The clown tilted his head a little at the question and adopted a thinking pose as he answered. "Are you talking about a suicidal behavior doctor? If you are, then you really haven't been doing your homework. My destructive tendencies are to lash outward. I like myself way too much to do myself any physical harm."_

" _I see…. So when you're under stress, do you feel like you lose touch with your environment or with yourself?"_

 _When hearing this, the inmate let out a mocking gasp at her. "Are you asking if I touch myself?"_

" _You know I'm not Mr. Joker so please answer the question."_

" _Dissociative symptoms? Or are you searching to see if paranoia is my schitch? So what's next, asking me about abandonment?" He said with a little chuckle. "Does anyone really like rejection of any kind?"_

" _I would think not?"_

" _Well I would never reject you."_

 _Ignoring his last statement with the idea that he wants to control her at some point, she moved onto the next question. "So what do you do when you get angry? Do you tend to hold it inside, or let it out, so others know what you're feeling?"_

" _Hah. Another obvious question given my history, but okay then…. I'll play ball." The Joker said as he leaned forward with his chin resting on his hands. "I have textbook borderline personality disorder, which tends to make me express rage in a very dramatic way. Some would even say theatrical. So I like to think of it as an expression of my…. Creative nature."_

" _I see."_

" _So doctor," the inmate said as he readjusted himself in his seat, "can we skip ahead your screening questions to relationship stability?"_

" _If you would please answer only the questions asked."_

" _Oh I can save you time and tell you yes, my relationships tend to be stormy with lots of ups and downs, but the best part of that is unbridled passion and commitment that comes with it."_

 _Knowing that things were either going nowhere or getting into very personal territory with how she was feeling inside, she spoke out. "Guard. This session is over now. So please open the door."_

" _But doc," he said in a whiny tone, "I'm a Maserati stuck on a 35 mile per hour highway. The worst part of being me is noticing it in someone else and not helping them see it clearly."_

 _Once the door opened up with the guard ushering out, the Joker still called out to her. "You know I'm right doctor. So think about on what I've said. I'm a very patient man and I can wait 'til you come around."_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"...So from what I could tell after that session was that the man was trying to flirt with me or something in that nature while trying to redirect the attention towards me." Harley said as she finished up the rest of her water bottle to quench her dry mouth. "Trying to possibly make it seem intimate or something from what I figure."

"Then again you have also told me that he messes around with other doctors that try to deconstruct him."

"All so very true Naruto..."

More was going to be said as the door to the restroom opened up with Selina present and seemed ready to go. She was going to speak out, but saw Naruto and Harley sitting rather close with each other. So with a cheshire like grin, she spoke. "Seems that you two are getting rather chummy together."

Wondering what she meant, the publisher and intern looked back at each other and saw their sides were rather close to each other. Not only that but their closest hand seemed to be grasping each other gently without showing any real sign they were prior. When realizing all of that, the two blushed slightly and separated before trying to calm themselves down.

Selina got a laugh out of that before she told the two to come along now since it's probably time to have some fun at the casino. She didn't wait for their response as she headed out of the door with the other two following after her. Both wanted to say something on what went on earlier, but nothing came out. Only the thoughts of the two being close at that moment and a feeling both are wondering about.

 _ **-Kaiser's Office-**_

Inside of the darkened office, a shadowy figure seemed to be present inside of the empty room. As the person walked around the office, light was shined on through to briefly reveal the costumed figure of the Batman. It was pretty easy for the costumed 'playboy' to get inside of Kaiser's office with him scaling the outside of the building.

Now one might wonder why Batman was inside of the billionaire's office in the first place. Well after the big reveal of Cameron's casino, Bruce knew that something was completely off about the place…. Asides from the creepy faces of Joker plastered everywhere. He originally wanted to investigate right away, but he didn't have his Batsuit on him for the evening. So after one quick phone call, Alfred came on over with his other suit before making an excuse on why he had to end his date with an attractive redhead.

He would've brought over Bethanie Ravencroft, who he had started to date for some time now, but the psychologist had a conference to attend to out of town. From what Bruce had known so far about the blonde was that she was quite fascinating to the billionaire. But something about her seems off somehow, but he doesn't know what exactly. Of course one little factor could be about her insisting him to join the Argus Club, an old Gotham club that's been around for years apparently.

It would help explain on what the key he found inside of her desk was about since it must've been a membership item of sorts.

So every time Bethanie invites him to a meeting, Bruce would turn her down with him already being apart of other Gotham clubs along with him being busy with work. She relents on this, but tends to come back on the subject every so often. Hell she even tried to offer Naruto to come along one time, but he outright refused due to him having a full plate of things he has to completely focus on.

Sometimes Bruce wonders on what Naruto has to deal with on his friend's end, but he tries to not dig deep into his friend's personal life.

So getting back to the matter at hand, Batman was searching the room for any clues that he could gather with his 'detective vision'. Nothing was showing up so far until he went closer towards Cameron's desk, where a scale model of the casino was nearby. Batman didn't get much of a good look from the outside of the building at first, but now he was able to with the sight before him of the medieval themed building.

Once inspecting the model more, he saw that the Joker tower in the front seemed a little loose. So he slightly grabbed it and pulled to reveal the a designed tower with it labeled 'Camelot'. With the name brought up, it would at least explain some of the decorations in his hotel room especially once he looked beneath some of the wall paper.

After putting back the Joker tower covering to not show that he messed up anything, Batman went towards the owner's desk to investigate further. It took a bit to pick the locks for one of the drawers, but he was successful to show the various files present. So with some patience, he was able to see what he was possibly looking for.

"Hmm… Looks like Kaiser broke the bank on this place." Batman softly said as he looked through the various documents. From the construction bills, the insurance statements and even one consisting with the Joker. "Seems you've got quite the hobby Cameron."

With seeing everything he needs, he closed back up the drawer and made sure it was securely locked so that the casino owner won't know he picked the lock. Once looking around the room one more time to see if he missed anything, he left through the skylight above before closing it back up. He does need to head back to the casino to sell off his alibi so no one would suspect a thing.

 _ **-Casino Floor-**_

"...Damn Naruto," Selina said as she stared at her boyfriend with slightly widened eyes, "you weren't kidding when you said that you have a 'fox's luck' in terms with gambling."

"And you said that my luck streak would run out." Naruto said with a chuckle as he got another win from the craps table.

Once on the gambling floor, the three decided to stick together and see on how things would go well on their wins and losses. Harley didn't play at first since she couldn't afford to play any at the time, so she was fine with just watching Selina and Naruto go at it. Selena had won a small amount on the few times on the roulette and craps tables, but lost a good amount of money. She was rather stubborn on that and wanted to try and win it back. Though with Naruto, he seemed to be a different story….

"I find that really improbable on how you're able to win so many times in a row." Harley muttered as she looked at the two and a half buckets worth of chips. "You should not be winning that many times without losing at least once."

"Well it never has failed me before and it was how I was able to get the money needed to start up my company."

"But still though, how the hell does that work?" Asked the ravenette as they made it to the roulette table.

"Don't know for sure Selina, practically had that type of luck when I first gambled at a casino when I was barely a teenager."

Hearing that tidbit got the two women to look at him with odd looks and couldn't help but voice their thoughts on the fact.

"You were allowed into a casino?"

"At that age?"

"Well not intentionally mind you." Naruto said as he tossed the dice again and got another win out of it. "I was helping out this old perverted toad I knew track down an old friend of his for some stuff with family and whatnot. We ended up at a small time casino where she was supposedly last at and the old toad took too long on a meeting. So with a coin I found on the floor, I went to the slots and on the first run I won the jackpot. *Chuckles* That was really fun and I had to hid the money from the old toad so he wouldn't take it."

"But wouldn't you not be able to take the winnings with you when you cashed it at that age?" Selina asked since she had tried that when at that age on her own and she wasn't able to at all with rules and whatnot.

All that she got as a shrug before speaking again. "I had to lie a little on getting the money at the time, that and the person on the cashing area was a bit of a convincing idiot. So after getting that settled I tried it again at a later time with some of those scratch and win games. Same result happened once I left Japan since I needed travel money at the time."

Feeling satisfied with the answer, the two women soon watched Naruto collect the last of his winnings from the craps table before he ushered the two to follow him. Once they were at a good opened enough area on the casino floor, he handed each of them a bucket full of chips. "Hope you enjoy this you two."

The two adopted dumbfounded looks at this action and they didn't know what to say.

"Not that I'm complaining of you giving me this Naruto, but why?" Selina asked while also voicing Harley's thoughts on the matter.

"Well for one, I wanted to give you two a gift of being my friends along with things going well between us so far. The second was that I have a feeling you two need some help in the financially department with your work Selina and to help you a little on bills Harley." Naruto said before he saw Harley give him an odd look. "Oh don't give me that Harley. I could tell that with your internship that you would have a hard time paying things on your end. So please accept the winnings and let it help you out for who knows how long."

Harley wanted to relent on this, but he did bring up a little good point. With her internship, she is barely making ends meat and sometimes tries to get more hours at the asylum to take care of things. Once swallowing her pride, she accepted the winnings with a small smile.

"Alright Naruto, I'll take them. But this doesn't mean the end for me for the evening."

"How so?"

"Since I have money to play around with now, I'll cash most of this in and either hit the slots or do something else to keep me entertained." The blonde said before she went off to her own devices with an odd look to her eyes.

"I'll probably tag along with her and make sure she doesn't do something too crazy." The ravenette muttered as she noticed that look in Harley's gaze. Before following after her friend, Selina placed a kiss on Naruto's lips."Don't wait up on us Naruto."

"I won't honey." He said with a smile before kissing her again. "You two have fun."

"So what are you going to do until then?"

"Going to win more money and deposit it into Pam's account. She's been out of work for months and I want to help her out on that bit."

*Chuckles* "Sweet as ever." His second girlfriend said before she went to find Harley and have some more fun on their own.

When Selina was out of his view, Naruto went on to search for good tables for him to win more money for the evening. He scanned the various tables to see if either of them were hot or cold at the moment. The publisher knew that he shouldn't play on a certain table for too long or else things might get messy. Naruto planned on playing a good handful of hands of blackjack on each table before moving onto something else.

As he was doing all of this, part of his mind drifted back of what happened several days ago when things had seemed to die down. With nothing else to do at the time, the former shinobi decided that it was time to chat with Yggdrasil and get things cleared up. At the time, he needed to know what was fully going on and what were those things he was fighting against in that botanical garden tree's heart.

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _So…. Will you finally tell me what is going on Yggdrasil?" Naruto asked as he was back on Pam's heart platform. "I've waited long enough and I want answers."_

" _ **I understand young sapling."**_ _The ancient tree spoke with his glowing silhouette in front._ _ **"What would you like to discuss first?"**_

" _One that has on my mind the longest has been why Pam became barren and no longer able to give birth to infants for starters."_

 _*Sigh*_ _ **"Figured you would have that brought up first."**_

" _So what's the deal with that Yggdrasil?"_

" _ **To simply put it Naruto Uzumaki, she's no longer a human being."**_ _Yggdrasil said before holding out his spectral hand to pause the former shinobi._ _ **"Now before you go 'off the rails' as they say, you need to realize that the process of making her a champion of the Green ends up making her more plant than human. Sure there's the whole thing of labeling her as a meta-human, but of her losing a lot of her connection to the Red would make the 'baby process' not go all that well."**_

" _That's the other thing that I'm wondering about as well." Naruto said as these color groups seem to be coming up and making him confused. "I know from brief information that the Parliament of Trees work with the Green for plant life, but what's up with the Parliament of Limbs, the Red, the Grey and whatnot? You only said little about them and I would like to know more on them before coming back to Pam's situation."_

" _ **Well that would make things better on explaining if we had the topic on your mate brought in later."**_ _The ancient tree said in a tone that made Naruto think the spectral form was rolling it's eyes._ _ **"Now to start things off, there are six groups in total that deal with nature as a whole: the Green, the Red, the Clear, the White, the Grey, and the Black.**_

 _ **With the Green, we the Parliament of Trees help govern how plant life should go throughout the world and do what we can to save all flora. With our champions, who die from fire and merge with the earth, are reborn again as a plant elemental being no longer associated with the Red. Though with how on the cases of Alec Holland and Pamela Isley the formula they made made up the earth portion of the requirement.**_

 _ **With the Red, the Parliament of Limbs govern all animal life and have been the Green's greatest ally to help maintain balance on the planet. With their champions, or totems as that Parliament prefers them being called, fight for all animal life on a global scale. With humans, they are categorized as animals in the eyes of all of the Parliaments. With their Totems, being one sometimes requires a deeper connection to the Red than from normal beings like having a trinket gifted from the Parliament or a magical/genetically changed beast for example.**_

 _ **With the Clear or sometimes called the Blue, the Parliament of Waves helps connect and pervades all aquatic/marine life and oceanic themed elements throughout the universe. Their champions can communicate with aquatic/marine life as a whole and can be able to have hydrokinetic abilities. Though with their champions have mostly come from a certain bloodline on this planet, others have been made by turning them into water like forms.**_

 _ **With the White, the Parliament of Air deals with the various atmospheres of a planet and the very air that many lives need to have in order to survive. Their champions usually involve beings that have become apart of the very wind and air itself. A usual trait on how this is shown is with the being having aerokinetic abilities to help manipulate the air around them.**_

 _ **With the Grey, we have discovered that they have no Parliament at all, it's just a collective fungal consciousness. It has the drive and ambition to spread, consume and break down all life. You have encountered some of its forces back in that tree's heart with their fungal like appearances.**_

 _ **With the Black or sometimes called the Rot, the Parliament of Decay strongly associates with Death in order to rot and decay all living things. Many of it's forces deals with the dead itself that is sometimes hard to handle when unprepared. Though you have done well against one of their dark beasts, a monstrous form of decay, while protecting the one tree's heart. As for their champions, they are similar to the Clear in terms of a bloodline but others have been made by reanimating and bringing back life to the dead.**_

 _ **In terms of how the alliances go; the Green, Red and Clear are in an alliance. The White is neutral while both the Grey and Black work together due to how well they operate with each other. This is pretty much the infrastructure of the 'Cold War' we have within the forces of Nature"**_ _Explained the ancient tree getting the former shinobi to nod in response._

 _As all that was said and done, Naruto had to take a few minutes to collect and process all of this information. It at least gave him a label on each of the groups that dealt with nature as a whole. So asides from that, there was still more for Naruto to learn but that would involve a deeper discussion and the publisher only wanted a generalization one on the groups so far._

" _Well thanks for letting me know on all of that Yggdrasil, but there's still leaves things on Pam's birth conditions and on why the Grey and the Black seemed in wanting to target that one tree at Gotham's Botanical Garden."_

 _The vocal answer wasn't immediate as the glowing form held out it's hand and a green outline of the planet was formed before it expanded. Soon various lines started to spread all around with several ones overlapping each other. Once this was done, the ancient tree then spoke._ _ **"As you remember, that particular tree has been on the planet since before the birth of man. The reason for why it has been around for so long is because several of it's roots have tapped into a nexus of ley lines."**_

" _Ley lines? Like part of the lifelines of the planet that holds a lot of power if one could tap into it?" Naruto questioned as he spoke again. "I remember interacting with one years ago where I originally came from called Roran. Can't remember much details about it, but I know the place was built on top of a very large amount of them."_

" _ **Indeed Naruto Uzumaki."**_ _Yggdrasil said in confirmation._ _ **"Most places around the world have their own nexus made underneath a city or a natural landmark. Sometimes people that are good in finding one would build a city or a landmark on top of the location. Depending on how things go on top of the nexus, things above could be heightened greatly in a positive or negative fashion. For example, the one in your current city..."**_

" _Where all of the crazy seems to come from." The Uzumaki finished off in his own way before rubbing part of his head. *Sigh* "Would explain on how bad this city seems to be I guess."_

" _ **Indeed."**_

" _So I'm guessing the Grey and Black was targeting the tree for it's connection to the nexus then."_

" _ **Normally the two groups wouldn't bother seeking out nexus locations with them being apart of nature as a whole. But due to how special the tree was with it's connection, they decided to try and seize it during that clown's attack to possibly gain more power. And with your interference, it'll take a long time for them to try and take the tree again."**_

 _*Chuckles* "Good to know."_

" _ **Now with that out of the way, I'll explain a bit more on your mate's situation…."**_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"Hehehe! Hahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" A loud laugh rang out throughout the casino floor causing Naruto to snap out of his thoughts and focus towards the source of the laugh. After a short search, the publisher saw a card dealer laugh a bit more as he brought several chips closer to him in a maddening glee.

"Well that guy clearly is taking his job position really well." He said to himself as he remembered some of the dealers and employees at this place had to act like the Joker to some degree. But this guy possibly takes the cake. "Should check that guy out."

As the publisher was getting closer to the source, he saw the dealer blow a raspberry at the several patrons leaving in disgust. It seemed really rude for the man to do such a thing and maybe he could teach the dealer a lesson. So when he got closer to the table, he saw a familiar sight in front of him.

"Mind trying your luck friend?" The dealer asked in a giddy tone with his cheshire like grin towards the man in front of him.

"Sure, why not." The man said as he went to sit down in one of the vacant chairs for the blackjack table.

"Don't mind if I join Bruce?" Naruto said as the man turned around to see his friend coming to the table.

"I don't see why not." The billionaire said with an outward smile while having an internal frown. He was planning on the fly to deal with the 'dealer' to get his suspicions in check alone. But with his friend here could cause some problems to some degree. Didn't know for sure, but who knows at the moment.

"Great."

"Say…. Don't I know you two?" The 'dealer' said as he was shuffling the cards in various ways. With a snap of his fingers, he gained a look of recognition. "Oh that's right, you two are Bruce Wayne and Naruto Uzumaki."

"Yup. How do you do Mr…" "Napier, Jack Napier at your service." The 'dealer' said with his ever present grin towards the publisher before turning his attention towards the dark haired billionaire. "So this is how you're family has made all it's billions. Hehehe."

*Chuckles* "Secret's out."

"Huh… And here I thought I was the only one."

"Oh~!" 'Jack' said as he seemed pretty interested on this little bit.

"I mean, how was I going to start up my business in the first place." The publisher said with a shrug. "Hitting various casinos with my luck helped start it up."

"Well you got to earn one way or another. For me it's just shuffling my life away." The 'dealer' said as he kept doing varying shuffling tricks.

"Too bad it has to be done in such gruesome surroundings."

This statement from the Wayne caused 'Jack' to stop his tricks and gave the man an odd look. "Don't care for the decor?"

"Not hardly."

"Barely on my end." Naruto said in similar agreement with his friend as the 'dealer' was handing out the cards.

"All of those horrible faces grinning at me. It would do things to my mind after a while."

"I know right. *Chuckles* I mean with those soulless eyes with hints of madness seemingly going right through you to try and stare into your soul."

With the two doing the slight conversation, 'Jack's' eye was starting to twitch a little before mumbling a little. "Who says you have one?"

The two friends then picked up their cards and saw of what their chances were going to be like respectively before putting them back down for the usual treatment.

"Well who knows since I might have to go to a laughing academy if I have to stare at that ugly mug all day." Bruce said with a little smirk since this was a fun little opportunity outside of his usual attire to make fun of the crazed clown. But of course he had to try and not make it too much or else it might be unleashed towards his friend.

After hearing this from the Wayne billionaire, the 'dealer' was starting to grind his teeth while narrowing his eyes with some hate. He needed to keep his cool down or else his cover might be blown. Though 'Jack' was going to say something, but the dark haired man said a brief 'hit me' while pushing several stacks of chips towards the center of the table. Once taking some brief silent moments, he met Bruce Wayne's bet before drawing out a card and placed it in front of said man to reveal it to be a 'King'.

"I gotta say Bruce, I could agree on that suggestion but I think that would be a waste honestly."

"Oh~… And why would you say that?"

"From what I guess, anyone that goes to the laughing academy might actually come out a whole lot better joke wise than from that deranged clown." Naruto said as he missed the twitching look coming from the 'dealer'. "Oh and hit me." He said as he met the other's bet.

'Jack' complied as he drew a card from the deck and placed it in front of the publisher to show that it was an 'Ace'.

"I mean the guy can't tell any jokes that are good enough to make the Batman laugh or chuckle at all. Oh and hit me again."

The next card was a '3'.

"Honestly though, the guy might be one of the most brooding men to walk the face of the planet and only a real comedian might make him laugh, but the Joker isn't one at all." Naruto said with a chuckle. "Hit me."

Next one was a 'Queen'.

"Might be the reason behind that attack on April Fools Day, compensating the fact that he personally can't make anyone at all smile on his jokes. Oh and hit me."

There was no response from the 'dealer' as his eyes seemed to be dangerously fixated on the publisher from what was said about him.

"Oh come one Jack. I said hit me." The former shinobi said with a slight whine to his tone.

'Oh how I would enjoy hitting you so much right now.' 'Jack' thought as he wanted to harm the man in front of him, but the person he wanted to focus his anger towards was not him. He could come back to the silver haired man at a later date. But for now, he had to keep his cool. So he drew a card from the deck and placed it down to show that it was another 'Ace'.

"Thanks and I'm good now."

As nothing else was going on, 'Jack' flipped the cards he had in front of him and smiled as he had a 'Queen' and a '10' in front of him for a total of '20'. Of course that smile turned upside down as Bruce and Naruto flipped their cards over to show that in grand total, both had '21' respectively. From Bruce having a '8', a '3' and a 'King' while Naruto had a '5', three 'Aces', a '3' and a '10'.

*Chuckles* "Well ain't that lucky, Bruce and I got '21s'." The publisher said as he gathered his share of the chips on the table and placed them into his bucket, but left one for the 'dealer' as a customary tip. "Well I'm heading off to another table. Have fun."

"Probably doing the same." Bruce said as he gathered his chips and winnings before leaving a tip for 'Jack'. "Have a good night."

Once leaving the table, the two friends had missed the 'dealer' grab onto the tips he was given and crushed them in his hands in a fit of rage.

"Seems that the Joker's really here." Bruce muttered to himself as he headed off to cash in his chips. "Need to come back and apprehend him as quickly as possibly as Batman."

Back with the resident publisher, he was at the cashing area to get his winnings taken care of before finding Harley and Selina. With how much he had gambled for the evening, he figured it was probably time for him to stop as he would just watch his two female companions go at it with whatever they were doing. From what the cashier told him, he made quite a good amount and he'll be depositing the money into Pam's bank account.

Once turning around, he jumped back a little to see a dark figure standing some feet away from him. It was rather odd due to the attire he was wearing being a full length black coat with a hood covering up the person's head entirely with a waist-high slit riding up the back to be similar to a duster. There was a large silver zipper that fastened at the top and zips down to seal the coat. It has silver drawstrings for the hood decorated with a large silver bead hanging from the end and a silver chain ornament adorned with four large cylindrical silver beads that fastens to a loop on either side of the collarbone region. Everything else that could've been visible was covered up by leather gloves and black boots and pants.

Nothing was said from the man and Naruto was going to question him, but several people were walking 'through' the man like he was a ghost. No one was even phased with the man being there like he wasn't there at all. This greatly alarmed the former shinobi as his senses started screaming from him to be weary at the man in front of him.

"W-Who are you?" Asked the Uzumaki.

Nothing was said for a few moments before the man in question uttered something that seemed inaudible, yet it was.

" **I am but a mere shell, wanting to be whole."**

As the man said this, he turned his back towards the publisher and ran away.

"Hey wait!" Naruto called out as he gave chase.

 _ **-Moments Ago with Harley and Selina-**_

"Well this is fun." The blonde intern said in a giddy tone.

"You call this fun Harley?"

"Yeah… Why?"

"Well fun would be winning some hands at a poker table, getting '21' at blackjack, getting your number on roulette or doing well on craps." Selina said as she was sitting next to her friend at the slot machines. "This is not what I call fun."

"That's just because you don't do well on them."

"And you can?"

"It's better than the other gambling games you mentioned." Harley said as she pulled the lever on the machine and ended up getting another set of '7' as a result winning more coins in the end. *Chuckles* "I'm not that great with those games for several reasons."

"Which are what exactly?" Selina asked as she pulled the lever on her machine and only got a set of cherries.

"I suck at bluffing, roulette and craps seem to hate me, and blackjack makes me want to count the cards but that'll get me in trouble." The intern listed off with an eye roll. "But with slots, I sometimes think of it as apart of gymnastics in some sort of way."

"How so?"

"Deals with timing for the most part. Little fun fact I learned from my con-man of a father when he had to look after me one time and he took me to a casino in the process."

"That mustn't have been fun at all. And how old were you when that went on?"

"Like in my preteen years. Can't remember when, but it was in that general area and there was one time a few years back when he wanted to do some father/daughter time." The blonde said with a shrug. "Anyways there's a little trick with most of these machines that the coins need to be inserted in odd timed orders. Even with the new computerized ones we are playing right now need different timings."

"Huh…. Well that's interesting to know." The ravenette muttered as she watched her friend carefully to possibly recognize the timing combination on the one she's doing now. "Must've been an interesting skill to pick up from him."

"Basically the only one that I could think of really, but it tends to put too much risk on things." The Quinzel girl said getting a look from her friend. *Sigh* "With what my dad did as a con-man, practically ruined his marriage. It was not great and it's something that I hope that I didn't pick up from him. Sure I did take risks on my own terms when dealing with school, my gymnastics scholarship and my past relationship. But the later made things really hard to bare, especially now."

"And why would you bring that up now Harley?" The environmentalist asked as she seemed rather worried right now. "Why talk about risk with a relationship?"

The answer wasn't immediate as Harley won yet another set of '7' on the slot machine winning more coins in the process. That was before Harley swung a bit on her seat to put her attention to her friend. "Because lately I don't know if I want to risk ruining my friendship with Naruto. Because I don't know if I want to…to…"

Seeing her reaction, Selina's green eyes widened slightly in realization as her lips gained a small smile in the process. She then brought her friend into a hug to comfort her slightly despite the awkward seating arrangement the two are currently in. It lasted for a little bit, but it seemed well enough to get Harley to know that Selina got the message clearly.

"It's okay to love him Harley and I very much understand on what you're going through right now." The ravenette said as she had her hands grasped around the other's. "When I started having feelings for him, I was confused as well since I didn't know at the time that Pam wanted an open relationship with him. I was very conflicted if I wanted to try and steal him from her, but after knowing a lot about those two made things harder than I thought. So I tried to hold myself off."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming along." The blonde stated as the dark haired woman nodded in response.

"But there were all these things that seemed to click well between us and on how Naruto was able to literally sweep me off my feet. It felt magical on how we danced and when it ended I didn't know what to do exactly. I wanted to confess to him on how I felt later, but he had beaten me to the punch and things went on from there."

All Harley could do was see Selina's eyes slightly glaze over in possible remembrance on how all that happened. It made Harley feel uneasy when hearing all of this as she possibly felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. She knew that she shouldn't feel that way with such a personal experience, but the intern wished she could've been in Selina's position at that time. She was going to say something about it, but the ravenette got out of her little nostalgia to beat her to the punch.

"What I'm trying to say Harley is that if you want to try and risk what you have with Naruto, then go for it. You like him very much and want to see if anything can come well out of it. Hell... I'll help you out as much as I can if you want and Pam practically is backing this up regardless for our happiness with Naruto."

Harley took a bit of time processing this before a small smile graced her face. "...Thanks Selina. I appreciate it."

"No problem Harley." Her friend briefly said as she stood up from her seat and stretched a little. "I don't know about you, but I think I'm done for the evening. We should probably find Naruto and head back to the hotel room."

"Same here."

Once gathering their winnings, they went to cash in their winnings when they heard a familiar voice.

"Sorry! Excuse me! Pardon me!"

"Wait? Is that...?" Selina asked as the two of them turned their heads towards the source to see Naruto weaving through the crowds of people in a quickened pace. They didn't know what was going on, but the environmentalist's trained eye caught a glimpse of his troubled look.

Not wanting to lose sight of him, Selina moved towards her beloved boyfriend's direction to try and keep up in her heeled shoes with her winnings on hand.

"Hey! Wait up Selina!" Harley called out as she followed her friend to see what was going on with her other friend and possible love interest.

 _ **-Joker's Wild Basement, Amusement Area-**_

It took a bit of navigating and quickly moving out of people's way, but the silver haired publisher was able to keep up with the hooded man. Part of his mind was trying to figure out what was going on while another was keeping track on what pathway was being taken so that once this was over, he'll get back to the casino floor better. In the end, Naruto passed through an overhead sign labeled 'Joker's Wild Amusement Area'.

Once he looked around for the man's presence, Naruto noticed that it seemed to be an odd mixture of a child's playground and a traditional theme park rolled into a sub-basement level of the building. The Uzumaki guessed that this area was going to be used to keep a lot of children preoccupied while the parents would have their own fun on the casino floor. He was going to start his searching a bit more when sounds of heels clicking and a voice called out to gain his attention.

"Naruto!" His female companions called out made him pale a little on the current predicament.

"Selina?! Harley?!" He said as he looked towards their direction to see them panting a little with each of them respectively holding their bucket of winnings. "What are you two doing here?!"

"We would like to ask the same thing buster." Harley said as she and Selina walked closer towards him….

Well they would've if a dark plumb of smoke that formed out of the ground didn't get in the way. With how the three people saw it, it was forming a dark portal of some sort with varying blues and purples in the middle of it. Once it dissipated, it revealed the dark hooded man that Naruto was chasing.

"You!" Naruto called out as he stood between the publisher and the girls.

*SNAP*

As the loud snap of his fingers rang out throughout the room, giant versions of Naruto's throwing cards formed out of the ground and encircled his female companions in a rapid succession. Not only that, but a barrier seemed to form around the area to block any form of escape.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts 2.5: The 13th Struggle Extended-**_

"NARUTO!" They yelled out causing the former shinobi to try and reach for them for safety.

*SNAP*

With another snap of the man's fingers, the cards stopped their previous movement and disappeared in a plumb of black and white smoke.

"What have you done to them?!" The Uzumaki yelled as he didn't want his friends involved in this.

" **I'd rather we skip the formalities."** The hooded man said to the publisher as he summoned his Vanitas attire for this fight. **"So I hope you can get your friends back before time runs out."**

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Growled out the publisher.

" **You'll soon find out."** Was all the man said as a plumb of black and white smoke surrounded Naruto. He tried to wave it off, but it seemed impossible for some reason.

"What the hell?!" He cried out as he tried to move but only seemed to fall over. "Why can't I move?!" Part of the answer came out when his eyes caught glimpse of the nearby puddle that seemed to form on the ground. With it bright enough in the room, he saw his reflection in the water to see…

"WHY THE FUCK AM I A THING OF DICE?!" Naruto yelled out but his instincts yelled at him to move as several cards seemed to come at his way at high speeds.

The giant cube with Naruto's masked face was barely able to dodge out of the way as more and more cards went through the air to try and skewer the changed Uzumaki. It was rather exhausting on this task all the while trying to break out of his current bindings. But with all his might and strength, he built up his void power and sent it outward to destroy his temporary imprisonment.

"Damn that was troublesome." He panted out before his eyes caught of something coming his way. "OH SHIT!" Naruto dodged as the hooded man slammed a pair of body sized cards onto the ground to leave deep gashes in it's place.

Naruto summoned several daggers and cards in each of his hands and threw them at the hooded man. Some missed while others penetrated through the giant cards he was holding to keep them in place. The hooded man didn't let up however as he swung the weapons on hand at the masked Uzumaki. Quickly evading the attack, Naruto had summoned Kazekage into his hands before he swung his lance at the weapons with wind added to the mix to slice the weapons in half to dissipate them into smoke.

The man summoned more cards as they rotated through the air before shooting his arm out to send them flying towards the hero. Naruto had to use his lance to slice through some of them while dodging the rest. Using his weapon, he channeled wind throughout his body before running towards the hooded man to slice the man in two. It was successful until his body seemed to dissipate into a variety of cards making the former shinobi narrow his eyes behind his helmet.

"So he can make card clones." Naruto muttered at the display before several exploding cards had hit him from behind. He tried to get back up, but he head a loud snap in the air before several cards were formed above his prone body and encircled around him in quick succession before exploding again to leave him deeper into the floor.

Not wanting to be pelted like that again, Naruto threw his lance high into the air until it lodged itself into the ceiling. Just as the cards were going to explode again above him, Naruto teleported towards his lance just in time to see the ground below him explode while hanging onto his weapon.

"Well I'm getting pissed off." Naruto muttered as he summoned several other Kazekage lances around him before dropping down and slamming his lances at the hooded man. It was unsuccessful on the attack, as the lances were met with several playing cards encircling around the man like planets orbiting the sun in rapid successions before they outwardly expanded to shove Naruto away. The Uzumaki didn't let up however as his lances came together to become a large, connecting pole to make the hero swing it around to penetrate the multi-card barrier and hit the man in the process.

The hooded man stumbled before regaining his composure to attack the publisher once more. He threw more and more cards at his opponent with several going past the lance like barrier to hit Naruto a few times while the rest was phased right through him. This process happened several times, but on the last few ended up knocking the lances circling around the masked Uzumaki out of the air to dissipate them to only leave the two in the hero's hands.

Using his current lances as impromptu elongated escrima sticks, Naruto swung his weapons at the man to keep on hitting the card barriers several times. He had to focus more and more power into his weapons to get more force out of them and slice through said barriers. Once all of the cards were gone, the masked publisher went further on the offensive to smack the hooded man several times before hitting him into the air and slamming him back down onto the earth.

Before landing onto the ground, several large cards appeared and encircled the man to make him seem he disappeared. The cards stayed present as they landed on the floor, but kept on moving throughout the flat surface. It wasn't long before they scattered through several corners of the room.

"Seems I need to play 'Find the Lady'." Naruto muttered as he ran towards each of the cards to possibly find the hooded man. The nearest card seemed to be a mistake as Naruto slashed right through it to end up detonating upon impact. It had hurt like hell making the hero become a bit more cautious when attacking the other cards in the process. So he threw his lances at the other two cards in the room to destroy them in the process with one detonating while the other didn't do a thing at all. He summoned back his two lances before going after the remaining card in the room.

Naruto didn't make it however as said card dissipated in a cloud of smoke before the hooded man shot out with two large cards on hand to meet the intended attack. Each blow was either dodged or parried by each person in the room as they tried to land a blow on their respective opponent, but neither would let up. So at this chance, Naruto focused more wind from his lances to cut through the large cards and was able to slash at the dark man.

After getting hit by the damaging blow, numerous cards came out of thin air and landed face down onto the ground before one of them landed on top of the hooded man. Naruto looked around for where the man might pop out, but it didn't take long for said man to take action. Several cards started moving around before popping out off of the ground with the man holding onto a large card on each hand to hopefully land a hit on the lance wielder.

Naruto already guessed on what was about to happen as he spun around and both lances met the cards to destroy the hooded man's weapons before he went into another face down card. This process happened several times with one instance the man spun around in fast rotations to try and knock the hero back. It worked a few times, but the publisher had hit back more times than he could count and before long all of the cards on the ground were gone.

Naruto had a feeling that things were just about over. So with the last of his strength, he leapt towards the hooded man with Kazekage in hand with a lot of wind channeled around it to make it extra sharp. In response, the hooded man threw out his arm and giant playing cards surrounded him to try and block the attack. But it seemed unsuccessful as Naruto swung his lance with all his might and sliced right through them before ending up a few feet away.

Nothing else happened for a few moments. That was before the large card barrier seemed to move to the side with the barrier seemingly sliced in half in an angle. Once the top half slid off from the bottom, the card barrier dissipated along with the barrier surrounding the exits. Not only that, but whatever damage that was made to the immediate area seemed to repair itself like time rewound the clock.

With the hooded man revealed, he fell onto the ground to finally be defeated. Soon black and white smoke seemed to surround the man making Naruto get back onto his guard if anything seemed fishy from this display. It didn't seem that way as the smoke encircled the man in a rapid pace before it shot towards the masked publisher. He held up his lance and called forth a wind barrier, but it wasn't responding at all.

"What the- GAH!"

He cried out as the black and white smoke slammed right into him with enough force to skid him back a little. Naruto didn't know what was going on; but when the force ceased its action, Kazekage dissipated from his grasps and was replaced by a deck of his throwing cards with a faint glow coming off of them. The publisher didn't know what was happening, but something seemed different from the cards in his hands before they dissipated on their own. He was going to think of something until the sounds of clapping filled the air. This made Naruto turn around to see the same hooded man from before doing the current action.

" **Impressive."** The hooded man said before he ceased his little applause.

"What? But how?" Naruto asked in bewilderment as he looked between the man's current placement with the last. "A clone?"

" **This will be enjoyable."**

"What the hell are you talking about?!" The masked Uzumaki yelled out as he ran towards the hooded man with a void rasengan on hand to slam it onto the darkened man….

Only for him to go right through the man like he made himself intangible for a brief moment, making Naruto end up behind the man in the process.

" **It is beyond your comprehension, for now."** The hooded man said as he turned around to face the masked publisher. **"Until we meet again Naruto Uzumaki."**

With that said a plumb of black smoke came from underneath the hooded man and the same dark portal from before surrounded him.

"Wait! What about my friends?!" Naruto cried out in order to snag the hooded man, but it was all for nought as the dark portal dissipated.

He didn't know what was going on at the moment, but he wanted his companions back from wherever the man took them. Naruto was going to search high and low for them until he heard something behind him. Once turning around, he saw a few giant cards move on their own before dissipating on their own to reveal the wobbling pair of Selina and Harley.

"Oh god." Harley groaned out as she held her head. "What happened?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Selina replied as she mirrored the same action.

'Selina and Harley are alright!' Naruto thought in joy as he dissipated his Vanitas attire before rushing towards them. 'I want to hug the life out of them, but I need to get rid of any memories leading up to getting here.'

Once getting to the two women, he placed his hands on their heads before a faint glow came about to get rid of the intended memories. With the combination of the two coming out of the cards, today's exhaustion and the little memory wipe, the two women passed out in the process. Though it wasn't his intent on doing such a thing, he figured it was the best and he'll figure something out on this scenario.

So with that in mind, Naruto formed a clone to help carry the two women to get back to their hotel room. It took some effort, along with being sure they weren't fully scene, but in time they made it back to the room. Once laying Harley and Selina on each of the beds, Naruto had sent the clone with each of the bucket of winnings to get them cashed out while the real Naruto waited for the two to wake up and think of a good excuse of what happened.

 _ **-Half Hour Later, Kaiser's Office-**_

Things have gone pretty well so far through Cameron's eyes as he viewed the security footage of the Joker planting bombs in the casino's basement where an amusement area was being made. Supposedly several things have happened after getting confirmation that the crazed clown had indeed showed up from hearing the paid guard at Arkham report in just the one time on letting the clown go along with seeing the clown through security footage on the casino floor. So all Cameron had done was let the man be and let him cause havoc.

Which he did by hijacking a Joker themed roadster and went on a joy ride through the casino floor with the Batman trying to stop him. It failed of course as the Joker crashed the vehicle into the pier to make the clown disappear for roughly half an hour before coming back here. Feeling satisfied by all of this, Cameron flipped the switch on his intercom speaker getting someone to answer.

" _Helipad."_

"I would like for my personal copter to be ready in twenty minutes." The casino owner said to his employee on the other end.

" _Yes sir, Mr. Kaiser."_

Once that was said, Cameron turned off his intercom speaker before opening up his briefcase and drawer to gather all important documents he had. Not only that, but also all of the money he had in the room for little emergencies. Just as he was prepared to leave, an object was flung across the room knocking the briefcase down to reveal a batarang wedged deep into the hard covering.

"Going somewhere Kaiser?" Batman said as he appeared from out of nowhere.

"None of your damn business after what you've done to my casino floor with that crazed clown." Cameron said with a growl to keep up the act, but it seemed the hero of Gotham ignored him.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you wanted this place destroyed." The Bat said in an accusing tone.

"After spending $300 million to build it? It's not good business to do such a thing you know."

"Well I've seen the unpaid bills Kaiser." The Dark Knight stated as he took the briefcase from Kaiser's desk and opened it up to reveal the insurance papers inside. "Opening up this place has practically bankrupted you. Reason why you turned your 'Camelot' casino into a target for the Joker. Once he destroyed it, then you'll reap and collect the insurance you placed here."

Seeing as the jig was up, Cameron chuckled a little to himself before addressing the man in front of him. "Well it seems you've hit the Jackpot Batman, but I have too much in stake to stop now."

Without any warning, the casino owner pressed a button on his desk. This caused the floor panel the hero was standing on to give out an intense electrical shock. After several more moments, the Bat fell down to the ground with sparks coming off from his form.

It wasn't long until Cameron called in several of his guards into his office and ordered them to put the Bat into the elevator and send him to the basement below to join the Joker.

 _ **-Joker's Wild Basement, Amusement Area-**_

Waking up from being knocked out was not a pleasant feeling at most cases. From being knocked out in various fashions would take up the majority of them. But waking up to a ghastly sight of the Joker's smiling face would possibly be added to that list.

"Wakey~ Wakey~ Batsy!" The crazed clown said as he waved his hand in front of the Batman's face.

Said hero tried to move, but realized that he has been tied up really good throughout the majority of his body. This made things difficult for him to possibly escape as he also realized he is strapped to a giant roulette wheel with a large metallic Joker hanging above him. Seeing all this happen made the Joker chuckle a little at the display.

"Well I thought I'd let you wake up to witness your own demise." The villain stated as he walked around the tied up Batman. "I'd put a lot of thought into this one just so you know." He then pointed towards the various explosives around the room, making the hero of Gotham not like where this was going at all. "Once I spin the wheel; you, this stupid mockery of a casino and that idiot Kaiser will be blown up sky high! Hehehehe."

"You won't get Kaiser Joker." Batman said as he tried to delay the inevitable. "He's been playing you for a patsy."

"...Say what now?"

"He's counting on you to blow this place up so he'll collect the insurance. And by the time you get clear, Kaiser will be miles away laughing at you."

This made the Joker snarl at the Batman thinking he was lying to save his own skin. He was going to just leave him be until...

" _Going somewhere Kaiser?"_ Batman's voice rung out throughout the room causing the two individuals to look towards the source.

"The hell?" Joker voiced out while Batman was thinking the same thing. Wondering how a recording from the meeting earlier is being played now.

" _None of your damn business after what you've done to my casino floor with that crazed clown."_ Cameron growled out.

" _If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you wanted this place destroyed."_

" _After spending $300 million to build it? It's not good business to do such a thing you know."_

" _Well I've seen the unpaid bills Kaiser. Opening up this place has practically bankrupted you. Reason why you turned your 'Camelot' casino into a target for the Joker. Once he destroyed it, then you'll reap and collect the insurance you placed here."_

*Chuckle* _"Well it seems you've hit the Jackpot Batman, but I have too much in stake to stop now."_

As the recording ended, the Joker had several emotions running right through him. It was quite noticeable through the Batman's perspective as crazed clown looked like was about to explode in absolute rage. Though it wasn't long until the man yelled out and started cussing up a storm.

"That insignificant bastard thinks he could pull one on me! Why I'll show him!" The Joker growled out as he stomped towards the main explosive the others were connected to and deactivated the timer. "I'll settle my score with Kaiser one way or another; man to clown, but that doesn't mean you're off the hook Batman."

As he said this, he flipped a switch on the giant roulette tale to activate the contraption. It started out slow, but it started to pick up speed as the seconds went by. So feeling giddy in the process, he pulled out a hand grenade and pulled the pin on it before tossing it into the contraption.

"Well it seems that your number is up Batman. See you around. HeheheHAHAHAHA!" The Joker laughed out as he ran towards the elevator and left the room to exact his revenge against the casino owner.

Once the Joker was gone, the Batman tried to get himself free. But it was seemed rather hard to do so with all of the training he has done over the years. With the constant spinning, being tied up and the active grenade made things even more difficult.

"You spin me right round, baby right round like a record, baby right round round round." A voice sang out causing Batman to look towards the source to see Vanitas sitting down on part of the spinning roulette wheel. "You spin me right round, baby right round like a record, baby right round round round."

"Vanitas? What are you doing here?!"

"Saving your butt apparently!" The masked Uzumaki said in a giddy tone. "But first. Wheeeeee! This is so much fun."

"VANITAS!"

*Groan* "Okay fine." The black/white themed hero said as he pulled out a blank card and threw it at the grenade. It didn't really hit it per say, but it rather absorbed it. It wasn't long though as it exploded shortly after to end that bit of the problem. As that was done, Vanitas hopped off of the machine and turned it off to slowly get the giant roulette table to come to a stop.

"I hope your happy Batsy." Vanitas said as he pulled Batman off of the rotating table before phasing him out of his bindings.

"Very." Batman sarcastically said to the other man in the room. "I assume you were the one that got the recording from earlier."

"Yup. When I heard that the Joker was around here, I came to investigate. Lucky for me I stumbled to Kaiser's office and got my tape recorder to get the whole thing." The disguised Uzumaki stated as he pulled out said device from his utility belt. "Now I think it's time we stop the Joker from killing Kaiser."

 _ **-Joker's Wild Rooftop-**_

Cameron was running across the rooftop of his casino with his briefcase on hand with the small forms of wind picking up due to the helicopter in front of him. Once he got inside, he buckled up and closed the door for his safety.

"Get me out of here, now!" Cameron yelled out towards the pilot.

"Yes sir!" The man said as he flipped a few switches and pulled down the controls to get them up into the air.

As this happened, Batman and Vanitas busted through the door to the rooftop to see the helicopter getting away from them. They were going to go after it in their respective forms of transportations when they heard someone groan behind them. Upon closer inspection, they saw that it was a man with a registered pilot's uniform.

"Are you alright?" Vanitas asked as he helped the man up.

"What happened?" Batman asked in turn.

"I-I don't know. I was waiting for Mr. Kaiser to show up when some clown jumped me." The pilot said before he widened his eyes in realization. "Oh shit! Mr. Kaiser's up there!"

Back inside of said helicopter, Cameron was feeling rather peeved that the pilot was circling around the casino grounds and wasn't making the getaway that he had planned. Turning towards his employee, he growled out at him. "What the hell are you circling around for you fool?!"

*Chuckles* "You know, this was a scheme worthy of me Kaiser." The pilot said as he faced the casino owner to reveal his sickly widened grin. This caused Cameron to gasp in shock on how close he was with the insane criminal as said man pulled out a gun from his coat pocket. "The way you got me riled up and turned me loose on this place!"

"Y-You were supposed to destroy the casino!"

"Yeah well I realized that it'll be more fun getting rid of you and run the show myself!"

"B-But you can't!"

"Oh please… You of all people should know should've realized that there was a 'Joker' in the deck. HAHAHAHA- *BANG* HEY! What's the big idea?!" The Joker yelled out as he was nursing his hand from whatever was thrown from the outside that knocked his gun out. He turned towards the source to see the Batman and Vanitas on a floating playing card coming after him. "Why won't that bat brained man stay dead?!"

With that, the Joker took control of the chopper and started to try and get away from the heroes, but they seemed to be catching up.

"Can't this thing go any faster?!" Batman yelled out getting a negative from Vanitas.

"No can do Bats! This is as fast as I can make it apparently!" He said as this was the first time he's trying such a thing. "I'll try to get you in close and you can maybe handle the rest!"

It was rather interesting on how this being done with him having more access to his 'Fair Game' as his cards were apparently called. He didn't even know he could actually fly on this thing as he thought he could only do it with Kazekage and possibly with his 'creation' ability. He'll have to try this out on a later time on it's full uses, but for now they have a clown to catch.

The heroes soared through the sky on the levitating playing card as they tried to catch up. The Joker seemed to be pulling off some moves to hopefully get them off of his tail, but it wouldn't work for long. With some bit of effort, the disguised Uzumaki got as close as he could get before the Dark Knight leapt off of the levitating platform and latched onto the landing skids.

Feeling the sudden shake from the chopper, the Joker looked around to see what was going on before his attention went towards the new hero on the flying card…. Without the Batman. It was rather sudden as the chopper door was swung opened and the Batman jumped inside to punch the clown several times. Soon both rivals were at each other's throats to gain dominance in the cramped space.

"Dear god you'll kill us all!" Cameron yelled out as the two kept rough housing inside of the chopper before the Joker's back hit the controls to send the flying vehicle downwards.

"Oh shit!" Vanitas yelled out as he saw the helicopter plummet to the ground below. So he jumped off of his 'Fair Game' card and summoned a Kazekage lance before shooting his arms out to get his grappling scarfs to latch onto the chopper tail. He pulled and pulled with all his might to hopefully slow things down, but it wasn't enough as he and the vehicle crashed into the casino entrance.

Once things have stopped in the rough landing, Vanitas groaned out as he tried to shake off his little pain of slamming right into the hard end of the chopper. Once getting out of his little spell, he saw Batman give chance as the Joker tried to run away. But it was useless as the Batman used a grappling hook to snag the back of the Joker's coat and yanked him back to come to the end of a well-aimed kick. This sent the crazed clown into a nearby slot machine, which spunned into a Jackpot with said clown's face on it.

 _ **-Rec Room, Arkham Asylum-**_

" _...And so it ended for both ex-billionaire Cameron Kaiser and the Joker."_ _Summer Gleeson said over the newscast._

*Click* "Bah! Nothing but rubbish!" The Joker said in disgust as he changed the channel to see the Looney Tunes was playing one of it's episodes.

"HEY!" Various inmates consisting of Isley, Craine, Dent, Magpie, Zsasz and Tetch yelling out causing the Joker to jump in surprise and fall off of the couch. "WE WERE WATCHING THAT!"

"Heheh… Sorry." The clown nervously said as the others seemed to gain up on him before he switched back to the news.

" _...And was returned to Arkham Asylum by the Batman and the new hero Vanitas."_

"Ah, you bunch of no good, whacked-out losers, ya'll make me sick." The insane clown muttered in a pouty mood, much to the other inmates' enjoyment before they turned their attention towards the news.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Sorry on the story delay people, but with work and the new game out, it made things hard to try and focus on this. With work, been working more hours lately that made things hard to find time to take care of things between fun time and errand time. Not only that, but there is the fact that I kept hitting writing blocks here and there.**

 **Speaking of the new game, Mass Effect Andromeda is fun so far. But I actually forgot on how stressful it can be on doing all of the missions and exploring from the initial series as a whole. Missions are fine, but goddamn it's so long on the exploring aspect really. But the fighting mechanics are fun as hell to possibly make up for it.**

 **Now with the explanations earlier with Yggdrasil, once again sorry if I'm not accurate since I'm trying to make sense with a lot of the complicated DC lore on the subjects of the Green, Red, Blue/Clear, White, Grey and Black.**

 **Also we see an aspect I'm doing for the story now on how Naruto gets more access to his main weapons being concepts similar to the Absent Silhouettes from the Kingdom Hearts 2.5 game. He won't know the full capabilities of them until he trains more under them and the Absent Silhouette of each weapon won't appear until some time has passed of Naruto unlocking and using said weapon(s).**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	22. Power Listings 2

Hey readers of 'A Nobody'. Jebest4781 here.

Here is the next chapter of the powerlistings. It's up to date with how things are now and will follow the trend of posting the listings every 10 or so chapters. This is just to show how big of a leap Naruto has been with his skill sets and additions to his inventory.

Like I stated before, I'm not going to be super accurate on this. So please take it easy on me on this.

 _ **-Abilities-**_

Natural Physical Skill: Physically fit, along with reflexes and agility, despite him losing a lot of skills when he came to the current reality. Despite all that, Naruto's basic physical skills remained.

Enhanced Physical Skill: Due to Pamela's vaccine serum, it enhanced his strength, speed and agility that he can now jump higher with better reflexes, run faster and have better strength and durability.

Healing Factor: Originally, Naruto's healing was exponentially great due to Kurama's influence inside of the seal that he can practically have his skin burnt off due to using the Tailed Beast Cloaks and afterwards the skin grows back after a given time. Excluding Kurama's influence, it was also great due to his Uzumaki heritage. But due to coming to current reality, Kurama level healing factor was removed and went back to one of a normal person. Over time, the healing factor started to come back of slowly 'healing' the body by removing 'erasing' or 'fading' the pain away. Does have limits though…

Disease Immunity: Was given to Naruto by his girlfriend/lover, Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy, when injected by her vaccine serum. The user's immunity, digestive, and other organ systems are enhanced or evolved far beyond that of a normal human's. They are completely immune to every form of disease brought on by bacteria, viruses, or even parasites.

Brawler: Naruto's basic fighting style for many years due to not being properly trained in the academy. Helps make him unpredictable during confrontations but tends to be downfall at times with him not rationalizing through in physical fights by just relying on brute strength.

Frog Kata: Naruto's fighting style when he trained to become the new Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku to use Natural Energy/Nature Chakra to improve his physical strength, speed and agility. When Naruto came into the new world, this ability was mostly useless due to not accessing nature chakra but fighting style still works well despite being limited. When Yggdrasil had given Naruto access to nature energy again, Frog Kata could work to its full potential… in time.

Other Fighting Styles: eskrima stick fighting, scythe fighting, bo staff, lance. Kickboxing via Selina Kyle, but not at her level on what she was taught. She was taught by Ted Grant/Wild Cat just to clear things up.

Memory Manipulation: The user can selectively remove their presence from the target's memories as soon as they disappear from sight or can do so via other means. Will leave person to be partially invisible for a given time if needed.

Sound Manipulation: User can create, shape and manipulate silence, absence of noise/sound. Example would be creating a barrier of sound, or lack-of, around certain objects or on one's self.

Intangibility: User is able to move through objects and ignore most physical effects in their way, exact means how this is done vary between slipping partially into other dimensions, being able to make their own particles move between other particles, being non-physical being of energy, vibrating their molecules into a new quantum frequency, etc. Regardless the user is able to ignore most attacks, physical dangers and gravity. Of course the ability won't be able to work against certain materials and barriers depending on how powerful they are.

Defensive Capabilities: Naruto has a hexagonal barrier of sorts to protect him from oncoming threats to be similar to Gaara's 'Ultimate Defense'. Most projectiles can be bounced off but can be penetrated though if given enough force to break through.

Emotion Detection/Presence Sensing: User can sense the presence of emotions, including feelings, moods and their effects, of themselves, people, animals and other creatures. They can sense the presence of others by sensing their emotions. Naruto used to have really good mastery of this ability in a short amount of time after gaining Chakra Mode but was lost after coming to current reality. Currently he can detect how many people are in a building or room but not their location.

Void Rasengans: Variant of Naruto's Rasengan attack from home reality that instead of chakra manipulation it is comprised of void manipulation. There are variants of them like the varying sizes and strengths of them to the ever popular Rasen-Shuriken attack. Could even be powered down to be thrown to blow back some opponents without any real harm if needed.

***Note that Void Rasengans help more on void manipulation in terms of raw power. Not only that but other variants of the rasengan will be present as time passes with different elemental factors.***

Clone/Copying: Naruto had the ability to create Shadow Clones due to his vast chakra but after losing the ability to use chakra, Naruto can only make singular clones. They are primarily Void clones but with current skill right now he can only make one at a time with the same ability of knowledge gaining and reconnaissance. Given time he can create more with different ability variants like card, water, etc.

Warp/Teleport: Similar to the body flicker technique or shunshin, Naruto can go to one place to another quickly because of his speed and agility. But with his powers enhancing the technique that he can travel vast distances easily that could possibly rival his father's Hiraishin technique in terms of speed. Does have limits of traveling certain distances at a time that it sometimes is limited to visual distances up to roughly a two mile radius.

Sometimes could use weapons to warp to locations like Minato's Hiraishin technique or Noctus' warp ability from Final Fantasy XV.

 _ **-Nature Abilities-**_

One would say these would be apart of Naruto's chakra echo's or something of that sort due to his life in other reality and losing chakra when coming to current one. Due to his unique circumstances of having most powers from the Organization XIII weapons, he can be able to access those abilities only when weapon of Nobody member is present. Given time and full mastery over weapons, Naruto won't need to summon said weapons to use certain nature abilities.

 _***Note that with Nature Chakra/Natural Energy also has traces of the Red, Clear/Blue and White due to how animals can feel at peace when around Naruto. Not only that but concept with Sage Mode dealt with him being one with nature so there's that.***_

Air/Wind: Naruto's original nature trait when he was a shinobi. Can channel said nature ability around an object to make things sharper and faster on attacks. Even used it in his Rasenshuriken to penetrate things on a cellular level

Plant/Wood/Green: With Naruto originally having access to Sage Mode, he was able to access Natural Energy/Nature Chakra so he can be one with nature. Has come back when Yggdrasil tapped into remnants inside of Naruto's soul. Argued on it being from connection of Sage Mode training, Kurama because of him being 1/9th of the Shinju Tree, because of Naruto's past life was Hashirama or furthest back life being Asura (Hagomoro's youngest son). Will be able to gain skill of controlling plant life after becoming a deputy Green champion of sorts. Not full control over the power for obvious reasons.

 _ **-Constructs-**_

User can create objects from nothing by imagining object, or rather "idea of an object", and then removing non-existence from it, thus making object real. Is better to research on concepts of what user wants to create to have better understanding and use out of object(s). Some small constructs wouldn't be listed like morphing fingertips into claws or making vambraces.

Motorcycle: Hardy-Daytona from Final Fantasy VII

Twilight Thorn Scarf: Can be used as a grappling hook/gun to latch onto certain surfaces or objects to be pulled towards or pull the object to the user.

Outfit: Vanitas Remnant outfit from KH franchise with some changes from no logo on the mask and has a utility belt. Organic bodysuit to be like a second skin to user. Mask covering can 'disperse' to show user's face to the world. Pretty much is merged with the Stealth Suit MK II from Fallout series that Kurama has given him. Mostly named as a psychoanalytic cardiac-dampening sneaking equipment. There is supposed to be a built-in medical system that dispenses some stimulation and medical packs. Has a multi-vision function based off of the Splinter Cell series that has thermal/infrared, night and electromagnetic field capabilities.

 _ **-Weapons-**_

Similar to the construct portion on the list but this time is to create weapons. For the story, Naruto will have access to the weapons of Organization XIII but will take time to access them and use their full capabilities. Color scheme of the weapons will be White, Black and Silver/Grey with some regular color put into weapons depending on what they are.

Also note that any power Naruto has, excluding the main ones, will only be present when he is using one of the weapons down below. Naruto gains full access to the weapon's powers after fully defeating the Absent Silhouettes of each Organization XIII member.

Kazekage: Based off of Xaldin's weapon in the KH franchise. Attacks tend to become rapid due to the wind enhancing the speed of the weapon. Limit on summoning them is six in total and user can carry three at a time while the rest float around the user. Lances can help form a wind barrier or a natural defense if needed. Helps the user ride through the wind.

Lexicon: Based off of Zexion's weapon in the KH franchise. It will allow the user to record knowledge into it like a notebook within its unlimited pages. Things from regular notes, story writing, spells, schematics, etc. Current form is that of a regular sized hardcover book, but later on it'll look like a regular thick bounded grimoire and can be used as a blunt force object containing knowledge of previously mentioned stuff on the weapon. Other ability it will eventually have will help create illusions to make up for Naruto's lack of genjutsu handling in the past along with trapping other's within its vast pages. Can be used as a thick defensive barrier if needed since its contents are unlimited amounts of paper and never go away.

Fair Game: Based off of Luxord's weapon in the KH franchise. Playing cards or tarot cards that can be used as throwing weapons. They are sharp enough to cut through nearly anything from flesh, stone, bullets, etc. At some point, full uses will be accessible from creating a defensive barrier of either a single, large card that can grow up to 10 ft. or rapidly spinning cards around the user. Act like like exploding tags if needed. Can alter/warp reality to some degree. Also could allow the user to put oneself or others into cards for safety or entrapment until further notice or death. Can be able to create card clones and cards large enough to hold a few people at a time while floating in the air.

Lunar Rose: Based off of Marluxia's weapon in the KH franchise. Scythe weapon accessed after the meeting with Yggdrasil to have some limits with the Green and possibly the Black later on. When using the weapon, Naruto's warp/teleport ability will gain a white flower petal appearance to be similar to Ruby Rose from the RWBY series when she moves at fast speeds.

Foudre: Based off of Larxene's weapon(s) in the KH franchise. Throwing knives/daggers/kunai that can be used close quarter fighting. Later can have electricity running through them once training is taken care of with slight lightning manipulation… given time.


	23. A Jester is Born

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 21: A Jester is Born.**

" _So what was this thesis you wanted to tell me?" A man asked as he sat on a couch while smoking a cigarette. He appeared to be middle aged due to the his hair starting to grey out on the sides._

" _That there are practically two circumstances under which a person disregards the rules of society: committing a crime or being in love."_

" _Hmm… An intriguing hypothesis, Miss Quinzel."_

" _I know and it's completely unexplored as far as I know, Dr. Markus." Harley said as she stood in front of her professor. "I could use it as the basis of my graduate thesis."_

" _Ah! But to do that you'd need to be accepted into the psychiatric graduate program." The now identified Dr. Markus stated as he chuckled at one of his students. "And as head of the department, I'm afraid I've seen your grades Harleen."_

" _And as head of the department, you know I have a knack for this! I'm good at figuring out what makes people tick!" The blonde student proclaimed as she got closer to her teacher. "Good enough to get you to meet with me in my dorm room of all places. What'll we talk about here that we couldn't in your office Dr. Markus?" She soon leaned closer to the older man before speaking in a husky tone. "Or were you thinking we do something else?"_

 _Seeing his little flabbergasted look, she soon snorted and started to bust a gut. "Oh don't worry sir, I was just playing."_

" _W-Well *Cough* Well I think you've shown uncommon initiative Miss Quinzel." Dr. Marcus said as he tried to calm himself down a little. "Which you'll definitely need to get into GSU grad school. So an independent experiment would help, overseen by myself of course, ideally focused on the intersection of love and crime." Once taking a drag from his cigarette, the man continued his little explanation. "Unfortunately, the thrilling 'forbidden fruit' aspect to both has been well documented several times already like the case of Bonnie and Clyde for instance."_

" _Then what about a situation that isn't thrilling, but stressful! For instance love can overlook a traffic ticket, but can it forgive a robbery? A murder? What is the worst thing a person can do and still be loved?"_

 _It took several moments of self thought for the professor to come to an understanding as he gained a knowing smile. "Yes… Yes! I see great potential there Miss Quinzel!" But of course his smile soon turned into a frown. "But how would you conduct such an experiment? Who would ever agree to participate?"_

 _Just as he said it, a man busted through the dorm room showing that he was in a frantic state. He appeared to be roughly Harley's age with light brown hair that complimented his sharp appearance and features. His eyes soon landed upon the female occupant in the room before he spoke out._

" _Quinz! You seen my paper on chaos theory?" The man said as he started going throughout the entire dorm room like a miniature whirlwind. "I left it here right? I was working on it, but you distracted me…. Or was it the other way around. B-But regardless, there was some major distraction going on!"_

" _Whoa Guy! Settle down, this is-" "An emergency! I know!" The now identified Guy yelled out as he threw papers all over the place. "And on the same day the Joker escaped again! You believe it? Think my professor will buy there's a connection?"_

 _He soon adopted an attentive pose with a large smile on his face. "Joker escapes, paper goes missing, so it's gotta be linked somehow! That's what chaos theory's all about! I mean c'mon…" Guy soon slipped on a few papers before ending up on the floor before he resumed his little search._

" _Where IS IT? Where would I be if I was a paper? Think! Think like a…. Wait, of course! I need my drink!" The student then ran towards the refrigerator and started rummaging through it until he across what he was searching for. "Guy Kopski's special 'Think Drink!' Recharge my amino acids and free radicals and it'll be like that paper finds itself!"_

 _Just as he was about to uncap his drink, he felt a tapping on his shoulder before turning around to see Harley with a folder in her hands. "You mean this paper, Guy?"_

" _Yes! That's it!" Guy said as he snatched the document from her grasp. "I told you! And think what would've happened if I actually drank my drink!"_

 _*Chuckles* "Besides your head exploding and going through a major sugar rush like last time?"_

 _All she got as a response was a kiss on the lips for a few moments before he pulled away from her. "No way Quinz, you wouldn't let it happen. You're the control rods to my nuclear meltdown. The chemical release valve in our very own love canal!" He was going to say more, but his eyes caught sight of his watch to see the current time. "SHIT! I need to turn this in before my professor leaves for the night! Later Quinz!"_

 _And with that, he ran right back out of the dorm room all the while Harley had a dreamy look on her face. *Sigh* "He's such a sweetheart. He'd do anything for me and vice versa…. Anything…. Hmm."_

 _When hearing this last bit, Dr. Marcus soon looked towards his student with a surprised look. "Are you saying… You'll experiment on your own boyfriend?!"_

 _Realizing on the tone he was getting into, she quickly held up her hands to calm him down a little. "Whoa whoa. We're not talking about a killing spree here doc. It's more like a… game. Yeah, a carefully controlled game."_

" _If you say so." The teacher said before he grabbed the drink Guy had left in a hurry. "Mind if I try Mr. Kopski's concoction? It could prove quite useful right about now."_

" _Nah uh. No touchy doc." Harley said as she snatched the drink out of his hand. "Guy's got this secret formula he wants to market some day and he only shared it with me. Not that either one of us would steal someone else's idea, but…"_

" _I understand completely Miss. Quinzel. My apologies." Dr. Marcus said in slight defeat. "I was just thinking only of the experiment."_

" _It'll be fine doc. Trust me." The blonde student said in a confident tone. "Everything will be completely under control. So here's what I've got in mind…"_

*BEEP BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP BEEP* *SMACK*

Harley groaned awake as she had to get up and get ready for the day.

"Damn… Haven't had that dream in a long time." Harley muttered as she pulled herself out of bed to do some of her early morning workout and exercises. "Why would it come back now? Why would it… Oh…"

Looking off to the side of her room laid this year's calendar with this month, April, presented as two of the days circled in dark red ink. Soon memories started flooding into the forefront of her mind making of those specific days as Harley looked over the few photographs she has in her bedroom. One was the last current family photo of Harley being with her parents and brother, the other being her with Guy Kopski (her late boyfriend), and the other of her older adopted sister, Ino.

Ino Yamanaka Quinzel was adopted into the family before Harley was born since Harley's parents had a really hard time conceiving a child of their own, so they decided to adopt. But when Harley was born, Ino still felt considered a part of the family and said child loved her younger sister like no tomorrow. But when Ino was in late high school, she was ran over by a drunk driver and that was things in the family started to fall apart. Harley hardly talks about that incident, but the last person she told the story to was Pam back in their first session together.

"Get it together Harley." The intern muttered as she took several deep breaths. "She wouldn't want you to lose yourself in misery like this. So try to really look forward to tonight by pushing on through work today with dinner tonight being your big time reward."

With her feeling a little pumped up on her motivation, she went into her morning rituals of breakfast, working out, stretches and having a decent shower before heading to work for the day. Add to the fact that with the weather reports shown on the news that it was going to be bright and sunny all day long that things might go well for her today. So just as she opened the door to her apartment, she was greeted to the sight of her neighbor opening up her respective door right in front of her.

"Oh hey Paula, good morning."

Harley's neighbor Paula, is a slender, Vietnamese woman in her late thirties but looked like she was in her early thirties. She has black hair that runs down to the nape of her neck, dark eyes, and pronounced cheekbones and lips. Her hair is combed to either side behind her ears, though she has bangs that hang near her eyes and beside both her ears. Paula was currently wearing a royal blue t-shirt with her black pajama bottoms.

Harley had met Paula years back while the former was trying to get her gymnastics scholarship back in highschool. The later had helped Harley out a lot to get ready for the evaluation at the time by taking her in as her student. When the blonde got the scholarship, Harley felt that she owed owed the Vietnamese woman a lot on helping her gain the opportunity. So it was a bit of a surprise after Harley moved into the current apartment building that the two ended up as neighbors. With that, Paula decided to cash in on what Harley owed her by having the blonde babysit her kids every so often.

Not that her kids could fend for themselves with Paula's oldest being twelve and her youngest turning nine soon, but Harley didn't mind at all. It made Harley feel like she was her late sister by looking after the little girls. Even more so that the two half Vietnamese girls consider the blonde a part of the family with how the intern grew on them.

"Hey Harley." Paula said as a yawn escaped her mouth as she picked up the newspaper before she looked at the blonde with an analytical eye. "You seem rather chipper this morning."

"Well I need to keep myself happy throughout the day so nothing could ruin tonight."

Hearing this made Paula raise an eyebrow at her former student. "And what seems to be going on tonight I may ask?"

"Going out on a date." Harley said without missing a beat before realizing what she said. So in a quick stammer, she quickly corrected herself. "J-Just as friends actually."

"Oh~ And who would this date be exactly?" Questioned the Vietnamese woman as a cat like smile seemed to grow on her face. "How cute is the guy or gal? Not that there is anything wrong with that mind you of being attracted to another woman."

As those words left Paula's lips, Harley's face gained a red tint with smoke coming out of her ears on what her neighbor was suggesting. Soon thoughts of Harley being with Naruto, Selina and Pam came into her mind in an odd fantasy of them being in separate dates with her. Then ending up in romantic moments and then going into more intimate….

'GAH! Stop thinking about that, me!' Harley yelled at herself as she tried to quickly calm herself off. *Groan* 'I blame Naruto's Icha Icha books on this. Why in the world did I end up checking them out from the library anyways?' So once the intern shook her head hard to get rid of the mild fantasy, to which Paula smiled more on the scene, she finally responded back. *Sigh* "He's just a friend that I may or may not be developing feelings for as of late."

*Chuckles* "Well that's rather interesting Harley. But I'm glad that you are finally moving on from what happened in your last relationship."

"Thanks... I think I've given myself enough time to do so. But with how things happened afterwards, it would've been a miracle if I felt attracted to someone else after so long."

Paula nodded at this before looking looked at her watch to see the time due to her slight sleepy haze. "Well I won't hold you out any longer since you probably need to head to work now."

"Oh, yeah right." The intern said before she turned around to lock the door before making her way to get to work. "Tell Arty and Jade I said hi."

"Will do." The Vietnamese woman said as she saw her neighbor head towards the parking lot. "Wonder if I should find out who this man is since I have nothing better to do today…. Nah. I'll probably catch him when he comes over to pick Harley up. Unless she's picking him up or meeting him at the date…. Damn I should've asked more on the details."

And with that, Paula Nguyen Crock went back inside to make breakfast for her two daughters before seeing them off at school.

 _ **-Arkham Asylum-**_

"...Well here's a joke for you Dr. Quinzel."

*Sigh* "What is it?" Harley asked as she sat in front of the crazed clown in one of the session rooms. By her count, this is her tenth session with the Joker and she has tried to get a good amount of information from the man to the best of her ability. Hopefully she could get another good batch of information from this session before comparing to the other evaluations from the past doctors that tried to treat the man.

"What do you get virgin wool from?"

"Where would that from exactly?"

"Why from an ugly sheep of course! HAHAHAHAHA!" The pale clown bellowed out before settling himself to see the female doctor in front of him barely moved her mouth. "Oh come on doc. That one always kills."

Ignoring his pouty tone, she decided to proceed with the session at hand as she adjusted her glasses. "Humor is just your way of getting attention. Or a way to say the truth without having to say it."

"Or power."

"...Excuse me?" Harley asked as the Joker seemed to look at his nails like he tried to inspect them for any dirt or imperfections. He glanced over at her once or twice as he sighed in a mock fashion before he spoke in a bland tone.

"By making them laugh, you have a piece of them."

"And this is how you got your father's attention I assume?"

*Chuckle* "And here I thought you were listening." Joker stated before he got up from his seat with his cuffs taken off without her noticing. After that, he started pacing around the room with his eyes boring right through the intern. "If you have a piece of them. You have power over them. Then you can bend them to your will. You make some bozo laugh just as easy as you can make him cry, but you still get the same result: their attention."

This seemed rather interesting for the young doctor on this kind of perspective about power. She wanted to physically respond in such manners, but her mind kept fighting the urge to do so. All that she could do now was keep a steady breath, hardly move a muscle and power on through.

"Suddenly you matter." The man continued onward with his little lecture with a smile graced upon his face. "You're not just another itsy ant that they can step on… like your poor sister."

…..

"Quite amazing what you can find if you know what you're looking for. *Chuckles* They really should pay the orderlies more, but I digress. We are talking about your good old sis."

At this point now, Harley's heart seemed to have skipped a beat or two with her trying to control her breathing. Pupils seemed to recede with her body starting to shake slightly as several thoughts seemed to be running around her mind all at once. 'How did he find out about Ino?! What did he do?! What game is he trying to play?!' All those and so much more were loudly spoken in rapid successions.

The clown saw this happen, making his smile widen ever much so on his little action. Wanting more out of this, he pressed on. "Killed by a drunk driving fat cat in his tailored suit and diamond pinkie ring, who had a high-powered connections and got off. Got to live on while your poor sweet Ino was gone. And you were practically powerless to do anything about it."

Once that was said, he pulled something out of his pocket that was wrapped in a handkerchief and placed it in front of her before speaking once again. "I used to be the same way. Powerless against those who wanted to keep me down. That was until the greatest thing that ever could happen to me did. *Chuckles* An impromptu incident of scientific proportions with several dozen gallons of chemicals. And once my eyes stopped stinging, I finally saw the world for the true hypocrisy it is."

He stopped speaking as his eyes seemed to bore right towards the wrapped up object on the table. Like a silent order, Harley seemed forced to comply in the silent suggestion as her hand slowly reached out and picked up the object. It seemed slightly heavy in the palm of her hand as a part of her wanted to lift away the fabrics while the rest screamed not to do so...

But the curious part slowly won in the end as she slowly lifted the coverings. So with this happening, the Joker continued.

"All this had set me free. Just because once I didn't care about the rules anymore, I had all the power I would ever need. Sure it takes a lot of effort to do so, but each of us have that capability. All we have to do is just let it out… And I can show you how."

*BAM*

The sound of the door to the session room was slammed opened as security detail rushed in and pinned the Joker to the wall. Said man started to laugh in his own demented way as he briefly saw the scene before him.

"Okay fine~ I apologize." The demented clown said as the guards started to haul him out of the room. "It's only just the fat cat's hand! But for crying out loud, it was a total bitch trying to mule the dead body into this place! God knows I tried! HeheheheHAHAHAHA!"

"Dr. Quinzel, are you alright?" One of the guards asked the woman as he didn't get a response from her. "Dr. Quinzel?"

Harley wasn't able to give out a proper response, as her eyes were dead set on the dismembered hand in the palm of her hand with a diamond ring set on the pinkie. It was truly hard to focus on anything else for her as all of her other senses seemed to shut down all at once. Seeing the gruesome object in her grasp made Harley's heart beat faster and faster to the point that anything she might end up coming into contact with could set her off.

Unfortunately one person ended up doing this my mistake.

"Okay ma'am, I need to get you out of here." The guard said as he gently placed a hand on her shoulder…

And she screamed upon contact.

 _ **-One Hour Later, Harley's Apartment-**_

"It's alright now Harley." Naruto said with a comforting tone as he opened Harley's apartment door and escorted her inside. "You're finally home."

He got the call from Dr. Joan LeLand roughly an hour ago while he was at work. Reason why he was called was that Harley had listed him as an emergency contact, just in case something happened to her while on the job. In fact something did happen as Joan's tone was pretty urgent and couldn't talk all of the details over the phone. Regardless, Naruto came over to the asylum to see what happened with his friend.

It wasn't all that great from what he learned on the details from the good doctor, as he stood in front of Harley's office with a shivering Harley inside. The moment he entered the room, the publisher was tackle hugged by the scared blonde as she had let out several tears upon contact. The Uzumaki did everything he could to calm her down, but it would take a lot apparently.

So with what happened, Harley was sent home early for the day and Naruto wanted to cheer her up by taking her out for ice cream. Though with how depressed and worried the intern was, she ate her icy treat at a very slow pace with several servings to take care of her fill. But at least it was a little start for the little recovery.

"Thanks for taking me home Naruto." The blonde said as she rubbed her arms with a cold feeling running through her. And that wasn't because of the ice cream. "I-I didn't know what would happen if I-I tried to go home all by myself."

"Don't worry and think about it Harley." He said in a reassuring tone as she sat down onto the couch. "Why don't I make you some tea to help settle your nerves a little more?" Once asking, she only nodded as a response. "Now where's the teapot and fixings? Also what kind would you prefer?"

"The pot's by the sink while the tea is in the third cupboard on the right." She muttered lowly as Naruto went on with his current task. "As for flavor, I don't care at the moment."

"If you say so Harley." As the pot was set onto the stove and set to boil, the former shinobi brought his attention back to the intern. "I know I've said this several times today, but I'm so sorry on what happened to you earlier."

*Sigh* "What I don't know is how he was able to find out about Ino?… My sister."

'Not only that, but that one body Arkham security had found during their search.' Naruto thought with narrowed eyes.

During the little ice cream run, Dr. LeLand called Naruto to let him know on the search of the supposed dead body and they found the corpse of the 'fat cat' in the basement. They had indeed called the GCPD to send investigators over to get things taken care of so nothing else could be taken care of. There was a confirmation with the body with the case on Harley's deceased sister to make things even more unstable.

'With the Joker doing such a thing makes me think on what else he could've done. Not only that, but why would he do such a thing to begin with? Was he really that interested in Harley that he'll go so far to possibly… No don't try to figure out that part of his sick, demented mind.'

"You know Harley… You never told me you had a sister." Naruto said with honest curiosity in his voice. "If it's not too much trouble, I would like to maybe hear about her."

"I don't know if you would seem interested." Harley lied a little since it's sometimes hard for her to talk about her.

In response, he walked over and sat down next to her before placing a hand on her shoulder. This gave her a feeling of reassurance as he smiled slightly before simply stated: "Try me."

The intern smiled at this as she can tell he really was interested in learning about her adopted sister. So as the teapot was getting ready, the blonde told her friend/love interest all that she knew about Ino. From all of her hobbies and interests like gardening and being a gymnast. It even continued after the teapot signaled that it was ready as Harley brought up that Ino was the one that got Harley interesting in being a gymnast at first, while subconsciously wanting to be friends with Pam due to similar botanist qualities.

On Naruto's end, it was rather informative on how he learned the similarities and differences between the Ino of this world and the Ino he grew up with.

"Would've been nice if I could've met her when she was alive."

"Same here." The intern said as they took sips from their respective cups. "I would imagine the two of you getting along very well."

"I bet, but it's a shame Ino's life came to an abrupt end by that 'fat cat'."

"I know… And in some odd part of me, which I don't know how it could be possible, actually thanks the Joker for doing such a thing." This earned her an odd look from her love interest making her explain a little. "He used his connections to get away scott free and this caused more problems on my family in the end. I wanted him to pay for what he did to not only my family, but to my sister. She had so much to live for and could've done a lot, but they couldn't happen without her alive to see them through."

"I understand that Harley… Really I do, but things won't change at all. I know you miss her so much and wish she can be back in your life, but she can't." He said to her with hurt present in her eyes. "She's in a better place now Harley and I can tell Ino wouldn't want to you be this way. Possibly wanting you to find happiness whenever possible."

"And how would you know?" She bitterly asked.

"Because I felt that a handful of times in my life." Was his instant response before he continued. "I wanted my 'Jiji' back, his son to be with his lover and unborn child, and so many others. But I knew that it wouldn't happen at all no matter how hard I tried in hopes of seeing them again. They would've wanted the people that loved them to move on with their lives instead of wallowing in their sorrows. I know it's a bit harsh, but what would you think they would really want their loved ones to do. It would only hurt their memories in the end. Reason why most people try not to mourn too much and only do it when it's appropriate.

It me hurt so much when I learned they died since I knew a lot about them and they were factors on how they made me who I am. It can be so confusing at times since there are various answers on the question: 'Why do other people feel hurt when others die?' There's no real definitive answer, but others have their own interpretation to all of that.

But for me, it's from what I've stated before: losing someone that was a big part of your life makes oneself feel not full or hollow. Even with others, you don't know or never reacted, you would wonder if someone you knew was there and was in that person's place to die in that situation. It can be difficult to comprehend, but one shouldn't wish others to die in such ways. But it's apart of life and nothing can really change that."

Once that was said, the apartment seemed to have an eerily comfortable silence. Nothing was really said with what has been told, but Harley felt something from out of that. She looked at Naruto as she sat there and processed everything he told her.

'He's right… Ino wouldn't want me to mope around for too long. She taught me better.' Harley thought before thoughts of Guy came through her mind in a similar, yet different fashion.

"Naruto…"

Hearing her speak after a while, he turned to her to see her coming closer to him. Not knowing what was going through her mind, he briefly spoke out to her. "Yeah…"

As she got closer, her heart seemed to beat a little faster with what she planned to finally do. The subtle sounds of the couch cushions shifting a little seemed to be a little louder than normal in the quiet apartment. The heat seemed to rush through the intern as she drew closer to her love interest. On the publisher's end, he was realizing what Harley was trying to do and he didn't know how to respond to this. But his heart started to beat a little faster as she got ever so closely.

Once Harley's lips was just an inch or so closer to his…

*Ding Dong* *Ding Dong*

"Hey Harley! You in there?!" A feminine voice called out from outside the apartment.

This ended up ruining the present mood as Harley pulled back with reddened cheeks of slight embarrassment from what she was about to do. Naruto's was a little bit better as his cheeks were lightly dusted with a blush. Even releasing the bit of breath he didn't realized he held.

"Hello?!"

"Y-Yeah! Give me a second Paula!" The intern said as she got up from her placement on the couch. She even straightened out her clothes a little before she opened up the door.

"Well you took your sweet time Harley."

"Sorry about that Paula, but why were you banging on my door anyways?"

"Well I didn't know if you were home or not since someone's car was parked in your spot."

"Oh yeah, right." Harley said as she thought of something of an excuse, but Naruto beat her to the punch.

"Sorry about that miss if you seemed worried." The Uzumaki said as he came up from behind the blonde intern. "Harley had some problems at work earlier and was sent home early for the day. Her car couldn't start so ended up calling me for help."

The Vietnamese woman looked at the man in front of her as she inspected and dismantled him to the best of her ability.

'Hmm, good form and posture. Has some experience with fighting. Possibly some form of charisma with what he possibly does in his line of work…' Paula thought with other little facts running through her head in a quick moment. That was before she focused her attention to her former student and saw something interesting. 'The way she's looking at him… Is this the one that seemed to have charmed her?' "Well I don't see anything bad out of that, but be sure to park in the guest spots next time."

"I know on that ma'am. But those spots seemed to have been filled up and I didn't want Harley to walk back to her apartment from too far of a distance." He said in his defence, getting a nod from the neighbor.

"Understandable." Paula simply said before she turned her attention to her neighbor. "So I'm guessing he's that 'friend' of yours that you were talking about earlier."

"W-Well yeah, this is indeed my friend that I was talking about earlier." The intern said as she made a face to not let Paula spill the beans and whatnot just yet. All that the neighbor could do was chuckle a little at the sight.

"So I've been meaning to ask earlier, but who was it that asked the other on this 'date' that was supposed to go down tonight?" The Vietnamese woman innocently asked getting Harley's face to gain a red tint in response.

"It was Harley that did the asking miss…"

"Mrs. Crock, Paula Crock."

"Alright. Well Mrs. Crock, Harley had asked if we could change up the little meal meet ups we sometimes have, since they would either be breakfast or lunches. So she asked if we could go out to dinner one time and see how things go from there."

'...Huh. Well that's interesting.' Paula thought since that seems to be an odd method of courting someone. 'Then again, different generation have their methods I suppose.' "So where were you two planning on this dinner anyways?"

"Well I was going to take her to this one place in chinatown, but with what happened earlier today I thought that could be held off for another time."

"I bet."

"Wait, what place were you planning to take me in chinatown?" Harley curiously asked. There were a few places she went to in the past, while others would be a bit much in her opinion.

"This one restaurant that I sometimes go for business lunch meetings." He said with a shrug before a cheeky grin graced his face. "And don't bother asking since I won't spoil the surprise."

In response to this, Harley puffed out her cheeks a little in defeat that made the two onlookers chuckle a little in the display. Paula was going to speak up when the door behind her opened up. Turning around, she and the two people she was talking to, looked towards the source.

She was a small girl that gave Naruto an estimated age of eight or nine years old with a half-Caucasian and half-Vietnamese heritage. She has olive-toned skin with long thick blonde hair tied into a ponytail and dark gray eyes that held so much innocence in them. She was currently wearing a light purple long sleeved shirt underneath jean overalls with a pair of tennis shoes. To finish off her image, she appeared to be carrying a purple eyed yellow chicken plush with a bib saying 'Let's Eat!' with confetti in the background.

"Mommy, can you help me out on my homework?"

"Sure, I'll help you out in a moment sweetie. Mommy's talking at the moment."

"Okay." Paula's daughter said before smiling a bit at the blonde intern. "Hi Auntie Harley."

Said woman smiled as she brought more of her attention to her surrogate niece. "Hello Artie. Had a good day at school?"

"It was okay." Artie said with a little shrug. That was then she placed her focus on the silver haired man next to her mother and her 'auntie'. "Who's he?"

Seeing that it would be rude to not introduce himself, he stepped up a little to the girl and squatted down to eye level. He then smiled at her in a way that reminded the little girl of a fox with the whisker marks on his face. "Hello there. I'm a good friend of Harley."

"Hi." The girl simply said before looking at his cheeks. "Are those real?"

"Huh?"

"Are those whiskers real or are they tattoos?"

Blinking owlishly for a few moments, he chuckled a little at her curiousity. "Yeah, they are real. Born with them actually."

"Cool~. So are you a catman?"

"Nah, I'm more of a fox actually." The publisher answered before he extended his hand out. "Name's Naruto Uzumaki. What's yours?"

"Artemis Crock." Artie said as she shook his hand before pausing for a few moments. "Wait… Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Yeah?"

Once getting the confirmation, Artemis gasped a little before running inside of the apartment in a hurried pace. Seeing this happen, Naruto turned to see Harley holding in a little chuckle with Paula having slightly widened eyes for a split moment before mirroring the intern's actions. He was going to say something when the little girl came running out with a few books in her arms.

"Can you sign these please?! You're my favorite author ever!" The child said as one of the books slipped out of her grasp and fell onto the floor.

Naruto chuckled at this and pulled out a pen from his pocket and grabbed each of them and signed her copies of Loveless, Gutsy Ninja and Ninja Storm. Once handing them back to the little girl, she squealed in delight before grabbing the older man's hand and seemingly dragging him inside. She seemed surprisingly strong of unbalancing and pulling him inside of Paula's apartment to hear a TV on in the background.

"Jade! Guess who Auntie Harley is friends with?!" Little Artie said with excitement in her voice.

"Who is it Artemis?! Don't you see I'm watching my show!" A teenaged voice called out from behind a couch in the living room. From what Naruto was seeing seems to be an episode of Seinfeld if he guessed it correctly…

It's been awhile since just he sat down and watched TV on free time from work and his nightly activities.

"She's friends with our favorite author?!" The young blonde yelled out as she bounced on her feet.

"Huh?" The other person said before she muted the volume and got up from her placement on the couch. Once turning around, she saw her little sister bouncing in place with her hand grasping onto a man in his mid twenties. She then saw her 'aunt' Harley and her mother walk up behind the two.

From Naruto's quick inspection, Artemis' sister appeared to be barely a teenager at best with her stature. She had similar features to the girl holding onto his hand due to the olive-skin tone due to the mixed heritage along with the grey eyes. But the girl in front of him contrasted her younger sister with her thick black hair with some innocence in her eyes with them somewhat hardened. She was also wearing a black t-shirt with khaki pants and tennis shoes to finish off her attire.

"Uh… Hi." The girl awkwardly said at the new arrival.

*Chuckles* "Hello."

"So... Artie is claiming that you're Naruto Uzumaki." Jade said with a raised brow and crossed arms. "Prove it."

So he did by pulling out his wallet to show driver's license to at least help out on the fact. Jade snatched it out of his hand and inspected it for a few moments.

"Alright then. Seems pretty genuine." She said before handing it back to the man.

"You don't seem rather excited to meeting me I suppose."

"Well you're a writer and to me, famous authors don't really hit top five on my favorites list." Jade uncaringly said before seeing the man crouch down with a dark cloud over his head.

"You don't have to be so mean about it." The Uzumaki said in a pouty tone.

This got a few laughs from the two older women while the youngest just patted his head.

 _ **-Several Hours Later-**_

"That was a pretty good meal Mrs. Crock."

"Why thank you Naruto." Paula said with a smile as she escorted the possible couple out of the apartment. "And thank you for preoccupying my daughters for most of the evening."

"Well the two were fun to get to know of Paula and they seemed to keep me interested throughout the night." Naruto said as the three were now in the hallway.

Introductions went a little better after the little moping moment with Naruto. Usually Paula wouldn't work on dinner all too soon, but with guests over that had to change a little to add a bit more on the servings. Naruto honestly didn't want to impose, but the lady of the residence insisted on him staying since his supposed date with Harley was ruined with whatever happened at her work place. He complied in the end and decided to kill off several hours since he had nothing else to do for the day.

So during most of this time, the Uzumaki had decided to help out the youngest Crock out on her homework after said Crock asked him. It was rather cute in the eyes of the two older women in the apartment seeing the publisher help out the little girl on her little problems here and there. Even got Harley to think more that Naruto could possibly be a great father with how he's interacting with kids.

It's a good quality most women look out for on men they want to hook up with.

When it came down to interacting with Jade, it was a little rough at first but he somehow got through with her. It took a little bit of time for him to figure out on picking up on some interests, but he caught a glance on a weapons magazine she had. It was rather odd for a girl her age and in this time to be interested in this sort of thing, but with him growing up with Tenten back in his home reality he could get a good idea on that. Especially since everyone has their own interests.

So he eased things through by talking about the various weapons he interacted with in his travels before coming to America. It seemed to snag the eldest daughter's attention to a certain degree before getting into bits of him being friends with a 'weapons nut' when they were Artemis' age up till being in his mid-teens when he left. This got her reeled in that the two started talking on more details.

Jade was a bit of an outcast in school with her being in the 'tough crowd' and even then was an outcast in said group. Just because she has interests in weapons, something she picked up from the girl's' father apparently, made things difficult for her to have friends. So it was actually relaxing for her to talk to someone else that knows their way with weapons, despite talking to a guy over a decade older than her.

Though of course Paula tries not to have discussions on weapons in general in the household to keep Artemis as innocent as possible. She has it enough from her husband, who Naruto learned was ex-military (honorably discharged), that he currently does private security and reason why the man's out quite often. Though the former shinobi knows there's more to that with chatting with Paula, but he didn't want to pry.

Discussions changed into different topics like Naruto learning on what heroes the two sisters liked. He expected for them to like Batman, since apparently kids these days liked Batman with how cool he was, but learned they had liked Catwoman and Vanitas. With Artemis, she liked Catwoman with her protecting "the cute kitties" from the bad people while Vanitas being a great hero that saved a friend of hers from a fire. With Jade, she liked Catwoman with how "badass and stealthy" she is among other things while she practically became a fan girl when seeing him fight Clayface on live TV on the Daggett interview.

Naruto smiled at hearing these details on his girlfriend that he'd be sure to tell Selina about her two fans. He can tell she'll be happy on learning that she has such adorable fans that she'll want to see them in person. At least they were different from that fanatic of hers who's currently in jail.

As for him personally, he was so giddy when hearing how great the two girls were praising him. Naruto was practically eating it all up with him meeting two of his fans, outside of being a writer. So he'll be sure to keep up on what he's doing to have a good image for others.

"Still though, it helps for them to interact with others more often so they don't end up closed off in the end."

"True."

"And what about me?" Harley asked with playful whine to her voice. "Don't they get enough interactions from me?"

"Yes Harley they do, but they just need to expand their circles than just you."

*Chuckles* "Yes I know. I was just joking." The intern replied as she knew for a long time on that factor.

"So what are you too going to do for the rest of the evening?"

"Gave it some thought and possibly the two of us would just stay in and watch a movie together." Naruto said with a small smile as he directed his attention to his friend. "Her choice in which one though."

This somehow set the blonde intern off as she squealed in excitement and opened her apartment door before dragging Naruto inside.

"Well it's been nice meeting you Paula!" The publisher yelled out before the apartment door was slammed shut.

As the two were out of her sight, the Vietnamese woman chuckled a little as she processed all of the things that happened in the several hours with Naruto being in her residence. He was a good man and would pretty much make Harley really happy. It was pretty obvious with how much she has been changing as of late and it's good for her in the mother's perspective.

"You better treat her well or else I'll skin you alive Naruto." Paula muttered before scratching her head in thought. *Sigh* 'Now I just need to tuck in my kids for the night before making a phone call to Ra's. He'll want to know I finally made contact on sheer dumb luck.'

 _ **-Hours Later-**_

" _...Okay... Okay... Alright." The elderly man said as he fumbled around with his coat to see if he had everything on him. "Well so long."_

" _Grandpa?"_

" _Hmm." The man turned around to look at his grandson lying in his bed._

" _Maybe you could… Come back and read it to me again tomorrow?"_

 _The man just smiled a little before speaking one last time. "As you wish."_

"Well that was a nice film." Naruto muttered as he watched the ending credits start up from the second film he and Harley were watching this evening. "Glad you popped that one in Harley."

…..

There was no response though as Naruto looked to the side to see Harley's head sleeping on his shoulder. It was rather cute with her snoring a little as she had her arms wrapped around his left arm for support. She even was more comfortable with her in a pair of red and black pajamas since she had changed into them earlier, before they watched the first film.

'She must've fallen asleep sometime during the film.' He thought as he made a void clone and had it turn off the TV and rewind the tape as the main Naruto just sat there so that he won't disturb his friend's sleep. 'Then again, Harley has had a stressful day earlier and it must've finally gotten to her possibly on the exhaustion.'

As he sat there in his comfortable position, the Uzumaki thought of things as of late with his dear friend by his side. She had been dealing with so much recently and he can't help but worry more about her for a while now. Harley grew on him and he wanted to do what he can to make her happy.

'But… But I don't know if I should just consider me as my friend, or something else. Something more.' Naruto thought before he heard the sounds of whimpering and small crying in the room. He quickly turned towards the source to see Harley struggling a little in her sleep. Feeling worried, he fazed his arm out of her grasps before he placed both hands on her and shook her a little, but not too much.

 _ **-Insert The Dark Knight: Watch the World Burn-**_

"Harley. Harley wake up."

"Guy… Guy I'm so sorry." Harley muttered in her sleep as the tears kept on running down her cheeks. "Guy. Don't. Please. I love you."

"Harley."

"NOOO!" She yelled out as she was now awake from her nightmare. She was soon gasping for air as her widened eyes soon landed upon her friend/love interest.

"Harley. What happened?" He asked with concern and worry in his voice. She didn't respond back to him as she was shaking like a leaf. "Harley…"

"I-It was just a nightmare." The intern said as she tried to move away from the subject. "It was just a bad nightmare."

"...I don't think that was just a nightmare Harley. You were muttering a man named 'Guy' in your sleep."

Hearing that made her still as she slowly looked towards her friend. "Y-You heard that?"

"Yes I did Harley." He said as she got up from her seat on the couch and tried to walk away. "Harley, please. Tell me what's wrong."

"I-I can't." The intern said as she got closer to her bedroom.

"Yes you can Harley. You can tell me."

*SLAM*

"Please go away Naruto!" She yelled out from the other side of her bedroom door.

"I can't and I won't until you tell me…. Please tell me Harley. I'm worried and I'm scared you might do something you might regret."

"I-I just want to be alone right now Naruto!"

He wasn't having any of that as he kept his stance in front of her bedroom door. "Nah uh. I'm staying here until you tell me what's going on."

"I can't!"

"And why not!"

"Because you'll hate me!"

The Uzumaki only stood at the door as he didn't know what to say at first, but he could only question about it. "What do you mean that I'll hate you Harley? I could never hate you."

"But you will and that's what scares me."

He soon heard part of the door slam a little before sounds of sliding came down from the other side. This made him guess she's leaning on the entry way with her back while sitting on the ground. So mirroring her action, he decided to do the same thing.

"Harley… I promise that whatever you tell me, I will not hate you at all. And you know I always keep my promises.

*Sniffle* *Sniffle* "...Promise?"

"Promise."

All seemed quiet in the immediate area for a while and Naruto didn't know what was going on. He was going to speak up, but Harley had beaten him to the punch.

"I-It was before I got into grad school at GSU… And I was making my graduate thesis so I can get into the psychiatric program. I did my proposal to the head of the department, Dr. Odin Markus, and he accepted it but it had to be overseen so that things could get finalized."

"...What was your thesis anyways?"

"That there are practically two circumstances under which a person disregards the rules of society: committing a crime or being in love."

"Well that sounds unique."

"I know and it was completely unexplored." She said with a tone of remembrance. "Sure the idea did come up on the concept of the intersection of love and crime when I passed through the crime couple of Bonnie and Clyde. It was thrilling, but a thought came to mind about a stressful situation. The worst thing a person can do and still be loved in the end.

*Dryly Chuckles* Of course after I made my proposal, my boyfriend at the time Guy Kopski came in and started ranting off in his crazy self as usual to find a paper he needed to turn into his teacher. *Sigh* We were so much in love with each other that things could've been great down the road… But of course I came up with the stupidest idea ever and used him in my thesis."

As Naruto heard all of this, he started to gain a worried feeling in his gut as several ideas were possibly running through his head.

"So late one night, Guy finally came back into the dorm room from work and took a swig out of his 'Think Drink' he concocted so he could work on some homework before going to bed. That was when I started off my little plan. I-I told my boyfriend that I confronted Dr. Markus about my grades in the college gym and that I was going to blackmail my professor. Told him that he raped me and would threaten to speak to the board about it. Then I added in that Dr. Markus had a tape recorder with a gun and was going to turn it to the cops.

I really sold it by balling my eyes out that I had shot my professor with the gun I had brought into the dorm room to sell the lie. Somehow Guy got too convinced and ran out to see the body himself. I went after him to the gym to try and apologize that it was a lie.

But when I got there.,. He… He shot someone. A homeless man that somehow got into the gym. Guy thought it was Dr. Markus still moving around and he shot him on instinct. *Sniffle* The man that I loved killed an innocent man. And that was before he tried to kill himself. I tried to stop him, I really did. I don't know who pulled the trigger; but in the end his blood, my boyfriend's blood, was on my hands."

Soon the sounds of sobbing and cries filled the bedroom and in the hallway as Naruto couldn't do a thing, but sit there and process what he just learned. He wanted to believe that she was lying, but he felt that it was all genuine without a hint of a lie. It made the Uzumaki feel terrible throughout the whole situation. Simular to when he saw Pam's memory of seeing her mother's corpse in front of her. Naruto soon dreaded the day when he ends up seeing Harley's memory of seeing her late boyfriend die in front of her.

So after a few more moments, Naruto got up from his place in the hallway and went to open up the door to the bedroom. He expected there to be some resistance when opening it, but it seemed not the case as he opened it with ease. Once he did his action, the sounds got a bit louder than before as he saw Harley in a fetal position with her balling her eyes out.

Without any hesitation, Naruto went down onto the floor and picked her up into his arms and held her close. From there, he walked over to the bed and sat down on it as he spoke softly to her to calm her down.

"It's okay Harley. I'm here for you." He said as he rubbed her back. "I'm sorry for what happened to your last boyfriend and I forgive you."

*Chocked Sobs* "L-Liar. You hate me. You hate m-me."

"No, I don't hate you. I promised you that I wouldn't."

…..

"You made a mistake and it wasn't your fault."

"Bu-But it was."

At this, he ignored her and kept going. "Things were clearly out of your control Harley and you of all people should know that you didn't know what happened as a possible result beforehand. Sure you manipulated your boyfriend into being in your experiment, but you wished that it wasn't too drastic on his reaction. Some things came up that messed up with your desired results that lead to _that_ happening. So please, move on. Guy wouldn't want you to wallow in your sorrows over him because of one mistake. I even bet your sister wouldn't want you to do this to yourself."

Things seemed to be calming down as the sounds Harley's whimpering seemed to be dying down. But he didn't let up just in case she would start crying again. So for as long as possible, Naruto kept rubbing her back while telling her positive things to drown out the negative. It was helping with his soothing voice and his strong, steady heartbeat that eventually caused the intern to fall back into her slumber.

 _ **-Few Days Later, Arkham Asylum-**_

"...If you turn to page ***, you'll see the Joker's disorders that have probably been compressed and fitted together from other doctors that had previously worked sessions with him." Harley said to the head doctors of the asylum: Dr. Young, Dr. Whistler, and Dr. Bartholomew. Off to the side of the room, Dr. LeLand was there with a small smile as she saw the meeting proceedings of the young doctor working under her.

"Yes we have Doctor Quinzel." Dr. Bartholomew said as he adjusted his glasses before looking back onto said page and read it off. "You have stated that the Joker suffers from Hypomania, Compulsive Behavior, Grandiose Delusions, Impuls Control Disorder, and Sadomasochim. Is that correct in your assumptions?"

"I believe so sir." Harley simply stated as she adjusted in her seat. "From what he has stated in all of the past sessions from the varying doctors, I probably have guessed from him having 'multiple' backgrounds due to his lack of an official one. So I have decided to 'combine' them all together for a temporary outlook to get a better diagnosis.

Asides from those basic diagnosis', the Joker seems to have been over gratified in the Oral stage of the psychosexual level. It's probably because he needs immediate gratification and he seems to be unaware that he doesn't control the environment, even though he seeks to do so with him wanting to make others laugh and gain power over them.

With his Anal stage, he seems overly gratified with his ID and demands immediate gratification, developing him into a self-indulgent person. Though he does have a fixation with his Phallic stage, due to losing his mother and supposide wife while dealing with his abusive father and the mob. This probably drove him to become aggresive, over-ambitious and vain.

On the Genital stage, the Joker shows no concern at all in gratifying his desires symbolically and intellectually. That means no real form of friendship, relationship, family and adult responsibilities. He just sees them as mear obsticles in his way on 'having fun' and enjoying things in his sense of humor."

Once the blonde intern said her statements, she had taken a drink out of the glass nearby to quench her thirst from the long discussion. After hearing all of this, the three doctors took a bit of time to process most of this information before Dr. Young spoke out. "And what would be your recommended treatment Doctor Quinzel?"

*Sigh* "I would recommend that the Joker possibly go through a series of sessions in attemtping to bring out his unconcious to really dive into his mentality. There must be an underlying cause on what he could be repressing. And if we can bring it to the surface, then we can sort out the truth from the lies to help understand his actions. But until then, I believe there are two things that could be said on his further treatments."

"Which would be what exactly?" Dr. Whistler asked.

"That there is no real cure for any of his multiple disorders due to how damaged his mind truely is. He sees himself as an 'Agent of Chaos', so things could be thrown out in rational terms. If you try to cure him through other means, then it'll have negative results. Now the other thing I would recommend would be kept into the deepest parts of the high security wing where I believe he should be treated like an oddity against reality kept in his cage. But that is just my personal opinion on that last bit."

With that said, the three doctors got close to each other and quietly discussed with each other for a couple of minutes. As this went on, Harley looked onto the side to see Joan LeLand give her an approving smile and nod. It wasn't long from there as the three doctors separated before Dr. Bartholemew spoke out.

"After reviewing things with my two collegues, I'm going to move forward your request for the Joker." The male doctor said getting a feint smile from the blonde intern. She wanted to give out a full blown reaction out of this, but had to keep it contained to maintain her professional appearance. "We agree that the patient is too cunning and manipulative by any normal means. But for a first year intern to make this kind of progress you described is pretty outstanding to say the least."

"Thank you sir." The intern simply said in accepting the praise.

"So is there anything else you would like to say Doctor Quinzel?" Dr. Young asked.

"Yes, yes I do. For the sake of my own well being, I would like the Joker to be removed from my care immediately."

Hearing this made the varying doctors in the room raise a brow at the blonde woman. Though Dr. LeLand had a good idea why. So descided to humor herself a little and spoke out. "And why is that?"

Turning to her mentor in the asylum, Harley spoke out once again. "After these dozen sessions with the man has been very taxing on me. He seems rather fixated with me and I'm afraid if I try to further treat him, I might end up inside of one of these cells in the near future."

"Hmm… Understandable Miss Quinzel." Dr. Whistler said before he spoke again. "If anyone objects to her small request speak now." After some brief moments, no one said a thing. "Alright then Dr. Quinzel, the Joker is no longer in your care. You're free to go and that'll be all."

"Thank you sir."

With that, the meeting ended and the people went onto their other buisnesses for the day. While Harley was walking out of the room, she was approached by her mentor with a congradulatory smile.

"Well done and I've got to say that things have gone well in your evaluation."

"Thank you Joan."

"Though I do have to say that you seemed a little over the top on the main request of 'deepest parts of the high security wing', along with the 'oddity against reality' bit."

*Sigh* "Yeah, you're right Joan." Harley admitted in small defeat. "But with all of the stress that I got from the man made me just want him gone."

"I understand Harley, but you've done the best you could in trying to figure the man out." Joan said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Everyone that's worked here has had a crack at him in one way or another, but you've gone far."

"Thanks."

"Though I do have to say that you requesting to have the past few days off seemed odd at first. But stating that you wanted that time to fully clear your head after your previous session from the Joker. Then you wanted that time to work on your evaluation on him." Dr. LeLand said as the two were walking through the hallways of the asylum.

"Well after chatting with a good friend of mine, I realized that I just wanted to be done and over with him to move onto other things. *Chuckles* Also helps that I had copies of my notes and research back at my place so I could do it in the comfort of where I feel safer and far away from the Joker."

Indeed she has. After her reveal to the man she has considered to be more than just a friend on her late boyfriend, she felt rather better. Then again that day felt like an odd rollercoaster of emotions that she needed to get off of her chest to feel a whole lot better. Harley had talked to Naruto about her sister Ino, spent some good quality time with her gymnastics teacher and surrogate nieces, and revealed on details on her last relationship.

Sure things seemed awkward on the later, but it needed to be done for her sanity.

After waking up from that tearful night, the intern felt relatively better. Especially since she woke up in one of the most comfortable pillows she ever slept on. But of course said pillow was actually her crush, she ended up blushing up a storm of being so close to him in such a position.

So when things seemed a bit more comfortable, Harley had told Naruto on what else happened after Guy's death. Dr. Markus had put her into the graduate program to keep her silent on the whole situation along with the university covering up the incident to rule it as a suicide so that it could be quickly forgotten as soon as possible. Not only that, but she was forced to get rid of many things that reminded her of her boyfriend at the time for her healing process. But Harley had kept their last photo together along with the formula to his 'Think Drink' to help her remember him by.

After all that, along with some discussions from her crush, Harley decided that she fully wanted to move on with her life and she needed the Joker out of her workload. So she called work and requested some time off to work on her evaluation on the crazed clown. It was accepted and she went straight to it. It was a bit stressful, but Naruto cheered her on throughout most of the process.

"Good to know Harley." Joan said with a smile. "So what are you going to do now?"

"Head back to my office and see what else I need to do before it's probably time to call it a day."

"With what you did earlier, you might not have anything else for your workload for the day."

The intern responded back with a shrug before speaking to her superior. "Still though, wouldn't hurt to check."

Seeing Joan nod at this, the two female doctors went their separate ways. Along the way, Harley was having a little spring to her step with a wide smile on her face. She was so happy that a thought came to mind that she would truly want to do once getting off from work.

'I'm going to do it.' The intern thought as she rounded the one corner along the way to her office. 'I'm finally going to tell Naruto much I love him. He's been there for me for these past months and has never let me down at all. He made me feel so special ever since Guy died… Oh Guy... I hope you finally forgiven me for what I did back then. I truly want to move on and be with the one that I love now.'

Just as she neared the last few hallways towards her office, the building suddenly shook. She didn't know what was going on until the alarms started to blair off. Having a bad feeling about this, she started to run as fast as she could in her heeled shoes. Harley needed to quickly get to her office to nab some of her personal effects before getting to her designated panic room until things have blown over.

*BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE*

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" A voice yelled out as Harley neared her office. "Not now! Why'd it have to happen now!"

"The hell?" Harley spoke out as she pulled the door open to see… "Dr. Serrano?! What the hell are you doing in my office?!"

 _ **-Moments Ago-**_

*Groan* "...And of course she would use everything that I have given her and throw it back in my face." The Joker muttered as he laid back onto his cot in his cell. "After everything that I've done for her. Giving out some little good facts here and there with some nice honest truths laced in a story or so to keep the conversations interesting. And what do I get in return? Nada, ziltch, squat."

One might wonder why the Joker seems rather upset at the current moment. Well sometimes in the asylum, word travels pretty fast depending on what gets circulated. Sometimes it takes an hour on a slow conversation and a boring topic. But with a very interesting one, it goes around at a snap of the fingers. And thats what's happened a bit ago.

From what the Joker overheard from a passing guard talking to another that his beloved doctor, Dr. Harlequin (the clown sometimes calls her that), had requested that the Clown Prince of Crime himself be removed from her care. And not only that, but possibly get him locked up so far deep into the asylum that everyone will practically forget him.

"Oh I'll show her. I'll show her good and then we'll see about that." The crazed inmate said as he sat up on his cot before thinking of a few ideas. "I could maybe do something about her…. Maybe I could skin her like what that Bill character from the Silence of the Lambs…. Yes, yesss. Get someone very nice to wear her… with that perfect, creamy skin." The Joker said in a sickly chuckle as he pictured the sight in his head. Though of course it seemed a bit too odd for him. "GAH! Pull yourself together man! She practically mocked you behind your back! No… I need to do something more than that. But what!"

*BOOM*

After the quick event that occured, the inmated was sprawled over to the far side of his cell with a dazed look on his face. It took a few moments for the ringing in his ears to go away, along with the dust to somewhat settle. With his vision getting back together, he saw who did the explosion.

"Punch! Judy! Thank you so much for freeing little old me!" The Joker said with a giddy tone as he came up to them and gave the two large men a hug. "So glad that you got my snail mail. Had been a total pain in my ass sending those messages from here." Once the criminal looked beyond his two henchmen, he saw several others nearby in varying outfits with assault rifles that made the clown laugh more. "Oh this is going to be so much fun! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

*BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE*

When his two large men parted ways, the Joker's costumed lackies consisting of two men wearing shark like masks in a black and white color scheme, a man in a panda suit, one wearing a mountain goat mask, two giant eyeball helmets, a crying baby mask, and a pair wearing 'tragedy and comedy' masks. When they were all gathered in the cramped cell, the Joker made impromptu motions for one of his men to make extra room for all of them. One of them complied by placing a small explosive on the door to his cell before blowing it off it's hinges.

*Breathes deeply* "Ah~ So good to be out of that cell…. Oh don't look at me like that boys. I know there was the hole behind us and it's besides the point." The clown said as he faced his small group. "Now lets cause as much chaos as we can boys! It's breakout time! HAHAHAHAHA! AND DID SOMEONE GET ME MY CLOTHES?!"

One of the eyeball men soon presented the Joker with a large dufflebag, which the clown quickly snatched it. "Good good. Now you boys free whoever that you can while I change into something more comfortable. So no peaking!"

The Joker's gang nodded as several armed guards came rushing into the wing before they were assaulted by varying bullets to render them either dead or severly wounded. As this was going on, several of Joker's men were destroying the locks of the various inmates' cells. With them out and about, many of them started to run after the guards to either get wounded, killed or taking said guards with them in the fighting. Others decided that it was best to find a way out and decided to make their exit from the Joker's cell if they were smart enough to know one was there.

"Ah~ Feels so good to be in familiar clothes again." The clown said as he was in one of his outfits. It consisted of an orange button up shirt underneath a purple suited attire. To help complete his attire, he wore a comically large flower on his jacket. "Now lets keep moving people! I've got an appointment with my favorite doctor!"

 _ **-Back with Harley-**_

"...Those… My notes. Those are my notes! On the Joker!" Harley screamed out as she glared at the hispanic doctor in front of her with a specific fiile on hand. "Why do you have those in your hands?"

"Because you have been fucking lucky with what you've done since you've gotten here!" Dr. Serrano growled out at the blonde intern. "You've taken some of the best cases that have past through our doors ever since you've first started here. Isley, Magpie, Hatter, and the Joker. Especially the Joker!"

"And what about him?!"

"I've tried to fully figure him out for years and nothing could pull through. And when you got assigned to his case and was able to get so much out of him, I considered that to be the last straw." Serrano said as she paced around the room while glaring at the intern. *Scoffs* "At first I was just going to ignore you on your attempt of getting through the Joker like what everyone else has done. But you… You had somehow gotten through and stole what was supposed to be mine! My glory! My acknowledgment!"

"And your going to do what? Take my notes away! The notes that I've worked hard day and night! Ones that you've mocked and planned to steal to publish them in a stupid book?" Nothing was responded with that causing Harley's eyes to widen on the little realization. "Are you fucking insane?! You were really going to make a book out of that?!"

"And I don't see why not."

"Heh. Good luck with that you bitch!" Harley cussed out as it was the first time in a long time she said such a thing. "Naruto wouldn't publish your book and he'll back me up in sueing your ass."

"Oh, the Naruto that you have fallen over heels for?!" The hispanic doctor said getting a shocked look from the intern. "It was fucking obvious that you've fallen for your patient's boyfriend. The few times I saw you two together I knew that you've been smitten by him. So don't think that he'll bail you out from this one."

"A-And why not?"

"Because you won't see another day outside of this room." Dr. Serrano said as she picked up a nearby pair of scissors before she slowly walked towards the intern. "Given this perfect opportunity, I'll be sure to kill you in the confusion and blame it on an inmate that did the deed. Maybe I'll blame it on Isley to show that she found out of you trying to steal her lover and killed you in revenge. No one would really believe a word she says because of her mental illnesses."

The hispanic woman got closer to the blonde intern with the impromptu weapon raised into the air. Harley was backed into a corner as she looked around for a nearby object to use for her defence, but there was none within arms reach. The intern was starting to panic with the woman in front of her was going to kill her and ruin the lives of those that she truly cares for.

"Goodbye Dr. Quinzel. You've been of such help towards-" *BANG*

The sound of the gunshot surprised Harley as she saw Dr. Serrano's head whipped back with her brains blown out of her head. The intern didn't know who to thank at the moment. But when she heard the familiar chuckle, she started to pale in fright.

*Chuckles* "Well it seems I've saved your behind my good doctor." The Joker said as he widely smiled at the intern. "Now boys, nab her and follow me."

Upon his orders, some of the men grabbed ahold of the screaming intern as she tried to break out of their hold. She used what strength she had, but it was practically useless in her attempt. Harley didn't know where they were taking her, but she didn't want to know where and be near that place.

"NO! LET ME GO! PLEASE LET ME GO!"

"Ah here we are." The Joker said as he ushered the group towards their little destination. "Now strap her onto the bed and be sure no one interupts." They did as they were told, but with how Harley was wiggling about made things a little difficult. "Punch! Judy! Hold her down!"

The sounds of gunfire was heard in the background as the goons did their job for the clown. While this was going on, Harley was fully fastened onto the bed as her eyes were wildly scanning the room to figure out what was going to happen to her. It was really hard though since everything seemed to be happening so fast.

"Well Dr. Harlequin. I would like to discuss a few things to you." The clown said as he pulled up a lamp close to her face. "Mostly complaints on my end really."

"B-But I-I helped you. I wanted to help you." She defended in hopes of being released.

*Chuckle* "You helped me? By erasing and changing my mind of what memories that I have?!" He yelled out as he slammed his fists onto the strapped bed. This startled her more in the process. *Breaths deeply* "You know doctor. You've left me in a blackhole of rage and confusion. But what about the medicine you practice? Aren't you supposed to help me instead of making me worse?"

Knowing that she's not going to make it out alive, she started to shed several tears building up in her eyes. "Wh-What are you going to do? Are you going to kill me?"

"Huh?" The clown asked in mocked confusion. "Kill you? Ha! Why would I want to kill you?" He spoke with a shake of his head. "No. No. No. No. I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to do something much worse."

He then went onto the side of the room and pulled something closer to her field of vision. Once it was close enough, her eyes soon landed upon the electroshock therapy device. She then realized what the Joker was going to do, causing her to shake even more despite her being restrained.

"Now now Dr. Harlequin. I'm not going to kill you." He then pulled out the electroshock devise with one on each hand. "I'm going to hurt you really... really... badly." As he drew closer, he paused before coming back up with a little realization. "Oh I almost forgot." He then pulled out a mouth guard and placed it inside of her mouth with a bit of force. "Don't want to ruin those perfect smile of yours when the juices hit your brain."

The device came closer to her head as the clown flipped the switch to get it fully charged up. All that she could do now was pray for a miracle. For someone to save her. For the person she loves the most right now to save her. Harley wished more than anything for Naruto, her puddin', to somehow save her.

"Hope you like the electrical shiatsu massage." The Joker said as he placed the device on her head with an insane cackle.

The moment it touched her skin, she screamed through the mouth guard throughout the entire torture process.

 _ **-Elsewhere-**_

*Sigh* "I wonder how things are going for Harley right now." Naruto said to himself as he looked over the city from up high on a Kazekage lance. "I hope her evaluation is going well."

Things have gone rather well for the evening so far as he stopped a few robberies and helped out on evacuating people from a building on fire. But other than that, nothing else has really happened. He did some patrols, but nothing seemed to have come up at all….

"Though I think I should try to start getting onto the police frequency so I can help out more from there." He muttered as he placed his hand onto his helmet and focused to adjust things so he could try to pick up police chatter. Nothing really happened for a few minutes until…

" _Attention! Attention! Calling all units…."_

"Ah there we go." Naruto said in his mild accomplishment.

" _Massive breakout at Arkham Asylum! I repeat! Massive breakout at Arkham Asylum!"_

"Dammit." Naruto growled out as he readied himself and shot through the sky on his wind lance. "I hope I can make it in time to stop a lot of the damage."

He sored through as quickly as possible. But with him being at the other side of the city, it'll take a bit of time. So all he hoped was that nothing else was happening at the moment.

"Attention! Attention! New notice has been brought up! The Joker and his gang have a hostage! I repeat a hostage!" The voice in the police radio was calling out making Naruto grit his teeth on the latest information. _"White female, blonde, in her late twenties and appears to be an employee at the asylum."_

'White female… blonde… in her late twenties… and an Arkham employee?' Naruto thought as dread started to take over. "Oh please kami, don't let it be her. Don't let it be Harley!"

With this new worry filling his very being, he did his best to push himself to his limits to try and get to the asylum as soon as possible.

" _Joker Gang escaping from several white vans. I repeat. Joker gang escaping from several white vans."_

"Well that is very helpful." Naruto sarcastically said as he focused on his powers and created a clone of himself to at least spread out to help out on the search better.

It took a bit of searching, but both of them were able to locate a white van respectively. Helped out more when they saw the sides of the vehicles spray painted with 'HAHA' in varying collors. So without hestitation, both bodies attacked the vehicles in hopes of stopping them and retrieve Harley inside of one of them.

The backdoors of the vehicles opened up to reveal a Joker henchman firing upon the hero attacking them. It was a bit easier to evade the bullets due to the two Naruto's being in the air, but they couldn't goof around like of what Naruto has done in the past car chases he's dealt with. So both came up close and fired void rasengans at their respective vehicles to either knock them off of the road or render them unoperable.

Each respective Naruto checked inside and clicked their tongues when they saw that Harley wasn't in either of them. So the search went onto finding his dear friend. Who knows what might happen with the Joker involved.

 _ **-Ace Chemicals-**_

"Ah~ Home sweet home." The clown spoke as he, Punch, and Judy walked through the main chemical area of the plant. They weren't the only ones there as Judy had an unconcious Harley over her shoulder. For what plans there were for the asylum intern, only the Joker knew for the time being.

When the group was escaping the asylum, the Joker had his group separate through the several vans they procured to distract the police on the chase. The Joker hoped that this would buy him enough time for what he had in store with his hostage. Now he just needed to wait for her to wake up.

"Okay Judy, put the good doctor over there and after that, you two go outside and guard the entrance. Don't want the Bat to ruin the fun too soon."

Said henchman nodded as he placed the hostage by the railings. With her unconcious body secured in the placement, the two large men went outside to do their duty. Once the two men were out of the area, the Joker decided to kill some time by talking to the unconcious intern.

"You know doc, this is a very special place for me since this is where I was reborn. Falling into one of these tanks of chemicals all because of Batman screwing me over. It fixed me up real good." The clown said as he peered around the vast area below the railings. "I think it might be that one. No no, that one. Or was it over there. Eh~ It was one of these."

…..

"Well since you're probably wondering why I brought you here, I'll enlighten you." He said as he used his fingers as drum sticks onto the metal railing to build up the little tension. "I'm going to make you like me!"

…..

"Well not exactly like me since you didn't have a fucked up set of moments leading up to this. I mean you didn't have a really bad day to make it be leading up to this really. Unless you did and I didn't know it before I saw you in your office earlier today. But anywho-"

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

"Huh… Seems the Batman finally showed up." The Joker said as he readied himself for the Bat's appearance.

He didn't get what he expected as the doors were blown opened to see the unconcious bodies of Punch and Judy come flying in with an odd marking on their chests. This caused the Joker to question on what is going on until he saw the new hero on the block come strolling right into the room.

"...You're not Batman."

"I know." Vanitas growled out as he marched towards the crazed clown with killing intent radiating off of him. "Release Harleen Quinzel now!"

"But what if I don't want to." The clown said in a pouty tone.

"Then I'll be sure to break every bone in your body."

"Well stop me if you've heard this one." The Joker said as he squeezed the fake flower and acid was spraid out of it. It was precisional aim as it landed on it's mark, but it seemed to not faze the new hero at all. "Well that seems unfair."

"Like you're one to talk."

And like that, Vanitas dashed forward on the intent of knocking the clown out and rescuing his friend. But the clown evaded the strike before he seemingly pulled out a crowbar from his coat pocket and smacked it across the hero's helmet. With the bit of ringing in his helmet made things a bit distracted as it left an opening for the Joker to exploit. So the clown smacked the hero a bit with his crowbar several times before Vanitas grabbed ahold of it in a tight grip.

Knowing he's not going to have his weapon back anytime soon, the Joker pulled out his gun and started firing upon the hero at close range. But it seemed to not faze him at all as well. Either he has a really good set of armor or he has a stupid power that he's exploring. So with that, the clown kicked the hero away as he switched out his gun for a chain hook he seemingly had hidden on his person. He shot it towards his opponent's leg and pulled hard to get the hero flying towards him before punching him downwards.

With that, the Joker soon wrapped his chain around Vanitas' neck in hopes of chocking him to death. The hero wasn't having any of that as he used the close proximity to punch the clown's face with hard blows. With the escaped inmate dazed and confused, the masked publisher grabbed ahold of the clown and flippen him over to get the man onto the ground before pumbling his face in.

After getting hit by one too many punches, the Joker rolled out of the way before he pulled out a few knives out of his coat. He then slashed at his opponent, who evaded each swing before the hero grabbed each of the man's wrists and twisted them hard. The clown screamed out in pain before he kicked the hero away.

"You know," the Joker said as he walked up to Vanitas, "for someone who's not Batman, you've become quite a pain in my ass. HAHAHAHAHA!"

Vanitas recovered as he ran towards the clown and tackled him onto a nearby pillar. This gave the villain an opportunity to stab the hero several times. He tried, but whatever armor he was wearing ended up breaking his knives upon contact. He was going to question about it, but he ended up too busy with him getting the shit beaten out of him.

As this was going on, Harley was stiring awake due to the fighting going on. With the pain she was experiencing from earlier, it was hard for her to really focus all that well. It took a bit for her eyes to adjust due to the electroshock therapy the Joker did on her, but it seems that she can somewhat see clearer without her glasses on.

'Who… Who is that?' She thought as she saw two people fighting against each other. 'Who's fighting the Joker? Is he here to save me?'

Harley soon moved around in her placement so she could try and properly get onto her feet. It was really hard for her in her disoriented state. She had to put a lot of her weight onto the railing behind her in the process. It seemed to be working despite her legs being all wabbly.

Back with the action, Vanitas finally had it with the Joker and grabbed ahold of the clown's jacket before he picked him up with ease.

"How about you take a dip you bastard?!"

And with that, the Joker was thrown into the air and fell into one of the various chemical tanks down below. The masked Uzumaki hoped that this was the end for the clown by either a broken neck or some other life endangering injury. Unfortunately for him and everyone else, the Joker did end up in one of the tanks, but it ended up getting flushed away in the process to leave the clown outside and a few miles away from the plant.

"Well that's done." Naruto muttered to no one in particular. He then looked to the side to see Harley struggling to stand and wide awake. "Harley!"

Hearing his sudden voice seemed to startle the intern as her heel ended up caught onto the grate below her. In the process, she ended up slipping backwards from the gab in the railings. Realizing on what's happening, Harley tried to grab onto something but she was unsuccessful with her blumbeting to her possible death.

"HARLEY!"

Naruto ran forward and off of the edge of the platform to see Harley sreaming at the top of her lungs. He wanted to use his grappling scarf to save her; but with how fast she was going, Naruto was afraid he might snap her back and end up killing her in the process. He didn't have any other choices to save her from the bubbling vat of chemicals.

*SPLASH*

Harley's yells were silenced as she entered the tank head first. After a few more moments, Naruto entered it as well as he used his helmet to try and find her. He was lucky that he did that he saw her body was slowly being drifted into the hole from the bottom and was being sucked into it. Not wanting to lose her, Naruto used his grappling scarf and had it latched onto her to keep her out of the draining process.

"Don't worry Harley. I'm getting you out of this."

He fazed his way out of the chemical tank with Harley's tied up body not far behind as the two were on solid ground. With them out now, Naruto had dispursed his helmet so that he would aminister CPR on her since she had probably enhaled a lot of chemicals in the dive. So once Naruto came onto her chemically drenched body, to which a lot of her clothing was disolved in the process, he started his task at hand.

'Please Harley.' The publisher thought as he pushed down onto her chest several times before breathing into her mouth. 'You can't die on me like this.'

After several more tiimes doing this...

*Gasp* *Cough* *Cough*

...Harley regained conciousness.

"Harley!" Naruto cried out as he embraced her into a tightish hug. "Oh thank Kami you're alive!"

"N-Naruto?" Harley asked as he broke the hug to have them look at each other face to face. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you of course."

Soon the memories of the past hour or so came to the forefront of her mind as she replayed everything leading up to this. Harley had wished for someone to save her since she didn't want to die without telling Naruto how she felt about him. As luck would have it for her, he was the one who saved her from certain death.

"Naruto?"

"Ye-MMMPH!"

Harley grabbed ahold of his face and slammed her lips onto his as shock and surprise overcame him. For Harley it was an amazing feeling that she was finally experiencing after so long. As the two had their kiss, a spark started to flicker between the two as it started to grow more from the action escalating. Before long, Naruto returned the kiss to possibly the third woman to love him dearly with possibly as much passion Harley was giving to him.

'Oh god, it feels so good!' Harley thought as she felt like she was on fire. Though she didn't know if it was because of the chemicals or something else. It didn't matter as she possibly has confessed her feelings in her current action.

But it might seem better if she did speak it…

Once separating the soul searing kiss with both of them catching their breaths, Harley decided to finally speak.

"I love you."

Regaining his bearings, Naruto tried to focus on what was just said to him. It was just that the kiss practically blew him away in the heat of the moment honestly that made things hard to focus on afterwards.

"What did you just say?" He asked making the intern chuckle in response to this.

"I said I love you puddin." She said getting a wide eyed look in return before she pulled him back into another kiss.

'S-She loves me?' Naruto thought as his lips formed a smile during their intimate moment.

After the two pulled away again, Harley looked at their current attires from most of her clothing being melted away while Naruto was in a black and white muscle suit…. Wait….

'A black and white muscle suit?' She thought as things started to click one by one. 'Doesn't Vanitas….' "Naruto."

"Y-Yes?" He nervously asked as her tone of voice seemed sickly sweet that is putting him on the edge.

"You've got some explaining to do buster!" She yelled out as she shook him like a loon.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Well I hope I did a good job on this since this was actually a little difficult for me to write. I wanted to try and blend several origins on how Harley Quinn came to be and my head had gained a few migraines in the process. Also sorry on the sudden family bit there on Harley's end, but I wanted to get that out of the way to get things settled.**

 **Asides from that, now this practically gets Harley to join Naruto's harem with pretty much being open with it.**

 **Not only that but Naruto now has to tell Pam, Selina, and Harley the truth on who he is and all that fun stuff.**

 **Now moving onto other things, we are also introduced the Paula Crock/Huntress and the young Jade/Cheshire and Artemis. I have plans for them, so don't ask on what they are since that would involve spoilers.**

 **Also sorry on the delay but I really had to look through varying psychology books and research on how to properly get onto the Joker diagnosis as best as possible. Bit of a headache, but did the best that I can do.**

 **Another thing to bring up is the bit pertaining to my writing schedule. It's not going to be perfect since I keep hitting writing blocks here and there along with work exhausting me badly. Like with the previous chapter and a few other chapters prior I believe. Can't remember which ones, but those specific chapters took way too long on the progress. So yeah there's all that.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	24. A Past Told

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 22: A Past Told**

It's been roughly a week since the breakout at Arkham and things have been rather hectic for the GCPD. The police and detectives combing the city, with the help of Batman, Robin and Vanitas, to capture a lot of the inmates and return them back where they belong. People like Scarecrow and Victor Zsasz were apprehended while others like the Mad Hatter, Two Face, and the Joker remained at large.

Speaking of the Joker; when the police had found his white vans with 'HAHA' spray painted on them, they couldn't find any of his gang members. They had heard reports that Vanitas had dealt with them before he left to try and find the hostage in the other vans. When arriving to the scene of each wrecked van, the gang members seemed to have disappeared. Probably went back into hiding until their boss came calling for them again.

Getting back to the asylum staff, there were a dozen or so casualties while the rest of the injured were sent to the hospital to get patched up. There would've been less of them sent if it wasn't for the hospital room being trashed to bits during the attack, hence all of the injured were sent to Gotham General. But as for deaths, lots of inmates died in the assault while several security details died from either immediate contact or on the way to the hospital. The only other person that died in the attack was Dr. Serrano when police and staff found her body in Dr. Harleen Quinzel's office.

After all that, the 'healing' process as it were was slow at best. There would need to be a mass hiring on security detail along with installations on new security systems. With the later, Wayne Enterprises was generous enough to donate a mixture of funds and some of their technology to do so.

With all that out of the way, let's focus on the lighter side of things shall we?...

We cut towards the women's wing of the asylum as Pam's cell was being opened up by one of the current guards of the facility. Once inside, we see the changed botanist in civilian attire consisting of a regular pair of jeans, shoes, shirt and jacket (one of her bland attires from her wardrobe) as she was having most of her affects packed away inside of a duffle bag. It was given to her by her beloved a few days ago just so things could be ready for her release today. As for the plants in her cell, she decided to have the staff transfer most of them to the Arkham gardens to 'brighten' things up while the rest go into Harley's office.

'Well today's the day.' Pamela thought with contained excitement as she walked beside one of the security guards of the asylum. 'The day that I'm finally out of here and can move in with Naruto at last.'

' **Definitely sister.'** Ivy spoke out in their mind. **'We finally get to be with our king after so long and could feel all of the joys being with him.'**

'Of course. And I'll finally be able to use my powers outside of these walls after April Fools Day.' The botanist thought as she looked at some of the cleaned up wrecked areas of the place. 'Though I would've wished I didn't have to use my powers earlier prior to today, but had no choice when this place was attacked by the clown's group.'

During the attack by the Joker's gang, one of them had somehow blown the fuse of the security system. Thus caused all of the power dampeners to shut off due to the signals connected to said system stopped transmitting. Of course the only power dampener used at the asylum was Pamela so far, but let's not get into much detail about that.

Suffice to say, Pamela used this opportunity to break loose and try to help out as much as possible. After chatting with Harley for so long, she realized after her collar was shut off that the systems would be shut off as well. So with that, she used her powers to create wooden barriers for some of the panic rooms being used so the Joker's gang wouldn't harm the staff. Even from there, Pam helped the security out to confine the released inmates that hadn't escaped. It was an unexpected help, but the guards weren't complaining at all.

Though at the time, Pamela didn't know that Harley didn't make it inside of one of the panic rooms and was taken hostage by the Joker gang. If she did though, she would've raced after them to save her friend that she has grown quite fond of during her stay here. Of course she did get that bit of information the day after, causing the changed botanist to go into a panic attack and wanted to know if the intern was alright. She did calm down when she was informed that Vanitas saved her and had to take her to Gotham General to take care of certain injuries.

'At least Vanitas did a good job saving her.' The Green champion thought with a little scowl.

' **Though we aren't going to forgive him for hurting our babies that night.'** Ivy said getting her sister to nod in thought. **'It'll take a long time for him to earn our forgiveness.'**

"Well you're finally out of here Ms. Isley." Dr. LeLand said as she met Pamela in the lobby.

"Thanks to you and Harley." The botanist said before looking around for any sign of her friend. "Where is Harley anyways?"

"Well she's not working for the time being."

This raised a brow from the redhead and voiced her thoughts in the process. "What do you mean exactly?"

"Well as you have heard, Harley was taken hostage. But from what we were told by Gotham General from her medical records, it appears that Harley was tortured as well."

"...Excuse me?" Pamela asked as her eyes widened on this new bit of information. It was hard to process as this started to scare her even more now than before. So in response, Pam grabbed ahold of the doctor's arms with a firm grip before speaking again. "Is Harley alright?! What did the Joker did to her?!"

Knowing where this might go to, Joan tried to calm the former patient down. "Pamela calm down."

" _ **H**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **I**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **m**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **f**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **m**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _d_ _ **i**_ _d_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **f**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **!"**_ The redhead yelled out in rage. _**"I'**_ _m_ _ **g**_ _o_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _k_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _m_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e'**_ _s_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **!"**_

"Pamela!" Joan yelled out getting the botanist to snap out of her triade. "I know what you're going through right now, but you need to calm down."

And the former patient did. It took a few little breathing moments, but she did. "Sorry about that Joan…. I-I just couldn't imagine what Harley has gone through."

"Same here, but I don't want to imagine in the end."

"So I'm guessing that's the reason why Harley isn't working here for the time being?"

"Unfortunately yes Pamela. We were told in the notice that Harley stating she was tortured by an electroshock therapy device we have here before she blacked out and was taken out of the facility. Of course with how she was rescued though seemed vague from what was told to us and it was a 'private' matter that Harley wouldn't want known quite soon." Joan spoke with concern in her voice that left Pamela with more questions than from answers. But the botanist had to take what she can at the moment before seeing her dear friend to get the answers out of her.

"When do you think she'll come back?" Ms. Isley asked.

"We were fine of letting Harley have a week off after she gets out of the hospital and that was two days ago. So she'll be coming back by the end of the week and hope that she is in better spirits by then to hopefully finish her internship here."

"That's good to know Joan." Pamela said before she started to walk towards the front door to the asylum. "Thanks again for all you've done here."

"Your welcome and be sure to check by every few weeks for status reports with your 'parole'." The doctor said with a smile as she walked back to get into her daily workload.

Ah yes… her 'parole'. Even though Pam was cleared of the charges of being mentally unwell, she still committed kidnapping and attempted murder for what happened earlier this year. So instead of her having to go through a parole officer, like with most criminals, she'll need to either contact a registered asylum doctor at the facility personally or off site. Pam was hoping that she could just go through Harley, but that would only work once her internship was done and over with to become a full fledged doctor.

Pamela took a deep breath as she reached the door. She wanted to calm her beating heart that was practically beating so fast, that it might as well burst out of her chest. Even though she was very excited into being out of this place, Pam was nervous as hell.

"Well here goes nothing." She muttered as she opened the door. The rays of sunshine peaked through the opening before it assaulted the botanist in it's warm light. When her eyes adjusted a little to the brightness, she saw that it was a gorgeous sunny day. Something that seemed rather appropriate for her release day.

"Hey! Pam!" A voice called out from afar making her turn her head to see her beloved in front of his car. "Over here!"

Her features brightened once seeing him as she awkwardly ran towards him with her duffle bag slung around her shoulder. When close enough, she quickly latched onto him with one of the tightest hugs she could ever muster. Naruto did stumble back a little, but he held onto her with one arm wrapped around her as he chuckled in the current moment.

"I've missed you." She said into his shoulder as she smelled his scent after so long.

"I've missed you too Pam."

Once separating, they looked at each other with joy and love dancing in their eyes. Pam was going to say something when Naruto pulled something from behind his back. Once it was in view, the botanist saw a bouquet of flowers in his hand. But the ones she saw were pretty much the same ones she had gotten on their first date together.

"I hope you love them Pam."

"Coming from you adds a bit more radiance from them my love." Pam spoke as she grabbed his face and brought their lips together into a searing kiss. It felt heavenly on what the two were feeling after so long. The last time they properly kissed was after their first meeting after Pam's first session with Harley. The botanist was sure going to make up for lost time in spades sometime soon.

Once they separated to catch their breaths, Naruto opened the passenger door for his first girlfriend before handing her the bouquet of flowers.

"After you my lady." He said with a gentleman's bow and accent making her giggle in response.

"Why of course my beloved."

Once situated in their seats, Naruto drove through the asylum's pathway to make their way off of the grounds and headed straight towards the city.

*Sigh* "Can't wait to get back home, our home, so I can unpack my things." Pam said with a small smile on her face. "You did have almost all of my things brought into our home right?"

"Yes I did honey. Though I couldn't bring in the furniture among other things, but a lot of your other things are already inside our place."

"Good to know." She said before pecking his cheek in response.

"But first," he said for added effect as they were at a stop light, "we are going to visit someone."

"Huh?"

 _ **-Gotham Cemetery-**_

"You know Naruto, you didn't have to blindfold me."

"Well where's the fun in not doing so."

"Actually knowing where I'm going for starters."

The Uzumaki had parked his car outside of the cemetery and was leading his girlfriend along blindfolded. Along the way over, Naruto made her put it on for the little surprise. It did require some begging on his part just so that things won't get spoiled in the end, so she decided to humor him.

"Watch your foot Pam."

"Well how can I since I can't see where I'm walking."

"Eh~ True." He simply said before he came to a complete stop. "Okay Pam. We're here."

"So can I take this off now?" She asked in mild irritation.

"Yeah Pam… You can."

It took a second or so to slip the blindfold off of her head. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she ended up seeing what Naruto brought her to see. Something that made her smile and tear up a little….

Her mother's grave surrounded with flowers.

"I've been touching up the little garden here ever since you've told me where she was buried." Her boyfriend said with a smile on his face. "And I wanted to bring you here first when you got out so you can properly introduce me."

Pam didn't reply back as a few tears leaked out due to the sight in front of her. She had expected Naruto to just come on by every now and then and visit her mother, but he went out of his way to keep things in check with the garden. The botanist was so happy that she hugged her lover in a tight embrace before she spoke.

*Sniffle* "Thank you."

"You're welcome Pam." He simply said before turning his head towards the gravestone that read: 'In Loving Memory: Lillian Isley'. Anything else about the gravestone was covered up with the garden that grew around the stone tablet. Like with the little carved decorations and the date of birth and death. Though the later would've been fine covered up regardless.

Once separating from her hold, Naruto walked a little closer to Lillian's resting place with Pam's fingers intertwined with his. "Hey Lillian. It's been a while."

…..

"Yeah I know that, but I'm finally here with your daughter just like I promised."

…..

Feeling that her mother wanted to be hugged after these past months, Pamela carefully walked through the garden so she wouldn't step onto any of the flowers by mistake. Once close enough, Pam wrapped her arms around the tombstone in a loving embrace.

"Hello mother. Sorry I've been gone for so long." The botanist said before releasing her hold on the piece of carved rock. "I hope Naruto told you what happened to me."

…..

"And I'm sorry about that as well, but I've gotten something out of it in return." She said as she held up her hand and the garden seemed to grow out a little. "You've told me during our gardening sessions that if I'm quiet enough, I can hear the flowers speak to me. Well I can actually speak with them now and I have an important role to help them out."

…..

"I know that it's a big responsibility, but I'll do my best in my role right now." Pam said with strong conviction. She was going to say more, but then remembered her promise to her mother as well. This caused her to slap her forehead in response. "How can I forget." She then went back next to Naruto and firmly grasped his hand. "Mother. This is my boyfriend and the love of my life, Naruto Uzumaki."

*Chuckles* "Hello." He said as he wanted to play along on that since he remembered the details on the memory he saw when he first came onto Pam's Heart Platform.

…..

"I know I've said this during all of the times I've come here. But I truly want to let you know, more than ever with Pam right here, that I'll do everything I can to make her happy." He said to her as he tightened his hand held by his first girlfriend. "She's moving into my loft today as a new step in our relationship and I hope one day that this will eventually lead to us having a family of our own."

Hearing this made the botanist fidget a little in both feeling nervous and sadness. With being nervous, it was just how Naruto was telling her mother on what's happening today. But with sadness, it's on how they won't have any children through the traditional way and one experience she'll never fully have.

Sensing the rise of emotions with his lover, he pecked his lips onto hers before turning back towards the grave. "We will have problems along the way, just like any relationship does, but we'll have our family one way or another. From adoption to something else. I promise you that ma'am."

Pam smiled at this and felt a bit more at ease. Of course slight curiosity came seeping in on the last bit of 'something else'. It was like Naruto knows something that she doesn't. She'll have to ask about this later, but for now she doesn't want to ruin the mood.

"And don't worry mother. No matter what happens, I'll always love him since he'll love me just the same and possibly more." She offhandedly said that seemed odd on how she said it. "I-I mean it's just that we'll be with each other side by side, along with some other people."

…..

"Don't know if um… if Naruto has told you this or not but…." She nervously said as she was scratching her head on saying what was on her mind. "I've let him be with other women."

…..

"Don't worry about it Pam." Her lover said as she faced him on this moment. "I've come clean with your mother about everything whenever I come and visit. Hell I told her what happened after that meeting we had when you gave me permission." He then scratched his cheek with his eyes drifting about. "Though I think she might've been shocked at this like of what me, Selina and Harley was like when they heard it. Hard to tell really because well… *Cough* Well I also told her all of the reasons about it and hoped she understands."

…..

"...Yeah I have no idea what she might respond to this now."

"Me either." Pam admittedly said with a shrug since they were doing some guesswork through most of the conversation. "Well mother, I guess this is goodbye for now. I'll be sure to stop on by every so often now that I'm out of Arkham."

"Same here since I should visit my future mother in law every now and again to catch her up on things." Naruto replied back before he clapped his hands for a little prayer for her. "I wish you the ever lasting peace Lillian. Goodbye and wish us luck."

Pam chuckled a little before nudging his side for him to follow her back to the car so they can get towards their loft. As the loving couple was walking away, a figure approached the grave marker with a smile on her face. She gazed at the retreating couple before turning towards the person residing here.

"So…. Do you feel satisfied now Lillian?"

A little shift in the air soon followed as a woman appeared sitting on the tombstone with a small smile on her face. She looked like an older version of her daughter by roughly a decade, but still retained her beauty from when she was alive. Pamela's mother soon turned towards the person who spoke out and nodded towards her.

"Yes Lady Death." Lillian Isley said as she shed a few tears of happiness. "I feel better now that my daughter is with that sweet boy. She'll make her very happy. I'm sure of it."

"Good to know." The now identified Death spoke as she held out her hand. "So are you ready to go now?"

Once again, the ghost of Lillian Isley nodded. "I can't express how many times I've thanked you for not taking me just yet. I just wanted to see my daughter and try to comfort her as best as possible. The one thing that I've wanted to see so I can hopefully feel at peace was for someone to be with her and love her for the rest of her life."

*Chuckle* "That's quite understandable." Death said as the woman grasped her hand before the two of them slowly faded away for Death to take the late mother towards the afterlife. "He'll be good for her and for the women that feel the same way. You can count on it."

 _ **-Naruto's and Pamela's Loft-**_

Walking up to the door to their home, Pamela pulled out the key Naruto had given her on Christmas Day and she was finally going to use it for the first time. So with her anticipation, she ended up fidgeting the key over the lock before it properly inserted inside of the keyhole. Before she could turn the doorknob, Pam heard her lover chuckle at her current action. Ignoring him on that, she opened up the door to the seemingly darkened apartment with the blinds closed up. Pam was going to turn on the light when something leapt towards the botanist.

"PAMMY!" A female voice yelled out as it glomped the redhead from above, thus causing the two to fall onto the ground.

"Dammit Harley! You ruined the surprise!" A second voice called out from the darkness as she opened up the blinds to the loft. With the light now shining through, it revealed Selina by the windows. "Couldn't you have waited for Naruto to give the signal?"

"How can I since I missed Red so much." The intern said as she hugged the life out of the changed botanist. "And sitting in the dark waiting for her was practically killing me."

"C-Can you let go Harley?" Pam spoke out as she struggled in her friend's grasp. "I would like to give you a hug as well if my arms weren't-"

"Oh why didn't you say so sooner!" Harley said as she let go of her former patient.

"Well I was trying to recover from the fall obviously." Once getting up, she looked at her former doctor before she gasped in shock. "Dear Gaea! What happened to you Harley?!"

From what Pam was referring to, Harley seemed to have gotten a drastic change in her appearance. From what was once a creamy skin tone has become pale white that could've been the same as the Joker's. There was even an odd look of crazy madness in her eyes, but they were overshadowed by the kindness and happiness currently placed there. Also Harley's hair had went from sunny blonde to nearly platinum blonde with how there are some traces of yellow in there.

"Oh you mean this?" The intern gesture on her current appearance. "Yeah… Something that happened when I was kidnapped by the Joker. Took a dip in one of 'em chemical baths at Ace Chemicals." She then waved her friend off as she ignored the wide eyed look from the changed botanist. "Eh~ It's no biggy."

"No biggy! But the Joker did that to you and you-" "Yes I know Pammy and you'll have to get used to it. But if you're worried about me, work and the outside; I'm going to be racking up the make-up bill to cover all this up." Harley spoke out before a cough interrupted the two. Turning towards the source, they saw Bruce Wayne standing next to Dick Grayson, Selina and Shizune.

"As much as I would enjoy seeing this going on," Selina sarcastically said, "I believe that we should be congratulating Pam on getting out of Arkham."

*Gasp* "That's right! I'll be right back!" The pale woman said as she ran up the stairs, only to slip a bit in her excitement before running again.

"Well… That seemed odd." Pam said as she was trying to process on what happened to her friend.

"You're telling me." Bruce said as he walked up to the botanist. "When I first saw her at the hospital, I had a similar reaction."

It was true. When he had come by at the hospital as Batman to check up on Harley and ask her on what happened, he was absolutely shocked to see the intern changed in such a way. It was easy for him to quickly compose himself when questioning her with as much as she could answer. Even afterwards when he stopped on by as Bruce Wayne, he couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling of seeing her like that. But it'll have to be something he'll need to get used to.

"Good to know." Pam mumbled before properly addressing her lover's friend. "It's good to see you Bruce after all these months."

"Same here Pamela. I was told by Naruto that you seem to be out of a job."

"Did he now?" She glanced over towards the publisher, who was scratching his head and chuckling nervously at this.

"Sorry Pam, it slipped out when I was chatting with him a few days ago."

"It's alright honey. No harm done."

*Phew* 'That's a relief.'

"Though you will be punished for that." She said getting a gobsmacked look from him. *Giggle* "I'm just kidding dear." When turning back to the billionaire, she responded back to him. "Yes I'm currently unemployed, but I plan to reapply over there."

"And if you don't get your old job back?" Bruce said getting a shrug from the botanist.

"Then I'll need to apply for other places that could suit my needs. Why you ask Bruce?"

"Well I was wondering if you would like to work for me." The billionaire said shocking the known couple while getting raised brows from Dick, Selina and Shizune.

"Really Bruce? You would want her to work for you."

Turning towards his friend, he nodded in response. "I know that what happened to her was unfair for her and I want to help her out as much as I can. Not only that, but her research could be invaluable and could save countless amounts of forestation down the line. So I want to help back her up if needed."

"I uh *Cough* Thank you Bruce. I'll uh think about it." The botanist said as she composed herself more. "But where would I work at exactly if I do work for you."

"At the branch located at the botanical gardens really."

"Huh… Didn't know you had one there Bruce." Naruto said as he racked his brain if there really was one over there or not.

"Technically it's more like I fund the operations there that it might as well be called a branch." The billionaire said getting nods from the two. "If you do want to apply Pamela, then you'll need to talk to the people over there first."

"I'll do that. Thank you."

"Pammy! I got your present!" Harley yelled out as she ran out before slipping and falling once again. "I'm okay!"

"Well that took a while." Shizune spoke out some of the other's thoughts. "Did you hide it deep in one of the closets up there?"

"Yes since I didn't want Isis to claw all over it." The changed intern said as she playfully glared at the cat up the stairs.

*Meowr*

"Oh don't lie. I would know you would do that. All you cat's seem to play with boxes when you're bored." She replied back before turning back towards her friend. "Come on. Open it Red."

As the botanist opened it up, she smiled at what was inside. "Well ain't this lovely."

"I know." The pale woman puffed out her chest in pride at this. "Took a while to make it. Then again while staying at the hospital would get me soooo bored."

"So you used that time to make me a sweater." Pam said as she held it up against herself. It seemed rather slim; but with it being hand knitted, it'll stretch out a little if it was too small for her and that'll be just fine. Also it was green, so that was a plus.

"Yup. Also another reason why I had to hide it from Isis so she wouldn't ruin it."

*Meowr* *Meowr*

"I know you would definitely ruin my gift missy so don't have any funny ideas." The intern accusingly said with a pointed finger.

"She probably wouldn't do such a thing Harley." Dick said as he walked up to the pale woman.

"Yeah well you didn't see the look in her eyes Dickie."

"Uh huh." The Wayne ward said before he approached the botanist with an outstretched hand. "Names Dick Grayson. We haven't met before."

'Obviously.' Pam thought before she shook the offered hand. "So how do you know Naruto? Asides from him being friend's with your foster father."

"I first met him when I was barely a teenager." Dick honestly said with a smile on his face. "He was quite interesting when I ran into him at the arcades since he had just moved into Gotham at the time. Tried to beat him on a lot of the games, but he seems to get the better of me."

"And I still do Dick and it'll take years for you to reach my level." The publisher said in a cocky tone getting the Grayson teen to playfully glare at his older friend.

"Oh we'll see Naruto." He said before turning back to the botanist. "So I kept coming back to the arcade to beat him in his own games. One time though these thugs came in and started trashing the place for 'protection money' and Naruto wasn't too pleased when seeing it. He and I ended up beating them up real good."

"Yeah but that ended up getting us sent to the station. *Groan* Wasn't fun when that happened."

"Tell me about it. Bruce wasn't all too happy at first when he had to pick me up." Dick replied as he can remember that moment all too well.

"And that was how I met Naruto." Bruce added in. "The next time I met him was after he started his publishing company when he attended an event. Can't remember what it was though."

"Same here, but regardless things led to another that made us good friends."

Pam smiled at the interaction of seeing her beloved's joyful attitude that it seemed rather infectious.

Dick looked at his watch for a moment before he nudged his foster father. "I think we should get going Bruce."

"Is it already that time?" Bruce asked before he looked at his watch as well. "Huh, guess so."

"Where you heading off to Bruce?"

"I have a business meeting out of state that requires my presence." Bruce answered to his friend. "I'll probably be back within a couple of days max."

"Well have fun on your flight then." Naruto said before seeing Dick following Bruce out of the door. "You're heading out too Dick?"

"Yeah. Only wanted to stay till I got to say hi to Pam. Would've stayed longer, but I've got finals to prepare for and I need all the time that I can get."

"Ah gotcha. Well have fun with that and good luck."

Dick nodded before he closed the door leaving Naruto with the four women in his loft.

"Well it's finally good to finally meet you Pam." Shizune said as she introduced herself. "Shizune Kato, Selina's assistant and roommate."

"Good to finally match the face with the name. Selina and Naruto told me a lot about you."

"And same to you." The dark haired assistant said before bringing up a little topic in her head. "Though it was a surprise to hear on what Selina told me on you accepting her in your open relationship with Naruto."

"Yeah." Pam said as she winced a little on how Selina's roommate found out on the relationship. "And sorry that you had to find out through that situation."

"True, but I'm fine with it really. Only as long as I'm not at home, not in my room, and if I was at home they need to do it somewhere else."

"I said I was sorry on that Shizune." The environmentalist spoke out trying to defend herself. "How were we supposed to know you and Iruka were going at it in your room late that one night. It was really hard to tell honestly."

"Well it was quite awkward when our boys ran into each other in the restroom."

*Groan* "Don't remind me."

That night was not great to say the least. Sure things went pleasantly well for Naruto and Selina as they got back from a nice night on the town before ending back at her place. The two were rather frisky once they made it into the loft and had gone through a few rounds before taking a break. Though when Naruto went into the bathroom, he almost ran into this world's counterpart of his old academy teacher. He was equally naked as well with him freshen up after making love to Shizune.

Suffice to say, it was even more awkward when their respective lovers came in to have fun in the restroom.

"Could not get any good action after that." Selina said as she rubbed her head on the memory.

"Yeah…. Well I'm off." The assistant said before grabbing her purse.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"Spending the rest of the day with Iruka." Shizune quickly said before heading towards the door. "You guys have fun in whatever!"

With her gone now, this left things a little quieter in the loft.

"...Well that seemed odd." Naruto stated.

"I know, but at least that makes things better for us now puddin." Harley spoke out as she ended up playing with Isis on the floor for the past few minutes. "Especially since you've got some things to say to all of us."

This got looks from the two other women as they had the same thought in mind before voicing it towards their shared lover at once. _"What did she mean by that Naruto?"_

*Sigh* "Figured this might come to that." He said before he walked over to the kitchen. "You girls might as well sit down since this will take a while to explain. I'll be in the kitchen getting some water."

The girls did as they were instructed before the two environmentalists looked at the pale woman with questioning eyes.

"Harley…. What is going on?" Selina asked as she saw Harley lift Isis above her for some little impromptu game of sorts.

"Well as you two must've heard by now, Vanitas saved me from the Joker last week. Also what you two specifically know is that I finally confessed my feelings to Naruto. *Dreamy Sigh* It felt magical in our first togetha." Harley said before going into a fit of giggles.

"Glad that you've fallen in love with Naruto and earned his love Harl, but there's something you're not telling us."

"I'm getting to that Red. Sheesh, you are so damn impatient."

This was probably going to another thing for them to get used to, asides from the new appearance. Normally Harley would be very well mannered and polite, but this change has made her seem childish and somewhat rude. At least it's not too much that would get in the way of things.

"Well after I was saved, I found out something really interesting that possibly nobody else knows."

"Which would be what exactly?"

Harley was going to answer Selina's question when heavy footsteps came towards them. The two environmentalists were expecting Naruto with a tray full of water, but they didn't expect to see….

"Vanitas!" The two yelled out in shock and looked towards the kitchen to expect Naruto there, but he wasn't. They soon put two and two together to realize… "You're Naruto?!"

*Chuckle* "Yeah." Naruto answered as he sat down after placing the tray of ice water onto the coffee table. To reassure that it was really him, he dispersed his helmet to reveal his face towards his girlfriends. "Surprise~"

They gained baffled looks as they tried to process what was going on. That was before they heard Harley giggle like a loon before it went into a full laugh.

*Laughs* "Oh god, you two should see your faces!"

"Harley?! You knew?!" The two environmentalists yelled out before they saw her nod in response.

*Chuckles* "Found out when Naruto saved me." Once she calmed down she started to explain. "I fell into the tank of chemicals and when Naruto got me out, I wasn't breathing at all. So he had to perform CPR on me to do so, thus I saw his face."

"And when did this start?" Pam asked as she realized that her beloved boyfriend was the one that had cut down her babies when they had fought earlier this year. The botanist didn't know now if she could forgive him or not on that particular detail.

Even Selina was in a similar boat as Naruto was the one that saved Isis on Christmas and saved her specifically during the Red Claw incident.

"Well I found out of these powers shortly after our first date Pam and I was figuring things out afterwards. And before you two ask, I didn't want to tell you I was Vanitas since I didn't want you in danger." He said as he partook a glass of water.

"What else aren't you telling us?"

Hearing Selina's hurtful tone, he sighed before he hend out his hands. "If you want the answers, hold onto me since this might be a bit of a doozy."

Seeing as this was odd for them, their curiosity got the better of them as the two environmentalists grasped each of his hands respectively. This was before Harley leaned her head onto his shoulder with Isis in her grasp. Before long, all of them blacked out.

 _ **-Naruto's Mindscape, Insert Destati Extended-**_

When they came too, the girls present seemed rather groggy from their current positions.

*Groan* "What the hell was that?" Selina asked as she rubbed her head as the other two women mirrored her action.

"I have no clue."

"Holy cow!" Harley yelled out as she gained the attention from her friends. "I look awesome!"

This gained perplexed looks from the two before they saw what Harley was referring to with the intern examining the ground. It appeared to be of stained glass design with what they could tell before examining the edge of the ground. Selina almost fell over into the endless darkness below if Pam didn't grab ahold of her arm to make them realize they were on a platform of sorts.

It was mostly a kaleidoscope of bright blues, reds and yellows that covered the entire appearance with varying circles framing an image of Gotham's landscape in the twilight hours. With the smaller circles, they saw different images switching between medical equipment and butterflies of all things. Towards the top of the platform image showed another set of circles with portrait images of Pam, Selina and Naruto. But the main focus, to what Harley was mostly interested in was herself in an unusual attire.

It an odd fusion of a nurse's outfit with a biker chick one with the color scheme primarily red and black. There was a black neck choker with a metal loop connected towards leather straps around her arms and shoulders. Her sleeves and collar were white while wearing a leather quilted corset connected to a black and white combat skirt of sorts. She had leather armbands with laces around her wrists along with red and black tights that had diamond patterns on her thighs and knees. The appearance also showed a pair of high heeled boots that alternated colors. Her hair was put into a pair of pigtails with each end died with a different color from one side red and the other black. To finish off the look, the image showed Harley having a different weapon on each hand, a giant mallet and a baseball bat in the other.

"Whoever had designed this thing should be praised since it truly captures my fantastic appearance." The intern said as she kept examining every bit of her appearance.

"Whatever you say Harl." Pam responded but couldn't help but marvel on how beautiful this platform seemed to be and Selina had similar thoughts as well.

"I know that stained glass works are amazing to look at, but I think this could take the cake."

*Meowr*

"What the… Isis?" Selina called out as she saw her precious baby on the edge of the platform. "Get away from there!"

The cat seemed to ignore her master's order as she ran across a stained glass path that seemed to light up underneath her feet. This caused the ravenette to run after the feline with her friends following right behind. Once Selina seemed to have catched up on the pathway, another platformed appeared to show that it was one with the cat thief as the focus.

"Huh… I take back what I said." The thief said with a smirk on her face. "This one might be the best one ever."

"No fair Selena!" Harley pouted with a stomp of her feet. "You're only saying that since this one has you in it."

"Obviously." The ravenette simply said with a smirk causing the intern to run after the laughing woman.

'Ugh. This is going to be annoying.'

' **It's like dealing with two children at the moment.'** Ivy spoke inside of their shared mind for their small agreement.

*Meowr* *Meowr*

Hearing Isis call out to them once again made the three women end up following her. After following through the stained glass pathway, they ended up on a darkened platform that soon lighted up in a bright light. Once it died down, it revealed Pamela's platform causing the three to inspect it well.

'It has... Us?… Both of us?' Pam thought as her other half was stupefied with what they were seeing. 'But how?'

' **I'm in much of a loss as you are sister.'**

"This looks really pretty Pam." Harley commented in little awe. "It has both you and Ivy in it."

"This is nice and all girls, but there's one thing that's missing here and that's Naruto."

*Gasp* "You're right Selina. But where is puddin?"

As an impromptu answer, a door started to form out of nothing not far from them. They really didn't know how to respond this at first, but something about the door seemed to draw them towards into opening it. Of course Isis started to head towards it seeing as there was a kitty/doggy door there, but her 'mother' grabbed her before taking the chance.

"Nah uh. You're not running away this time Isis." The thief said as she held her precious baby in her arms. "You're staying with me until we get out of this place."

*Meowr*

"So… Who wants to be the one to open the door?" The botanist asked before her darker half took over. **"I will. I just want to see our 'king' right now."**

Once Ivy twisted the knob, the three were caught into another blinding light like before. Only this time though, the group saw they were standing on a plain white platform. Nothing extraordinary about it was displayed here, which confused them. With how they saw the previous platforms being very beautiful and intricate on the details, this one seemed off to them somehow that it needs to be completed.

"Seems you girls finally made it." Naruto called out getting the group to see their boyfriend not too far from them lying on the ground. "Took you long enough."

"I guess, but what was all that back there and where are we exactly?"

Hearing Selina's question, the Uzumaki briefly glanced at her before answering. "Those were the representations of your hearts, minds and souls…. Or so I have been told."

"...By who exactly?" Pam asked as several thoughts were running through the girls' heads.

"Yggdrasil." He simply said getting the changed botanist to freeze up on this. "He told me very little about this place since he was curious about the same thing in a later chat we had. But regardless it was something we both agreed on."

"I'm sorry, but who's Yggdrasil?" The pale woman asked.

" **He's one of the leaders of the Parliament of Trees."** Ivy said towards her former doctor. **"And they were the ones that made me who I am."**

"Good to know I guess." The ravenette simply said as she scratched her head at this. Parliament of Trees? She'll be asking questions about that she figured.

"I can tell you girls have a lot of questions right now and I would be more than happy to tell you them." Naruto told them from his spot on the platform. "But can you guys come over here and lay down with me? It's all I ask of you right now."

Seeing as they weren't going anywhere from this, they complied. Once getting over to his position, they took their places by surrounding their beloved boyfriend. Harley took up his right side while hugging his arm, Selina took up his left with Isis lying down on Naruto's stomach, and Pam lied down just above his head with her head right next to his.

When things were settled, light and dark sparks descended from the void above causing Harley to stare at them in childish wonder.

"Oh~ Pretty."

"Mind telling us what those are Naruto?" Asked the ravenette.

"Those…. Those would be my memories." He said getting odd looks from the girls. Knowing what they were sending him without even looking, the Uzumaki just spoke to them. "Just watch."

And they did as the light and dark sparks seemed to come together and before long, it formed an impromptu movie screen of sorts up in the void like sky.

"I might as well start with my earliest, remembered memories and go on from there. But before I get into that, I might as well tell you girls something really important. I'm not actually from this world… Or for that matter, this reality…."

And so he regaled them the story of his life, to the best of his ability. It was hard for him to do so on certain moments with how disturbing things were in his early childhood. Of being left alone, being socially abused and being a true outcast in his home. This, in turn, made the girls comfort their love on what they could for the time being. They wanted to talk to him and ask him things, but they seemingly couldn't as they wanted Naruto to finish before they could speak out.

So once he got through the generalized 'rough' parts of his early childhood, he started talking about the various things in that time as the girls watched things unfold before their eyes. They laughed and giggled when they saw Naruto pull the various pranks around his home village. Even ones that truly made Selina green with envy with how things were successfully pulled off. Sure she learned a lot of them from him when he visited her in prison, but seeing the full scope of things was something else entirely.

They saw the best parts of his childhood that he cherished well, despite some of the shortcomings he had to deal with back then. The girls were surprised to see some faces they recognized at the time like Selina seeing Shizune's boyfriend as Naruto's academy teacher while Harley saw her adopted sister as Naruto's childhood friend. Of course they saw Naruto interact with others at his age that were better friends than from what he could possibly get, despite his circumstances, through hard work on earning that relationship.

Things soon progressed when they saw Naruto graduate from the academy after defeating Mizuki with an army of shadow clones (even with how Naruto successfully stole the Forbidden Scroll). After his graduation, Naruto met Konohamaru and ended up teaching him the Sexy Jutsu (something that gained twitching eyes from the girls). Then things went on of the day of the team assignments and the horrid image Naruto wanted to gouge his eyes out on: him and Sasuke accidentally kissing. Although Harley and Selina got a good kick out of that on how that happened, Pam was pissed that Naruto's first kiss was ruined because of that boy and patted his head consolingly.

Events went on as the team first met Kakashi, the events of the bell test, and on the varying chore missions that went on after the team was officially formed. Soon things transitioned when they saw Naruto's first real mission outside of his home and the difficulties he had to face in that time. They saw him fight against several mercenaries, learning the truth of what was happening in Wave and helping out the people there as best as he can at the time. Though they ended up seeing Naruto interact with Haku, to which Selina remembered on the small discussion when he saved her from the Daggett incident, and him adopting the philosophy that he'll become stronger if he protects those that are precious to him.

Things went on with how the Wave mission ended and Naruto got a bridge named after him in the end (Naruto barely caught onto what the bridge builder said as the team walked away). After that, the girls saw events that went on with how their boyfriend went through the Chunin Exams. From the difficulties presented towards him in each of the parts, the people he interacted and faced; all of it. Even though it seemed unfair that he didn't get promoted, he got stronger by the end of it all after he defeated the person he truly called a brother named Gaara.

Soon they saw Naruto attending the funeral of the man he considered his foster grandfather after he sacrificed his life to save his home from his former student. It was rather rough for them to see, but it was an important part of his life to not ignore. He then explained on the events of him going onto a mission with the Toad Pervert Jiraiya (they truly wondered how he had put up with him at that time and at the exams) to find Tsunade and get her to become the Hokage. They did see on the first time Naruto gambled and it was nice to see his surprised and happy reaction out of that before seeing him pissed off at Tsunade dismissing the Hokage title like it was nothing.

Events went on as Naruto learned the Rasengan within the week as he interacted with the Shizune he had known, to which Selina was shocked to see on the varying differences. His training soon paid off as he had fought against Kabuto and assisted the others by summoning the Toad Boss before he passed out from his pain he endured. Later learned that he was actually dying, but Tsunade saved him in the end. As a good result in the end, Naruto was successful in bringing Tsunade back to take on the Hokage mantle.

Things had passed as they were briefly shown what happened afterwards as Team 7 went onto another high profile mission in protecting a movie actress, later revealed princess of a country. All of the fighting, the information and revelations, and the ending confrontations. Naruto had earned Koyuki's respect and friendship in the end that made him appreciate it to this day with how things turned out.

Though things went to a turn for the worse when they saw the events of Sasuke's Retrieval mission. With how Naruto's emo teammate had left in search for power in revenge against his older brother (whom Naruto met during the Tsunade mission), who had killed off his entire clan years ago. Showing the struggles Naruto had to endure leading up to the fight at the Valley at the End and how he had lost due to him holding back so he can hopefully bring Sasuke back for Sakura's sake. The girls were horrified though when they saw Sasuke plunge his hand through his chest and wondered how he survived though. He did console them and he thanked his former tenant in helping him stay alive that day. But after all that, Naruto showed on him leaving the village with Jiraiya for a training trip in hopes of making him stronger with what's to come.

Things in that time were briefly shown as how his training went. There were some ups and down, but they were relatively well. Except for when Naruto could only remember bits and pieces when Jiraiya messed with the seal to gain access to the Kyuubi chakra. The end result was not all that great with Naruto almost killing Jiraiya for his actions thinking Naruto could control the power right away.

When Naruto came back from his training trip, he got acquainted with a handful of people he cared for. After a fighting test to see how things had went with Naruto's training, things seemingly went relatively smooth. That was until the day Naruto was going to do missions again with the remnants of Team 7 that Gaara was kidnapped by the Akatsuki, a terrorist organization that was targeting Jinchurikis (which Naruto was one of them). Details on the mission were explained and on what went on further in their boyfriend's perspective. Even though Gaara was saved in the end, with the help of Team 9/Guy, there were several costs like Elder Chiyo giving up her life to revive Gaara back from the dead.

Once he and the teams got back home, Naruto learned of what was supposed to happen within a week at the Tenchi Bridge in Grass Country and they needed to prepare. The introductions to the replacements in team 7 happened and they were rocky at best. Though it was rather interesting on Pam's part when learning of Yamato had variant powers of the Green in his control, even though he was experimented as an infant at the time for the results. Being experimented on with the cells of the First Hokage, who could literally make the man worthy of being a champion of the Green if he was in this world.

Though Naruto couldn't show all of the events that happened at the Tenchi Bridge, due to him going into the 4th Tailed State and going on a rampage. But when he came to though, Sakura was pretty scared of him for what he was at the time. Of course the chase went onto Orochimaru's base where Naruto learned the truth about his new teammate Sai and his mission given by his boss Danzo that he would try to kill Sasuke when given the chance. The little reunion was not as best as it could've been, but the results were not as pleasant as well.

Once coming back home, with the mission being technically a failure, Naruto wanted to get stronger and requested Kakashi and Yamato for help. They complied but before they went into training; Naruto was sent out with Sakura, Rock Lee, and Neji to protect a Shrine Maiden in Demon Country. As the events of the mission unfolded, it was interesting to say the least, in the girl's perspective, on Naruto going on more that he defies 'fate' and makes his own as he is protecting Shion from a horde of demons. In the end, Naruto helped Shion defeat the demon Moryo. Although the girls were surprised on Shion asking Naruto to impregnate her to continue the priestess line and he obliviously accepted. In their boyfriend's defence; he didn't know at the time and Pam is the one that he shared his very first time with, to which the other two girls looked at the botanist's pleased face in victory.

Things didn't settle after that as Naruto was sent out once again and this time in Sand Country to track down a wanted criminal. They ended up at the Rouran Ruins, a kingdom that was built on top of a Nexus of Chakra Ley Lines, and the criminal seemingly accessed it and traveled to the past with Naruto and Yamato caught in the blast. Although things seemed relatively normal after the blast disbursed since neither Naruto nor Yamato could remember what happened. All that Naruto could say at this was that he somehow interacted with things in the past as a nomadic girl came on by and gave back the Uzumaki a weapon he seemingly left behind on accident and it aged 20 years in the process.

After all that, Tsunade gave Naruto some well deserved time off and he used this time to train. He requested Kakashi's and Yamato's help once again, they complied and took Naruto some distance away from the village to train by getting the Uzumaki to know what his nature affiliation was. After it was revealed to be wind, Naruto went through a long training regime on how he can fully control its capabilities. Even Asuma, leader of Team 10 and Konohamaru's uncle, had come on by to help out for a short with him having the same chakra nature and showed what he can do with it on weapons. Time has past that Naruto had learned his Rasengan was originally half done and by the end of his training, he was able to incorporate his wind nature with his Rasengan.

But when Naruto was about to fully integrate the wind into his main technique, he learned that Asuma had died when Team 8 and the Eternal Chunin confronted the Akatsuki. After some time for mourning with Asuma's funeral, Team's 7 and 10 went out to avenge his death. Confrontations were made fought over the Akatsuki team, the Zombie Duo, and things were difficult at best. So as while Shikamaru fought against Hidan, by himself and won towards the end, Naruto and the others fought against Kakuzu; a man who prolonged his life by stealing the hearts of others to replace the damaged ones. Naruto was successful in defeating and killing him in the end with his Rasenshuriken, but during his recovery period he learned the consequences of his technique.

It was sometime after this when Naruto and the rest of the Rookie 11 learned that Sasuke killed Orochimaru. They were soon sent out to find Itachi, which Sasuke was going after, and in that time they ran into Kabuto. The girls soon learned that he experimented on himself and practically made himself a new Orochimaru by infusing himself with his old master's remains (which sickened the girls greatly).

The search continued and Naruto confronted his target, eventually found out that it was a clone, and Naruto learned on what Itachi thought of the former blonde at the time as Sasuke's brother. At the end of the meeting, Itachi shoved a crow down his throat and it was really not pleasant on the experience. Even the girls winced on that. So after that occurred, the group tried to track down Sasuke, but was confronted by Akatsuki member Tobi. He was not fun to deal with but he was there to stall time for Sasuke to battle against his older brother. They learned of this when Zetsu, Pam and Naruto guessed had qualities of the Green inside of the man, appeared and stated that Sasuke had successfully defeated and killed his brother. Things were a failure once again as the group tried to reach Sasuke in time, but Tobi and Zetsu got away with both of the Uchiha bodies.

During a little recovery period, Naruto was called into Tsunade's office and learned of Jiraiya's death from Fukasaku, one of the two Great Sage Toads. The girls sympathised and comforted Naruto at this since it was a harsh blow to him of losing someone who was a foster uncle of sorts and it was later revealed that Jiraiya was his godfather. But Naruto got better in the end after some encouragement from loved ones and a good lesson from Shikamaru about the old masters dying so the students can become new ones to teach newer ones.

Soon Naruto was sent to Mount Myoboku in terms of Reverse Summoning so he could learn how to become the new Sage of the Toads. It was quite interesting for Pam and Selina to hear about all of this with Naruto being apart of nature as his training went on from there. But Harley seemed to have dozed off in a childlike manner. Not like any of the two other women noticed with how engrossed they were in their own ways. Even with all that training, Naruto figured out ways how to fully use Sage Mode and perfect his Rasen Shuriken technique.

Just in time too as Naruto received word that Konoha was attacked by Pein. So after quick preparation, Naruto and a variety of toads got back to see Konoha in ruins. It was at this point that Harley woke up from her small nap and cheered alongside the girls of seeing their boyfriend fight off against five of the six Peins. Naruto soon confronted the final Pein and words were exchanged on ideals and views of peace since both of them were students of Jiraiya. The younger Naruto was defeated near the end and the Akatsuki leader was going to take him away if it wasn't for Hinata coming for the rescue. It was there that she confessed her feelings for the former blonde and died protecting him. This caused him to snap and wind up in his mindscape to drown in his sorrows while going over the ideals of Pein's way of peace.

It was hard for the girls to handle as the younger Naruto went to remove the seal of the cage. Before he could do so, the Fourth Hokage appeared to stop this. After the short reveal of the man being Naruto's father, the girls were shocked to see his younger self punch the man in the gut and in the face. Minato took the blows since he felt like he deserved it before stating that he was sorry on what happened to his son for those past years. He even apologized of putting the Kyuubi inside of him since he wanted to, at first, protect the village. But in the end he was happy that he was able to protect his son in the end and wished for the best out of him. So with one last goodbye, Minato fixed the seal and sent his son back out to finish off the fight.

The girls were teary eyed at most of this and Naruto gave them comforting hugs that it was alright in the end. From there their boyfriend continued on of showing how he was able to defeat the last Pein before he confronted the real Nagato with his partner Konan. After some convincing, Nagato used up the last of his life to perform a technique to revive those that perished in the attack on the village. Konan went away with the bodies of her dead friends before Naruto went back home. He was revered as a hero towards everyone there and celebrations happened afterwards.

That happiness didn't last though as Danzo was named Hokage due to Tsunade being in a deep coma. Not only that but Naruto learned from a team from Kumo that Sasuke and his team had taken Killer Bee, the Kumo team's teacher and 8th tailed Jinchuriki. So with some convincing, Kakashi and Yamato accompanied Naruto to the Land of Iron so they can confront the Raikage A, as the man went over there for a Kage summit, to talk to the man about Sasuke. Things didn't go all that well in that discussion as it made Naruto think over more if his former teammate should be spared or not.

It was at this time that Tobi appeared to the three Konoha shinobi and revealed the truth on the Uchiha massacre that they were planning a coup and Itachi spared his brother in the process since he loved his little brother too much to do such a thing. Even revealed that Naruto truly inherited the Senju clan's Will of Fire philosophy and that would lead him to truly fight Sasuke one day. The man left with Naruto knowing all of what the masked man said was the absolute truth due to him, not known at the time that he somehow gained emotion detecting skills. This was even proven even more when Sakura arrived and lied to his face that she loved him.

Harley commented as she remembered Naruto talking to her about this that this was how Naruto ended his friendship with Sakura and the girls couldn't fault him on this. A friend Naruto has had a crush on for years and even fought for her during past times and this was the end result with Naruto knowing back then that she still loved the emo bastard. With his past self actually stating that to her face, she left heartbroken that she possibly made things worse between them.

Naruto got to the summit to see the aftermath of Sasuke and his team wrecking the place. He didn't say much as his head was still swimming with the thoughts that has happened within the day. Even more so when Gaara talked to him about his dream of being Hokage and what is to possibly be done with Sasuke. Things led to another after that and Naruto ran after Kakashi to properly confront Sasuke. Just in time too as he saw Sasuke was about to kill Sakura and he came in to save her at the last moment.

It was at this time the girls were shown of the reunion of Team 7 and a small fight occurred before Sasuke and Naruto clashed. As things died down, their boyfriend stated after seeing Sasuke's heart (it was odd for him back then on how that worked) that in their next confrontation, he wasn't going to hold back and kill the emo bastard. This surprised the girls and the others present in the memory before Tobi took Sasuke away. Naruto explained that at the time, of him passed out after chatting with Gaara, he was finally going over things on his resolve and knowing what needed to be done.

From there, Naruto told the girls as they kept viewing the memories on what he learned during the Kage Summit meeting and the further truth of Danzo manipulating things from the dark so he could become Hokage. This got the man stricken from the record as Tsunade got out of her coma. Shortly after Tsunade was back into office, things went down further in the drain as Naruto was arrested for the attempted murder of Raikage A.

This shocked the girls more as it was unfair and he was framed for this false charge, but he was sent to the Blood Prison regardless. As the time went on with his misery, Naruto talked about how he first met and befriended Ryuuzetsu after his attempt on escaping the prison. After learning the truth from her on what the warden did to her childhood friend, the two of them planned a prison riot. It was rather interesting on Selina's end on how this went and commented on how it could've gone better in her perspective. Of course that changed as the Box of Enlightenment was revealed and the demon inside was released. In the end of that event, Ryuuzetsu traded her life for Naruto's in order to save him in the end. After all that, Naruto learned that the framing was a hoax to get him inside of the prison to figure things out. This information made the both the younger Naruto and the girlfriends pissed off and made Naruto not trust the others all that well after a heated argument.

When Naruto was recovering from his wounds from the whole prison debacle, his younger self was summoned to Mount Myoboku. Though with how that happened made the girls queezy of him eating a bowl of worms and insects without noticing until the very end due to how hungry he was. Of course he did throw up rather harshly after that and made him feel very weak while he chatted with the Grand Elder Toad Sage. Naruto was given the key to the seal on his stomach and awaited for how it'll be inside of him. That however wasn't pleasant as the girls cringed again seeing the younger Naruto have the giant scroll shoved down his throat and caused him to nearly pass out from that. It was an odd miracle he didn't die from it along with him emptying his stomach contents earlier.

Eventually things went on from there as Naruto was sent to Turtle Island so that he could train and control the Bijuu power as his own. It was rather interesting on how Naruto had officially met and befriended Killer Bee despite both of them badly rapping with each other. The older Jinchuriki lead the younger Naruto to the Waterfalls of Truth, where the later met and confronted his darker half named Yami. It didn't go all that well; but after chatting with Motoi, the Hachibi and the odd customary fistbump Naruto currently inherited, his younger self went back and confronted Yami. It was at this point Pam really paid attention to as she and Ivy saw their beloved accept his darker half since he is apart of him and has to accept him to fully feel whole. This would need to accept all of the pain and suffering he had endured throughout his life up to that point. In the end, Naruto felt better and proceeded with the next part of his training.

Said part though was not easy as the younger Naruto had to fight against the Kyuubi and play the ultimate game of tug-of-war to take the Bijuu chakra as his own. The fight was intense and when Naruto seemed to have lost the tug-of-war, it was there that Naruto had finally met his mother for the first time. It was really sweet on what the girls saw and couldn't help, but shed a few tears (though Harley was balling her eyes out when seeing this in comedic fashion).

Kushina explained on how his parents first met and how she fell in love with her father, with how her future husband liked the color of her hair. Even present day Naruto commented on this as he told Pam that he really liked her hair and it was very beautiful when he first met her. The botanist blushed at this and played with her hair as a result while Selina snickered and Harley wanted her puddin to compliment her hair as well. But after some good conviction, with his mother's help, Naruto was able to defeat the Kyuubi and take his chakra in the end.

With that out of the way, Kushina told Naruto the events on the night of his birth. It was hard to swallow at the time, especially with his mother apologizing on helping place the Jinchuuriki burden on her son. But to her and the girlfriends' surprise, he accepted it with no bitterness that it wasn't her fault at all as it was Tobi's fault to begin with. After the meeting with his mother, things went crazy from there as the island group confronted the hidden Kisame to which the man eventually committed suicide to escape interrogation in a grotesque fashion.

Training commenced for the young Naruto to try and master his newly gained power. It was after a day's worth of training, while in Chakra Mode as he called it, that he sensed something was off. Wanting to confirm what was going on, he tricked the older Jinchuriki into letting him out of the training area before making his attempt to escape the temple. After getting past the Waterfall of Truth, Naruto sensed what was going on in the outside world and demanded to know what happened. So Iruka decided against the wishes of the team of Konoha shinobi present told Naruto the truth that the 4th Shinobi War was currently taking place and the Allied Forces needed to keep the two Jinchuuriki away from the action. It was even more disturbing as the enemies that Tobi was using against the Allied Forces was the very dead themselves. But after a brief discussion on his younger counterpart and revealing his Chakra Mode, he and Kirabi escaped their confinements and joined the war effort.

On their way towards the first section of the war, the two were confronted by Tsunade and A. It was difficult for the two to get past them, but it got a bit easier after convincing the Hokage to let them pass despite A's insistence to keep them out. It was even harder for the Raikage to keep the Jinchuuriki down once Naruto used his clone technique to create thousands of clones and spread them out the Elemental Nations to help things out. The main Naruto and Kirabi eventually ran into the Edo Tensei Itachi and Nagato and a fight commenced. Naruto did explain to Itachi on what he had to kill Sasuke and there was not backing out from his conviction to the point Itachi had to surrender and possibly let it happen.

Soon after, a large influx of memories went passing through and Naruto had decided to skip a lot of what happened since it was generally the same of Naruto helping defeating the Edo Tensei forces. That was until their boyfriend stopped and showed them something that shook his very core from one of his clones' memories: the reveal of Madara Uchiha and the Edo Tensei decimating several hundred shinobi on his own. What was more scarier for not only Naruto, but also for the girls was when Madara had summoned two fucking meteorites from the sky to possibly wipe out the battalion of Allied forces. It was at that point, after the five current Kage arrived to confront Madara, that the Naruto clone in the area dispersed to let the main Naruto what was going on.

Just in time too since at that moment, Naruto and Kirabi were confronted by Tobi, the false Madara, with the other Edo Tensei Jinchuriki two-seven. The Jinchuuriki clashed with each other with Naruto hoping he could get rid of the hidden chakra rods inside of the bodies so the dead could finally be at peace. Things escalated as the Edo Tensei Jinchuriki went into their version 2 cloaked forms that made things truly difficult at first. But what the girls experienced could only be something that could be called a true clash of titans once the controlled Jinchuriki went full Tailed Beast and it was truly a sight to behold. Even Selina couldn't help but be at awe when she saw the Nibi in her full flaming glory while Pam and Harley viewed the other Bijuu.

Things led to another when Naruto was swallowed whole inside of the giant monkey known as the Yonbi. But when Naruto went into Chakra Mode, it was then that Naruto ended up in his mindscape and chatted with the Yonbi himself with chains holding him down. After some little chatter, Naruto learned of Son Goku's name and his request from being free from the confinement. He complied and after some effort, the younger Naruto was successful in destroying the chakra receiver that was controlling Son Goku before he got sucked up by the large statue in the distance. But if Naruto wanted to take care of the other controlled Bijuu, he needed help from the Kyuubi.

It was difficult at best on the discussion that took place inside of the seal. But Naruto expressed his feelings on wanting to save the other Bijuu and would do anything to do so as he opened Kyuubi's cage. It was there that Naruto learned the fox's name was Kurama and the two went on full force against the false Madara and the remaining controlled Bijuu. Suffice to say, it was really epic on the girls' parts as they felt the rush going on as Naruto faced them in his Tailed Beast form.

Naruto won in the end and before the other Bijuu were taken like of what happened to Son Goku, the former blonde wound back up inside of his mindscape. There he saw the two tails to the seven tails with their respective Jinchuriki present as he chatted and befriended each of them. Once he fist bumped with each of them at once, more like a giant conjoining of hands on Naruto's fist, the Uzumaki learned each of their respective names of both the Bijuu and their respective hosts before he went back out to fight.

"And after that, I went out to stop Tobi once and for all." Naruto spoke out as he was wrapping up his long discussion with his girlfriends. "But the guy pulled a move at the last moment and things went downhill. Last thing I knew, I was dealing with the greatest amount of pain I could ever experience before I wound up in this world. From there I parted with Kurama, who now has a body of his own and we went our separate ways. And that was how I got here girls."

After all that discussion, Naruto felt a little exhausted with his mouth feeling a bit of pain from talking for so long. Although they were in his mindscape so it was hard to tell once he and the girls woke up. As for the girls… Well…

"...Damn." Selina simply said as she tried to process everything she just learned from the love of her life. "That's a lot to take in."

"Well I did want to tell you the truth on where I came from Selina."

"And what did you do after that?" Pamela spoke out as she asked what was on the other's minds.

"Traveled through Eurasia (the combined continental landmass of Europe and Asia) for two years on my own till I came to America eight years ago." He said before standing back up and stretched out a little. "Well... I think that's enough discussion for one day and I think it's time for us to get out of here."

"But how puddin?" Harley asked when sitting back up as Isis seemingly sat perfectly on her head. "We don't know how to get out of here."

"Don't worry about that Harley." He said as the platform below started to glow in a bright light. "We'll be out soon enough."

And with that, the light consumed them all.

 _ **-Waking World-**_

The three girlfriends groggily woke up as they held their heads with what could possibly be the biggest headaches they could ever have.

*Groan* "I hope that was all real or else I'm blaming someone for that trippy moment."

"You and me both Selina, but that was all real." Pam stated as the two women grabbed a glass of water nearby and chugged it all in one go.

"So are you girls okay?" Naruto asked from his placement on the couch, gaining varying looks from his girls.

"If you can make this headache go away, then I'll be very chipper Naru-poo." Harley said getting a chuckle from her love before he placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Feeling better."

*Giggle* "Yeah."

"Well it's going to take more than that on our parts Naruto." Selina pointed out as she walked over to the kitchen to grab some ibuprofen for Pam and herself.

As the thief was doing her thing, Pam glanced at the clock nearby and couldn't help but comment about it. "Mind explaining why only half an hour or so has past while it felt like hours in that place we were at?"

"Dreams tend to run 1/100th the speed of reality. So if it felt like a year while you were in a dream is in reality, six or so hours." The intern spoke out getting varying looks from the others. "What?~ I know I'm cooky right now, but I still know my stuff about the brain just as a reminder."

Accepting this bit of knowledge, the others went onto other matters. "So… What do you three think about me now?"

*Sigh* "It's a lot to take in Naruto." The botanist said as she was handed some pills from the thief. Once swallowing them with water to wash them down, she continued. "But you did come clean to us on what you were like before coming here."

"Even with my mind right now, it made things seemingly clear from what I've read from your 'Ninja Storm' book and other facts you told each of us." Pointed out the intern.

"I agree with Harl and it does make sense on how you pulled off some of your pranks you told me back when I was in jail."

"But do you forgive me?" The publisher asked as he looked at each of their faces. "Do you forgive me for keeping this from you? I can understand if you don't, but I wanted to tell you at some point. I just didn't expect it to be so soon."

Nothing was said as the girls silently looked at each other. With a subtle suggestion from the ravenette, the two other women stood up and walked over to the kitchen to discuss things. Soon the former shinobi felt a weight on his lap and saw Isis staring up at him.

"So… I hope you enjoyed the show in my head Isis." He said as he scratched her head. She purred in response with how well he was hitting the right spot. "I probably guess you liked the big bad, Matatabi."

*Meowr* *Meowr*

"Well don't worry girl, you're actually the best feline I've interacted the most. *Chuckle* Way better than that demon Tora." The purrs seemed a little louder than before making Naruto realize that Isis was rather pleased with his response.

"Well Naruto." Pamela spoke out to gain his attention. "We've come to a decision."

"And?"

"And… We forgive you."

'That's a little relief.' He thought before he noticed that there was more to be said.

"But that doesn't mean you are left unpunished from what you've kept from us." Selena added in getting their boyfriend a very confused look.

"...What?"

"So we decided that you're going to have a punishment from each of us." The pale woman said as she and the others were growing a smile that seemed to unsettle the whiskered male.

"...Which are…. What exactly?"

"From me," the botanist first spoke, "you won't be getting any action until I say so. And that means no sex and kisses."

' **Bu-But sister! That's not what I agreed on! I wanted to have a good pounding from our king when we got back!'** Ivy yelled out inside of the botanist's mind making her wince slightly.

'Hush and settle down Ivy. I just want to see how long he'll last.' Pamela thought as she saw their beloved squirm in his spot in an fidgety manner. 'He'll burst and ravage us in untold pleasure when the time comes.'

' **...He better.'** Pouted the darker half before she briefly took over and spoke out. **"And that means you can't do any of that Selina."**

"...Fine." The thief grumbled in agreement with a twitch of her eye.

"As for me, since we are now dating, I want you to take me out on a shopping spree!" Harley said in an excited manner.

"...Okay." He could understand on Harley's request since she probably wants to exploit the little shopping habit most girlfriends get their boyfriends to do for them. The publisher might as well get used to this. 'At least Pam and Selina haven't requested such a thing so far in our relationship.'

Naruto soon turned his attention towards the last woman in the room as she stalked him with a predatory look in her eyes. He slowly backed away from her on the couch since his senses were screaming to get away from her. He couldn't do so since it might hurt things with his second girlfriend.

"Saving the best for last would be me." Selena said as she climbed onto the couch. Pam and Harley didn't know what the thief was planning to do, but they hope it was rewarding in the end. "And all I want you to do for us is… not do nothing."

"Huh?" Was the surrounding thought shared between the others.

"And let us do this." The ravenette then placed her hand against his cheek and started to rub it.

"W-What?! No do-O-O-Ooooooo…" He called out before the sounds of purring rang throughout the loft. The other two women gained surprised looks

"D-Did he just-?" "Yup!" Selena said to finish off Pam's thought. *Chuckles* "He apparently purrs."

"I-I-I do no-O-O-Oooooo…"

This caused Harley to squeal in absolute delight before making a mighty bound to land onto the couch, knocking Selena off in the process, before she started petting Naruto's whiskered cheeks.

"This is so adorable!" She spoke out while petting the cheeks without stop. "Artie was right! You are a catman!"

"...Who?"

"I'll tell you who I'm talking about later Selena. But now, whisker time!"

And so Naruto laid there helplessly as the three girls took turns playing with his whiskers. He purred and purred to their delight as it felt like torture with how humiliating it was. But he had to endure so his three lovers would feel happy. So after some time of the three having their 'whisker time', Pamela spoke out.

"You know girls;" she said gaining their attention, "to possibly commemorate our new found relationship with our lover, I want to give you two something that'll help your very being out a lot."

"What do you mean Red?"

*Sigh* "Well Naruto, do you remember what happened when I went all 'environmentalist crazy'?"

"...Yeah." He said with a hint of a downcasted tone. "How can I forget?"

"Especially when I kissed you and almost died."

"Wait! What?!" The other two women yelled out as they looked at the first couple in questioning.

"How can I forget Pam?" He said while sitting back up. "I really felt that I was about to die."

"And what about the next time we kissed?"

"...I didn't die?" Yeah how didn't he die.

"At the moment of you dying, I injected you with a vaccine that made you immune to not only my poison; but other poisons and toxins brought from other sources in the known world. And just so you know, my kiss alone is considered the most toxic on the planet."

This gave the other three occupants in the loft an interesting realization on what Pamela concocted. There was another thing that came across Naruto's mind and he decided to address it. "But there was something else in there, wasn't there?"

"...What do you mean love?"

"Well I knew I was strong before after I got my current powers, but I felt that something else was added after I woke up in that abandoned greenhouse. Like I felt stronger, faster and had better reflexes than before."

This made the botanist to adopt a thinking pose in this prospect. "...Huh. Interesting… Possibly my serum had some other side effects that I didn't know before."

'Stronger, faster, better reflexes? Hmm, I like the sound of that.' Selina hummed in thought before she rolled up her sleeve and held out her arm. "Well give it me Pamela."

"What?"

"You did say that you wanted to give us what you gave Naruto. So lay it on me."

"Yeah, me too!" Harley said with her present giddiness. "It'll make me more awesome than before."

Ignoring the changed intern, the botanist went towards the nearby bouquet of flowers she was given earlier that day. She picked up two of the flowers and crushed their head before focusing her powers to morph them into her liking in each hand. Once opening her palms, the others saw how different they are now than from before.

"Now these carry the exact same formula I made at the time. So prepare yourselves you two since this will be a bit painful."

And without warning, the changed flowers lept out of the botanist's hands and landed onto the women. The plants reared their heads back before slamming into the women's necks. The two then felt a painful, stinging sensation in their necks before it slowly dissipated and the flowers withered and died in the end.

"What the fuck was that Pam?!" The ravenette yelled out as she held onto her neck. "That hurt like hell!"

"Naru!~ Please kiss it better!" The changed blonde whined out with little puppy dog eyes aimed at her love.

"Alright Harley." He said while holding her close before placing his lips on the sore spot.

"Better?" All he got was a pleasant hum in return.

"Now then," Pam spoke before walking towards Selina, "time to see if this really worked or not."

"What do you-MMMPH!"

Suffice to say, Harley and Naruto saw a very hot sight as the two saw Pam kissing Selina on the lips. Even seeing some tongue for a few moments. It made Naruto feel uncomfortable down below as he had to adjust himself from what he was seeing. With Harley's mind, it seemed to shut down on what she was trying to process.

As for Selina, she was extremely shocked in what she was experiencing. Sure she has kissed women in the past and those weren't all that bad. But what she was feeling right now felt so much more than that. It was like very euphoric on both the smell and taste coming off from Pamela. So much so that she had to hold onto the botanist and brought her closer to taste more out of her.

The kiss soon ended, making the thief have a briefly glazed look in her eyes. Once they returned to normal, her eyes turned towards Harley and Naruto with blushes on their faces. Selina was going to say something, but saw the botanist walk over towards the pale woman.

"Come here Harl."

"N-N-Now wait Red. I-I-I don't know if that's a go-MMMPH!"

And once again, Naruto saw a sight that would forever be burned into his memory. It really made him adjust his pants a little more. So much so that Naruto had to get up and get away from the kissing girls.

"I-I'm going to use the re-restroom." He said as he stumbled in his step.

 _ **-Evening-**_

"Well today was interesting to say the least." Naruto commented as he and Pam walked into his bedroom for the evening.

"And I thought it was fun."

"You say that since I had to watch you kiss Selina and Harley several times throughout the day." He said with an accusing tone making her giggle in the process. "It… It wasn't something I was expecting to just happen."

"I know honey, but I wanted to be sure the serum was fully working… At first." She said with a small smile at his reaction. "Then it felt interesting and I wanted to feel it more. Not like Selina and Harl were complaining."

After the whole 'testing' moment earlier in the day, the thief and intern stayed at the apartment and hung out for the majority of the day. Cooking up lunch and dinner between the four as they watched movies to pass the time. Every now and then, Pam would sneak several kisses at the other two girls to get funny reactions out of their shared boyfriend. Soon things were getting late and the two women decided to call it a day and head off to their respective homes. But not before the two women kissed Pam while Harley kissed Naruto since he wasn't getting punished from kissing the pale woman.

"You three just wanted to have fun at my expense." He said as the two were changing into their sleepwear for the evening.

"True, but you should realize that possibly at some point all four of us would be sharing you at the exact same time when we would have our fun~."

And she was right. He should expect that he might be sleeping with not just one of them at the same time at some point. So he should try and get used to such a thing.

So shaking his head in little defeat, he finished changing before seeing his first girlfriend in a pair of flower printed sleepwear. The two slipped underneath their covers before Naruto turned off the nightstand lamp. They got in close and held each other in a loving embrace as they smelled each other's scents.

"...I missed this."

"I missed this as well my love." She said with her snuggling in closer into his warm embrace.

"There's something I wanted to tell you earlier, but I felt that it would've been better if it was in private." This got the botanist to look up at her lover with a curious look, getting Naruto to explain. "You remember that I've told you that I've been in contact with Yggdrasil right? Well I talked to him about your problem with having a child."

"...And?"

Seeing the hope slowly appearing in her eyes, he decided to tell her. "Even though we can adopt a child, I should let you know that there is a possible way for us to actually make one of our own. It'll be difficult, but he said that you'll need to talk to him more about it on the details since some of what he told me flew over my head."

This made the redhead start shedding tears and choke a little on her sobs in happiness. Naruto held her closer and rubbed her back in a comforting tone with a smile. He was happy to see his first girlfriend feel better on the whole idea on children. They might finally make one of their own one day, but it won't be an easy task. But until then…

"But no matter what happens Pam, I still love you." The Uzumaki softly said as the two slowly succumbed towards their slumber.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Well this was a long chapter on a lot of explanations mind you. Now reason why I decided to make this chapter majorly a large background thing on Naruto's past was because of two things. One was that I wanted the girls to know Naruto's past before coming into the current world with some of their reactions here and there. The second was that I got inspired on that little idea after reading some of the late Freedom Guard's Justice League crossover stories. The only thing that I used for the background story that I considered filler was four of the Naruto movies since they seemed to work with the plot of the story the most and fit well with what I have put down into the story so far. Everything else from Naruto, like the other filler arcs and films, I am completely ignoring since I considered them a complete waste of my time.**

 **Also doing this made me think of the stuff brought up in Arrow that things were slowly revealed on what happened in Oliver's 'island years'. So I thought to just do all of the reveal right there for the girls. But of what happened in the past decade in the current world will just be brought up over time for obvious reasons.**

 **So just to remind people of what is going on with the story, this is primarily a DCAU story. But I'll be nabbing elements from various DC materials from animated films and shows along with comics. Reason why I'm reminding you people was because of me introducing Paula, Artemis and Jade in the last chapter being Harley's neighbors. This speculated a few readers into thinking this is transitioning into a Young Justice story. I'm not doing that, but I'm taking elements from said show into this story to make things more interesting.**

 **With Harley, well she's going to be interesting to write from here on out. With her current comic line, most fans have said that she is a lot like Deadpool in terms of madness and I could possibly agree with it. Even some moments have thought that she would also be similar to Pinkie Pie in some manner of speaking, but that's just my opinion.**

 **Speaking of, Harley's Heart Platform is mostly inspired from the Sardonyx Station of Awakening image I found on google in terms of the kaleidoscope on the background. Also with Harley's appearance on the Heart Platform, it's the Arkham Knight look but skin is all white and hair is platinum/bleach blonde instead of regular blonde.**

 **As with harem, I should remind you people I plan 7 people at the max. But depending on how things go later down the road I might change it more or just keep it being the 7 general girls. Now reason why I'm doing 7 is because this story is having Kingdom Hearts elements in it and thought it would be fun for the 7 main girls to represent the 7 Princesses of Heart. But in this case being the 7 Princesses of Naruto's Heart…**

… **.Yeah corny, but whatever.**

 **Also let me tell you people more about the Joker than you guys don't fully know for sure. Several people had reviews and messaged me on the fight against the Joker that sure it was great and all, but Naruto had taken the hits from the guy. Well here are several things you need to know about the guy. He is surprisingly good at hand to hand combat at times, his insanity can grant him some form of super strength at times, and he has really high pain tolerance. Even more so that taking big hits on his person, he can keep on fighting. I mean in the Dark Knight Returns comic/animated film he got a fucking batarang lodged into his eye and he kept fighting. Even crazier with the time he carved his face off just for giggles for fucks sake. So it'll take a whole lot more than that just to severely wound him and possibly kill the clown.**

 **One more thing I should mention before signing off is that I've started a page. It's just for tips or whatever since I'm writing from my entire free time that I have available when I'm not at my full time job or running errands.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	25. From Down Below

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 23: From Down Below**

"Ugh… I'm so boooored." The pale woman said as she laid around, hardly doing anything at all. "There's nothing good to do right noooow."

Today was the fourth day into Harley's little vacation after getting out of the hospital, while it was two days after the big reveal on her puddin's past. It was honestly a lot to take in for her as a lot of information was given. She understood on how odd, sad, and interesting Naruto's past was and it made her feel closer to the love of her life.

But that's besides the point at the current moment…

Even though Harley enjoys having a good week off from work, outside from being at the hospital for obvious reasons, she feels that it is making her lazy to some degree. Most people would agree that if they are not working for a given amount of time, it'll be hard for them to fully do well when getting back on the clock. There wasn't much for her to do at all really with not knowing on how to properly kill off the rest of her little vacation without being bored to death.

Sure she had a really good shopping spree with her puddin yesterday and shared several kisses throughout the experience. But something seemed off to her during that time. Harley then realized that it was because that she was wearing a lot of makeup to cover up her pasty white skin that wasn't covered up by her clothes. She even brought Naruto to a lingerie store to show off her impressive figure in varying attires to get a good laugh and rise out of the whiskered male. But with the current makeup on, it would've ruined a lot of the experience to show off the horrid lines and smears. And she couldn't go out in public without the makeup on or else things would be hard to blend right in.

'Though it was rather sweet of puddin on cheering me up.' She thought as she stared up at the ceiling of her apartment. 'With taking me out to see a movie and having a nice lunch.'

When that day was done and over with, Harley had the small idea of possibly seeing if she could spend time with her foster nieces for today. She had checked, but Paula told her former student that she, the kids and her husband Lawrence were going to be spending the day together since he came back from an out of town job. The intern wished them luck on having fun, but this left Harley nothing to do at all.

After talking to her neighbor, she called Selina if she wanted to do anything for the day. Unfortunately for her, the environmentalist had to go to a lunch party and sneak in so she could get some donations for this one cause she wants to currently help out on. Harley tried watching shows, but they were boring reruns and the movies at her place didn't seem to spark her interest at the current time.

Even reading couldn't pick up her spirits at all.

*Sigh* "I don't know what to do." She muttered before grabbing the fox plushie by her side. "What do you think I should do foxy?"

' **Maybe call your puddin and see if he has any free time.'** Foxy spoke out inside of her crazed mind.

Meet Foxy the Pirate plushie, Harley's gift from Naruto during their arcade time together. He wasn't much honestly, asides from a little comfort to the Arkham intern. But after her little accident, Harley seemingly hears Foxy inside of her head and tends to help out every so often on ideas and whatnot. Although in reality, he's apart of her mind taking form to help repair some of the damage caused by the Joker's torture.

Something to help cope with life's traumas. Something like an imaginary friend Harley used to have named Delirium of all things. She was there for her after Ino died and had been her friend for the longest time, but left before the pale intern became a teenager. Delirium was fun to play with like how crazy and interesting she was.

*Gasp* "That's a great idea!" The intern said as she hugged the living stuffing out of her little fella. "You're the best plush ever!"

' **Yeah well don't try to suffocate me to death Harl.'** He said getting Harley to pull away and look at her little friend oddly.

"But you don't have lungs."

' **...True.'**

Once placing Foxy down, Harley called her puddin's cell and waited for him to answer.

"Come on. Pick up, pick up, pick uuuuuupppah."

" _Hey Harley. What's up?"_

*Giggles* "Nothing but the ceiling baby."

*Chuckles* _"Cute. So what's going on? Need something?"_

"Well~ I was wondering if you have any plans this evening." She said with a hopeful tone. 'Please let it be no! Let it be no!'

' **He probably does Harl.'**

'Shut up Foxy! Don't jinx it!'

" _I actually don't have any at all this evening."_ He said getting to fidget a little in her seat. _"Why you ask?"_

"Ummm…. I was wondering…. If you'd like to cash in that dinner rain check you promised me." She said while playing with her hair in a nervous fashion.

Nothing was said on the other end as Harley guessed her puddin was thinking things over. The anticipation was killing her with the silence. She wanted a good answer to make her day better.

" _Sure Harley. I'd actually like that."_ Her boyfriend said making her silently cheer in her seat. _"We wouldn't actually be dating if I didn't take you out on dates now would I."_

"Yes. Yes we wouldn't." Harley said before thinking to herself. 'Gah! Why'd I say that?! I might end up ruining things!'

' **And you said that I might jinx things.'** Foxy spoke with a little snicker.

'Foxy… Don't make me put you in the closet.'

' **...I'll be good.'**

" _Besides, I did promise you that we would go to that one chinese restaurant. So we might as well do that."_

"That's great! So what time will you pick me up?"

"Eh… Probably around 7, 7:30."

"Great! I'll see you then!" Harley before she hung up her phone and jumped in absolute joy. Even much so that she ended up picking up Foxy and flung him all over the place. "THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!~"

' **Oh god *Hurk* I'm going to throw up.'**

"But you don't have a stomach."

' **It's in here somewhere you know.'** He retorted before bringing back to the topic at hand. **'Well it seems that you've got your date for the evening.'**

"Yes! I know Foxy and I could die and go to heaven right now!" **'Please don't.'** "And it won't matter since it's perfect right now."

' **You say that now with it being perfect, but you need to realize one thing.'**

"...Which is what exactly?"

' **You need to figure out what to wear.'** He commented getting Harley to freeze in place. **'Not only that, but something that helps out in your skin problem.'**

Hearing this made the pale woman's eye twitch before she groaned out in the realization Foxy brought upon her. Harley then ran towards her closet where all of her clothes were kept so she could find the perfect dress for the evening. Part of her kept going through dresses that would fit her current pale skin tone while another went with her previous creamy one.

*Groan* 'I know that I really want to wear some of these really pretty ones with my pale complexion, but that would make people stare at me in response.' She thought before looking at the other pile of clothes she had made in her assortment. 'With those, they worked well with my previous skin tone, but it'll be a complete pain to apply makeup in some of those hard to reach spots.'

' **Then might I suggest something Harl.'**

"What is it Foxy?!" She snapped at the fox plushie with her mind mostly focused on the dresses laid in front of her on the bed. "Don't you see that I need a lot of my attention on this. I want this date to be perfect."

' **I know and that's what I'm trying to help you on.'** Foxy stated before speaking once more. **'So I'm suggesting the one dress over yonder in the closet. I believe it still fits. It's appropriate for any good restaurant, and it helps cover your back unlike the other dresses you currently have.'**

Harley did as she was mildly instructed by looking at said dress. It seemed hanging by it's lonesome in the closet and she was surprised she didn't even touch it while finding a good dress for tonight. If she remembered correctly, she wore it a few years back and didn't wear it since.

So without any hesitation, she quickly changed into said dress before modeling herself in front of her mirror. It was a short, dark red (almost black), asymmetrical, sleeveless dress that's split up the right side and has a black collar. There were faint, decorative black swirls covering the left side of the dress and continue up the left side.

"I-It's perfect." She said as she visualized herself in her previous skin tone. It even works well with her current one.

' **You can thank me later if you want Harl.'** Foxy said as he was seemingly ignored with the pale woman continuing her inspection for any little imperfections. **'So if you're done, what are you going to do about the rest of your time until your date?'**

"What do you mean?"

' **Well… You have roughly nine hours until your boyfriend picks you up.'** He spoke getting the intern to know the plushie was right. **'So I'll ask again. What are you going to do for the rest of your time until then?'**

As she pondered at this, her eyes drifted onto the various things around her bedroom to see if it'll preoccupy her time until the big date. There were the books, magazines and newspaper clippings she had lying around instead of being in her living room; all of the dresses she'll need to put away, her old costume, her research notes…. Wait. Go back a little….

Her old costume?

"Wow… Haven't seen this in a while." She muttered as she picked up the old Halloween costume she wore a year or so back. Hard to remember when exactly due to obvious reasons. A red and black jester outfit that was a play on her name: the Harlequin. It was entirely out of cloth that shown some little tears here and there, but appeared to still be whole.

As she held it up to herself, the pale woman soon reflected back to when she and the girls were inside of Naruto's mind. Where they ended up seeing their own Heart Platforms respectively. Harley remembered what she looked like on her's specifically on the designs and the material that were probably used to make that outfit. It was truly captivating for her on how unique she appeared to be in it.

'I wonder…' She thought as her eyes caught onto some of the newspaper clippings of her puddin as Vanitas. Little side project of hers after seeing him talk to Magpie for the first time, so she could try and understand him. Harley practically does now after the reveal two days ago, but that's besides the point right now….

What is important were the stray thoughts coming through her head now. And with a growing smile, her eyes gleamed before she shot around the apartment to gather what she needed. Her boredom quickly extinguished as she has work to do now as she thought of one last thing.

'I now know what I'm doing until puddin arrives.'

 _ **-Evening-**_

Don't you hate it when rain seems to come out of nowhere? Well that was the case for the evening as storm clouds started rolling in and started to rain a little while ago. It wasn't really bad per say, but many wished that it wouldn't last too long.

Naruto got out of his car, after parking in the guest spots of the apartment complex, and made his way towards his girlfriend's place. He was currently wearing a blue button up shirt with a black jacket and pants with an umbrella opened up to protect himself, and his date, from the rain. He wanted to make a good impression on their first official date and didn't want to look too good given where they were going.

Once closing the umbrella, Naruto walked up to her door and knocked before hearing her yell out 'Just a minute.' on the other side. Didn't take long as Harley opened the door, getting him to hold his breath for a brief moment.

Harley was rather stunning with her wearing a short, dark red (almost black), asymmetrical, sleeveless dress that's split up the right side and has a black collar. There were faint, decorative black swirls covering the left side of the dress and continue up the left side. On top of her makeup covering, Harley had some light red mascara with red lip gloss while wearing a few charms on her wrist along with wearing one inch black heels with a matching black purse and jacket she had hanging from her arm.

Honestly, in his opinion, he thought she was rather eye catching with him liking her 'all natural look' (even though it was currently covered up), but she was rather beautiful now. Especially with her dress hugging her form rather nicely to show off her rockin body, with curves in all of the right places, that most women would kill for after years of gymnastics training. With her hair slightly curled on the bottom with the rest straightened out to frame her face.

"Well hello handsome~." Harley said as she looked at her boyfriend's appearance. She soon giggled and spun around a little to get her love to inspect every inch of her. "So… What do you think puddin?"

"I've got to say Harley," he briefly spoke with a small blush gracing his face, "you look very beautiful. *Chuckles* Hell... I can even imagine you now without all that makeup and you would still be a knockout."

The changed intern blushed at this before she hopefully asked him. "Really?"

"Why would I lie Harley?" Naruto spoke with a coy smile that made her heart flutter a little more than before. "I've told you before that you look like an angel to me. Even more so now."

"Th-Thank you very much Naruto." She joyfully said as she fidgeted in her spot. As for what's going inside of her head though…

'Hells yes!' She yelled out as chibi personas of herself were waving victory flags like no tomorrow. 'He loves it! He loves it! Even more that he said that I'm really beautiful!'

The two were about to head out when they heard some people coming up the stairs to the current level.

"...And I told you, we should've left sooner to beat the traffic." Paula's voice called out to signal Harley that the Crock family has returned.

"Well how was I supposed to know there was going to be a few accidents on the way back Paula." A male voice called out with a little hint of damaged cords to it. "We were doing just fine heading back on time like we planned. So at least we got back before it was too late for the girls."

"That's besides the point Lawrence…"

Soon the couple saw Paula, with Artemis in her arms and Jade walking right behind, walking beside a tall strongly-built caucasian male, with an intimidating figure. He has short blond hair and light brown eyes. From what Naruto could tell, the man appeared to to be in his mid-thirties. But the way he held himself with his physical condition, he was possibly older than he appeared to be. Another thing the former shinobi noticed was that he was possibly sending off signals of her personality being arrogant, cocky and blunt.

*Groan* "Will you two please quiet down? My head has been killing me from you two arguing." Jade muttered as she was rubbing her head.

"Oh pipe down little girl." The man said with a roll of his eyes. "You'll get that out of the way soon enough once inside." His eyes soon landed upon the couple standing in the hallway, getting the man to raise a brow at the man standing beside his neighbor. "Who the hell are you?"

Hearing this, Paula looked over and noticed Harley was dressed up beside Naruto. Given the way the two were dressed gave the Vietnamese woman the idea that the two were finally going out on a date. So with a small chuckle, she decided to speak towards them.

"Hello Harley, Naruto."

"Hey Paula." The two spoke at the same time before they looked at each other for a brief moment. Harley then took over and spoke towards her neighbor. "Hope you guys had fun today."

"It was pretty good to say the least." Her former teacher stated before continuing. "Though some moments could've been better."

*Scoffs* "Like I told you before Paula, that one jerkwad was being unfair at the stands." Her husband said as he watched his language a little with their kids present.

"Yet you had to threaten him Lawrence?" She responded back with a raised brow.

"Whatever." The now identified Lawrence answered before looking back at the silver haired man in the hallway. "And like I said before. Who the hell are you?"

'So this must be Lawrence then.' The publisher thought before he held out his hand towards the man. "Naruto Uzumaki."

Wanting to indimidate the youngster, the blonde grabbed ahold of the offered hand and gave it a very firm squeeze. "Lawrence Crock." The two seemed to hold their ground as both were not backing down. "So you're the guy my girls won't shut up about…. And you've got a very good grip there kid."

"Yes well being a business owner, I need to have one hell of a grip." Naruto responded with a smile that seemed to tick off the man a little, but tried to not show it. "And it's nice to know that Harley's 'nieces' are talking about me. Good things I hope."

Knowing what this might lead to, Paula decided to end things here. "Well it's nice to see you again Naruto. So are you two going out now?"

"On a date? Yes Paula." The Uzumaki answered without breaking his grip with the older man. "We were just about to head out."

"That's good to know. And Harley…."

"Yes?"

"You've gotta let me know the details on how your date goes." The mother said with a smile.

"Uh… Yeah. Sure thing Paula." The intern responded back with a nervous chuckle.

"Well come on Lawrence. It's your turn to make dinner for the night since your back in town." Paula said to her husband since she wanted this little 'competition' to end now.

Knowing that he's not going to possibly get any tonight if he continues, he ended the little 'gripping match' with a little scowl. "Yeah. Yeah. Well nice seeing you again Harley."

Once the man unlocked the door to his home and entered inside, Paula sighed a little at this.

"Sorry about dad Naruto." Jade spoke out for the first time in the little conversation. "He tends to be rather competitive."

"It's no worries Jade. Dealt with guys like him before. I'm sure I can possibly handle him."

'You say that now…' Paula thought before she felt her youngest stir in her arms.

"Are we home yet mommy?" Artemis spoke out in a tired tone.

*Chuckles* "Yes we are Artemis. So it's time for you to try and wake up when possible."

"Okay." The young girl mumbled before drifting back to sleep.

"Well ain't that cute." Naruto muttered at the site before he addressed the conscious Crock women in the hallway. "Well it's nice seeing you two and hope you have a good night."

"You as well."

"See you around Naruto." Jade spoke out as she and her mother went inside of their home with the dozed off Artemis in tow.

"Well we should get going now Harley." The former shinobi said as he held out his arm towards his date. "Got a reservation at the place you requested and hope we can get there in time."

"Yes. Lets." Was all she said as she wrapped her arm around his as they went down the stairs and into the parking lot. He opened up his umbrella for her so the rain won't damage any of the makeup covering up her pale skin. Once inside of his car, Naruto drove off towards their destination.

 _ **-Shun Lee West Restaurant, Chinatown-**_

It had taken them less than half an hour to reach their destination. It would've taken longer with some reported accidents along the way, but Naruto knew his way around to get there quick enough. Although… the publisher did have to park his car in the border of chinatown and the Theatre District so the two would walk the rest of the way back….

Not that Harley minded with her hugging close to her puddin and being quite the gentleman escorting her towards the restaurant.

As they got there, Harley rather surprised in where they were eating tonight. From what she knows about the place, it was a high-end Chinese fare in a semi-formal atmosphere that draws pre-Lincoln Center diners to this fixture. It was an interesting look when getting inside seeing it being pretty packed due to how popular the place was.

Naruto stepped up towards the receptionist desk and addressed the hostess currently present. "Excuse me."

"Yes. Welcome to the Shun Lee West. How may I help you sir?" The hostess answered.

"I've got a table for two under Uzumaki." He said to get the hostess to look over the schedule. "I was wondering if it was available right now."

"Well good that you've come in sir, but the table won't be ready for a few minutes." The employee stated getting the publisher to nod at this. "I'll be sure to let you know when it's ready though."

"That's fine." Naruto said as he escorted Harley by one of the chairs nearby as the two waited. Nothing was said between the two for that time as they were doing their own thing. From Naruto scanning the area due to his old shinobi/intern habit to Harley nabbing a few mints to freshen her breath more.

It wasn't long till they were called by the hostess, who led them to their table.

"I hope this table is to your liking." The hostess said as she presented the table to Naruto and Harley.

"Yes it is and thank you." Naruto said as he saw the hostess place the menus on the table before leaving. The Uzumaki then pulled out a chair for Harley and scooted her in once she sat down before he took his own seat.

"I've gotta say puddin, but this wasn't what I was expecting for our first date in where we would be going to."

"And was there any other nice chinese restaurants in chinatown to do good business meals from time to time?" He rhetorically asked with a small smile. "Not really as I could tell, but this place is a good as place as any in my book."

"So since you've been here god knows how many times, what seems good to have Naruto?" Harley asked as she opened up her menu to scan its contents.

"In my experience here, I would always switch things up from the varied dumplings and the dan dan noodles for an appetizer while other items are great to have for the entree." Naruto briefly listed before quickly adding something to her. "Though I recommend staying away from the tongue and lamb meals. My personal preference of course."

"That's fine." She simply replied with a shrug.

As she went through the menu, there were several things she wanted to talk to Naruto about. But with the place being very packed, she didn't want anyone to hear into their conversation. Especially with what topics she wanted to discuss.

It didn't take long though for a waitress to appear and asked for orders. Both of them requested waters with lemon and lime along with different dumplings for starters. After that, they ordered their meals respectively while Harley asked for the waitress' opinion on a few just to be sure. Once she was gone, it left the two all by themselves.

"So... just asking this out of the blue, but how's work coming along lately?"

Hearing Harley's question, Naruto quickly replied back to her. "Not all that bad really. Just going over different articles as of late for the next issue of our magazine while getting some books processed to be sold in stores."

"Like what exactly?"

"A new, promising writer with a book titled 'A Man with Two Souls' and the latest book from Robert Jordan with his Wheel of Time books. With the former, it was an interesting concept and thought it was interesting, especially with my experience having 'multiple personas' if you know what I mean."

"Great to know." She said as the waitress came back with some waters before leaving again. "There are other things that I'd like to discuss, but…"

"But what Harley?"

"Well… I don't want other people to hear by accident." She admittedly said getting her boyfriend to look at her for more on this. "Some topics I'd want to talk about seem a bit personal within our little circle."

Naruto nodded at this and brought a hand up to 'scratch his chin', but the changed intern saw a faint glow coming from his hand before it expanded and seemingly disappeared from her view.

"Now we have the privacy we need till our waitress comes back with our appetizers and entrees." He said getting a wide eyed look from the intern.

"What was that?"

"Huh?" He asked in a playful tone that seemed to bug her a little.

"What was that thing you just did with your hand?"

"Oh that. *Chuckles* Well I had put up a silencing field around us." He said before explaining a little to her. "I've told you yesterday during your shopping spree that I lost my chakra abilities when I came to this world right? Well I got something in return that deals with a 'Void' of sorts." 'Among other things.' "And what I just did was one of the abilities. So no one outside of our tables won't hear a thing from us unless they are within the 'bubble' I made."

Hearing this made Harley adopt a thinking pose as she thought of various possibilities onto what that kind of ability could do exactly. Some were interesting on the concept while others seemed to numb her brain. Knowing that thinking too much on this would get things too complicated, she decided to move onto what she wanted to talk about.

"Well that's a useful thing to have."

"Though 'silencing' my alarm clock without knowing made me late for work one time was not fun at all." He offhandedly said causing her to giggle a little at this. 

"I bet. So with this 'bubble' of yours up, we can talk really privately right? Well I'd like to know how Red is right now. With the stuff with getting her old job back and whateva."

"Well…. She's doing alright for starters." The publisher stated as he leaned back a little in his seat. "Been preoccupying herself since yesterday morning from unpacking her belongings, updating her resume to connecting herself with her powers to get a better feel of things."

"Like what puddin?"

"Talking to Yggdrasil and seeing what else could be done for herself. Other than that, I have no clue." Naruto finished explaining as the waitress came over to drop off the dumplings.

"And what about your other job?" Harley asked as her eyes started to sparkle a little in excitement. "I bet it's really exciting."

"It… Well…. It has it's moments." The publisher stated before going into detail on some past patrols.

As this was going on, a little meeting was taking place in a far corner of the establishment. It was dimly litted as two people were privately chatting with one another. Although in one part of the table was seemingly darker due to the person's placement.

"...So… How's your progress coming along with bringing Mr. Wayne to one of our 'club meetings'?" The darker man spoke out before taking a sip of his drink.

"Not doing so well as I have hoped sir." A female voice spoke with some frustration laced in her tone of voice. "He keeps coming up with excuses into not coming along whenever I invite him."

"Another attempted failure it would seem." The man said as he took a bite from his meal and chewed it for several moments before swallowing. "Though I have told you several times doctor, that you mustn't put too much pressure into making him come along. Even if it's just one time."

"I know that sir."

"Then again, for example, you offered the same offer to Mr. Uzumaki one too many times, in rapid progression mind you, to make him not interested into coming along."

"The opportunity presented itself sir and I wanted to take the chance." She said in her defence.

"A chance to take hold of an upcoming, influential man. Yes, I know of that. Yet you didn't properly prepare to slowly influence him." The darkened man pointed out as he slowly crumbled the woman's defence. "So, in the end, you have possibly costed us a valuable piece for our group."

Knowing that her superior was right, all that she could only do was nod and accept her little consequences. "I understand that sir, but I assure you that I will make up for this by bringing in Bruce into our cause."

"I hope so… for your sake Dr. Ravencroft." The man said towards the now identified Bethanie Ravencroft. "Now moving onto other matters Bethanie. How's progress coming along in repeating the results from Margaret Sorrow?"

Bethanie could only shake her head as she took a bite out of her meal so she could think of a way to report this correctly. Once swallowing, she decided to bluntly state it. "It's not doing all that well I'm afraid."

"Explain."

"As you may have remembered that my former partner, Joe Braxton, was the one that majorly designed and created the device into taking away and returning one's memories. All of his blueprints for the prototype were destroyed when I went back to look for them at the psychiatric hospital. Margarette apparently stole them from Joe and when the workers at Arkham searched her, they saw burnt up pieces of the blueprints on her person and they threw it away. Though from what reports were told by one of our men stationed there stated Margarette attempted to reverse what was done to her and things didn't go all that well in the end."

"Hmm… I understand that, but was there any success in making a new one?" The man questioned, only for Bethanie to shake her head once again.

"Not good ones apparently from what I've done to help out sir. I only knew so much from the original blueprints, but with Joe's mind gone it would take a miracle for him to remember."

"I see." The man simply said in a calculating tone. "It seems that we'll need to procure Ms. Sorrow, one way or another, and get the information from her. Even if I'll have to procure her myself if I have to."

Hearing this made the woman stiffen a little before questioning her superior. "Are you sure that's wise sir? I mean, I don't know if you should-"

"I'm very aware of this doctor and I might be able to save you time if I have to."

"How so."

"Thats for me to know and for you to later find out my dear. But until then, just focus on getting Wayne to the Argus Club when possible."

"Of course." Bethanie said as she silently ate her meal while thinking of ways on how to bring Bruce to the Argus Club. As she did this, she missed the look on her superior's face as he gazed at a peculiar publisher and his date eating and chatting with each other.

'Hmm… Seems I might have an idea for a later time.' The man thought as his gaze focused more on the publisher's date. Several thoughts were going through his mind as his eyes seemed to narrow behind his circular bifocals before the man went on with his own meal for the evening.

 _ **-On the streets, Theatre District-**_

By the time the couple left the restaurant, the sky started to clear up with the only evidence of the rain was the various puddles lying in the streets and sidewalks. The two were glad that their date had seemed to go without a hitch and they might be able to relax for the rest of the evening. Even walking back towards Naruto's parked car helps to burn off the food in their stomachs.

"This has been a great night so far." Harley said as she hugged her puddin's arm.

"That it has Harley. That it has." Naruto said while the two were walking around the puddles on the sidewalk. Even the publisher making small barriers so that any water from the street won't splash onto them so it won't ruin Harley's makeup disguise. "Nothing could ruin this night. I'm sure of it."

"My purse!" A woman yelled out getting the couple's attention. "Help! Thief!"

"You were saying puddin."

Seeing her slightly deadpanned look, he gave out a sheepish chuckle before he looked around for anyone nearby. With no one close enough; he fazed his arm out of Harley's grasp, much to her disappointment, before running into a nearby alley and formed his Vanitas attire so he can catch the thief. Naruto then ran out and jumped on top of the various cars to make it towards the other side.

Once getting there, he saw a small cloaked figure run further in before coming into a complete stop. It was like the person was lost and didn't know where to go exactly. Of course a police car soon drove its way into the alleyway and almost hit the cloaked person, if said person didn't jump out of the way in time. But this didn't stop the car from stopping as it was heading straight towards the black and white themed hero.

"Oh shit!" Naruto cried out as he jumped high into the air so the police vehicle wouldn't hit him. This caused the driver to swerve a little for the person's surprise of one of Gotham's heroes in being right in front of him moments ago. As soon as the vehicle stopped, the occupants got out of the car and started to search.

"Leprechaun's and Vanitas." One of the cops spoke out as he and his partner was looking through the alleyway with their flashlights. "What is this city coming to?"

High above them, Naruto was hanging onto the side of the building with his clawed fingers dug deep into the bricks. He had picked up on what the one officer said due to his enhanced audio receivers in his helmet. Though the bit about him and the leprechaun's seemed odd enough for him to see more on this later tonight.

But for now… he needed to finish up his date.

 _ **-Harley's Apartment-**_

"Leprechaun's Naruto!" The pale intern cried out inside of her apartment, now out of her makeup and in a pair of pajamas. "Actual leprechauns."

"I wouldn't say actual leprechauns Harley." The publisher said as he was sitting on his girlfriend's couch. "I would say little person really. Midget would make things too insulting."

After the failed attempt of stopping the purse snatcher, he made a clone and had it search around for any sign of the supposed leprechaun. There was no such luck in that department. Though when Naruto told Harley about it, who was a little miffed that she was left behind like that, she instantly cheered up on the idea that a leprechaun was in the city.

"But weren't you listening Naruto?! Actual leprechauns are in Gotham!" She joyfully said as she started to imagine seeing tiny green men with varying hordes of loot hidden away. "Do you think that when we catch one of them, we'll get his or her pot of gold?"

"Ehhhhhhh….."

"Or. Or what if that gold was invisible? Would it still be valuable?"

…..He didn't know what to say as the Uzumaki just gave her an odd look as a response.

"Oh. Oh. What about capturing one of them and cutting the person open and see if the leprechaun is actually made out of Lucky Charms?"

Now at this point, Naruto's mind seemed to go to a grounding halt with what Harley was implying. "Uh… Harley."

"Yes puddin?"

"Are you alright?"

"Why yes I am." She said in a chipper tone. "Why you ask?"

"Well… You… Were talking about leprechauns, their gold and wanting to see if they were made out of Lucky Charms."

"Really? I was?" She questioned with a tilt to her head.

' **Yes Harl. You were.'** Foxy spoke out getting Harley to look at the plushie nearby her puddin. **'Though I must say, it was rather dark on what you were possibly planning to do there.'**

"Hehe. Sorry on that." The intern said as she rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish grin. "Didn't know how it came to that."

' **You losing all common and rational thought for starters.'**

"Shut up Foxy!"

"...Who are you talking to?" Her puddin asked with a raised bow. He looked around and came across the fox plushie nearby and picked it up. "Are you talking to this guy?"

"Got a problem with that?"

"Nope. No problem at all." Naruto said as he placed the plush doll back down. 'She must've had further problems due to the torture than I thought.' He shook his head at this before speaking out. "Well regardless, there's the stuff pertaining to the crime earlier at our date."

"Really? But I thought it was just a simple snatch and steal."

"Well from one of the things Kakashi-sensei has told me is to always look underneath, the underneath. And I think this 'snatch and steal' is not as simple really."

"How so?" She asked as she sat down next to her boyfriend on the couch.

"Well my clone couldn't find the culprit with the person being within the vicinity. But something about this is gnawing at me to investigate."

"Sooooooooooo~ you're going back out?"

He blinked on the way Harley asked this. "Yes…. Why you ask?"

Her response ended up rather energetic as she started hopping on the couch and was repeating the same thing over and over again. "Can I come?! Can I come?! Can I come?! Can I come?!"

"Woah. Hold your horses Harley." He said as he tried to calm her down. "You want to come with to investigate?"

"Uh huh!" She furiously nodded while jumping on the couch. Of course she slipped and fell over, but Naruto caught her in time from the fall. "I wanna come with and help out!"

"I don't know Harley." He stated as it seemed to deflate her from her joyful feeling. "I don't know if it's going to lead to something bad or anything and I don't want you getting hurt."

"But… But…"

"I'm sorry but I don't-"

*Sniffle* *Sniffle*

"Harley?..." He asked in concern seeing his girlfriend's head tucked downwards to not see her facial expression.

"Y-You don't *Sniffle* wanna have me *Sniffle* come?"

"Now Harley…" He tried to say to her, but the moment he saw her eyes he knew he was in for big trouble.

With her beautiful blue eyes building up tears made the ocular orbs much more bright and innocent than from before. Her bottom lip stuck out a little in a quivering motion to add more onto the effect she was giving off. This was something he had only heard about it, never experienced it first hand. Something that would make it impossible to resist and hurt the loved one in the process if he did so…

The puppy dog pout.

"B-But I wanna spend more time with you puddin." She said with a shaky tone that made his heart quake. Wanting to make her happy again. But... he needs to resist… he can't fall for this!

"Please~ Can I come with you?" She asked one more time before a resounding sound of the Foxy plush doll was squeezed out to add more to the blow.

"Gah! I can't take it anymore!" Naruto cried out as had to look away from the truly, evil technique used on him. "Yes! You can come Harley! Just put those eyes away!"

In an instant, Harley went back into her cheerful self like nothing has happened at all.

"YAY! YAY! YAY!" She cried out before bringing her puddin into a bone crushing hug. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"But there's the fact that you don't have a costume." He said to her, making her stop the hugging process. "So unless you have one ready then I'm afraid I can't take you."

He then felt a gust of wind pick up in the apartment to see Harley quickly running into her room. He was confused on how that happened and how she performed the Shusshin technique from back home. Though all other thoughts were crushed down when she seemingly appeared in an odd outfit of sorts.

Harley was dressed in a red and black leotard with on one side was red while the other being black to show the interesting design. The same could be said with the elbow length gloves and knee high boots doing a similar fashion. There were some diamond designs to it, especially with a diamond shaped chest window to show a nice view of her perfect breasts. To top off the rest of the outfit, Harley was wearing a domino mask, purple cape with a hood attached, fishnet leggings, and her hair spray painted with the right side being red while the left being black.

(It's the outfit Harley uses in her team up with Powergirl in new 52. Look it up for a reference. Added the hood and domino mask for added security.)

"Tada!" She presented herself in an odd hero like fashion with the cape somehow fluttering in the back. Though from what Naruto saw behind her, she seemingly had the fan turned on to make that effect happen. "So… Whatcha think Naruto?"

…..

"Loss for words aren't you. Well I'd be surprised if you weren't." She said in a happy tone as she ignored the look he was giving her. "Been drawing out sketches all day, but the ones I liked were too complicated to make within a day. So I went with this one and made it before our date."

"You… What?" He spoke out as he didn't know what was going on. Not only that, but how the hell did she change into that outfit so quickly! But once his mind finished rebooting, one thing came to mind and he ended up voicing it with narrowed eyes. "You planned this didn't you."

"Yeeeeup!" The pale woman declared before a thought came to mind. "Well not the purse snatching thing earlier, just convincing you to let me come paroling with you. Though I didn't expect this to happen so soon."

*Sigh* 'She's probably going to give me a headache by the end of the night.' The publisher thought as he didn't want to disappoint Harley, but she might as well experience some of this now at least. "Alright you can come Harley…"

"Yes!"

"But you've got to follow my lead." He said with a stern tone that made her straighten out. "This is no fun and games Harley and I want to be sure that you do well out tonight. After this though, no more okay? I just don't want you doing this thing and get hurt in the process."

"No problemo honey-poo. I won't let you down."

"Good." Naruto simply said as he formed his hero attire around his body, making Harley's eyes sparkle at the display. "Now we're heading back to the Theatre District for an encore."

Those sparkles from before quickly died out as she gave her boyfriend a flat look.

"What?"

"...That was a horrible pun puddin."

*Sigh* "Let's just go."

 _ **-Theatre District-**_

As the night's been rolling through, water from the streets have been seeping through the sewer gutters for the past several hours. Fresh rain water, despite being contaminated from the dirty streets, came rushing through the sewers below. Some might think the water would automatically hit the filth littered about down below, but something was amiss as placed pipes and channels were fastened. These led towards deeper underground than previously thought, before it eventually entered a large cavern…

A cavern full of children.

Children doing various tasks in the area. From sewing, farming (wondering how that is able to work without sunlight) and stowing the various stolen goods they've pilfered from the streets above. When looking at each and everyone of them, they were practically miserable with what they have been doing for god knows how long. With their dirty bodies, raggedy clothes, and skin tones a shade or two lighter than their normal ones.

Though one particular child seems different from the rest. While the various other children show different ethnicities and their 'normal' physical appearances, this particular child appears to have traits that are very unusual amongst others. With her ashen, light grey skin and her strong shade of purple hair (almost black in most times) to match her wide and beady, innocent purple eyes. But similar to many of the fellow children around her, beneath those innocent eyes hold pain and suffering like all the rest, but possibly much more than that.

Said child was doing her menial task of sewing the various cloths lying about to form the various articles of clothing for her fellow children to wear. She tried her best to make the clothing acceptable as best as possible. But with the continuous wears and tears, it makes it harder each day for the ashen grey girl to sew the holes back up.

As the ashen grey child was working her little fingers to the bone, someone cried out in pain.

"Ow..."

Now normally such a thing wouldn't be too much of a problem. But with how quiet the cavern is, asides from the continuous sounds the children digging through the dirt with their metal shovels and pick axes, the cry of pain resounded throughout the entire area in an echo.

*Sigh* 'Here we go again.' The ashen girl thought before...

*Ding Ding* *Ding Ding* *Ding Ding* *Ding Ding*

...the bell sounded off. It was rather quite loud to echo through the entire cavern. As the bell rung, every child had dropped their current tasks and made their way through the various corridors. Along the way, the ashen girl saw one of the boys that was digging through the dirt have a new injury on him.

'Seems he was the one that cried out.' She thought as she eyed the bandana wrapped around the boy's leg.

The children eventually ended up in a decently lighted room where many candles brightened things up in the darkened environment. In the far off part of the room was a dark haired man, sitting on a makeshift throne wearing Victorian styled clothing with some jewelry here and there to make himself look like royalty. Especially with him having a Victorian styled cloak to add more towards the appearance. Though he had other additions towards his appearance as well from a walking staff of sorts and a pair of glasses with the left lense blackened out for an impromptu eye patch.

This man was known as the Sewer King, the master of these children in the underground, and he seemed rather angry with the ever present scowl on his face.

"Hurry up!" The Sewer King yelled out before getting off of his throne. "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!" His lack of patience was beginning to show before he saw the last of the children enter the room. "Now are all of you ready for your lessons? Yes?"

…..

"Yes I think so. I think so." The man said in a slightly cheerful tone as he paced around seeing all of the children crouched down or kneeling before him. "Well so am I. Your ruler, your teacher, your leader, your king. Ready I am." *Chuckles*

…..

"Yes well for those that have forgotten that lesson number one is… NO! TALKING!" He yelled out in rage making the various children closest to him flinch and scurry back from the man's wrath.

"Children are meant to be seen, not heard. For we are the Underdwellers, the silent ones. For we follow the invisible creed. But, but, but, but, but…. Someone was talking." He then pointed towards the child with the bandana wrapped around his leg with an accusing fashion. "You, you, you, you, you were heard!"

The accused child was shaking like a leaf at this, but the Sewer King wasn't having any of that.

"And we all know of course the punishment is for talking. Don't we boys and girls." The king then grabbed the boy by the hem of his shirt and dragged him along. Knowing what was going to happen, the various boys and girls in the room covered their eyes while others could only look on in pity with the ashen girl being one of them.

"I think he needs to see the light!" The Sewer King yelled out as he opened a metallic door and threw the child inside. That was before he flipped a switch from the outside to turn on the phosphorescent lights. "A few hours in the light would make 'Jack a bright boy'!" With a resounding *Clang*, the door was shut leaving the hurt child in the brightened room. The ruler of the sewers walked back towards his 'subjects' with a small smile on his lips.

"Now lesson number two is… ALL OF YOU UP TO THE STREETS!" The man yelled out before going down to a lower tone of voice. "Bring lots of pretties. Bring lots and lots of pretties for your king. NOW!"

And just like that, the various children ran off as the Sewer King let out a bellowing cackle. The children then gathered their makeshift cloaks before heading towards the various entrances to reach the surface to do their 'king's' bidding and steal from others. They didn't want to do this, but what other choice did they have.

As this was going on, Naruto and Harley were on their way towards the alleyway where the former saw the 'leprechaun' last. The two were previously ridding one of Naruto's Kazekage lances with Harley hugging her boyfriend's form from behind. It was quite the experience the changed intern was having of being high in the sky. Seeing what her lover got to see for a while now was rather breathtaking.

The ride eventually came to an end when Naruto landed a few blocks away from the last known location. She wondered why he didn't just land closer to their designated spot. But he stated that since it's her first patrol, they might as well do it in a bit of the old fashion way: walking, climbing and going in stealthily.

"You know Naruto," Harley grunted out as she was climbing over a wooden fence, "it would've been better if you landed us in an alleyway that didn't have all of these *Grunt* fences."

"Well it wouldn't be as challenging if obstacles weren't in the way Harley." Naruto stated as he was on the other side waiting on her. "Also couldn't you use some of your gymnastics training to just jump over the past several ones."

*Grunt* "Well you could've told me that earlier." She said before jumping down from the top. Of course there was a bit of snag in that action as the end of her cape got caught by the top of the fence. This caused her to get strangled by her own cape and start fidgeting around.

"Geh! GAH! NOT LIKE THIS! NOT LIKE!" She yelled out as her pale face started to quickly gain a shade of blue due to the lack of oxygen she was getting.

"Harley!" The masked publisher yelled out as he quickly grabbed his girlfriend and phased her out of her predicament. "Okay that's it! No more cape for you! This thing is too much of a hinderance."

It was true. When Harley was getting past some of the previous fences, she ended up getting her cape snagged one way or another. With the first, it got snagged closer to the bottom half of the fence causing her to be pulled back when walking away. The second wasn't really snagged, but Harley landed on a crouch and she stepped onto her cape and fell back in the process when standing back up. The last one made her trip and smacked her head against the nearby wall.

"I'm sorry puddin, but Batman and Robin made the cape look cool to wear." She spoke out once she regained her breath. "I'd thought that I could've handled wearing it, but I have no idea how they gotten used to it after all their time as heroes."

"Maybe capes were their thing." Naruto stated with a shrug before he looked around to see their location. "Okay we're close. Just one more block to go and if I know this area correctly we can just run the rest of the way without anything blocking our way."

"That's good to know."

It didn't take long for them to reach their destination. By the time they got there, they looked towards one end of the intersecting alleyways to see where the theft happened during their date. Knowing that they were in the right place, Naruto activated the the multivision function on his helmet to find any clues his clone couldn't do before.

It was a stupid thing really that his clone couldn't have any of the tech on him. So if he wanted his future clones to have the tech, he'll need to work more on them. But getting back to business…

"Huh… Should've realized there was a door here."

"What was that puddin?" Harley asked as she saw her boyfriend place his hand on a section of brick wall. Once doing so, he pushed hard to get the wall to give way and fall back to give the two a clear path. "Oh, nevermind."

"You better stay close to me Harley." He said as he pulled out a flashlight from his utility belt before handing it to her. "Don't want us to get separated wherever this leads to."

"Right."

The two carefully made their way through the steep decline for a few minutes before coming onto flat ground. It took a bit more as they were making their way through the underground access tunnels that seemed to be connected to the hidden entrance from earlier. As Harley was using her flashlight to keep track of her puddin, part of the light seemed to hit a message on the wall right next to her.

"Beware the Sewer King?" Harley read out loud getting Naruto's attention.

"Perhaps a leader of homeless people here in Gotham." The publisher guessed as he kept moving forward. They continued onward with their trek before the sounds of the subway started to echo throughout the darkened corridor. This gave the masked Uzumaki a better pathway on where to possibly go to next. It even helped when the two saw bright lights on the end of the tunnel to get them to realize they were almost out of the hidden passage way.

Though once they got past the large grate, their pathway through the subway tunnel came to an end when they were met with a deadbolted door.

"Huh… Same writing on the door." The intern commented as the flashlight landed on the spray painted lettering getting the former shinobi to frown a little. "Seems we might be close to something." He didn't say anything as he summoned a card into his hand and sliced through the doorknob to give the two access through the locked doorway.

At this time, the ashen girl was walking through her own pathway as she exited through a metallic door. As per usual habit, she looked around to see any of the subway workers were present before she continued onward. By the time she was ready to hop on down to the tracks below, she heard her makeshift alarm made out of cans to make her realize someone was coming.

"Why are there cans here?" A female voice called out getting the ashen girl to know her assumptions were true. So the ashen girl ran off to possibly get away from the possible intruder. "Hey look. Someone's down there."

"I see that." A male voice responded. "Come on."

She needed to get away and she didn't know what would happen to her if they caught her. With what the Sewer King has done in terms of convincing her and the other children, she was scared that she'd get extremely hurt when someone found her. So she ducked into a small hole and crawled on through the watery pipe until she made it out to the other side where the deadbolted door was located. Once making past that, she looked back to see if the people following her lost track of her….

Only to find that they were a few steps away from her.

"Hold on a second kid." The darkened man spoke out, making the ashen girl really startled underneath her hood. "We aren't going to hurt you."

*WOOO WOOO*

But the sound of the subway train startled the girl more as she tripped onto the cloak she wore and fell back onto the train tracks below. She soon got back up, but saw the incoming train and stood there in fright. Even more so that the train's body was soon replaced by a fiery ball with the train light's turning into four yellow eyes. The ashen girl didn't know what to do as she stood there helplessly for what might be her demise.

"PUDDIN!" The girl heard as she was pushed aside and fell down off of the tracks with a larger body on top of her. She didn't know what to do exactly as she wanted to run away, despite being saved by the stranger, but the person had a firm grip around her body.

"Hey it's okay little one." The man spoke in a comforting tone. "It's alright. You're safe now."

The girl wanted to get out of the man's hold, but something about the man seemed odd to her. Something that she hasn't felt in a long time. So as the girl was trying to figure out what this was, the person from above came down and walked towards the man holding the ashen girl.

"What were you thinking Naruto?!" The woman screamed out, making the hooded girl flinch without the other two realizing this. "You could've died!"

"Well what was I supposed to do Harley. Let this girl die?"

This seemed to quiet Harley down a little as she seemed uneasy on the response. "I-I'm sorry puddin. I-It was just so sudden and-"

"Don't worry about it honey. What happened, happened." The masked Uzumaki said before he formed a giant playing card right under the three. "Okay. You better get in close since I'm getting us out of here."

Harley did as she was told before they were lifted off of the ground in a slow manner. By the time they reached the ceiling, Naruto used his phasing ability to get everyone on top of the card to go through the street above without a problem at all. The group started to get higher and higher so that no one below wouldn't see the group all that well if they were to be seen down below.

"Harley. Mind taking ahold of her as I properly steer this thing." The pale woman complied as she grabbed ahold of the child under her boyfriend's arm. The ashen girl squirmed a little, but when she saw how far up they were the girl tensed and clung onto the woman holding her.

"Hey it's okay kiddo. Harley's here to help ya." The costumed intern said as she rocked the little child in her grasp. "I'm here and nothing bad is going to happen now. You're safe."

With how soothing the woman's voice was, the warmth and the rocking motions said woman was giving; the ashen girl was starting to drift asleep from how tired she has been feeling for a long time.

 _ **-Morning, Naruto's and Pamela's Loft-**_

The sun's rays started to seep through the curtains of the guest bedroom as they eventually landed upon the sleeping girl's face. Feeling the discomfort of this, the ashen girl covered herself with whatever she had on top of her. But as she did this, she paused in her action before slowly opening her eyes to take in her surroundings.

'This… This isn't the underground.' The ashen girl thought as it took a bit of time for her eyes to adjust to the faint morning light. From what she could tell about the room was that it had a standard plain look on both the walls and furniture. 'Am… Am I home?'

The child then got out of bed and hesitantly walked out of the bedroom with slightly glazed eyes. Everything around her seemed to adjust to things of her memories of her home. But adding to the fact that the place felt warm, truly warm, made the environment more convincing to make the waking dream feel real.

Soon the sounds and smells of cooking filled the air as the ashen girl walked through the small hallway to see the stairs that lead downstairs. Once walking down, the little girl's eyes soon gazed at the figure doing all of the cooking in the kitchen. Seeing her made the little girl's eyes widen when taking in the details of the person's appearance.

The black hair with tinges of purple in the mix that reached towards her mid back, the light creamy skin and the rich purple eyes that were filled with love as the woman was humming a light tune. All of this made the ashen girl's eyes water and become a little shaky with what the child wanted to say. But only one thing came out of her mouth in a faint raspy like whisper.

"Mommy..."

Hearing the girl's voice stopped the woman cooking, as she turned her head towards the stairs. "Oh...You're up already? I'd thought you'd sleep in more."

The girl heard the woman speak towards her and it made her heart beat faster than it was before. She suddenly ran from her placement by the stairs and went towards her 'mother'. Once close enough, the little girl hugged the woman from her current height and gave the person a mild shocked look on what just happened.

"Mommy! You're alive!" The ashen girl cried out as tears streamed down her face.

Now this caused the woman to stand perfectly still, with widened eyes, on what the little girl just said to her. From what the 'mother' could tell from the amount of love radiating off of the girl, made the hugged person's heart clench. She didn't know what to do exactly, but the feeling alone made some instincts slowly come towards the surface for the very first time.

But before anything else could be done…

"Pam!" Naruto spoke out as he walked into the living room with Harley right behind him. "I heard someone shout. Is the little girl awa..ke? Oh…"

When hearing this, the ashen girl broke her hug to look at the new arrival. Before she could speak though, a thought soon came across her mind. 'Wait… My mother's name was Angela... or Arella as she prefers to be called… And this man said 'Pam'.' The child thought before looking towards her 'mother' and saw her form slowly shift to what 'Pam' looked like. Seeing the realization made the girl back off and start to cry a little, making the hugged woman feel uneasy on what's going on.

"Hey it's alright sweetie." Pam said as she tried to calm the little girl down. "It was an honest mistake."

*Sniffle* *Sniffle* "R-Really?"

"Yeah." The botanist replied at the little bit of hope in the young pair of eyes. "Now let's whip you something good for you to eat."

"And I'll help out." Naruto added in as he came up to the little girl before crouching down to her level. "Sorry about earlier little one. We didn't know you were waking up so soon." Seeing her slowly nod at this, the publisher brought out a hand for her to shake. "My name's Naruto. You already met Pam and the other person here is Harley."

The child could only stare when inspecting the man in front of her on his physical descriptions, due to her not getting a better look a bit ago. She did the same towards the redhead before the third person in the room. This soon left the publisher to dropping his hand on the neglected handshake. The changed intern was the one that peaked the child's curiosity the most, due to the woman having deathly white skin.

Of course this little inspection didn't go unnoticed from the intern as she decided to talk towards the child for the first time.

"If you're wondering about my skin sweetie, it's not natural." Harley started off, giving the girl to gain an answer yet a few more questions. "You can blame a certain deranged clown for that, but I won't bore you with the details."

"...Mmm. Okay." The child said in a raspy voice before she was lead by the pale woman towards one of the stools by the kitchen counter where the two continued their little conversation.

As this was going on, Naruto and Pam were making breakfast together.

"...I'm just saying Pam. You looked rather off when I saw little one hug you is all." He said while making the waffle/pancake batter for the current people in the loft.

"I know Naruto, but something about her…" She briefly spoke before taking some moments to think things through while chopping up the ingredients for some omelets. "When she hugged me, mistaking me as her mother… I… I don't know how to describe it."

"How so?"

"I… I think my motherly instincts started up again… Or what I think they are." The botanist said as she tried to think more on her reasoning. "When I saw your memories as a little child, I wanted to hold your younger self and tell him that things were going to be alright. Comforting you and help you through many problems you had to possibly endure."

"Well thanks for that Pam and possibly my younger self would've appreciated it."

"Your welcome, but that's besides the point. When you brought the child in last night… and when I saw her state… She made me think of your younger self."

*Sigh* "Yeah… I know what you mean..."

After getting back from the Theatre District, Pam was in a bit of a shock of seeing Naruto and Harley with a hooded girl with them. Asides from giving Harley an odd look on her current appearance and later questioning, Pam was given details on what happened after the pale woman's date and what lead up to the current moment.

When the three took the hooded child to one of the guest rooms upstairs, they removed the hooded cloaked and were shocked in what they took from the child's appearance. A child no more than nine or ten years old, but it would've been slightly harder to tell due to the how skinny she was. With her ribs and joints were protruded to show the slight malnutritional state the ashen child was in. They wondered how the hell she was able to survive.

But without a second thought, Pam's instincts went on autopilot and she grabbed some flowers nearby and made the serum she made for the three people in their open relationship and injected it into the child. Well after giving the girl a strong sedative from the first aide kit in the loft to deal with the pain that would've awoken the child. She didn't know what came over her, with the two other occupants questioning this, but the botanist didn't want to see this child's current state at all.

"...But something else about her seemed to strike a chord with me."

"How so?"

"Don't know if I told you this or not, but I have a sensory ability that I'm still trying to work on." Naruto started off before getting into a little explanation with bringing this skill up. "On the way over here last night, I was feeling something from the girl that, for some reason, seemed rather familiar with me. It was like Kurama's power, yet different. It was faint enough for me to notice and the power alone was trying to keep the girl alive."

"So she's like you in a way?" Pam asked as she was finishing up the omelets for the current occupants in the loft.

"Maybe, but I don't want to dwell too deep into this right now." Naruto stated as he was pouring the batter into the waffle iron. "Right now, I just want to make the girl happy before I ask her to help me out on who did all that to her."

Before Pam could say anything, the door to the loft was opened up showing Selina with what appeared to be several bags of clothing.

"What's with those Selina?"

"Well you can thank Harley for calling me this morning." The ravenette started out before closing the door and locking it. "She asked me to go to the marketplace that sells clothes and get some child outfits. Was rather skeptical on it, but Harley told me the details and I complied."

"And when was this Harley?" Naruto asked since he didn't know his pale girlfriend did this without him knowing.

"When I had to go use the little ladies room." She responded back with a shrug. "Didn't want you hearing that and wanted to give you the surprise."

"Which, by the way, you owe me."

"Oh don't worry Selina, I plan on paying you back." The intern responded back with an uncaring wave.

The little girl could only stare onwards towards the incoming ravenette before said woman placed the bags of clothing on the ground. "So… I finally get to meet you, little one. If you haven't already guessed, my name is Selina."

"H-Hello." The ashen girl said with little hesitation. Can't really fault her due to interacting with four older strangers all at once.

"So mind telling me your name or do I have to guess." The ravenette said with a small smile since she didn't want to upset and pressure the child. Of course the older woman looked up towards the three other occupants and directed the next thing on her mind towards them. "Unless you three already got her name before I came in."

"I-It's Rachel." The ashen girl spoke out to fully identify herself with the others. "My name's Rachel Roth."

"Well ain't that a very pretty name Rachel." The environmentalist said getting the now identified girl to fidget a little in her seat.

Hopefully this could be a good start for the day.

 _ **-Hours Later, The Sewer Dwellings-**_

The large gathering of children surrounded the Sewer King as he sat in front of a large spread of food… All for himself. With how appetising and delicious this looked, it made the various children very hungry and wished they could have their filling quite soon from what leftovers their 'king' would leave for them. Which isn't very much just for one's information.

As the 'king' was cutting into a giant turkey, he decided to speak out for the first time into this meal. "Ashley. Hand me the rolls if you please."

Soon a pair of feminine child hands brought over a basket of rolls towards her 'leader'. As the child got closer, the man was going to grab ahold of one of the rolls before he saw who brought them over to him. In a quick reaction, the man grabbed ahold of the girls' hands and slammed the child close to the table.

"You're not Ashley!" The Sewer King stated as he saw the child squirmed in front of him. "Where is Ashley?!"

Now one might wonder who Ashley is. Well the Sewer King didn't want to bother himself knowing each of the children's birth names, so he gave them new ones from what he could think of really. There was a Frog, a Hamster, Dolphin, Lion, and various other animal names from what the man thought of when taking each child's appearance. Though the person the 'king' was referring to as the ashen girl, with how grey her skin was that it reminded him of 'ash'. Hence, Ashley.

"I'll ask again! Where is she?!" The man yelled out as he smacked the girl away with an angry scowl. "After all I've done for you, you ungrateful little monsters! I took you all in when no one else would have you! For it is I who care for you! I who provide for you! And only I know what's good for you! So would you all rather have me send you back into the light?! Back to those who hurt you?!"

The man didn't really get a response as the children cowered from him and couldn't give him any verbal responses at all... Just like what he wanted really. Much so that he inwardly chuckled at their expenses.

For you see, all of these children are a mixture of orphans and runaways that he had taken off of the streets. With promises that he'd be there to take care of them. For in reality, he was using them for child labor ring to fill his own pockets. A man that fell into poverty some unknown time ago and wanted his wealth back. So he had the idea to have children do the work for him. Through digging through the dirt in hopes of making food for him and themselves, but in reality digging out precious minerals from the deep. Along with the fact of having the children pilfur purses, wallets and other valuables from the streets above.

So for him to keep control of these children, he'd had to be harsh and threaten them in various ways to be sure they follow his every rule. Even would threaten to feed them to his giant alligators that he has around as his pets. This was all so that he can keep things in his designed plan so that he'd be rich in the end. But if any of the children were caught and ended up telling the police and officials, then he'd be sent to jail for life for what his crimes truly were.

And he can't have that.

So the Sewer King went back to his table full of food and flipped the entire thing over, ruining the entire spread in front of the children's eyes.

"THERE WILL BE NOTHING TO EAT UNTIL ASHLEY IS FOUND!" The Sewer King yelled out before he stomped on several pieces of food that could've been edible if salvaged properly. "NOW OUT! OUT WITH ALL OF YOU!"

 _ **-Back in the Loft-**_

Time has past inside of the loft as the four adults interacted with Rachel. They didn't want to overwhelm the child at all with questions, but they probably guessed on some details with how the child interacted with them. When Pam brought up the little fact towards the other adults that Rachel mistook her as her mother and saying 'you're alive.', it made them realize that the girl was an orphan. An orphan who lost her mother some time ago. Nothing on the father though.

There was also the fact that when she interacted with some of the entertainment systems, it also got the adults to realize that Rachel was possibly raised in a closed off environment without any of these things in her life. The child had seen them several times prior to today, but never really interacted with them. The four adults didn't want to pressure the girl on this fact as they let her have fun of listening to some music or watching Looney Tunes and My Little Pony (Generation 1) on the TV while the adults talked among themselves.

This wasn't all that they did though as the girls helped Rachel take a bath to fully clean off the grime. It did unsettle Selina when seeing her condition as it reminded her a little of both of her and Naruto's childhoods. Though, in Selina's case, she did know ways on how to fend for herself once she ran away from her foster home and afterwards. But it was just the memories that were brought up as she looked at Rachel's conditions.

As for Harley, she practically smothered the girl in hugs and played with her for most of the day. She did help the ashen girl laugh several times while the intern was mentally writing things down on the child's behavior. It wasn't all that great, but the changed woman hoped that she could improve the child's mentality at some point.

With Pam, she was enjoying her time with the child as several things kept plaguing her mind. Memories would pop up of when she and her own mother had fun together in their own ways. It made the botanist yearn for those old feelings again, but didn't know about doing so with the child she is only knowing for within a day so far. Sure she did talk to Naruto about possibly adopting a child one day, but something about the girl wanted the redhead to spend more time with her. To feel more on what she is currently feeling more often.

As for Naruto though…

"Why did you girls have to-O-O-Ooooooo!" The publisher purred out as Rachel, who was currently in a pair of clean clothes, was petting his cheeks while the other three occupants held him down.

"Because it's fun silly!" Harley said as she sat on her puddin's legs. "We had to let Rachel know of 'whisker time'."

"Besides… You did say that you would do anything to make her smile." Selina added in with a smirk on her face as she held down one of his arms. "And look, she is."

"At my own expense SelenA-A-A-O-O-Oooooo!"

*Giggle* "So he is a catman?" Rachel asked for a little confirmation as she kept rubbing his cheeks.

"He insists on being called a fox actually." The pale intern corrected the little girl, who nodded at this bit of information.

'I haven't had this much fun in a long time…' The ashen girl thought before she slowly stopped her current actions. 'Possibly… ever.' The girl then remembered what happened later on and brief remembrances of the underground came to mind. As this happened, the others saw the girl's sudden mood change and became worried because of it.

"Is something wrong Rachel?" The Uzumaki asked.

"I-It's the others…"

"Others? What others?" Naruto asked as this little revelation is starting to worry the other occupants in the loft.

"They need help."

 _ **-Underneath the Theatre District-**_

"Are you sure this is the right way Rachel?" Naruto asked in his Vanitas attire as he was being lead by the ashen grey child. She only responded with a nod to the head as she lead the disguised man through the sewers.

It was a bit of a shock to her when seeing the kind man summon an outfit in front of her and wondered if there were other magic users in the world than from where she came from. Though she didn't voice it, she had mentally questioned it. Asides from that bit of information, she had somewhat guessed the man that saved her last night in the subway was him earlier with the oddly dressed woman was Harley. Hard to mistaken really after hearing her voice.

Anyways… after Naruto went into his suit, he asked the girls to call the police if they don't hear from him in an hour or so with some information Rachel told them. It was sickening for them to hear and made them want to come to take care of this 'Sewer King', but Naruto drew the line on this. He didn't want them to be involved and it would turn too many heads their way if they were seen rescuing the children. They argued a little, but Naruto won out in the end of the discussion before he left with Rachel on a giant Fair Game card.

As the pair traveled through the sewers, they heard a loud hissing coming throughout the tunnels.

"Well… It seems we might be close." Naruto muttered as he remembered Rachel telling him about the Sewer King's giant pet alligators.

It didn't take them much longer as the ashen girl lead the disguised Uzumaki through a few more tunnels until reaching a specific doorway. Once opening it, she quickly went ahead of him to make the man jog right after her. The moment he caught up with the child, the publisher was soon greeted with the site of various children silently greeting her. They were weary at first, but Rachel gave out a nonverbal saying that he was okay.

Though the moment Naruto saw all of them, his blood started to boil. Seeing all of the children kept down here against their will due to lies the Sewer King had kept them under. Seeing their current conditions made Naruto remember his times as a child when he was living on the streets before Jiji Hiruzen gave him his apartment. It made him sick.

But with a tightened grip, he started to calm himself down…. Slightly. He needed to think things through better and get things taken care of immediately. But first…

"Evidence." The helmeted man muttered as he pulled out a disposable camera from his utility belt and started taking various photos in the area. His old intern instincts kicked in as Naruto took the various photos throughout the area of the children's conditions as he was going to give this to the police. Once this was done, he placed the device back into his belt before looking around the children to find Rachel. "Now where is he."

The ashen girl then lead Naruto through a few other tunnels before the two ended up in a larger room with a variety of candles lighting up the area. It was there that they saw a lone child sweeping the area before he spotted the two. He was scared at first of seeing the taller man, but seeing Rachel made the child happy. As Naruto came closer, Rachel pointed out the rope tied to the bell above and motioned him to ring it. Nodding at this, he went over and pulled.

*Ding Ding* *Ding Ding* *Ding Ding* *Ding Ding*

As the sounds of the ringing bell rang out throughout the sewer tunnels, the many children came rushing in with them thinking the Sewer King needed their attention. It soon came to be a surprise as they saw the black and white themed man ringing the bell above him. Before long, the man started pulling harder and harder to break the beam above.

*Ding Ding* *Ding Ding* *Ding* *CRASH*

"Well that's taken care of." The hero said as he dusted his hands off before turning his attention towards the gathered children around him in a soft and caring voice. "I don't know what kind of barbarian did this to you. But I promise all of you, that it's over. That you'll be treated like human beings."

"Well I think we have something to say about that." A voice called out from a corner of the room. Vanitas and the children turned around to see the Sewer King in his glory with two giant alligators at his feet. They soon hissed out as they wanted to be free from their master's grasp so they can feast on the children and man before them. "Oh yes we will. So how about it my pets, say hello to our guest."

And with that, he let go of their chained restraints. The two giant gators ran towards the group, causing all of the children to run away and get away from the beasts, but Vanitas kept his ground. As one of the gators got closer, Naruto grabbed ahold of the fallen rope tied bell and swung it around to knock against the gator's head.

'Sorry about that.' The former shinobi thought as he saw the gator trying to pry the bell out of it's mouth. 'Selina would kill me if I killed you guys.'

HHHHHHIIIIIIISSSSS

'Though I'm gonna need animal control after this!' He thought before rolling out of the way as the second gator leapt towards him with it's widened jaw. The moment it came crashing down onto the ground, Naruto got on top of the beast and wrestled with the creature. It was quite the struggle, but with his better strength Vanitas got out on top. But to be sure the gator won't be going anywhere, the hero formed his grappling scarf and wrapped the durable cloth around the mouth and limbs of the beast.

Off to the side, the Sewer King watched in absolute fury on seeing two of his pets being disabling by the black and white themed hero.

"KILL HIM!" The Underdwelling king yelled out towards other gators that seemed to crawl out of the tunnels. "DESTROY HIM MY PETS AND FEAST ON HIS REMAINS!"

Hearing this command, Vanitas turned around to see the other gators coming his way. One of the gators got in close and planned to take a bite out the hero, but said man grabbed at its jaws at the last moment. He used his strength to push apart the jaws and with more pressure into it, Naruto somehow was able to knock the beast out.

Of course a few other gators came closing in causing the hero to groan out in frustration as he didn't want to deal with these beasts any longer. So he focused his power to form a void rasengan in each hand before slamming them into the gators. The child spectators watched in awe and amazement on what just happened as the giant alligators were sent flying towards the walls behind them with spiral like markings on their forms before they were knocked out of commision.

"GAAAAAH!" The Sewer King yelled out in frustration. "I'll show you who's the ruler of this kingdom you interloper!"

"Your kingdom?!" Vanitas yelled out as he turned his attention towards the madman, only to see said man have a child in his arm that struggled to get free. "Put him down! NOW!"

"Oh I will… since I think it's feeding time for my pretties." The 'king' said in a threatening tone as he held the child out towards the edge of the room where some alligators were at.

But before the man let go of the child, Rachel came swooping in from a hanged rope and nabbed the boy. The two soon ended up on top of the balcony above, leaving the bespeckled man below seething towards them.

"You miserable little shit!" The man growled out at the ashen girl above him. He then noticed the girl's state of dress and realized that she was the one that is causing problems in his kingdom. "I'll have your hide for this 'Ashley'! You ruined everything!"

"I don't think so!" Vanitas yelled out causing the Sewer King to run off into one of the tunnels. "Get back here!"

The hero gave chase and had to activate his helmet's night vision function due to how dark the tunnel was. But it seemed he did this too late as he suddenly fell through a hole. It was rather bumpy on the ride down, but he eventually plummeted out of it to see a large watery pit of alligators down below. So out of instinct, Naruto grabbed ahold of a hanging pipe and grabbed ahold of it, only to break due to the sudden pressure to leave the hero hanging on a broken one.

"Well…. Ain't this wonderful." Vanitas sarcastically muttered as he saw the various gators snapping their jaws at him. "And here I thought your breed was endangered with how big you all are."

*Clapping* "Bravo. Bravo." The child slaver chimed out from above before his face gained a scowl. "You've caused quite the trouble for me you annoying hero. Yes. Yes. Yes, you have. You've hurt my pretty pets and my beloved children!"

"Beloved children?!" Naruto yelled out in questioned wrath.

"Why yes. I've clothed them, I've fed them, I discipline them, and I teach them lessons." The man listed off as he walked closer to the hanging hero.

"BULLSHIT!" Naruto yelled out as he swung upwards and kicked the man's chest to make the slaver fall back. "You tortured them! *Smack* Manipulated them! *Punch* Starved them! *Kick* And there is no way in Hell they are your beloved children!" There was one last blow against the man before he stumbled back from the gathered pipes and fell down below where all of the gators resided.

After the large splash, the various gators dived down to possibly feast on the man's body.

"I hope the gruesome bastard died in a gruesome way." Vanitas muttered before his eyes soon saw one of the gators coming out of the water with the Sewer King on the beast's back. "Are you kidding me?!"

"HAHAHAHAHA! You should've realized that my pretty pets wouldn't hurt me at all hero! So have a nice swim! HAHAHAHAHA!" The child slaver yelled out as he left through one of the other tunnels with the helmeted hero narrowing his eyes in discuss.

Not wanting to lose track of the man, he jumped on down and quickly formed a Kazekage spear to swing from it. Naruto stumbled a little on the landing, especially with the gators behind him, but his recovery helped out before running after the madman. It took Vanitas a bit to catch up, due to how confusing the tunnels were leading, but the hero got the idea where the slaver was going. He followed his instincts, which eventually lead him to a locked door. He contemplated for a quick moment to blast right through it, but he decided to phase right through to give him the element of surprise.

Luckily for him, it paid off as Naruto saw the man walk away without really noticing what was behind him. So he used his silence manipulation on his feet to give him a quieted walk before coming behind him. As he was a few steps from the madman, the Uzumaki started to smile on wanting to see the man's reaction. So he tapped the man on the shoulder, making the Underdweller jolt in shock and turn around to see the hero right behind him.

"What?! You?! But how?!" The Underdweller king questioned as he backed away from the hero. He didn't make it far as he was punched right in the face, breaking the glasses he was wearing and the few shards of darkened glass piercing his damaged eye. "FUCK! MY EYE!"

"That's the least of the pain you should worry about asshole!" Vanitas growled out as he grabbed ahold of the man's coat.

*WOOO WOOO*

Seeing the oncoming train, the hero pulled the deranged man close to the train. The man screamed out in terror as he felt like he was about to die. Though at the last moment, Vanitas pulled the man back and slammed him against the all.

"WHAT?! WHY?!" The 'king' questioned in terror as he stared back into his reflection from the dark helmet.

"As much as I would want to pass judgement on you and end your life right now, I'd rather let the courts handle it!

 _ **-Two Days Later, Arkham Asylum-**_

*Sigh* "What a day!" Harley said as she was resting a little in her office from taking care of a lot of paperwork. It really piled up after being gone from work for so long, but her little vacation had to end though. "Somewhat wish I could've relaxed more."

The past two days were pretty crazy on what happened with Rachel coming into her life and on the reveal on what was happening in the sewers with the child slavery. She and the girls were worried on how long their boyfriend was taking to reach back to them. This caused Harley to quickly call the police by the half hour marker and told them what was going on. Though it did upset Selina and Pam on the intern jumping the gun, they did admit they would've called by now if Harley hadn't.

Once the call ended, the three turned on the TV in Naruto's loft and switched towards the news channel and waited. Though about fifteen or so minutes later, hard to keep track really on how anxious the three were, they saw a live news bulliten of what was happening at the Theatre District. The news shows various police cars and vans by the designated address when the manhole cover in the intersection popped off and showed Vanitas coming out first with a child hugging close to his form. Once handing the child off to one of the officers there, he then ushered the others to help him out getting the other children out from down below.

Her puddin made a big impact really by revealing what was going on down in the sewers below. Even had a clone of his come up with the Sewer King and handed the bastard over to the police as he explained what the man done. Suffice to say, the child slaver was going to be locked up for the rest of his days.

After that day, which was yesterday; Naruto went over to child services and asked what the conditions were with the children. It was going to be very hard to sort things out, but the children were going to be okay after being sent to the hospitals and several other places. Though when it came towards Rachel, Naruto had to partially lie that he and his date found the girl on the side of the street and took care of her for the day before she revealed what happened.

Though when it came back to the ashen grey child, the publisher asked what was going to happen to her. They ran Rachel's name through their servers and it showed her possible next of kin was located in Jump City, but had turned up missing roughly a decade ago. Only thing was once the name was brought up, Naruto told child services that Rachel told them that her mother died some time ago.

He did ask everything they had on Angela Roth and it was very little on what they had. The only information provided was that she was an orphan herself and was a loner. But something came up that Angela was drugged and became a rape victim by a supposed cult before being reported missing by her neighbors and coworkers.

It was a hard pill to digest on what he and his girlfriends learned on that information, but they needed to move past that. Naruto then asked on what was going to happen to Rachel now with the latest info and the service workers explained that she'll possibly end up in the foster system until further notice. The publisher was fine with that, but the moment he saw her again at the building he knew what he had to do.

"Still can't believe Naruto became Rachel's foster daddy." Harley muttered to herself as she looked at the new photo taken yesterday with Naruto, Harley, Pam and Selina huddled around the shy looking Rachel. It was rather cute on how it turned out and she can't wait to possibly introduce the little girl to her foster nieces. "Hope they end up becoming friends."

*Knock Knock*

The intern heard the knocking of her door and quickly checked her mirror for a quick second to see if there was any smudges to her makeup disguise. Seeing that there were none, she called out as she adjusted her reading glasses. Not that she needed glasses anymore due to the changes she got, but it's just for old habits for work purposes. "It's opened!"

When the door opened up, she was greeted with the site of Joan standing in the doorway.

"So how's your first day back Dr. Quinzel?" Dr. LeLand asked with a small smile on her face.

"It's doing well so far Joan. *Sigh* Just having to catch up with all of the paperwork and whatnot you higher ups left for me."

*Chuckles* "Sorry on that, but we wanted to give you something to work on until you can get back to your regular session assignments."

"More like trying to kill me with all this paperwork." She mockingly cried out with comical tears running down her cheeks. It was only done for a quick moment before she too chuckled at the little joke. "But yeah, I understand what you are trying to do ma'am."

"Good to know."

"So is there anything else you need to talk to me about Joan or was this just a social chat?" Harley questioned only for her superior to shake her head in response.

"As much as I would like it to just be a social call, I'm here to inform you of a few things."

"Like what?"

"Well… as you remember what happened in the breakout that various inmates escaped and are still at large. Not only that but various staff members died due to those events."

"Like with Dr. Serrano?" The disguised intern grinded out in disgust in remembrance of the doctor that tried to kill her.

"Yes… _her_. *Sigh* After the statement you told the police about her death, on why she was in your office in the first place. The board needed to get a better, stricter doctor to take her place. One that would hopefully help our reputation get better."

Hearing this coming from Joan seemed odd for the intern, but realized that she was correct in that fact. "So… Who's coming to replace _her_ and when will he or she arrive?"

"He's actually right here in fact." The female doctor said before walking further into the office and onto the side.

This gave the person the cue walk on in as it gave Harley a first impression on the man. He was in the 6 ft range in height with a sophisticated look and aura radiating off of him. He also appeared muscular as well with what the intern could tell from how the clothing seemed to stretch a little on some places. Other than that, the man was bald and had a pepper colored beard with a pair of circular glasses that seemed to cover a calculating gaze.

"Well hello Dr. Quinzel. It's nice to finally meet you." The bald doctor said with a sophisticated voice as he brought out a hand for the intern to shake. "I've read your past evaluations on the patient's you've worked on and I dare say they've been very entertaining, yet informative."

"Why thank you sir." The disguised intern said with a small smile as she shook the man's hand. "So why have you decided to come working here in the first place?"

"He actually transferred from Blackgate prison actually and wanted to help us out until further notice." Dr. LeLand stated getting a raised brow from the intern.

"Really? Huh... Well that's interesting."

*Chuckles* "True. But when I heard of what happened here, I wanted to come on by and lend my services for the time being."

"So why haven't you come by earlier?" The changed blonde asked before quickly adding something else. "No offence if I seemed rude."

"None taken Dr. Quinzel, but for one I wanted this place to recover from it's previous incident. Not only that, but I wanted to familiarize myself with the staff here on what information was provided. I had actually started working here yesterday and was going through various patient files when I came across your reports. Reason why I wanted to introduce myself to you today."

After hearing all of this, it was odd on how this was going. But hopefully this new doctor might be better than the woman he's replacing. "Well that's good to know Dr..."

"Oh yes *Chuckles* I forgot to properly introduce myself." The man said as he smiled at the younger woman. "My name is Dr. Hugo Strange and I hope we'll work well together for the unseeable future here at Arkham."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **So just to make things clear at the moment, Harley's mind is just as messed up like shown in her comic run for the time being. With that in mind, she'll be interacting with her plushie Foxy the Pirate and he'll be taking place of Bernie the Beaver in most cases… I think. Just her mind coping with things and having someone to talk to when alone. Something similar to Deadpool's other two voices in his head, the smart/logical one and the crazy/immature one.**

 **With the date, yeah I know the Shun Lee restaurant is located in New York and whatever, but thought to just bring it into the story with one location being in Gotham.**

 **One thing to finally bring up though is Raven/Rachel Roth that I'm not having her be in the pairing at all.**

 ***Dodges molotov cocktails and grenades***

 **Will you let me explain! Geez… Anyways I planned on having Raven be in the story, but I wanted her to be taken in by Naruto as a foster kid like Dick Grayson with Bruce and needed some way to get the two to meet. The episode I'm mostly doing this chapter on 'The Underdwellers' was a good thought for me on how to get Raven introduced. Though forgive me if I didn't do a good job or not on getting things right on the girl to open up better or something on her intro chapter. Rewrote that specific stuff several times so far and it was a complete headache.**

 **Asides from that, how can you not like Raven when she looked like a little kid when you first saw her on the Teen Titan's show. She was so damn cute and adorable that I wanted to adopt her as my own.**

" **I know right!"**

 **What the… Harley?! How the hell did you get in here?!**

" **Well~ you were mentioning me a few times before bringing up my cute little Raven. So I wanted to show up and whatnot."**

… **..I'm going to regret putting down of you being similar to Wade Wilson. Aren't I?**

" **Yeeeeup!"**

 ***Sigh* Hopefully it'll only be in the author's notes.**

" **Maybe… Maybe not."**

 **Will you just get out please. I want to go to bed now.**

" **Yeah, yeah fine." (Heads out of the door.)**

 **Good, now I can wrap this up.**

" **Also can you finally write me and Naru finally banging each other soon?!"**

 **GET OUT HARLEY! I'LL GET TO IT SOON!**

" **...Sheesh, I was only asking."**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	26. A Jolly Good Hunt

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 24: A Jolly Good Hunt**

Alarms were blaring into the night as a robbery was taking place at one of the city's banks. Most would conclude the incident would continue from the front doors of the building; though in this case, it was happening through the side. But to be more accurate, through a giant hole made by explosives.

One man was seen leaving the blown out wall with a dufflebag full of money in each hand before he opened the door to his van and threw them inside. Once doing so, he heard the faint sounds of police sirens coming to signify that he'll need to leave soon. In response to this, he pulled out a small digital clock from his pocket to check the time. Giving the response he was radiating, the thug seemed pleased on how fast this job was turning out.

*Chuckles* "Right on time." The thug said as he looked at the device in his hand. He was going to put it back into his pocket and signal his friend when a dagger suddenly penetrated the clock and dug a little into the man's hand. "GAH! What the fuck?!"

"Are you sure about that?" A voice rang out from possibly all angles of the small alleyway. The thug questioned where the man was hiding as he nursed his hand. With a little grunt and sucking up the pain, the thug pulled out a gun from his side and took aim in random directions.

"Who's there?!" The thug questioned in a frantic state. "Show yourself!"

The man didn't know where the man was hiding, causing his mind to play tricks on him. So when a little pebble was sounded off nearby, the thug started to fire in that direction.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

"Tch. Tch. Tch. Tch. Tch. Bad shots." The voice said in a displeased tone. "Very bad shots. Now all you have are two bullets. Though I do wonder if you can make them count."

It was at this time when the thug saw a moving shadow near a collection of pipes, making him quickly fire his gun.

*Bang* *Bang*

As a result, smoke started to come on out from entry holes and spreaded out through the area. The thug didn't know what to do now as his eyes scanned through the smoke, but it seemed too thick for him to see through. While backing himself up to get to the van, he pumped into something and turned around to see the hero Vanitas standing there.

"You missed." Was all the hero said before he punched the gun wielding thug's lights out. *Sigh* "I should really wrap this up and go to bed."

"Then nighty night hero." A voice called out from the blown out hole before a large safe door was thrown out. Vanitas was able to roll out of the way just in time for the piece of bank property slamming against the van nearby. When the hero looked back at the hole, he saw a thug wearing a pair of bionic gloves that made the disguised publisher think it increased the man's strength ten-fold… or something in that cockish range.

"You do realized you possibly wrecked your getaway vehicle."

"It won't matter if I can get rid of the likes of you." The glove wearing thug stated before he leapt towards the black and white themed man before throwing a series of punches at him. Vanitas dodged each and every one of them with minimal ease. Of course one of the hits landed against the van nearby, leaving a large dent it it.

Wanting to finish this up now, he went under and delivered a strong uppercut against the man's jaw before kicking him in the chest. As the thug tried to recover from the hits, he didn't realize the hero grabbed ahold of the bionic gloves and phased them off of his person. He went to punch the man again, but felt contact with his skin.

"What the-" *BAM*

And with that, the situation was taken care of.

*Sigh* "This better be it for this night surprises." The masked Uzumaki muttered as he summoned a Kazekage lance and rode it towards his loft. "Or else I'll be extremely pissed."

…..

Yeah…. You really shouldn't have said that Naruto, since Murphy likes to screw with people at times. Though to be fair, the one remaining surprise wasn't nearby at all, it was across the other side of Gotham from the Uzumaki's position. And the event was going to be rather interesting for what's to come.

At said event, a man was running across several streets with panted breaths as he tried to get to the safety of his corporate building before the people chasing him got to him. As he got closer, his eyes landed upon the markers of the building he owned like the giant cartoon cat head as the main form of decoration. When coming nearby the building, he started to call out any form of assistance.

"Please! Help me!" The man cried out. *Pant* *Pant* "SOMEBODY! HEEELP!"

The sounds of a vehicle soon approached him, making the man turn around to see how close his pursuers were. So he kept running, but it seemed to be wasted for him as the vehicle rode off of the stairs and flew into the air before landing in front of the scarred man's path. Upon closer inspection, due to the lights shining upon it, it showed the vehicle to be of victorian design or something in it's later period. But after a bit more focus on it, it was revealed to be an antique model-T.

"I must say Mr. Toad," a man spoke out in an British accent as he rose from his seat with an blunderbuss musket rifle in his hand, "what a wonderful night for a hunt."

"I couldn't agree more, Professor Pyg." The driver spoke out in a similar accent.

The gun wielding man soon shot a bullet out of his musket as it startled the chased man into running for his life. He soon ran past the two pursuers and went into the building as the vehicle drove around to go after their target. More shots were shot out as they seemed to miss before one of them landed on the man's shoulder.

"GAH!" The man cried out as he pushed himself through the doors of his building and entered the lobby to see pair of security guards at their station.

"Mr. Shreck!" A guard called out. "Are you alright?!"

"Does it look like I'm alright?!" The man said with sweat coming down his face. "My life is in danger you idiot! So do your job!"

*CROOOOOOOAK*

The loud sound seemed to deafen the ears of those in the lobby as the front doors were blown off of it's hinges. Said door soon flew towards the coming guards and knocked them out, leaving the chased man all by himself. It wasn't long before the victorian vehicle rode it's way through the damaged entrance and came rather close to the wounded man. It's headlights soon shined upon the man's face to identify the pursued man.

This was Maximillian "Max" Shreck, the ruthless and ambitious owner and CEO of the multi-million dollar department store Shreck's. He was a man in his late forties/early fifties with his grey hair combed back while wearing a nice business suit. Several other features weren't fully seen as the headlights were too bright to give out good details. Even for the man in question as he couldn't see the details of the men chasing after him.

Wanting to keep up a strong threatening appearance, Max sneered at the men in front of him. "Do you have any idea who I am? Do you know how powerful I am in this city?!"

There was no response as the man soon gained a new piece of pain on his person. Max soon realized that it came from his neck and reached to see what it was. His eyes soon clouded slightly as he saw in his hand a tranquilizer dart before falling onto the ground in a numbish mess.

"Excellent shot boss." The driver spoke out in glee as he and his 'boss' waltzed right to the downed man. "Right in the gizzard."

Once coming in close, the larger man pulled out a stethoscope from the bag he was carrying and placed it onto Max's head of all places. Said man tried to focus his sight on the two men, but everything was getting cloudier by the second. All that he could possibly tell with the light shined upon them was a large man in a pig's mask and someone that resembled a toad.

'I must be hallucinating from the drug.' Max thought as he gazed at the shorter man. 'He can't be a toad.'

"Tch. Tch. Tch. Tch. This isn't very good. Not very good at all." The 'boss' said in mocked sadness. "Have you checked your cholesterol recently?"

"You must watch out for the red meat." The shorter man said as he got in close to the downed man's position.

"Wh-Why… Why are you doing this to me?" The store owner rasped out as he barely saw the larger man's eyes narrow behind his mask.

"From what you've done to our kind." The pigman said in a calm tone.

"Your… kind?"

"Yes... " The driver spoke out as he brought up a walking stick into the air. "Animal kind. *Chuckles* Now hold still since this will only hurt for a second."

And with that, the driver swung his cane down hard on the man's face to knock him out.

 _ **-Morning, Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

Things were seemingly well inside of the loft as everyone was fast asleep, more so than others. With the sun somewhat shining through the various clouds made some of the residents want to sleep in a bit longer. Sure there's the alarm clocks by each of their beds and the natural light that comes from the bed, but with it being the weekend most want to just lay back and relax.

This could be somewhat the case with Naruto, as he tried to fully get back to sleep after waking back up several times throughout the night. The Uzumaki has been feeling rather restless in both body and mind. That neither would want to fully relax in one way or another.

*Groan* 'I just want to sleep on my day off… Is that too much to ask?!' He yelled out in his mind as he quietly shifted in his bed so that he wouldn't wake up Pam. 'I should maybe use the restroom… That could help.' So as he got out of bed, with a little help of his silence manipulation, the publisher made it to his destination and splashed some water onto his face.

*Sigh* "How the hell did it come to this Naruto?" He asked himself in the mirror for any reply, but got nothing in return really. "Why are you so damn worried out of nothing? You should be happy. Happy that you've got three great, wonderful and beautiful girlfriends along with a sweet foster child in your care. Nothing should possibly make you upset."

Of course it was a lie for him really. Sure he does have a good amount of happiness in his life now; but after Rachel came into his life, she made him start to think of various things of what might happen to her. For example that prior to her showing up, he was totally fine with watching the news or reading the newspaper to see the accidents or incidents occurring throughout the world and in Gotham. But afterwards this made him a total wreck that he would have a hard time imagining Rachel being in those situations. Seeing her get injured... or worse.

*Sigh* "This must've been how mom and dad were like when they were pregnant with me." The Uzumaki said as he imagined how the two must've felt during the ten month pregnancy. "It was obviously worse the night I was born."

Naruto was getting pretty attached to the little girl that he became such a daughter-con (like a sis-con, bro-con) guardian to some degree. Well not only him, but his girlfriends as well… Moreso with Pam in particular. With Harley and Selina, they were pretty much loving aunts to the Rachel that when they had any free time at all they would try and spend time with her.

But as for Pam, she loved and cared for the little girl with how much she saw herself inside of the ashen grey child. Rachel had developed quite the hobby with gardening that the two have done to the patio area. The ashen child said that it was something her mother used to do before her passing and she regrets not doing the activity with her. So Pam ended up teaching the child everything she knows about gardening and things went pleasantly well from there.

Speaking of Rachel…

Due to her having no record of her at all, he had to go through a lot of trouble making identity papers for her. Child services helped point him in the right direction on where to go and get things taken care of in the legal sense. This was more of a hassle to take care of than from when he first came into this world and he needed identity papers.

Sure, he did get help from his traveling companion turned friend during their time together in Eurasia. He did lie a bit to her on why he didn't any identity papers and she bought it with understatement. She gave him his legal papers for exchange of a few favors here and there, but it went well in the end.

Getting side tracked here and need to get back to Rachel...

Well Naruto's ward has been slowly opening up to the four adults in her life right now. Though she's not fully trusting them all that much due to not only the Sewer King screwing things up for her, but also people she briefly mentioned back in her previous home. They were not all that great in her opinion.

With the wearied stares she would notice every now and then, along with being held back on some learning moments. It gave the adults a bit of understanding, more so with Naruto, and wouldn't want to pressure her into opening herself up on her past prior to her coming into their lives. But as a result, it made them wonder what the hell happened to her with how she grew up.

"I wish she can tell us soon so it can put my mind at ease." He muttered before heading to the living room. 'Hope my morning workout can at least help get rid of some stress.'

As for his body though, well… it is a bit more restless than his mind apparently.

Sure there were details that pertain to the mind affecting the body and not letting the body actually rest. With the worries the person is dealing with being one of the factors. But what is really going on is the fact that Naruto hasn't made love for a while now ever since his punishment given by Pam.

Ever since he hooked up with Selina, the two had been able to get rid of their sexual frustrations with each other to leave both very satisfied. They experimented through a lot of things; some good and some not great that they would bring it back up on another day or not at all. Though they do plan to do roleplaying at some point, even Selina bringing up an idea of BDSM, but they never really got back into talking about it after Pam brought up his punishment.

It was close to an hour later after the start of his workout when the sounds of the shower turned off. Once Naruto got out and dried off, he saw Pam barely getting out of bed with her stretching to pop out any kinks from her sleep. To this he came up to her from behind to wrap his arms around her before kissing the top of her head.

"So how was your sleep?" Naruto questioned as he breathed in the aroma in her hair. "Hope it was better than mine." 'Or lack thereof'

"It was fine dear." Pam responded as she leaned against his frame. "Just a little nervous for my job interview today."

"With Star Labs? Well you were a great employee over there, so they should accept you back after so long."

*Sigh* "I hope so Naruto. I hope so."

While Pam was taking her turn in the shared bathroom, Naruto walked out to the kitchen to make breakfast for his girlfriend and ward. As he was getting the ingredients, the door to the loft opened up to see Selina walking in with a slightly tired look across her face. Not only that, but Isis was perched on her shoulder before jumping off to wander around the loft.

"Morning Selina and good morning Isis."

*Meowr*

"Morning to you too." She muttered as she got up to the kitchen counter with the morning newspaper on hand. The ravenette was going to say something when she saw the slight redness of his eyes. "Rough night I take it?"

"Yeah, couldn't sleep all that well."

"Nightmares?" She asked as she saw him shake his head 'no' as he started to chop up the ingredients. "Then what was it?"

*Sigh* "Been thinking about Rachel too much, that's all really. From how she came into our lives and what I'll need to prepare her for later down the line."

"Well that's guardianship for you." His dark haired girlfriend responded with a shrug. "It happens to the best of us I suppose."

"Yet you never had a charge of your own."

"True. Though that doesn't mean that I can't help but worry on relations that I have with my family. With how little amount of contact I have with my sister and her family, I would need to think things through the best that I can for them."

"That's understandable."

"Not only that, but it's the same way with how I worry about Shizune with her boyfriend, Isis and now Rachel."

"And what about me?" He said with a mocked hurtness in his voice.

"Don't worry hun, I worry about you and the girls as well." She said before opening up the newspaper to see a black envelope with an embroidered 'A' on it. "Oh yeah, this was hanging on your door when I came over."

Seeing what she was referring to, Naruto could only groan in response.

"The Argus Club? Again?" He spoke out before rubbing his head a little. "I've already gotten way too many of those ever since Bethanie started asking me to join."

"Yeah I remember." The environmentalist said before walking over to the recycle bin and dumping the letter there. "I've lost count on how many times they've sent these or how many times Bethanie kept asking you to join."

"Well I don't plan on ever going since I'm busy with work, you girls now, Rachel and my late night 'activities'."

"Speaking of, why do you keep going out on most nights if it's going to mess with your schedule?" She asked since it's been on her mind for a while. "Not that I fully complain with all of the good that you've done so far and the lives you've saved, but still though."

*Sigh* "I know Selina." He simply said as continued making the breakfast for not only Pam and Rachel, but also the new arrival. "At first, I wanted to just use my patrol time as a way to train myself more and get a better handling of my powers. You've obviously seen a sample back at the clocktower back on Christmas Night."

*Dreamy Sigh* "Yeah… How can I forget that? Saving Isis' life, impressing me very well on how well you've moved and the Cat Eye Emeralds you've given me. Which, by the way, are still in my loft. Couldn't part away with such gems."

*Chuckle* "Good to know you've kept them. But asides from that, it just got to a point that patrolling somehow merged with my training time. Mostly started out after dealing with the Daggett incidents."

After feeling satisfied with the answers given, she leaned forward a little to not only smell the delicious food being cooked, but to also ask another question in mind. "Well since you've been busy with patrols, maybe I could assist to lessen the load."

This caused the publisher to look at his lover with a raised brow before scrunching his face a little on this little request. "I don't know if it's a good idea Selina."

"Oh come on, it'll be fun~. Both of us being together, fighting side by side, enjoying the various adventures together."

"I'm also guessing that you might want to rope me into one of your thieving escapades." He said getting her to look away with an innocent whistling tune. "Don't think I noticed your kleptomania acting up again, but I'm not reporting since I noticed those items were reported from cheesy dirtbags."

She could only scratch the back of her head at this and nervously laughed at this.

"Though it would be fun to do all that with you, but it might risk causing problems with you. Don't forget that the public knows that your Catwoman." He pointed out with the wooden spoon in his hand. "And it's a complete miracle people are donating money to charities through you."

"I know that, but I don't know what else you're possibly complaining about."

"Then what about that if people see you with me, despite us being in disguises, that people that want to get back at us will just have to target people closest to you to hurt you in the end."

Selina could only scratch her head a little with a pained expression at this. "That's true."

*Sigh* "Look Selina, I know you mean well, but had this little discussion with Harley. Despite it being differently worded out, but I just don't want you getting hurt."

"Well I'm a big girl Naruto and you don't have to hold my hand if I want to go out there and help." She argued back and interrupted him as he tried to speak out. "And don't forget that I've done this way longer than you have, despite of you having experience as a former shinobi.

And as for Harley, she only had the first time patrol with you when you two found Rachel and that was only short lived. I'm even guessing that it might be unfair for her to only have very little time of having fun when spending time in that 'activity'. Sure she'll need to get more experience before really going out there, but I can tell she would want to do well enough to make you proud."

Those were good, valid points his dark haired lover pointed out. Making him take it all in and let it sink in for a bit while he was getting the rest of breakfast made.

*Sigh* "You're right Selina. I'm sorry." He said to his defeat. "All of this is just coming at me so fast that I don't know how to properly take care of it all on my own. I know it's good to get help every once in awhile, but us guys tend to be so damn stubborn in wanting to do everything by ourselves."

*Chuckle* "Well at least you're honest about it and I forgive you for that."

"Thanks… And about you coming with me sometime, let me think about it."

She could only do but smile at his response. "Great."

"But for you, maybe add a bit more to your costume to hide the rest of your face if needed." He said making her tilt her head in curiousity. "I mean the goggles could only do so much, but slipping them back onto your head doesn't really help really."

She thought about it and nodded a little on the tidbit. "I see your point."

"At least it's not as bad as Harley's first outfit that's for sure."

"Saw it and it wasn't looking well." She said with a mental laugh as she remembered when Harley showed her outfit to her one time. "It helps really that she has other ideas to possibly go with, but it'll take time to make."

"I hope so."

"Though the hooded cloak was a nice gift for her to give to Rachel and she seems to like it."

*Chuckle* "Yeah." He briefly said as he finished up making breakfast and served the omelets onto each of the plates. Once putting the dirty dishes into the sink, he walked over to his seat when he saw the newspaper headline. "Millionaire Abducted?"

"Yeah." Selina said in confirmation. "Read a little this morning on my way up here. Maximillian Shreck got kidnapped in his corporate building last night."

It was this point when Pam came walking in with her in her business attire. "Did you just say Max Shreck?"

"Yup." The ravenette simply said before looking at the botanist's outfit. "Going to the Star Lab interview today?"

"Yes and I hope to get my old job back." The redhead said as she sat down and took a small bite out of her omelet. "Now what happened with Max Shreck?"

"Abducted from his corporate building last night and that's the gist of it." Selina said as she took a big bite out of her meal before walking over to the TV remote to turn on the television set. Once getting to the right channel, the news went on as normal before things changed to the main headline.

" _...And onto other news... Gotham Police are still baffled of the kidnapping of millionaire Maximillion 'Max' Shreck since there has been no ransom demand." Summer Gleeson stated at the news station._

"I find it oddly convenient that once we turn on the TV, the main bit of news seems to show up when we need it." Naruto muttered before Selina shushed him before the three continued watching.

" _Though the only thing we, of Gotham Insider, have gotten from them was a VHS tape with a package underneath. Nothing of the package seemed out of place, but instructions stated to play the tape first before opening it to not ruin their 'surprises'."_ The female reporter said before she signaled for someone to play the tape. _"So here it is people and just in case of anything horrendous to occur, don't let your youngsters watch this."_

The video started to play with a SMPTE color bar image for a few moments before it suddenly switched to something that really surprised the viewers, a smiling anthropomorphic toad wearing British looking attire.

" _Is the camera rolling Mr. Toad?"_ A male voice called out with a quasi-elegant tone in a British accent. This caused the so called Mr. Toad to lean in closer to see if the recorder is working.

" _Indeed it is boss."_ The toad spoke out before he turned the camera to reveal a tall and obese looking man, dressed in a large purple greatcoat and a pig mask. In his hand and resting on his shoulder was a blunderbuss musket rifle.

" _Well hello there. My name is Professor Pyg…. Also say 'hello' Mr. Toad."_ The camera then shifted back to the toad man for a brief moment.

" _H-Hello there."_ The toad man spoke out with a bit of glee before he shifted the camera back to his boss.

"How Wind and the Willows of them." Naruto muttered as thoughts of the nursery rhyme came to mind.

" _Now we'd like to let you all know how much of a privilege it is for us to be in your fair city. With it's rich and vibrant history since its founding all those years ago. It has shown us quite a lot in our time here, so we thought it should be fair to return the favor. To show you something special."_ Professor Pyg said before he walked over to a wall, with the camera following the man, where empty plaques were shown with one having a black bag attached. It wasn't long before the man pulled off the bag to reveal Max Shreck's head with some cloth shoved into his mouth.

" _Marvelous, isn't he?"_ Mr. Toad sarcastically said, but it was hard to tell with his pleasant tone of voice.

" _Well poor Maximillian Shreck sure likes to brag with all of the millions he covers himself all day."_ The pig masked man said before he pulled out the gag from the millionaire's mouth. Soon the millionaire's face turned into a snarl and growled out to his kidnappers.

" _I swear to god that you'll-"_ *SMACK*

" _It's rude to interrupt!"_ Mr. Toad spoke out as he waved his cane at the man.

" _Actually Mr. Toad, I was going to question him on a few things to see if he tries to plead innocent._ *Chuckles* _Which, of course, is a lie."_

" _But I am innocent you bastards!"_

" _Oh really?~"_ Mr. Pyg said before he signaled his partner to hand over a small bag. Once it was brought over, The masked man pulled out a thermos and went to the little brass bowl nearby. _"Let's start with the waste from your so called 'clean textile' plant."_ It was then the kidnapper poured out the thermos' contents to show sickly green goo that seemed to start eating away from the metal.

" _We've got more in the back if you'd like a nice dip."_ Suggested the anthropomorphic amphibian.

" _That could come from someone and somewhere else."_ The retail store owner said as he tried to defend himself. But from what all of the viewers could see was that he was actually lying.

" _Oh~ Then what about the documents that shows proof that you own half of the fire traps in this lovely city."_ Professor Pyg stated as he pulled out said documents, but it appeared to be pretty mangled and shredded on the ends. _"It took a lot of tape and a lot of patience, but it was well worth it."_

It was there that Max was starting to sweat a little, in addition to him being in his current position.

" _Oh, I've got a question Mr. Shreck."_ Mr. Toad spoke out with hints of giggles escaping his mouth. _"How's your old business partner, Frederick Atkins?"_

" _I-I believe he's currently on vacation."_

" _Really?~"_ The toad questioned as he set the camera down nearby and took the sack from his boss' grasp. _"Well how do you explain this?"_ The mutated man then pulled out a severed arm and waved it around in a gross fashion before using it to slap the captured man's face several times. _"It is rude to lie Mr. Shreck!"_

" _Well said Mr. Toad. Well said. And of course these items of interest will be shipped out with the tape we're recording so that your legacy will forever be ruined."_ Professor Pyg stated before he shoved back the gag into the millionaire's mouth. _"Now aside from those unpleasantries, I'd like to point out that he's not the last that've stolen keys to the past. Who, of course, shall learn a rule from the jungle…"_

" _That everyone pays."_ Mr. Toad finished off before he went into a widened smile to show his disgusting, rotten teeth.

*Chuckles* _"So welcome to the hunt Gotham City!"_ The eco-terrorist dramatically spoke out before the tape ended and Selina turned off the TV set.

"Well… Seems we now know on how the guy got a lot of his riches." The ravenette commented with narrowed eyes. "If the city doesn't take away a lot of his property away soon, then I might just steal more from the guy."

This little comment got the publisher and botanist to look at the environmentalist with a raised brow. Said woman noticed this and reply to them for confirmation with a roll of her eyes. "Yes, I stole some items from the man. But it was before I met either one of you."

"Well I'm glad that I've never shopped at the Shreck's department store." Pam said as she walked over to the kitchen counter to finish off her breakfast. "I'm always careful on what I buy and I've heard various rumors on his products."

"And now we know on some of the shadier stuff he deals with." Naruto stated getting his two girlfriends to nod in agreement as they went back to their breakfast. "Though the bit with the rhyme spoken was interesting." He spoke out to gain the girls' attention. "A modified variation of Little Jack Warner. Based off of a land deal gone south between Henry the 8th and Thomas Warner. Due to bribery if I remember correctly."

"A little clue to add more on what else Shreck had done recently or is involved with?" Selena questioned before taking a few bites from her omelet. *Swallow* "Possibly another land deal or something of that nature to cause Pyg and Toad to hunt him down."

"And to figure that information out, one would need to look at the man's financials to see if there are any other connections to the future victims." Selina could only look at her lover with a questioned look, making him sigh in the process. "If you forgot in the video, there were two other head plaques. Thus, there will be two other victims. Not only that, but the fact of Pyg mentioning the keys to the past, hence the financials."

"Well... As much as I would like to hear you two discuss more about the recent kidnapping, I'd better get going." Pam stated as she placed her dishes into the sink. "I've got to head off to my interview and I want to get there on time."

"Do you want me to drive you over there?"

"No, it's fine Naruto. Besides, I don't want to just rely on you for being my chauffeur all the time." The botanist replied before coming towards her boyfriend and kissed his cheek. "Wish me luck."

He smiled and kissed her cheek as well, despite him wanting to kiss her lips really badly. "Will do."

As this little interaction happened, Selina formed a small smirk as a little idea came to mind. So she got up from her seat and wrapped her arms around Pam.

"Don't forget about me Red." She said before bringing her lips towards the botanists in front of their shared lover. They moaned in their little embrace for a few more moments and when they separated, they saw Naruto's eye twitch knowing that he wants to kiss them badly.

"Well see you later Selina." The botanist said as she walked out of the loft. Once she did, the ravenette faced her boyfriend with an 'eating a canary' smile.

"You did that on purpose didn't you?"

"And why would I do that darling?" She said with the ever present grin. "Just wanted to say goodbye to my friend for a hopefully good day for her."

He could only shake his head at this since the teasing wasn't really helping on his withdrawal. Wanting to get back onto things, Naruto spoke out. "So without knowing where Pyg and Toad will strike next, I'll be patrolling the streets today for any sign of them."

"Maybe I can help."

"What do you mean Selina?"

"Well~ I have nothing better to do for the day. So I could maybe help you out and break into Shrek's building to find the connections."

"Are you sure about that?" He asked as he shifted in his seat. "What if you get caught in the act? If you do, then you'll end up violating your parole and be sent back to jail."

"I won't Naruto. I'll be careful." She said as she grasped and squeezed his hand in reassurance. "This isn't the first time I've done such a thing. Especially when one of those times, I broke into the former Multigon International building when Red Claw was in town."

"Trying to prove that they were doing shady work behind the scenes." Naruto said in remembrance on that experience when he officially met Selina as Catwoman.

"And if I remember correctly, you were rather fetching when you saved my life." Selina stated as she drew closer to him from her spot.

"Not to mention that you were very alluring in the given light at that time." He said while mirroring her action.

"Aren't you sweet." She whispered as they came closer. "So… You'll be fine of me helping you out on this."

"Yeah."

They were about to kiss, but the ravenette pulled away to leave her lover hanging with a smile on her face. "Good to know."

Realizing that he got tricked, again, his eyes started to twitch badly. He was going to say something, but he heard someone come down the stairs. Both adults turned around to see Rachel in a fresh pair of clothes with Isis in her arms.

"What were you two doing?" The ashen child innocently asked with a confused look on her face.

"Nothing." Both Selina and Naruto spoke out at the same time.

"...Okay." Rachel said as the two adults turned back around. She then turned her head towards the black cat in her arms, who was getting pretty comfortable in her position. "Adults are weird. Right Isis?"

*Meowr* The cat cried out as she looked up at the girl and nodded her head.

The foster child then walked towards the kitchen counter and carefully sat in one of the empty seats, to not disturb the cat, where a plate of food was waiting for her. It still appeared warm, due to the steam coming off of it, and took a few bites out of it before her guardian spoke out.

"So Rachel… Are you ready to meet Harley's neighbors today?"

"I think so." The young ward said with some hesitation. She's heard from the pale woman that she has a pair of surrogate nieces as neighbors that are around the ashen child's age. Harley was pretty insistent for her to make new friends instead of being hauled up inside of her guardian's loft for who knows how long.

"Well from the first and previous times I met the two, they were pretty nice to interact with." The Uzumaki said with a smile. "So you'll do fine of possibly playing with them. And Harley will be there to watch over you three while Paula and Lawrence are out of town for the next several days."

The foster child thought this over a little more before a small thought came through her head. "Can… Can I take Isis with me?"

Hearing this, the ravenette looked over to the dark purplette to see the innocent look on her face. Ever since she first met the black cat, she grew a little attached to her precious baby. Sometimes taking her everywhere whenever Isis is within her range. It was rather cute in Selina's opinion, but the request made the thief pause and think.

Whenever Isis was outside of either hers or Naruto's lofts, she was always with the older woman. She freaked out when the cat ran off during the Daggett incidents and was weary of leaving her out of her site at times. Selina wanted to deny the request, but that would only hurt the young child in the end.

*Sigh* "Okay Rachel, you can take her. But you better bring some food for her to have so she won't go running off." The ravenette said getting the young child to beam at her.

"Thank you." The child said with a smile.

It wasn't long after that the three left the loft and went their separate ways. Naruto taking Rachel to play with Artemis and Jade before patrolling the city while Selina breaks into Shreck's building to find clues on the kidnapping victims. It'll be an interesting day to say the least, but the two adults hoped things go right by the end of it.

 _ **-STAR Labs-**_

"Alright Pam. You can do this. You can do this." The botanist muttered to herself as she sat in the hallway while fiddling around her fingers and tapping her foot onto the ground.

' **You've got nothing to worry about 'sister'. Things will turn out fine.'** Ivy spoke in reassurance inside of the botanist's mind.

'That's easy for you to say, but it's been a long time since I had to reapply here. It won't be the first time of me hearing someone not getting their job back after reapplying sometime later. I just hope that I'm not one of those people.'

' **True, but there's also the option of working at the botanical garden that Bruce suggested.'**

*Sigh* 'I know, but it would be nice to have my old job back.'

' **A job that possibly has reminders of** _ **him**_ **in various areas.'** Pam's darker half pointed out making the lighter part wince. And she was unfortunately right.

When the changed botanist came by for the first time in months to reapply for her old position, there were brief moments here and there that she saw Woodrue alive and well. It practically scared her until she realized that she was just hallucinating. Even when appearing in her old lab, the memory of what happened that night made her body shake as the entire event played out in her mind. Pam knew that she would want to move on, but things tend to come back and surprise her from behind.

' **I know it's hard to swallow 'sister', but would you rather spend many of your days locked up in the building with not doing all that much to help save nature.'** Ivy pointed out on the first option before getting to the next one. **'Or would you do what 'we' can now do best at the gardens and work to preserve things from there. Especially with the old tree we briefly worked with to save the lives of the city.'**

Pamela was going to weigh her options on the matter when the door to the interview room opened up. With the sudden event happened, the botanist jumped a little in her seat, not that the person at the door noticed really.

"We're ready to see you Ms. Isley."

*Cough* "Right."

Once gathering her things from the chair on the side, due to how warm the hallway seemed to be, she walked into the room and sat down in the chair in front of the board of directors in the Gotham branch of the company.

"Good day Dr. Isley. Nice to see you again after these several months." One of the board members spoke out in kind.

"Nice seeing you all as well." Pam spoke out in a decent tone so she can keep up a nice appearance. "Also thank you all again for what you've done with my medical bills and paying the late Holland's friends and family."

"You're very welcome Ms. Isley." The second board member simply said before continuing. "Now I believe we aren't here to talk about that unfortunate set of events as we are here about you possibly coming back to work with us again."

"Yes I understand that, but I just wanted to express my gratitude is all."

"Understandable."

"Now then, from what we have known in your entire time working with us that you've been doing quite a marvelous job in the various assignments you've done for us. Even with your supposide pet project of yours." The third board member said getting Pam to nod at this.

"Of course... I've worked hard to help out the environment to the best of my knowledge back then. It was hard to pull through, but I've been successful in what I've done."

"As far as we've known." The first board member stated before pulling out a sheet of paper before glancing at it and spoke out. "Though we are a bit curious about your pet project that a lot of your free time between assignments had gone through."

"Yes... that." The fourth person said in little remembrance. "The idea of a serum to promote plant growth in desolate areas. Not only that but also the research gained from the Hollands to possibly help on food shortages is also interesting as well."

"Speaking of said serum. Were you able to complete it Ms. Isley?" A fifth board member asked getting the redhead botanist to nod her head.

"I have sir, but the only serum amount I had completed was destroyed in the incident when Woodrue tried to steal it from me."

"How… Unfortunate." The third member said with a shake of his head. "But what of the knowledge of making it? Do you have notes, files or any remembrance of making it again."

"I'm sorry, but no sir. All of the hardcopy notes and research I had was in my lab at the time and it was burnt into a crisp. Even the files that I had electronically were destroyed as well since they were in my laptop." She explained with a straight poker face to the board members. "But as for my knowledge on making the serum again isn't possible due to how badly I can't remember of the actual process. Woodrue had worked me for several days straight on the lie he told me that you all wanted the serum done prior to my incident. I hardly slept and due to the trauma placed on my head, a lot of the details went away."

The first half of what she said was the absolute truth due to her not wanting to bring anything work related home so she could relax and be herself. It was something Pam pretty much regrets now, but can't complain about that now. As for the second half, it was mostly a lie. She has full remembrance on how to make the serum, but when discussing about this with Ivy and Naruto that it was something to keep for herself.

"I see…" One of the board members muttered. "Then it's unfortunate that such a project wouldn't come back to the light of day I suppose."

"Moving onto other things. I do feel that it would be good if Dr. Isley would be brought back and be able to work with us again." The second board member said with a small smile before the third member spoke out.

"Same here, but there is the matter that pertains to the screening process that had to be done before coming in."

"Which would be what exactly?" Pamela asked as she felt a little nervous now.

"Pertaining to your time in Arkham." The man spoke out, getting Pam to go a little stiff. "As you all may have forgotten, but Ms. Isley was admitted there earlier this year after getting out of the hospital. Where she has been placed there for roughly five months."

"I-I don't know what that has to do with-"

"There is also the factor on the criminal background checks as per standard protocol and you were red flagged on that bit when contacting the GCPD. They have said that you have been charged by kidnapping and attempted murder."

"I surely would've heard about it." One of the members mumbled out before addressing the potential rehire. "Is that true Dr. Isley?"

Knowing that lying to the board in such a delicate detail would've made things worse. So after taking a deep breath, she had to honestly answer the question. "Yes sir. I did."

"So was this the reason why you had to be admitted into Arkham in the first place?"

"Yes."

"And would you like to explain the details of how this came to pass?"

"I-I would rather not." Pam said as she tried to calm herself down a little. "Talking about it would only bring up bad memories and it would be hard to explain."

Nothing was really said after her little statement as the board had varying thoughts running through their heads.

"Would you please step outside so we can discuss things Pamela?" The second board member asked getting the changed botanist to walk out of the room and shutting the door. From there Pam sat back down to her previous seating and started to think on what came up.

'Well… It seems that things are going down the drain.'

' **That's quite an understatement 'sister'.'** Ivy bitterly said as the botanist could only sit there and wait for a handful of minutes before the door to the interview room opened back up. Once the redhead got back inside, she sat back down to hear what the board has to say.

"We have come to a final verdict Dr. Isley." The first board member spoke out.

"Which would be what exactly sir?" Pam asking as she already guessed on what it might be now.

"That I'm sorry to say this, but we won't allow you to come back and work with us again." The board member said before continuing onwards. "Even though your charges have been dropped, as from what we have seen in the criminal record document we have here, you were still charged with such crimes and we can't allow people working here with such charges."

"I understand that sir." The botanist said as she rose back up from her seat. "Is there anything else you'd want to tell me?"

"That we'll be closing out your 401K that you've signed up with us and giving you back the money. So expect the check to arrive at your current address within the week. Not only that, but we'll be closing out your insurance with us as per standard protocol."

"Thank you and have a nice day members of the board." The Green champion spoke out as she nodded to each of them before leaving the room and thus the building.

 _ **-Hours Later, Gotham Streets-**_

The somewhat cloudy day escalated to that of a darkened overcast, making it appear like it was the early evening. Nothing much had really changed over that time, but the news bulletin from earlier in the day gotten people a bit nervous of the new set of criminals going through the city. Wouldn't be much of a big deal really on how that would go.

Well….. You say that now; but you know that with Gotham, things tend to happen quite often. Given the case with the current car chase happening through some of it's streets as an antique model-T was ramming itself against a frantic driver. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed to be Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad was going after their next target: Michael Holt, an african american industrialist.

"Hello! Gotham Police!" The driver yelled into his phone as he tried to look between the rearview mirror and the road ahead of him. "This is Michael Holt and I'm being attacked by-GAH!"

The man dropped his phone as he was rammed from the side, causing him to swerve a little. The industrialist tried to search for his phone, but it seemed useless now as he tried to escape with his life in tact. Even with the fact that he had almost crashed into several cars during the little chase going on.

Back with the model-T, one might wonder how it has been able to catch up to the speeding car. Given with the antique look it has. But what one doesn't realize was that it has been modified and refitted with the newest engines and weaponry to suit its driver's needs. Especially with the fuse-fire cannon rising up from the front of the model-T that was currently aimed at the vehicle driven by Michael Holt.

"Mr. Toad. Would you like to do the honor?" Professor Pyg suggestively asked his partner, who was currently driving.

"It would be my pleasure Professor." The talking toad said with a widened grin before he pulled out his cane. He soon pressed a button as a little flame came out from the very end. Mr. Toad leaned forward to lite the fuse, but he was soon knocked back by the batmobile ramming him from the side.

"Boss! It's the Batguy!"

"It's Batman Mr. Toad." The larger eco-terrorist corrected his smaller companion. "Remember to respect our enemies and a first one must do is correcting their names."

"Right boss."

They kept onward with their pursuit before the eco-terrorists felt a tug from the back of their vehicle. Professor Pyg rose up to inspect what happened to see the Batman fired a metallic cable from his batmobile that latched onto their model-T. So the professor reached into his sack and pulled out a razor sharp bone saw before swinging it onto the cable to free themselves of the Bat's grasp.

"We're free Toad!" The man told his compatriot. "Now fire!"

Not wanting to be delayed again, Mr. Toad quickly lit the fuse and had to keep the car steady and close enough to hit their intended target. They were pretty jovial on how close they are in capturing the man as the fuse got smaller and smaller by each passing second. Unbeknownst to either of them, the Batman sped up the batmobile so it could stop the blast in time. Luckily for him, he did but the unlucky part was that he ended up getting hit in the process from the cannonball.

Even more so that the blast ended up knocking the batmobile into the industrialist's car, making it swerve and slamming into a lightpost to knock the man out. The batmobile kept on moving as it eventually rolled several times after it's collision before coming to a complete stop. It was shortly after this that the model-T came to a stop between the two vehicles.

"Oh hoho! I want to do that again!" Mr. Toad yelled out in excitement. Being a bit curious on the Batman, the talking toad jumped out of his ride and landed onto the batmobile. He inspected it to see if there was a way to get inside of it, but it was really hard to tell.

"Forget about the Bat Mr. Toad!" Professor Pyg stated to gain his partner's attention. "We can always kill him later."

"Sorry boss."

"It's quite alright my dear fellow." The man spoke with reassurance. "Besides, we've got one more stop before the day is through. But for now let's get this man inside of the car."

The two soon nabbed the industrialist and securely tied him up before throwing him into the back seat of their car. The eco-terrorists quickly drove off, leaving the unattended batmobile behind with the unconscious Batman inside. It was not long after that the sounds of a motorcycle engine came rather close to the scene before it came to a screeching stop.

"Dammit!" Vanitas yelled out as he slammed his fists onto his motorcycle. "Got here too late!"

He'd been driving throughout Gotham for several hours after he dropped off his charge at Harley's. It was not really pleasant on how things have been going since that time as he searched various parts of the city to find the eco-terrorists. But no matter where he went, there was no sign of them.

A lead eventually came up when the police radio signal came through of one Michael Holt calling in that he was being chased by the eco-terrorists. It was a good breakthrough, but the catch was that it was occurring on the other side of Gotham. So Vanitas sped through several streets and phased through buildings and cars that were in the way. Of course by the time he arrived onto the scene, Pyg and Toad already left with the batmobile not moving.

*Groan* "I swear to kami that if you died Bats, I'll find someway to drag your ass back to the living and beat you up for this mess." The masked publisher muttered as he got off of his bike and went to the batmobile to see if the hero in question was alright. Once he fazed his body through, he grabbed the hero and pulled him out.

"Hmm… Seems he's alright." Vanitas said as he inspected the man's body to see if anything was out of the ordinary. This was actually one of the handful of times of seeing the man this vulnerable that Naruto could possibly unmask the guy and find out the man's identity. But he had a lot of respect for the guy to not do such a thing.

Not knowing how long the Bat will be like this, he situated him in a nice covering in the nearby alleyway so no one would notice. When that was taken care of, Vanitas brought out a blank card and wrote of what exactly happened that lead him to waking up in the alleyway. He just hoped that the man won't be in a sour mood when this was done and over with.

'I better get back home and figure out what Pyg and Toad's next move is.' He thought as he went back to his motorcycle and rode off.

 _ **-Naruto's and Pam's Loft-**_

It took about fifteen minutes or so to get back home when Naruto was greeted with the site of Selina, in her Catwoman suit, looking over documents on the couch.

"I'm guessing that you were successful in your little mission."

"Yup…" She simply said as she flipped through another document and wrote down other details on a notebook. "Took a while to get inside of the building, due to the high security brought out from the news reveal and the man's kidnapping. But I got a lot of the sealed files the man had."

Getting curious in what she's currently doing, he sat down next to her. The publisher peered over and started to look over the documents with his old intern training kicking in. "So how far into the financials have you gone over Selina?"

"A lot actually." The ravenette said as she passed over a file to him. "That one shows details on Shreck planning on building up a power plant."

Wondering what details were inside, he opened it up and started to scan through as quickly as possible without losing any detail. "I don't get it really. Why would Max want to build up a power plant since, as far as I know, this city has a good power surplus?"

"Look further in the back." Selina ordered as she kept going through other documents. "If you see on the schematics, it shows that the power plant is that in name only. In reality, it's designed to suck up and steal power from the city so that Shreck could sell it back in god knows how much."

"Being one giant capacitor." He said as he finally got the idea while looking things more in depth. "Storing and stockpiling the city's power, if not fully authorized by the city's government, is completely illegal."

"Pretty much." She said as she placed the documents back down to stretch out her arms and back. "That and various other things the man would be charged with once I send these over to the GCPD as an anonymous donor."

"I gotta say, but I'm extremely impressed." Naruto said with a growing smile as it felt really nice to experience this way again. Like being with Lois and Cat during all of the assignments in the past.

"Like I said before Naruto, this ain't my first rodeo of doing investigative work when dealing with saving the environment."

This was good and all, but this also wasn't helping out with the current situation of the current kidnappings by the eco-terrorists. Naruto wanted to know who was possibly the last victium by their scheme. He was going to ask about it when his eyes wandered around the loft for any sign of his botanist girlfriend. Of course he did smell a bit of alcohol in the air and it was rather strange.

"Have you seen Pam? Wasn't she supposed to be back from her interview some time ago?"

*Sigh* "Yeah… About that."

Given the tone of her voice, he realized one thing. "She didn't get her old job back, didn't she?"

It wasn't really a question, but an actual statement as Selina got up from her spot on the couch and lead her lover to his bedroom. Once he cracked open the door, he saw the Green champion passed out on the bed with a few bottles of alcohol near her.

"She was like that when I got back." She said as she went into the bedroom to pick up the few empty beer bottles lying around. "Well she was mumbling in her sleep that she didn't get it and some other stuff that was hard to pronounce."

He could only look onto the first woman he loved with a mixture of sorrow and pity as he caressed her cheek with his hand. Not getting the job she wanted to return to must've hit the botanist harder than he thought, but who can blame her. For as long as he's known of her, working at Star Labs was the only job she ever had during her time in college and interned there in the first place. It must've been like ripping out a large piece of her life and just crumbling it into nothing.

As this little thought process went on, his eyes soon scanned the few bottles in the ravenette hand. With the case that seemed to be nearby, it showed that it was a six pack of beer and it seemed odd really. Usually people get a bit drunk once consuming more than just a regular six pack. But with the current pack, only half was consumed.

"If you're wondering on the beer Naruto, it's just some basic cheap stuff that I sometimes buy on my own at times." Selina said as she unintentionally chuckled a little. "This stuff wouldn't really get me drunk at all, but just only three beers got her drunk and passed out."

With this little information, Naruto's mind started to go through on some reasons why this went on. During the few times he and Pam drank alcohol together when they were dating prior to them making love for the first time, she drank her fair share of wine and beer and she turned out fine. But this… This was odd.

'Wait a second… She's part plant now… So that means…' He thought in realization before voicing it. "Well I think I know the problem now."

"What is it?"

"Well she can normally drink alcohol like everyone else and she knows her limits. But since she's part plant now, the drinks would jump a lot more on the concentration on her bloodwork."

"Making her able to get drunk a whole lot faster than a normal human."

"Especially since plants don't do all that well with alcohol if not properly treated well… or something in that nature." Naruto replied with a shrug before he left the room with Selena. Once they were out, he formed a clone to gather several bottles of water for the botanist with something for the coming headache. "I will honestly say that I will not envy Pam's headache when she wakes up."

"That I can agree with." The ravenette said as she dumped the bottles in the proper waste bin.

"So I've been meaning to ask, but have you found any connections are with the kidnappings?" He asked to bring back to the subject at hand.

"Yes… Well I think so."

"What do you mean?" The publisher asked as Selina walked over to the pile of folders and documents.

"I did find the file towards the end of my little gathering, but I didn't take a good look at it." She said as she pulled out the targeted file and handed it to him. "Would've looked earlier, but security was coming close to the room for a sweep and I needed to quickly leave. That and I was going over the other documents first for any presidented evidences."

"And how did you know that this was the right one?"

"Since Pyg and Toad were animal themed people, like myself, they would go after things that could be harmful against the environment in one way or another."

Feeling satisfied with the answer, Naruto opened it up and started going through the details of the file. "Says here that there was an animal preserve in the wetlands outside of Gotham, but it was sold to private investors when oil was found."

"I know and it really ticked me off when I found out that bit of information. Thank god that the reserve by the old military base is intact or else I'll really be pissed."

He slightly ignored the little rant and quickly went through the part he was looking for: the private investors. There were sixty investors total, but the only ones that really stood out were Max Shreck, Michael Holt…. And Bruce Wayne?!

"But…. But why would he be apart of this?" Naruto mumbled, getting his lover's attention.

"Who?"

"It doesn't make sense at all. He donates a lot of money to help preserve nature. No, this must've been one of his greedy directors behind all of this like when Pam went nuts."

Feeling left out on the little reveal, she finally snapped and yelled out to get his attention. "Okay who are you talking about?!"

"It's Bruce Selina. Pyg and Toad are going to target Bruce next." He said before reaching into his phone and dialed the Wayne Manor phone number. "Come on. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up." Naruto muttered in worried impatience before hearing the call being answered.

" _Hello. Wayne Manor."_ Alfred spoke out on the other end.

"Alfred, it's Naruto. Is Bruce there?"

" _No, he is not Mr. Uzumaki."_ The Pennyworth butler answered before a curious tone came from him. _"Why are you asking? You sound worried."_

"You need to either hide or get out of there Alfred! Pyg and Toad are targeting Bruce!"

" _How would you know about- GAH!"_

"Alfred?!" Naruto yelled out in worry, gaining Selina's attention even more. "ALFRED!"

" _I say, this doesn't look like Bruce Wayne."_ A British voice called out making Naruto feel absolute dread running through him. _"I believe you sacked the butler."_

" _I was sure this was Wayne."_ A second British voice called out making the Uzumaki know that Pyg and Toad have arrived at Bruce's home.

" _I told you to get your eyes checked Mr. Toad."_ Professor Pyg spoke out towards his partner. _"Retinal deterioration is the number one cause of blindness in amphibians."_

" _Sorry boss."_ Mr. Toad apologetically said before he gasped about something. _"Look boss! Someone's listening to us."_

It wasn't long until the publisher heard the phone being picked up and the British man answered the line. _"Well hello there. Sorry that you had to hear such a thing, you cheeky peeper."_

"I swear if you lay one hand on him." Naruto growled out getting the man to chuckle a little.

" _Well if you are Bruce Wayne, then we'll be seeing you soon. If not, then would you be so kind to inform the man that we've taken his butler. Either way, have a good evening. Ta ta."_ Pyg stated before he hung up the phone.

"Dammit!" Naruto yelled out as he was pacing around the loft with Selina trying to comfort him. "They've gotten Alfred."

"What should we do?" Selina asked before she saw her boyfriend pressing some buttons on his phone. "What are you doing?"

"I need to tell Bruce." He said as he placed the phone onto his ear. "He clearly wasn't at home so I need to call his cell. I need to tell him what happened since Alfred was a second father to him."

Of course the call didn't take long for it to be answered. _"Hello. Bruce Wayne speaking."_

"Bruce! Where are you?!"

" _I'm almost back home from work."_ He said in a strained, tired voice. _"Why are you calling?"_

"I tried calling you at your home to tell you something." He lied as he had to quickly cover up the original reason. "But when I was talking to Alfred, he was nabbed."

" _WHAT?!"_ The billionaire yelled out, getting the publisher to move the phone away from his ear. _"When did this happen?! Who took him?!"_

"It was just moments ago and it was by those two eco-terrorists Pyg and Toad."

Nothing could be fully heard on the other end as Naruto heard his friend possibly getting his car to go faster. He was going to reply back, but Bruce beat him to it. _"Thanks for letting me know Naruto. I'm going to call the police now and see what must be done."_ And with that the call ended.

Once pocketing his phone, the Uzumaki formed his Vanitas attire around him. "I need to go find Alfred."

"Not alone you're not." His ravenette girlfriend spoke out as she walked up to him again. "I'm coming with you."

"No you're not Selina."

"Yes I am Naruto." She said as she grabbed ahold of his hand with a tight squeeze. "I've come so far on this and I need to see this through."

"I know that Selena, but I-" "I want to help you on this." She interrupted him before continuing on with her reasoning. "If you possibly want me on the field with you then you must let me come with now. So please Naruto, let me help."

He could see the bit of hurt in her eyes that was being covered up by her conviction. Naruto couldn't say no to that since it would make those eyes be filled with pain on her love not trusting her.

"Alright Selina, you can come." He said making her smile a little. "If there's anything you need to do, do it now since we'll leave in five minutes. As for the files, I'll have a clone drop them off at GCPD along the way."

She walked up to him and gave him a nice hug before pecking his cheek. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

 _ **-Wetlands Oilrig, Outside of Gotham-**_

"Enough of this madness." Michael said in desperation as he tried to free himself of the connecting leg shackle to the other two men with him. "Anything you want; no matter the price, I'll pay it."

"I'll double whatever he pays." Max said to possibly buy his freedom. "You can do whatever you want with these two and I won't say a word."

"With what money Shreck." The industrialist said in response. "Your stock probably is pretty much down down the drain from the possible reveals this morning."

"Gentleman, gentleman. You must save your strength and wasting it by arguing will do you no good." The 'professor' said as he was taking a sip of his tea.

"He's a doctor you know so I recommend you listen." The talking amphibian said as he too was drinking tea with his partner.

"Now then, let me explain on what is going to happen." The large man spoke out as he got up from his seat and walked towards their captives. "You're going to be hunted, much like how you've hunted and drove out the animals that once occupied these wetlands."

"But this land was purchased legally."

Hearing Max's excuse, Pyg got up rather close and personal to the greyed out business owner with blazing eyes. "You destroyed a natural habitat, drained of its resources and then abandoned it to rot and decay! So there is no way, shape or form, legal about that!"

Once moving away from the failing business owner, the masked eco-terrorist took a few deep breaths to calm himself down before continuing speaking to the captives. "Now then, we are going to give you lot a five minute head start to hopefully escape this place. Which would supposed to start…" The man pulled out a pocket watch to check the time at this. "Oh right now apparently."

"I do recommend not wasting any time right now." Mr. Toad spoke out as he came up to the group. "So get going!"

And with that, the three men carefully got up and tried to run, but couldn't go too fast due to the shackles connecting them. As Max and Michael were being very precautious in their attempt to run away, Alfred was quiet and collective as his old secret service training came back to help him in the current predicament. Even though Pennyworth was out of the spy game, the experiences would never leave him.

Reason why he lived for so damn long in the first place.

Now as this was going on, the batmobile plowed right through the gate of the grounds leading up to the oilrig. The Batman was going at fast speeds so he could hopefully save his longtime friend and caretaker from certain doom. He wished that this didn't have to happen, but he sometimes blames Murphy for his predicaments… Along with some greedy directors in his company.

The past week has been relatively nice to say the least once he got back from his business trip. Nothing really bad happened when he was away, but Bruce was rather surprised on what did occur while he was gone. Children were found underneath the Theatre District and Vanitas saved them from the supposed Sewer King, who was currently serving a life sentence in prison. When he read up on the details, he was absolutely appalled on what happened and wished he could've done something sooner. But he was glad that Vanitas was there to take care of things.

As for today, he ended up sleeping in due to Alfred spiking his drink last night so the 'playboy' could get a full eight hour sleep. Bruce wanted to know why he'd done such a thing, but a little explanation that the hero needed a good full amount of sleep to help him out better. Sure there were the bovine glands to reduce his needed sleep, but the faithful butler was rather persistent for his charge's heath as of late.

After the discussion, Bruce found out about the kidnapping last night and went to Gotham Insider so he could analyze the kidnapping tape himself. He was barely able to find Michael Holt's name in the video, with it reflecting off of Pyg's weapon, before he went onto the streets to find the next victim. Chasing the eco-terrorists down was a bit easy, but on how it ended wasn't all that great of him being knocked out from the blast on his batmobile.

Luckily there was no major damage, due to Earl's latest upgrades on his vehicle, but there was still concerns with some internal safety.

When Batman woke up, he found himself outside and wondered how that happened. That was until he found one of Vanitas' cards on him with it written down on what happened. Feeling annoyed on what happened, he was heading home to figure out who was going to be targeted next by hacking into Shreck's servers to possibly find the final victim.

It was there when Bruce got the call from Naruto that Alfred had been taken. The billionaire was absolutely furious that Pyg and Toad kidnapped the butler, but he was confused on why exactly and he needed the details quickly. So once he got back to the cave, he used Marva's latest tech to get into Shreck's servers to find the financials.

He did find what he was looking for, but was shocked that his name was listed on the investors listing on the wetland oilrig. It felt like what happened months ago when Pamela was kidnapping industrialists and one of his directors got into the slash and burn outfit behind Bruce's back. It was possible he was dealing with a similar situation again, but the Bat will take care of that later.

For now, he needed to save Alfred.

 _ **-Back with the Captives-**_

"Can't you two move any faster?"

"You're yanking and yelling isn't helping." Michael growled towards the aging man as the three were walking through another corridor.

"Well excuse me for wanting us to stay alive!"

"All that you care about is you and your legacy." The man pointed out to earn a more heated glare from the man. "You'd risk the lives of others for your own benefit."

It was there that Alfred knew that it was enough squabbling when he grabbed ahold of both of the men's shoulders and yanked them back. "Will you two stop both metaphorical and literal?"

"Are you insane?! What the hell does that mean you old coot?!"

Answering Shreck's question he stepped forward and squatted down to see the faint shimmer of wire by their ankles and pointed it out to the other men. "I seem to remember you wanting to stay alive Mr. Shrek." The butler then traced the line upwards to the trap hanging above them, making the other captives gasp out in shock. "My guess is that the entire complex is booby trapped."

"So what does that mean? Do we just give up?"

"No Mr. Holt. What I'm suggesting is that we stop running and fight back until help arrives."

"Now hold on." Shreck spoke out as Alfred walked over to the side and saw a loose pipe sticking out. "You never told us who you were."

His answer wasn't immediate as Alfred twisted and tugged the busted pipe before it came off of the wall. Once it was free, he patted it and swung the impromptu weapon a little bit before replying back. "Didn't I tell you? Well I'm the butler."

For the past several minutes, the group carefully walked through the corridors to find a way out, but there was no luck so far. They did have to watch their step as Alfred pointed out the varying wires on the ground. The group did pass through several of them, with the latest one right behind them. They would've continued onwards if it wasn't for the fact a bomb was tossed their way with the fuse getting shorter by the second.

"Get back!" Alfred yelled out as the captives ran back for safety.

Holt was able to get over the wire safely, but Shreck tripped over it to end up triggering the trap above them. There was only a few seconds before the man's possible demise, but Alfred had lunged towards the businessman and pushed him and the industrialist out of the way. The three were out of the blast area; but in the process the trap from above came tumbling down and slammed down on both sides of Alfred's shackled leg.

Regaining his bearings, Holt saw the butler's predicament and came towards him. "Are you alright?" There was no answer as the two other men saw that the butler's shackle was destroyed and laid on the ground.

"His chain's off." Shreck said as he got up from the floor. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"Not without him."

"Leave him!"

"He saved your life asshole." Michael growled out to the aging man. "Both of our lives. So there is no way in hell I'm leaving him." The man came up to Alfred and tried to get him back up. But when the pressure came towards the unshackled leg...

"GAH!" Pennyworth cried out as he felt the pain go through his leg. "My ankle's broken."

"Perhaps I have a bandage for that." A voice called out from the other side of the trap to reveal Pyg and Toad calmly walking their way. The 'professor' looked inside of his medical bag and came with a mocked sigh. "Seems that I'm all out of bandages. So I believe that leg will have to come off." He said as he pulled out a bonesaw from his sack.

"Forget about me you two." The butler said getting the two captives' attention.

'But-" "RUN!"

Hesitantly complying, Holt ran away with the already retreating Shreck down the hallway…

*CROOOOOOOAK*

...But Mr. Toad's sonic attack knocked the two men down from afar and triggering another trap waiting for them. The two expected their demise right away; but a cage came downwards, entrapping them for their captors.

 _ **-Earlier with Batman-**_

*BANG*

The door into a long stairwell violently opened up as the Caped Crusader ran in before climbing the flights of stairs. As he ascended the stairs, he saw the visible gas in various areas in the room before pulling out a small lighter. He flickered it for a brief moment to see the flame get bigger to realize that the stairwell is filled with methane gas so he'll need to be careful when getting higher.

Of course he didn't count on the bad support some of the metallic planks are once he stepped onto one of them. Causing said plank to fall to the depths below to ignite some of the methane to bring up a giant ball of fire. Batman quickly covered himself with his cape for safety before the flame died down and continuing his ascent.

As he continued upwards, he heard a loud explosion coming from up above which caused the stairwell to violently shake. Moment caused the stairs below the hero to collapse and fall towards the depths below to spark more flames. There wasn't enough time for Batman to run, causing him to pull out his grappling gun to get out of the flame's path.

But before he could do anything, he felt something grab both of his arms and yanked him up.

'What the-?' Batman thought as he brought up several flights of stairs before falling to the ground. Next thing he knew, he saw a shimmering barrier around him as flames surrounded him. When the blast died down, he saw who saved him.

"What are you two doing here?"

"Saving your butt apparently." Catwoman said as Vanitas brought his hands down to lower the barrier around them. "That and saving the captives."

Ignoring the first bit, Batman asked about the later. "How did you know to get over here Selina?"

"Can't a girl have her secrets?" She cooed at him, only to get a glare in return. *Groan* "Fine. I was doing an investigation on my own after seeing this morning's news. Naruto overheard of what happened and called Wayne to warn him. Yada yada yada I ended up with Vanitas here to save the day."

He wanted to ask more; but there was no time as Alfred's safety came to the forefront of his mind, causing him to run off to find him.

"Sheesh. No thank you from the guy." Vanitas said as Catwoman chuckled before they ran after the caped crusader. It took a bit to catch up, due to Batman's head start, but the couple eventually saw Batman fire his grappling gun and ziplined his way to knock away Mr. Toad. Who was about to attack the downed Wayne butler.

"You'll pay for that." The amphibian growled out as he lunged at the Bat again, but was intercepted with a scarf wrapping around him. "What the-?"

"You give toads a bad name." Vanitas said as he swung the British toad around and sent him flying back to Professor Pyg. With how strong the throw was, the two were knocked back and seemingly was rendered unconscious.

Seeing that they might be in the clear, Batman came close to his old friend. "Are you alright sir?"

Alfred's lips gained a small smirk at this of hearing his charge calling him 'sir'. Though as quickly as it came, it quickly died out before he replied. "Not really Batman. My ankle's broken and I'll need help getting out of here."

"Then I hope this helps." The Bat said as he pulled out a pain med and injected it into him. "This will help until proper treatment can be placed on you."

"Thank you, but the pain isn't important right now."

"HEY!" Shreck yelled out from the confines of the impromptu cell. "What about us?!"

"Maybe we could leave him behind and take Holt with us." Catwoman jokingly said with a smile that gained a more angry look from the greyed out businessman.

Batman turned towards the thief with a narrowed look before he decided to ask the two arrivals a question. "Mind if you two help getting them out of here?"

"I'll help out on what I can." Vanitas said as a clone was formed from black and white whisps of smoke.

"Come on Catwoman." Clone Vanitas said as he walked towards the Wayne butler. "Help me with this one."

"Sure."

"And what are you going to do?" The Dark Knight asked with the main one still standing there, as the clone and Selina picked up the downed man before getting the other captives out of the cage.

"Helping you deal with Pyg and Toad obviously." The disguised Uzumaki said as he turned to see Pyg and Toad getting back up from the attack earlier.

"Mind answering me this, but when was the last time you've had a physical?" The 'professor' asked as he spun his bone saw around and aimed at the two heroes.

"A while back, but my doctor had better bedside manners than you Pyg." Vanitas said as he and Batman got into fighting positions.

Toad then came forward and puffed out his mouth before opening it...

*CROOOOOOOAK*

...And another sonic attack was sent towards them. The two were sent back a bit of ways, but had to quickly recover as Pyg came towards them with his weapon on hand. The bonesaw was met with Batman's gauntlets in hopes of holding the man at bay.

He pushed the larger man away before delivering a kick to the man's midsection when Pyg tried to assault him with his weapon. Several swings came afterwards as the caped crusader moved out of the way several times before he delivered a kick to the man's arm to send the bonesaw away. With the loss of his weapon, Pyg tried to attack the Bat but was met with a knee to the face to send him away.

As this went on, Vanitas threw several daggers at the amphibian but missed as the man jumped out of the way due to his special skills. The disguised Uzumaki had a hard time landing a hit on the man, but that was the case with how agile toads were from his memory of having them as his past summons. It wasn't long before the villainous toad came towards him for close quarters fighting, resulting for Vanitas to resort to Frog Kata.

Attacks seemingly met and dodged several times, but none would gain the upper hand in the current moment. Either one of them would need the opportunity to strike. Luckily for the hero, the toad barely left an opening for a quick moment for Vanitas to land a good hit. Toad was sent flying back after the last hit, leaving the disguised publisher a brief moment to think to himself.

'It was like fighting Gamakichi all over again.' He thought in remembrance of fighting his personal summon back when he was on his training trip with Jiraiya.

When the two villains regained their bearings, they saw Batman and Vanitas several feet away from them and closing.

"It's over you two. Give up." Batman said as he saw the eco-terrorists getting back up.

"I don't think so." The 'professor' said as he pulled out a trigger and pressed the button on top. Soon the heroes saw flashing lights in the dark parts of the corridors and realized that Pyg had activated bombs. As a result, the heroes ran away as the eco-terrorists ran off to safety with the coming blast covering their escape.

"Bad day! Bad day! Bad day!" Vanitas yelled out as he and Batman ran through the corridor as they felt the blast going off behind them. The flames were catching up to them as they were near the end of a dead end. Not wanting to leave the Bat behind, Vanitas grabbed his arm as he phazed the them out of the complex.

They quickly descended from the highest level and landed on top of the shipping containers below before they continued their escape as the building started to explode and collapse behind them. It was about to be a close call as both seemingly looked back for a brief moment of the incoming debris heading their way with the edge fast approaching.

"JUMP!" The heroes yelled out in possibly warning the other, but it didn't matter as they leapt off of the platform with the blast behind them sending them farther than expected. They both stumbled in their landing, but were possibly fine in the end.

"Are you insane?!" Shreck yelled out as he walked away from Catwoman, clone Vanitas, Alfred and Holt. "What if we were still in there?! We would've been killed!"

"Oh will you shut up Shreck." Catwoman said as she didn't want to deal with the man's yelling. "We saved your hides and yelling should be the least of your worries."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"You'll find out soon enough." Was all she said as she handed the wounded butler to Holt while the clone dispersed.

Somewhat ignoring what Selina meant, Batman went up to Alfred to check up on him. "Are you alright?"

"Yes Batman and thank you for your assistance." Pennyworth said as he looked at Vanitas and Catwoman. "They've been good enough to quickly get us out of there before the blast went off."

"Good to know."

"But what of Pyg and Toad?"

"I'm sure that Gotham will be seeing them again, but not anytime soon." Batman answered as the sounds of police sirens came closer to the scene.

"And that's our cue." Vanitas said as he formed a card platform underneath him and Selena before they took off into the air. "Have a pleasant night!"

Seeing this happen, Batman narrowed his eyes before running towards his batmobile and started it up to go after the two. He's got some questions to ask of them and if he can't get any from Vanitas, then he'll get them from Selina. Possibly this might be the only thing that will go on for the remainder of the evening with it being one hell of a long day.

…..

One would expect things to end right here, but it doesn't seem to be the case at the present moment.

Far away from the collapsing oilrig, the resulting disturbance from the wetlands had somehow traveled to the connecting swamps some miles away. Though with how big the oilrig was, how couldn't the waves and shock disturb the surrounding areas from the collapse. But this was besides the point…

Deep inside of one particular swamp outside of Gotham, a figure slowly opened it's eyes for the first time in god knows how many years. The being moved around slightly as it looked through its surroundings to see that it was underwater. It didn't really disturb the being in the slightest as it wanted to possibly go back to sleep.

 _ **Rise….**_

'What... was that?' The being thought as it shifted and turned to look around for the source.

 _ **Rise….**_

'There… it is… again.'

 _ **Rise….**_

It was then that the being felt the pull and complied with the simple command. It slowly came up and started to walk underneath the murky water. It took the being a few minutes to reach the surface, breaking through to feel the fresh air after so many years. Wondering what was going on, the being looked around to see it's location.

With the moonlight casted around the area; eyes soon landed upon a nearby sign, making the person read from it.

"Sl...Slau...Slaughter Swa… Swamp." The being spoke out in a rough, raspy voice that made it possibly identifiable to be that of a man's. His eyes traveled yet again before it landed upon thing of newspaper that seemingly landed in front of him due to a gust of wind passing by. The man squatted down to inspect it to see what interests could come before the risen man.

Though only one thing in particular caught the man's attention from the seemingly old and tatered newspaper article.

"Mon...Monday." The man said as he narrowed his eyes as a part of one particular nursery rhyme came to the forefront of his mind.

"Born on a Monday." He voiced out before his eyes soon landed upon the city lights in the distance. Instincts soon surfaced from a past life or something of that nature, making the man slowly walk towards the lights. The man didn't have anything else to do at all, only letting his instincts fully drive him.

 _ **Yes… Follow the lights to Gotham our Champion… Our Champion of the Black...**_

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Okay I need to clear this up with you guys. Raven isn't Naruto's adopted daughter just yet, she's his foster child/ward. It would be odd for Naruto to just adopt her right away. I want things to build up in their relationship together to the point that Raven will consider Naruto as her 'father'. By that point, I will get Naruto to officially adopt her as his child through legal means and all that stuff. Besides, it's sometimes fun to see videos on people opening up a gift and it shows that the person got officially adopted into the family. So I'm going through that route.**

 **Another thing brought to my attention, even though I've known this for a while from story planning, is that training Raven is going to be hard. Yes Naruto's knowledge in magic is VERY limited with it argued being very similar to chakra in various stories and at the moment she hasn't dropped the bomb that she knows some magic due to her growing up in Azarath. I do plan for her to have a teacher or some means of her learning more magic. It's just going to take time to get to it so don't fret people.**

 **Also sorry on getting this out sooner, but family was in town for younger sister's college graduation so they are up a lot of my free time. Not only that but the site has been acting funny for the past several days that I couldn't upload the chapter all that well.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	27. Solomon Grundy

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 25: Solomon Grundy**

"Well… Today has been rather interesting." Vanitas commented as he and Selina were hovering near the later's patio via card platform.

"That's quite the understatement." She commented with some mirth to her voice.

They just come back from the wetlands and on the way over, the two had already guessed that Batman will be coming over here to ask Selina some questions to today's events. It wasn't that hard to guess on the hero's intention from Naruto barely catching the Bat's particular narrowed gaze. Not only that, but also the batmobile gunning towards their loft building in an estimated fashion.

So in that time, the two had quickly discussed on what the ravenette should tell the Dark Knight when he came by to question her. Just some changes here and there, like Naruto stumbled into her loft and Selina said outloud that Bruce was possibly next. He convinced her to help out, among other things, that could possibly help sell the story.

It's a long shot, but it's the best that they can do at the moment.

"So are you still sure you can handle things here?"

"Yes I'm sure Naruto." She replied as she jumped off of the card platform and landed on her patio. "Once I'm done with Bats, I'll come up to let you know on how things went."

He nodded as he rose the platform another level to reach his patio before stepping off. Once the Uzumaki got inside, he checked his surroundings if anything was amiss, only to find nothing at all. Just a usual precaution really.

'Better check up on Pam.' The publisher thought as he walked towards the bedroom while dispersing his hero attire. When getting there, he heard the faint sounds of the shower from the connecting bedroom turning off, signaling that the botanist had just taken a shower.

*Sigh* "I needed that." Naruto heard his lover say from the slightly ajar door.

"You doing alright in there?"

"Oh… Naruto." She said as she sounded a little surprised on his arrival. "When did you get back?"

"Just now." He said as he walked over to the bed and started to take off his shoes. "Though I did come back earlier from patrols before Selina and I went back out to take care of Pyg and Toad."

"Really? And how did that go?"

"It was okay for the most part." He smiled as he started to undress himself, leaving him in just his boxers and undershirt. "We helped Batman save the day and all that stuff. Though I did have a little worry scare when finding out that Bruce was a target to those eco-terrorists."

"That must have not been fun."

"No kidding." Naruto simply said as he gathered the clothes and went over to put them away in the closet. "Pyg and Toad did get away from the scene when they blew up the oilrig-"

"WHAT?!"

He winced when he realized on what he just said. An oilrig exploding would obviously upset an environmentalist in a lot of ways. With Selina, sure it did upset her but she knew prior that the animals were previously driven out so it wasn't much of a deal with her. But with Pam, well that would be something else…

Naruto's thought process was put to a halt when he heard the door to the bathroom slam open with his redheaded girlfriend with a pissed off look on her face.

"How could they do such a thing?!" The botanist yelled out as they brought her hands to the towel wrapped around her hair and grasped it in frustration. "They say their eco-terrorists that care for the environment, but they end up causing more problems in such a place!"

"Well you should ask them if you see them the next time they show their faces."

This got his girlfriend to growl out a little and started to pace around the room. As this went on, Naruto got a good look at her and had to swallow a lump in his throat due to her appearance. Sure she just got out of the shower and all, but with her current attire made it hard for him to focus anywhere else. With her just wearing the towel around her dampened hair and the pink bathrobe around her form that it covered quite a bit.

But it was how the bathrobe was presented really from it reaching towards her mid-thighs and it was mostly parted higher up to show some of her cleavage. Everything else just left him with his imagination on what she looked like in the past times he's seen her naked. From her ever present long, smooth legs being shown to him imagining the other limbs of her body.

He was so focused on her that he briefly didn't realize that she sat down on the bed before lying down on it. This parted the robe a bit more to show more of her cleavage as she spreaded out her arms. Even having her legs go seemingly limp off of the bed made her appearance seem great to see for the silver haired publisher.

"If they claim on being eco-terrorists, they should've realized that blowing the oilrig would've damaged the wetlands more." Pamela said as she just stared towards the ceiling.

"We don't know what was going on through their minds when they planted those bombs." Naruto said as he walked towards the bed and sat down next to his redheaded girlfriend. "They are nutjobs that wanted to get rid of people in their way. So the destruction of the oilrig had to be a contingency for them to possibly get rid of us if things didn't go their way."

"But doing that would've caused more problems in the long run."

"I know that Pam and Selina knows that as well." He said as he placed his hand on her cheek and caressed it, earning a reaction of her leaning towards it. "She was rather vocal about it on the ride back, asides from other things, but I'm very sure a lot of environmentalists will talk about this in the coming days. Probably wanting the city to get the oilrig remains out of the wetlands so things can possibly heal better."

*Sigh* "I hope so."

"So… moving onto other things. I take it the interview didn't go all that well." Naruto said as he wanted to change topics.

"Yeah… It didn't go well at all."

"Wanna talk about it? It could help you know, just like when we first dated."

She smiled a little in remembrance before speaking to him. "Things were fine at first, with how most of the board was possibly wanting to hire me back on and all, but things started to go downhill when it dealt with the serum and my criminal background."

"We already discussed that Pam, you don't have to bring back up the serum if you have to." Her boyfriend said as he slid off of the bed and sat on the floor to have the two of them roughly at the same eye level. "The serum alone could be potentially great, but it possibly is harmful to humans if not used carefully."

"I know and I don't want anyone else to possibly go through what I had to deal with. Sure they could become champions of the Green, but what if someone truly crazy got ahold of the serum and used it to cause more problems for the environment."

"That's one possibility Pam, but getting sidetracked here."

"Right… Well I lied to the board on remembering the serum formula and it had 'so and so' results. When it came to my criminal background, things snowballed from there."

"But you were cleared of the charges Pam."

"I know that Naruto, but I couldn't tell them the reasons and the events that went on at that time." She said as she got up from the bed, making Naruto to look up at her from the floor. "I knew that if I told them what happened that it would've made things worse and the board might not really hire me, but take me as a labrat."

"You don't know that."

"Well I don't know and it was a stray thought that came up when I left the room when the board were discussing things. But I only gave them that I couldn't really answer that it would've brought up bad memories if I did tell them."

"Pam…"

"So after they told me that I'm not going to be rehired, I went to the nearest liquor store and bought some beer to drown my sorrows once I came back."

At this point, Naruto got up from the floor to see his love hugging herself with her head lowered. He sat back down on the bed and touched her hand that was currently visible. The publisher wanted to comfort her and say something, but Pam beat him to the punch.

"I've worked there for so long Naruto. Practically set me for life and I could've retired at a good age." She somberly said as she slowly grasped his hand in a tightly fashion. "Now I have no idea what else to do."

"Yet you've forgotten that you already have your new job from the Green by being it's champion." This got her to look at him in the slight remembrance. "Not only that, but Bruce offered you a job to work at the botanical gardens. So that's something."

"I know that, but-" "Just give it some thought about it Pam." Interrupted her lover as he brought her closer to his frame. Even caressing her back to soothe her a little. "I know Bruce gave you the offer when you got out, but still think things over more if you have to. It's not the end of the world since you couldn't get your old job back. Just a door closing in front of you while another one opened up."

She didn't respond right away as her mind was going through her thoughts from earlier in the day to the present time. Her mind was going through several things at a time, but it seemed that her lover's actions were helping them clear them with how calming his voice was along with rubbing her back with her bathrobe on. Pam was going to speak up when a new feeling graced her form.

'What is he…?' Pam thought as she felt one of Naruto's hands slip through her robe and caressed her side, making her hitch her breath in the process. She didn't know how to properly respond while he was rubbing her ever so softly that once his hand reached her breast, her heart rate quickened as he kneaded her fleshy globe.

Pam soon gasped as the love of her life placed kisses on her neck and traveled downward to the placement where her shoulder and her neck connected. He then started to focus a lot of his attention there before suckling and biting down in that area to leave a few faint marks there. By the time he was done with that action, it would eventually become a slightly darkened hickey on her fair skin.

"What are- MMMPH?!"

Naruto wouldn't let Pam finish that as he boldly claimed her lips. At first, she was taken aback by his boldness earlier, but after a moment the botanist slowly kissed back. His free right hand rose from its position and circled around her slim waist, keeping her close with his body. At that moment, their kiss deepened.

'Oh Gaea, I've missed this!' The changed botanist yelled out in her mind. 'I should've ended the punishment sooner!'

Pam soon circled her arms around her lover's neck before taking a fistful of Naruto's hair. She felt Naruto slowly pushed her tongue back, trying to enter her mouth. Their tongues battled for dominance, saliva mixed together, and she felt her body heating up. After ten second of tongue-fighting, the Green's champion let her lover to push her tongue back. She felt her lover's tongue invading her mouth and swept every inch of her wet cavern; sending tingling pleasant feelings on her nerves. The pleasant pulses traveled and accumulated into her core, wetting her nether region very fast. Unfortunately, it stopped just as she felt her arousal built up. She opened her eyes and saw a string of saliva connected their slightly parted lips.

The separation irked the botanist, but her body relaxed immediately as she felt Naruto's palm patting her cheek softly. With his other hand, it was still on her breast which came to a stop on its earlier actions. Her other lips suddenly demanded her to have Naruto's tool inside of it.

"W-What… What was that f-for?" Pam rasped out as she tried to control her breathing while the rest of her body quivered.

"You were feeling rather depressed Pam." He said with bits of worry in his voice, but when she gazed into his eyes she saw the tone slightly betrayed by the lust being shone. "So I don't care if I'm still in my punishment or not. I'm going to make you feel really good after our time apart. Something that I think has been long overdue."

 _ **-Lemon Starts-**_

Once that was said, Naruto went back and assaulted her mouth as the hand on her breast went back to work. In this brief moment, Naruto was able to wrap his tongue around hers and was able to suck it to get a nice reaction out of her. Even more so when the publisher started to play with her nipple from pinching and pulling at it to make the redhead moan to the pleasure.

' **Yes! More~!'** Ivy said through the shared link she had with her 'sister'. The darker persona was feeling the same pleasure from her lighter half and it felt amazing. **'Ravage 'us'!'**

It was during this time that the hand holding onto her face traveled upwards and pulled off the towel wrapped around her hair to let it fall upon her shoulders. Naruto's hand then went back to the back of her head and started to rake his fingers through the red waterfall to get a pleasant feeling from the botanist. All of his actions towards his lover made the redhead rub her thighs together to seemingly spread her juices around.

The hand that was playing with her breast soon traveled downwards to send chills down her spine. His fingers soon graced upon her navel and traced it ever so slightly before they made their way towards her sex. When Naruto finally touched her garden, he felt of the wetness down there and inwardly smirked on the reaction he was getting from his girlfriend.

*Chuckles* "My. My." He said once he broke the kiss with small traces of their saliva on their lips. "You've gotten quite damp in your garden, haven't you."

She could only gasp out a few times for breath before answering. "How… How did you get so good?"

"You can thank Selina for our time being together so far." Her lover said as he inserted a finger inside of her, making her jump a little in the process. "We've experimented a lot and hopefully it paid off."

"I-It… It did." She rasped out as she felt his didget going in and out of her. It felt so much better than her fingers when she was all alone back in Arkham. Then again playing with yourself can go only so far without the real thing. "M-More Naruto."

"Hmm… What was that?" He asked with a coy smile. "I didn't quite hear you."

" _ **I-**_ _I_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **m**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **."**_ She said as her dual voice started to surface. _**"I**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _m_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **. P**_ _l_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **!"**_

"Don't worry Pamela. I'll be sure to follow with your requests."

And with that, he inserted another finger inside of her to have the middle and ring fingers inside while the two of them made out in a heated fashion. It was getting the Green champion really worked up, that she was starting to shake a little of possibly having a mini-orgasm coming her way. It was coming so close once Naruto started to shake his hand up and down on her sex that it possibly threw her off of the edge.

" _ **M**_ _M_ _ **M**_ _P_ _ **H!"**_ Pam screamed out inside of his mouth as she came. There wasn't that much of a spray than from what the publisher expected, but it seemed enough as her body was shaking due to her cumming. When they parted from their kiss, Naruto could see Pam's eyes were pretty hazy with moans coming out of her mouth.

" _ **S-**_ _S_ _ **o…**_ _S_ _ **o**_ _g_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **d~"**_

"Then I'm glad you enjoyed it." He said with a smirk on his face seeing her reaction.

"So did I." A female voice called out from the bedroom doorway, causing Naruto to look over to see Selina. "And I gotta say... seeing Red cum like that made things a bit hot under the collar."

Naruto looked towards his dark haired lover and saw her current state of dress being in a loose, casual attire consisting of a black t-shirt and pants. Though something about the attire seemed odd to him. It then hit him as Selina made her way towards them to make the Uzumaki see the slight sway of her breasts and the slight unbuttoning of her pants. Even when coming closer, Naruto saw the slight glint coming off of the ravenette's fingers to see they were a bit moist.

"I'm guessing that you've been watching the whole time."

"Pretty much honey." She said as she stopped right in front of him. "Came by to let you know how the chat with Bats went."

"And?"

"Went like how we expected it to be. So that'll be something off of our hairs for a while." The thief then grabbed Naruto's moistened hand and brought it up with her dry hand. "And when I decided to come up here to give you the notice like I promised, I didn't expect to see the Pam's punishment towards you ending at the moment. Not only that, but you possibly putting her in a deep sexual high."

Once that was said, she brought her lover's hand up to her mouth and licked Pam's juices off of his palm. It was very sensual and exciting to see, making the former shinobi get a little hard from down below. Possibly got harder when he saw Selina bring her damp fingers to her mouth to get a taste of herself in a possible comparison between the two women.

"Mmm~ Yummy~"

'Damn.' He thought before he felt his other arm being moved a little. Causing him to look towards his redhead lover to see her coming down from her sexual high.

"Wha-Selina!" The Green champion cried out as she didn't expect seeing her dark haired friend being there.

"Hiya Red." The thief spoke with a growing cheshire-like smile. "Did you enjoy yourself so far?" This caused the botanist to blush to possibly match the color of her hair as she looked away from the smiling ravenette. "I'll take that as a yes." She said before dropping down on her knees and coming close to the blushing redhead. "Though I gotta say, you are very sweet and juicy. So I'd like to get some more."

"Wha-What do you mean?" Questioned the redhead before she gasped out in shock before moaning as Selina's head dived between her legs and started to lap up the juices from the recent orgasm.

'...Okay…That's really hot.' Naruto thought with widened eyes at the site before him. Though to not be left out of the action, he grabbed ahold of Pam's head and slammed his lips towards her. The two soon went back into their make out session while Selina was licking and eating out the redhead. While the thief was eating out her friend, she slipped her hand back into her pants and inserted her fingers back inside of herself to pleasure herself more.

' _ **O**_ _h_ _ **~ S**_ _o_ _ **g**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _d_ _ **!'**_ Pam thought as she was being assaulted from both her top and bottom lips.

Eventually things had to come to a close as Selina stopped her actions and backed away from the botanist's legs. She soon pulled off her t-shirt to reveal that she wasn't wearing a bra underneath to show her ample breasts with the rock hard nipples in full display. Once that was done, she went onto the side and brought her hand into Naruto's boxers to fish out his fully masted penis.

"I've been waiting for this for a while now." Selina spoke out in a sensual tone before licking the tool from the base to the tip in a slow fashion. This jolted the man from his action to stop him from his current make out session with his first girlfriend. "Why don't you join me Red? It's delectable."

Pam was a bit hesitant on the suggestion since she pretty much knew what her dark haired friend was implying. She was going to say something about it, but Naruto grasped her hand making her turn her head towards him. The botanist saw a reassuring look in his eyes that voiced out of her knowing that she didn't have to do it unless she wanted to. Of course the dark part of her mind slowly took over and seemed to taint the light a little to comply with her friend's offer.

" _ **M**_ _o_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **p**_ _l_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **."**_

"Sure Red." Selina said as she scooted over a little to make room for her friend. "Take it nice and easy if you have to."

Pamela didn't say anything as she grasped Naruto's throbbing length, feeling the heat and pulses coming off of it. This made the changed woman feel dry in the throat yet moist from her loins. She then leaned closer to the head before giving it a nice peck from her lips. From there she took small licks out of it to get a decent taste out of it before she started to kiss and lick other parts of his length. Feeling left undone, Selina joined in by giving the cock varying kisses and licks along the side while Pam had the other.

This made the publisher moan out in pleasure on what the two were doing, making him place his hands on the red and raven haired women's heads. He then raked his fingers through their scalps while being sure not to guide them along on their current task. Unbeknownst to him, the two women appreciated it as they took their time to tease the man they both love.

Occasionally, the two would meet up by the cockhead and give each other a shared kiss with tongue before either one of them would take a bit of Naruto's length into their respective mouths. This would get a good reaction as his moans and whimpers would shift every so often. Even more so when the two women silently told each other through their eyes of one taking Naruto's length while the other took his balls. The new sensation made the Uzumaki's waist buckle a little on the current feeling of two sensitive areas being wetly assaulted.

'Oh Kami!' Naruto thought as his eyes were glazing over as he tried to fight off the urge to cum too soon. 'This is amazing!'

'Mmm~ Tastes so good~" Pam thought as Ivy hummed in agreement. The darker half was glad she urged her 'sister' to give Naruto his first blowjob from the redhead.

' **So glad that 'we' had his Icha Icha books to occupy us back in and out of Arkham.'** Ivy stated as it gave 'them' vivid dreams and ideas on how to pleasure 'their' beloved.

With a resounding pop, Selina had let go of Naruto's sack from her mouth before she nudged Pam to switch. The redhead compiled before she lowered her head and took one of his balls into her mouth before the ravenette took his pole. This went on for several minutes of the two women switching every so often before Naruto started to heavily pant with what is about to happen.

"G-Girls… I'm going to-"

His warning came too late as he came inside of Pam's mouth, who currently had his cock inside of her mouth. It was rather sudden on the streams of semen entering her mouth, making her widen her eyes in the process. It lasted for several moments before Pam pulled out to leave the saliva covered prick with some spit dripping off.

"Oh let me have some of that." Was all Selina said as she brought the botanist into a steering kiss. The two were so engrossed into their kissing, with them exchanging Naruto's load in their mouths, they didn't see the glint in their lover's eyes. So while the two are distracted, he came behind the two women and threw them onto the bed.

"What the hell?!" Pam cried out as she landed first with Selina following.

"Oh this is going to be good~"

"What do you mean by that Selina?" The redhead asked before looking at her boyfriend to see the deeper look in his eyes. "And what is going on?"

"To answer your question Red," the thief said as she crawled over to end up hovering over her friend, "Naruto is going to completely ravage us."

"Wha-What?" Pam asked in momentary forgetfulness from what she wanted earlier.

' **HOORAY!'** Ivy cried out in joy in the shared mind as she was very anticipated for what's to come.

"You forget that I've been sleeping with him the longest. That I've gotten to know when he gets into a ravaging mood or a romantic one." The ravenette said as she grabbed the bathrobe and slipped it off of the changed botanist. "So expect us to have one hell of a romp."

"Right you are Selina." Naruto spoke out as he grabbed ahold of the hem of her pants and phased them off in a ripping motion before tossing them to the side, revealing a silky thong with part of it riding up her ass. After that was done, the Uzumaki then pulled off his shirt and boxer shorts to leave him completely in the nude.

Once that was said, Naruto brought his hands onto Selina's tight butt to spread her cheeks before diving down to eat her slit. Said woman moaned in delight before leaned down and grabbed Pam's face to bring her back into another makeout session with her ass in the air. Pam responded in kind by bringing one of her hands up to grab ahold of her friend to help her out on support while the other hand fondled one of the breasts. As for the thief, she brought her hand back to grab ahold of Naruto's cock and jacked it off a few times before leading it to the botanist's slit.

Feeling the hot, wet entrance of the first woman he gave his heart to, Naruto momentarily let go of the ravenette's ass so he can grab ahold of Pam's legs. Even though he appreciates Selina's little help, he wanted to properly plunge himself into the redhead's pussy instead of accidentally putting it inside of her asshole. He made that mistake once with Selina on a previous romp and it hurt his second girlfriend on the event. Sure they continued with the new experience after he took her black cherry, but he wanted to be careful for now on instead of going in blind when taking the plunge.

"Are you ready Pam?" He spoke out, making the two women breaking their kiss to get the redhead's full attention. "It's been a while for you and I don't want to hurt you by accident."

Pam could only smile at this when hearing her beloved still being his loving and caring self when it deals with love making.

"Just go slow at first Naruto." She said getting him to nod in response. "Make me savor the feeling once you're all the way in."

Complying with her request, he slowly inserted himself into his first girlfriend. Both of them could only moan and groan in response as he dived deeper inside of her, with her tight velvety walls after five months of being separated. Another inch, then another, and another, then another until his whole size was nearly in and Pam was completely silent.

She had to control her breathing as she adjusted to his size after so long. It felt so good and after a few more moments, she spoke out. "Slowly… please."

It was then that Naruto started to slowly back out and push back inside of her depths when Pam's breath started to hitch again. Selina was smiling when seeing Pam's face going through the motions. So she lowered her body before capturing the redhead's lips once again as they fought for dominance inside of each others mouths. It wasn't long before she soon felt Naruto insert two of his fingers into her wanting pussy with a thumb going inside of her asshole to start pleasuring her.

The moans and groans started to fill the room as Naruto was started to pick up the pace and ramming himself hard into Pam's depths. She was like what he remembered of being a velvety vice around his member that he needed more of her. Soon the clapping of skin could be heard as he kept slamming himself inside of the redhead.

" _ **Y**_ _E_ _ **S!**_ _F_ _ **U**_ _C_ _ **K**_ _M_ _ **E**_ _H_ _ **A**_ _R_ _ **D**_ _A_ _ **N**_ _D_ _ **D**_ _E_ _ **E**_ _P_ _ **E**_ _R_ _ **N**_ _A_ _ **R**_ _U_ _ **T**_ _O_ _ **!"**_ Pam yelled out once she broke the kiss with Selina. She needed to be heard and she demanded him to plow right through her, to effectively stretch her out. _**"P**_ _L_ _ **A**_ _N_ _ **T**_ _Y_ _ **O**_ _U_ _ **R**_ _S_ _ **E**_ _E_ _ **D**_ _I_ _ **N**_ _S_ _ **I**_ _D_ _ **E**_ _O_ _ **F**_ _M_ _ **E!"**_

"W-Well it's happening P-Pam." Naruto rasped out as he started to feel his balls tighten, showing that he was going to cum soon. "Be ready."

After a few more minutes of slamming into her, he loudly groaned as he started to empty his seed into Pam's wanting depths. Said woman could feel the heat entering her center, making her cum a little on her having her beloved fully being inside of her after so long. After he was done depositing his seed inside of her, he slowly pulled out his member and let his hand go from Selina's pussy and puckered asshole.

"I believe it's my turn now." The dark haired thief spoke out before she soon felt Pam flipping themselves over to have her on the bottom. She was going to speak out until Selina saw the redhead turning herself around with a diabolical smile on her face.

" _ **O**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **S**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **,"**_ the Green champion said in her blended voice with her eyes starting to glow in it's rich green color, _**"b**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _I_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _p_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **."**_ Pam then lowered herself on top of Selina's face, making the thief have a facefull of the botanist's loins. _**"N**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _N_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **o,**_ _i_ _ **t'**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _u_ _ **c**_ _k_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _e_ _ **f'**_ _s_ _ **b**_ _r_ _ **a**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t."**_

*Chuckles* "As you wish Pam."

So without warning, Naruto plunged himself with his half hardened member into Selina's wet cavern making the ravenette groan loudly. This in turn sent a nice little vibration through Pam's core, making her moan a little before she started to gyrate her hips on top of Selina's face. The thief could only lick, slurp, suck and eat the botanist's cunt out as she tried to take Naruto's seed that was slowly dripping out of the redhead.

" _ **Y**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _S_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **a…**_ _D_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d s**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **l o**_ _u_ _ **r b**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **d'**_ _s_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **f**_ _r_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **g**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _d_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **."**_ Pam said as she grasped her breasts and twisted her nipples. _**"I**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _m_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **. A**_ _f_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _l_ __*Moan* _ **w**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **i**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **w**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **s**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **."**_

'Damn… I gotta say that seeing Pam being all dominating is pretty hot.' Naruto thought as he kept slamming his tool inside of his lovely thief's depths. 'Wonder how that will be like in future romps.'

'Mmm…. Kitty likes.' Selina thought as she was tasting the mixed juices of Naruto's and Pam's essences. 'God I'm going to really enjoy being in this interesting relationship with him.'

The three continued their actions for several minutes, from Naruto slamming into Selina, Pam riding the thief and both the publisher and botanist bringing their faces together to share a deep kiss to do a full connection between the three lovers. Trapped in a position of intense carnal acts as their naked bodies glistened with their sweat. This was practically one of the greatest experiences in their lives and they absolutely loved it.

Naruto had worked his dark haired lover into a frenzy; a steady rhythm being built, increasing in speed, and in intensity. His eyes closed, Naruto's mind drifted from the love beneath him and in front of him. His mind drifted elsewhere, creating an image in his head that caused him to release a deep, baritone roar, one matched by Pamela's soprano once they separated their kiss. She moaned, reaching her peak, her climax. Naruto quickened his pace with his eyes shut. Even Selina felt it coming as her end was fast approaching.

Their world had then exploded. It wasn't better because of what they were doing. It was better because of how they were doing it. Not only were they each other's lovers and beloveds, but Selina and Pam were his mates and they absolutely loved it. Pam had let loose a torrent of the mixed cum inside of her onto Selina's face, causing her to lap it all up while also screaming out her own climax. Naruto screamed incoherently as his cock released wave after wave of cum that filled her the thief's greedy pussy cavity.

 _ **-Lemon Ends-**_

The three felt absolutely exhausted as both Pam and Naruto had to steady themselves from falling over on their positions. The botanist slowly got up to see the thief's panting, drenched face of both Pam's juices and Naruto's semen. The publisher had soon pulled out to end up having some of his cum spill out, getting Selina to shiver when some of his essence traveled downward towards her ass.

From there the two metahumans went towards the edge of the bed, with Naruto dragging Selina up with them. Once they were all situated with their heads on the pillows, the three continued their labored breaths as their love making was quite intense. Soon the two women wrapped an arm over Naruto, crossing their respective arms over another and having their feminine hands interlocking with each other, followed by a leg around each of his to fully entrap their shared lover.

"That was… other worldly," Selina said as she was licking his earlobe. Even was grinding herself against him with what energy she had left in her to try and prolong the sexual high.

"You can say that again." Naruto rasped out as he soon felt Pam nuzzle her head into the crook of his neck along with her grinding herself against his other side.

"It was… heavenly." Pam spoke out as she placed a few kisses on his neck. "I can't wait to have more of this."

"Same here Red."

Naruto then phased his arms out of their hold before he wrapped the two closer into his embrace. Even turned their heads to give both of his lovers a soft kiss on their lips. Once that was done, the three slowly succumbed to their exhaustion. Though their was one last thing on their mind before they entered the realm of dreams….

That they've got a lot of sex to catch up on.

 _ **-Morning-**_

" _...Onto other news this morning, the wetlands oilrig exploded last night due to the eco-terrorist actions of Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad."_ Summer Gleeson spoke out in the news room. _"From what was speculated from the kidnapped victims of Max Shreck, Michael Holt and Alfred Pennyworth that it was an attempt for the eco-terrorists to get away from being captured by Batman and Vanitas."_

This was what Naruto, Pam and Selina were listening to as they were cooking breakfast for each other. While Naruto was sporting a pretty big smile, Pam and Selina were basking in their ever present glow radiating off of them from not only last nights activities, but also from this morning. After waking up early, due to old habits, they continued their love making in both the bedroom and in the shower. It was quite the fun experience for them.

" _...Even the resident Catwoman, Selina Kyle, has been seen with the helmeted hero to help save the three kidnapped individuals. Is this act a way to help make up for her past crimes or to cover her own agendas. Who knows for sure."_

"Seems your getting better publicity now ever since the Daggett events." Naruto said as he was making some waffles.

"I guess so." Selina said as she was chopping some vegetables. She was then greeted with a pleasant kiss from Pam..

"At least it'll help you more on possibly getting more donations to the various causes you're working with. So that's a plus in my book." The botanist said to her fellow environmentalist.

" _Following last night's events, environmentalists have been demanding to have the wetlands be relinquished from it's current owners. Further discussions about the damaged area will be brought up at a later notice. Though with the current owners will be up to debate on what to do exactly._

 _Speaking of current owners, Max Shreck of Shreck's department stores has been brought into questioning by the GCPD about the varying allegations presented by the eco-terrorists Pyg and Toad. His lawyers state that they are false and misleading, despite the hard hitting truth presented for obvious reasons. But things aren't looking all that well for the millionaire when new evidence was presented to the GCPD last night by-"_ *Click*

"Well I think that's enough news for one day." Selina said as she turned off the TV before heading back to the kitchen to help take care of breakfast.

"Wouldn't you want to hear more of it Selina?"

"It's alright Red." The thief responded as she was setting up the plates by the kitchen counter. "I already know what was going to be said and I don't want to hear anymore about it."

"About what?"

"That Selina broke into Shrek's office and was able to gather a lot of evidence to get the man convicted for his crimes. Though I am going to be credited for bringing in the evidence with my clone being seen dropping off said evidence."

"Huh…" Was all Pam let out from the bit of information Naruto just said. "Well… That's good to know I suppose."

"Really? Nothing else about that Red?" The ravenette said in a light mock, hurtful tone.

"I do remember during one of the times when you visited me back in Arkham that you've done similar things in the past. Gathering evidence to convict people that were harming the environment. So I figured that you've done it yet again."

Nothing much was said after that as the three had finished up making breakfast and started to dig right in. During most of the meal, they just had small talk on random topics here and there but nothing of note worthy. Though with the recent one was something to garner about.

"I am wondering though is *Munch* *Munch* *Swallow* ...where Rachel is at?"

"Yeah, I'm wondering that as well Pam."

This got Selina to slap herself on the head in forgetfulness, something that didn't go unnoticed by her two friends/lovers.

"Something you mind telling us Selina?"

"Yeah I forgot to tell you last night due to the mess last night. Along with me mostly focused on the evidence being sorted out from Shreck's files."

Naruto nodded in understanding, but this didn't leave the question unanswered. "Still though, what do you know."

"Well... Harley left a message that Rachel was staying over at her place last night. Something about her exhausting herself from playing with Artemis. Even Harl somehow was able to get the girls to do a sleepover."

"That actually sounds sweet." Pam said with a small smile. "Rachel bonding a bit more with Jade and Artemis. Even having her first sleepover."

"Yeah, that should be really good for her I bet."

"Though I do wonder what kind of hijinks Harl was doing for said sleepover." Selina muttered as she tried to imagine what her pale friend was doing, entertainment wise. For some reason, a stray thought of Harley kidnapping the pizza delivery boy and putting the girls through a major sugar rush came to mind. Making the three children stay up all night before each of them crashed and burned sometime afterwards.

'Nah… She is better than that.' The ravenette thought with a shake of her head.

"Harley probably rented out some movies or something from her collection to keep the three entertained while painting each other's toenails or telling spooky stories." The botanist said getting some looks from her two friends/lovers. "Hey it's been along time so my knowledge is a bit rusty."

"Yeah, whatever you say Red." Selina said to herself in a tone that got the changed botanist to send out a narrowed glance her way. "Though I never had one before from me being on the streets the majority of my life."

"But what about your sister, Maggie?"

"Siblings don't count Naruto. If they did then I would've had a lot of them with the shared room me and Maggie slept in until we went into separate foster homes."

He could only hold up his hand in defeat as he didn't want to get into that kind of an argument. It was one of the odd parts about his relationship with her that she would seem such a know-it-all on the smallest of things. Sometimes he be fine of letting her win those moments so she can feel better on the relationship. Though the majority of those small things dealt with a women's perspective and there was no way in hell he was going to open that can of worms.

"So what are your plans for the day you two?" He asked in wanting to change topics.

"I'm thinking I could stop on by Harley's place to pick up Rachel and Isis." Selina said as nothing else came to mind for today's schedule.

"While you're there, I think you could finally meet your cute little fans." Naruto said getting the dark haired woman to look at him funny. "Don't know if you forgot or not, but Jade and Artemis are fans of yours. So I think it'll be fun if you got to meet them."

"Huh… Yeah I think I remember you telling me that, but it must've been in passing."

"No. I definitely told you when you asked how my supposed first date with Harley went."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I am Selina." He said with a reassuring tone. "I distinctly remember you saying, after hearing you have child fans out there, that you can't wait to meet the future 'environmentalists'."

"Oh… Right."

"But still though, maybe you can at least meet the Crock girls so there could be a familiar face associated with Harley. I mean what were you possibly planning to do to kill most of your free time exactly?"

"...I guess you're right." Was all she said as she shrugged her shoulders. "Though what are you two going to do for today?"

"I….I don't know." Pam admittedly said with a little slump of her head.

"I have one idea in mind." Naruto spoke out, getting his redhead girlfriend's attention. "We can go out on a little date. Could at least help get you out of the loft and your mind off of what happened most of yesterday."

Pam thought it over for a moment or two and thought it might be nice to go out on a date with her boyfriend after quite some time. Sure the two hanged out several times after she got out of Arkham, along with her old punishment placed on him, but it should be good to go out again before her life was literally flipped upside down. So with a smile, she responded back to her lover.

"Yes… I'd love to."

*Chuckles* "Great and we can go pretty soon if you want." He stated as he collected his dishes and went towards the sink to clean them up. "After all, we have nothing else to do for the time being and I want to be in a good mood before I go back to work tomorrow."

Once that was said, the three finished getting ready for the day before heading off to their destinations. It could be a pretty good day for them if they play their cards right. Sure there could be some snags since there can never be a perfect day.

Unbeknownst to them, there is going to be one large snag that will not affect their day, but various other people.

 _ **-Streets of Gotham-**_

The weather was quite similar like the day before, with the darkened overcast that possibly bordered towards it raining anytime soon. Cars and people were bustling through the streets and sidewalks as they were going to the various destinations for the day. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for the citizens of Gotham, even those that are homeless.

...Okay that is a bit of stretch on the homeless bit.

In one secluded alleyway, a group of homeless men were huddled together so they wouldn't be bothered by any other people of Gotham. Each of them were keeping watch in their own manner if someone was to come on through. If someone did come on through, the homeless would either leave them be or, in most cases, come up to them and ask for any change to help feed themselves for the day. Sometimes the homeless would use the money on primarily food, but on other times most of them would use the money to buy some drugs to ease their pain of everyday life.

Not in this case though as one of the homeless people saw a towering figure walking through the alleyway, Said figure appeared to be a ripped up cloak covering the being's form with rope holding things together. This got the homeless man a questioning look before he spoke out to the large man.

"You doing alright there stranger?"

Hearing this made the other homeless people get out of their senses and turn towards their fellow man before their eyes landed on the large man.

"Holy shit." The second homeless man said in astonishment. "How the hell did you get so damn big?"

There was no verbal response at all as the large man tilted his head to the side. It was hard to tell on the man's facial features due to how dark the covering was, but the homeless man guessed the large man had adopted a questioning look.

"I… don't know." The man said in a rough, raspy voice that seemed to get one or two of the homeless men on edge.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Questioned another homeless man.

"I just… don't know."

"...Okay." One of the men said before he widened his eyes when he gazed at the cloak opening to see… "Where the hell are your clothes?!"

"...What?"

"Where are your clothes?!" The homeless man said as he covered up his eyes a bit. "I don't want to see you naked under there!"

Hearing this go on, the other homeless men freaked out a little as the large man spread out his arms a little to end up widening the cloak opening. This made the others realize that the man was indeed naked and they didn't want to see any of the man's business down there.

"Sorry?..." The man said in a tone that seemed that he was questioning them yet it made it hard to do so when the other men tried to block out the man's nakedness.

"Just hold on there. I think we have some spare clothes for you to have." One of the homeless man said as he went to a part of the alleyway to dig out a spare change of clothes. "They might be tight, but they could possibly work for you."

"...Thanks."

Wasn't long before the homeless man came back with the clothing on hand. Once giving it to the largely cloaked man, he ushered the man to go to the other part of the alleyway to get changed. Especially since the homeless men didn't want to see the man's lower half.

"Why'd you give the guy _my_ clothes Harry?"

"Well I didn't want to leave the guy naked on the streets with a freaking bedsheet Frank."

"Then why not use your own?"

"Since my clothes wouldn't fit the guy while yours should."

"But those took forever to scrounge up!" Frank yelled out towards his fellow homeless man. "A lot of that I had to either carefully sew, dumpster dive, or buy from my own change collection!"

"Well too bad and you have nothing else to do in the meantime."

"Why you little…"

"You said… that you… needed money?" The large man said with the new set of clothing on him. He still wore the cloak on top of him, minus the rope, but the men saw he used the rope as a makeshift belt. Underneath said cloak, they now saw him in a bit of ripped up attire due to how hard it took to get inside of the clothing.

"Yeah. Along with the rest of us here."

"I could… get money… for you… for clothes." The man said getting bewildered looks among the homeless.

"...If you could that would be great."

"But where would he get the money Frank?" Harry asked as he unknowingly got the larger man's attention. "It's not like he had any on him."

"He could go to the bank and get the money from there Harry."

From what the homeless man just said made the larger man hear some of the words echo inside of own mind. They seemed to trigger something inside of his very being. Something to drive his instincts even further.

 _ **Yes… Money…**_ The one voice called out inside of the larger man's mind. _ **Go to the bank… Should be able to draw out the Green champion by doing so…**_

"I'll go to bank for you." The cloaked man said getting piqued looks from the two men in front of him.

"Huh… Alright."

"But where… is bank?"

"Eh…" Harry muttered as he was scratching his head a little. "I think the nearest one is actually in the middle of town."

"...Thanks."

As the larger man was walking away, Frank spoke out towards him.

"What's your name?"

"...Huh?"

"Well… What's your name?"

This left the man racking his mind as best as he could. Though nothing seemed to come up before the one nursery rhyme he remembered came to forefront of his mind. It was the best that he could think of before he spoke out to the homeless man.

"Grundy…"

"Huh?"

"That's my name." The man spoke out as he walked out of the alleyway. "Solomon Grundy."

Once the now identified Solomon Grundy was out of earshot, one of the nearby homeless men muttered out something small and simple before getting into a nap.

"...Weird name."

 _ **-Gotham Botanical Gardens-**_

"Not that I mind Naruto, but why did you bring me here?"

"I don't know what you mean Pam." The Uzumaki said as he walked beside his girlfriend through the garden.

"Don't play dumb since I know what is probably going through your head right now."

"Which would be what exactly?" He asked as the two were passing some of the flowers on display.

After leaving their loft, Naruto had taken her out on a stroll through some parts of Gotham that they had enjoyed going to during some of their past dates. Going through the park and eating at one of the small diners Pam enjoys every so often to make things ever so presently great. It would've been better if the sun was shining, but with the current overcast they had to make due.

"You brought me here to distract me enough to possibly get me to consider working here." She said with a narrowed gaze towards her lover.

"Don't be putting words into my mouth hun, since you are probably not guessing my motivations right."

She was partially correct in what he was doing. The Uzumaki had originally wanted to bring Pam here to help make her feel at home with her powers. Feeling connected with how healthy and strong the varying plants were ever since they were last here on April Fools Day when they bonded with the ancient tree here.

He realized this when coming over one time during it's closed hours and meditated there with his scythe. When the tree got rejuvenated, it must've affected the surrounding plant life greatly to the point that it changed them in most aspects. Reason why when he came on by in it's open hours a lot of the scientists working there were taking so much of their time studying the new flora appearances, even more so on the ancient tree with the most drastic changes.

But getting back onto the part of what she was assuming was partially correct. During the date so far, some thoughts had been going back to what he learned last night of Pam not getting her old job back. Naruto didn't want to see the depressed aura of sorts radiating off of her with her not having a job at the current time. He wanted to see the beautiful glint and sparkle in her eyes when it pertained to working with plants. To see what she can do with her new found knowledge in plant life with her current connection to the Green.

*Pouting noise* "I'll get you to tell me sooner or later Naruto. Mark my words."

"And what will you do exactly Pam?" He asked as he walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her front to bring her closer to his form. Pam ended up leaning her body onto his on instinct as her hands grasped his. "Will you take control and force it out of me?" He then brought his mouth closer to her ear and spoke out, making her shiver on what was said next. "Possibly dominating me while having fun doing so?"

' **Oh Ho~ This is getting hot!'** Ivy spoke out as she was getting giddy with excitement. This wasn't helping really as Pam's heart was slightly quickening and her cheeks burning up as various images were showing up. Dominating her lover in several ways made her want to be very compliant with the idea. **'Don't know if we should thank Selina or not on this new side of our king.'**

'I'd rather kill her for corrupting him.'

Before anything else could be brought up, someone walked up to them and coughed into their hand.

"Am I interrupting something?" A woman asked, getting Pam to jump a little and out of Naruto's hold on her.

"N-No!" The changed botanist said with a stutter with her ever present blush. Of course it was hard for it to go down with Naruto laughing a little, making her glare at him to quickly shut up. "Just my boyfriend teasing me about something."

"I see." The woman said with a smirk on her lips before bringing a porcelain mug to her lips.

From what the couple inspected from the woman, she appeared to be of hispanic descent with her being roughly a decade or so older than Pam. She had fair skin that seemed to match with her dark brunette features. Currently wearing a purple button up shirt, dark pants and a lab coat with an employee pass on the pocket. She also has a 'happy face' mug in her hand with a pair of glasses on top of her head to finish off her appearance.

"So are you two enjoying your time here so far?" The woman asked getting the couple to nod their heads.

"Yes we are. Thank you for asking."

"It's been quite some time since I've been here and got a good look at the place." The redhead said as she looked around to see how different many of the plants looked. She didn't voice it before, but she distinctly remembers that the ones currently shown were not that exotic looking or giving off a more better feeling from the Green.

"Well depending on when you last came here, we've been quite busy ever since the Joker fiasco."

"...How so?" Pam asked as she was a bit curious on the woman's explanation.

"If you may not have noticed, these plants were not this extravagant as they appear to be before the incident." The employee said as she waved her free hand towards one of the nearby flower beds. "Take for example these hawaiian flowers we have growing here. We had them planted back in March as saplings, but whatever happened caused them to rapidly grow and appear much differently than we expected. We don't know how this happened, but it possibly had to do when Vanitas brought that mysterious metahuman here back on April Fools Day."

"Yes I've heard of what happened and glad that the two were able to save the day." Naruto said with a bit of a smile, getting his lover to nudge his side. Something that went unnoticed by the female employee, due to her looking away for a brief moment or two.

"Well after that event happened, many scientists and botanists made their way over here to study our main attraction here to figure out what those two did to it." She said as she seemed to usher the couple towards the outside of the building where the ancient tree resided.

"I'm sorry, but what's your name ma'am?"

Turning towards the publisher, the woman decided to answer his question. "Ah yes, sorry that I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Luisa Cruz and I'm one of the plant sciences specialists working here at the gardens."

"Then it's nice to meet you doctor." Pam said as she and Naruto kept following the doctor while looking at the various plants along the path.

Once the two made it outside, they were greeted with the sight of the ancient tree in all it's glory. Being healthier than before as it seemed to revert back into it's prime with the gigantic flowers receding back into buds. The changed botanist could practically feel it without trying to reach out and connect to the ancient tree.

"I've studied this tree for quite some time and I could only scratch part of the surface on what it did." Luisa said as she took a sip from her mug. "It still won't explain how it affected the other plant life here at the gardens."

"Possibly the tree had some latent properties that reacted very well with the other plant life." The botanist said, getting the garden employee's attention. "After all, it has been around for millenia and no one would fully understand what it can do when it came back to it's prime." 'Well except for me and the Green that is.'

"Hmm… That is true Ms…"

"Isley." Pam said to introduce herself. "Dr. Pamela Isley."

"And how would you know a bit about this?"

"I'm a botanist myself." The Green champion said with pride. "I've extensively studied plant life for the majority of my life and centered my career around it. I can very well name off every type of flora in different regions of the world and be able to know of their properties."

"Really? And how would you possibly explain a bit more with the plants in and out of this building on how they've changed?" Dr. Cruz said to possibly challenge the botanist in front of her.

"Like I said before." Pam first started out as she walked closer to the tree and touched it slightly without wanting to give away her abilities. "This tree has been around for millennia, 'possibly' before the time of man walked the earth. It should have spores inside of this beauty to bring out the latent ancestry on varying plants through genetics. Reason why the trees and flowers within the building's grounds look different should because of showing their earliest form of ancestry in a manner of speaking…."

Naruto's lover was quite honest in her little explanation as the time she entered this ancient being, she had gotten a lot of it's history to know how powerful it can be. Even after Naruto explained to her on how truly important this tree was of it connecting to a ley line nexus. It made her know how truly unique this tree was from the rest of it's kind that supposedly existed.

Off to the side, Naruto was looking onwards with a smile on his face. He was happy to see his girlfriend get into her 'botanist groove', something he nicknamed when the two first started dating, and it seemed to lighten up her rich green eyes. He had to give himself a pat on the back on bringing her here that it.

Back with the science specialist, she gained a little intrigue towards the redheaded woman as she started going on and on about the plants without herself saying a thing. Listening to a good amount of detail about possibly taking the best traits of different plant species and blending them together to make stronger plants to be able to survive through different climates. Ways on improving the environment through splicing different stains together that would save varying areas.

"Pam."

"Y-Yes."

"You're getting into your 'groove' again." Naruto said with a small smile.

"Oh… Sorry on that." Pamela said with a little embarrassed look as she turned back towards the specialist. "I tend to ramble on with my research and really get into it."

"No it's quite alright Ms. Isley." Luisa said as she waved off the guest on the apology. "It was quite interesting to hear all that. Where do you work at anyways?"

"Well… That's the thing. I'm, sort of, in between jobs at the moment. I just don't want to get too much into detail though."

"It's quite alright." Luisa said before taking a sip from her drink. "Though we are a bit short on staff at the moment."

"Really?"

A nod was the only answer given at the moment from the specialist before clearing her throat. "A married couple working here are currently on maternity/paternity leave with their newborn. So some projects and assignments are either put on hold or delayed on progress."

"But why would you want to possibly hire me?" Pam said with a perplexed look.

"You seem pretty good on your explanation, with good details, earlier and it might be good to help out. If that could be possible."

"Well… Give me some thought on the subject please."

"That's fine Dr. Isley. Though there should be one thing you need to do when your going to apply here as a possible specialist." Luisa said getting looks from the visiting couple. "For most potential hires used to work for other companies, we would be asking for a good research paper or so on how to possibly make things interesting in the plant world as it were. If you were just someone fresh on the market, you would've just needed a good recommendation and thesis paper. Though since you're in the former category, you get the idea."

"I pretty much do Dr. Cruz." The Green champion said as she started to think a little on some idea on what to possibly do exactly.

"Take all the time you need though since there's no rush." Was all the plant specialist said as she left the couple alone near the ancient tree. Once the employee went back inside; Naruto turned towards Pam and gave her a nice hug before spinning her around, much to her little annoyance at the moment.

"You did it Pam." He spoke out as her annoyance soon turned into little giggles. "You possibly landed yourself a good job." 

"Yes Naruto, I think I might've." She said as she broke out of his grasp and landed her feet onto the ground. "Though I do need to think of a good research topic to possibly get me in though."

"At least you'll be with a whole lot more plants than with your previous job. And I do have to admit that you working back at Star Labs was a tad suffocating in that one room of yours."

"True."

"I would suggest your old life's work, but it would only cause a lot of problems."

"I know. So I'll be racking my mind for a while though." The redhead said before her lips were captured by the love of her life. Once breaking away, he gave her a reassuring smile as he wrapped his hand around hers.

"And I'll be there every step of the way."

"Thank you."

"Besides… I didn't urge you at all to apply here." He said with a smile. Which only met with a twitching brow from his lover's face.

"...You had to ruin the moment... didn't you?"

This just got the publisher to nervously chuckle as he muttered 'sorry' several times over.

 _ **-Gotham National Bank-**_

There wasn't that much activity going on inside of the bank. Just the average, quiet moments of people idly chatting with either the tellers or the assistants at the cubicle like offices. Asides from that, people were just standing or sitting around for their respective turns on why they came by to the bank in the first place.

As this went on, a large figure entered through the entrance of the bank with a cloak over his form before making his way upstairs. With some people nearby gave the man a weary look as the cloaked man seemed to turn his head all over the place. Even scratching his head to possibly indicate him being quite confused for the time being.

"Eh… May I help you sir?" A guard came up to the large man as he was weary of the larger man, just like everyone else.

"Grundy... need money."

"Well you've come to the right place… I think." The guard said as he guessed the larger man seemed not that smart at all. "You could… stand in line or sit down in one couches till someone could help you."

"...Okay." Grundy roughly said as he idly moved his head between the line to the couch. Eventually he moved his way to the couch before he sat down on it, earning a bit of a creaking noise coming off of it. Obviously due to his weight.

Nothing much happened after that as people went on with their business. Though every so often people would stare at the largely cloaked man

*Bang*

A sound of a shotgun going off startled off the occupants in the wide opened room of the bank. Many turned towards the source to see five people wearing red ski masks near the entrance wielding a mixture of assault rifles and shotguns. One of the guards was about to fire upon them until one of the masked men punched his lights out while another shot a nearby guard. This caused more panic from the occupants in the building with some people screaming.

*Bang*

"Alright listen up!" One of the red ski masked men yelled out with his shotgun in the air. "We are not here for your money, we're here for the bank's money! Just get on the ground nice and tight and no one will get hurt!"

"So don't be brave or else we'll unload a payload of lead into one of ya'll." Another ski mask wearing men said as he trained his weapon at a pair of guards so they wouldn't stop their robbery.

"Do what you're told and this will be over quicker than the time I hooked up with a cheerleader back on prom night!" Another thug called out as he was going through several registers and dumping the money into bags. Of course some of the other thugs looked at the one thug oddly on what he just said, to which said man caught onto. "Too much?"

"Yes." Was the resounding answer from the other ski masked men.

"Ninety seconds guys!" One of the men called out as he briefly looked at his watch. It appeared they were on the clock.

"Anyways… we're the Red Hood gang and we hope you have a pleasant day." The first man said as he was checking the occupants in the room just in case they weren't going to try and attack them. Of course his eyes soon landed upon the large cloaked man sitting on the couch and didn't seem to react to anything at all. "Hey! We said to get on the ground!"

There was no response from the larger man as he just sat there without moving an inch.

"I was talking to you!" The one thug said as he got up and close to the man.

"Sixty seconds!" The watch thief said before turning his head towards the first thief. "Just leave the guy alone man."

The first thug ignored the watch thief as he aimed his gun at the large man. "I said get on the ground!"

"...Huh?" The large man said as he turned his head towards the thief. "Were you talking to Grundy?"

"Yes I was!" The man said as he jammed his weapon at the larger one's chest. "What are you?! Deaf?! Stupid?!"

This seemed to rile something inside of Grundy as he was told of him being stupid. Instincts telling him to be rid of the man in front of him before getting the money that he previously sought out for. But he didn't know what to do really on how to fully engage with the situation at hand.

 _ **Kill the mortal Grundy.**_ The voice called out inside of the cloaked man's mind. _**Stand up and kill him.**_

Grundy complied with the voice's command and got up from his place in the lobby couch. With his height and stature, he seemed pretty intimidating to the man pointing the gun at him. Even more so with the cloak around his form.

"Hey! No funny ideas!" The first thug yelled out as he and several others trained their weapons at the man.

"Thirty seconds!" The watch thief called out before he waved his weapon towards the bank entrance. "It's time to move guys!"

"Don't point gun at Grundy!" The larger man growled out as he stepped towards the man in front of him.

*Bang*

The larger man looked down to see part of his cloak was shredded, but didn't really feel much from that shotgun blast to the chest. Not even any blood came out from the blow. Though it did seem to piss him off for some reason.

"What the fuck?!" The first thug said as he looked back between his gun and the man in front of him. "I just shot you point blank!"

*Growl* "Grundy not like that at all." He said as he swatted the man to the side.

His action soon shocked the various people in the lobby as the first thief was sent flying to the other side of the room. Upon impact, the man left a large dent onto the wall before falling to the ground. Onlookers didn't know if the thief was either dead or barely alive.

"Shoot him!" One of the thieves yelled out as the others seemed to follow the command and open fired on the large man. But all they ended up doing was pissing Grundy off.

 _ **Kill them Grundy… Do it now!**_

Grundy followed with with the voice's command and charged right at the thieves and either punched or swatted them to leave things as an absolute mess of things. The various onlookers were very shaken up on what they have just seen of the large man possibly killing the Red Hood gang members. Though one seemed to survive and tried to run away…

Keyword tried.

Especially when the couch that Grundy was sitting on earlier was thrown at the remaining Red Hood gang member. It was a direct hit towards the man's back and sent him tumbling down the stairs in a bad heap of pain. Then again from both the couch hitting his back and falling down the stairs, it was a surprise the man lived… or dying very very soon.

When all that was done, the cloaked man looked around to see everyone was literally scared of the man. Even the remaining, conscious guards were and they were pretty conflicted if they should open fire on him or just stand down so they can prolong their lives. Though it didn't matter really as Grundy was ignoring them entirely.

 _ **Now open the vault and get the money Grundy. There might even be gold in there.**_ The voice spoke out as it seemed to bring a little smile on the man's face. Even as a little feeling seemed to surface at the mention of gold came to mind.

"Gold… Yes…. Grundy like gold." The man said as he walked towards the vault. Once there, he grabbed the sides of the door and ripped it off with minimal ease. This shocked the onlookers even more, but had to move out of the way as Grundy tossed the door behind him to leave a resounding *Thud* on the floor. Leaving a large dent on the tiled floor.

'What the hell is he?' One of the tellers thought as he kept pressing the silent alarm button underneath his station. 'Is he a metahuman?'

"Oh~ Pretty gold." The large man said as he grabbed handfuls of gold but didn't know how to take more with him. But a small thought came to mind as he pulled off the cloak off of his body to use as a makeshift bag. Doing so revealed his body to the current occupants in the bank.

Grundy appeared to be a large, statured man of eight feet or so with his enlarged muscles. His skin was pure white, matching his short shaggy white hair. The sclera of his eyes were yellow instead of the typical white along with his teeth being jaggedly yellow. To finish off the man's appearance, Grundy wore a tattered black jacket and pants with an opened grey button up shirt underneath along with black boots straining by the seem.

"This could work." Grundy muttered as he placed a good amount of gold onto the tarp he used as a cloak and wrapped it up before heading out of the vault. On his way towards the bank entrance, he also picked up one of the bags of money before making his way down the stairs. When he did make it at the end of the steps, he came across the site of the remaining thief staring up at him, barely moving at all with a handgun aimed at the pale man's head.

"Who… What the fuck are you?" The man asked out in fear.

His answer was met with a raised boot, hovering over his head before the towering man spoke.

"Solomon Grundy…. Born on a Monday."

All that was heard next was the moist crunch of the robber's head being stepped on, leaving it's matter on the floor.

 _ **-Meanwhile, On the streets of Gotham-**_

"...I don't know how we can get that to possibly work Pam."

"It's easy beloved." Pam briefly said as the two of them were walking down the street hand in hand. "Just take out all of the furniture in the one guest room and let me have my way with it."

After the two had left the Botanical Gardens, the couple went towards the nearest bookstore and looked around for a while. It was a little activity the two had seemed to get into that stemmed off of Naruto checking out the publishing competition. It would be fun at times of the two exchanging opinions with different works along with Pam suggesting him to try and hire an underdog writer or something of the sorts. The two recently left the establishment and were just wandering around to see what they can do next before heading home.

"But turning it into a greenhouse room isn't going to really work out you know."

"And how would you know?"

"Well for one, our home is a loft for starters." He said as they reached a stop light. "Sure there can be potted plants and the like in the loft, but it's not designed to function as a greenhouse."

"But we could if we put our minds into it." She said with a little pout that her lover wasn't getting reeled into.

"That's another thing Pam. Greenhouses would be fine to use at a home, if it wasn't an apartment building. There are rules for that and I don't want to get us in trouble if reports are brought up of water leaking from the ceiling. Among other things."

"But Selina lives right under us and I'm sure she won't mind." The botanist defensively said in hopes of getting him to reconsider. The two soon started to cross the street as their conversation continued.

"Trust me Pam, but Selina would very much mind. And I'm fine with her opinions, but I do not want her to complain about us having excess water seemingly coming through her ceiling."

"...Maybe she won't mind once I use some experimental pheromones." His lover muttered, getting him to roll his eyes on the comment.

"You're not going to mind control her Pam."

"But I would very much like a greenhouse."

"Then what about the one outside of Gotham. The one where you rested at once you got your powers and kidnapped me…. No offence by the way for any unpleasant memories."

"None taken."

"Good and besides, that place has been abandoned for years and you could do your thing there if you'd like on most days."

"Hmm… True."

"Though I am surprised no one has bothered trying to do anything about that place." The Uzumaki stated as they kept walking through varying people. "People of Old Gotham or Wonder City, as it was back then, put a lot of money into that place to transport many rare plants there. Such a shame no one bothers going over there anymore."

"Also true."

"Maybe you could set up shop there if you want Pam. After all, it'll be possibly be the biggest greenhouse you could ever get your hands on."

*Giggle* "That would be nice."

*BOOM*

The couple, along with varying people nearby, flinched when the nearby bank entrance was destroyed. It didn't sound like a typical explosion from a bomb, it was more like a wrecking ball at close range. This resulted in a large cloud of dust coming from the wrecked entrance.

"What the hell?!" Naruto questioned as he held Pam close for her safety.

"Is it a robbery?"

"Pretty much." He said as the dust started to settle a little from his view. "But most robberies with destroyed entrances would be from the side, not from the front. So something must be different about this."

It didn't take long for the two to make out the figure in the dust cloud until it started to move away with loud steps on the pavement. Soon the sounds of police sirens were starting to come nearby to help deal with the robbery. Most people would assume that the criminal(s) would be taken in quite easily, to a certain extent, with the response time like this. But not in this case…

*CRASH*

...Especially when a dumpster literally thrown at the police vehicles.

"...You were saying." Pam simply said with widened eyes on what she possibly just saw.

"Yeah… this is really different." He said as he looked around to find a nearby alley to change into. "Please stay away from the action Pam. I don't want you to get hurt in the crossfire."

"...Just be careful and come back to me."

"I promise Pam." Was all he said as he gave her a quick kiss before running into the nearby alley to change into his Vanitas attire. From there he summoned a Kazekage spear and took off into the air to make his way towards the action.

Back with Pam, she was worried for her beloved as something didn't feel right about this. She knew he could take care of himself with how long he's been doing this sort of thing. But this nagging feeling that was starting to rise up in her gut made her want to be by her lover's side in this conflict.

" _ **Pamela Lillian Isley."**_

"What?" The redhead asked as she looked around towards the sound of the voice. It was familiar to her, but she couldn't quite place it. "Who are you?"

" _ **It is I, Yggdrasil."**_ The ancient tree spoke out inside of her head, making her widen her eyes on the Parliament of Tree members talking to her.

"Why are you talking to me Lord Yggdrasill?"

" _ **You need to be with your mate and help him."**_

"But… But why?" She asked in confusion. "Surely he can be able to handle this situation himself."

" _ **True, but not in this case."**_ The Parliament Tree spoke out with concern laced in his voice. _**"Not when he's about to confront one of the Rot's champions.**_

"Man this guy is pretty quick." Vanitas muttered as he was soaring through the air to catch up with the bank robber. It was somewhat easy to find him with the bit of chaos going through the streets, but hasn't been able to get a good look of him from above. "I need to either find out where's he's going or lead him to a less populated area."

So with this little goal in mind, he aimed his wind lance downwards to get towards his target quicker. With the large tarp like sack getting larger and larger in his peripheral vision, he knew he was gonna end up slamming into something hard pretty quickly. Not wanting to let this happen, he jumped off of his lance to let the conjured weapon slice through the sack to spill it's contents onto the streets along with the dufflebag from the other hand.

"He was carrying gold?" The masked publisher muttered in surprise as he saw how many gold bricks the man seemed to carry.

Feeling the weight being lifted off of him, with the clattering of gold behind him and the duffle bag on the ground, Grundy turned around to see what the cause of this was. He just wanted to bring this money to those nice people that gave him these clothes he was wearing. This seemed to piss him off as he eyed the black and white man in front of him.

 _ **He's not the Green champion we're looking for Grundy.**_ The voice in the Rot champion's mind said with slight disappointment in it's voice. _**Though there are traces of the Green inside of that man. He might lead us to the target.**_

'That is one big robber.' Naruto thought as he took on the man's appearance before speaking out. "Hey ugly! I wonder if that was the face you were born with or you just made it that way!"

Once that was said, the disguised hero summoned a wind spear and hopped on before he took off into the sky in hopes of making the large man following him.

*Growl* "Grundy no like helmet man!" The champion spoke out as he ran towards the masked Uzumaki.

"Okay good. He bought the bait." Naruto muttered as he kept an eye out on the large pale man. "Didn't know he would take it that easily."

As Vanitas was trying to navigate his way to a good, safe area to stop this guy; the batmobile was racing through the streets to stop the same person.

"Are you sure we can take this guy down Batman?" Robin asked as he sat in the passenger seat. "From the police reports, they said this guy killed all of the robbers and didn't get fazed when he took a shotgun blast to the chest."

"Maybe, but we need to be sure we can hold him off until reinforcements arrive to help us."

"If you say so." The teenaged Grayson said as he double checked his arsenal in his seat.

Finals were done and over with for college and he'd pass with good grades that he'll be able to move forward onto the next set of classes in the Fall. So Dick decided to go out and celebrate with some of his college friends out of town for a while. Though when he got back to Wayne Manor last night, he was extremely surprised to hear of what happened to Alfred.

Dick berated himself on not coming back from his little vacation sooner, but the two older men didn't fault him at all. Even Bruce blamed himself on what happened yesterday when tracking down Pyg and Toad, but he had to move on with what happened. Of course Alfred will be off his feet until the cast on his leg came off due to his ankle being broken. It was all fine and dandy really and both Bruce and Dick can clean up the manor to help the former British agent out until the cast was off.

Things seemed to settle down for the day until the batcomputer went off and reported what happened at the Gotham National Bank. Bruce and Dick quickly suited up and made their way to the city to possibly stop this giant of a man. Problem is though they don't know where the man was going anyways. Either follow the path of destruction or…

" _Attention all units. Attention all units."_ A voice from the police radio came through. _"Bank perpetrator is going Eastbound. Following Vanitas. Possibly for less populated areas."_

"Well that solves one question in mind." Dick muttered as Bruce swerved the car a bit to head in the right direction.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts 2.5: Rage Awakened Extended-**_

It took them a few minutes, but they soon realized they were on the right track when they saw the damage on most parts of the road. Parts of the sidewalks and pavement were caved in from some damage done by whoever is the cause of this. Even thrown dumpsters, pulled out lamp posts and toppled cars were evident that they passed through here.

"STOP THROWING SHIT AT ME!" A voice yelled out making the Dynamic Duo realize they were near their target.

"Helmet man stop dodging then!"

Batman and Robin then saw a lamp post coming towards them and the Dark Knight swerved out of the way on instinct. Once coming to a stop, they peered of the side to see Vanitas riding one of his lances while dodging the pale man's attempts to subdue him. The helmeted hero was keeping his distance in the air, but that'll keep causing more problems if he kept doing his current actions. Though it wasn't that much as this was happening in an abandoned part of the city.

'Time to take care of this.' Vanitas thought as he jumped down, not before grabbing his lance and slamming it towards the earth. A large gust of wind impacted the pale man, making him stagger back. The masked Uzumaki didn't wait for Grundy to recover as he dashed towards the man before slamming his lance to the larger man's side.

Vanitas soon saw the blade of his weapon pierce the man's side on accident as he didn't mean to do so. Though much to his shock, Grundy didn't bleed at all. Only seeing rotten flesh and meat underneath the clothing. Before he could fully react, Grundy swatted the hero away before pulling out the lance as it soon dispersed.

*Growl* "You hurt Grundy! So Grundy will hurt you!"

And with that, Grundy charged forward to nab the fallen hero. Vanitas had to quickly phase himself out of the broken wall and roll out of the way so he wouldn't get hit by the pale giant. Even though he missed his target, Grundy then pulled out a nearby lamp post out of the ground and swung it towards the helmeted Uzumaki. Vanitas quickly disarmed him by throwing several exploding cards at the pale man's hands before jumping up into the air and dive kicking him to the ground. Grundy rebounded and showed himself just as dangerous without a weapon as he grabbed the hero by the legs and punched him hard before throwing him away.

Grundy slammed his fists onto the street before digging his hands underneath to lift up a large chunk of pavement. He was going to throw it at the downed hero in hopes of causing major damage to him. Possibly squashing the helmeted man.

"Christened on a Tuesday!" Grundy bellowed out as he was about to throw his impromptu weapon. Though it didn't take long for something to intercept him from his little goal.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

"GAH!" Grundy bellowed out as explosions impacted him at several parts of his body. Even some of the explosions caused him to end up dropping the piece of street ontop of him to cause some damage onto himself. He then looked around for the source of the attack upon him. "WHO HURT GRUNDY?!"

"We did big guy!" Robin said as he and Batman some distance behind the giant of a man. "Hope you enjoy those since we've got more for you!"

*Growl* "GRUNDY SMASH!"

Seemingly leaping towards the Dynamic Duo, the two separated as they had to move out of the way from the giant's lunge. Both started to throw batarangs at the rotting man with a bit more force than they normally did. They would've held back if he was a normal person, but after seeing Vanitas' weapon pierce his side and the rotten flesh, the two realized that Grundy was no ordinary living being.

Some of the throwing weapons imbedded themselves into Grundy's arms and back, but he just swiped them off with one of his hands. He was getting quickly annoyed by the two as some of the sharp weapons exploded, leaving varying gaps into his body. Though they did heal up quickly, much to the Duo's surprise, it seemed to leave scars in the end.

Grundy charged yet again and this time towards the Dark Knight. The deadman was intercepted from some flash pellets, temporarily blinding him from his intended target before slamming into the nearby building. Once his vision cleared, he was barely successful in grabbing the Batman's cape and swung him around before slamming him onto the ground. He didn't stop there as he picked up the Bat by his chest, punching him into the air and hitting him several times before grabbing his sides and slamming him to a nearby car.

"Batman!" Robin cried out as he raced towards Grundy to protect his foster father's aide. He had thrown little bombs at the giant's feet, distracting and injuring his legs in the process. This gave the disguised Grayson to slide underneath before pivoting himself to upper kick the zombie from down below. Grundy then charged forward in his blind rage and slammed his fists towards them, only to miss as the Dynamic Duo dived out of the way. This caused the pale man to destroy the car in the process.

"There's got to be a way to stop him." Robin said as both he and Batman were thinking of various ideas at the present time.

"Married on a Wednesday!" Solomon yelled out as he picked up the ruined car and threw it towards the heroes.

Batman and Robin didn't react quick enough and they braced for impact. But they soon saw Vanitas land in front of the two and erected a barrier around them to stop the oncoming car. The two were relieved, but got a tad worried when they saw Vanitas' body language that he seemed to be really beaten up.

"Thanks for the save man."

"No problem Robin." The helmeted Uzumaki said as he kept his stance so the barrier would be kept in place. "Though I suggest we move pretty soon."

"Why?"

*SLAM* *SLAM* *SLAM*

"That's why!" Grunted out the helmeted hero as Grundy was slamming his fists onto the barrier in hopes of getting through. "I don't know how strong this guy is, but I won't hold this up for long!"

"Will you be alright Vanitas?"

"Yes I will Batman, but you get out of here now!" Vanitas said as he focused more power into his barrier from breaking apart. "Get out of here and think of something while I distract this guy!"

"Right."

The Dynamic Duo then left the barrier and used their grappling guns to get to higher ground to not only recover, but to also figure out their next move.

As for the helmeted publisher…

'Okay… Got a eight-foot tall zombie here. You would think he'd be the easiest thing in the world to take down.' Vanitas thought as he saw how Grundy was able to heal himself from the exploding batarangs and from his lance piercing his side. 'So what the hell is going on with this guy?'

" _ **He is a champion of the Black young sapling."**_

'Yggdrasil?' Naruto thought in surprise as he staggered from the continuous blows onto his barrier. 'Why are you contacting me now?!'

" _ **To tell you about this current fight."**_ The ancient tree spoke out inside of the publisher's mind. _**"Like I've stated before, to which you must've ignored, that your opponent is a champion of the Black."**_

"Damn… No wonder he's so damn strong along with him having rotting flesh." Naruto muttered as cracks were starting appear on the barrier. He'll need to move out of the way very soon. "So is there any way in stopping this guy?"

" _ **Just hold out a little longer until help arrives."**_

"And how do I do that exactly?"

" _ **Using your scythe would obviously help."**_ Was all Yggdrasil said before he ended the connection.

"Not much help there." Vanitas muttered as he saw Grundy bring down his fists one more time to break the barrier. The masked Uzumaki then dropped the barrier and jumped out of the way to not be pummeled by the zombie's attack. Vanitas then summoned Lunar Rose into his hands before he jumped over Grundy and slashed against the zombie's back.

"GAH! THAT HURT!"

"That was the idea!"

Vanitas had to jumped back several feet when the larger opponent tried to attack him once again. Several blows were missed or parried, but a lot of strength and effort was exhausted from such hits. Though some little help from above occurred as several exploding batarangs caused some good damage to distract the zombie for the moment.

"Who did that?!" Grundy grunted out as he looked for the source of the attack.

"Did you forget about us?!" Robin said from on top of one of the buildings with Batman standing parallel from the other side of the street.

"He probably did since he's actually a zombie Robin!"

"Good to know and thanks for the info Vanitas!" The boy wonder said before he had to move out of the way as a piece of road was thrown at him. "WHOA THERE! Watch where you're throwing that thing!"

"ROBIN FOCUS!"

"Right! Sorry Batman!"

The Dynamic Duo started to throw more batarangs at the zombie as the pale man started to run away from them in hopes they'll stop their little attacks. Even was trying to nab the helmeted hero in the process, but his attempts were futile with his quick reflexes. The attacks were getting really annoying for the pale zombie, even as several bladed swipes were being present on his body.

"GRUNDY WILL HURT YOU TWO THROWING PEOPLE!" Grundy bellowed out as he picked up a dumpster and threw it at Batman.

"NO!" Vanitas yelled out as he threw his scythe at the thrown object. It soon impacted it, getting the disguised Uzumaki to teleport to it before slicing it in half. When both pieces landed onto the street below, Naruto ended up on top of the building right next to Batman.

"We need to distract Solomon Grundy just a bit longer until help arrives."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Just trust me Bats."

"If you say so."

Their conversation soon ended as Grundy lept into the air and landed onto the same rooftop as the two heroes before swinging his arms at them. Both heroes quickly moved out of the way before they gave each other an unspoken gesture to possibly take turns for the offensive. Even Batman giving a hand signal for Robin to come to the assist.

As Robin made his way towards the two other heroes, Grundy slammed his hands onto the rooftop before Batman came in close to deliver a series of punches and kicks. Some of the blows were mostly focused on the arms in precise areas to try and stop certain nerve endings or joints. It seemed successful as Grundy had some difficulty trying to move his arms, but he didn't waste time in swinging them around in a wild fashion.

Vanitas soon caught one of the arms in the curvature of his scythe in hopes of locking it in place with his grappling scarfs shooting out of his arms to help holding him down. Even Batman and the newly arrived Robin fired their grappling guns to hold onto the other arm. It was the only thing they could try to think of for the time being as the three struggled a little of the zombie's strength pulling them in.

"So you say this man's name is Solomon Grundy?"

"Well he kept saying Grundy along with pieces of the old poem of the cycle of life." Vanitas struggled out as his feet were starting to slip a little. "So it seemed appropriate to call him that name, I think."

*Grunting* "As much as I'd like to discuss poetry and name calling here like everyone else." Robin started off as his arms felt they would pop out of their sockets. *Grunt* "We need to focus on NOT LETTING GO!"

Things came to a turn for the worse as Grundy started to spin around in place, lifting the three up into the air from their respective grappling equipments. It seemed to place the three in a merry-go-round of nausea and disorientation as the three were being spun in quickening speeds that one by one, each hero eventually lost slack and shot off towards one of the nearby buildings.

*Groan* "You were saying."

"Oh shut up."

When the three heroes tried to pry themselves out of the building's exterior wall, Grundy lept into the air and landed in front of them with a snarl on his face.

"Grundy will crush you all like bugs!" The pale zombie said as he walked closer to the three heroes.

Of course his progression ended as something shot out of the ground and knocked the Black champion away several feet. This left him in a daze before he shook his head for a few moments. When Grundy's vision got better; he, along with the other heroes then saw had just arrived. It appeared to be a giant orchid of sorts with green and pink markings all over the petals. This left the four men in a sense of confusion before something happened to the plant.

The giant flower soon opened up its flower petals as a plumb of pink spores were released in a smokey coverage. It wasn't long for the figure stepped out and off of the large flower before it receded back into the earth wits it came; making Vanitas, Batman and Robin somewhat recognize who this was. It took them a few moments in their thought processes on the new arrival, but they came to the same conclusion that this was Pamela Isley, otherwise known as Poison Ivy.

Pamela appeared to be wearing a black bodysuit of sorts that practically covered her entire form up to her head where a facemask was present. There were varying green markings on the black attire that were moss or leaf like on the legs, arms and torso areas while thorn like markings were present on the facemask. Even had branches and vines wrapped around certain parts of her body to help compliment her present look. To finish things off, she had green eyeshadow to help pop out her fierce glowing green eyes along with leaves in her hair.

 _ **The Green Champion!**_ The voice in Grundy's head yelled out. _**She's finally here! Kill her Grundy! Kill her!**_

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: Dark Impetus Extended-**_

"Grundy smash Green lady!"

" _ **I'**_ _d_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **k**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _r_ _ **y."**_ Ivy stated with a narrowed glance.

"RRAAAAAHH!"

And with that, Grundy charged at the new arrival with the voice in his head, telling him to destroy the woman in front of her. He raised his hands into the air before bringing them down hard in the attempt to breaking her bones in the attack. She moved out of the way in the last few moments before she raised her hand up and a large vine stock shot out of the ground to knock the zombie back.

With the ever present vine, Ivy controlled said vine to whip itself around the Rot's champion and start swinging him all over the place to deal with some good damage. It was a little funny in her eyes if she wasn't so serious at the present time. She then commanded it to let go, sending Grundy flying into the air and a good distance away. Seeing as things were in the clear, for now, she stepped forward towards the three heroes and helped get them out of their holdings with plants pushing/pulling them out.

" _ **I**_ _h_ _ **o**_ _p_ _ **e**_ _I_ _ **'m**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _l_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _p_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _y_ _ **."**_

'She must've been who Yggdrasil was talking about.' Naruto thought in realization as he had a hidden smile behind his helmet of seeing her. Though part of him was extremely worried now for her safety.

"Nah… You just came in while things were getting good." Robin said as he dusted himself off and stretching out his back to get rid of a kink or two.

"What are you doing here Ivy?" Batman questioned the new arrival with a narrowed glance. He was going to call her out on her real name, but saw the news crew at the corner of his eye. 'They must've arrived sometime during the fight.'

" _ **J**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _p_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _k_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _a_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _m_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **y**_ _B_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **m**_ _a_ _ **n."**_

"Which would be what exactly?"

" _ **H**_ _m_ _ **m….**_ _N_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g."**_ She replied with a joking tone and a tilt to her head.

"We can talk about this later Bats, but it seems our zombie friend is back to play." Vanitas said as he summoned back Lunar Rose into his hand.

Just as he said this, Grundy came flying into the air via giant leap and landed in front of the four people.

*Growl* "GRUNDY WILL CRUSH YOU ALL!"

The pale man rushed towards Ivy and tried to take her out, as she was the primary target from the voice in his head. He was intercepted from exploding batarangs nailing Grundy in the side of the head. The zombie shook off the blow and went back on the chase as he lifted up a nearby car over his head and hurled it at their general direction.

The men separated and moved out of the way while Ivy kept her place before summoning a giant vine from the earth to wrap it around the motor vehicle. Once secured, Ivy brought it down on the Rot champion several times until it was a pile of scrap heap. Though it seemed to hardly damage the monster, it'll take more than that to take him down, even as he doubled over a little.

Batman and Robin came in close and delivered several punches and kicks in rapid fire like fashion on the zombie's back. When they had to move away, they left behind a present for Grundy, whether he would want it or not. Grundy soon heard some beeping on his back and tried to reach for it with the bit of annoyance of the sound before it soon exploded, sending him forward from his position.

*Growl* "Grew ill on a Thursday." Grundy spoke out as he slammed one of his feet hard to the ground, giving off a miniature earthquake of sorts to shake up a lot of the present people. He did so again to leave a big enough crack in the ground so he could dig into the earth and pull out a large piece of road and chucked it at the heroes.

Batarangs soon pierced the back of the zombie's neck and exploded to rock Grundy forward. This made him howl in agony before turning around to see Batman with more of his weapons on hand. He roared and ran towards the Dark Knight as his attention was on him once again.

"How many of those do you have?!" Vanitas said as he ran to intercept the incoming charge.

"I'm not telling." Batman chimed back as he lept over the zombie and placed possibly the last of his exploding piece of arsenal on the pale man's back.

*BOOM* "GAH! ENOUGH OF THIS!"

" _ **I**_ _b_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _e_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **I**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **a**_ _g_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **e w**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _k_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u."**_ Ivy said as she brought her arms back and whipped them forward to have wooden lances grow out of her arm and pierced one of the zombie's arms. They soon wrapped around the appendage and Ivy used a lot of her strength to lift the zombie up before slamming him down several times. More would've happened if Grundy didn't rip the plant out of his arm in a violent fashion, making the onlookers have varying reactions out of the action.

This distracted him enough for Vanitas to come around and swipe his scythe several times in a pinwheel styled attack before bringing the blade around the zombie's legs. He then swiped them back to tumble the Black champion down to the ground as Robin landed on top of the man to place the rest of his explosives on him. The attempt failed as Grundy got up and started to move around in a wild fashion to get the disguised Grayson off of him.

"GAH!" Robin cried out as he was being whipped around with his legs flailing about. "It's like fighting a bear!"

"And how would you know?!" Vanitas questioned, only to be met with Robin's colliding form against him as the two slammed against a nearby car.

"GOT WORSE ON FRIDAY!"

" _ **O**_ _h_ _ **w**_ _i_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _j_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _s_ _ **h**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _u_ _ **p**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **d**_ _y_ _ **!"**_ Ivy yelled out as she continued her assault on the zombie. She got more plants to shoot out of the ground to send Grundy into the air before shooting vines out of her arm to wrap on his legs and brought him down. When colliding to the ground, he seemed to bounce right back and quickly snag Ivy into his grasps and started to squeeze her in a rough fashion.

"Grundy will destroy Green lady for voice in head!"

" _ **N**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _g_ _ **o**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **p**_ _p_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **."**_ Ivy struggled out as she focused a lot of her power to get herself out of his predicament. _**"I'**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _g_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _b_ _ **o**_ _y_ _ **f**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **g**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **e t**_ _o_ _ **."**_

With a bit on her strength, she focused and shot the building energy outward from her form to have giant thorns and spikes shooting out of several places in her body. They pierced through Grundy's hands and he bellowed out in agony, causing him to let go of her. The spikes receded as the Green champion ran back for a bit of breathing room away from the decaying man the group was facing.

"DIED ON A SATURDAY!"

"You're probably right on that Grundy." Vanitas muttered to himself. He then thrown his Lunar Rose to the highest part of the surrounding area before teleporting towards its location. From there, Vanitas lept off of it's surface to dive towards the zombie with a lot of strength behind his arms to give one hell of a swipe against his back. Grundy eventually saw this coming and tried to get away, but Ivy brought up several vines to keep his legs in place. Grundy tried to move, but was met with a powerful blow against his back as Lunar Rose dug deep inside.

With one last move, Ivy summoned forth several plants before they encircled around her arms and shot forward. They eventually pierced the zombie's chest and into the being's heart in hopes of finally finishing him off. It seemed successful as two blows of Green power was going through Grundy's system and started to break him down.

"Buried on a Sunday." The zombie muttered as his body slowly decayed and turned into dust. Leaving only the ruined clothes on the street.

'And that's the end of Solomon Grundy.' Was the unknowingly shared thought between the three male heroes.

Even though the day has been won, the heroes didn't realize that this won't be the last of them facing Solomon Grundy. As his essence has been sent back to Slaughter Swamp for him to recover and reform for the Black's purpose. For it's eventual revenge against the Green champion and her allies….

But why ruin the moment for them to know that little tidbit right now.

*Panting* "Well… That was crazy." Vanitas said as he tried to catch his breath from the difficulty of the fight.

"No kidding." Robin said in agreement as he rotated his arm and shoulder to get rid of some of the pain. "Man I think I must've pulled something with those constant throwing."

"You'll get used to it Robin." Chimed the helmeted hero.

"Whatever you say."

" _ **I**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _k_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **b**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _b_ _ **o**_ _y_ _ **s,**_ _b_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **I'**_ _d_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **g**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **."**_

"Why's that?" Robin asked with little bewilderment. All that he got was a pointed finger from the changed botanist.

" _ **B**_ _e_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _o_ _ **f t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **."**_

"Oh…"

Soon varying news reports started to come rushing in with the attempt of asking the group on what happened and other unnecessary questions. Not wanting to deal with such a thing, the group left in their own separate methods. From Vanitas switching from his Lunar Rose to his Kazekage lance and taking off into the air, Ivy summoning a giant plant from one of the many holes in the street to get her a good distance away, while Batman and Robin ran towards the Batmobile and drove off.

Though with the later group, Batman nabbed the remains of Solomon Grundy so he could study the articles of clothing. Wanting to know who that zombie really was and what was going on. Though when things settle down, he'll confront Pamela and ask her on what she knows and why she involved herself with the fight.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **So… Solomon Grundy. What you guys think?**

 **Now to put down details on what I have done with the character is that I have made the Zombie Hulk of DC comics into a Champion of the Black/Rot. Reason being is in the New 52 Earth 2 comic line, Solomon Grundy was the champion of the Grey. And just to clear things up in Earth 2, writers have made the Grey and Black/Rot mush together into one nature color group to simplify things.**

 **Now I had put down in details on chapter 20 of the nature color groups (not the Lantern color spectrum groups) of how certain champions for each group is chosen or whatever. With the Black/Rot, they get chosen by either a family line or just being the reanimated dead and getting a major power boost. Solomon Grundy is one such character.**

 **Now even though I've killed Solomon in the chapter, he is coming back for obvious reasons. But asides from that, it's how he was made due to mixture of cursed magic, Slaughter Swamp and some other details that he'll reform time and time again and rise back out of Slaughter Swamp. Each time he does so will be wild cards on how strong he'll be along with smarts. He could end up Hulk level of strength or just super human strength in general, but his intellect will always be basically the same dumb range.**

 **Also there is one other thing to fully clarify to you all that people have actually forgotten. Solomon Grundy is part plant elemental due to the swamp properties. The Green planned on having Solomon as a champion, but he didn't die of fire or his body didn't get consumed by fire during his mortal demise. So it keys a factor on how Solomon keeps coming back. It's really complicated to explain, but I'm just putting this out there now.**

 **So the reason why this chapter came out late was that I needed a break badly. Just needed to rest my brain from writing, especially with writer blocks. Not only that, but I was on a family trip so I couldn't be on my laptop all that much. The wifi was not all that great and being with the family ate up a lot of my free time.**

 **But after getting back from the trip, life and depression hit me hard like a truck. Even a lot of the free time I had was of me trying to find a new place to live due to the lease to my apartment was coming to an end and my current roommate is considering moving somewhere else to live with his girlfriend. So the stress was getting to me on leaving me with headaches due to thinking too much, combined with working a full day's work that I couldn't focus after work to work on the story.**

 **H: Aw~ That's so sad….**

 **Thanks Harley….. (Snapping my head in other direction) Harley! What the hell are you doing in my apartment!**

 **H: Well~ you were taking so long to write your chapter that I wanted to come on by and check on things.**

… **..Okay.**

 **H: That and I was going to see if you wrote my lemon yet.**

 ***Groan* 'There it is.' Look Harley-**

 **H: Nope. I don't want you to rush mine just yet. I want my relationship with Naru-poo to develop more. I'm an old fashioned girl you know.**

… **..Okay then.**

 **H: But you better promise buster that it'll look great.**

 **I do Harley. Count on it.**

 **H: Good ^_^**

 **Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to treat myself and see the new Wonder Woman film.**

 **H: The what now?**

 ***Facepalm* Right…. Forgot that I'm setting my story mostly in the DCAU and Diana hasn't been introduced yet until later on.**

 **(Suddenly I feel a pair of strong hands gripping my shoulders.)**

 **H: Who is this Diana and Wonder Woman Jeb?**

 **Eh….**

 **H: I'm waiting….**

… **...Look over there. Naruto's naked!**

 **H: What?! Where?!**

 **(I flee from the scene before Harley catches up to me and beats me up for tricking her.)**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	28. Fatal Attraction

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 26: Fatal Attraction**

It was late into the evening as many cars were either on the streets or the highway/freeway having the occupants have their own plans in mind. Whether it's to go home for the evening or going out and have some fun in their own way on things. It was the general idea really on how things would go for most pedestrians. But asides from that, crime would occur quite often in the evening and anything could happen at a given notice.

Like with a car being stolen for instance…. Well…. The way how it's being stolen would raise a brow, especially with what is being done at the current moment.

"Is this nutjob serious?" Selina asked as she was riding 'bitch' (the term of shotgun on a motorcycle) behind her boyfriend in their respective costumed attires.

"Sadly so." He dryly replied as the two looked onward on the current crime being committed before he rode off to catch the criminal.

One might wonder what is so odd about the crime being committed that would warrant such a question. Well as stated before, a car is being stolen but not in a traditional sense. Sometimes it would deal with using a tool to unlock the car door or breaking the glass to get inside before driving off to do god knows what to it. But in this current case, it isn't being driven at all….

It's being lifted up into the air by a strong man named Lunkhead as he was running off with it through the streets of Gotham.

It didn't take long for the costumed couple to reach their target as Vanitas phased them and his motorcycle through the highway barrier to land onto the street below. From there, the masked Uzumaki sped towards Lunkhead on the empty street. It was quite odd on the vacancy of said street, but the hero wasn't going to complain at all if there would be some bad confrontations.

As soon as Vanitas sped in front of the large man, he cut him off by swerving in front of him.

"Hey big guy. Why don't you put down the expensive looking car and we'll talk things out?"

"Go away!" Lunkhead said as he held up the car over his head. "Leave Lunkhead and his toy ALONE!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that buddy." Vanitas said, only to get the strong man to toss the car at the costumed couple.

"Vanitas!"

"On it!" He said as he focused on his powers to phase the two of them through the thrown car. Once it went past them, which ended up rolling several times, the two had to quickly move out of the way from the strong man's incoming attack.

"RAAAH!" Lunkhead yelled out as he punched the ground before landing a hit onto Vanitas' motorcycle, sending it flying as it started to disperse into smoke.

"Now that wasn't very nice!" Catwoman said as she readied herself with her claws out.

"Now Catwoman, remember, don't hurt him too much." Vanitas spoke out as he formed a pair of escrima sticks.

"Oh please~ I'll only rough him up just a little."

Lunkhead lunged at the two with his fists in the air before bringing them down hard onto the ground, leaving decent sized cracks. At this moment, Selina came up close and kicked the man a few times, getting him a bit into the air, before swiping her claws at him. Under normal circumstances, one would bleed from being cut by her claws, but with how dense Lunkhead's skin is, there were only painful scratches. Once the scratching assault ended, she dropped onto the ground and upwardly kicked the man into the air before pulling out her whip and getting it wrapped around Lunkhead's waist to send him back down to the ground.

It was then that Vanitas came in and started to lay varying attacks onto the dense man. From smacking his sticks onto the man's back several times before going towards the man's head. The disguised publisher didn't want to put too much damage onto the man's already sensitive head, but it had to be done to hopefully take care of him quickly. With the larger man dazed and confused, Vanitas brought forth his grappling scarf to wrap around the man before swinging him towards a lamp post to finish knocking him out.

"Not that very exciting, but at least it was a little warm up." Selena said as she walked closer to the unconscious man. But she was halted in her walk when her boyfriend grasped her shoulder.

"Poll."

"What?"

Soon creaking sounds started to fill the air as Selina turned her head towards the lamp post as the poll part of it started to move downwards and crash the head onto the street. She soon realized that after the last attack, Lunkhead ended up damaging the lamp post around the base, causing the structure to dangerously bend due to it's weight. Selina was a bit glad for Naruto's intervention or else she would've been hit in the process.

"It's never over until it's over." He quipped as he formed a clone to help move the fallen lamp post to the side of the road so it wouldn't cause any further problems.

"I know that Naruto, but do you have to end up saying that almost every time we're out in costume together?"

"Sorry hun, but I'm just being a bit precarious with you on the field with me." He stated as he and his clone wrapped Lunkhead with several layers of his grappling scarf.

"Well let's get this guy to Blackgate and possibly be done for the night."

Her response was a shake to the head as Naruto's clone conjured up his motorcycle with a side car attachment before depositing the unconscious man inside of it. "Blackgate wouldn't do all that good with the man Selina. He was experimented over there and his mental condition would be better treated at Arkham."

"If you say so."

And with that said; the two hopped onto the motorcycle, with Catwoman resuming her previous position and hugging her lover's form, before driving off to Arkham Asylum.

Things have been pretty steady for the past month after the incidents of both eco-terrorists Pyg and Toad, along with Solomon Grundy respectively. Going to work, dating and patrolling were pretty simple with nothing big happening to cause too much of an alarm for the former shinobi. Though to be fair with the two mentioned incidents, Murphy could've possibly given Gotham a bit of slack with how crazy things have gone for the most part.

Speaking of said incidents….

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _What the hell was that?!" Selina yelled out as she pointed to the TV screen of the news coverage replaying the fight from earlier._

" _Eh Selina…"_

" _I was literally gone for roughly five hours and in that time I end up hearing of you two duking it out against some new guy with most of the fight your ass was literally handed to you Naruto!"_

" _Selina…"_

" _I mean I was at Harley's place, spending time with Rachel and my two admirers when the news coverage came out on the whole fight." The environmentalist said as she was pacing around the loft, pulling parts of her hair in slight frustration. "Sure the girls were cheering you on and all Naruto, but Harl and I were completely worried sick when that big guy was having the upper hand."_

" _Selina…"_

" _And don't get me started when Red showed up. It was really hard for me to keep Harley to shut up and keep her quiet from not blowing her identity. Even when she started to go all 'cheerleader' for you two to win." The ravenette said as she seemed to completely ignore Naruto's and Pam's attempts in talking to her..._

 _That was until they both yelled._

" _SELINA!"_

" _WHAT?!"_

 _*Sigh* "I was trying to tell you Selina that I'm sorry on what happened earlier." Naruto started out as he was right next to Pam at the loft's entrance. "I already apologized to Pam on what happened before she intervened that I should've been more careful and effective when dealing with Grundy."_

" _Grundy?"_

" _The guy we were fighting." Pam spoke out as she walked towards the kitchen to grab some food. She was a bit famished after fighting apparently. "Naruto told me on the way back that was what the Rot champion refered himself as in third person."_

" _...I'll ask about that later part later." Selina muttered to herself as she was a bit confused on the 'Rot' detail. "But you should've been more careful. Especially you Red."_

" _What?" The botanist questioned as she seemed out of the loop now. "Why me?"_

" _Because, that if my memory is right, that some people already know of your powers. Being able to control plants along with part of your appearance." Selina pointed out as she remembered details on her first encounter with the changed botanist at Arkham. "I mean there are those industrialists that could've possibly remembered who their kidnapper was; along with Batman, Robin and most of the GCPD."_

 _This bit of info ended up sinking into the pit of Pam's stomach as she didn't realize her possible mistake. Sure she had donned a face mask and changed her appearance before confronting Grundy, but didn't realize on her identity could possibly be uncovered too soon. Could've added more to hide her identity. Especially since Batman and Robin already knew who she was from the get go. So it might be a matter of time for the GCPD and possibly the industrialists back then to rear their heads towards her direction._

 _Noticing her distress, Naruto came towards his redhead girlfriend's rescue. "Hey it's alright Pam. It was possibly a simple mistake and could've been easily exploited… I think."_

" _Thanks…"_

" _And Selina, you didn't have to be so hard on her ya know." He said as he barely realized his old verbal tick kicking in, but didn't care at the moment. "It was pretty sudden on what happened, so please give her a bit of slack."_

 _The thief could only sigh a little in defeat from this and went over towards her friend to apologize to her on what she said._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

….The group had to become a bit more cautious now when being both in and out of costumes as a result of their latest actions. From Catwoman helping out during the Pyg and Toad kidnappings to Ivy dealing with Solomon Grundy the day after that their identities were a bit more known now than they realized. Though to be fair, Selina's was exposed back in early January. But this didn't excuse the notion of her needing to be extra careful when dealing with certain people for now on.

Especially when Batman came around within a few days after the Grundy attack.

He came towards the loft in the evening, in his usual sneaking habit, in the attempt to confront Pamela and ask her on what she knew about Solomon Grundy. Though part of his approach did not go all that well as he almost scared the living hell out of Rachel. It was not a great moment when Naruto and Pam came barging into the open area of the loft to see the ashen girl cowering a bit in fear when she was getting a late night snack before going to bed. The publisher calmed his young ward down and got her back to bed while Pam talked things over to the Dark Knight. Giving the Bat as little information she could possibly give out that could satisfy his curiosity.

Though some good news came forward for the two environmentalists as they learned from Naruto, who personally heard it from Bruce, that the wetlands was given back to the city after an 'anonymous' donation. It did help calm down many nature enthusiasts in the surrounding areas after what happened of the destroyed oilrig, to the various other industrialist problems that occurred. Like the allegations against Max Shreck for instance. That in light of what's been going on, his company might get split up and bought out by varying parties to fully diminish his so called legacy for good.

It wasn't long after the 'pseudo' interview with Dr. Luisa Cruz that Pam started to work hard on a new project, to possibly help benefit both the Green and land herself a good position at the Botanical Gardens. Even though she didn't have much of a lab to help start things off, the changed botanist took Naruto's little idea and converted part of the Grand Greenhouse outside of Gotham into a lab of sorts. It has been abandoned for years and there are still a lot of plants for her to experiment with so why not waste the opportunity.

So for now, at least Pam has something to preoccupy herself for the time being, in terms of work.

Now things might be fine and dandy afterwards, from going out on patrols every so often to going out on dates with his girlfriends or spending time with Rachel. But there were a few things that seemed to bother Naruto sometime after his two latest fights. One dealt with him wanting to get stronger, thus he needed to train harder. The other though, it made him think of home...

 _ **-Flashback, Insert Kingdom Hearts 1.5: Treasured Memories Extended-**_

 _Naruto was lying on his couch, looking up towards the ceiling, lost in thought as he looked back at his confrontation against Mr. Toad._

" _I know I've accepted that there was no way back 'home', to at least contact them, but why…" He muttered as Mr. Toad's visage was soon replaced by his old summon friend Gamakichi. "Why am I still thinking about them, even to this day?"_

" _Is something wrong Naruto?" Rachel called out, getting the publisher to look towards his ward who was coming back from the kitchen with a little snack. It was his day off today while his girlfriends were out doing their own thing and Naruto wanted to spend time with Rachel today. Though she was watching My Little Pony from the TV set while he sat there, eventually losing himself to his thoughts._

" _Nothing's wrong Rachel. Nothing at all."_

" _Are you sure? Since I can somewhat tell you're lying from your tone of voice."_

" _And how would you know of that?"_

" _Because I've gotten used to hearing lies from where I've come from." Rachel said as she sat down on one of the couch cushions before munching on a piece of apple._

 _His eyes softened at hearing this as he felt bad for his young charge. Naruto doesn't know what happened in her past, but he knew that she experienced things similar to him when he was her age. It made an odd connection between the two of them as kindred spirits one way or another._

" _You know Rachel;" he said to briefly gain her attention, "you haven't told us much about your home, from where you came from."_

" _...I don't wanna talk about 'home'."_

 _Seeing her response, he got up from his laid position to sit a bit closer towards his charge, but not too much. "It's alright to not talk about your past often Rachel. Sometimes it's hard to reflect on the most of it if it held so many bad memories."_

" _I'm sensing a 'but' there."_

 _*Chuckles* "But there are memories that you would want to remember."_

 _The ashen child stopped eating her snack as she gained a bit of a downcasted look. "But…. But I don't know if I do have any that I'd want to remember."_

" _Then what about your mother Angela…. Or did she prefer Arella?" He said, getting his charge to perk up a little. "Wouldn't you want to remember a lot of the good times with your mother?"_

" _...Yes."_

" _Then there you go." The publisher simply said to her as he rubbed her head a little. "Just think back to many of the experiences you had with mother and you might do well. Even if times where you came from are pretty bleak."_

 _She could only fuss a little as she swatted his hand away from her head, getting a chuckle from the older man. But he was probably right in what he said. Even though Rachel tried to think on her mother often when she lived in the underground, the ashen girl would only get more saddened than before. Especially when thinking on seeing her mother die in front of her._

" _But what about you?" She suddenly asked, perking his curiosity._

" _Excuse me?"_

 _Rachel readjusted herself onto her seat after placing her plate onto the coffee table in front of her. "Well… You were talking about homes and certain memories at best. I…. I admit that I somewhat miss my home, with a large part focused on my mom…. But do you miss your home? Well your old home at least? I mean…. It's just that you told me before that you left your old one years ago."_

" _...Yeah…. I guess I did." Naruto said as he briefly remembered of telling Rachel a little on his past one time, but it was just stuff on when he was in this world._

" _Though you didn't answer my question Naruto. Do you miss your old home?"_

 _*Sigh* "Yeah I do miss it Rachel." He admittedly said after quite some time. "It's just been a while since I thought about home."_

" _And why is that? And why think about it now?"_

" _Well for starters, I don't personally think of my old home all that much and only talked about it in a lengthy amount with Pam, Harley and Selina before I met up with you. If I do talk about it, it sometimes makes me think on how things possibly are back over there. I… I didn't leave that place on the best of terms, mind you, and I wonder what happened over there once I left."_

 _Leaving during a middle of a fight due to the fake Madara somehow sending him to this reality would made the former shinobi guess on the ending results of the war without him being there. How many people survived or died without him being there? Did the war end shortly after he left or did it continue? Was it a few days or possibly years till the war came to an end? So many questions plagued his mind during his time while traveling through Eurasia and it left him with such a damn headache._

" _But can't you just go back home and see how things are since you left?" His young charge innocently asked._

" _If that was so ever simple kiddo." Naruto stated as he leaned back to look back towards the ceiling. "If I did, then I don't know if I would've left that place again. Even if I went there now."_

" _What do you mean?"_

" _There are too many memories that I cherish that would've made things difficult for me to fully move on if I went back. Thinking that things would've been slightly different from the last moments I had of that place, but in reality they would be drastically different than from what I would've guessed. I mean it's been at least a decade since I went back and getting there would be impossible to begin with. I don't know who is currently alive and who passed on into the next life…. Then again, being cut off in any form of communication over there wouldn't help me in the slightest."_

" _I see…." Rachel muttered as she understood what he said. It felt pretty similar on her predicament. She left at a very 'awkward' time and doesn't know if there were any people over there still alive after what she did. But apart of her told her that there was nothing left to go back to at all. "But what about the second question?"_

" _Which was what exactly? Just need a little reminder."_

" _Why would you think about it now?" She asked before quickly adding in one little detail. "Asides from bringing up my home for instance."_

 _*Chuckles* "Yeah you beat me to the punch on that bit." He said as he was going to say that little line of speaking to her. "Well I ended up thinking about it because of me going up against Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad."_

" _And how did facing those two bring up memories of your old home?"_

" _You can blame the anthropomorphic toad on that." He said before looking at his right hand, the hand he would use to finish up his summoning technique. "The eco-terrorist made me think of a good set of friends due to what he looked like."_

" _You mean… You were friends with toads?" She questioned with more curiosity plaguing her mind. More questions rise up from so little answers._

" _Pretty much…. Obviously you know I have powers, but I didn't always have these. In fact I had something else really."_

" _What was it?"_

" _I had access to chakra, but I lost it when I left my old home."_

' _He had access to chakra?' Rachel thought as it made her interested in her guardian on that aspect. Especially with her having knowledge on the subject to some degree._

" _Even had a technique to summon toads."_

" _And what would that be performed exactly?" She asked since in terms of summoning, there are various ways to do any form of summoning. Some require cutting yourself for offering a bit of blood, using powers to call upon a certain being with/without an object tied to said being, along with various other methods. So the ashen child was wondering on Naruto's method in summoning._

 _*Chuckles* "Well I would've signed a contract for starters. From there I would cut my finger, sometimes by a blade or biting it, to draw blood and would perform the following handsigns." He then showed her said handsigns in the following order: Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram. "Then I would channel power into the signed hand I used in my contract, which was my right hand." He said as his hand briefly glowed without him noticing, but Rachel did. "And I would slam it down to any surface, like so, to summon a toad."_

 _*Slam*_

 _Once he slammed his right hand onto the loft's floor, he didn't expect anything to come out from this, since he didn't have access to chakra anymore. He had tried this several times in the past once he came to this world in hopes of getting in contact with the Toads, but nothing happened at all. The former shinobi just gave up back then due to him slowly coming to the fact that there was possibly no way back over there._

 _But what he didn't expect though, from his showing to Rachel on the summoning technique, was an odd plumb of smoke with encircling black and white thorny patterns to appear. The loft's occupants coughed a little due to how close they were to the smoke before trying to wave off the vapors away. When the smoke fully disbursed, a figure was currently present, much to the two's surprise._

 _It had_ _a thin, sinuous body that one thought was capable of dumbfounding feats of flexibility. It has a large, cylindrical head with a flat top that is emblazoned with the symbol that was on most of Naruto's weapons. Its body seems to be covered in a light grey jumpsuit, and in placement of its 'mouth' was actually a zipper. Inside of the opening reveal its actual, grey, sharp-toothed mouth underneath. It appeared to be fairly muscular, though its arms and legs are very thin. The sides of its body are lined by a black line, which pulses weakly with light. Its feet and hands are pointed and lack digits, and its hands each sport two black bands around them. Asides from its primary appearance, it looked about a head taller than Rachel to finish off it's look._

 _Naruto could only hold his position in shock and surprise on what he was seeing. This was not what he had expected at all. Though only one thing could come from his mind, before it got filtered through his mouth._

" _EEEEEEHHHHHHH?!"_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

...And in an unexpected end result, he could be able to do summonings again, though in an eventual different manner of performing it.

It was really surprising for Naruto that he was able to summon anything at all, though the stuff with his weapons and any sort of items didn't really count. Many thoughts quickly filled his mind at once on what just occurred and he didn't know how this could've happened at all. Even Rachel was surprised to see this happen while she definitely felt something stir inside of her for some reason. Something that seemed light and dark coming off of the new arrival, with it leaning more towards the dark.

Some of the publisher's answers were soon answered as the being named Dusk, as what it referred it's specific kind as, spoke towards him like he was a king of sorts by calling him 'his liege' several times. Though it was hard to really hear for anyone else as Naruto was the only person that could hear what Dusk was saying. But asides from that, he got more questions than answers in the long run, but he'll figure them out at a later time.

The Dusk mentioned that it was a Nobody, with the Dusk pointing out what the symbol on it's head was, a class of beings that were a bit hard to follow on most details. Something along the lines of strong people losing themselves to darkness and their husks of bodies remained to gain sentience. It was a bit creepy in Naruto's taste that he kept thinking about ghosts possessing the dead or something in that field.

After that little encounter, Naruto decided to get back into training with the new pieces of information given to him by the Dusk. From testing out further on his current skills and then some before logging them into his book, which one of the Dusk called it a Lexicon. He didn't know the name of it before, but at least he got a proper name for it now.

One section in the book even had more information about the Nobody's that he didn't know so far from him able to summon beings called Creepers and Gamblers with their capabilities. Like the Dusks are better used for reconnaissance and Creepers could shapeshift into weapons if needed. There were other entries, but they appeared to be blanked or smudged out to make him realize that it would take a while till he could possibly summon any other Nobody's. But for now he's fine with what he has so far and he doesn't want to rush his progress.

Though Naruto realized that if he was ten or so years younger, he would've admitted that he would've done the opposite in what he was doing now: rushing in without seeing things in a better perspective.

"...So how about after we drop off Lunkhead here, we can stop on by that nice Asian place by the Towers?!" Selina yelled out in a suggestion for the first time on the ride towards the Asylum.

"The take out that has the spicy calamari you enjoy or the somewhat dine in that you practically gorge yourself with their special sushi?!" Naruto asked as he kept his eyes on the road.

"Either sounds good to me!"

"Then we should probably get some take out since Rachel will need some dinner as well!"

"Great! And we could maybe ask if we can get Harley anything as well since I believe her shift is supposed to end soon!"

 _ **-Arkham Asylum-**_

"...And was there anything else you would like to mention Magpie?" Harley said as she was finishing off her final session for the evening before she can go home.

"Of course." The bird themed inmate said with a small smile as she looked towards the one way mirror. "Is Vanitas here?"

"No… Why you ask?"

The answer seemed to deflate the patient as she fidgeted a little in her seat, getting the changed blonde to mentally sigh on what is going on.

For a while now, even before becoming a full fledged doctor here at Arkham a few weeks ago, Harley has mentioned Vanitas less and less to the point of no longer bringing him up in her sessions with Margaret Sorrow. She realized that Margaret, Cassie, or Magpie (as she really prefers to be called) became really obsessed with her secret boyfriend's alter ego. Even one time of hearing reports from some of the staff, along with mentions from Pammy, that Magpie was going through a bloody masterbational phase. It had disturbed Harley very much and hoped she could get her patient to no longer be interested in Vanitas….

For both of their safeties.

"He hasn't come and seen me for months now….I really miss him." The inmate said with longing in her voice.

"You know," Dr. Quinzel said after a brief moment of thoughts, "after all of our sessions together, you've never told me why you have such interests in him. Sure there's been slight moments here and there of talking about him. But never on why on your interests. Why is that?"

"Because he understands me like no one else does!" Magpie harshly said as she dug her slightly extended claws into the palms of her skin, puncturing it to draw out a bit of blood. "Even more so on how I know of him!"

"How exactly?" Harley asked as she was writing things down on her notepad.

"He's kind, patient and wants the chance to get to know me." The bird woman said as her eyes glazed over slightly in a dream like state. "Vanitas makes me feel special and appreciated. Oh how I long to be in his arms again after these past months."

"When he brought you here at Arkham apparently." The blonde doctor said in remembrance on how Magpie got admitted here. Vanitas riding in through the front door with her literally strapped onto his body.

"Oh yes~" Magpie replied with glee as the glazed look was soon replaced with a slight crazed one. "Even though I was unconscious, I could feel so much of his delectable form."

Looking at the clock, Harley saw that their session was over and signaled the guards from the other side of the one way mirror to come on in. "Well it seems that we're done for the day Magpie. So I hope that you have a pleasant evening."

"Of course Dr. Quinzel."

Once the guards got into the room, they hesitantly stayed away from the patient by a foot or two so they wouldn't get assaulted like in previous times. Though one of them slowly came up to the patient and reapplied her restraints so she wouldn't move all that much until she got to her cell. Of course one of the guards did a little mistake when getting Magpie out of the session room.

"Okay Tweety Bird, time to get you to your cell." The guard said before he got headbutted by the crazed woman. "Gah! Fucking hell!"

"The name's Magpie!" The inmate said with a growl in her voice. "Not Margaret! Not Tweety Bird! It's Magpie! Call me anything else and I'll scratch your eyes out!"

"Yes we get it." The other guard said as he hauled the woman through the hallways with Dr. Quinzel not far behind them since her office is along the way. "Also Mark you should've remembered not doing that man."

"Yeah. Yeah. Whatever." The first guard said as he rubbed the sore spot on his face.

It was along the way when the one group ran into another, lead by Dr. Bartholomew, as he was speaking towards Vanitas and Catwoman. It was an odd sight to see for the moment and the staff members escorting Magpie were confused on why they were here. But they soon saw that the helmeted hero was escorting a larger man with a nasty bump on his head.

"...Still it's sad to hear of this Vanitas." Dr. Bartholomew said as he walked with the two heroes, with the new inmate on toe. "I heard that this fellow's rehabilitation from Blackgate went so well, only for him to now wind up here."

"All that you have to do doctor is to keep feeding him candy and he'll be very docile."

"I understand."

"VANITAS!" Magpie cried out as she moved out of the guard's restraints and tried to run towards the helmeted hero. "VANITAS!"

"Hey get back here!" The guards said as they went after here.

*Sigh* "Excuse me for a moment Doctor." Vanitas stated as he walked in front of the group and stood his ground to prepare himself for any assault from the bird themed woman. Though there wasn't any at all as the guards grabbed her and held her back from doing anything stupid on her part.

*Growl* "Get off of me!"

"Only when you settle down Magpie." One of the guards said as they hauled her up to her feet. It was then when Vanitas walked up to the restrained woman as he spoke towards her.

"Hello Magpie. How are you? Sorry that I haven't seen you in a while."'

"I was worried something happened to you." She said with a smile plastered on her face. "Though you have been very busy. I've kept a lot of newspaper articles about you."

"So I've heard." He said as he remembered some little chats from Harley on some dates with her.

"I even missed our talks. Is there anything I should know?" She asked as she leaned forward a little to try and get closer towards the man of her interests with a mad look in her eyes. "Don't worry, you can tell me anything."

"I've been fine. Nothing much really on my end."

It was then that Harley came up to end things here on the little conversation. "As much as I would like for you two to chat, I'd like to get Magpie back to her cell now."

"Of course Dr. Quinzel." Vanitas said with a nod of his head. "Also congratulations on finishing up your internship and becoming an official doctor."

"Why thank you." The changed blonde said with a small smile with little happiness showing through her eyes. The only ones to notice this was Vanitas, Catwoman and surprisingly Magpie. With the later, this irked the patient while leaving her quite confused.

"We should probably get going Vanitas." Catwoman said as she walked towards her disguised boyfriend.

Now noticing the other woman, while fueled from her previous emotions, Magpie narrowed her eyes at the cat themed woman. "Who's this? Who are you?"

Selina could only raise a brow, hidden behind her goggles, before she replied towards the inmate. "Don't you know? I'm Catwoman."

"Well... it's been good to see you Magpie." Vanitas said as turned around and walked away with Catwoman and Dr. Quinzel soon following him since the later had her office in that direction.

"B-But when will you visit again?" The inmate questioned as she was being hauled away with Lunkhead soon following. "Vanitas! When?!" She cried out before she directed her eyes towards the retreating form of Catwoman. "Whoever you are! You don't know him like I do! You'll never know him like I do!"

Once the three were a good distance away from the inmates, Vanitas set up a silencing field around them so they could privately chat as best as possible. Though with the security cameras in most of the hallways, it could be a tad hard for any lip movements to be picked up. It's just a little precaution just in case really.

"So what was that all about?" Selina asked as she was walking beside her two friends.

"Puddin has been seeing Magpie for a while shortly after I got her as my patient." Harley replied towards her dark haired friend. "Though he hasn't been showing up here and chatting with her for a few months now."

"You've been doing that?"

"I have Selina, but I'd rather talk more about it once we're home." The disguised Uzumaki stated before he decided to change topics. "So Harley, you want to come on over for some Asian take out?"

"I'd love to." The blonde doctor said with a perky tone of voice from behind the two. She would've been more enthusiastic on her response, but she didn't want to expose herself with some of the cameras recording every little thing. "I'll meet you guys at your place Naru-poo after I finish things up here."

"Then we'll see you then." Naruto briefly said before the blonde doctor parted ways from them.

As the inmates were sitting at the branching point of the gender wings, Magpie was thinking many thoughts on what just happened earlier.

'Why?... Why are you with her? Why did you bring her with you?! She doesn't deserve to be by your side!' Magpie thought with her eyes burning with fury as she mentally murdered Catwoman over and over again. 'But what about Dr. Quinzel?... She had that look in her eyes… No. No. She must've liked the compliment from him. Or was it something else...'

Her eyes soon darted around as she tried to figure out a way to get out of Arkham. She wanted to be with her beloved masked hero. To stand by his side and be with him forever. To prove herself that she's better than that skank of a whore…. Wait…

*Gasp* 'Of course… That's why you came! You need my help!' She then pulled out a newspaper clipping of the best photo of Vanitas there was in her collection. It was tucked away between her breasts so that he'll be closer to her heart…. Physically speaking. Once it was out, she traced her finger over the hero's image with love and affection. 'You couldn't tell me earlier because she was watching your every move. Cleaver, cleaver you. And fortunately for you, this pretty little bird is clever as well.'

"Hey Mr. Guard." Lunkhead spoke out, getting the only guard nearby to turn his attention towards the large, mentally challenged man. "Don't you have any candy for Lunkhead?"

*Sigh* "Not on me. Sorry, but just sit nice and tight and I'll be right back with some candy for you." The guard said before he walked off in a quickened pace so he can get this over with.

It was then that Magpie quickly formulated a plan to get out. Though she quickly tucked away the photo and turned her attention towards the man right beside her. And with a sickening smile, she nudged Lunkhead's side to start off this little ruse.

*Psst* "Lunkhead."

"Uh… Hello lady person." He said before he gained a bit of a look of recognition in mixture of confusion. "Don't Lunkhead know you?"

"Why yes. We were old friends back at Blackgate and bad people were holding us hostage."

"What was your name again?"

*Sigh* 'Time to suck up my pride a little.' "It's me… Ma-Margaret Sorrow." Magpie said with disdain in her voice.

"Oh yeah… Lunkhead remember you."

"Good good…. So possibly be a pal and break me free from these restraints. I mean, you're so strong and with your help we can get out of here together. And all you have to do is just take care of the guard."

"B-But Lunkhead is in here because Lunkhead was bad." The mentally impaired man spoke out as he rubbed the back of his head. "And escaping would be wrong."

"Oh and that's too bad. Especially since I have so much candy stored at my nest that I wouldn't know who to share it with." She spoke getting the larger man's eyes to widen and lick his lips in slight hunger.

"Candy?"

"Oodles of it big guy. To fill you up to your heart's content."

It was then that the one guard returned with a chocolate bar on hand and waved it in front of Lunkhead. "Well here you go Lunkhead. Like I promised. So enjoy it."

There was no response from the mentally impaired man as his mind soon fought on either wanting the singular piece of sweets or the large amounts of candy his old cellmate had stored up. With his mind made up, Lunkhead quickly got up from his seat and knocked the guard out with a headbutt. It was a bit painful on how it worked, with the majority of the blow was on the large bulb on his forehead, but he shook it off moments later.

"That's it! That's it!" Magpie yelled out in a whisper like tone before presenting her restraints towards him. "Now me!"

He complied once he used his strength to break the chains off of him. It took a bit of effort on her chains since he didn't want to hurt his old friend on accident, but they were completely off in no time. Once they were off, Magpie got up from her seat and rubbed her wrists and neck before twisting her ankles around a little.

"Okay lady, you're free. Me did my part. Now where is Lunkhead's candy?" He asked with barely restrained glee.

"Oh, it's outside actually." She sweetly lied before pointing towards a random wall. "Be a dear and break us out of here."

"Eh… Okay."

Soon Lunkhead reared his fist back before bringing it forward to destroy the wall in front of him. When this happened, alarms went off as several guards started making their way towards the two inmates. While Lunkhead continued his assault on the many walls in the way towards his prize, Magpie was taking care of the other guards by knocking them out in precisive hits. Whether they be punches, kicks or leaping towards them to throw them towards others.

By the time the two made it outside, Magpie was greeted with the spot lights encircling around the asylum with the alarms blaring off.

*BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE*

"Okay lady, we outside now. So where's Lunkhead's candy?" He questioned with bloody knuckles due to the various walls he punched down.

"Oops. Sorry big fella. I'm all out of sugar." Magpie said with a shrug before pulling back a fist. "How about a few lumps instead?!"

*Bam* *Bam* *Bam*

Several hits were met towards the mentally impaired man as he was sent back and got himself knocked out once his bulbous head slammed against the broken wall of the asylum.

*Chuckles* "Now with that out of the way…" She soon ran off before jumping over the nearby fense to make it towards her goal. "It's time to find you my sweet Vanitas."

 _ **-On the Streets-**_

"I remember hearing about Magpie from Harley when the two of us went out for a 'girls lunch' one day!" Selina spoke out over the sounds of the motorcycle engine running. "Originally named Margaret Sorrow, but suffered from a split personality disorder via experiments and eventually lost her 'lighter' half prior to capture!"

"Pretty much!"

"But you've been visiting her after she was brought in?! Why?!"

"Impatient aren't we?!"

"Obviously with the questions nagging through my brain on the ride back home!" She said before squeezing his front a little too much for comfort on the driver. "Now spill!"

*Sigh* "Know your enemy Selina, since one day it might save your life in the end!"

*KABOOM*

"The hell?!" The lovers yelled out as they heard the explosion nearby, causing Naruto to pull to the side of the road in a sudden halt.

"That sounded nearby."

"No kidding."

"Should probably check it out before we go home Selena."

*Sigh* "Might as well."

With that, Vanitas revved up his engines and sped off towards the recent explosion. It didn't take long to get there as they soon recognized the location being a jewelry store they sometimes pass by on some of their walks together. Once getting there, they expected to see some robbers pilfering the place of it's merchandise….

"Took you two long enough."

….Only to find Magpie there on top of the store sign.

"Look who flew the coop." Muttered the environmentalist as she got off of the motorcycle.

Vanitas could only narrow his eyes at the bird themed woman before speaking out to her. "How the hell did you get out of Arkham and over here so fast?"

"I have my ways. Oh and sorry about the mess Vanitas." The bird themed woman said from her perched spot before one of her hands went to her mouth in a covering motion. "Also want to let you know… Message received... And don't worry, she won't feel a thing once I'm done with her. Well~ Unless you want her to."

"Okay... I literally have no idea what you're talking about."

"Me either, but we should take care of her quickly." Selina said as she and her lover were walking towards the escaped inmate.

Magpie soon stood up from her spot on the sign and whipped out her elongated claws before speaking out directly at Catwoman. "Prepared to get pruned kitty cat!"

She leapt from her position and headed straight towards Catwoman with the intent to kill. Vanitas threw his arms out to get his grappling scarf to latch onto the crazed woman, but Magpie anticipated this by slicing the scarf with her claws. He ran back to stop her, but she kicked Vanitas's helmet before encircling her legs around his neck to put a lot of weight into her next course of actions. She used a lot of her strength with her fast movements to throw Vanitas to the side, resulting of him impacting against the brick beam for the jewelry store.

With him out of her way for now, Magpie placed all of her attention towards the skank of a woman.

Catwoman acted first by running towards Magpie with a cocked fist before shooting it towards the white haired woman. It was blocked, along with several kicks and other punches being thrown making Selina a bit frustrated. It was even a little harder on the ravenette end as she had to try and block the various strikes coming from the crazed woman with how strong each blow was. Catwoman tried to get a read on Magpie's fighting style, but it was all over the place making her pretty unpredictable. Before long, the inmate went down and sent an upward kick to send Selena flying back several feet and landing onto the paved road.

Magpie was about to run towards her obstacle when her 'love' ran in front of her and blocked her path. "Magpie enough!"

"But I just broke out of prison for you." Magpie stated with narrowed eyes as she stalked towards the helmeted hero. "So a little appreciation would be nice!"

"I never asked you to harm Catwoman. And there was no way in Hell I told you to break out of prison Margaret."

"NO!" She yelled out in disgust with rage filling her eyes. "DON'T CALL ME THAT! I HATE THAT NAME!" She calmed down a little as she wanted to figure out a few things. "But if you didn't want my help then why did you come and see me tonight after all these months with her of all people?"

"I was just dropping off an unwell man to Arkham. Nothing else."

"I don't believe you. Not one bit." She soon placed her hands onto his chest to get a good feel out of his muscle suit. "I know you Vanitas. We were made for each other." She then threw her hand out towards Selina with an accusing finger. "And she was in the way!"'

"Okay look." Catwoman started off as she got up from the ground. "I don't know what is going on between the two of you, but-"

"There is nothing going on." Vanitas interrupted his lover in a forceful fashion with a stern gaze behind his helmet.

Hearing this, Magpie became even more angry and grabbed each side of Vanitas' helmet to brought his head towards her knee, to knock him off balance before throwing him to the side. With him out of the way once again, she ran towards Catwoman with her claws out to hopefully rip her throat out. Selina had to duck down from the crazed woman's attempt on her life before she kicked Magpie in the back. The escaped inmate recovered by landing on her hands before doing somersaults to land onto a nearby parked car.

Selina then brandished her whip and moved it to get the far end to latch onto her opponent's wrist. Said opponent used a lot of her strength to pull the whip to bring Catwoman closer to her in a jerking fashion before kicking her away. The ravenette recovered before heading straight towards Magpie once more, but was only met with a spinning kick when Magpie leapt off of the car's hood. After that attack, the bird themed woman ran towards a nearby alleyway, getting Selina to run after her before jumping on top of a large stack of crates.

Magpie used her strength to pick up a crate before tossing it towards Catwoman, who dodged to the side and jumped to get to the inmate's position. Magpie wouldn't let that happen as she jumped to meet Selina midair before punching her away. The landing for the two of them was rough at best, but the environmentalist recovered faster before grabbing Magpie's ankle and threw her towards the stacked crates.

*Panting* "Are you finished now?"

*Growl* "No. In fact you're just really ruffling my feathers!"

"Then I should just pluck those feathers before- Hey!"

"Enough." Vanitas spoke out as he came in between the two women.

"Who's side are you on here?!"

"Mine I hope."

"Shut up you bitch!"

"I'm on the side of sanity and you two are out of control. So this needs to end now."

The two woman could only glare at each other as Vanitas kept each other at arm's length. Selina was getting frustrated on the current encounter while Magpie seemed to quickly calm down with a smile on her face. It didn't seem right to the environmentalist as the inmate wrapped her hands around the hero's wrist.

"You're absolutely right, my sweet Vanitas." She pushed his hand away from her and stepped back a little for some breathing room. "It's been awhile since I've been out of my cage. And this little birdy wants to spread her wings and FLY!"

Magpie then jumped and delivered a spin kick at Catwoman and Vanitas' heads to knock them away. The crazed woman soon used her acrobatic skills to jump off of the nearby crates to then ricocheted off of the alley wall before shooting out and landing onto the nearest parked vehicle. From there Magpie used her momentum to launch off of the vehicle to come across a motorcycle on the street and dug her claws into the tank. With the sparks giving off of the ruined tank, this resulted in a massive explosion of destroying the motorcycle in a fiery blaze.

*KABOOM*

It was rather intense on said explosion as it knocked the costumed couple, who just got up and went after Magpie, back some feet. Vanitas was holding onto Catwoman for her safety before he slowly got up with her in his arms. Once things settled, the two were looking around for any sign of Magpie, but it appeared that she got away with the explosion covering her escape.

 _ **-Morning, Naruto's and Pam's Loft-**_

" _...Ever since her initial escape from Arkham Asylum last night, the lunatic known as Magpie has torn all over Gotham. Robbing jewelry stores, department stores, and electronic stores. The only clues the GCPD has to go on are nests of objects in what appears to be shaped as an oddly thin, spiked cross with two bulbous circles on the bottom. From what has been shown so far, from captured video and photos, that this is the symbol of Vanitas. Thus the GCPD speculate that Magpie is working with or for the vigilante Vanitas."_ Summer Gleeson spoke out in the newsroom before Naruto clicked the remote to turn off the TV.

"Looks like someone has a fan." Selina spoke out from the kitchen counter with a sour look on her face as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Not funny Selina."

"Are you two going to pick up your stupid fight again from last night?" Asked the changed psychologist as she walked out from the bathroom, clearly showing she used the bathroom to get ready for work for the day. "It was really annoying to keep listening to it for about an hour."

When Harley got back to Naruto's and Pam's place last night, she was just expecting a good amount of take out food waiting for her. She would've been back sooner if it wasn't for the little breakout last night, causing her to stay a bit later at work than she hoped. But once she opened the door, with Rachel answering, Harley was greeted with the site of Naruto and Selina arguing with each other.

It was odd to see, especially with things appearing to be muted due to Naruto's silencing field. Harley quickly guessed that it was put up so that it wouldn't disturb Pam and Rachel from their coming meals. Another question seemed to pop up in Harley's head on who ordered take out and when it'll show up. It was quickly answered on Pam ordering while one of Naruto's Dusks flew in through the patio window with a few bags worth of take out.

It was odd for the three lovers in Naruto's life to find out about their boyfriend's new, yet old skill, of summoning familiars. It was going to be odd for them to get used to. Then again there is a plant controlling woman, a borderline crazy psychologist and an ashen colored child in the room with the only man in the loft having a really messed up history masquerading as a vigilante….

So the crazy wouldn't be too much to deal with for them.

Though while Harley, Pam and Rachel were eating, the changed blonde asked what was going on. Pam filled in a bit of the information that long story short; due to Naruto visiting Magpie in Arkham, the inmate became really obsessed with Vanitas. She broke out earlier and confronted the costumed couple which ended with Magpie escaping after kicking their asses.

After that little explanation, Selina went up to the collective food and took what she wanted before leaving the loft to possibly eat by herself. No 'hi' or 'thank yous' at all as she was clearly pissed off on what happened earlier. Though who could probably blame her, but the ravenette didn't have to be rude about it.

"It's really hard to tell what kind of pattern Magpie has going on here. Doesn't even stay around long enough to track down." Naruto muttered as he rubbed his eyes in frustration. After the fight last night, Naruto grabbed one of the 'to-go' containers and left to try and find Magpie with no luck at all. "Vanitas shouldn't have gotten close to her in the first place."

"No kidding." Harley spoke out before taking a bite out of some toast. "I knew the stupid problem at Arkham pertaining to you and Batman coming in and out to check on inmates was a bad breach of protocol. Should've stopped you sooner than later."

"And why didn't you?" Selina asked from her spot in the kitchen while Rachel was eating her own breakfast.

This gained a nervous look from Harley as she soon pressed her index fingers together and looked away without making good contact with the other people in the loft.

"Harley…"

"Okay fine!" The pale woman said in slight frustration. Possible short fuse on not wanting to be egged on. "I just wanted to get information out of Magpie and the only way to do that was letting Naru-poo visiting her okay!"

It was after saying that, she gained raised looks from the rest of the adults in the loft. With them realizing what the blonde doctor just said. And it was at this moment that Harley knew…

She fucked up.

"I'm sorry but did I hear that right?" Pam asked as she looked at her former doctor with a questioning look. "You had purposefully allowed this to happen and did nothing to stop it."

"I… I… Uh."

"So we got to thank you for causing Magpie to go all looney towards Naruto here. Is that right?" Selina spoke out next making Harley feeling the pressure building up on her.

"WAAAH DON'T HATE ME-HE-HE-HE!" Harley cried out with comical tears as she couldn't take further pressure from getting the blame for all of this. So she ended up huddled into the nearest corner with a dark cloud hovering over her head. "Not my fault for trying to effectively doing my job. T_T"

"...Okay… So asides from Harley's bad mistake;" cue Harley being impaled by a giant arrow, to which only Rachel seemed to notice, "where does that leave us?"

Putting his attention towards Selina now, he answered her question. *Sigh* "As much as I don't want to bring up bad memories for her, Magpie needs to be put back into her cage."

The ravenette nodded at this as she was wanted the same thing out of this. "Good to know."

"Which means that you're sitting this one out."

"...Excuse me?!" Selina frustratedly asked. "There is no way I'm staying out of this fight Naruto. I'm the one she threatened"

"In which makes you a target Selina. And a liability Vanitas can't afford right now. So today, Vanitas hunts alone."

"And now you're putting yourself in another persona, is that it?" She responded back with a narrowed glance. "To blame said persona on your actions and responsibilities?"

Realizing he might've said something he shouldn't have, Naruto tried to say something to her. "Selina, I-"

"Well fine! Hope you have fun with that asshole!" Selina yelled out as she left the loft before slamming the door when she left.

The others could only stay in their positions with varying emotions: from bits of shock, sadness and worry.

"She shouldn't have said that Naruto." Harley stated as she got up from her position on the floor to hopefully comfort her puddin. It was pretty hurtful to hear this happen and that their relationship might've ended in a bad way with things eventually turning sour on their relationship.

"No Harley... I deserved it." He responded as he formed his outfit around him before walking to the patio door.

"Where are you going?"

Without turning his head, he answered Pam's question. "I'm going to look for Magpie while giving Selina some space."

And with that, he fazed his way through the door and summoned a Kazekage spear before taking off into the air to do some patrolling.

"Are things going to be alright?" Rachel asked with worry in her voice. It was hard for her to keep in the feeling now with it practically showing towards the two adults. She enjoyed her guardian's company with her surrogate aunt, but the ashen child got pretty sad on how this turned out.

Seeing this happen, the remaining adults went towards the young child's sides and gave her a reassuring hug in their own respective ways.

"We can only hope Rachel." Pamela stated as she too was feeling the same emotions as the young child. "We can only hope."

 _ **-Evening, Miskatonic Psychiatric Hospital-**_

"It's been awhile since I've been here." Batman muttered as he drove up to the abandoned hospital.

For the past month, things have been pretty busy for the billionaire playboy. In his professional work life, Bruce has been needed to be at the office quite often for the latest projects his company hopes to distribute in the coming months. He even has been checking up on the R&D division for any standard products that has been improved. Overall, having to personally check each department in the surrounding area had eaten up much of his time.

A bit outside of that part of his work life, Bruce had donated a good sum of money towards the wetlands so it'll be preserved better than it was before. It helped him out on his conscious with what happened on the Pyg and Toad incidents, but only to some degree. Bruce did find out who in his company was the cause of his name being in the investors of the wetlands oilrig and had the man thoroughly investigate. Though this time it was a little difficult than when Ivy was kidnapping industrialists and Batman got the proof he needed right away on his one former, greedy director.

Back at home, Bruce and Dick have been careful on how they approached things throughout the manor. With Alfred being mostly out of commission due to his leg injury last month, he couldn't be on his feet for the majority of the time. Sure he does have his crutches, or his cane if he wasn't up for the crutches, but the two younger men didn't want Alfred to stress himself out on the homely tasks.

Coming back to the 'careful approach' part, Alfred was being attended to by his girlfriend Maggie every other day. Not that he blames the British woman, but there were certain times she seemed to come around the worst moments when Batman and Robin would have to go out on patrols, but would be delayed due to Maggie's arrival. They had come up with several excuses on why the two heroes had to leave the premises, but they were starting to run out of ideas and they didn't want to recycle certain ones way too often.

Speaking of hero life; things had been alright for the most part, in terms of crime. Sure some thugs would need to get ruffled up every so often, with what they try to do, but nothing both he and Robin couldn't handle. Just a normal routine really from stopping criminals from robbing stores and banks to stopping certain criminal shipments.

But one little thing that preoccupied the Caped Crusader for most of the month was going over the fight against Solomon Grundy. Batman needed further answers on what was going on after he tested through the zombie's attire and remains. So he went to see Pamela late one evening, a few days after the initial fight, and was going to do his usual routine of possible intimidation. Though the approach didn't go all that well due to Naruto's ward, Rachel, getting one hell of a fright.

Suffice to say, Batman will be more careful when dealing with children again after so long. Asides from that, the Dark Knight only got a small amount of information out of her on why she involved herself with the fight. Like Naruto convincing her to possibly help take care of the pale zombie because he had faith in her to possibly do the right thing. Batman would've asked for more, due to a gut feeling that Pam wasn't telling everything to him, but he didn't want to cause any more problems on the couple and their young ward.

With Bruce's social life, it was somewhat dwindling in the past weeks. With his work life, hero life and moments at home; he hardly interacted with Bethanie Ravencroft at all. In what free moments he had, Bruce was thinking things over on his somewhat relationship with the blonde doctor.

She means well, don't get him wrong, but Bethanie was truly starting to get on his nerves with the constant insistence on visiting the Argus Club. If she had only backed up on the approaches, then he might've considered to just go only once. But like any normal person, he has limits and she just pushed him past his patience with her.

So despite Alfred's small chats on Bethanie possibly being a good significant other, Bruce decided to end his small relationship with the good doctor sometime soon. Something small, yet stern on how he would break up with her. He had different ways to do so with his experience as a playboy to cover up his times as Batman, just to throw people off from possibly getting suspicious of his _other_ activities.

But enough Batty's personal reflection on the past weeks. Let's focus on the now people…. Or more importantly the past twenty-four hours.

He had gotten back home from the office late into the evening and was planning on possibly going to bed early for once. But Bruce got notice not long after of a breakout at Arkham, getting the billionaire to quickly change and rush over there to help assess on the situation. It was midway through the ride when he got another notice from the police radio that the breakout was taken care of and only one inmate had escaped, Magpie.

So with that, the Dark Knight went searching throughout the city for her and in that time he kept missing Magpie whenever she makes a robbery. It was truly frustrating on what location she would strike next since it's all completely at random, making her very unpredictable. But whenever she flees the scene, she would always leave a mark that pertains to Vanitas. Most people would think that she's associated with him in some way of thinking, but the Bat knew better.

In wanting to know the criminal better, he sneakily went made his way into Dr. Quinzel's office at Arkham once again for Magpie's updated files. He did this before when Two Face was running amok and only focused on the split personalities. But this time, he needed information on Magpie's obsessions.

It took a bit of time for the Dark Knight to realize that, like all magpies, they eventually return to their nests and the only one he could truly think of was the abandoned Miskatonic Psychiatric Hospital. He hasn't been there since her initial capture for the first time and whatever happened to Margaret Sorrow/Magpie was not his fault at all, but she doesn't know the consequences to hide who she was.

Once he got to the building, he quietly walked through the building while trying not to make any sounds to alert the escaped inmate. Batman had to use his 'detective vision' to help him navigate a little due to him not wanting to use his flashlight to give away his position. Going through corridor, through corridor, Batman didn't find any trace of her. But he had to keep searching.

He eventually made his way through one door, that on the other side showed the upper level of the room where he had last fought Magpie. Batman's eyes scanned the area from most angles towards the bottom of his position. It was there that the Bat his target… was right above him.

"Hello Magpie." He simply said before he looked towards the broken ceiling to see the bird themed woman sitting on one of the railings.

"Well hello Batman." She said in a sweetly bland tone. "I was expecting Vanitas to be here, but you'll have to do for now."

"Why are you trying to get Vanitas' attention Magpie?" He didn't get a reply right away as she started to walk on the railings with no problems at all. It was like she was seemingly ignoring him on the question, thus he asked again. "Why are you trying to get his attention?"

"My nest is so lonely without him and I just want to share it with him." She responded back with a giddy tone.

"Yeah… I already have a home to live at…" A voice called out, getting the two to look upwards to see Vanitas standing on his lance high in the sky. "But thanks for the offer." The helmeted Uzumaki then dispelled his lance before landing on the floor with a soft 'thud'.

Upon his arrival, Magpie was very happy to see her _beloved_ there and jumped off of the railing before landing some distance away from him. As she walked towards Vanitas in a sultry manner, she spoke. "I knew you'd come."

"Well it took a while for me to realize you'd end up back here again." Vanitas said as he kept his eyes on the crazed inmate.

"All is forgiven my sweet." Magpie then looked at her _beloved's_ form and truly can't wait to feel his form with her hands. "So… Did you like my 'gifts' that I've left for you all over the city?"

*Sigh* "Magpie, this needs to stop."

She seemed to ignore this as she walked around the helmeted hero while completely ignoring the Bat, who was a few feet away from them.

*Chuckles* "You know, I was rather surprised when you first visited me… In that asylum."

"I only wanted to help you. It wasn't right if you ended up back at Blackgate, ending up at a place that brought a lot of bad memories. It isn't where you belong."

She then snapped her neck towards his hidden face with a surprised look on her face. *Gasp* "You… You mean I belong with you?"

He only shook his head back at her in response. "You belong in a place that can help you understand what happened to you. Reason why I brought you to Arkham in the first place."

'Hmm… Despite his immaturity at times, he is pretty good on his reasons when he needs to be serious.' Batman thought as he watched the scene in front of him. Though he isn't going to let his guard down just in case Magpie was going to do something at a moment's notice.

Seemingly not satisfied with the answer she was looking for, Magpie walked away from Vanitas with a narrowed glance right back at him. "What is it that scares you Vanitas? Even I can ask you the same question Batman." She said as she now directed her attention towards the two heroes before walking back towards Vanitas. "Are you scared to embrace the dark, and only the dark, that you might begin to like it? That you might become _free_?"

'She is clearly losing it.' Was the same thought the two heroes unknowingly shared.

"Is that what you want to understand _beloved_?" She questioned as she put more focus back on the helmeted hero. "What it felt like when they buried Margaret Sorrow?... The very moment I stepped onto one side of myself. *Chuckles* Well let me tell you… It's one hell of a rush and I recommend you try it sometime." Magpie then briefly glanced over towards the Bat and spoke out to him. "Even you Batman."

The quiet setting soon got interrupted from an engine coming near the building. The others turned their attention towards the possible location where it was coming from. While the two men were silently questioning it, Magpie voiced it.

"Who is that?!" Magpie questioned in a raised voice before a form of realization hit her. "She's here, isn't she?"

"Who are you talking about?" Batman asked as he didn't know who the crazed woman was referring to.

"Catwoman!" She said with a growl in her voice.

'Why is Selina involved with this?' The Bat thought as he turned his gaze towards the helmeted hero. 'Is she with him?'

"Why did you bring her here?!"

"I had nothing to do with this Magpie." Vanitas replied back to her.

"You act like you care about me…." She muttered under her breath before lashing out at her _beloved_. "LIAR!"

Both Vanitas and Magpie fell back to the floor below, with Batman soon following. Once the helmeted hero harshly landed on the medical table, Magpie jumped off of him and kicked the incoming Bat in the air before using him as a springboard. With the speed she got, she landed onto the ground and used her elongated nails to slow down her momentum. Coming to a halt, she saw the two heroes on the ground before walking to Batman, who was the closest of the two men.

"Everyone! *Bam* Lies! *Bam* To me!" Magpie yelled out as she kicked Batman's prone form a few times. On the last one, she did it extra hard to send the Bat flying into Vanitas, who was barely getting up from the floor. Not wanting to see if the two would get back up, the crazed woman ran off.

As this was going on, Selina was running through the hallways to find the woman who had kicked her ass last night. She asked Harley earlier once the later came over to play with the ashen ward and wanted to find Magpie on her own. Her blonde friend complied in giving her what she knows about her patient on a decent amount of information. Though Harley has expressed her concerns about what happened earlier, but Selina ignored them without seeing Rachel being nearby with a saddened look on her face. After getting what she needed, Selina immediately used her car to get to the abandoned hospital where Vanitas and Batman last confronted Magpie.

Once getting there, she was surprised to see the batmobile already there and guessed that some action was already happening. So Selina ran inside, with her whip in hand, to confront the white wig wearing bitch. Of course she didn't expect to confront her so quickly as the two almost ran into each other in one of the corridors.

"Well hello there. Ready for round two?" Catwoman rhetorically asked in a taunting fashion.

*Growl* "He doesn't need you."

"I'd rather let him tell me that himself."

The two soon engaged with the bird leaping towards the cat with the former's claws ready to dig right into the later's skin. Catwoman ran towards her opponent and slid underneath and used her whip to ensnare Magpie's legs in a brief moment. She yanked the bird down hard and was going to stomp on the crazed woman's body, but Magpie quickly cut through the whip and upwardly kicked the incoming Catwoman into a nearby medical table.

Magpie wanted things done very close and personal, so she grabbed her opponent and threw her to the nearby support beam hard, leaving several cracks on the old foundation. Selina had to quickly recover and brought her arms up as the bird came in close to claw out the raveonettes eyes out. The thief was so glad her suit had a good amount of armor sewn in or else her body would've been given deep scratches.

On one of the coming strikes, Selina quickly grabbed Magpie's wrists before kicking her stomach, which sent the later back a few feet. Not wanting to get her opponent to recover, Selina jumped and used her claws to slice part of hanging lights to send it ramming into Magpie, shocking her with what juice it still had inside of it. From there, Catwoman leapt towards the inmate and kicked her several times before sending her into one of the many vacant rooms in the hospital.

Selina walked into the room and up to Magpie's prone form, ready to finish taking care of her. Proving that she could be able to possibly handle things more on her own before Naruto came into her life. Proving to him that he needs her more than he realized among other things.

But when the ravenette was about to land the finishing blow, Magpie quickly sprang up and slashed her elongated claws at the exposed neck area of Selina's suit.

"GAH!" Catwoman yelled out in pain as she held onto the side of her neck. She felt the slightly bleeding wound and it wasn't deep as she would've thought. But it was there that things started to get a little hazy and feeling weaker by the second. "W-What did you d-do… bitch?"

"Curare." Magpie simply said with a pleasant smile as she clearly won this fight. "You clearly shouldn't have gone in my way. Now be a good little kitty and take a nice, deep nap."

And like that, Catwoman went out like a light.

It was some time later when the two heroes groggily woke up and got up from the floor. Both were holding their heads in pain from Batman being obvious while Vanitas had banged his head hard enough against the wall to render him unconscious. Once the two got up, they sprang into action and searched the entire hospital for any sign of Magpie.

Though once the two entered one particular corridor, they soon saw the signs of a recent fight that took place here while the two were unconscious. Both looked through the cooridor to see where the fight ended to see a desk light shining upon a little note, with Vanitas' name and a black lipstick mark on it. Vanitas quickly grabbed the note and opened it up, with Batman looking from the side, to read it's contents.

 _Please, don't be mad my sweet Vanitas. I'm doing all of this for you._

 _She is a thorn in the way of our happiness together. So once I'm done with the stray cat, our nest will truly be comfortable to rest and relax in. Though if you want, I recommend you saying your peace since she'll die all alone very soon. After all; by the time you read this note, she'll lose all her precious air within less than an hour._

 _With love,_

 _Magpie_

Once the message had been read, Vanitas was quickly grabbed and slammed against the nearest wall of the room.

"Why did you let Selina get involved in this Vanitas?!"

"Is slamming me against a wall a good option Batman?" Vanitas grunted out as he felt the Bat tightly grip his shoulders.

"I won't ask again. Why did you let her get involved?!"

Despite Bruce not being able to be in a relationship with Selina, due to her only considering him as a friend, he still cared for her and wanted to look out for her. Bruce saw the good in her after she got out of prison, with the help of Naruto and a few others, and wants to be sure it's kept that way. But having her be put in danger in such a way would make him very angry for this to happen.

"I tried telling her not to, but she wouldn't listen." Vanitas answered as he phased out of Batman's grasps. "I didn't want her to come since I saw Catwoman wasn't in her right mind at the time. I wanted to protect her from Magpie, but apparently she headed straight towards the danger regardless of my warnings."

Batman narrowed his eyes at the little information before pressing onwards. "And why did you let her even join up with you in the first place?"

"She followed me out of curiosity really." Vanitas lied so that the Bat wouldn't know of Selina's relationship with him and the real reasons behind it. "Wanted to thank me for those times I helped her in the past. One thing led to another that she wanted to help stop crime. Simple as that."

Once again, Batman narrowed his eyes at the helmeted hero as he could tell there was more than that.

"Look Bats. Are we going to play twenty questions here and waste our time or are we going to go out there and find Selina?"

*Sigh* "Your right." Batman simply said before he went towards the fallen note on the floor and picked it up. "I remember Magpie saying earlier about her other personality. What her choice of words were."

"On how Bethanie Ravencroft and Joe Braxton _buried_ Margaret Sorrow. Yes I remember that." Vanitas said as he adopted a thinking pose before continuing with his thought process. "For exchange of whipping her mind, the two doctors had gotten her an early release from Blackgate. The end results eventually birthed Magpie."

"Right." Batman said as he was thinking the same thing. "Though they needed to kill off her old identity to properly give Margaret Sorrow a new one. And to possibly legitimize it…."

"Shit… Magpie must've buried Selina in Margaret Sorrow's empty gravesite." Vanitas finished off in realization as the two heroes soon ran out of the room with their destination in mind.

 _ **-Gotham Cemetery-**_

*Groan* "Oh god my head." Selina groggily said as she was slowly waking up from the poison Magpie drugged her with. "Thought poisons don't work on me after Red's serum. *Groan* Must've been a stronger dosage if the bitch wanted to possibly kill me… Wherever this is."

On instinct, Selina tried to get up from her sleep only to hit her head against something. With her eyes starting to fully focus, the ravenette realized that she was buried alive in a wooden coffin. It helped from the light coming from the electrical clock right behind her, which showed that she only has less than twenty-three minutes left on her possible oxygen supply.

"O-Okay Selina… Stay calm… D-Don't fully panic." Selina muttered as she tried to control her breaths before slamming her fist into the coffin to try and get herself out. It was really hard to do so as her eyes started to water a little from both the pain her hands were emitting along with her heart beating at an erratic pace. Fear starting to overwhelm her before crying out at the top of her lungs. "IF THERE'S ANYONE OUT THERE! I'M ALIVE IN HERE! PLEASE HELP ME!"

Selina kept punching and kicking the coffin with a lot of her strength, but whatever the wooden coffin was made out of was probably from thick material. Her hands were starting to bleed from the cuts and tears on her knuckles of trying to punch her way through. There wouldn't have been any at all due to Magpie taking her gloves while the ravenette was unconscious. She could've possibly gotten out quicker with her suit's claws, but she was out of ideas.

As she took her small breaks so she can conserve her oxygen, Selina thought back on her argument with Naruto earlier. And he was right, absolutely right. She should've stayed away as she was a liability of trying to get herself involved. Not being clear in the head and just focused on getting back against Magpie got her into this mess…

And now she was paying for it.

'I'm so sorry Naruto.' She thought before getting back into trying to get out of the wooden coffin. 'But we're going to need to talk things through once this is over.'

Back on the surface, Batman and Vanitas was searching all over the graveyard for any sign of Margaret Sorrow's grave. To help out on the search, Vanitas had summoned a small amount of Dusks once they reached the area and he ordered them to spread out for the tombstone. Batman was genuinely surprised in seeing this, but kept it away from showing. He knew that he doesn't know all of Vanitas' powers, which greatly concerned him on how strong this man really was.

The two, plus the Dusks, searched high and low for the gravesite for a while due to how large the Gotham cemetery was and it could possibly take forever. And they didn't have forever with how much time is possibly left in Selina's air supply. The two heroes would've kept searching, but…

" _ **We've found it sire!"**_ A Dusk yelled out inside of Naruto's mind, making him turn his head towards the source. _**"It's over here!"**_

"Great work." Vanitas said as he turned towards Batman and nudged his arm. "They've found it Bats! This way!"

"How would you know?" The Bat questioned as he ran alongside Vanitas.

"Because I'm special." The masked Uzumaki retorted as the two came closer towards their destination. It was better seeing where it was with the Dusks hovering over it. When their master was coming close, the Dusks dispelled themselves since their task was complete. "Seriously… They couldn't have stayed and helped."

"Less complaining and more helping me out here." Batman demanded as he grabbed a nearby shovel and dug into the freshly made dirt. Vanitas followed suit as both men kept on digging through the earth to reach Selina.

The two shoveled as fast as possible in hopes of making it in time. Their shovels soon struck against something hard with a small *klang* before they tossed away their tools and went onto their hands and knees to wipe away the dirt. Of course Vanitas soon got impatient and phased his hands inside in hopes of reaching her… Only to find…

*Growl* "She's not here." Vanitas said before pulling off the lid for extra proof behind his claim. Showing the emptiness inside of it.

"Then where is she!"

"Looking for someone?" A feminine voice called out, making the two heroes look out of the empty coffin to see Magpie perched on top of a tombstone.

"Where is she Magpie?!"

Ignoring her _beloved's_ question, she decided to speak out with a little frown on her face. "You know… This time I had really hoped you wouldn't have come Vanitas. Even you, the so called great detective, have been lead to an empty grave. I would've expected more out of the two of you, but then again you both have been lead towards my trap."

"Enough fooling around Magpie!" Batman spoke out as he and Vanitas got out of the recently dug out hole. "Where is Catwoman?!"

"Hmm… Can't be sure." She replied as she playfully looked around with a questioned look on her face. "I buried here somewhere. After all, I have trouble with my memory. _Remember_."

Vanitas soon had enough out of her and grabbed her shoulders and brought the crazed woman close to his face. "Tell us where she is Magpie! Now!"

"NEVER!" She soon shoved Vanitas back before kicking him and Batman in the chests to send them back further away from her before flipping in the air for good measure. Once landing on another tombstone, she spoke again with a sneer in her voice. "I gave you every chance Vanitas. Did all of the heavy lifting, but you still come after her. So why? WHY?! WHY IS SHE MORE IMPORTANT THAN ME?! I AM THE ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS YOU!"

"That's the thing Magpie, you didn't." The disguised publisher stated as he walked towards the crazed woman. "If you did then you'd know I'd never allow someone close to me to be harmed. And I thought that if came by to see you, to talk with you back at Arkham, that it'll help you regain the humanity you lost. Even if it's a little bit… But apparently I was wrong."

'Hmm… Same kind of answer I would've given.' Batman thought as he was on the same page with the other hero. He too wouldn't allow anyone close to him to be harmed in any shape or form. When Alfred was taken last month, Batman wanted to bring all kinds of hell towards the eco-terrorists of harming his old father figure. Even with the detail of wanting to chat with an inmate, Batman would try to keep tabs with his old friend Harvey before his escape to see if he can save him.

*Growl* "You're a coward! You know that!" Magpie yelled out before she pointed a finger at him in an accusing fashion. "You are like me. Reason why you came and visited me at Arkham, to see your future." She then got down onto the ground and walked towards her _beloved_. "Well hold onto your _precious_ humanity since we both know it'll be a matter of time before it slips through your grasp forever."

Magpie then brandished her elongated claws at the two heroes as her eyes gained a look of outrageous fury. "SHINY! SHINY!"

The bird themed woman then rushed at the two as they tried to stay away from her swipes. They were too fast for their liking and it was truly hard to get a read out of her unpredictable movements. Though while Vanitas was able to get away from them, Batman was unlucky as one of the swipes scraped across his arm. The Bat grunted in pain as everything seemed to go all blurry again as he realized he got poisoned by curare again.

"Enjoy the sting of my talons Batman!" Magpie said before kicking the hero into the freshly dug hole in the ground. She soon moved out of the way from some coming strikes from the helmeted hero as he came in with his escrima sticks. "Is that any way to treat your sweet bird Vanitas?"

"Considering on how bad you are, yes… yes I would."

Their assaults kept on coming as Vanitas tried to land good blows on her, but her unpredictability is truly starting to frustrate him. An opening was made and Magpie took it by going in close and grabbing the sides of his helmet before slamming them down onto her knee. This resulted with a disoriented vibration going on the inside of Vanitas' helmet before the crazed inmate grabbed his shoulders and tossed him to the side with a powerful strike towards his midsection.

Magpie then sauntered her way towards Vanitas' fallen form with a sneer plastered on her face. "You've made your choice Vanitas and you lost." She said before laying down several blows onto his helmeted head, resulting in more vibrations to disorient him. "I'll miss you very much my sweet, but not fore- YOU!"

Vanitas wondered what was going on, even with the effects going on the inside of his helmet, as he tried to put his full attention in the direction Magpie was now facing. When things seemed to settle, the hidden hazel eyes landed upon Selina's form. She was currently covered head to toe in signs of dirt with some sticking onto her bare skin due to sweat. His eyes seemed to land onto the ravenette hands, which were bloody on the knuckles for the most part.

"You should've buried me deeper." Selina panted out while holding onto the tombstone for support.

*Growl* "I'll be sure to remember that next time."

"Maybe you should find a grave you like." Catwoman said as the two soon encircled each other. "Let me know so I can bury you in it."

"RAAAH!" Magpie yelled out as she dashed towards the costumed ravenette with rage in her eyes.

Selina ducked out of the way as Magpie swiped her claws at the nearby tombstone. As a result, it left deep marks onto the stone work showing that the crazed woman was putting more strength into her blows now. Catwoman had to be more precautious now as she kept dodging Magpie's strikes.

As this was going on, Vanitas groggily got up and headed over towards Batman's position to see if he was alright. If he wasn't, he'll need to be there just in case Magpie wanted to get rid of Batman from interfering later on. Once he got to the freshly dug hole, he saw the Dark Knight slowly pull out a needle out of his arm.

"What the hell was that?" The masked Uzumaki question as Batman slowly got up from the wooden coffin.

"I was prepared for her poisoned claws this time." Batman said as he held up a little injection device in his hand. "Physostigmine does the trick real well against curare."

Vanitas could only nod at this before his attention went back towards the fight at hand.

Catwoman flipped in the air so she wouldn't get hit by Magpie's claws, from not getting skewered and not wanting to get poisoned again. Once landing behind her, Selina kicked Magpie's back before doing a sweeping kick on her opponent's legs. The crazed woman didn't like that and quickly turned around to send several strong kicks towards the Cat. One kick succeeded, sending Selina into a tombstone before Magpie leapt towards Catwoman's fallen form with a downward kick. The Cat barely moved out of the way as the inmate's latest attack broke the tombstone into pieces.

'Damn… glad I moved out of the way from that.' Selina thought as she eyed the broken piece of cemetery property. 'I need to really distract her so I can win this.' "Why are you so damn persistent in wanting me out of the way? Is it because I'm too good of a competition for Vanitas' attention?"

"You're just a pale imitation of me skank and you know it."

"Heh… You're just jealous that he rejected you." Selina responded back as she dodged Magpie's strikes. "Probably after your horrible fashion sense. I mean… really, neck feathers with a bustier? Kind of trashy if you ask me... Right Vanitas?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Said hero replied as he and Batman walked towards the women's location. "I really don't want to hurt you."

Magpie could only back away for a few moments before narrowing her eyes at her _beloved_. "TOO LATE!" She lashed out before Vanitas grabbed ahold of her arms and tossed her aside, making her roll a few feet in the process.

She quickly got back up and lashed out before Vanitas made himself intangible to get the crazed woman to go right through him. This left her momentarily confused before she was grabbed yet again and thrown towards Batman. The Bat then assaulted her with an array of punches and kicks before sending her flying towards Catwoman.

In the process; Selina got a good idea where to send the annoying bird, so once said bird got close, she turned and kicked Magpie hard enough to send her flying into Margaret Sorrow's tombstone, cracking the base in the process. Magpie fell down and was going to get back up before the large piece of stone fell on top of her, rendering her unconscious and finally defeated. When the three came up towards the hole, they felt relieved in what they were seeing as their problems for the evening were finally over.

*Sigh* "Time to put the looney bird back into her padded cage." Catwoman said as she turned her attention towards the two masked men, who nodded in agreement.

 _ **-Later, Naruto's and Pam's Loft-**_

Things seemed a bit quiet, asides from the dinner being cooked in the kitchen, as the loft's occupants had their minds elsewhere for the most part. Harley and Pam were helping prepare dinner while Rachel was standing beside her surrogate aunt. The ashen child tugged at Selina's sleeve to get her slight attention as the raveonettes attention was mostly focused towards Naruto.

"Is he going to be alright?" The young ward innocently asked.

"I don't know the answer to that Rachael." Selina responded as she saw her lover standing outside; leaning against the patio railing and staring into the distance, lost in thought.

After the two got back to the loft, in their own accords, Naruto and Selina apologized to each other on how they acted earlier. Telling the other on why they acted that way. Even though things were mended, there were still tears that'll take time to mend. Naruto wanted to be alone for a while, to try and think things through after the apology on what happened.

"There is a possible price to pay for staying in the darkness for too long. Margaret Sorrow paid it in full and became Magpie in the end." Harley said as she walked towards the two dark haired females. "I believe Naruto is coming to realize the same way. With how he was raised. On how much he tried to cling onto the light while the darkness tried to drown him every step of the way, from his birth to when he came to this world. It's buried deep inside of him after all this time I think, but it might come back up at an unfortunate time."

"And what if it does happen." Rachel asked, getting their attention a bit more than from before. "What if Naruto does fall into the darkness."

"Then we'll be there for him. To lead him back to the light." Selina said with a small smile on her face to get Rachel to get a sense of ease from the conversation. "After all, he did it for us, so we should return the favor and do the same for him."

'I hope your right Selina.' The ashen child thought in a mixture of worry and hope as her hands seemed to faintly glow black with a white outline. 'Because I don't want to be stuck in it when the time comes.'

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

*Groan* "Where the hell am I?" Magpie groggily asked herself as her vision seemed to focus. She appeared to be in a darkened room with a large spotlight coming from up above. "What is this place?"

"A little hideaway of mine if you will." A sophisticated voice said as he mostly stepped into the light, but not enough to reveal the top half of his form. This hid all forms of identifying who the man was, in terms of physical description, asides from the pair of circular bifocals that seemed to gleam from the light.

"Who are you and where have you brought me?!" Magpie demanded as ran towards the shadowed man, only to be yanked back to see her feet were restrained by chains. She then realized she was held down in place.

"Like I said before, this place is a hideaway of mine. But as for who I am, well let's just say that I'm a friend."

"Some friend you are then." The crazed woman scoffed as she narrowed her eyes at the man. "So why did you bring me here _friend_?"

"Just a little chat if you would. If not then I would just skip to the point of this little arrangement."

"The later would be nice." Magpie stated with her arms crossed as she wanted to be free from her current restraints.

"Very well then." The sophisticated man said as he paced around the spotlight so that no more of his form would be revealed to her. "I'd like to make a deal with you."

"What kind of deal?"

"You cooperate with a few things here and there with the people I currently represent. Depends on what they are on the tasks being given really. But in return-"

"What do I get in return for _helping_ you out?"

'Such rudeness.' The man thought with a shake of his head before remembering the information he read on her. "In return, I will help you out Ms. Magpie. I will help you in what you want most in life." He said as he saw her slowly taking the verbal bait. "I can help you restore your memories… and get you the man you desire all so very much."

"...You'd… You'd do that for me?" Magpie asked as she hoped the man wasn't lying. Sure she can try to nab Vanitas and do whatever she can to make him love her, but the other offer…. The other offer to gain back her memories is what she truly wanted most of all.

"Why of course Ms. Magpie." The man said as he mostly hid his lie quite well enough for her to not notice. "Though you must understand that it'll take time on the memory offer."

"O-Of course."

"Good… Oh and Magpie." The man briefly said before he snapped his fingers, resulting in a loud sound coming from the recent action. "A little present to sweeten the deal."

Soon the sounds of a cranky wheelchair seemed to roll into the spotlight to show a female riding it. The occupant in the chair seemed to be slightly restrained on her wrists and ankles with a bag placed over her head to hide away her features from the crazed woman. With how unresponsive the occupant was, she was either knocked out or tried to access the situation currently happening now in shock.

Magpie soon looked upward towards the man pushing the wheelchair and only got a decent look out of him. From his dark clothing to hide most of his build, but the bird woman guessed that he was a tall, slender man underneath said clothes. When reaching his face, it was mostly covered with a black mask to hide his features. But all that she could see was the slight indication of an aviary theme of the small beak on the nose with some feathers here and there for decoration. Though the last piece of the mask that seemed to stand out were the red lenses that were covering the man's eyes.

The masked man then bowed towards the bifocal man in the shadows before he walked back with hardly a sound in his step.

"Who is that?" Magpie asked as she got out of her slight stupor.

"Someone you'd very much like to meet and have your way with after so very long." The man said before he pulled off the bag to reveal… Bethanie Ravencroft with a piece of cloth in her mouth.

*Growl* "Why is she here?!"

"Like I said, to sweeten the deal my dear." The sophisticated man said before he pulled out a vial and uncorked it before wafting it underneath the blonde woman's nose. She started to stir and slowly awoke before questionably looked around on where she's at.

Bethanie was having a meeting with her superior on how progress was going on her current assignments. She seemed to have done a good job, but he didn't seem to think so as he quickly signaled one of his men to knock her out. Bethanie tried to get out, but it was too late for her on whatever he has planned for her.

"You see Ms. Magpie, Bethanie here hasn't been doing her job properly and I'm afraid that the people I represent no longer have any use for her. Failing time and time again on just one task and it seemed to grow my employers much impatience. So… They decided to wash their hands of dear Ravencroft here and move onto other things."

The crazed woman could only tilt her head in confusion as the blonde doctor tried to get out of her restraints, but with no avail.

"Oh… and don't worry about leaving any messes." The man said as his circular bifocals seemed to menacingly gleam. "I'll be sure to have the Talons clean things up accordingly and make it look like an accident, a mugging gone wrong or some other crime committed upon her."

This resulted in Bethanie screaming out through her gag as Magpie slowly gaining a smile on her face. She wanted revenge against the blonde doctor for so long and her last attempt failed. Now she'll properly get what's coming for her.

"So… Are we in an agreement?"

"Why yes." Magpie said as her nails started to grow out and gleam from the light eminating from above. "Yes we do have an agreement. As long as you help me out with my problems."

"Good to know." The man said as he turned around and the sounds of him walking away were heard in the darkness. "Now have fun Ms. Magpie, we'll get in touch very soon."

"But wait!"

"Hmm?" The man asked as he stopped his movements.

"How will I get back into Arkham?" The crazed woman asked. "If I'm to help you out, how will you get me in and out of that place."

"Oh that's easy." He said as he continued his walk. "But leave that to me on those details. And as for getting you back into your place in Arkham. You'll be transported back once you're done with the soon to be dead doctor."

And with that, Magpie soon brought her attention back to the blonde as the sounds of the man's footsteps faded away into the darkness. The crazed woman inched closer and closer to her victim in front of her as Bethanie screamed out through her gag. From there, the only sounds that emanated in the darkened space the sounds of flesh being pounded and sliced before things soon came to sudden silence.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **So with part of the one flashback, I used part of it to reflect my own life due to me hardly contacting the many friends I made over the years. Losing contact with them would make things hard if I tried to get back in touch with them after so long that it might as well be someone else than from what I remember of them. After all, the majority of them I slowly lost contact with them for 5-7 years. Then again most of them were on Facebook in terms of getting back in touch with them and I haven't been onto that site in a long time since I didn't want to be one of those people that revolved much of my free time on that site.**

 **Anyways, new but old skill has been brought up now and you readers can obviously tell what it was from the get go: summons. Sure Naruto has had the ability to do summoning in the past, but his powers would've tampered with them to change contracts if you will. Hence Naruto has a 'Nobody' Contract per say.**

 **If you guys remember in the Kingdom Hearts series, the members of Organization XIII along with some major bad guys or whatever that they had summoned their own minions. Whether they be Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed, or Nightmares. This was what I had in mind for quite a while so now you guys can rest easily on this bit of fact. Though with the summons, Naruto could only summon certain Nobodies in terms of which weapons he has access to and whatever.**

 **Even when getting onto Heartless, I'm only allowing Naruto to summon certain ones due to the Nobodies of Organization XIII (not the real one shown in Dream Drop Distance) only handling certain ones like Shadows, along with other Heartless to certain degrees. This is my limit really for Naruto in this ability of his, so take it or leave it.**

 **Now as for Bethanie Ravencroft, well I grew tired of her character and I didn't know how to continue onwards with her character asides from brief mentions in previous chapters. So decided to ax her off and move onwards in my own fashion.**

 **Also notice for people who are not in the know…. A beloved actor and legend has past away recently on June 9th, 2017 due to leukemia. A man who struggled to find good, stable work after one of his iconic roles ended a good number of years, but ended up having his career jumpstarted again through various cartoons via voice acting and TV shows. Sure some would either be guest spots here and there, but they kept his fan base known for all that time.**

 **We will miss you Adam West. You were the Batman for a generation growing up and drew in more later in years. So may the 'Bright' Knight live onwards in our memories.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	29. Heart of Ice

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 27: Heart of Ice**

Inside of a darkened room, a small pedestal was situated with a light casted upon it. On top of said pedestal, a ballerina effigy was dancing to the music box tune being played inside of her snowing glass dome. While the figure inside looked beautiful, the music playing seemed to depict a saddened tune to make one wonder who would choose such a thing.

" _This is how I will always remember you."_ An electronic voice called out from the darkness. _"Surrounded by winter, forever young…. Forever beautiful."_ Soon a metallic, gloved hand reached into the light and placed it's palm against the glass in a caring fashion. Not wanting to break the glass with how fragile it might've been. _"Rest well my love, for the monster who took you from me will soon learn that revenge is a dish… best served cold."_

 _ **-Batcave-**_

" _In the midst of the hottest June day on record, a rash of bizarre cold related crimes have chilled Gotham to the bone."_ Summer Gleeson said as she walked through a snow covered crime scene. _"And once again the target is a GothCorp facility. Attacked by an assailant wielding, to which witnesses called, a freezing gun. The attacker's motives are unclear; but we have spoken with GothCorp CEO, Ferris Boyle, who offered these comments."_

The news report soon switched towards Ferris Boyle in his office for the brief interview. _"I have no idea what this person has against GothCorp, but we've always looked upon ourselves as 'the People Company'. If this man has a problem, then we are willing to listen."_

It soon cut back to Summer, who was currently patting her face with a handkerchief due to the hot weather outside. Though she seemed to be a bit oblivious to see a handful of kids playing in the snow to cool themselves off while a security guard tries to get them to leave, but fails every time. _"A heartfelt plea from the chairman of GothCorp, 'the People Company'. So this is Summer Gleeson of Gotham Insider signing out."_

Once the news report ended, the monitor was switched back to the standard desktop on the batcomputer. From there, Batman's fingers flew across the keyboard to pull up several schematics of the stolen GothCorp property. When they fully appeared onto his screen, Alfred walked up towards his costumed charge with a mild interest in his eyes.

"Taking up video games, are we sir?" The Wayne butler asked in an amused tone with a cane on hand to help steady himself. "I wouldn't imagine Master Dick to have rubbed off one of his pastimes onto you Master Bruce."

Batman could only chuckle a little on his old friend trying to lighten his spirits as of late. But it can only go so far with what happened. "I accessed police files on the GothCorp raids and these are the stolen objects."

"I'm guessing that just by themselves aren't worth much to anything. Let alone on their appearances."

"Right. But if you put them into this reconfiguration..." Batman started out before he typed through a series of commands to rearrange and combine the schematics to form what appeared to be a giant gun or cannon. Upon the sight on the screen, Alfred could only mutter in worry on what the device might do.

"My word."

"They combine into a weapon that emits intense cold. Large enough to possibly become a city-wide threat if left unchecked." The Dark Knight said before he rubbed his 5 o'clock shadow underneath his cowl. "But there is only one component left to complete this weapon and only one GothCorp plant makes it."

"To which the perpetrators will strike in the cover of night, as per usual M.O." Alfred stated as he got closer to the costumed billionaire. "And this means you should properly rest this time until you go out and stop this cold related theft."

Bruce mostly ignored the former British agent as he started to type away to get back onto a previous case he was working on: the death of Bethanie Ravencroft. Alfred could only sigh in a mixture of frustration and worry towards his old charge. He'd been like this for at least a week and it was starting to show onto the dark haired billionaire. With the days of not properly shaving, the eye bags to show lack of sleep and the deeper drive to get a case done.

When police have found the bruised corpse in an alleyway, several blocks away from her apartment building, they were dealing with a mugging gone wrong. Some of Bethanie's neighbors stated that she tends to walk around on her own; within a certain block radius, while beyond that the blonde would either take a taxi or use her car. So the good doctor had been unfortunate on coming across a certain place at a certain time.

The police were able to track down her possible killer, due to fingerprints from the knife the perp used on the slashes and stab wounds. They were able to find the man holled up in his apartment and was found dead with him overdosed on drugs. To help more on the claim, the man had Bethanie's purse on the side with the money cleaned out to be used for said drugs. It pretty much ended as an open and shut case, but not for Batman…

When Bruce heard of the murder, he delved deep into the search to find out the cause of the whole mess. Going through many scenarios to possibly figure out if there was more to this than from public knowledge. Batman knew that something seemed fishy on the details, but he couldn't fully pin it. With the murder weapon, he thought there were some irregularities on the cuts and stab wounds. Even with the small motive of death, he could only think of one possible suspect to have done this: Magpie.

Batman went to see if she was involved, due to her being the mostly likely subject in wanting to kill Bethanie for what she'd done to the crazed woman. But when going into Arkham to see if there was any proof of her involvement, Magpie had the alibi of being in her cell all night long. So with that out of the way, Bruce went onward with his personal assignment to bring Bethanie's killer to justice.

Alfred could sigh as he walked towards the stairs to get back to the study room above. Taking a bit of time getting back up due to his injured foot with one thought passing through his mind. The Wayne butler hoped that this case of his won't drive Bruce forward and fall into the abyss.

 _ **-On the Streets-**_

"Man… This heat is getting unbearable." Naruto muttered as he walked beside Pamela with Rachel while Harley was roller blading some feet away, but at a close distance. He was currently wearing an orange short sleeve, button up with khaki shorts and shoes while patting his face away of the sweat with a bandana. Even had a backpack on carrying several bottles of water and their lunches for the day. "I don't know if the sun will kill me or not with this heat."

"You're over exaggerating honey." Pamela said as she wore a blue short sleeve, button up with a regular pair of jean shorts and sandals. "I am actually quite enjoying this heat."

"With the sun actually loving you."

"Exactly."

"Then again your part plant." He said with an eye roll. "So yeah have fun soaking up the sun and be all energetic while I die from exhaustion."

*Giggle* "Will do." She responded before looking down towards the young ward. "Though are you doing alright Rachel? Do you need another ice cream cone?"

"Nah-uh." The purplette responded as she finished up the last of her cone. She was currently wearing a light yellow sundress with a white belt and a pair of sandals. "Though I would like some more water."

"That's fine kiddo," Naruto said as he pulled out a water bottle from his bag. "Here you go."

"Thank you."

As the young ward was drinking her water, she was reflecting back on what was going on for the day. She and her primary guardian, Naruto, had to go to child services for a monthly meeting to see how things were doing well in the Uzumaki household… well technically loft. Pamela came along for her input on things, due to her living in the loft; and Harley was completely bored at her place so she wanted to spend the day with them. Selina couldn't come along due to her being out of town with Shizune for work and wouldn't be back till sometime next week.

The meeting turned out well, like the last one, but a certain topic came up pertaining her education. With grade school starting up in mid-late August or early September, depending on which school district Rachel gets assigned to, she'll need to attend to show additional progress on her stay with Naruto. To properly prepare her, Rachel will need to come back in another weeks time to do testing on what her education level currently is and place her in said grade level when school is coming closer in the fall.

This did make the purplette nervous; but when Harley heard of this, she promised to use some of her free time to help tutor her third favorite kid in her life (first and second were Jade and Artemis). Though not as enthusiastic as the changed blonde, Naruto and Pamela promised Rachel that they'll help the young ward prepare for the coming test so she wouldn't be so nervous and whatnot. So after the meeting, the four went out to see what they can do for the day with how nice it was outside, despite how hot it was.

During the walk throughout Gotham, Rachel also thought back on the other things in her life a the present time. Even after the topic of school coming up, Rachel was feeling scared on what was going to happen to her when she attended school. Would she make friends or will she be all alone by herself just like when she was at her previous home? Would she be able to go to the same school as Artemis and Jade? Would her powers act up like back at the previous school she attended?

Ah… yes… her powers, Rachel almost forgot her powers… of the magical variety. The young ward has never mentioned and used her powers once since she unintentionally left her previous home. It was mostly out of fear on what others might think of her when she uses her powers, even though the people she's currently living with have powers of their own they might think differently about it, but it was primarily out of _him_ finding her. Rachel would shudder at times when that thought crosses her mind, so she tries to not think of it at all.

But even then, Rachel was pretty limited on her skill in the magic arts due to her previous teachers hardly helping her at all. Fearing if they do teach her well enough, she might become too strong for them to handle and she'd possibly assist _him_ in harming others. So they would only teach Rachel either the bare minimum or hardly anything at all. Though the only thing they truly taught her was controlling and suppressing her emotions so _he_ would have a harder time in finding her.

'I just hope that this new school can teach me more on what I really need now that I'm here instead of _there_.' The ashen child thought while she nervously played with part of her dress. Rachel was brought out of her musings when Pamela pulled her back a bit.

"Harley!" Pam scolded towards her friend. "You almost ran over Rachel!"

"Sorry Red, but these skates aren't all that great on the breaks." The changed psychologist said in an apologetic tone. She was currently wearing a white sleeveless, button up shirt with the bottom tied into a knot to show off her toned stomach and unintentionally pushing up her breasts. There was also a pair of red short-shorts to show off her long toned legs, which ended with a pair of white rollerblades. She also had a white purse around her shoulder with her hair tied into high pigtails. To finish off her appearance was her sprayed on skin tone so she could try and look natural in public.

"Well you should've done a better job doing so." The botanist said with a narrowed glance before looking back at Rachel with a worried look. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Pam." Rachel said to reassure her elder housemate. "I was just distracted, that's all."

The redhead could only raise a brow on the answer, but shortly replied back to the child with a question. "By what exactly?"

"Just different things really. Nothing to really worry about."

"...If you say so."

"So asides from me almost running into Rachel, you still didn't answer my question Red."

"Which was what exactly? I was a little distracted in being sure my cute little housemate wasn't run over by you." The Green champion said while hugging Rachel close and rubbing her cheek against the young child. This got said child all fussy and tried to pull away, but the older woman was a bit strong on the hold.

"Whatever you say Red." Was all Harley could say with an eye roll before she asked her question again. "So you turn in your thesis paper yet? The one for the botanical garden position?"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that as well Pam." Naruto said as he pulled out another water bottle from his backpack for not just himself, but for his girlfriends as well. "You've been putting a lot of work into that for a while now."

"I have and yes, I have turned it in. *Sigh* Now I just need to wait for their response if they'll hire me."

"And what was your thesis paper about anyways?"

Turning towards her the young ward, Pam responded back with a small smile. "Something that might be a bit hard for you to understand Rachel, but it's something that'll hopefully help improve the relationships between plant and animal life." 'And possibly even more than that.'

"...Okay." Short was the answer given since the child would have possibly agreed on not wanting to know on the big sciency stuff. If it was in the field of magic, then she'd be more than happy to learn more on it. But for now she'll settle with what she got.

"Enough about me Harley, let's talk about you now."

"Say what now?" Harley asked as she tried to stop herself from tripping over via skate crashing.

"Since you've brought up work, how are things on your end Harl?"

Regaining her balance, with a bit of help from her puddin, Harley spoke up while skating alongside them. "It's been doing alright for the most part. Routine sessions here and there, lots and lots of paperwork, the usual."

"Really?" The publisher asked as he casually walked with his precious companions. "Nothing else asides from those?"

"...Well~ There is one person that tries to make things interesting at Arkham."

"And who would that be?"

"He goes by Hugo Strange." Harley replied as she kept her eyes on the sidewalk. "Transferred from Blackgate due to what happened on the Joker Breakout. He does well on his job to try and keep things afloat until we can get back to a full staff."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming." Naruto added in, making the changed blonde sigh a little.

"But there seems something strange about him that I can't quite put it…. Heh… Strange." The blonde said with a snort for her unintentional joke.

"You're not the only one Harl." Pam said towards backing up her friend's claim. "The last time I came on by for my 'parole' meeting with Joan, ended up chatting with the man. And I agree… something seemed odd about him."

"Like what?"

"It is pretty hard to tell with how he talks, but there seems to be something behind all of that and I can't quite place it."

"You want me to check on him?" The Uzumaki suggested, but only got a negative response in return.

"It's probably nothing puddin, but if something comes up I'll give you the go ahead. Okay?~"

"That's fine."

"Great!" Harley enthusiastically said before she saw her boyfriend stop dead in his tracks. "Puddin? Is something wrong?"

He didn't say anything and this concerned not only her, but also Rachel and Pam. The three were confused in what was going on, but soon turned their heads towards where Naruto was facing. It was a painted ladies house with a faded blue paint job on the exterior of the building. It seemed pretty homey for the most part from what the girls can see from across the street, but something about it seemed to get Naruto to walk towards it. Not wanting to be left behind, the three girls went after him with caution so they wouldn't get hit by any cars.

"Is something wrong puddin?" Harley asked as she didn't get a response at all. All he did was going towards the one building before coming to a full stop right in front of it. "Okay… I know this is a nice house and all, but what's so important that you had to literally go jaywalking with dozens of cars going through this street buster?!"

"Harl please." Pam said as she tried to calm down her friend, but also wondered the same question as well.

"I lived here."

"What?" Pam and Harley asked while Rachel gained a questioning look on her face.

Naruto walked up the steps of the home and traced his fingers on the numbered address on the wall. Then traveled towards the mailbox by the door with a small sense of nostalgia filling his very being. "I used to live here when I first came into Gotham."

 _ **-Flashback, Five Years Ago-**_

 _*Sigh* "Why can't I find a good place to live in this kami-forsaken city?" Naruto asked as he strolled through one of the many streets of Gotham. "That was the ninth place I went to and it was really, falsely advertised."_

 _He moved into Gotham just a week ago and was currently staying at a hotel building until he can find a good place to live at while getting his company up and running. The majority of his belongings were currently in Metropolis, all nicely packed up and ready to ship out, but asked Lois and Cat to hold onto them until he got a nice roof over his head. They were nice to hold onto them, even though they wanted him to stay in the city._

 _So a bit after coming into Gotham, to start up his idea of a publishing company, he went out and checked various places available. There were many on the advertisements he found at the newspaper stands, some big and some small, but Naruto had filtered through a lot on his current price range. Once that was done, the silver haired male went out to go apartment window shopping and it seemed fine... at first._

 _Naruto called and set up several appointments, while others were just plain walk-ins, to see the conditions on the various available residences. The first, promising handfuls ended up having him on a waiting list to see if the owners would get him to end up taking him in, but he knew it'll take too long and very unlikely for him to nab the place. The next few were okay at best, but the occupants for the shared apartment were a combined mixture of annoying and stressful to possibly deal with. The last handfuls were not pleasant at all with the conditions were absolutely horrid._

" _Why did that last place not get properly cleaned up by the time I got over there?" Grumbled the former shinobi as he ran his hand through his hair. "I swear it smelled so badly and must've stung my eyes that I had to run out of that place. *Groan* Not only that, but it was a total dump. Made me think of one of those home meth labs I ran into with Cat and Lois for that one assignment."_

 _As he was in his personal musings, he accidentally knocked over a woman that was carrying two large bags of groceries._

" _Gah!" The woman cried out as she fell down with most of her purchased goods fell onto the sidewalk._

" _Oh kami I'm so sorry." Naruto apologetically stated as he went down to the ground and checked to see her condition. "Are you alright?"_

" _Yes I am. Thank you." The woman mumbled as she rubbed her head on the recent ache. "I just couldn't see where I was properly going. *Sigh* Shouldn't get the big loads anymore or else I might end up in something worse._

 _Feeling a little satisfied on the woman's condition, he went to pick up the scattered groceries to try and make up on what he unintentionally did. It took a few minutes, but everything seemed to be good without anything being broken at all. Without telling her, the Uzumaki grabbed one of the large bags and held it close to his chest._

" _Let me help you out and get these back to your place ma'am. It's the least I can do." He said as he soon took a good look at her. She was a mid-back length blonde woman with darkened eyes that seemed to hold a lot of happiness. She was about half a head shorter than him in terms of height with her being in her late 20's/early 30's. Asides from her physical appearance, she wore a pair of pants with a dark green sweater._

 _She was hesitant on the offer, but she struggled a little on carrying the two bags and her arms were hurting a little. "Okay, you can help me out till I get back. But no funny buisness sir or else I'm calling the police."_

 _Naruto could only nod his head as he followed the woman towards her home. Not much was said between the two of them as they only had small talk during the several block walk. The Uzumaki learned the woman's name was Nora and she was happily married towards her husband of six years so far. For Nora she learned on what Naruto was trying to do so far, but kept the little information for herself. But overall, the conversation was pleasant enough that the two got a decent read out of the other._

 _By the time they arrived at Nora's home, they saw a man walk out of the front door to sign something for the delivery man before receiving a package from said man. Once the postal worker went away, the man saw Nora off to the side and gained a questioning look on his face. From there he placed the package inside before walking down the steps and came towards her._

" _Eh Nora, who's this?"_

" _Sorry Victor, we ran into each other and Naruto here wanted to help me out to get these groceries back."_

 _The now identified Victor nodded and turned towards the silver haired male. "Well thanks for helping out a little."_

" _No problem at all sir." Naruto responded back as he got a good look at who he quickly assumed to be Nora's husband. He was clearly in his early thirties and was around the whiskered male's height. His receding brown hair on top of his head with a pair of glasses to compliment his look of a tucked in polo shirt and shorts._

" _Victor, are we still renting out that one room of ours?" Nora asked as Naruto ended up confused on the sudden question._

" _Why yes. Why you ask dear?"_

" _Yeah why bring this up ma'am?"_

" _Well... Naruto here seems like a nice kid during our small chat walking over here. Ended up telling me his current problem and I'd thought we could kill two birds with one stone. Him renting a room from us and we ending up with some nice company."_

" _But are you sure about that Nora?" Victor said as he seemed worried on his wife's suggestion. "You just met him not half an hour or so ago."_

" _Yes I'm sure dear, but question is what about you Naruto?"_

 _Naruto could only scratch his head, with his available arm, before replying back to them. "...I don't know on that for sure ma'am. And I agree with your husband since we have only met roughly half an hour ago." When seeing the look on her face, he could tell she won't settle down on the offer quite just yet. "But we could head inside and talk things over on what you're offering on the price range Nora."_

 _Nora could only let out a smile that seemed infectious before she pulled the former blonde male with her husband not far behind. "Great."_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"...And that was how I met my landlords." The publisher finished off retelling on how he met Nora and Victor Fries. "Lived with them for about three years before I decided to move out and into my current loft when my publishing company went really well. Been pretty good friends with them even after I moved out."

"And do they still live here?" Rachel asked as she voiced the older two woman's thoughts. She looked at the place that it seemed fine on the condition, but something seemed off about it. But their answer was soon received as Naruto sighed and shook his head 'no'.

"They… Aren't around here anymore Rachel." He somberly said as he walked down the steps. "Come on, we should probably get going."

Rachel could only stand there for a brief moment before looking up towards Pam and Harley. "What did he mean by that?"

*Sigh* "He probably means that they're gone Rachel." Pam said as Harley carefully came down the steps with her rollerblades. "They must've died sometime before I met him and this is actually the first time I'm hearing about this."

After that, the three girls went towards Naruto to try and be in better spirits after the bit of a depressing tone. They could tell that he tried to hide the bit of pain resurfacing inside of him with his joking and bright personality. But for the rest of the day the three could tell that something else was going on that Naruto wouldn't want to tell them.

 _ **-Evening, GothCorp Installation Plant-**_

It seemed to be quite a silent night so far. Nothing amiss in the surrounding area for the security guards to be weary of. The only thing that would occasionally pass by the company complex were some cars here and there. But with the latest string of robberies towards GothCorp, security had to be very attentive on any possible attacks.

And one is possibly happening right now, with an armored vehicle speeding towards the gate.

"Halt!" One of the guards yelled out into the megaphone as he went out to stop the vehicle. "Stand where you are!"

The demand was obviously ignored as the armored vehicle crashed through the gated entrance. Luckily none of the guards were hurt in the process as they jumped out of the way just in time. Though when they were getting back up, one of the guards pushed the other out of the way as the batmobile sped right past the two men.

The pursuit wasn't unnoticed as the thug driving the armored vehicle saw the batmobile from the side view mirror. He knew that if they tried to ignore the Bat, then their hired goal for the evening would be ruined and everyone sent to the slammer. So said driver called out towards the occupants in the vehicle.

"We got company!"

" _Keep your mind on your business."_ An electronic voice called out from the back. _"I'll handle this."_

The driver complied as he kept focused on his current task. As for the one who spoke out a few moments ago, he got up from his seat in the darkened space and went towards the back of the vehicle. He opened a small window from the back door, pulled out a gun and aimed at the road below before firing. It was then that a ray emanated from the gun and once it hit the concrete road, it was soon covered with a thick layer of ice.

'The hell?!' The Bat thought from what he was seeing before his batmobile came in contact with the icy road. It caused the bat themed vehicle to swerve out of control as the hero tried to keep his ride steady. For extra good measure, he pressed a few buttons to launch a grappling hook from the back to latch onto a good, sturdy surface to hopefully slow the batmobile down. But the attempt was futile as this made things worse with the Bat's car soon crashing to a nearby wall.

Back with the armored vehicle, the top hatch opened up before the same ice gun used before fired upon the oncoming gate of the building. It wasn't long before it was covered with a thick layer of ice as the armored vehicle soon crashed right through it. With the occupants inside safe, they were soon signaled by the man who hired them to exit out and complete their task for the evening.

*BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE*

Once all of the thugs left the armored vehicle, except for the driver, the man who hired them stepped out into the light. He appeared to be in a suit of armor that had a black and silver color scheme with glowing blue lights, along with a tank strapped onto his back. In his right hand had the large ice gun that was previously used. To finish off the man's appearance, there was a glass dome that seemed foggy on the covering. But what one could make out of the man's appearance was of him being bald with palish blue skin tone and a pair of glowing red, flare goggles over his eyes.

" _Load those canisters into the car."_ The man said in his electronic voice, clearly showing that he was the ringleader of this operation. The thugs complied as they rushed towards said objects. _"Hurry before the Batman shows up."_

The ringleader was watching the hired muscle doing their task to be sure everything went according to plan. As he scanned the area, he saw a pair of security guards about to open up the doors into the current room. The ringleader soon fired his weapon towards the door so they wouldn't interfere, leaving a wall of ice in the process.

" _Are you done?"_

"We're all set boss!" One of the thugs called out before something grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up into the air. "AAAAAHHH!"

"Shit it's the Batman!"

"Hey put me down!" The one thug cried out.

"If you insist."

And just like that, the Batman unlatched his grappling hook and the one thug fell towards the ground and onto one of the other thugs before a smoke pellet came down and exploded. In the midst of the confusion, the Dark Knight landed in the middle of a large portion of thugs and attacked them one by one. Quickly sending punches and kicks to immobilize each of the hired men. With some of the stragglers, Batman dashed towards them and dealt with them by the time the smoke cleared out.

With the thugs defeated, Batman turned his attention towards the armored ringleader. "Freeze!"

" _That's Mr. Freeze to you Batman."_ The armored man spoke out as he clarified his identity towards the masked vigilante. Mr. Freeze then pointed his gun towards the Bat, whom responded by quickly throwing a batarang to hopefully disarm the ringleader. But this proved futile as the gun fired it's ice ray towards the thrown weapon and encasing it in an icy shell. The moment it fell onto the ground, due to the sudden addition of weight, it broke instantaneously

'That's not good.' The Bat thought since metal breaking into smaller pieces shouldn't be possible unless it was under certain conditions. And being quickly frozen from that weapon made that happen.

" _This is a personal vendetta Batman."_ Warned the armored being with his gun still trained at the Bat. _"It doesn't concern you."_

"It's my concern now."

" _...Since you ally yourself with my enemy, then you leave me no choice."_

The man then pulled the trigger of the ice gun as the beam traveled through the air towards it's target. Batman rolled out of the way as he narrowly escaped the icy blast, which quickly curved upwards to leave a large pillar of ice. Once recovering, Batman fired his grappling gun towards the ceiling to try and hide from his opponent.

" _Hiding is useless Batman."_ Mr. Freeze stated as he fired upon the facility's ceiling. _"I have studied many of your way of combat for my eventual confrontation with you."_

'I can't let that blast hit me.' Batman thought as he quickly moved through the catwalk above. 'I need to figure out on how to stop him.'

As he was trying to figure out his strategy, the Caped Crusader turned on his detective vision to try and see the varying option in the room that could help him out. He used his grappling gun and swung his way towards the other side of the room so Mr. Freeze wouldn't spot him. Batman waited his time until the ringleader was right underneath him. By the time his target was in position, Batman swooped down and delivered an ax kick onto the armored man.

" _GAH!"_ Freeze cried out before he was assaulted by several punches that seemed to not harm him that much. Though the blow that did affect him slightly was when the Bat slammed his glass dome onto the ground to make it ring inside of it. _"A slight mishap. I can change my strategies, but can you do the same?"_

Freeze then fired his weapon at many high places in the room that would originally give Batman the good advantage of the higher ground and now it was useless. The hero had to quickly move out of the way as several blasts were following him, which landed against varying canisters lying about. It was at this time that several thugs were slowly getting back up.

"Shit. I don't want to be in this mess."

"Right man." One of the thugs nodded as he slowly moved towards the armored truck. "We need to be careful or else we'll get hit."

Batman was creeping against one of the larger sections of walls that hid himself from the armored man's peripheral vision. The Dark Knight does have one small advantage that the ringleader possibly doesn't know, which is his detective vision. So this piece of technology could help him out in this fight, but the question is for how long?

Just as Freeze was coming closer towards the Bat's position, the armored man spoke out. _"I understand your strategies and I shall defeat them all."_

'We'll see about that.' Was all Batman thought before he threw an exploding batarang at the ringleader. Like before, Mr. Freeze was caught off guard which left him wide open for an assault. Batman dashed towards Freeze and delivered several blows onto the ringleader before his attempt to get away.

" _You will not escape this time."_ Freeze growled out before he fired his weapon.

The moment Batman moved out of the way, the ice ray impacted the legs of one of the thugs, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Johnny!" One of the thugs cried out as he tried to help his friend.

After the failed attempt on hitting the Batman, Mr. Freeze anticipated where the Dark Knight will eventually end up at. He soon fired his freeze gun towards the guessed spot, leaving an icy section on the catwalk above. The moment Batman landed on it, it gave way and made the hero fall towards the stacked canisters with a crashing thud.

Not wanting the Batman to interfere more than he has so far this evening, the ringleader fired his gun towards the spot to leave a thick layer of ice in the surrounding area. Knowing that he won't escape in time, Batman covered himself in his durable cape so he could possibly escape once the others leave. Not knowing of the Batman's plan, Mr. Freeze was satisfied with his latest action and walked towards the armored vehicle.

"Don't worry Johnny, we're getting you out of here." One of the thugs said as he tried to help his friend up.

" _Leave him."_

"What?!" The thug yelled out in shock. "But boss-!"

" _He should've been more careful."_ Freeze stated as he stepped into the vehicle. _"And now he's paid the price for his incompetence."_

"But he's one of us!"

The ringleader soon pointed his weapon towards the one thug, causing him to back away in fear a bit with some of the others. _"Then would you like to share his fate?"_

Not wanting this to happen, the thugs lowered their heads and decided to leave their comrade behind. This made Johnny widen his eyes in both pain and in shock on what just happened. He tried to crawl his way towards the others and called out to them with tears in his eyes.

"P-Please! Don't leave me guys!" Johnny pleaded as he missed grabbing ahold of one of the men's legs. He tried to make it towards the armored vehicle, but the doors soon closed and the engine started up. "PLEASE! COME BACK!"

By the time the vehicle was backing out of the icy room, Batman broke out of his frozen entrapment. He struggled a few times to break free but it soon costed him on time. Since the moment he started running towards the escaping vehicle, the one thug cried out and gained the Batman's attention.

"Help! P-Please!" The man weeped as the pain was becoming too much for him.

The Bat contemplated to himself if he should go after the armored truck and see where they were going or go help the fallen thug. If he went to chase after the others, then the hero would stop whatever they were planning. But this would cause the hero to leave the thug to die from hypothermia in the process….

And Batman couldn't let that happen.

 _ **-Later, Batcave-**_

Alfred was coming towards a certain section of the cave where a large machine was currently active with a man inside of it. It's an experimental healing tank that Marva Cooper made at the R&D division of Wayne Industries. She stated that she was inspired of the bacta tank from the Star Wars franchise and wanted to see if it could work in real life. Using it to help accelerate healing and fix major injuries would possibly be a big boom in the medical field. But it was still in it's experimental phases so not a lot could be done until all of the kinks could be fixed.

Bruce found potential out of the device and had one installed inside of the Batcave in case of emergencies if it presented itself. And this was a good of a time as any to really use this as Batman was using said device to help heal the thug he brought in to rid of the ice on his legs. For security measures, the man was blindfolded and sedated so the injured thug wouldn't know where was at.

"I must say that I'm surprised you're showing much compassion for this poor fellow." Alfred stated as he looked around the experimental equipment. "Considering that he would've left you behind if you were in his place."

"True, but I couldn't let that happen." Bruce stated as he fully activated the machine. The generators went to full blast with electricity sparking left and right causing the liquid inside of the tank to bubble and boil. It was a steady process and the costumed billionaire couldn't rush the procedure.

"You know, with all those compartments on your belt, you'd think there would've been one for tissues or a handkerchief for that cold of yours." The butler said as he steadily walked towards his old charge with a handkerchief on hand.

*Sniff* "T-Thanks." Bruce then took the offered cloth and blew his nose into it. It was not a great feeling he was experiencing as he soon developed a cold, due to him being encased in ice in the earlier confrontation.

It was at this time that the ice encasing the poor thug's legs started to crumble due to the chemicals inside of the tank. Bruce smiled at this as it was a good success on a bit of the trial run he was doing for his R&D employee. Though he will need to do more testing when the time comes, but for now…

"AAAACHOO!"

The sound of the sneeze echoed throughout the cave, causing many bats to wake up and flutter about.

"I think you should get some rest sir after a nice hot bath." Alfred offered as he walked away slightly so he can draw Bruce said bath.

*Sniffle* "I'll get one later Alfred, but for now I need to get our unconscious guest to the GCPD. *Cough* *Cough* And after that I need to go see if I can get a meeting with Mr. Ferris Boyle."

"Which I believe will be in the morning sir." The Wayne butler added in as he really did want Bruce to get some good sleep after not only recent events, but on the murder investigation on Bethanie Ravencroft. "You've exhausted yourself quite enough and you need your rest or else you'll harm yourself without realizing it. So once you're back taking this poor chap where he belongs, you need to take your bath and go to sleep."

The caped billionaire wanted to argue and get out of the demand, but the way Alfred was staring him down reminded him of the first time he had developed a cold. It was not that great when he was a child and both his parents and butler were very adamant on him taking his medicine and rest. Bruce was fussy about it and refused several times before he got quite unwell as an end result.

Sucking up his pride, Bruce complied with his old friend's suggestion… right after he dropped off the thug since he did not want to risk the man waking up in his cave.

 _ **-Morning, GothCorp-**_

It was slightly cloudy throughout most of Gotham, resulting of the weather becoming rather muggy. It seemed to help on the uneasy feeling as of late for most people if they couldn't fully handle the heat. Even more so with GothCorp on the string of robberies, but they are doing what they can to keep things in a better light in the darkened mood.

When Bruce arrived at the corporate building, he was still feeling unwell due to the flu and it seemed to get a tad worse because of the current weather. Though a lot of cough syrup, cough drops and liquids helped a bit, but they can only do so far. This little bug of his won't be getting in the way with his goal in mind for the morning as he hoped this could be resolved as soon as possible.

*Ding*

The elevator opened up, to which Bruce stepped out and made his way towards the secretary desk. By the time the billionaire got closer, the stationed secretary was finishing up a phone call before looking towards the new arrival. He gave the woman one of his charming smiles to keep up his appearances so nothing would seem amiss.

"Hello there ma'am."

"Hello." The secretary responded back with a small smile. "Do you have an appointment with Mr. Boyle sir?"

"I'm afraid not, but I was wondering if there was an opened spot at the moment."

"Eh… Let me see." The secretary looked towards the schedule sheet and alligned it towards the current time before looking back up. "Well you're in luck sir. Mr. Boyle doesn't have a scheduled appointment till about half an hour from now. So I think it's good if you could go in."

"Great to hear on that."

"Though let me page him to see if he'd want to see you Mr…"

"Wayne, Bruce Wayne."

She nodded at this before picking up the phone on the desk and called Boyle's office. "...Sir. Bruce Wayne is here and he'd like to see you."

…..

"Okay, I'll let him know." She said before hanging up the phone. "He said you can go right in Mr. Wayne."

"Thank you."

When reaching the door, Bruce prepared himself for the coming meeting so that he wouldn't let anything seem out of the ordinary. Once opening the door, he was greeted with the sight of the GothCorp CEO at his desk writing through several documents. When hearing the door open, Ferris looked up and wore a smile on his face when seeing the dark haired 'playboy'.

"Well if it isn't Bruce Wayne." Ferris stated as he rose from his office chair to greet the successful billionaire. "It's been forever. How you been? Still the terror of the night scene?"

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough* "I get around." Bruce simply answered as he walked towards one of the empty cushioned seats near the main office desk. "Speaking of terror, *Cough* *Cough* what's this I hear about someone causing trouble for your company Ferris?"

*Sigh* "Beats me. Probably some fruitcake trying to get out for me. Though I don't know why."

*Cough* *Cough* "Maybe it's an investor who lost money." Bruce suggested as he wanted to possibly probe for information on the identity of the ice themed ringleader he fought last night. "Or an angry ex-employee."

"Well… There's only one man who'd hate GothCorp that much." The CEO said in a grim tone before adding in one last detail. "If he were alive that is."

This seemed to get Bruce quite curious on this bit of information. It wasn't the first time someone could've faked their own demise and come back later for revenge. But the 'playboy' had to keep up his little act. "Who?"

"One of our scientists, an obsessed wacko if you ask me." Ferris stated as he walked back into his office chair and sat back down. "He was caught using company equipment for personal reasons. I had to send in security to shut him down. A fight occurred and an explosion that soon followed. And in the end we lost him."

*Cough* *Cough* "And what was he doing anyways?"

Ferris soon got peeved as he narrowed his eyes in disgust before responding. "Wasting company money. _My_ money." He soon calmed down for a brief moment before getting back into a better mood. "Look, Bruce, that 'People Company' line is great PR and all, but when the wage slaves start acting like they own the place, it's time to pull the plug. Know what I mean?"

This got Bruce a little on edge and gritted his teeth, but didn't show it all that much. This man was apparently like any other company CEO that was truly corrupt one way or another. Only doing good deeds to keep up appearances for what the man could really be hiding behind the happy facade.

"I get what you mean to say Ferris."

"Good to know." The CEO said with a small smile before it went into a frown. "Though there was one little hiccup that went on shortly afterwards. A friend of my late scientist came on by and was proclaiming threats on what happened towards his departed friend."

"And who would that be?" Bruce asked since this person could give him a bit of information on what happened exactly.

"That Spiral Publishing owner Naruto Uzumaki." Ferris replied with a small sneer. He pretty much missed the slight widening of Bruce's eyes on the new piece of information.

Soon the intercom speaker on Boyle's desk went off, making the company owner press the button to answer the call. _"Sir. The Humanitarian Committee is here."_

Ferris pressed another button before responding back to his secretary. "Thank you for letting me know. I'll be right down as soon as possible." Once the small call ended, Ferris brought his attention back towards Bruce. "We're hosting a ceremony tonight for Gotham's Humanitarian Industrialist of the Year. *Chuckle* And guess who's winning."

"I feel ill." Bruce lowly growled out, making the GothCorp CEO look at him in confusion. "Sorry. *Cough* *Cough* I caught the summer cold due to the change of weather and working a lot lately hasn't really helped." Seemingly buying into the lie, Ferris nodded as he ushered the billionaire out of his office. "Also congrats on winning the award. I'm sure it's _well_ deserved."

"Thanks for that Bruce and be sure to get some rest. Don't want that cold to get worse mind you."

As Bruce was going down the elevator, several thoughts were running through his mind. How was one of his friends involved with this case of his and what could've possibly happened at that time. Several more went on through by the time Bruce reached the bottom floor. When he got outside and walked towards his parked car, he spotted a familiar vehicle slowly stopping due to the current traffic.

"Is that Naruto?" Bruce muttered as he looked from his position to see the silver haired publisher glaring at the GothCorp building with a mixture of sadness and disdain. He wondered what was going on before Bruce saw his friend drive off. The billionaire tried to call him out to see if he could speak with him, but he needed answers.

 _ **-Gotham Cemetery-**_

"Why is he here of all places?" Bruce questioned as he parked his car some distance away and carefully walked towards the cemetery. It took a bit of effort to tail him, but he was surprised on where he was going. He had guessed that Naruto could've stopped on by to place flowers on the gravestone of Pamela's mother, but that didn't seem to be the case.

Naruto made a brief stop towards the grave marker of Thomas and Martha Wayne and placed a few roses there before patting it's side as he moved onwards. Bruce appreciated the gesture, but he shook it off as he silently moved so he wouldn't reveal his location. After some more feet away, the dark haired billionaire saw his friend standing in front of a grave marker before placing a bouquet of flowers on it.

"Sorry that I haven't been here for a while you two." The Uzumaki somberly said as he patted the top of the tombstone. "A lot has happened since I came here last and I wish I could've made time to see you more often. *Sigh* But I guess I have a lot to catch you guys up on."

'Who is he talking to?' Bruce thought as he moved around a little to try and get a better look of who was resting there.

*Sigh* "You can come out now Bruce." Naruto said as he seemed to startle his friend. "I promise that they won't bite you at all."

Seeing as his cover was blown, the Wayne moved from his position and came towards his friend. "How did you know I was here?"

"I noticed you were tailing me a while ago and the car didn't help to hide who was the driver."

"I see."

"Though why were you following me anyways?" The silver haired publisher questioned as he turned towards his friend's direction.

"I saw the look you were giving the GothCorp building as you passed by and I was wondering what got you so upset."

"And why were you there at GothCorp anyways?"

Wanting to come up with a little lie, he couldn't come up with a good one on short notice. "I was wondering about the recent string of robberies towards the GothCorp and I sought answers for anything to settle my curiosity." He said before silently pleading towards himself. 'Come on, buy it.'

Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly before they softened as he nodded his head. Bruce mentally patted himself on the back on the little success on the bought lie. With that out of the way, he turned towards the grave marker and saw that it was somewhat unkempt after god knows how long. Naruto squatted down and started to pick off some of the weeds and unkempt grass, which started to clear out more of the details of the grave markers. After a few more moments, Bruce got an eyeful on the gravemarkers details.

'Nora and Victor Fries.' He thought as he soon looked at the years on said marker. 'They died last year?'

"You're probably wondering why I'm here of all places Bruce." The publisher said as he kept pulling off the weeds with his bare hands. "And I can tell you if you'd like."

Not wanting to be rude on the gesture, Bruce spoke out towards his friend. "As much as I would like to, it's fine if you don't want to talk about it."

"Nah. It's fine really. Though to tell you the truth, I've been a bad friend on not seeing these two since last Autumn. I guess they must hate me on that, but who knows for sure."

"And who are they exactly and how do you know them?"

*Sigh* "When I first moved into Gotham five years ago, I eventually got a place to live at and these two were my landlords." Naruto said with a small smile before continuing with his explanation. "I eventually became great friends with the couple and I had a great time living underneath their roof. Playing countless chess matches with Victor while helping Nora out around the house during the time when I was getting my publishing company started up."

"And how didn't I get the chance in meeting them?"

"...Even though they were a 'people couple', they tended to keep towards themselves and within a small circle of friends and family. Takes a while to earn a place in the friend category, but I apparently got into it quite easily. And I respected their privacy enough that I didn't want to introduce them to others if they didn't want to." The publisher said as he got up from his crouched position and dusted himself off a little. "Lived with them for about three years before I moved into my loft. But even after I moved out, I would always go over there to spend time with the couple. Those were some of the nicest times I would cherish for a long time."

"And… And what happened?"

*Sigh* "Nora was getting sick after their eighth year anniversary. We didn't know what the disease was at the time, as the doctors were even baffled by the mystery. It was later called MacGregor's Syndrome to at least put a name on the disease. A genetic defect that creates fluid build up in the lungs, which leads to oxygen deprivation and multi-system organ failure. But Victor and I thought there must've been much more than just that, leading him towards hopefully finding a cure for the love of his life."

 _ **-Flashback, One Year Ago. Insert Gotham OST: Meet Nora Fries-**_

 _*Sigh* "Man Victor, you weren't kidding that you had a lot of groceries to get today." Naruto said as he helped his former landlord out on the one errand. He had come by earlier to spend time with the couple and the scientist had asked to help him out on the grocery shopping._

" _Well our supplies were running low so I needed to go out sometime and restock our pantries."_

" _All so very true." The former tenant stated as he helped open up the front door to the Fries residence._

" _I still can't thank you enough on helping us with our bills Naruto." The scientist said as he brought in the first load of groceries into the kitchen._

" _It's no problem Victor and it's the least that I can do for my favorite landlords ever."_

 _The unloading went by quickly for the two men before they made their way towards the guest bedroom where Nora was sleeping. After her being diagnosed with the rare disease, she was moved into Naruto's former room with some medical equipment to help stabilize the frail blonde woman. It was heartbreaking for the Uzumaki in seeing this happen and wished he could do more to fix their problems as he looked at the nearby table of the many empty pill bottles Nora had to consume to keep her alright._

" _Hey you two." Nora weakly said as she turned her head towards the doorway. "How was shopping?"_

" _It was decent Nora like every other time." Her loving husband stated as he moved some strands of hair out of the way from her face._

" _I was having a dream about you." She said with a small smile on her face. "We were at that little red cabin by the beach. Remember?"_

" _Yes…. I remember. About nine years ago." Victor said with a small smile with him remembering that fateful day. "God you looked like a movie star. Sometimes I wonder how I was so lucky into dating you in the first place."_

" _And I never regretted it, since it lead towards the best years of my life." Her smile soon turned into a frown as she saw the bags underneath his eyes. "You look tired dear."_

" _The combination of your health and that bastard Ferris breathing down his neck on projects have been keeping him away from a lot of his sleep. Though you should mostly put a lot of the blame on the later Nora." Naruto said as he came up to the ill blonde woman._

" _Naruto…"_

" _No it's alright Victor and he's right." The wife said in a weakly stern tone. "Ferris should've laid off on all that work you've been doing. *Growl* And he says that he's a humanitarian."_

 _The moment she stopped speaking, Nora started to harshly cough which soon panicked the two men in the room. Especially with blood coming out of her mouth._

" _Shit!" Naruto said as he went towards the pill bottles. "This is too soon!"_

" _I know that Naruto!" Victor yelled out as he went to grab the oxygen pump. "Nora. Breathe, Nora. I'm right here. Look at me honey." He then looked at his former tenant and spoke out. "Where the hell is the formoterol?!"_

" _I'm looking Victor!" The Uzumaki harshly said before he was able to find some pills. "Here we are!" He then brought the pills towards Nora and placed them into her mouth. She carefully swallowed them before her husband placed the oxygen pump towards her mouth to help her breathe._

 _*Crying* "Oh god… That was the worst one yet." She said as she spoke through the oxygen mask._

" _Nora…. That was the last set of pills." The former shinobi said, which soon alarmed the scientist. "Why did you tell us?"_

 _*Gasping for breath* "I-I'm so sorry. I-I forgot. I have so many. God there's so many."_

 _Victor soon grasped Nora's hand into his own and gave it a firm squeeze, but not too tight so that he wouldn't harm the light of his life. "If you have another attack and you don't have this medication, you could die. Please Nora, you can't let this happen again. You should've told us sooner."_

 _*Sobbing* "Why… Why does it matter?"_

" _It matters Nora since we care very much about you and it would deeply hurt us if you were gone." Naruto stated before he moved from his position and headed out of the current room._

" _And where are you going?"_

 _Turning towards the scientist, the publisher had a determined look on his face before answering his friend's question. "I'm going out to get more of her prescription Victor. You stay here and keep an eye on her."_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"...Luckily for me, the one pharmacy I went to had a sleazy worker there." Naruto recounted as he told his friend the story. "Flashed him some money for a bribe, along with a fake doctor's note, and I was able to nab their whole, available supply of formoterol."

"Isn't that illegal?" Bruce questioned with a raised brow. He felt sorry on what happened to Nora and wished he could've helped back then if he would've known about this. But he knew there was more to this story than what his friend was telling at the moment.

"For the most part yes, but I didn't want to see Nora die too soon. And there was no way in hell I was going to let Victor go to the pharmacy in that kind of mood. He would've done something drastic and could've gotten him in trouble. I mean, imagine yourself married with the love of your life practically dying. What would've you done to be sure she would be safe? I would've moved heaven and earth to see her well."

"...I can already imagine that Naruto... But what happened afterwards?"

*Sigh* "Victor was getting desperate. He proposed a project to Ferris that would've made the company a pretty penny. Victor couldn't tell me what it was, especially since I was busy for most of that time for work, but he was sure that it'll at least help prolong Nora's life. The only time Victor came to me for help was requesting some outside funding due to the original funding being cut after a certain amount of time."

"And did you?"

"You bet I did Bruce and I told him to not pay me back one cent, despite him saying he'll repay me someday. *Sigh* The last time I saw them was a day or two before their deaths and when I heard of what happened, I wanted to sue them and expose of their lack of humanity their company really had."

"And why didn't you?" Bruce questioned as he felt his friend was justified in doing what he intended to do.

"I really wanted to Bruce. I really did, but with the lack of evidence would only hurt me in the process. Didn't help when Boyle had many of his best lawyers hounding me down to drop my attempts. Now all that I have left of them are the memories of them, along with their belongings in a storage unit." Naruto said before he looked back at the grave marker he paid for with a silent conversation towards the dead.

Bruce felt sorry for his friend's loss as it truly taken a toll on him. Possibly the attacks at GothCorp brought up those memories and reopened some wounds. Who knows for sure.

"I should probably get going Naruto." Bruce said as snapped Naruto out of his thoughts. "I have things to do and I don't want to ruin any of your private time."

"That's fine Bruce... And thanks for listening. Tried to tell the girls about this, but I needed to come here first… to help clear my sorrows. Even if it's just a little bit."

The 'playboy' nodded as he made his way out of the graveyard, but not making a small stop towards his parent's gravesite so he too can pay his respects. Bruce knew he needed to gather more information on what's going on so he'll need to go to GothCorp tonight when the security is mostly laxed. Until then, he had a lot to think about and properly mourn the dead at a better time. Even with Bethanie's death for example.

 _ **-Hours Later, Unknown Location-**_

" _...And I want to say that these… unwarranted attacks against GothCorp have no way changed our personal commitment towards the community." Ferris Boyle spoke out at the award ceremony inside of his corporate building._

" _Inspirational words from the Humanitarian Industrialist of the Year. This is Summer Gleeson from Gotham Insider and we'll come back for the award ceremony tonight."_

Once that was said; an icy ray impacted the TV set in a high intensity, causing it to ice over and crumble into pieces shortly after.

" _Humanity…"_ The electronic voice of Mr. Freeze spoke out in disgust as he was sitting in a icy throne at his hideout. _"Compassion. Charity. Where were those pretty words from Boyle when she needed to hear them."_

The sounds of work were emanating through the lair as Freeze scanned over the work being done. The hired help he acquired were wearing weather protection so they wouldn't die from the intensive cold. Seeing that the machine he'd planned out was not fully completed, the armored man got off of his seat and went towards the thugs.

" _Faster!"_ He called out as the thugs were a mixed bag of listening to not really giving a damn on their work speed. _"The cannon must be completed tonight and I have my own warm wishes to bestow onto Mr. Boyle."_

 _ **-Evening, GothCorp-**_

*Sigh* "This is so damn boring." A security guard sounded off as he was watching the security monitors. "Everyone is having so much fun over at that party while I'm stuck here bored out of my mind." The guard was so out of it that the moment a hand touched his shoulder, he jumped out of his seat in response. "What the hell?!"

"Hey sorry about that man." A tall man spoke out in a security guard uniform.

"And who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm actually filling you in for the shift. Mr. Boyle had actually sent me over here to relieve you of duty for the night." The man said with a cheerful tone before he ushered the current guard to move out of the seat. "So enjoy the compliments man."

"Really? Damn that's great."

The replacement guard was going to say something before his nose started to tingle, letting out a loud sneeze. "AAACHOO!"

"...Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. *Sniffle* Take off and go enjoy yourself."

Not wanting to stay any longer, the security guard went on his merry way in a quickened pace so he wouldn't miss the fun at the penthouse.

Waiting a few more moments, the replacement guard looked around for any sign of any other workers coming around. Seeing as there no one else in the room, the man pulled up his shirt to reveal a grey material underneath with a utility belt just above the pair of guard pants. He pressed a small button to open up a compartment before pulling out an electronic keycard.

'Hope this works.' The 'replacement guard' thought as he made his way towards the electronically locked door. Once close enough, he swiped the card into the slot and saw the card work it's magic. It wasn't long before the lights turned green, signaling that the door was now unlocked. 'Gotta thank Marva on this card when I see her next.'

Once inside, the 'guard' quickly got out of his disguise before moving forward. If one was there to witness this, it would've shown that Batman was there all along. But it didn't matter as he made his way towards the classified files. The Dark Knight activated his detective vision so he wouldn't turn on the lights of the room just in case someone else showed up unannounced.

Now the reason why Batman is here at the GothCorp building was honestly simple: searching for clues. After his chat with Naruto earlier at the graveyard, Batman went looking through the batcomputer for anything he could find on Victor Fries. Apparently he couldn't find much on him at all, leading the Caped Crusader to the idea that Ferris Boyle went through great lengths to cover up the incident. This meant that he'd have to go there in person and find any classified files on the late scientist, if there any left after his death.

Though before he could leave the batcave, Alfred handed him a container of chicken soup of all things. Stating that since he is going back out again, he'll need to have a warm meal to help fight his cold. But Batman would save it for later and eat the meal after this part of the investigation was done and over with.

After finding what he was looking for, he opened up the file and saw several pages of blueprints on what Victor was making before his death. It appeared to be a capsule of some sorts and he wanted to know more about this. Though upon further investigation, Batman found a VHS tape inside of the file. Meaning he'd have to watch this, bu luckily for him there was a TV set nearby.

Once there, he placed the file to the side before turning on the TV set and popping in the tape into the VCR. It took a few moments for the tape to start on up. Though after a bit of waiting, the video started to play.

 _ **-Insert Gotham OST:**_ _ **The Tragedy of Victor Fries aka Freeze Freezes Freeze-**_

" _...Is the light on?"_ The man in a scientist's coat muttered as he peered closer to the video recorder. _"Oh wait it is… Good."_ The scientist then stepped back several feet so that he wouldn't be blocking the entire frame of video. It was there that Batman saw the lab, along with the same capsule from the blueprints. When he felt ready, he coughed into his hand before speaking.

" _Hello… My name is Dr. Victor Fries. I am recording to what… I may pray, maybe the first step towards immortality… or something to that degree."_ Victor then ushered towards the capsule on the other side of the room, with a faint silhouette inside of it. _"For what you see here is the CC-100, a cryogenic chamber of my own design. And I created this for the express purpose of freezing subjects stricken with inoperable ailments. Subjects like… like my own beloved wife, Nora. And once a remedy could be found, the subject-"_

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

With the sounds of the lab door being harshly pounded, Victor adopted a look of worry.

" _Open this door!"_ The voice recognized as Ferris Boyle could be heard on the other side of the lab entrance. _"Open this door now!"_ With a final *BANG*, the door flung open to reveal the GothCorp CEO with a pair of security guards. Once Boyle came close enough towards the scientist, he rose his voice in anger. _"Get away from that equipment! And you two, shut this stuff down!"_

" _Please stop!"_ Victor pleaded as he tried to block the security detail from touching the equipment. _"This is my experiment!"_

"Your unauthorized experiment Victor." Ferris corrected with a narrowed glance. _"I ordered funding suspended for this project weeks ago. And now I'm three million in debt thanks to you."_

" _B-But you can't stop this now! My wife's in there!"_

Ferris could only cockily smile as he responded back to this. _"So bring her out then."_

" _You can't stop the process now! SHE'LL DIE!"_

Victor's pleads fell onto Death's ears as the CEO pointed towards one of the guards and gave him a simple command. _"Open it."_

The scientist needed them to stop, so he grasped onto his boss' arms and gave a firm grasp upon him. _"But this is her only chance!"_

" _This is my equiptment Victor!"_ Ferris yelled out as he shrugged away the man's grasp. _"MINE! And I have every legal right to use it or not as I see fit. So I say this project ends now!"_

In his horror, Victor saw one of the guards messing around with the nearby control panel. In his haste, Victor seized the man's gun and pointed it towards him. _"Back away from her you murderers!"_

The nearby guard backed away as he didn't want to get shot. In response to this, the scared CEO tried to reason with the scientist with a slightly panicked tone laced in the soothing voice. _"Victor please. I'm sorry… I lost my temper. It doesn't have to come to this… We can talk."_

The scientist was hesitant now on what he should do now as he lowered the gun slightly. But this was the opening Ferris needed as he kicked the man in the chest, sending him crashing back onto a table of chemicals. In this moment, Victor screamed out in pain before falling onto the control panel, which sparked to life due to the exposed wiring. All of this caused Victor to be electrocuted with the spilled chemicals on his body.

" _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"_ Victor yelled out in unimaginable pain as the room was starting to fill up with vapor.

" _Get out!"_ Boyle ordered as he and the guards covered their mouths so they wouldn't inhale the fumes. _"Get out!"_

As Boyle and his guards flee the room, Victor desperately crawled towards the cryogenic chamber as Batman faintly saw the scientist's skin and hair drastically change colors. He was able to bring his body onto the glass, but his body was getting weak from the changes along with him starting to ice over. With the last bit of his strength, he cried out his beloved's wife's name before he too was cryogenically frozen.

" _Nora!... Noooooraaaaa!_

And with that, the video recording ended leaving Batman in a state of shock on what he just saw. Leaving him with one thing he could possibly mutter in response to this. "My God!"

" _Yes…"_ A drooled out voice called out, causing Batman to whirl around from his position to see Mr. Freeze at the doorway. _"It would've move to me to tears, IF I still had tears to shed."_

After that, Batman blacked out as he was blasted by Victor's cold gun.

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

*Groan* 'W-Where… Where am I?' Batman thought as he was feeling really cold while he was slowly waking up. 'And why does my head hurt?' Looking around, he saw he was in a snowy area as he soon realized he was suspended upside down due to seeing Mr. Freeze standing some feet away.

" _Ah… Good. You're awake."_ The armored man spoke out as Batman noticed he had the Bat's utility belt hung over his shoulder. _"The snow is beautiful. Don't you think so Batman? Clean and all so uncompromising?"_

"And cold." The Dark Knight finished off, getting the frozen man to nod at this.

" _Like the swift hand of Vengeance."_

"I… I saw what happened to your wife Victor…. I'm sorry."

Victor could only narrow his eyes at the hanging Batman in response to this. _"I'm beyond emotions now…. For they've been frozen dead in me."_

Things slowly came to fruition as Batman eyed the man's armored attire. "That suit you wear… A result of the coolant?"

" _Very good… A detective to the last."_ Freeze stated as he walked around the captured hero. _"I can no longer survive outside of a sub-zero environment… If I do, then I overheat and die as a result. And tonight, I mean to pay back the man who ruined my life… Our lives. Both mine and of my Nora."_

*Growl* "Even if you have to kill a building full of people to do so."

Once again Victor nodded his head before he spoke towards the hero. _"Think of it Batman. To never again walk in a Summer's day with a hot wind in your face… and a warm hand to hold."_ The frozen man tightly closed his hands in anger while gritting his teeth at the loss he currently has. _"Oh yes… I'd kill for that."_

Once that was said, Mr. Freeze then walked away. He ordered the thugs to follow him to leave with him. For they have a party to crash.

After Freeze left the room, Batman started to struggle as he tried to break the icy confinements around his wrists. It took several moments with a lot of his strength to break those set of bindings. When that was done, he hoisted himself upwards and swung around so he could grab the nearby icy stalagmite before slamming it against the ice surrounding his feet. The moment the ice broke away, Batman fell onto the snowy ground with a bit of a daze due to how he landed.

The Bat realized that his suit will need to be better equipped for the next time a situation like this ever happens. He'll need to talk to Marva about this to possibly add the idea to a future suit. But none of that mattered now, he needed to get to GothCorp and fast to stop Victor's plans for revenge.

 _ **-Elsewhere-**_

*Sigh* "It's a quiet night and seems peaceful…" Vanitas muttered to himself as he overlooked the city from up high on a Kazekage lance with his helmet off. "But why do I have this sense of foreboding all of a sudden."

Ever since seeing the vacant Fries residence yesterday, he's been brooding at the loft and he could hardly get any work done this morning. Even throughout the rest of the day when he spent time with the three girls, his mind was elsewhere. Harley, Pam and Rachel had been asking him of what was going on and he couldn't tell them of what happened.

So earlier today, Naruto decided to go and see the Fries gravesite so that he could possibly try to clear his head. Seeing Bruce following him was a bit of a surprise, but the publisher didn't dismiss him away as he told his friend of his connection with the deceased Fries couple. He felt a bit better after talking about that troubled time last year and Naruto thought he could feel moreso on the feeling once telling the girls. The Uzumaki did so once he got back home, seeing Rachel being taught by Pam and Harley on different subjects for the test next week. Even though he came clean on the same story he told Bruce, there was this feeling that kept with him for the remainder of the day.

So here he was by himself, high in the sky so he could possibly use some patrol time to beat up some crooks so his stress could be relieved. Though he could make love with Pam to do so, along with Harley when the time is right, but not in this case. Something felt off, really off, like when he last saw the two last year.

Naruto then placed a hand onto the one of the compartments in his utility belt. Opening the flap, he reached in and pulled out the item of interest. The moment it was out in the night sky, the light glittered off of the diamond center against the metallic snowflake it rested upon with the chain holding up the piece of jewelry.

"Why Victor…. Why did you have it done at your work lab?" The masked Uzumaki muttered as he gazed at both the necklace and the moon. "It should've been easier at your place."

 _ **-Flashback, One Year Ago-**_

 _Things seemed to be in a standstill for the handful of months since their big scare. With the large amount of formoterol Naruto procured that things could possibly be steady to some degree. But Naruto and Victor knew that the pills could only work for so long due to the increase of coughing attacks. Even Victor guessed that the disease was changing stages now that the formoterol would eventually become useless. It was only a matter of time before Nora would cease to exist and both the scientist and publisher feared the worst._

 _After the big scare, Victor had been furiously working on a way to save Nora, or to at least prolong the stage transition until a cure could be found. He did come in with some good news from work one day that his project was approved and he could begin construction on what he had in mind to save his wife. Though, for some reason, Victor never told Naruto what it was but he came by one day to the publisher's office for money. The Uzumaki agreed and things progressed onwards after that._

 _It was then, the eventual day, that Naruto see Nora for the last time for a long time until a cure could be found._

" _Are you sure you have to take her to GothCorp Victor?" The publisher asked as he stood outside of Nora's room. "Shouldn't it be safer here where you could properly monitor her? Hell I could even come on by every so often to keep her company while you're at work."_

 _Victor could only shake his head in disagreement before explaining. "I would've done so if I had permission to take the project home, but I couldn't with the equipment I had access to. Even so, it would've gotten me in trouble if I tried just that Naruto."_

" _...I just hope that the money I gave you helped."_

" _It has Naruto and don't worry." The scientist said with a bit of reassurance. "For what you've helped me in this could help save others down the road."_

 _*Sigh* "I just wish that things could've gone differently in this Victor." The publisher said as a feeling was bubbling in his chest. Like something might end up wrong and there was nothing for him to do to stop it._

" _Same here my friend." Victor said with sorrow in his voice. He swallowed the feeling as he opened the door to his wife's room. "Come on. She wanted to see you before I take her to GothCorp."_

" _Alright… But just so you know, you are so damn stubborn. You know that?"_

 _His former landlord could only chuckle a little as he walked into the room. "Look who's talking Naruto."_

 _The two then gazed at the frail occupant in the room as she silently finished up her meal before she went through whatever her husband had planned for her at GothCorp. It was her favorite order from Big Belly Burger and Nora wanted to at least dine on it to help her out on the lack of energy she exerted. The meal helped her spirits a little so she could feel somewhat at peace._

" _Mmm… That hit the spot." Nora said as she pushed the meal bag away, to which Naruto took and tossed it to the nearby trashcan. "Don't know why it tasted so good this time, but I'm not complaining."_

" _Possibly with the stuff you've been having for kami knows how long made you yearn for your old guilty pleasure."_

 _*Chuckles* "You're probably right." She said before she brought her hand up to the snowflake necklace around her neck and traced it over with her fingertips. A sapphire jewel resting in the center with small diamonds decorating the thin branches of the piece of jewelry. It was Nora's first anniversary gift from Victor and she hardly took it off. It helped her have a sense of comfort for the longest time._

" _It's good to see you Naruto." The frail woman weakly smiled as she gazed at one of the closest friends she had in this world. "At least I get to see a nice, familiar face one last time before I get put under."_

" _You as well Nora." He said as he grasped his friend's hand. "I just hope that things will turn out alright in the end."_

" _Same here…. You know Naruto;" Nora said as she tried to readjust herself in her bed so she could properly face her former tenant, "I've always wanted a girl and…. And I hoped that the day Victor and I could have a child, I'd like you to be the godfather."_

 _Naruto was surprised by this request as he didn't know what to say. He even looked over to Victor to see if they were joking, but he only got a small smile with a firm nod in response. Naruto smiled at the couple and nodded several times to show that would gladly accept the request._

 _It was after that moment when Nora placed her free hand underneath her bedsheet and pulled out a small box before handing it to the silver haired publisher. He was confused on this before he opened the lid to see it's contents. It was a silver necklace in a snowflake like design. Unlike the necklace Nora was currently wearing, which had small snowflake branches coming off of the center, this one had thickened ones with small designs etched into it. In contrast of the jeweled center, it was a nicely sized diamond that seemed to look like winter snow in terms of color._

" _Eh… Not that I mind the jewelry Nora, but what's this about?" He questioned as he picked up the necklace from the small box._

 _*Sigh* "It's a family heirloom that dates back to when my side of the family originated from Europe." She explained as her friend looked over the necklace for better details. "My family was supposedly descended from an Ice Queen that lived in a fallen kingdom. Reason why they eventually moved to America a good couple of centuries ago."_

" _Really? And what place was that?" Naruto asked since there were several stories pertaining to Ice Queens in various parts of the world, but hard to tell fact from fiction these days. Even more so where each of them truly originated from._

" _It was a place called Arendelle. I can only remember certain details from stories from my mother and grandmother, but the full details on our lineage was lost as years went by. Even hard copied records were lost in the travel.*Cough* *Cough* Hell we don't even know which of the two sisters we were descended from anymore."_

 _Finding a bit of interest on this topic, the publisher decided to file that information away for another time so he could research that place a bit better. For now he placed his focus towards Nora and nothing else. It was her time at the moment and she needed it the most._

 _The frail woman then grasped his hand, with the necklace in his, before giving him a stern look. "Hold onto this for me please Naruto. And promise me... Promise me that you'll be there when I wake up."_

 _Naruto could only smile as he shed a tear at her request. "I was actually going to say that Nora. I was already planning on being there when you woke up. Didn't want you to freak out of waking up at an unfamiliar place without a friend nearby."_

 _*Chuckles* "I'm glad. And Victor…"_

" _Yes Nora?" Her husband asked for the first time in this conversation._

" _Don't blame yourself for what might happen…. If something might be out control for what's to come."_

 _Unbeknownst to the former shinobi; this would be the last time he see either of his former landlords, his friends, for a long time._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"I could've saved them." He muttered as tears seemed to threaten to spill from his eyes. "That damn feeling wouldn't go away that day and I should've done something. Should've done more to right their injustice…. Kami, why didn't I do something to stop that shit from happening?"

After what happened that day, he never parted with that necklace Nora gave him and kept it under lock and key. But after the memories of his time with the Fries came back, he took the necklace out of his safe. It had a nice feeling to it as he sensed something emanating from the piece of jewelry, but he didn't know what exactly. Naruto planned to look into it's history when he had time, especially since the recent memory reminded him of the land Nora's family originated from.

He was knocked out of his musings as he saw a bright light several miles away from his position. From what Naruto could guess on the location, it was where the main GothCorp building was located. He then remembered from the news earlier in the day that Ferris Boyle was being awarded as the Humanitarian Industrialist of the Year this evening and it was being filmed live.

"Humanitarian my ass." The Uzumaki muttered with a narrowed glance. He was going to ignore the event going on and place his attention elsewhere when something peculiar entered his vision. It seemed small at first until he saw ice rising and encasing the building. "The hell?"

With his curiosity peaked, Naruto formed his helmet around his head and used his lance to soar through the sky towards the GothCorp building. He arrived onto the scene in less than a minute to see a giant cannon, with various tubes connected to it, as it fired a bluish ray at the building to build up more and more ice around it. The masked Uzumaki guessed it was roughly the size of an 18-wheeler or something less as it was manned by a handful of people wearing winter gear.

"I don't know what's going on, but I'm stopping this." Vanitas muttered as he dispersed his Kazekage lance and aimed his feet onto an unsuspecting thug. "In the memorable words of Might Guy… Dynamic Entry!"

"What?" One thug asked as he turned around, only to have a pair of boots slam right against his face. With the speed and strength of the attack, the thug was sent flying several feet before landing onto the ground. This caused the other thugs to freak out on what just happened. They got up to defend the active cannon with their weapons on hand.

Vanitas dashed towards one of the closest thugs near him as he kicked the man in the gut before tossing him into another nearby thug. He had to run out of the way as automatic fire was aimed towards him before he got into cover behind a control pannel. As he was trying to look around for any other thugs, Vanitas spotted something nearby that clearly caught his attention.

"Is that the Bat's belt?" The black and white themed hero questioned with a raised brow. "How the hell is it here?"

"You can thank Mr. Freeze for that." A voice from above stated before a figure dropped down and punched an oncoming thug into unconsciousness. Vanitas looked towards the figure and saw it was Batman, as said hero grabbed his utility belt from the console and clipped it back into place. "He jumped me when I was distracted."

"...Okay. Good to know." The masked publisher simply said as he didn't know who this Mr. Freeze was, but figured he was the ringleader of this operation. "So do you have any idea why this guy is attacking GothCorp?"

Vanitas' answers would have to wait as the two were then assaulted by several other thugs that came closer to the ice weapon. The two heroes could only hope they can make it inside in time before anyone noteworthy gets really hurt. It is just a matter of time before something drastic happens soon enough.

 _ **-Meanwhile, GothCorp Ballroom-**_

"...And so it gives me great pleasure to present this well deserved award to Ferris Boyle." A member of the Humanitarian Committee stated in front of the large audience. Many people were there from Mayor Hill, Summer Gleason and her cameraman from Gotham Insider and many others that were influential one way or another in Gotham City.

Once the Committee member ended his speech, the audience clapped to appreciate Ferris' award. The man of the hour walked towards the podium as he was given the statue to signify his award. When the applause settled down, Ferris cleared his throat and started his rehearsed speech.

"People caring for people." The CEO started off to help set the mood. "Compassion. That was the foundation that Gotham was built on. And I have proudly built GothCorp on that foundation. Reason why we're called 'The People Company'." The acceptance speech was short, but effective as Ferris earned another round of applause. "Thank you so much. Please, no. Thank you."

From there, Summer Gleason came towards the podium as Boyle moved out of the way to give her some space. "Well I'd say that the future is looking very, very bright in Gotham Mr. Boyle. Wouldn't you all agree people?" A resounding agreement came throughout the room in different ways but they were basically the same. Summer was going to say something else, but things started to get a little chilly. Even to the point that people could see their breaths for some reason.

"Brrrrr." Summer sounded off as she held her arms together and rubbed them for warmth. "Did you forget to pay your heating bill Ferris?" She jokingly asked before part of the farthest section of the room exploded with ice growing out from the hole.

In the confusion, thugs started to come out of the icy hole before a handful fired their automatic weapons into the ceiling. The attendees started to panic as they tried to find cover, but there weren't any good ones in the immediate area. Many even tried to exit the room, but to their surprise the other entrances were soon iced over by an ice ray.

" _Now where is Ferris Boyle?"_ Freeze demanded as he questioned the frightened guests upon his arrival. _"For the cold eyes of vengeance are upon him."_

"And w-who the hell are you?"

Turning towards the source, Freeze saw the man who he was looking for and made his way towards the so called humanitarian. _"Ah… Just the man I wanted to meet after so long. Though I'd be lying if this was going to be pleasant."_

"You st-still didn't answer my question f-freak." Boyle stated as he tried to keep himself warm. Though he was getting scared of what might happen to him as he looked at the other security guards in the room. Seemingly oblivious of the armed thugs, he called out towards his men. "Why aren't you boys doing anything?!"

"What does it look like boss?!" One of the guards rhetorically spoken out as he was held at gunpoint. "Can't really do a thing sir."

*Growl* "Useless idiots." Ferris muttered under his breath as he didn't realize the cameraman was still filming the events going on.

" _Another example of your falsehood of being a humanitarian."_ Freeze stated as he came up close to the GothCorp CEO. _"Not treating those under your employ with the respect they deserve."_

"And how would you know?" Ferris asked before he was smacked away from the ringleader's armored hand. The CEO tried to get back up, but his legs were then blasted by Freeze's cold gun. Holding him in place in a barely standing position. "FUCK!"

" _I've wanted to do that to you for so long."_ The armored man with a narrowed glance. _"But to answer your question Boyle; you clearly have forgotten the man you ruined one year ago, a colleague by the name Dr. Victor Fries."_

With that said, Victor blasted his former boss' legs to build up more ice around the quivering man. Ferris tried to say something, but the cold was becoming too much for him. He tried to beg even for the armored scientist to stop.

" _You… beg?"_ Victor said in a mock astonishment as he lowered his weapon before he adopted a far off look on his visible features. _"In my nightmares, I've see my beloved wife behind the glass… Begging to me with her frozen eyes."_ His expression then turned towards anger before he pointed his cold gun back at Boyle. _"Oh how long I've wanted to see the same expression frozen on you Boyle."_

Just as Freeze was about to fire his cold gun, the nearby windows broke as Batman and Vanitas crashed right through them with both heroes doing a recovery roll. In this momentary distraction, the helmeted hero threw one of his daggers straight towards the cold gun, knocking it off point so the blast would hit a nearby thug. From there, Batman kicked Freeze off of his placement before the two heroes faced him.

"We'll give you one chance to let him go." Demanded the Bat as he briefly scanned the room on both the hostages and thugs.

Mr. Freeze could only growl out a response as he pointed his weapon towards Boyle. _"Threats are meaningless towards a man who has lost everything!"_ He then fired his gun downwards to create an icy wall to block himself and Boyle from the other occupants in the room.

" _You are coming with me Boyle!"_ Victor growled out as he pulled his former boss out of his icy confinement. As he was walked towards the only available exit of the room, he briefly turned back to see the situation at hand. _'The new variable will be tricky to deal with soon enough. I'll need to quickly figure out how to combat against him.'_

Back with the two heroes, both were back to back as they looked towards the hired goons that were coming their way.

"We got a room full of hostages with armed thugs ready to strike us at a given notice." Vanitas muttered low enough for Batman to hear this as well.

"They are the top priority right now." The Dark Knight stated as he went into a fighting position. "Fries can come later." And without any other form of acknowledgement, the Bat went into action, leaving Vanitas to do his own thing.

'Victor… What in Kami's name happened to you?' Thought the masked Uzumaki as he briefly glanced towards where his old friend was previously at before leaping into action himself.

After the two heroes took down the thugs outside earlier, Batman briefly told him of what he learned with the related attack. Suffice to say, Naruto was completely shocked to learn of Victor not only being alive, but is also behind this attack. He was glad that he not only wore a helmet, to hide his surprised features, but that he hid his emotions well enough for a brief moment so Batman wouldn't notice.

Forming a pair of escrima sticks from his powers, Vanitas dashed towards a pair of thugs and smacked them across their heads before jabbing the rounded ends into their guts. He then leaped on top of one of them, used his momentum and strength to send the one thug sailing towards an armed man some feet away. With the thug right next to him, Vanitas did a sweeping kick before doing an ax kick onto the fallen form to knock him out.

Batman had already taken care of several thugs in the past few moments before he clotheslined a pair and knocked them out by slamming their heads towards a nearby table. The Bat then dashed towards another set of thugs as he punched and kicked them in quick successions so he wouldn't waste any free moments for the thugs to fight back. He did have to run out of the way from the automatic fire several times before he had to get to cover behind a tossed over table.

Vanitas saw this happen, so he brought forth his grappling scarf and shot it towards one of the thugs and threw the man at the other thug currently firing upon Batman's position. With this moment cleared, Batman leaped out of his position and threw several batarangs at some of the other thugs with weapons on hand so they would be knocked away. There were others that still had their weapons, but Vanitas brought up a barrier to help for his and Batman's defence. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Batman leaped off of a chair inside of the barrier and threw smoke pellets to help for cover before continuing his assault.

As this was all going on, a clone Vanitas made was escorting many hostages outside via teleporting with two of his daggers to have a stable connection. The original didn't want any of the civilians hurt and in the way so this had to be done. It was slow, but possibly effective instead of leading them through the frozen pathway on the other side of the room. He didn't know if there were some thugs that were still in that pathway so Vanitas couldn't risk it.

"Are you getting all of this Joe?" Summer questioned her co-worker, who's brief response was a small nod as he kept the active camera steady. Both were hiding in a decently well spot that they wouldn't get dragged into the action.

"We're still live Summer." Joe stated as he briefly glanced at the Vanitas copy getting people out of the place. "Are you sure you don't want to get out of here Summer? We could be safer from the outside."

"Nah-Uh. What's going on now is great coverage Joe and it'll help boost our ratings like when we saw Batman, Robin, Vanitas and that mystery woman fight that Solomon fellow last month. Even before that, it was great when we got footage on most of the fight with Clayface on the Daggett interview." The reporter said as she tried to convince her co-worker. "Not only that, but there is more going on here from what that supposed former scientist stated and I want to know more on it."

*Sigh* "If you say so Summer." He muttered as he kept the camera steady so he can get as much footage as possible.

"Come on guys! It's just two of them!" A random thug said before he was met with a flying chair that slammed against his head.

"Shit! We need to regroup!" Another thug stated as a good handful ran towards the other exit of the room to try and meet back with the others. Not knowing that they'll end up getting detained by the police already outside, due to making a wrong turn to meet back up with said thugs.

When things seemed to be clear of any immediate dangers, Batman and Vanitas looked towards the ice wall covering Victor's escape. Without warning, the masked publisher ran towards said wall with a raised hand. "I've got no time for this." Vanitas stated as he formed a void rasengan in the palm of his hand. "Stay back!" Without delay, the masked Uzumaki slammed his attack towards the thick, icy wall to make it crumble from the impact. From there, the two heroes ran through the new entrance.

From their hidden position, Summer and Joe got out and went after the two heroes to get more on the current fight going on. It took a few minutes of careful running, due to most of the hallway covered in ice, but they eventually made it towards the enlarged service area of the building. Which by the way now looked like an odd winter wonderland with the icy stalagmites protruding almost everywhere. And on the bottom floor of said room had Victor pointing his weapon at the CEO.

" _...Then join me in my fate… and freeze."_

"You're a peon Victor! A pleb! What were you without me huh?! You've got nothing! No power! No resources! Everything around you, I had built and without me-"

" _SILENCE!"_ The armored man bellowed out as he smacked the CEO away and pointed his gun at the 'humanitarian'. _"Not another word out of you Boyle! Today you die!"_

"You have to let him go Victor!"

Turning towards the source, the frozen scientist eyed the two heroes that jumped down from above with a narrowed glance. _"You two will not stop me."_

"We know the truth Victor and so will the police. Boyle will face judgment for his crimes."

"I-It was an accident!" Ferris shivered out to try and defend his credibility. "Y-You don't know what yo-you're talking about!"

"Oh will you shut the hell up Ferris!" Vanitas growled out as he pointed his finger in an accusing manner. "Enough of your lies! You've ruined his and his wife's lives, along with who knows how many others!"

 _ **-Insert Castlevania Lords of Shadow: The Ice Titan-**_

" _That I can agree on."_ Said the armored man before he grabbed the CEO and threw him towards a wall and blasted him with his cold gun, rendering the man unconscious. The two heroes tried to act but a wall of ice was soon made from Victor's weapon to block their path towards him.

"You need to stop this Victor! Nora would never have wanted this!" Batman yelled out as he ran towards a possible vantage point for advancement.

" _No… What she wants was to live a long life in the warmth of the sun, with her hand in mine."_ The armored man muttered loud enough for others to hear before he aimed his weapon at the visible spots of his vision. _"But because of him, neither one of us would ever feel that ever again! And even if she were alive, she'd only feel the icy touch of a man whose emotions runs cold like the blood in his veins!"_

Vanitas ran for cover as he had to dodge several ice blasts. He almost fell a few times due to some ice forming in his path, but he had to keep moving. The masked publisher thought that he could possibly phase his way through the blasts, but one attempt didn't go all that well as he still felt the extreme cold when it went right through him. It took so much out of him that he couldn't risk doing such a thing again.

He glanced upwards where he saw Batman throwing exploding batarangs towards Freeze, but few were successful in getting close. Others seemed to get detonated prematurely once hit by the ice ray. The ones that got close didn't make much damage wise as the attacks didn't fully phase the man at all.

" _I've told you this before Batman, but I've come prepared since our last fight."_ Victor said as he knocked on his armor a few times to emphasise the point. _"It'll take much more than those exploding weapons of yours to do damage onto this armor."_

'Then I'm going to improvise along the way.' The Bat thought before he used his grappling gun towards one of the hanging pillars for a high vantage point. He fired his grappling gun and swung around several times to get an opening before he threw an exploding batarang at the ice stalagmites from up above. Upon impact, most fell down and landed upon Victor, making him cry out in anger from the attack.

" _You will not stand in my way for vengeance!"_ He yelled out before he blasted his ice walls and made them higher for better coverage. Though he failed to realize the openings he has in his defense as Vanitas threw daggers in said openings. The daggers seemed to dig a bit into the armor, causing the man to grunt when pulling them out with his free hand. Though the cards that followed exploded to distract Victor just enough for Batman to dive on through and attack the armored man.

With the rapid succession of punches onto the man's dome, Batman seemed to do some good amount of damage onto the man like before to stagger the changed scientist. Once slamming the glass dome onto the ground, Batman had to quickly move out of the way so he wouldn't get hit when Victor recovered. Just in time when Freeze got up and ran out of his covering and made another fortified wall before blasting the high vantage points Batman would've used.

" _My patience wears thin."_ The man angrily muttered before he pulled out grenades and tossed them from his cover. Upon impact onto the ground, ice was formed at an accelerated rate in a wide radius. After that, Victor then tossed more in various directions so he could possibly get one of them perchance. Even with that, the surrounding area would've been hard to navigate with the protruding spikes coming from the ground.

'Need to get underneath him if I can.' Vanitas thought before he eyed the grates underneath him. Getting an idea, he summoned some Dusks near him before pulling off the grate below. 'You guys distract him.'

" _ **We live to serve our liege."**_ They spoke in his mind before they went off for their command. They flew out of their cover as Freeze spotted them and shot them on instinct. Not knowing nor caring what they were he just fired to get rid of the annoyances. Some were able to dodge well due to their flexible bodies while others got hit and turned to ice, crashing down and shattering upon impact.

'Okay, going to need to navigate through this.' As Vanitas made his way through, he heard things shattering and breaking from up above. He glanced to see from the small openings to witness Batman tossing furniture from the upper level to try and hit Victor. Even the rest of his Dusks were eventually gone from the supply he summoned were destroyed. After a few more moments of navigation, Naruto was right below his friend.

'I need to do this now!' Vanitas then jumped from his spot, which surprised Freeze and started to attack him as much as he could with some attacks held back. He really didn't want to harm his friend, but he might have to if he needed to stop his actions for the night. Many punches and kicks were met towards the armored scientist before he was smacked away with a hard blow.

Seeing that Vanitas might get hit from the incoming blast, Batman glided down and attacked Victor from behind before damaging the fuel tank on the back of the suit. With the impact upon him, Freeze grabbed ahold of Batman and tossed him towards the other hero before making a blast at the Bat. It wasn't that big though due to the tanks damage, but it was enough to halt the man for some time.

" _You two should be helping me, not fighting me."_ Stated the armored man as he fired his ice weapon at the two heroes.

"We would if you stop firing at us Victor!" Vanitas yelled out as he pulled up his barrier to defend himself and the Bat.

" _If this is how you'd want it to be, then so be it."_

As the blast kept its course, the barrier was starting to frost over and crack due to the icy attack. Vanitas was starting to stagger as he didn't know how long he could be able to keep this up. Before long, his barrier will break and both he and Batman might be done for.

Unbeknownst to the occupants in the room, a light emanated from Vanitas' utility belt as the one compartment that held Nora's family heirloom opened up on it's own. Said light shot out and went straight towards the cracked barrier before the compartment close back up. The light started to blend with the ice generated from the cold gun onto the barrier. It was hard to tell for anyone in or out of the fight as the icy blast covered the sudden white light.

It didn't matter in the end as the barrier shattered and the two heroes were thrown back several feet. The two shook their heads in discomfort before Vanitas felt an odd weight in his hand. He looked upon it to see something that he didn't expect to see at all: a shield.

From his perspective, it had the vague appearance like the Nobody symbol with his other weapons. It was elongated with part of the rim being grey in color with the rest of the shield being metallic blue in color. It even has five protruding spikes on the end near where his fist was located.

" _Whatever that is won't save you now Vanitas!"_

Once that was said, Freeze fired his weapon yet again and on instinct Vanitas used his newly acquired shield to defend himself. He skidded back a bit, but he seemed to not feel much force coming from the attack than he thought. But not wanting to see what can happen next, he made a clone and said clone got Batman out of the way to see if he was fine.

Vanitas moved out of the way to cover the small escape. He kept getting hit by the ice blasts, but the shield was able to take a lot of the damage so he could recover. He glanced to the side and saw his clone administer some morphine to help relieve some of Batman's pain before he came running at Victor. Freeze saw this frontal assault and blasted the clone, which encased in ice and shattered onto the floor before wisps of smoke emanated from the corpse.

Naruto shuddered upon seeing this, but kept at it on being the voluntary distraction so Batman could help defeat his friend. In mere moments, the Bat came coming in with a handful of exploding batarangs. But instead of tossing them, he kept them in his hand until the thoughtful last moments needed to stop Victor. Seeing this, Vanitas ran to intercept the possible blast which could possibly kill Batman in close range.

In the last moments, Freeze fired his gun at Batman, but it was unsuccessful when the odd shield intercepted the blast. It did shatter, due to the strain since it's creation, but it gave Batman the moment needed to latch the exploding batarangs at the cold gun and jumped back before it exploded.

With the cold gun out of commission, both heroes thought that they could possibly gain the upper hand in this. But they soon underestimated Victor as they were soon grabbed by their opponent. They tried to get out of the man's grip, but it seemed useless. Vanitas could've phased himself out, but his reserves were dwindling and couldn't perform the action.

" _The advanced circuitry in this suit not only powers my suit, but also triples my strength."_ Explained Mr. Freeze as he held the Bat by his throat before raising him high into the air. _"Sooner or later, all those that are in my way must feel the icy touch of Death itself."_

As Batman was struggling to get himself free from his current predicament, he tried to think of a way to defeat Victor. Nothing from his arsenal was good enough to help him out here. But one thing came to mind as he pulled out the thermos full of chicken soup Alfred gave to him earlier. It's going to be a waste of good food, but he hoped that this could work. So he mustered the last bit of his strength and slammed the thermos hard onto the glass dome.

Upon impact, the glass seemed to crack a bit due to the hard object. Then the glass started to crack more when the thermos broke and its contents freely spilled onto the cold surface. With the mixture of the hot soup onto the icy dome, it started to break it a whole lot faster than anticipated.

Once this happened, Victor was so surprised with what just occurred that he let go of them and tried to rid himself of the extremely hot soup. In this brief moment, Batman kicked Victor away before Vanitas came back and swept kicked the frozen scientist onto the ground. The two then saw Freeze rocking about, trying to wipe away the hot meal off of him while gasping for cold air.

" _N-NOOO! I-I_ t _c_ A _n'_ T _e_ N _d_ T _h_ I _s_ W _a_ Y _!"_ Victor struggled voice out as the hot juices were not only harming his cold face, but also the circuitry that was seeping into his suit. Part of the proof was the electronic voice amplifier was sorting out. _"...V_ e _N_ g _e_ A _n_ C _e! I-I_ M _u_ s _T h_ AVe _m_ Y... _v_ E _n_ G _ea_ NC _e!"_

'I'm sorry Victor, but vengeance won't solve this issue… Justice will.' The masked publisher thought as he gazed at his former landlord.

Shortly after this moment, the two heroes then gazed towards Summer Gleeson and her cameraman Joe as they carefully came down the frozen stairs. Vanitas was surprised that he didn't see the two in the ballroom earlier when he got the hostages out. Seemed he needs to be thorough when getting others out for future rescues.

Before the reporter could try and ask what this whole situation was about, she eyed the fallen armored man with the thermos nearby. "W-What was th-that s-stuff?"

"The only way to fight a cold."

The others blinked at this as the cameraman soon muttered a small question. "Chicken soup?"

Ignoring this, Batman pulled out a VHS tape from his back and handed it towards the reporter. "A year ago, Ferris Boyle interrupted an experiment. And in that process destroyed two lives. That has the evidence you need to help convict Ferris Boyle for this crime along with possible others."

"...How the hell do you have that?" Vanitas questioned as he eyed the video tape, even the broken thermos on the ground. There was no way the Bat literally had those on him the entire time… unless that utility belt really can hold anything of any size and weight.

Batman could only look towards the other hero for a brief moment before muttering a simple thing. "...Not telling."

 _ **-Hours Later, Arkham Asylum-**_

Inside of his cell, Victor was sitting on top of his bed with blocks of ice surrounding him. Due to his condition of living in a sub-zero environment, his current confinement had a coolant air conditioner blasting the sub-zero air onto the icy scientist. This had to be done until a proper cell was made to become a large meat locker to keep the temperature below freezing. But for now, Victor's current placement will have to do.

In his bit of sorrow, the blue skinned scientist pulled out a handmade ballerina effigy from underneath his bed. It was comprised of an alarm clock he broke apart, for most of the mechanisms, while the ballerina was an miniature ice sculpture of his late wife. As the silent melody played through his head, Victor could only shed a tear before speaking towards his late wife.

"I have failed you Nora…. I wish there was another way for me to say it, but… but I cannot. I can only beg for your forgiveness and pray that you can hear me somehow… someplace…. Someplace with a warm hand waits for mine."

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

"Hey, Fries! You got a visitor!" One of the guards yelled out from the other side of the cell door. This seemed to peak the frozen man's interests slightly as he wondered who would want to see him. When the metallic door opened, he saw a man he hasn't seen for a long time. A man that was once his tenant and a long dear friend.

"It's been quite some time Victor." The publisher stated as he walked closer to his former landlord with a box tucked underneath his arm.

The new arrival gave Victor a small smile on his face as he saw one of the last few friends he has left in the world. "That it has, my old friend." The scientist then looked towards the object

"I thought we could continue with our chess games that we used to play." Naruto said as he placed the collapsible chess set onto the nearby table.

"I'd like that." The frozen man simply said with a small smile before it went into a questionable frown. "Aren't you going to wear something better to keep you warm?"

Seeing what Victor meant, due to him wearing a light amount of clothing consisting of jeans, a fleece button up and a leather jacket, Naruto could only chuckle a little. "Nah… The cold never really bothered me anyways."

Before the publisher could get things set up, he placed a hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a little box. From there, he placed it into Victor's hand, much to his confusion. In response, Naruto spoke out while getting the chess set properly placed. "I'd thought you should have it Victor. After all, it was Nora's to begin with."

Upon hearing this, the widower slowly opened the box with trembling hands to see his wife's family heirloom. He had forgotten that she gave Naruto the piece of jewelry for safe keeping. All that Victor could do was silently weep in a small form of happiness, for he now has a piece of Nora with him to help on his memories.

Unbeknownst to the two old friends, Batman was standing on top of a high rise rooftop at the asylum with a pair of binoculars. The disguised 'playboy' could only smile upon the scene as the two reunited friends eventually started their chess game after so long. Feeling he shouldn't be here anymore, the Caped Crusader left to go back home and properly rest.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Sorry on the delay people, but there have been things that have preoccupied my available time outside of work and errands. First off I had to recently move and sure it was quick, due to only me moving, but it has been a pain to pack up all of my things and unpack it for the typical stuff. Second, well I have problems with my previous landlord on some stuff when I paid first and last month's rent with them and I needed to get things straightened out so I could get the money back on my part of the rent from previous place. I just did not want to be giving away money to a place I wasn't going to fully live at for the month while previous roommate would be living there a handful of weeks longer after I moved.**

 **Now… Enough on my ranting on my personal life, let's get onto the story at hand.**

 **People have been saying that Naruto is weak on not having chakra and blah blah blah. Yes I've heard of it several times every so often, especially with the previous chapter on Naruto getting his butt kicked by Magpie. Well Magpie is supposed to be an unpredictable fighter for the most part and with her condition on how she came to be, she has a high pain intolerance and has abnormal strength when it comes to fighting (just not outside of fighting actually).**

 **So yeah I'll try to make things better and whatnot for future chapters. I'll also tone down on mentioning training stuff, but I mostly write it down when it seems appropriate when introducing new weapons, skills and whatnot. Just wanted to get that out of the way and hopefully won't mention this anymore on the AN.**

 **With the current chapter, I really wanted to do a good job on this because it is on one of my favorite 90's Batman episodes. The one that literally reimagined the ice villain from an odd, joking and cooky villain from the Adam West Batman show era and the revolving era comics into the cold and cynical anti-hero like villains. It was so good that DC comics made this origin pretty much cemented cannon wise… Well asides from the Gotham show with taking out Boyle and whatnot.**

 **Not only that, but now Naruto has Vexen's Shield in his arsenal. It's going to be interesting on how I'll use this in fights and whatnot.**

 **Now just to clear up some little confusion, the necklaces are based off of designs of certain aspects. The necklace Nora is wearing is the one from the Batman and Robin film while the necklace Naruto got from her is the one from Once Upon a Time when the Frozen characters showed up.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	30. Trip to the West Coast

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 28: Trip to the West Coast.**

*Sigh* "Why do I have to do this?" Naruto muttered as he was standing in the security line at the Gotham Airport. He was currently wearing a grey plaid button up shirt with jeans and a leather jacket. He also had a backpack with him, filled with many of his work items on hand, while he had his suitcase already checked in. "Oh wait, because I _have_ to do it for work."

It's been roughly two weeks since his thought to be dead friend, Victor Fries aka Mr. Freeze, has been brought into Arkham to live out his sentence. The publisher originally thought at first that he would've ended up at Blackgate, but was told that apparently Arkham was more suited to handle metahumans with the technology they currently had in their disposal. Naruto understood this, but at least it can be at a place where he would occasionally visit from time to time to have a small lunch with Harley every so often.

Speaking of; Harley has done several sessions with Victor so far, but they were just regular conversations because of their mutual friendship with the publisher. It would take a while for the changed blonde to earn his trust, but he has nothing but time at the present time. Though he does have some of his personal effects, along with Naruto's Loveless book, to keep himself occupied once Naruto dropped them off for him.

A little silver lining Naruto shared with his former landlord was Ferris Boyle being taken into police custody after he woke up in the precinct. The video evidence helped start out the investigation towards Boyle and the end result is considered shocking due to him accepting the 'Humanitarian Industrialist of the Year' award on that one night. Manslaughter, extortion and attempted murder were pretty much what is being held for Ferris' prison sentence after the GCPD did their thorough search in their records.. With this happening, GothCorp would take a while to fully recover from this or would eventually sell out the entire company all together because of their reputation ruined.

So to get out of the bad mood, Naruto properly introduced Pam and Rachel to Victor and the scientist was glad to see his former tenant with an impromptu family in the works… much to the betrayed look of sorrow shown in the frozen man's eyes. Naruto and Pam understood this, but related with the scientist that she couldn't bare children because of what happened to her earlier this year. Regardless, things were iffy at best on the first meetings so far.

Earlier in the week, Pam had gotten a call from the botanical gardens for an interview for the position she applied for and things went well for the most part. They said they'll contact her again within a week or so if she got the position or not, but the changed botanist had the feeling she already got the job. Though she can't put all of her faith into it for now or else she'll be in a depressed mood once again.

Rachel had the education test the other day and she did well enough to place her in the grade her age is typically in: being in 5th or 6th grade. Naruto, Pam and Harley were glad to hear of this; along with Selena who just flew back in that day, and they went out to celebrate. Even though Rachel was glad, she was nervous if she was not going to be in the same school as her best friend. Who knows for sure at the current time, but give it a month for the impromptu family to get the results for her educational school placement.

'Good to finally be out of that line. It felt like forever in there.' Naruto thought as he tied his shoes back on and put some of his items back onto his person and small carry on like his belt, house and car keys, a first edition copy of his Loveless book, laptop, etc. 'Now where is my gate supposed to be?'

Now you might be wondering why Naruto is at the airport and not waiting for someone at the gate terminal like other times in the past with Selina and Pam. Well... it was the day after Victor was brought into Arkham that he got a call from his Central City branch. They wanted him to head towards the West Coast to check on places for a potential set up spot to open up a new publishing location in Starling City.

Naruto was more than willing to do such a thing and said that he could take a few weeks off from his current location and do a road trip to get over there. But that was shot down when he was told they'll be flying him out there to save on time and effort. They knew he had flying issues, which he stated before several times, but reassured him that he could take some sleeping pills to help him on the flight. The publisher relented, even after Harley and Pam pressured him into doing this, and he was set to fly out to Starling City.

But one thing did come to mind before he ended the call with his Central City location. He asked if he could also head over to National City while on the trip. Naruto brought up that he his old friend, Cat Grant of CatCo Media, lives there and in a previous phone conversation said that she could potentially like the idea of a partnership between her 'Media Empire' and Naruto's company. The man on the phone said that it could be a good idea if it could work, but he'll need to talk it over with the rest of the board. Though in the meantime, Naruto would head over there in his own methods since he brought in the idea.

So here he was inside of the airport, trying to find his way towards his designated terminal where his flight will take off. Naruto wasn't in any form of rush at all due to arriving at an earlier time so he wouldn't end up at the gate at the last minute. Call him paranoid, but the last flight Naruto took roughly 8 years ago was not pleasant at all and he wasn't prepared for what happened at the time.

And this time he'll hopefully be ready.

Looking at the nearby clock, Naruto saw he had a lot of time to kill before boarding starts. The publisher went towards one of the many empty seats in the current part of the terminal and placed his backpack on the seat next to him. With nothing better to do, Naruto summoned his Lexicon, without anyone seeing it, before flipping through the pages towards his 'story idea' section before writing inside of it.

More pages were seemingly added after his fight with Victor and for good reason. Not only had he gotten a new weapon, which he named his combat shield Yuki, but realized that it had ice-like capabilities when wielded. With that in mind, he jotted down little theories he would test out to see if he could possibly replicate what the fake hunter-nin, Haku, used back during his Wave mission. Naruto thought it was cool… heh cool… yet frustrating as hell on facing against that 'Demon Ice Mirror' technique of his.

Naruto had to train nearby Pamela's greenhouse in the Gotham outskirts to see what he could do. Frustrating as it could be, the ice abilities would take time to fully master with his weapon alone like his other gained weapons. The more frustrating bit was trying to handle wielding a combat shield, as it was truly out of place in his use of combat styles.

Naruto used a clone to primarily attack him with everything he had at a gradual pace. This helped the original know how long the durable shield could defensively last before it would shatter and gradually reform. The Uzumaki does have a good idea on how much he could handle, in theory, but things could only go so far when fighting against oneself.

But for a little upside out of this; Naruto seemed to finally create more than just one clone now, with him able to create a couple at a time now…. Progress. At least this helped him a little now, in terms of training, that Naruto could fight/spar against several at a time. Though he has fought more than several at a time in real fights in this world, it just helps a little to do more on the training aspect.

Asides from all of that, things have been alright for Naruto, his three girlfriends and his young ward. Work has been alright for the adults and the group enjoyed the Fourth of July together with Paula Crock and her two girls. Paula's husband, Laurence, couldn't show up due to some recent work assignments but he tried to make things up afterwards. But it didn't matter as things went well for the collective people as they enjoyed the fireworks that night.

"Um… Excuse me." A little girl's voice knocked the publisher out of his thoughts as he looked towards the source. She appeared to be roughly Rachel's and Artemis' age being nine or ten with chin-length, blonde hair swept back behind her ears. She had innocent green eyes with dark, arched eyebrows to help finish off her delicate features. Asides from that, she wore a knee-length dark overall dress with a white long sleeve shirt underneath and white knee socks with tennis shoes.

"Ah... Yes?"

"Is this seat taken?" The little girl asked with a hint of some accent, as Naruto looked at said seat where is carry on laid at. "The other seats are already taken."

Blinking at this, the publisher gazed around and realized that she was right. He must've _really_ zoned out to not realize on how much time has passed on seeing the now crowded terminal. In response to this, he moved his carry on towards the ground to make room for the little girl.

"There you go miss."

"Thank you."

The little girl took off her backpack and sat down into the seat. Once situated, she unzipped her bag to briefly pull out a small stack of books. Some, that Naruto recognized from the book spines, were from the Daring Doo series, some of George R.R. Martin's earlier works (both sets Naruto published) and the Uzumaki's very own Loveless in a public copy. Seeing these got the publisher to comment about them.

"That's quite a lot of books to be traveling with." Hearing this, the blonde child looked at Naruto with a slightly raised brow before gaining a nervous look on her face. Realizing he must've made her a little uncomfortable, with a possible shy nature, the Uzumaki wanted to defuse the little problem. "H-Hey… Nothing's wrong with that at all. Everyone needs some entertainment for these flights with how long they could be."

This got the child to relax a little at this as she gazed back at her books. A finger traced over the tops of each of them as she was deciding which one to fully pull out. She came to a decision and pulled out the Loveless book with a small smile.

Naruto couldn't help but inwardly chuckle at the site as it made him happy to see others enjoy one of his best written works. The publisher went back to his Lexicon and wrote down some little ideas that he could possibly write for some later book ideas. There were six ideas so far, but he had a hard time trying to come up with a title for each of them.

'Maybe I should just make them into a series with a similar title.' He thought before going through one good title name. 'They are of the fantasy genre with lots of fighting… Maybe Fighting Fantasy…. Nah.' Naruto shook his head a little as he realized it wasn't that catchy. 'Fantasy is good for part of the title, but not enough. Hmm… Maybe… Final Fantasy?'

Writing the possible series title into his book, it felt right to possibly go with this. He'll need to expand more on this kind of thing once on the flight possibly. Though for now, he should get something to eat.

He was about to stand up to go look around for any good food stalls when he looked at the little girl. A question came to mind on why she was all by herself and not with her parents or guardians. Normally if a child was at an airport by themselves, someone should be there to watch over said child's safety. Naruto looked around to see any sign of such people that could be remotely connected, be it anyone partially resembling the girl in the physical description department or going around asking questions for where said child was at. But he found none at all.

So with that in mind…

"Are you here by yourself?" Naruto asked, getting the little girl to look up from her book. "Is there someone here with you?"

"Umm… No sir." She replied in a polite tone. "Why you ask?"

"Well… Seeing a little girl here, all by herself, makes me worried on several things. But one would stand out if there's no one looking out for you." Naruto pointed out as he missed the slightly worried look of her looking at some specific people. "So, if you'd like, I could maybe watch over you until get to your destination. It's no trouble at all, but it's fine if you don't want to."

Hearing his offer, she thought about it as she saw the man going back writing into a strange looking book of his. As innocent as she was, the blonde girl was a decently good judge of character from what she had learned from her father. She could tell the silver haired man was honest as he wanted to keep a good eye on her.

The child craned her neck towards a handful of individuals, whom she recognized and were spread out in the terminal. They gave her a subtle nodd to possibly trust the silver haired man's offer to help maintain the cover. But if something were to happen, they'll be there at a moment's notice. So she breathed out a sigh and turned towards the man sitting next to her, before tugging on his leather jacket to get his attention.

"I'd like to accept your offer sir."

Naruto gave her a small smile with a nodd before putting his book away. "Good to hear kiddo... Now I don't know about you, but I'm a little hungry at the moment. So would you like something to eat? It's my treat."

She blinked at this and was going to say something before a little rumble emanated from her stomach. The blonde faintly blushed as she heard the silver haired man chuckle at this. "Seems that might've answered the question, but the offer stands: Would you like something to eat?"

"...Sure."

Both man and child stood up from their seats, with their backpacks back on, before they went to find something to eat.

"So do you have any preferences?" Asked the publisher.

"I'm fine with anything actually. You?"

"Same."

The two eventually found an asian place that seemed appetizing, by the delectable smell wafting in the air, before entering the line. While they waited, Naruto wanted to have a little conversation with the girl. Especially since he doesn't know her name in the first place.

"Don't mind me asking this, but what's your name little one?"

"...Excuse me?"

*Chuckle* "Since I'm going to look out for you for the time being, I think it might be right for me to know your name at least. Though I should probably tell you my name first out of courtesy." He stated before he crouched down to her height and held out his hand. "The name's Naruto. What's your's?"

His name sounded familiar to her and thought that he was the author of some of her favorite books. But she shook her head as she guessed it was highly unlikely for that to happen. Though following the man's courtesy, she placed her hand in his and shook it. "My name's Perdita and thank you for looking out for me Naruto."

"It's no problem at all. Just doing what is right." As he stood back up, they kept waiting in the line before Naruto spoke up again. "I don't mean to pry or anything, but why were you by yourself earlier? Don't you have a parent or guardian with you?"

"...I'm traveling by myself actually." The now identified Perdita stated with a small lie. "And it's been a long journey getting here."

"And where were you traveling from if I may ask? And are you even going to Starling as your final destination?"

"Yes to the later question Naruto. As for the first I'm traveling from Vlatava."

Blinking at this, Naruto replied back with a raised brow. "Isn't Vlatava in the far reaches of Eastern Europe? Why are you literally encircling the globe to get to Starling, if going from your home to China and then Starling wouldn't be faster travelwise?"

Perdita could only fidget in place as she shyly looked away before answering. "I actually wanted to see the world out of my home country. Never left it's borders until recently."

"And why are you going to Starling City anyways?" He asked as before he realized they were at the front of the line.

"Hello there you two." Greeted the man at the cash register. "What would you two like today?"

"Oh… Sorry on that." Turning towards the blonde child, Naruto ushered her to go first. Perdita quickly looked at the menu before ordering a two bowl entree consisting of mushroom chicken and broccoli beef with some rice. Naruto on the other hand ordered a couple of bowls consisting of peppered black chicken, Shanghai angus beef, teriyaki chicken and string bean chicken with six bowls full of nothing; but their different noodles to the very brim. As for drinks, just some water bottles to finish off the order.

Both Perdita and the cashier blinked at this as a question came to mind, to which the worker voiced it. "Was that last order for several others sir?"

*Chuckle* "Nah… All that is for me. I have a large metabolism."

"Um… Okay."

Naruto paid for the order and both he and the little girl stood off to the side to wait for their order to be called. With how big the recent order was, it was going to take a while to cook it all due to them needing to freshly cook a whole new batch. Perdita looked at the silver haired man funnily as she voiced the same question from earlier.

"Was all of that just for you Naruto?"

"Oh yeah it is." He stated with a lick of his lips. "Wasn't lying on me having a large metabolism. I try to control what I eat in small consistencies throughout the day. But since I'm going to be cramped in a metal death trap for the next six-ish hours, I'm gonna need to eat a lot to keep myself in check."

With that question out of the way, another one seemed to take it's place. "You said 'metal death trap' right?" He nodded at this before she continued. "I'm guessing that your last flight wasn't all that great, right?"

*Sigh* "Unfortunately yes." The publisher leaned against the stoney pillar. "The first and last flight I took was when I came from Madrid to Metropolis roughly eight years ago. Before then I was traveling from Eurasia for two years from Japan…. But going back to the flight, I didn't have a great experience on my first time. At first the food wasn't all that great, but I had let that slide. But I had a very bad case of air sickness that was caused by the horrid turbulence from the storm at the time. Which, by the way, caused the other nearby passengers to barf on me."

Perdita winced when hearing this, as she imagined how that possibly had went. Having that be the silver haired man's very first flight must've left a really bad impression towards him. There was only one thing she could say to him.

"Sorry to hear about that sir."

"Nah it's alright kid." The publisher waved her off. "Got over it and got convinced by my girlfriend and her friends to take this flight."

It was then that their order number was called. The two grabbed their respective meals before heading back at the gate. As they walked back, Perdita wanted to continue the bit of the conversation.

"So why are you flying out to Starling City anyways?"

"Stuff with my job I need to do there. Wanted to take a road trip over there, but work already got me airplane tickets." He answered before he asked of her the same question. "Though why are you heading to Starling? You didn't get the chance to respond earlier."

She didn't say anything on that as it made her a little uncomfortable on how to respond. Seeing this, he tried to change the topic after an apology. "Hey sorry if I upsetted you on this little one."

"No it's alright." Perdita simply said as the two got to their seats and luckily for them, they weren't taken. Once they situated in their seats, the blonde girl pulled out her backpack and unzipped the top before putting her hand inside. Naruto was wondering what she was doing until she pulled out…

'A bottle of pills?' Naruto thought as Perdita twisted the top and took out two pills. Once taking them into her mouth, she swallowed them with the water to help get them down her throat. He caught sight of the prescription sticker to see that it was heart medication.

"...Why do you have heart medication Perdita?" He asked with a worried tone.

She stiffened as she was caught. She didn't know how to respond on this now, but she decided to tell him. "It's the reason why I'm heading to Starling City: I have a weak heart."

Two and two got together as the publisher came to a bit of realization. "You need to have a heart surgery, don't you?"

*Sigh* "Unfortunately yes." She then opened up her meal box and ate some of the food before continuing. "Reason why I need to go there was that a heart became recently available."

"And why the trip around the world?" He asked as he too opened up one of his meal boxes.

"My father wanted me to possibly 'see' the world before the surgery. Though by 'see'; it was just me doing quick stops from home, to Berlin, to Paris, to here in Gotham and then to Starling."

"...Sorry on that. But what about your mother? What did she say about that?" He waited for an answer, but by the look Perdita giving off made it pretty clear. "...I'm sorry Perdita. I didn't know."

"No… It's alright." She stopped her eating with a downcast look. "I never knew my mother… She died when I was born."

The two ate in relative silence as the people around them did their own thing. Perdita calmly ate her food as Naruto ate his at a quickened pace. Box by box got emptied due to Naruto's large appetite before he gleefully enjoyed his five boxes of noodles. Even though he rarely eats noodles these days, he still enjoyed the taste of them.

'But nothing can top Ichiraku Ramen.' The Uzumaki thought as he finished slurping the first box. 'Wonder if there's a good equivalent in this world.'

Naruto wanted to change subjects to lighten their mood. He chatted with Perdita on other things so things leading up to the flight won't go all that badly. It went well for the most part until the intercom went off in the area.

" _...Flight to Starling City is now boarding."_ The airport worker voiced out that got the man and child out of their conversation. _"The 6pm flight to Starling City is now boarding… Would first class now come up and board please."_

"About time." Naruto muttered as he finished off the rest of his meal. He soon grabbed their empty bottles and containers before tossing them to the nearby trashcan. Once getting back, he saw the blonde child get back up to get her backpack back on.

"So what flight class are you in?" She asked.

"Second class. You?"

"Same... Though with seating, we could ask someone to change seats if you want so we could sit next to each other."

"Are you sure about that Perdita?" He asked with a raised brow.

"I'm sure my kind sir."

*Chuckles* "As m'lady commands."

Soon second class was called and both made their way towards the line. Naruto ended up a few people ahead of Perdita because of how they got into place. Once making it to the front of the line, the one attendant held out her hand with a nearby pile of ticket pieces.

"Ticket please." Naruto handed over his ticket, to which the woman tore off the one end before handing the other back to the publisher. "Hope you enjoy your time with us at Ferris Air."

Naruto faintly smiled as he walked down the connecting hallway that eventually met with the airplane. Though he hanged back a little to see Perdita following not far behind. With her flying for the past few days, Naruto wanted to be sure that this last one could possibly go well for her before her surgery day.

Both got inside of the plane and eventually found their respective seats. Though they waited a little longer to ask a few people if they could switch seats so Naruto could properly watch over her. He didn't have to do this, but he wanted to keep the promise of watching out for her for the flight.

So after some fifteen or so minutes later, the plane took towards Starling City, California.

 _ **-Six Hours Later, Starling City International Airport-**_

"...That went pleasantly well." Naruto muttered as he let go of both the armrest next to him and the headrest in front of him. When he saw the plan was starting to land from the side view window, the publisher grasped the respectively mentioned spots and tried to control his breathing. The adrenaline rush soon followed as the aircraft was trying to slow down, making him calm his heart down. At least this helped him out to finish off his first airplane flight in roughly eight years.

Imagine how it would've been like if he had his airsickness before he got his Kazekage spear(s). At least those helped him feel better while in wide opened air to feel a bit more connected to it. If he didn't have it, he would've panicked more inside of the metal death trap and possibly gone through dozens of barf bags.

"Then I'm glad you had a good flight, my kind sir." Perdita replied in a jokingly formal manner.

He could only smirk in response before replying back at her. "You as well m'lady."

During the flight, things were alright for starters. There was a decent amount of room in the seats that it didn't make him feel all that cramped. Though with Perdita, there was a lot of room for her due to her ten year old size. It made him comically grumble on how unfair a kid could have with that amount of room, much towards the blonde child's delight in seeing.

And in that time, Naruto striked up a conversation with Perdita to help lighten the mood of things. He talked a little about his girlfriend, Pam, and their young ward Rachel; along with Harley and her 'nieces' Jade and Artemis, and Selina with her pet cat Isis. Even showed pictures to the Perdita when asked on what they looked like. Naruto obviously couldn't tell Perdita on the unique relationship of his girlfriends. Though there other things to talk about like learning a little about the child's interests and hobbies due to her not wanting to dwell into her personal history.

The food and drinks weren't all that bad either as the traditional peanut, pretzel, cracker and cookie bags sedated their appetites until a meal cart came around halfway into the flight. Perdita had a small salad, due to her still digesting the big meal before the flight. Naruto though had gotten a sandwich to at least hold him off till he got out of the airport and he could get a late night meal on his way towards his hotel.

There were two inflight movies that helped speed up time for the passengers: The Goonies and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It was fun for the publisher to see blonde child so enraptured when seeing both of the films and he possibly guessed that she doesn't see that many films back in her home country. Though for him; Naruto couldn't help but remember the actor who played Azeem looked like a younger doppelganger of Lucius Fox, the Wayne company CEO.

Though to be possibly fair, there could be other doppelgangers out there and he should know about that with whom he met so far.

Asides from all of that, nothing bad really happened throughout the flight. No bad turbulence, no screaming infants or people complaining. It was just smooth sailing through the entire time, with the occasional restroom visit for the passengers. And in that time, Naruto and Perdita developed a nice little friendship by the end of the flight.

It took several minutes for the aircraft to reach the gate. And by the time the seatbelt signal went off, the passengers started to get out of their seats in the cramped area. This bugged the publisher a lot as he didn't expect this to happen.

….Though to be fair, he couldn't exactly remember this bit happening on his last flight eight-ish years ago. The airsickness really got to him and Naruto swore he must've blacked out on the ending part of the flight, only to wake up seeing almost everyone out of the plane.

"So Perdita."

"Yes?"

"Do you need me to walk you out and help you out with your baggage claim before you go wherever you need to go to?" The Uzumaki asked as he briefly glanced to see some people now leaving the aircraft.

She shook her head 'no' in response before replying back. "Sorry Naruto, but I'm going to be helped out once everyone is out of the craft. I was told about this on each of the previous flights that one of their employees have to escort me out and help me along the rest of the way. Though thanks for the offer my good sir."

Nodding at this, he gazed over to the line as it was coming to the point that the two could leave soon. Before the line got to them, Naruto got up and opened up the compartments above to grab his carry on. Perdita's was already on the ground with her 'extra leg room' so there was no use to worry about that.

"Well… I guess this is goodbye little one." Naruto said to the blonde child. "It's been a pleasure having this flight with good company."

"You as well Naruto." She responded with a small smile. He helped raise her spirits a little during the time together and hoped this could carry on for what's to come.

"And I wish you luck on your surgery." He said with a somber tone, which made her faintly nod at this.

"...Thank you…. Till we meet again someday."

'Yeah.' Naruto thought as he soon got out of the airplane. 'Someday.'

By the time the publisher got into the airport terminal, he checked the nearby clock to see that it was roughly nine at night. Knowing the time zone difference from the east to west coast being three hours, Naruto went to his watch and made the necessary adjustments before seeing if his cellphone got the automatic adjustments or not.

'Now where the hell is the baggage claim?' The former shinobi thought as he mentally checked his 'to do' list. He needed to get his checked in bag before heading over to the nearest car rental area of the airport to see if there was one ready for him from his company. If not, then he'll need to take a taxi to get to his hotel room and figure things out in terms of transportation.

'I could use my powers to conjure up a motorcycle or a car.' Naruto thought with a chuckle. 'I have researched and made designs to suit my needs. Heh… Maybe I should just save myself the trouble and do just that. No use to rent out a car since I don't know how long I might end up having to stay in the West Coast… Though I should properly get myself a motorcycle at some point.'

In his entire time riding his one motorcycle as Vanitas, he only used the one he conjured up from his sketches in his Lexicon. He had owned one back in Eurasia to help out on his traveling after he won it in a card game. There were a lot of good memories with that bike; but gave it to his traveling companion as a token of thanks, for staying with him for that entire time.

'I wonder if she still has it.' Naruto thought in remembrance of his old friend. 'It has been close to nine years now. So I doubt Talia kept it…. Probably sold it at some point.'

The moment Naruto was going down the escalator, he gazed back to see Perdita heading towards the same destination. Though something seemed off as a couple of men were walking around her, in a guarding fashion. Normally this wouldn't seem odd to the publisher if they were airport personnel, but they were wearing civilian attires.

As the publisher focused, a couple of purple circles entered his vision before they seemed to zoom onto the men. This hasn't happened before, but the last time this happened was when he used the arcade gun during his time with Harley. It didn't matter at the moment as the purple circles gave the publisher better details out of the men

Naruto saw their gazes as they were scanning the surrounding area while trying not to stay that far away from the blonde child. They faintly patted their sides every couple of steps as Naruto soon realized they had guns on their persons. The last bit of detail that was off about them were the earbuds lodged deep in their ears.

'Wait… Weren't those men on the same flight?' Alarms started to go off in his head as several thoughts plagued his mind. Who were they? Why were they guarding Perdita? And why do they seem really worried all of a sudden?

Once stepping off of the escalator, Naruto walked to the side to not stand out all that much. With him closer to a darkened corner, the publisher summoned a few Dusk and ordered them to spread out and see what could possibly be going on. He then used his presence sensory ability to try and figure out things on his end.

'Okay… Mostly a mixed bag of emotions of frustration, annoyance, happiness, sadness, and many other things.' Naruto thought before he focused more in a wider range. 'Need to focus more on the negative. My gut's telling me that something else is going on, but what? What is going on here?'

" _ **Sire!"**_

'Yes, what is it?'

" _ **There are gunners here!"**_ A Dusk yelled out in his mind. _**"And they're aiming at the men and the child!"**_

*BANG*

The gunshot resounded throughout the airport as it seemingly quieted the area. Naruto wondered where it came from and tried to look for the source. In an instinctual response from the sudden message from one of his Dusks, he turned towards Perdita and the men surrounding her who were now at the bottom of the escalator.

"GAH!"

The sudden cry of pain caused many to panic as several people screamed out of seeing a man falling onto the floor with a hole in his chest. The other men surrounding the blond child pulled out their guns in response to hopefully find the shooter. Their attempts were useless as another one of the men was shot in the head, making many civilians flee on site.

"Take her back up!" One of the men called out, getting the only other man to nod and grabbed Perdita's shocked form before running up the nearby stairs. Security guards soon came rushing towards the area to hopefully calm things down, but a handful of random civilians came up to the airport personnel and killed said guards by either stabbing a bladed weapon into their throats or quickly taking their guns and fired them upon the security..

'I need to stop this now!' Naruto thought as he conjured up his Vanitas attire before bringing out his escrima sticks. 'As for you Dusks, take out any snipers if there are any!'

*BANG* *BANG*

"AAAAHHH!" Cried out a scared Perdita, as another one of the men protecting her were killed from behind. She was defenseless and tears were streaming down her yes as a result. Perdita silently prayed for someone to help her in her time of need.

Just as several gunmen were going to take their respective shots; cries were yelled out and gunfire was heard from up above, causing many to look upwards in confusion.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE THINGS?!" One of the men yelled out before getting knocked out by one of the Dusks. Gunfire soon followed as other gunmen were taken care of by the other Dusks that were previously summoned. With their task complete, they dispersed so no one else could find them.

In the confusion, a smoke bomb exploded on the floor. Thugs were coughing and wheezing as they tried to get out so they could finish their task. But one by one, each of them were knocked out in the smoke's cover. One seemed to get out of the smoke in time and was about to strike the frightened girl before hearing someone coming from right behind him.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Vanitas yelled out as kicked the thug's back before grabbing his clothed back and threw him to the side to hit a stone pillar.

Perdita was frightened to see the new arrival as she stepped back in response. She didn't mean to as the man black and white themed man saved her life. But with what happened moments ago made her emotions not great to currently work with.

"Hey… It's alright Per- *Cough* little one." Vanitas said to hopefully cover his little mishap of calling her by her given name. He crouched down to her level before speaking to her in a calm voice. "I'm Vanitas and I'm here to help."

The blonde child wanted to say something, but her eyes were still leaking tears. She was going to wipe them away with the scruff of her sleeve when the hero gave her a handkerchief. Perdita took the offered piece of cloth before replying back to him. "Th-Thank you sir."

"No problem kiddo. So… Don't mind me asking this, but why those thugs killed those men that were guarding you?" He asked to hopefully get the little mystery solved.

But what soon followed was about to surprisingly answer that question.

"Kill the princess!" One of the thugs yelled out as he came rushing through the smoke with several others.

"Princess?!" The masked Uzumaki yelled out in shock. He then saw the thugs aim their weapons at the respective hero and princess(?) and started firing at them. In response, Vanitas grabbed Perdita and jumped onto the upwards escalator before running off so the child wouldn't get hit by any stray shots. "Crap! Crap! Crap!"

Once getting onto the upper floor, Vanitas ran down the corridor only to run into a pair of goons with handguns trained on the two. "Seriously?!"

Quickly moving towards the nearby pillar, he was able to get out of the way of the line of fire as the two men unloaded their magazines at their spot. Vanitas quickly made a clone and sent it out to distract the two gunmen while the original and Perdita would get some time to move. The hero ushered the child to crouch down and make their way towards the large windows nearby.

The small plan Vanitas had in mind was to phase both him and the princess(?) through the window and possibly ride on a Kazekage lance to leave the general area. It was his fastest form of flight at the current time, but could be more vulnerable for passengers if fired upon. He was going to think of something else when he heard a small thud on the ground and turned towards the source to see an active grenade rolling their way.

"Shit!" Vanitas cursed as he grabbed the princess(?) and held her close before and jumpy phased out of the window, just in time for an explosion to go off.

*BOOM*

The force of the explosion sent the two flying in the air and were about to land on top of the nearby plane. On instinct, the hero phased them through the aircraft and landed in a roll so he could protect the child a bit better. Needing to be sure Perdita was alright, he firmly placed her on the ground to see the winded look on her face.

"Are you alright?"

*Panting* "Y-Yes… I think so."

"Good. Then we need to go." He urged her as he kept a firm grasp of her small hand. She hesitantly nodded as the two ran off with several thugs watching their escape.

One of them pulled out a radio and brought it to life before speaking into it. "Hey! The bird has flown. You've got the green light now Sparks!"

*Darkly Chuckles* _"Perfect."_ Said the voice on the other end before it went off.

Back with the running pair, Vanitas and Perdita made it towards the end of one parked airplane. They kept their movements before ending up near a couple of fueling trucks. Perdita eventually ran ahead and was about to pass one of them, but the disguised publisher pulled the child back as a plane sped past them.

"Man… That 'dragon' almost got us."

"...You do realize that I'm ten right?" Perdita rhetorically asked with a raised brow at her savior. "So I don't require any fairy tale metaphors."

*Chuckles* "Sorry on that kid, but the current thought of saving a princess made things slip." Vanitas said as he scratched the back of his head out of habit before thinking for a brief moment. 'Then again this isn't the first time I saved royalty.'

The blonde princess(?) could only smile at this before replying back. "It is quite the forgivable sin kind sir."

"Good to know princess… Speaking of…" He turned towards the child and looked at her so he could get some answers. "One of those thugs said that you were a princess or something. Is that correct?"

"...It is."

The disguised Uzumaki crouched to her level and held out his hand, which made her curious on the action. That was until he spoke towards her. "Like I stated before, I go by the name Vanitas and I come from Gotham City. I would tell you my real name, but that could be for another time. But for now *Cough* *Cough* Would you honor this courageous hero and tell me your name, oh fair and pretty lady?"

Knowing he is trying to make light out of a dark situation through a bit of humor, she grasped his hand and shook it. *Giggle* "My name… My name is Perdita of Vlatava, heir to the royal throne."

Hearing the genuine answer, Vanitas was about to speak up when he felt something coming towards them. On instinct, he summoned his ice shield to block the attack. The force of the blow made the hero grunt in effort of holding his position so he could protect the blonde princess. Having enough of this, Vanitas used his strength to push back the attack away from the two.

When looking back at what he sent away, the hidden publisher saw the bolt of orange lightning going away from his position, along with some sparks dying out on his shield. A bit of dread filled Naruto's stomach as he looked towards the distance to see a dark figure on the airport rooftop. His eyes focused on the figure, as the same purple circles appeared in his vision to zoom in, to reveal who it was.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me." Vanitas muttered as he recognized the man's outfit consisting of a black leather jacket, with the hood pulled back, and pants with belts wrapping through various parts of his body with yellow lightning designs.

"Who is that?" Perdita asked before she was pulled into the hero's arms and ran off. Her question was put on hold as electrical blasts shot through the air and onto their previous position in rapid successions. Vanitas kept on running; but had to block one of the blasts with his shield, which soon skidded him back several feet.

"OH AIN'T THAT VERY NICE!" The assassin yelled loud enough for the hero/princess duo to hear his sickening glee in the distance. "I GET TO NOT ONLY KILL OFF THE PRINCESS, BUT ALSO VANITAS AS WELL?! FUCK YEAH!"

"You know this person?" Perdita asked as the two then ran towards the nearby luggage car for cover. "He's kind of weird."

*Sigh* "Unfortunately yes I'm afraid." Vanitas muttered as he peaked over the hiding spot, only to duck from the assailant's electric attack. 'Why the hell is Minato here? And more importantly, how the hell did he get out of prison?'

"COME OUT, COME OUT AND PLAAAYYY!~" The now identified Minato 'Hiraishin' Namikaze spoke out as he sent more lightning blasts at the two and hopefully lure them out so he could kill them. "IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I'VE KILLED SOMEONE BIG AND IMPORTANT! SO PLEASE QUENCH MY THIRST YOU TWO!"

Feeling annoyed by this world's insane counterpart of his father, Vanitas dismissed his ice shield before summoning his wind lance. "Oh my kami will YOU SHUT THE HELL UP?!" Vanitas yelled out from his cover as he threw the weapon at fast speeds.

Minato's eyes bugged out before he had to quickly dodge the attack. He thought he was in the clear before hearing the air hum and had to dodge again and again. "WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THIS THING?!"

"That could possibly keep him busy for a bit." The hero then turned his attention back towards Perdita with a hidden smile. "You're being very brave princess. I'm proud of you."

Hearing his praze, she could faintly blush at this since she hardly hears such things. "Thank you."

"You're wel-." *BOOM* Looking back at Minato's position, he saw his wind lance exploding from the assassin's latest attack. "We should probably get moving now."

Vanitas carefully moved towards the front of the luggage car while throwing a volley of daggers and exploding cards. Many attacks met in the center to leave explosions upon contact, resulting in a big cloud of smoke in it's wake. This got a bit of cover as the hero and princess made it towards the front.

"So mind telling me why these guys are trying to kill you princess?" The former shinobi asked as made a clone to help cover them and attacked through the smoke. "I can understand _that_ guy since he likes the fame and glory, but what on the others?"

"Because I'm not a princess… not after last night."

"And what happened last night?" He asked as he looked towards the new fight going on between his clone and 'Hiraishin'. The clone had little power in him and was only meant for distraction to help on their possible escape until some help arrives.

Vanitas' response wasn't immediate as he looked back to see Perdita's downcasted look as tears welled up in her eyes. "Because… My father died last night… And I'm the Queen now….And *Sniffle* I wasn't there to say goodbye to him."

Naruto could only imagine what Perdita was truly going through as a lot has been placed on her shoulders. Having to travel a very long way to the states so her life could be saved from her weak heart, being vulnerable to attacks by assailants; and to top it all off, her currently being the very Queen of her country. This should not be what a ten year old needs to have on her plate right now, but he couldn't help but somewhat admire on how she's currently handling things.

"...You're even braver than I thought Perdita. *BOOM* ...And there goes my copy." He muttered before putting his attention at the child queen. "Staying put is no longer an option your highness. We need to get moving."

Perdita wiped away the stray tears before nodding as the hero went towards the seat of the luggage car. He didn't exactly get in, but pressed the gas pedal with one of his hands while steering the car with the other. Their cover was moving, hence the two had to keep up with it so they wouldn't get hit by the assassin's attacks.

"Don't you have any other relatives Perdita?... Surely you must have some right?"

"My only living relative, Count Werner Zytle, is my uncle from my father's side of the family."

"...And what might happen if something happens to you?"

"Then by the placement of succession, he'd be King of my country."

Hearing this made the masked publisher grit his teeth as a bad memory came to the forefront of his mind. Without knowing it, he ended up muttering it out loud instead of in his head. "This reminds me too much about Doto and Koyuki."

This got Perdita's attention as she thought of why Vanitas was bringing up characters from one of her favorite books. Through said names were the only ones that she could actually think of since she never read any other book with said names in them. But regardless, why bring up those two and why was the Land of Snow/Spring arc in Ninja Storm relevant with what's happening now.

 _ **-With Hirashin-**_

Minato was getting pretty annoyed with how things have gone so far tonight. The contractor hired them to kill off the Vlatavan princess after she got off of her last airplane ride in the States to bring her a false sense of hope that things might go well for her. When Perdita would least suspect it *POW* she gets killed off and the contractor would graciously reward them for their services.

Luckily for the crazed meta-assassin, Minato was chosen by his new boss (courtesy of Qarrad Alfidd for introducing him) to take care of the child child in whatever way he saw fit. This made Hiraishin absolutely ecstatic on getting this big time assignment from his new boss. After training his ass off since his escape, he was going to show the world how glorious his celebrity kill will be like.

Though, much to his surprise, thugs were hired to help out on the operation and this pissed off the meta-assassin very much. _He_ was supposed to be the only one here and not them. But regardless, the thugs botched things on the attempt on the princess' life and he was given the 'a-okay' to do what he does best.

Much to his surprise; Minato saw Vanitas, the new meta-hero of Gotham City, here at the Starling City airport of all places. This made the blonde assassin smile a cheshire-like grin as he could kill another big time 'celebrity' and this would get Silver Monkey to help him finally kill the man who humiliated him on the failed assassination attempt. But the newly arrived hero was making things difficult with some of these 'toys' that were getting away from his goal tonight.

Once Minato saw the two running off, with the luggage car as their cover, he needed to cut them off. Following their current path, the electric meta saw a couple of fuel tank trucks and gleefully smiled on an idea. Following on said idea, Minato brought his hand up and shot out a bolt of lightning towards the tanks.

*BOOM*

"...Wonder if I got them." Minato muttered to himself as he jumped down and landed in a crouch. "Better check than just assuming I roasted their carcusses."

By the time he got there, due to him taking a nice enjoyable stroll, he saw no charred up corpses for Minato to know that the mission was completed. Now he'll need to search the area so he can get another go around. But before that, he needed to inform the hired thugs.

"Hey." Minato simply said once he pulled out his radio. "The hero has taken the target back inside. Take care them, if you can, but I want to kill them myself."

 _ **-With Vanitas and Perdita-**_

*Groan* "That could've gone better." Vanitas muttered as he felt some pain from where he landed on the baggage tram. He looked at the child in his arms and saw that Perdita was alright, not a scratch on her. "At least she's safe, for now."

When the explosion occurred mere moments ago, Naruto covered the Queen with his form before jumping off of the luggage car. The blast sent the two flying back a bit farther than Vanitas had, with the hero harshly landing on a metallic rolling bar, but the two seemingly got away for the time being. As he looked at their current surroundings, the masked publisher realized that they were currently in the bag conveyor system.

'Wonder how we'll backtrack from here.' The hero thought as this was pretty much the first time he's ever been in this kind of room. 'So damn confusing if you ask me.'

As Vanitas was getting up from his spot, he heard a harsh *thud* behind him. Turning around, he saw a pair of thugs with one holding a wrench and a knife in the other of their respective hands. The one with the wrench soon leapt forward, swinging to hopefully knock out the hero while the other stood back for support.

"You're not really good at this, aren't you?" Vanitas taunted as he moved out of way from the lozy swings.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" The wrench wielding thug grunted out as he kept missing his blows.

On one of the incoming blows, Vanitas grabbed ahold of the man's arm and twisted it around, which soon let go of the weaponized tool, before kicking the man some feet away. "Me? Aren't you after the kid?"

Hearing this, Perdita gave the hero a raised brow look before replying. "Excuse me?"

"Heh. Kidding your highness. *Grunt* Kidding!" Apologized the masked Uzumaki as he had to block a strong blow from the knife wielder. He came rushing in with stabbing motions, but luck wasn't on his side. Vanitas grabbed the offending arm and punched it at the right angle to deal a decent amount of pain.

The thug grunted loudly as he held onto his arm to ease the pain. That was his downfall as the hero dashed into his personal space and delivered an uppercut towards his jaw. This action sent the man flying and falling off of the tram to render himself unconscious.

The wrench wielding thug from earlier got back up with a gun in his hand. He started to unload its magazine onto the hero; but with a raised hand, a small barrier was formed and destroyed the small projectiles. Soon hearing a clicking noise, indicating the now empty cartridge, he threw the weapon at the black and white themed man before running at him.

Moving out of the way from the several punches, Vanitas used an opening and grabbed the man's sides before kneeing the man's stomach. From there, the hero delivered painful jabs at the man's ribs and briefly tossed the man. This was all before delivering a kick towards the thug's intended sternum….

Though the last attack ended up lower than he anticipated, as the kick ended up hitting the thug's crotch.

"Okay… That really must've hurt." Vanitas muttered as he internally winced while seeing the man land off of the conveyor belt. Turning his attention towards the child Queen of Vlatava, he saw that she was alright, but adopted a look to show that she visually winced at the man's recent form of pain.

"Did you really have to hit him _there_?"

All that he could do in response was nervously chuckle at his expense. He was going to say something in response, but was harshly knocked forward as his helmet knocked against the opening for the drop shoot. Vanitas fell down and felt nothing underneath his feet, causing him to grasp on the conveyor belt. It was proving unsuccessful as he was going to fall.

Seeing this, Perdita rushed towards her savior and grabbed onto one of his arms. "I got you!"

"No! Princess! Let go!" Warned the hero as she was struggling on her attempt to get him back up. "You're going to fa-AAAAAAALLLLLLL!"

 _ **-Baggage Claim-**_

The fall seemed to end pretty quickly with how fast they were going. The only sounds emanated from the dark luggage shaft was the Queen's screams and the hero's attempts of calming her down. Though this was useless as the two were getting knocked around before seemingly shot out and landing on the tiled floor.

"Owwww. That hurt." Vanitas muttered as he shook his head before seeing that the two were currently at the baggage claim area of the airport. "...I have no idea how we got here." Getting up from the floor, he helped the young Queen get back onto her feet. "Are you alright your highness?"

"Y-Yes… Yes I am." Perdita replied before realizing an odd misplacement of weight. "Wait… Where's my backpack?! I need to have my medication near me at all times!"

The two looked around for a moment and saw the desired item some feet away. It must've come off of the child during the tumble through the baggage vents earlier. So without any warning, Perdita ran towards her backpack at a hurried pace.

"Perdita wait!" The hero yelled out, only to sense an attack coming towards them. Reacting to this, Vanitas sped towards the child to intercept the blast. He was lucky as he got there at the last moment before grabbing Perdita and rolled out of the way. Just in time too as the orange lightning bolt destroyed the Queen's backpack.

"Damnit I missed!" Minato yelled out as he landed onto the ground. "It was timed perfectly, but you fucked it up!"

Ignoring the meta-assassin's rant, Vanitas looked over Perdita if she was grazed or anything. Though all that he saw was a blank, worried stare as the Queen looked at the destroyed remains of her backpack. Not only did it have a collection of books she brought to keep herself company on her trip to Starling City, but it had the pills to help her condition until her heart replacement surgery.

But with that gone…

"Hey it's alright Perdita…" The hero said in a calming tone. "We can get more of your prescription once this is over."

"HEY! STOP IGNORING ME!" Was what Minato yelled out before he fired a few powerful electric blasts at the crouched pair. The attack ended up unsuccessful as Vanitas shot out his hand and his ice shield was summoned to block the blast. With how strong the attack was, the shield not only broke, but the stray shots went off to various areas of the room and ended up destroying many security cameras.

Once this happened, Vanitas got up from the ground before creating a clone to get Perdita in a safe area. Though not too far away just in case if any other thugs seemed to come on by for any funny ideas. All that the former shinobi could do was glare behind his helmet at this world's bad version of his father. "You've caused enough damage today Minato. So get out of here while you still can or else I'll send your ass back to jail."

"Oh!~ Do my ears deceive me? Is my reputation so great that the new hero of Gotham knows who I am to call me by my given name?" Minato dramatically said while trying to figure out how said hero knew his name. Even when he was a member of the League of Shadows, their birth names were kept hidden so it would be better to blend with society for some missions.

But for someone to know such information about himself, he must've accidentally given his name out on a previous mission by mistake or somehow there was a leak.

 _ **-Insert RWBY Volume 4: Bad Luck Charm-**_

"You could say that. Then again you were the one that killed Mayor Hill's predecessor if I heard correctly." Vanitas stated before the two slowly encircled each other. It was a bit of public knowledge on who killed the previous mayor, but not his true identity. Though Naruto wasn't going to spill the beans that Kurama told him of such information.

"Ah yes.~ One of my favorite accomplishments. One that I enjoy most dear... *Darkly Chuckles* As I stopped his heart and brought it back up, only to make it explode a bit afterwards."

Not wanting to hear any more of Minato's crazed delusions, Naruto wanted to get straight to the point. "So… Who hired you to kill Queen Perdita? I can tell that you're not doing this out of fun. So what is the point from all of this."

Minato soon left out a mocked gasp before replying back at his soon to be opponent. "I'm only here to whisk her away… so I can enjoy hearing her screams while I slowly kill her."

*Growl* "And what if she doesn't want to go with you Minato?"

"Then I'd take her regardless, while you like it or not."

"Well I'm not going to let you do that."

"I'm afraid that will be impossible." Minato spoke with mocked sadness. "My boss's assignment from our client stated that the little brat must die. And I can't disappoint such clientele on backing away from this task."

"And who is your so called client anyways?" Vanitas asked as he summoned a Kazekage lance into his hand.

Minato looked at the odd looking spear and could only chuckle at this while as several kunai came into his hand from his sleeves. "Playing the intimidation game won't work on be Vanitas. But I believe we've talked long enough. Don't you agree?~"

"Took the words right out-" Vanitas spoke before he was quickly interrupted as Hiraishin dashed towards the hero with his weapons on hand. Naruto had to block the incoming attack by quickly blocking each of the strikes. Each of the parys were able to help leave a small opening, but they were closed off too soon for Vanitas' comfort. But he didn't stop his attempt by swinging his weapon down.

Minato saw this coming and dashed towards the side before leaping into the air to strike the hero down with his orange-yellow lightning encoated kunai. Vanitas upwardly swung his wind lance, causing a small explosion to occur when the two elemental attacks met. Both combatants skidded away from each other, but Naruto threw his lance at Minato before teleporting at the incoming target.

"What the-" Minato muttered out as he dodged the lance before getting kicked to the side all of the sudden. The surprise attack didn't let up from there as Vanitas grabbed his lance and used it as a bat to smack the assassin into the nearby conveyor belt. "How the hell did you do that?!"

"Since you're not telling me who hired you, I'm not going to tell you how I did that."

Growling at his opponent's taunt, Minato coated his arms with lightning and slammed them against the ground in both frustration and to send an attack towards Vanitas. The hero saw the incoming attack and rolled out of the way, but part of the electric attack had hit his legs. Vanitas tried to get back up, but his legs couldn't fully respond.

'I can't let that attack hit me like that again or else I won't fully move certain parts of my body.' He thought before he channeled some power into his hand and slammed it down to summon a good number of Dusks and Creepers.

Minato blinked at this and pointed it out in a rude fashion. "The fuck are those dipshit?!"

'Try and distract him while I try to get back up.'

" _ **Of course sire!"**_ The Dusk and Creeper summons replied through his head before jumping into action. The Dusks encircled the assassin and started to cause him quite the amount of annoyance with the attacks they were bringing. Didn't help when the Creepers formed into oddly shaped weapons, to which other Dusks attacked Minato with them as sturdy, blunt objects.

"HEY! QUIT THAT!" Minato yelled out in the attempts of making them stop. But the summons did not as they continued with their distraction. His anger was growing by the second as lightning started to coat him to the point that was going to explode. *Growl* "ENOUGH!"

With an explosion of power, the summons were destroyed in the built up blast. Hiraishin panted as he tried to regain his footing, but had to quickly act as Vanitas dashed towards him. The assassin leapt back and threw many electrified kunai at his opponent, who spun his lance to deflect the projectiles. When getting close enough, Vanitas brought his lance down, to which Hiraishin blocked with his knives.

*BOOM*

With the recent collision, many nearby screens were broken from the shockwave.

*Growl* "Now tell me who hired you!"

The assassin's immediate response though was something a bit expected from the disguised publisher, as Minato started to hysterically laugh while holding his ground. "Y-You d-don't have the slightest clue, don't you? *Laughs* Oh how exciting this must be for you to- HEY!"

Vanitas kicked Minato away by landing a strong hit on his stomach. The hero sent several blows by several quick attacks with his lance as impromptu escrima sticks. With it's bladed ends, the attacks were more harmful for the extra damage and that was without the wind added in. Before this onslaught ended, Vanitas threw his weapon a bit higher than the opponents height so he could teleport right behind him. He grabbed Minato's head and did an overhead throw to send him flying into the concrete wall on the far end of the room.

The impact was pretty harsh, indicated with the many cracks on the wall, leaving Minato struggling to get out. He used his power to explode part of the wall so he could get free, thus he landed onto the ground with hate filling his very being. Having enough of this, Minato focused his power into his legs and sprinted away in a dark yellow lightning trail.

Not wanting to know what Hiraishin had planned, Vanitas threw his lance at the upper floor and teleported to the spot before throwing many daggers all over the place. Teleporting everywhere he could reach in the immediate area, with the imbedded daggers as his anchors, so that he could catch up to him. But with Minato running all over the place, it was really hard to keep track of him.

As this was going on, Perdita was amazed on the spectacle before her. Seeing the two combatants fighting against each other in an odd dance of death. It was quite the sight to behold as a flurry of power was shown here. It reminded her so much on the fights depicted in Ninja Storm on what the main character, Arashi, had to deal with.

"You need to stand back your highness." The clone of Vanitas said as he kept the child Queen at a safe distance. She currently had the charred remains of her backpack when the clone used his grappling scarf to nab her belongings.

"But-" "No buts. The original doesn't want you close and harmed."

At the highest area of the room, Vanitas threw his lance at Hiraishin to hopefully stop his running, but it missed due to his increasing speed. Regardless of this, Vanitas teleported towards his lance, which dug deep into the ground and situated his feet on top of it to try and see the assassin at a moment's notice. His gut was soon telling him that the moment to strike needs to be now or else both him and Perdita might die. So he concentrated a lot of his power into the palm of his hand to form a Void Rasenshuriken. Call it overkill there, but Naruto can't take any second guesses on this one.

Just in time as well as Vanitas saw Hiraishin slowing down slightly and threw a literal pure yellow thunderbolt, like a javelin, straight towards him. Knowing that he possibly won't have time to teleport away, the masked Uzumaki threw his attack as well. Time seemed to come to a crawl as the two attacks slowly met at the center of the room. The moment the two powerful attacks came into contact...

*KABOOM*

A blast soon followed as a radius of destruction was met. The windows of the surrounding area were destroyed at this moment and many objects were uprooted from the ground. What else could be seen was the two combatants on the opposite far ends of the room. Both seemed to be panting of being pretty winded on that large attack while the state of their attires were noticeable of some fabrics burnt off and some armor broken away.

"Why… Don't you… Fucking quit already!" Hiraishin growled out as he brought his arm up as more of his power was built up into the limb. Sparks of yellow electricity were radiating off his arm as he was going to do one more attack to hopefully finish off Vanitas.

"I'm not… Going… To let you kill her!" Vanitas said as he soon grasped his broken lance and built up wind around it. His helmet was partially broken off to show off one of his hazel eyes and some of his silver hair. If one would look into the broken part of his helmet, one would see his hazel eyes glow into an amber color as power was radiating off of the hero.

Without warning, both fighters ran towards each other as they put a lot into the final attack of the match. Hiraishin having his arm coated with pure yellow lightning to make it into a spear to hopefully pierce Vanitas' heart while said hero had sparks coming off of his broken lance to make it look like a raging storm. The two eventually made contact in the middle and both thrusted their attacks at each other.

But in a bit of an odd lucky accident, Vanitas slipped a little. This caused him to duck down at the last second to not only have the lightning lance graze his helmet, thus breaking off more of it's glass dome, but gave the opportunity for the hero to swing his lance upwards. With the wind coating the blade, it was able to cleanly cut through Minato's arm at the upper half of the assassin's bicep.

It even sliced part of the man's eye for good measure.

"FUUUUCK!" The assassin yelled out as he held onto the bloody stump of his limb, as his arm was sliced off. The combined pain of both his vacant limb and destroyed was enough to blind him for a bit of time while trying to regain his bearings.

"I hope your done Minato." The hero said as he kicked the man away, adding more pain towards the crazed meta.

*Growl* "I won't forget this Vanitas!" Was all Minato yelled out before grabbing several flash and smoke grenades and detonated them for his escape.

When the smoke dissipated and vision returning, Vanitas looked around to see where the meta-assassin ran off to. He could only let out a sigh in frustration as he saw the man gone. Hell he even had enough time to grab his severed limb when fleeing the immediate area.

The hero tried to walk, but stumbled in his step as he spent a lot of energy in the fight. This caused him to bend over and rest his hands on his legs while catching his breath. "Damn… That took a lot out of me."

Footsteps could be heard from behind, causing the hero to know that the Queen wanted to check up on him.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm alright your highness. Just winded, that's all."

"That's good to hear." Was all Perdita said as she walked closer towards her savior. Though when she got closer, the Queen had let out a surprised gasp when he turned around to face her.

"Perdita? Is something wrong?" Vanitas asked with a raised brow. He gazed at her surprised look before looking over towards his clone. Said clone could only facepalm before tapping his helmet for a silent message towards the original. This was done before dissipated into smoke to give back some power back to the main one.

An automatic response happened as Vanitas brought his armored hand towards his helmet, only to feel his whiskered cheek. It soon traveled upwards to meet up with his silver hair, making him widen his eyes in response. He realized that the black dome was destroyed in the past two attacks, revealing his features towards the Valatavan Queen.

"...Um… Hey…." Naruto awkwardly said at the bug eyed child.

"Y-You're… You're Vanitas." She whispered out, making him nodd in response.

"Yeah… Didn't realize this was coming out sooner than I expected." He muttered as he scratched his cheek. Fully realizing that his features were still visible, he reformed his helmet with what energy he could muster before looking at the battleground. "Man I really did one hell of a number on this place."

At this point, Perdita's mind had seemingly shut down and rebooted itself as she was trying to process that the man she befriended on the previous flight was a superhero. What else was this man hiding and what will happen now after this exciting fight she just witnessed. Hell, the child Queen could only guess that her heart can't take much more excitement from all of this.

As this was going on, Naruto looked at the charred remains of Perdita's backpack in her grasp and a stray thought came across his mind. Deforming his attire slightly, he was able to access his backpack and pulled out the copy of the first edition Loveless he brought with him for the trip before reforming his outfit. Creating a pen on hand, Naruto wrote inside of the cover to give her one hell of surprise when she snaps out of her trance.

"Here." He said as he handed Perdita the book. "You can have this if you want kiddo. Signed it for you since you probably lost your own copy of the book."

Hearing this, the Queen did get out of her thought process and saw the first edition of her favorite book ever. She had saved a lot of her money that was entirely separate from the royal treasury, and bought her own copy of the book. Perdita had wanted a first edition after reading the public copy, but there was only so many made and were sold out quite fast.

Perdita hesitantly took it in her grasps and traced the details of the cover. Once opening the book, she gazed at the author's signature there, like of what all of the first editions had. But there was something else written in there, much to her surprise.

 _Perdita,_

 _Sorry on what happened earlier and I wish that things could've gone better in the outcome. It must've given you one interesting experience to look back on at a later day. Though I hope it doesn't give you any bad memories from said experience later down the road._

 _I hope you get the chance to live out a full life with a family of your own one day. Having all of the great times that comes with it. But I wish you the best of luck with your new role as Queen of Valatava since the position will be strenuous, yet rewarding._

 _It will not be an easy task, but you have a lot of time ahead of you to do the right choices in life so you're home country will prosper. I will be rooting for you to push on forward with what's to come. After all, you need all the support you can get since doing it all by yourself will not do well in the long run._

 _Sincerely your friend,_

 _Naruto Uzumaki_

After reading this, she couldn't help but feel touched by his words. They were so sincere on how they were written that they made her smile by the end of it. Though something seemed odd as how this was written out, especially on the signature. Perdita's eyes widened when comparing the one clearly written months ago to what was written moments ago.

Slowly looking back at her savior, she couldn't help but ask one thing that came to mind. "You… You're Naruto Uzumaki?"

"...Yeah."

….. *SQUEEEEEEEEL* "OH MY GOODNESS! OH MY GOODNESS! OH MY GOODNESS! I WAS SAVED BY MY FAVORITE AUTHOR! I WAS SAVED BY NARUTO UZUMAKI!" Perdita yelled out as she latched onto the disguised author and gave him the biggest hugs she could ever muster.

'...Damn she's got a tight grip.' Naruto thought before he saw the growing lights of police cars from the distance. 'Finally showing up now huh. *Sigh* Took your damn time getting here.'

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Hope this chapter turned out alright in the long run. Took a while of trying to get this chapter out within a week after the past several chapters that came out in a two week writing process. But it's probably worth it.**

 **With fight scenes, yes I know that I need to work on them at times but I'm doing my best there. Out of habit I tend to put details into them to make them better or whatever in my perspective.**

 **As you guys can probably guess, I had Minato be a pseudo-speedster… to some degree. I mean it is somewhat theorized that a meta with electric powers could be a pseudo-speedster if trained hard enough and used correctly. But the downside would be of not having all of the perks of being a Speed Force user. Only a handful of skills would be used I think like running fast if pushed hard enough and some speedster lightning attacks.**

 **Asides from that, yeah I had Perdita find out Naruto is Vanitas by accident because of what I have planned in the coming chapters and what will go on later in the story. I have thoughts on what to do with that and won't bring them up until a chapter or so from now.**

 **Now just to give you guys a heads up on this, along with a reminder, that this story will have the CW DC show's mentioned and brought into details for story events. Bringing in certain elements from said shows to make things fun for you guys while difficult for me to blend things correctly to the best of my writing ability. So expect that we'll be seeing the Emerald Archer very soon. Though don't expect for me to be adding on every single episode from 'Arrow' because that'll just be too much for me. It'll pretty much be like the crossover episodes when I do such things.**

 **With locations for Star(ling) City and National City, I should point out on where they are located. With Starling City, it's located in Mid-Northern California because of what they had to do for the show events of Oliver and his father traveling by boat on his way to China before the whole 'Island Years' thing. With National City, it's located in the Southern Bay area of San Diego… So basically Southern border of California.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	31. Visiting the City of Starling

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 29: Visiting the City of Starling**

" _...Earlier this morning, Oliver Queen stood on trial for his supposed charges as the vigilante known as 'The Hood'."_ An african-american news reporter stated as he read off the information on the teleprompter. _"He was arrested by the SCPD at his family home last afternoon, with him accused for murder as said vigilante among other charges. Targeting rich individuals, that were 'dirty', that have been harming many of this city's residents._

 _Laurel Dinah Lance represented him as his lawyer on the trial, which resulted of him being house arrested for such time with a $1.5 million bail on his name. Who knows what will happen next for the resident playboy and heir to Queen Consolidated. But we will be sure to find out."_

"Well… You don't see that everyday." Naruto muttered as he was eating his breakfast via room service. He was in no mood to go to the cafeteria of the hotel he was staying at. All Naruto wanted to do was to look over his work documents after waking up this morning. He had a lot of things to plan out for the next several days from searching through many of this city's vacant buildings so he can acquire them for his company. Much like what he had to do while he stayed at Metropolis months ago.

" _Onto other news, last night was quite the shocker at the Starling City International Airport as the Queen of Vlatava was targeted in an assassination attempt. Not much was known about the Queen, as a lot of information about her was kept quiet by her late father, King Victor, who had died a few nights ago. All that we do know, as of last night, is that Queen Perdita is ten years old._

 _Yes I am not joking on this folks, a ten year old Queen. And this is because of there being no other successors to the throne asides from the Queen's uncle, one Count Werner Zytle, who falls right behind the young Queen in terms of lineage. Though some argue that the Vlatavan count should be ruling the country in Perdita's stead, as a proxy leader, until she comes of age, but it's hard to fully tell on the family affair with her father's recent passing._

 _Asides from that, what was more shocking was the supposed battle that took place as one of Gotham City's very own vigilantes, Vanitas, was at the airport defending and protecting the young Vlatavan Queen. No one knows for sure why Vanitas was at the airport in the first place, but the Queen herself stated that she owes her life towards the hero for what he's done. All other information about the incident and why Queen Perdita is here in Starling City in the first place is kept under wraps until such time."_ *Click*

Turning off the TV, Naruto went back into finishing up his breakfast before hopping into the shower. Hopefully he could quickly get ready before his phone starts going off to get an earful from his girlfriends. He can obviously tell on what they might say to him if they caught wind on the news report since supposedly this event was going international with how big this was. Vanitas saving the Queen of Vlatava is extremely huge and would draw in a lot of reporters like sharks with blood or him and Ichiraku Ramen.

As he was lathering himself in the shower, Naruto thought back on what happened after his fight against Hiraishin and his accidental reveal with the child Queen.

 _ **-Flashback-**_

 _The growing lights of the police vehicles were coming in closer after the whole debacle on the failed assassination attempt on Perdita's life. Naruto guessed that with the current speed the cop cars were going at, it would be a handful of minutes before they fully arrived. The publisher could only shake his head in slight annoyance that it took them so damn long for the police to arrive onto the scene._

 _It's just that with Gotham, the police were able to arrive onto the scenes a bit faster than this on the areas Vanitas had been at to take care of varying crimes. He even read the past accounts on past cases pertaining Batman and Robin; with how the police force arrived at a good arrival time, depending on what crime is going on exactly. This was all done once James Gordon got a high ranking to make a difference out of things and this was even before he became Commissioner._

 _Hell, even the MCPD (Metropolis City Police Department) had a decent response time on things when he lived there for roughly three years. Things were doing well the last time he checked. Not much trouble occurred over there, even though a lot of crime happened at the Suicide Slums.._

 _But this… This was odd for even his tastes._

' _Then again… different city has their own way of things. Not only that, but I hardly know diddly squat of what goes on in this city anyways.' Naruto thought as he felt Perdita tugging on his torn up battle cloth. "Yes Perdita? What is it?"_

" _I was wondering... but what are you going to do now?"_

" _Well… I do need to grab my luggage, along with yours I take it, before I head into the city and check into the hotel which I'm staying at for this business trip of mine." He said before looking at his current attire. "Though not in this getup or else that'll really raise some questions when I'm getting my things."_

 _*Giggles* "Well you could stay with me. I wouldn't mind the company." Perdita said with a bit of hope in her voice. Getting the chance to spend time with not only her favorite author, but also her savior. It's like a dream come true for her for the most part._

 _Naruto could only give her a raised look behind his helmet before shaking his head 'no' in response. "I don't think that's a great idea."_

" _B-But why not?" She asked with a hurtful look on her face. "I'm the Queen of my country and I could have security let you stay with me while I'm here for my surgery."_

" _I'm flattered that you'd let me stay at your hotel suite and all; I really am Perdita, but that might pose a problem."_

" _Which is?"_

" _I'm considered an unknown, even though I am a bit famous of being both a famous writer and owning my own publishing company. But still though... With me considered an unknown, it might lead to suspicion as to why I'm staying with you. Why you suddenly invited me to stay with you until such time will make many people gossip and might tarnish your name down the road. People will start asking questions and that'll draw too much publicity towards you and I don't want that to happen."_

 _Hearing this made the young Queen process the information and realize that he is right. She was so used to not having others be near her, due to her overprotective father, that the very chance of spending time with someone she just befriended blinded her on some consequences. In response, Perdita held her head down before it was lifted up by the publisher's hand._

" _Hey it's alright kiddo." He said with a small smile as his attire melted away to go back to his civilian attire. "You were just thinking like a child your age and it was an honest assumption. You're not used to having all this responsibility all of a sudden and I can't fault you for that. You just need to start thinking a little better with the new role you now have and it'll take some time on that."_

 _The child queen could only smile back before replying. "Thank you."_

" _You're welcome. Now then…" Naruto then created a clone and had it take on his hero attire before the original was walking away. "Time for me to sell my part."_

" _...Where are you going?"_

 _The Uzumaki turned around, but still walked backwards, he spoke out with a little smile. "Well a little thought came to mind that I could possibly sell my alibi that I'm 'not' Vanitas while my clone stands there and looks pretty."_

" _Pretty awesome and devilishly handsome I might add." The clone responded back making the young Queen giggle at the joking nature._

" _Oh you.~ *Cough* But still though, it helps so that people won't know I'm Vanitas when people try and make connections on why 'he' showed up at the airport all of a sudden to save your life."_

 _Nodding at this, Perdita thought it was a good idea. "But what are you, specifically, going to do?"_

" _Well~ When the police arrive, I'll come running in as a concerned friend and see if you're alright or whatever. Heh… This had actually worked one other time when I had fooled the famous Batman and Robin earlier this year. They never had a clue and they bought it."_

" _...Really?"_

" _Yes really. I'll tell you all about it if you want."_

 _Soon the sounds of the police sirens were getting really close, making the publisher having to haul his ass so he could get into position to get things right. Even had to phase himself through several walls. So after waiting several minutes, Naruto came running through the outside of the building and was greeted with the sight of the SCPD guarding the perimeter and questioning his clone and the child queen._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

It took a bit of convincing for him to get on through, but with Perdita's help of rushing towards him and giving him a hug did help sell the role a little better. There was a good amount of questioning involved, especially from one Detective Quentin Lance, on what his connection was with Perdita. Things were relatively smooth for the most part before reporters started to come onto the scene.

People questioned on who the helmeted hero was, to which the clone answered to the best of his abilities before he phased himself through the floor and disbursed so no one could find him. It was quite funny for Naruto to see this happen, though he had to keep up his appearance so no one would bat an eye towards him. The Uzumaki thanked his lucky stars and higher beings out there that none of the reporters had their sights on him since he didn't want to be fully involved in this.

Then again, him stepping away a good number of feet from Perdita helped during her little interview.

Civilians slowly came back into the airport since they still needed their luggage from most of the arrived flights while others were assumed to come back in the morning. It was complete and utter hell for what the Uzumaki could've imagined for not only the employees, but everyone else. Since it took roughly an hour for the airport personnel to hand off everyone's luggage before they went their separate ways.

During that time; Naruto had talked to her a little about his current life, due to her constantly asking him things. It was a little fun of being questioned by the young Queen until they got their respected belongings. Perdita was going to miss him, but Naruto promised her that he'll come see her before and after her surgery to help raise her spirits.

Turning off the shower, Naruto dried himself off and got dressed. His attire consisted of a nice pair of loose jeans, a light grey button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and his leather jacket. With all that done, he finished getting ready and headed out to do errands for the day.

 _ **-One Hour Later, On the Streets-**_

"...For the last time Selina, I'm not going to ask Perdita for some valuable jewels for saving her life." Naruto spoke into his phone with a silence barrier around him. Even though most people tend to ignore most phone calls, with what was being spoken would've turned a few heads. Hence the silencing field around his very being.

For the past hour, Naruto was having individual phone calls with each of his girlfriends with Pam being the first while she was grocery shopping and Harley being second while watching Jade, Artemis and Raven at her place. Asides from asking about his flight; both congratulated Naruto on saving the young Queen, but each had their own opinions on the matter (asides from being worried for starters). Pam commented about him going overboard on the fight with what she learned on the specified damage, thus causing more problems for the environment for repairs. Opposite of this, Harley was actually ecstatic and wanted all of the details of the fight.

As for Selina, she was quite similar in response to the whole thing like with her two girlfriends. Commenting about both the flight, the fight that took place and voiced her concern of how the child Queen was after the whole ordeal. When everything seemed fine and dandy, Selina ended up asking the most unusual requests that made the Uzumaki facepalm in response.

" _But darling~"_ Selina responded with a vocal pout. _"You saved her life and the least she could go is giving you a nice reward. And last I heard, the royal Vlatavan jewels are just so lonely inside that secured vault of theirs."_

*Sigh* "You and your jewels Selina." He muttered with a shake of his head. "I highly doubt Perdita will part with her ancestral, family jewels. Not only that honey, but asking her for such reward would leave a bad impression on her. The man who not only saved her life, but someone who befriended her in the short time together."

" _Now you're just making me look bad."_

"Selina…"

" _Okay, okay. I was only joking Naruto. Sheesh."_

*Chuckles* "Good…"

" _Still though, you should get a reward for-"_

"Really?" Interrupted the publisher as he thought she was going back onto the jewels.

" _If you let me finish… I was going to say a nice reward to possibly benefit us."_ The ravenette spoke with something on her mind. _"If I remember correctly, though I might be wrong, there are some areas in Vlatava that has some rare species of plants and animals due to them in the border area of Russia and some other countries. Possibly talk to the little Queen if she could help make a nature reserve over there, just so no one would ruin those places."_

Naruto hummed in thought as he was waiting at the stop light for the 'walking' sign to turn on. The idea Selina proposed could be nice to consider, but he'll need to bring it up to the child Queen when he goes and visits her. There wasn't much about said country to his knowledge so he'll have to ask it's young ruler for a better source.

"I'll see what I can do Selina. I don't know if she'll allow it, but I'll try my best."

" _Great. And besides I think it might be a great gift for Red's birthday coming up."_

That…. That made the publisher pause his movements the very moment he got onto the other side of the road.

"H-Her birthday?"

"Yeah… Don't tell me you forgot her birthday honey."

"O-Of course I wouldn't forget such an important day." He defended as he was opening his mental filing cabinet to remember the details. Selina's was back in March, which the two really enjoyed that experience, Harley mentioned hers being somewhere in September and Rachel's was on Halloween. Naruto had remembered a lot of important dates for both his work and personal lives, but he can't remember Pam's birthday… unless…

" _She didn't tell you, didn't she?"_ Was the thief's response towards his extended pause.

"...Yeah." He said in a bit of realization. Not once in their entire relationship did Pam mention her birthday once. Why was that?

" _Possibly ask her when you get the chance."_

"...Andy why can't I ask you, since you obviously know when it is?"

" _Because I'd like to see you squirm on finding out."_

Naruto's eye started to twitch at the bit of annoyance he was now experiencing. There were times that he can handle her playful attitude, but this was not exactly one of them. So with a sigh, he realized what he'll need to do to get the information out of her.

"If you tell me Selina, I'll get you something really nice by the time I get back. Will that be enough."

" _Hmmm~ Maybe… Depends on what it is exactly you'll get me."_

*Sigh* 'Figures.' Naruto thought before he heard the chime on his phone that someone was calling him. "Anything else before I end the call Selina? Someone else is trying to get ahold of me."

" _Well… Since you're in Starling, mind seeing if my old teacher is still in the city?"_

"Ted Grant?" The Uzumaki asked for a little confirmation. He briefly remembered the name in a past conversation. "Sure, I'll see what I can do if I have the time."

" _Great. Well have a good one and try to get those things done for me. Chao~"_

With Selina ending the call, Naruto pulled away his phone and pressed the 'answer' button on his phone without checking the caller ID.

"Hello. This is Naruto Uzumaki."

" _So… Why are you in the west coast Whiskers?"_ A feminine voice spoke out, making Naruto realize that it was Lois.

"Oh hey Lois. How are things?"

" _I'm doing well on my end. Stories to write and investigate. You know, the usual."_

"Good to hear on that."

" _Though that isn't why I called."_ The reporter said with the tone of voice that sent a chill down his spine. _"And why didn't you answer my previous question?"_

"Um… Well… I had to fly out here for work Lois. My board told me they wouldn't let me do a 'road trip' to get over here so I had to fly out."

" _And how was it? The first flight you took in roughly eight years."_

Blinking at this, he relaxed a little before answering his old Metropolis friend. "It was actually better than the last one Lois. Nothing bad really happened and it made me appreciate flying a bit better."

" _Well good for you Naruto. I'm proud of you."_ She cheerfully said at this. _"I told you it wasn't so bad Whiskers. You just had to get over the little fear of yours."_

*Chuckles* "You can thank Pam and some of our friends for the added support."

" _When I get the chance to meet them, I just might."_

"You'll probably like them a lot Lois. They're pretty great in my opinion."

" _I'll have to see that myself."_

Naruto nodded at this since just giving opinions about someone else can only go so far without fully experiencing them first hand. As the publisher was going to a nearby food cart, a thought came to mind: How did Lois know he was in the west coast?

"Um… Lois."

" _Yeah."_

"How did you know I was in the west coast?... I didn't tell you that at all."

" _Oh you can thank the news for that."_ The dark haired reporter responded with a possible smirk on her lips from what Naruto could tell. _"I was enjoying my day off from the office and the moment I got home from running errands, I saw the world news report going on at Starling. To my surprise, you were in the video shot of being a bit close with the Vlatavan Queen."_

'Damn… Should've stayed a bit farther away than I realized.' The former shinobi thought before speaking into his phone. "Lois, I can explain."

" _Oh you better mister, because this can be pure gold on what you might have here and I'd want all the juicy details. Not only that, but I got really worried when I heard of the attack at the airport. And for that matter, are you alright?"_

"First off Lois, yes I'm fine and I was out of the area when the attack happened. Second, I'm on the other side of the country and you can't lay a hand on me. So there is no way you can get any information from me about Perdita."

" _Oh~ Perdita was it?"_ Lois coyly said making Naruto pale a little. _"First name basis already? Did you befriend the young queen?"_

"So what if I did Lois? There's nothing wrong with that."

" _And why is she in Starling?"_ Questioned the reporter.

"I'm afraid that I can't tell you that."

" _Oh please Naruto. You can tell me."_

"Uh huh. And you'd report it right away to get a good headline." Naruto stated as he hit right on the nose on that one. Working with his old friend for so long would get him to know certain things about her. "Well I've got news for you Lois, I don't know all the details on what's going on. And what I do know, I promised her that I'd keep it underwraps until such time and that won't be for a while."

" _Ugh, you and your promises."_

"And you know how I am with them." He responded back with a smirk. The publisher was imagining his old friend's eye twitching like crazy at this, making him chuckle in the process.

" _Don't think this is over Naruto. I'll be getting that information out of you one way or another."_

"Heh. I'd like to see you try."

" _Oh we'll see Naruto. We'll see soon enough."_ Lois stated before ending the phone call, leaving an ominous feeling around the Uzumaki.

"...I'm going to watch my back for a while, aren't I?" He muttered to himself. Lois tends to do what she can to get the information she desired. Roped him along in many of her misadventures along the way and it almost killed them in the process. So if she could possibly show up out of the blue, it'll show how dedicated the Daily Planet reporter truly is.

Shaking away the feeling and thoughts, Naruto had just placed his order and stood off to the side to wait for his meal. It was going to be a very long day of checking out a few places for a new work location, so he'll need all the energy that he can get before checking up on Perdita. After five or so minutes, Naruto's order was called when his phone started to go off.

'Wonder who it is this time.' Naruto thought before he checked the caller ID and saw that it was Cat Grant. Smiling a little, he answered the call. "Hey Kitty Cat. How's it going?"

" _Why didn't you call me beforehand that you were heading out west?"_ The 'Media Queen' demanded with a stern voice, making him wince in response. _"You know I don't like surprises all that well and you appearing on the news made me very worried on what happened."_

"Sorry Cat, I wanted to call you but it must've slipped my mind before I came out here." Naruto answered as he took his meal and went to find somewhere to sit to eat his meal. "A lot happened in the past two weeks since I got the call from my board of directors to make me head to Starling."

" _Hmm… I would've imagined you doing a road trip instead of a flight. Not only would've saved you the problems with flying; but that way it would've given me more preparation for your arrival, if you plan to come to National City that is."_

*Chuckles* "I'm actually planning to head over there once my business in Starling is done and over with Cat. I promised you that I would show up at National City someday and we could spend some time together."

This seemed to please the 'media queen' as she gave out a pleasant hum. _"Ah yes. I had hoped that would've been earlier after that specific phone call last year, but didn't want to have my hopes up. But better late than never."_

"Yup and while I'm down there, we could maybe talk more about a partnership between our companies." Naruto pointed out as he opened up the first container of food. "We have talked a little about the idea over the past phone calls we had, but nothing concrete. I told my board of directors about it and they seem to like the idea… though they need to finish discussing about it among themselves before they could maybe move forward on it."

" _Really?"_ Cat questioned as she sounded pretty interested with the idea possibly moving forward now. _"Then this'll really get us to interact more than from before."_

"I hope so too." The Uzumaki simply said with a smile. "We aren't that close anymore and this could maybe help fix that in some way." He took a small bite out of his meal before a little thought came to mind. "I'm guessing you found out of me coming out west because of the news coverage of Queen Perdita being here?"

" _That... and as much as I wouldn't want to admit it, but Lois called me."_

"...Did she now?" He questioned with a raised brow. "I couldn't imagine you talking despite how much I tried to make that happen through our past calls."

" _Yes and it's understandable, but Lois reached out to me to inform me an interesting detail that you and Queen Perdita are considered friends."_

*Groan* "Not you too." Why did this have to happen now? Why were his two old friends ganging up on him on this?

" _I'm afraid so Whiskers."_ Cat responded with a smirk that Naruto knew she was currently wearing. _"But when this piece of information comes across my way, I want the opportunity to find out more and inform the public on what needs to be learned."_

"Cat… I don't know if I want to tell either you or Lois on what's going on with Perdita right now." He said with a somber tone and placed his food to the side for now as his main focus was on the call right now. "She's in a delicate state at this time, with not only having her father passed away the other night but also the assassination attempt and her becoming Queen of her country in such a short amount of time. It's a lot for a ten year old to handle, but the interviews that people would want to have could possibly be too much for her."

There was some moments of silence over the line as nothing was said from the media queen. Processing on what was spoken from one of the few close friends she has left in the world. Naruto was going to say something, just in case the line was disconnected or something when Cat spoke out after the bits of silence.

*Sigh* _"Sometimes I wonder how you can say the right things to bring both Lois and I down from our high horses."_

"Consider it apart of my charm Cat." The publisher stated with a small smile as he went back into nibbling on his meal.

*Chuckles* _"Keep telling yourself that Whiskers."_

"It has worked well so far as long as I've known and worked with you two. Not only you two, but others that I've interacted with in my current line of work."

" _Uh huh. So let me know what else comes up and when you'll make your way to my neck of the woods."_ It wasn't much of an order, but a demand given the slight tone Naruto picked up. _"If you do that, then I'll call Lois back and tell her to lay off for a while due to current circumstances."_

"Thanks Kitty Cat and I appreciate it." The former shinobi said before adding in one last thing to end the call. "Oh and give Adam a little 'hi' from me, if that's all fine and dandy with you."

" _Will do and hope to see you soon Naruto."_

Once that was done and over with, Naruto went back to his meal. It was a bit large, but he didn't know how long most of his stops will take. He only planned to hit three or four locations today and possibly spread things out over the next several days if possible. He highly doubted that things will go as smoothly like of what happened when he last visited Metropolis.

 _ **-Hours Later, Starling City General Hospital-**_

'Man the security must've really picked up more than I expected it to be.' Naruto thought as he scanned the area to see the various police personnel, both in and out of uniform. 'Then again with Perdita being here, why wouldn't security be this tight.'

For most of the day, Naruto has been checking out three of the eight locations on his list for a possible Starling City branch location. For obvious reasons, the Uzumaki did not want to check out any possible locations in both Iron Heights and the Glades. All due to how said areas reputations from Iron Heights containing a prison within its borders, while the Glades is the highest crime ridden place in the city. Sure there are opened spots at both areas, but Naruto had to think of the safety of both his current and future employees that would want to work there.

So far Naruto has hit Orchid Bay, South End and Southern Boulevard. Each location seems alright and a good price range, but he needs to hit the other locations over the next few days to have good assessments. The other locations he needs to hit are the Triangle, Pennytown, North District located in East Starling, Lamb Valley and Castlefall. Once everything is done and over with, he'll send his assessments towards his board of directors and let them choose which one is the best out of the others.

Once he got the first few locations looked over today, Naruto thought it would be a good time to finally check on Perdita at the hospital.

'Now I wonder where she's been placed at.' Mused the former shinobi as he did quick glances of the hospital's exterior. 'Probably not a room where her bedding placement is vulnerable through a good enough window view.'

While walking into the building, Naruto looked around to see where some other police detail were located as he saw some here and there in the whole hustle and bustle of hospital activity. He knew that he couldn't just wander around to find the child queen, making things seem suspicious on his appearance. So Naruto went up to the nurse's desk to properly be sent on through.

"Hello there ma'am."

Looking up from her work, the nurse saw the attractive whiskered male in front of her and blushed in response. "H-Hello."

He smiled a little at her reaction and didn't mind it at all. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I was wondering if my name was on the possible guest list to see Perdita of Vlatava."

Blinking in confusion, she didn't expect someone requesting to see the newly arrived patient already. Though with procedure, she rolled her chair towards the other area of her station to find the assortment of guest lists for the other patients. Took a few minutes of searching, but the nurse was able to find the documents she was looking for.

"Ah, here it is." She stated as Naruto saw a clipboard with a stack of papers attached. "Now let's see….. Perdita….. Perdita…. Perdita…. Ah here she is."

"And…. is my name listed there nurse?"

"Well let's see." The nurse said as her finger went to the guest names. "Huh… very short list apparently. But yes, your name is indeed on the guest list Mr. Uzumaki."

Naruto smiled before asking his desired question. "And where might Perdita's room might be exactly?"

The nurse looked up the room number for a moment before speaking towards the publisher. "It's on the top floor and go through the right hallway to go through several corridors. It'll be the last door on the left from there."

Hearing the directions, the Uzumaki thanked the nurse and made his way to the elevator. Once inside, he pressed the button for the desired floor when a man soon entered the small compartment. Naruto recognized him as he was questioned by him last night being one Detective Quentin Lance of the SCPD.

Quentin was a man that appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties with his thinning, wild dark hair with traces of grey appearing on the sides. He had strong features on his face with hints of a 5 o'clock shadow to compliment his steely brown eyes. Showing a man who has struggled throughout the years, yet worked himself to the bone for the safety of others. The detective was currently wearing a pair of grey pants, a black jacket with a plaid blue button up shirt. To finish off his look, his badge was presented on a visible part of his belt.

It took a moment for Quentin to realize, as the doors closed, who was in the same elevator as him and gave the publisher an odd look. "Huh… Didn't know you'd actually show up."

"Well I promised Perdita that I'd come and see her before her operation." The Uzumaki stated with a small smile before continuing. "And I wouldn't want to break a promise to the young Queen of Vlatava. I'd make me feel bad if I did."

*Chuckles* "Then it's good to see one celebrity that wants to help out a little girl, regardless of her status."

"Doesn't hurt that I became friends with her during the flight over here from Gotham." Naruto pointed out as they reached the top floor.

"That's fine and all, but still odd to see that you'd actually show up." Quentin started off before explaining to the slightly confused publisher. "The kid requested you to be on her guest list while she was admitted to the hospital last night. Didn't know why'd she do it, but…"

"Given the reputation you had to deal with such 'celebrities' made you weary." The Uzumaki finished off as he gave the detective a knowing look. "Trust me detective, I have my fair share of celebrities back in Gotham and I've grown used to how most act at times."

Detective Lance could only snort in response as the two made their way to Perdita's hospital room. "Like of what I've heard through the rumor and gossip columns that you're friends with the playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne." Naruto gave the older man a look that made him respond back a little. "My daughter reads them from time to time and I end up hearing the garbage at work. It's a nightmare at times if you ask me."

*Sigh* "I hear that. Yes I'm friends with Bruce, but that's besides the point. Reason why at my company, we go for the facts in our magazines instead of that tabloid trash most people see everyday at newsstands. Though we do things on a lot of other subjects that deals with literature and various forms of art for an added bonus."

*Chuckles* "Nice to know on that."

"Speaking of daughters; I heard your daughter, Laurel, had worked as Oliver Queen's lawyer in the trial earlier today." This only got a dark look from the detective, causing Naruto to try and quickly fix things. "Sorry if I ruined your mood sir, I didn't mean to. I only heard the bare minimum from the news this morning."

"Well apology somewhat accepted Mr. Uzumaki." The detective said with a sideways glance as they walked through the halls. "Though sorry for the bad mood, but with what's currently going on, of me and most of the police force here guarding the queen, on top of what happened at the station earlier wasn't doing all that great if you ask me."

"...Mind if I ask what happened detective? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Quentin only looked at the publisher for a few moments before shaking his head in response. "I'd rather not talk about it. Police business."

Naruto nodded in acceptance as the two eventually made their way to Perdita's hospital room. As they got closer, they heard a man speaking with the queen inside of the hospital room, with a pair of guards standing outside of it. When Naruto opened the door, both he and the detective were greeted with the site of seeing not only Perdita in the hospital bed, but also an older man standing not far away from her.

He appeared to be a Caucasian male in his mid to late thirties with blue eyes, with white hair slicked back and a widow's peak hairline. He wore a lime blazer on top of a brown waistcoat and a dark green ascot with a golden brooch. He also donned a dark green cape and matching pants and gloves. To finish off his appearance, he had an ordinated pommel for the cane in his hand.

"Oh hello Naruto, Detective Lance." Perdita spoke with a small smile on her face. "Uncle Werner, the whiskered man was the one who I was talking about earlier."

"I can introduce myself, my young niece." The now identified Werner Zytle spoke out with a thick, eastern European accent. "But why bother introducing me to a peasant?"

'A peasant?' Que eye twitch from the publisher. He didn't take much offense to being called a peasant, he had been called worse back in his childhood. But the manner in which the word was used seemed to irk him to no end.

"...And what's wrong with being a peasant?" Naruto asked with a small smile that he tried to keep on his face. "Peasants are people too you know, since they help provide for one's entire Kingdom. No matter where they reside in the world."

Werner huffed in response as the answer was so obvious to him that he didn't even care if it was a proper answer. Neither Quentin or Naruto liked that. Not one one bit as they didn't like the implied message. But for the detective, he wanted to defuse the situation a bit.

"Now now, no need for violence." Detective Lance stated as he somewhat missed the glaring match between the publisher and the Queen's Count of an uncle. Quentin barely sighed as he needed to end this now. "I'm sure you know your way out sir as I believe Mr. Uzumaki would like to see your niece."

"Again, _Peasant_." The Count pointed at Naruto. "Not worth my time."

"Then it's quite fortunate that this _peasant_ is your niece's friend." Naruto coldly stated with a similar thought spoken in his head. 'Also saved her life you ass.'

The count only snorted at this as he fiddled around with the pommel of his cane. "Of course… A peasant, such as you, would just be a man-in-waiting after such short time. Would even want to be in close to her royal highness to gain favors when things would be convenient for yourself."

"Okay, what the he-heck is your problem?" Naruto asked while keeping his language better in front of the ten year old. "I have nothing to really gain if I'm in Perdita's good graces, since I'm just trying to look out for her."

"Hmm… I see now. You're just acting the part, aren't you?" Werner snidely asked as he made his way out of the hospital room.

'Cool your head Naruto, just cool your head.' The Uzumaki thought as he tried to calm himself down. He didn't want the Count to provoke him and cause any more problems than he has to. Though something didn't get filtered all that well when it came to his mouth. "Do counts play jester, Count Zytle? Because I believe I see one in front of me."

This got the Vlatavan count to still his movements before turning towards the whiskered male with a narrowed glance. If looks could kill, then Naruto would've died a thousand deaths all at once. "You dare say such things towards me _peasant_?"

Mentally sighing, Naruto berated himself on letting that bit slip but decided to just roll with it now. "In most cases, yes. Yes I possibly would."

*Growl* "Why you little-"

"Enough." Came the command from the young Queen in the room. "I will not tolerate you calling my guest a peasant uncle."

Not wanting any more of this, the Count stormed out of the room before he sent a glare at the publisher.

Seeing the man gone, Detective Lance couldn't help but comment about it. "Has he always acted that rude your highness?"

*Sigh* "In a way, yes." Perdita answered as she rubbed her fingers on the hospital sheets. "From what my father told me, Uncle Werner has acted like that for years; with the mindset of everyone below his status should be considered 'peasants' or 'servants'."

*Groan* "Great… One of those people." Muttered the Uzumaki as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Are you sure he's related to you Perdita?"

"Yes he is, though he was adopted closer into the family due to him originally being a second or third cousin from my father." She added in for the little bit of information. "Werner and my father were close since they were children after the 'jump' in the family line. But with relations with others, he only pushed them away."

"Well with that attitude, him being a proxy leader wouldn't give him any good light on his public image." Commented the detective with a shake of his head.

"He means well since he wants our country to be strong, a world power, to help back up our illustrious history of mighty rulers." The child queen explained with a small smile before looking away from the two older men. "Werner supported my father during the times leading up to his rule, in hopes of having a better future from most of the darker parts of Vlatava's past. But after my father took the crown, my uncle became bitter against him."

"And why's that?" Questioned the publisher as the detective soon answered it.

"I don't know much about Vlatavan history as much as the next guy; but all I know was that during King Victor's reign, things have become sour in terms with relations with other countries." Quentin started off with a shrug. "Something about treaties no longer stabilizing different groups, among other things. But then again, Victor was crowned king during the later half of the Cold War and Vlatava was partially under control of the Soviets at that time. Victor was in an awkward spot of appeasing both the Commies and his people that, long story short, things didn't go all that well."

"You're correct I'm afraid detective." Perdita replied with a small frown. "My father shielded me from most of our country's problems, but they always seemed to come through the palace doors. *Sigh* Over time, my uncle became enraged with my father on how he was treating the country and both argued on how to run it with their ideals and approaches clashing.

Though when the Cold War was starting to end and the Soviets left our country's borders, deep scars remained. Relations with countries we used to be allies with became enemies, like Kasnia for example, as thoughts of them overtaking and crushing us. My father did everything he can to fix things and he did as much as he could to make things better for everyone."

"Though I doubt your uncle sees that way." The detective commented as the two men digested the information given to them.

"Unfortunately so… And now my uncle thinks that I'll end up inheriting my father's traits, possibly dragging my country through the mud." Was her response with a downcast look, making the two men feel uneasy as they looked towards her. So Naruto acted and came to Perdita's side to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay Perdita." Naruto softly said in a comforting tone. "I told you before that you're young and you've got plenty of time to deal with these new responsibilities on your plate. You obviously can't work on them all at once. Try to be child first and a queen second, if you can."

"But how can I?" She innocently asked with curiosity in her eyes. "How can I take hold of my responsibilities as queen of Vlatava and be my regular self Naruto? I… I don't know if I can handle that much strain and difficulty."

Naruto didn't respond right away as he thought things over, even Detective Lance thought if he should cut in and say something to help the little girl out. The older man was going to say something when the young publisher spoke. "Well Perdita… I believe you've finally come across one of life's most annoying questions, yet you're so young that you didn't even realize it: How do you juggle it all?"

Naruto got up from his position and took off his backpack before unzipping the top. Reaching his hand in, he formed a few plain rubber balls before bringing them out for his little demonstration. "It's simple really, you learn."

The Uzumaki held out his hands to present the young queen with the toy balls he formed. "Now… think of these as your responsibilities, duties, or whatever you have on your plate and take things slow on your approach." Naruto then tossed one up in the air and caught it with the other before repeating the process until adding in another ball into the mix. "You start with one and then two before adding in more and more as you go."

As seconds pass, more toy balls started to appear to make Perdita look onward with an adopted look of joy across her features. Part of her innocence was coming to the surface to enjoy the little spectacle before her to really show that she was child. It helped her to briefly take away her thoughts on her new challenges on life, if she made it through the upcoming heart surgery.

Quentin, though, looked onwards with a small smile as a bit of nostalgia kicked in as he thought of doing a similar thing with his two daughters when they were Perdita's age. He and his ex-wife, Dinah, would do what they can to cheer up their baby girls when they had a bad day. Either by taking them out for ice cream or playing whatever games Laurel and Sara wanted to do when the parents had free time. Though this made him feel a bit depressed on remembering such fond memories.

"When I was starting out my publishing company, I had to figure out how to be brilliant in business with what experiences I gained while working at the Daily Planet. From there, I had to figure out how to balance my work life and my social life. Even more so when I eventually met the love of my life and started to date her late last year. And after that, becoming a foster father to a little girl that's your age some months ago." Naruto stated as the juggling increased and he was doing little tricks here and there to make Perdita's eyes sparkle a bit. Things eventually ended as he used his foot to lift his backpack off of the floor before the toy balls soon fell in one at a time to finish off his trick. "Far too many people I've come across have burnt themselves out trying to do too much before they're ready."

Snapping out of her focus on Naruto's previous actions, she fully digested what he said and questioned him. "So… So you can handle it all?"

"Of course. Though it takes time to properly manage it, since you can't do it all at once and not right away." Naruto stated as he placed his bag back on the ground. "Just do things one thing at a time and you'll get the hang of it that it'll become second nature to you."

The young queen can only nod with a smile on her face as she accepted the lesson given to her. She was going to say something when her stomach started to growl. This made Perdita blush on how loud it seemed to make the older men chuckle in response.

"I'll go see if I can get something for you Perdita."

"Thank you Naruto."

The publisher nodded as both he and Detective Lance exited the room for their own devices. A bit after closing the door, Quentin turned towards Naruto and spoke to him. "That was nice of you doing that for her."

"Think nothing of it detective." The former shinobi simply said with a fox-like smile with his hands behind his head. "I had to do what I can to cheer her up. After all, I'm the guardian of a ten year old girl with a troubled past under my care. So it's a little easy to help out a child of a similar state."

"Still though, thanks."

"Then you're welcome." Naruto said with a small thought came to mind. "So out of curiousity, how much longer till Perdita's operation gets underway?"

"When her replacement heart shows up." Quentin said, getting Naruto to stop his movements and look at the detective with surprised curiosity.

"Excuse me but 'when her heart get's here'?"

"Yup."

"But I thought her heart was already here in Starling. Hence why Perdita flew out here in the first place." Naruto said getting Quentin to nod at this.

"That was what I was told earlier before the majority of us were sent here. But in truth, the donor was on her deathbed the other day and her heart had to be properly transported here from the other side of the state. So long story short, the heart is supposed to show up later today and we have teams guarding the heart on it's way over here."

Hearing this little explanation made Naruto feel uneasy as the detective left for his own duties. He had a feeling that whoever had the assassination attempt on Perdita's life wouldn't have ended it at just at the airport, hence the added security at the hospital. But if an attempt at Perdita's life would be made, it would possibly happen at the transport holding her donated heart.

So with that in mind, Naruto was formulating plans to help out said transport get to it's destination to properly deliver the heart. Problem is that he doesn't know what the transport will look like and how the police officials will guard it, without making it seem too suspicious to give away their positions. It's going to take a lot of effort so he can help protect Perdita's life. But for now...

"Where the hell is the cafeteria?" Naruto muttered as he went towards the nearby hospital map to find Perdita some food.

 _ **-Jade Dragon, Chinatown-**_

The restaurant has been a little busy with the amount of customers it is currently holding for the lunch hour. Chatter was abuzz and meals were either being prepared or eaten… Well all except for one table as the only occupant was currently alone at the corner of the restaurant. With the person's seating arrangement, he was facing the wall with his back towards everyone else. He was patiently waiting for the other party member to arrive, given the show of his hands resting on the menu and the glass of water needing to be refilled.

*Sigh* 'Shouldn't take this long for her to arrive.' The man thought before someone entered his field of vision and said person sat in front of him. "Took your time, didn't you Chien?"

Chien Na Wei, or China White as her alias goes by, was a very attractive Chinese woman that showed features of her strong heritage. Despite the amount of clothing on her, the man knew she had a body built for killing and seduction. Chien's hardened brown eyes keeping focus at both her surroundings and at the man in front of her, despite the restaurant being a front for the Chinese mob. To finish off her appearance was the striking silvery blonde hair, that one could argue was fake but it was very much all natural… Then again, one had to check the drapes to see if the curtains were real.

'And I checked it all.' The man silently mused while he had a facade in place.

"Well when I got word from one of my men that you of all people arrived here, I had to make it across town to see what business you have here." Was her response with a little frown on her face.

"It would've been better if you've given me a better way in contacting you instead of coming here all the time." The man said with a dry look. "Not that I mind at this particular place. Serves a pretty good cuisine with authentic oriental food."

"So why are you here exactly?" Questioned the silverette. "I doubt it's just for that former associate of yours that was on the airport attack last night."

"True… but what makes you say that I'm after Minato."

His words sank in, making Chien's eyes widen slightly in a surprised fear upon realization. "Are you out of your mind Monkey?!" She asked in a hushed whisper.

"Possibly, but I do what I must for my new master. If I have to work for a disgraced member of the League of Shadows, then I'd suck it up for my own personal goals in mind."

"But by doing that, then Ra's will be after you're head!" The silverette stated as she knew, in fact, many rules placed on the league members. After all, the man in front of her was a former lover of hers and she learned a lot from him to make her assassination work much better than before.

"Not if I have gotten stronger and been given better protection from my new master Chien."

The Triad assassin narrowed her eyes in suspicion and voiced it towards her former lover. "You sound really confident in your new 'master' if he can make such things happen."

"Oh... but he has."

"And while you're at it, mind telling me why you are here in the first place? Why speak to me about all of this anyways?"

Her answer wasn't immediate as she saw him bring his head down a bit to rub his temples from slight frustration. *Sigh* "As much as I'd hate to say it Chein, I need your help on my assignment."

This got a raised brow look from her on the answer, making said woman smirk a little. "And here I thought you were pretty confident earlier on your 'boast of power' Monkey."

The now identified Silver Monkey, outside of his assassin attire, glared at the silverette before he elaborated. "Normally I would, as I am very confident in my abilities, but with the new addition on the board will cause complications." Chien didn't say anything as she ushered Monkey to continue. "The contract was originally given to Minato and he would've completed it flawlessly, if it wasn't for _him_ showing up."

"Him?" She questioned before remembering on the news earlier this morning. "Oh… You mean-"

"Yes… _him_." Quarrd Alfidd growled out as he remembered the hero from Gotham that humiliated him on the Zephyr assignment. "Vanitas showed up and stopped the assassination attempt. Not only that, but he literally maimed Minato of his arm and one of his eyes at the end of their fight. So because of that, the contract got transfered to me to complete since Minato is out of commission for who knows how long."

China White could only owly blink in surprise on the supposed new hero from Gotham doing such a thing. But given the reports of what happened of the ruined area of the airport would give Chien a 'pretty' picture. The helmeted hero must've done it as a last resort to defeat Hiraishin, but who knows for sure.

But there was still one thing that wasn't answered.

"You still didn't tell me why you wanted to see me."

"Yes… That… There is one thing I'd like to ask of you Chien. Consider it of me calling in one of your favors to me."

"...Which is…. What exactly?" The silverette assassin asked as he leaned forward with a small smirk on his face.

"How would you like to steal a Queen's heart?"

 _ **-Evening, On the Streets-**_

The sun was starting to set across the city, to slowly show the nightlife that is in Starling. Naruto didn't have much time last night to really appreciate it, due to not only tiredness but also the craziness at the airport. This time however, he was able to _slightly_ enjoy the sites a little from his current position on top of the Queen Consolidated corporate building.

Keyword slightly… especially with his current task at hand.

"Oh where, oh where are you?" Vanitas muttered as he focused his vision, having the three purple circles zoom in at various locations. "Give me something, please. Don't know how long it'll take for the Dusks to report back, but I'm getting bored here."

After coming back to Perdita's hospital room, with the recommended meal for her by the doctors, the two chatted with one another for a good amount of time to help lighten her spirits. With a sound barrier up, Naruto answered a lot of Perdita's questions to the best of his abilities, with some information kept away for good measure. Like any generic little fan girl, Perdita asked if Naruto had any upcoming works on the way along with what inspirations he had when writing his books. Thank Kami she didn't know or ask anything about Icha Icha or else that would've been one very awkward conversation in many aspects.

Naruto then told her part of the story on how he fooled Batman and Robin on his identity, like he promised, which involved the three of them fighting against Pam. Perdita was confused on why they fought against his girlfriend, but the publisher gave a brief explanation of Pam not being herself and towards the end of the fight she came to her senses. Even when he had a clone pose as his alter ego while he, personally, showed up to really drive things home in the end.

Time passed throughout their conversation and Naruto wished her the best of luck for her surgery before leaving. He did leave a clone behind and hide away near her hospital room, just in case if any assassins showed up to take the young queen's life. From there, he headed out to somewhat familiarize himself with the city before getting into his hero attire when the sun started to set. After all, he needed to hopefully reach certain areas at a moments notice and wouldn't want to run around like a decapitated chicken, now would he.

Once situated at Queen Consolidated, Naruto summoned a good dozen Dusks to help him out on the search. So far his reconnaissance team hasn't reported back on anything at every entrance/exit of the city's limits. Even used his 'zoom' ability, or Hawkeye in a better term, to see how far his vision can go, but it's been giving him a headache on how far it could reach. It apparently can reach about 4 kilometers (about 2.5 miles); but he tried to push further than that, hence the growing headache.

Nothing much has happened…

" _ **Sire!"**_ A Dusk yelled out in his head.

Until now that is.

"Yes. What is it?" Vanitas asked as he stood up from his spot.

" _ **We've spotted an armored transport coming from south of the city."**_ The Dusk stated as it's master waited for more information. _**"Thought it was going to be something else, but some vehicles are distancing themselves from it in a protective formation."**_

"Good to know." The masked Uzumaki simply said as he summoned a Kazekage spear. "All Dusks, out and about. Head towards the south and do what you can to protect the transport if any enemy's arrive."

" _ **Yes sire!"**_

Once the command was given, Vanitas leapt off of the building's rooftop and landed on the lance before steadily speeding up towards the direction of the armored transport. It was rough to say on terms of where exactly the truck was exactly, but Naruto started to play with the radio frequencies in his helmet. Nothing much happened until he got something that sounded urgent.

" _This is unit #52, needing immediate assistance on 3rd Street!"_ A man yelled out over the radio. _"Four armed bikers blew up our back up and we're sitting ducks! We can't let them have the precious cargo!"_

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts 2.5: 13th Dilemma Extended-**_

"I hope that's my target or else I'm wasting time in protecting Perdita's heart." Vanitas muttered as he locked onto the frequency and headed at the location. Took about a minute in getting there, but it seemed that Naruto made it to the right spot as several Dusks were hovering above the ground to distract some of the armed cyclists.

As he was getting closer, Vanitas heard something in the air and turned towards the source.

"Are you kidding me?!"

Out of instinct, Vanitas leapt off of his lance and dived out of the way just in time for a rocket to come in contact with his airborne weapon.

*BOOM*

"Who the hell brings a rocket launcher to this kind of thing?!" He yelled out as he was plummeting towards the streets below. He guessed that he was roughly a mile from the destination, so he summoned another lance to at least help him get there in time.

As he was heading down; his eyes tracked where the rocket originated from, especially since another one was fired again. Vanitas was prepared this time and summoned another lance to send out another wind attack to intercept the rocket. Both came in contact and exploded, leaving a large cloud of smoke in its wake. The hero used this opportunity to shoot towards the man on the rooftop, who fired the rocket, and smacked the launcher away before knocking him out with the blunt end of one of his lances.

With that man out of the way, Vanitas turned his attention towards where all the action is and made his way over there. By the time he showed up, the hero saw armed cyclists pointing their weapons at the drivers of the armored transport. Not wanting to waste anymore time, Vanitas dispersed his lances and threw daggers at the cyclists' weapons before landing on the ground with a recovery roll.

All this got the people's attention as Vanitas dashed towards the cyclists. Each of them were too slow in pulling out their sidearms when the hero came in close and delivered blows onto each of them. With some of them taken care of for the time being, Vanitas turned towards the drivers and yelled out to them.

"Make your delivery now!"

They nodded as they were about to start their vehicle, but something was shot through the air and came in close to piercing the drivers' necks. They would've died if it wasn't for Vanitas moving in the way to block the attacks. But this seemed to cost him as several daggers flew through the air and pierced the vehicle's tires, rendering them useless.

"So you're the hero I've heard so much about." A female voice called out, getting Vanitas to turn towards the source. Seeing a silver haired asian woman that seemed to give off a vibe of being a top assassin made the hero be on his guard. "Wonder how I can fare against you, given your reputation of being supposedly ruthless."

The masked publisher could only glare at the assassin and spoke out. "And who are you?"

She smirked in response at this before answering. "You may call me China White, as it possibly might be the last name you'll ever hear."

"I highly doubt that."

Nothing else was said as China White ran towards Vanitas. She delivered a roundhouse kick at his head, but was countered when it was caught. He tried to strike towards her head, but she used her free leg to kick his midsection to get herself free from his hold. Rolling out of the way, she threw several throwing stars at the hero but they phased right through him.

'The hell?' China White thought on what she just saw.

Seeing her reaction, Vanitas smirked a little. "You need to do better than that if you want to beat me."

*Growl* "Xiànzài ràng nǐ de pìgu zài zhèlǐ!"/"Get your asses over here now!" China White yelled out in Chinese as Vanitas saw several dozen men arrive into the battle ground. Even more seemingly showing up on the rooftops. "So what will you do now with being outnumbered?"

"...Are you compensating for something?" Vanitas questioned as he gazed at the enemy numbers. "I feel like you are."

Without warning, many of the men started firing at Vanitas. On reflex, he quickly moved out of the way and went behind the armored truck. Though that seemed useless as other men of China White's forces had a clear shot at him, even with a few trying to pry the door to the armored transport. Vanitas had to quickly take care of those men so they wouldn't get inside and take the heart. But even then, Vanitas was outnumbered as he pulled up his barrier to block the enemy fire.

"You should just surrender now Vanitas!" The silverette assassin yelled out over the gunfire. "Leave now and you'll be left alone!"

"And leave the heart to you guys?! Fat chance!"

Vanitas didn't know where he could turn to at the present time. He could possibly phase his way into the transport and take the heart, but that'll leave the drivers vulnerable to the assailants. Even if he left the drivers all by themselves, Vanitas would also be partially vulnerable in having the heart being put at risk. Hell he didn't know how the heart was being kept in the first place, so there's that.

'For the drivers and the heart to be safe, I need to take care of these goons.' Naruto thought as he tried to maintain the barrier. 'But even if I summoned clones or Nobodies, then they'd be taken out too soon with these amount of baddies. *Sigh* What should I do?'

As his eyes scanned the area, his sights soon landed upon some objects not far outside of his barrier. Naruto soon realized that it was a pair of guns that the latest goon dropped before the shooting started. Vanitas was about to look somewhere else when a voice spoke inside of his mind.

' _Pick them up.'_

'That voice… I heard it before.' Vanitas thought in remembrance of the Man-Bat incident. It was the same voice that came out of nowhere when he first got his Kazekage lance.

' _Pick up. The guns.'_

"...If you say so." He muttered in a low tone as he prepared himself for what's to come. Wishing himself the best of luck, he dropped the barrier, rolled towards the guns on the ground and aimed at the nearest thugs.

In an instant, Vanitas saw things slow to a crawl as he felt his energy pulse through his arms and onto the guns. Energy enveloping them, morphing them into something that he didn't expect out of this. What was once a pair of simple, black handguns; they now appeared to be odd arrowguns/crossbows being primarily purplish with silver in various areas on the elongated weapons. The top of each gun bears a pattern similar to the Nobody symbol with the guards having metallic diamond shaped spikes.

Once things went back to normal speed, Vanitas' fingers already pulled the triggers to fire upon China White's goons. Instead of normal bullets, it was a complete surprise to see the projectiles being magenta colored laser arrows. The 'arrows' impacted the goons and sent them flying into the people behind them.

Not wanting to lose this chance, Vanitas kept firing onto the crowd of goons. Many of the laser arrows struck each of them; but with the sudden recoil from the new weapons, the arrows ended up in odd places on the human bodies. Each good cried out in pain with some falling back and bleeding out or even a few falling over dead. With the ones that ended up dead seemingly disintegrated into nothingness as it caused many viewing goons to freak out.

"...Well shit." Vanitas muttered as he ran away to fire upon the other thugs. 'I wanted to immobilize them, not kill them.' With that in mind, the hero did his best to aim for vulnerable areas that wouldn't endanger the thugs' lives. Though with the strength of the kick back made things a bit hard, but Naruto was trying his best in not leaving fatal blows.

Using his speed, Vanitas swerved through the crowd and pulled the triggers on his weapons. At one point, the resounding *click* was heard making the helmeted Uzumaki realize that he ran out of ammo. This got a few thugs to come in and attack the 'unarmed' hero, but they forgot that even without ammo, the arrowguns could be considered as blunt weapons.

*SMACK* *SMACK* *SMACK* *SMACK*

'This is gonna take some getting use to.' Vanitas thought as he swung his guns around to smack the nearby thugs across their heads. Out of instinct, the hero swung his guns like escrima sticks but on a few instances the sharp ends of the weapons imbedded themselves into the foes. This made many of China White's men cry out in pain before being kicked away by the black and white themed hero.

'Time to reload.' He thought as he focused energy into the weapon clips to refill them. A lot of his power was leaving him, making Vanitas feel like he was running out of breath. 'Man… these things are taking a lot out of me. Need to use these arrows sparingly.'

Vanitas dodged out of the way from some sniper fire from the rooftops. With careful aim, he fired a few laser arrows, but only one missed with it hitting the rooftop below the sniper. The missed arrows weren't wasted as they ricocheted off the surface and went straight towards a man on the street below.

'This thing can do that.' Naruto thought with widened eyes. 'Well this gives me a few ideas.'

He ran towards the nearby wall and leapt off of it before firing at several other goons before flipping over to fire at a stop sign. Bouncing off it's surface, the projectiles landed on their marks as they made several thugs fall onto the ground to hopefully pry off the arrows off. With most distracted, Vanitas ran towards them and leapt over them to kick their heads before using them as human shields from the remaining snipers from up above.

As this was going on, the silverette assassin was weighing her options on what she should do now. She could try and make her way into the armored transport to nab the heart, but that would get her in the way of Vanitas' onslaught. Whatever weapon the hero now had was decimating her forces, with some results looking not pretty at all.

'This is getting too hot for me.' Chien thought as she saw the scene before her. 'Screw Silver Monkey on this favor. I need to get out of here or else I might be next.'

With that in mind, she ran off so she wouldn't get captured and questioned on her motives this evening.

Back with the hero, he was wrapping things up with the thugs as he was jumping off of one of their heads and fired at the remaining rooftop forces. While still in the air, Naruto focused more energy into his guns before firing. The singular projectile glowed for a brief moment before it exploded, launching out rope like energy to hold the remaining men in place.

'Well ain't that interesting.' He thought on that interesting moment. Disbursing his guns, he came straight down from the air and summoned his lance. Once striking the ground, Vanitas shot a gust of wind on all sides to knock out of the goons.

*Panting* "Damn… This really took a lot out of me." Vanitas muttered as he held onto the lance for support. "Need to figure out on how to use those 'arrows' sparingly or else I'll burn myself out."

It was then that the doors to the transport opened up and the drivers ran towards the hero.

"Thank god you saved us."

"If you haven't showed up, we would've been goners for sure."

*Panting* "No problem." The hero said as he eyed the two drivers. "Is the Queen's heart safe?"

"I think so." One of the drivers said as he went towards the vehicles back and unlocked it. With the doors opened, Vanitas saw a metallic container strapped down onto one of the seats. "Yup, it's still good."

"Though I think we have a problem here." The other driver stated as he eyed the tires. "With those gone, we can't make it to the hospital in time."

"...I think… I can get it there in time." Vanitas said getting their attention.

"You sure about that? You look pretty exhausted to me."

This got the hero to wave him off before replying. "Nah.. This is nothing."

"If you say so."

The one driver came back out with the heart container and handed it to the hero. In response, he formed several grappling scarfs and had them wrap around his body before latching onto the container. With it securely in place on his back, Vanitas nodded to the two drivers before using his lance to ride into the night's sky.

 _ **-Starling City General Hospital-**_

The site of the city's hospital made Vanitas smile as he was coming closer to the building's entrance. He was absolutely tired from what he had to deal with earlier, but it didn't matter now. Once landing near the building's entrance; the hero was greeted with the sight of a doctor, who was patiently waiting for the heart's arrival.

"Eh… Where's the transport carrying the heart?" Questioned the doctor. "I was told that there was supposed to be an armored convoy or something that was supposed to arrive."

"Sorry doc, but they got held up by some thugs." Vanitas answered as he took the heart container off of his makeshift backpack. "Though I made it. Here's the heart." The reaction he got out of the doctor wasn't what the hero was expecting, as the man showed a downcasted look. "Is something wrong?"

"We-We tried to call it in to the transport, but there was no response at all."

"...What happened?"

"I'm sorry sir, but…. But you're too late."

This got a hidden, wide eyed look from the hero as the news had hit him rather hard. "W-What? What do you mean I'm too late?!" He yelled out as he grasped the doctor with one of his available hands. "I thought Perdita had plenty of time!"

"She had a heart attack earlier and we rushed her to the ER to stop it, but it didn't work out." The doctor replied as Vanitas let go of the man. "I'm sorry, but we did everything we could."

"...How long?"

"Excuse me?"

"How long ago… did this happen?" The masked publisher asked as his eyes stared into nothingness.

"About twelve minutes ago." The hospital employee stated, making the hero tighten his hand into a fist. "Please. Don't blame yourself. I'm sure you got here as fast as you could." The doctor then grasped the packaged heart from Vanitas and brought it closer to his body. "Maybe another recipient can be found." There was no response at all as Vanitas walked through the hospital entrance, with the doctor right behind him.

Though if the hero were to look, he would've seen the doctor have a smirk on his face with a dark twinkle in his eyes.

'Twelve minutes… Twelve minutes…. I'm sure the fight didn't take that long with the added time of getting over here.' Naruto thought as he berated himself. He sat down near one of the hospital decorations to wallow in his misery. 'I should've been better…. I should've been faster.'

"Vanitas!" A doctor yelled out, getting the hero to turn his head to see a couple of doctors jogging towards him. "We got word from the transport that you were coming."

"Well I'm too late apparently." The hero sorrowfully said as he realized the transport must've told the hospital all too late.

"...What do you mean by that?"

"I was told that Perdita died about twelve minutes ago by a heart attack."

This got odd looks from the hospital staff before one of them replied that. "Who the hell told you that? Perdita didn't die, we were getting her prepped for surgery at that time."

Vanitas was clearly surprised by this, though he didn't show it due to his helmet. "You-You mean she's not dead?"

"But she will be since she's running out of time."

'Shit!' Naruto thought with hidden, widened eyes. 'I've been conned!' With his widened gaze, he searched for the 'doctor' he gave the heart container to. It was brief, but Naruto saw the man smirking right back at him from the elevator.

Vanitas growled at the man as he ran at the elevator. Despite the doors already closed, he used his powers to phase right through to end up in the elevator shaft to land on the container. Vanitas phased once again to see a hole on the bottom with a doctor's outfit to the side, along with a face like mask to hide his appearance.

'The hell is this thing?' He briefly thought before jumping into the hole. After a bit of falling, Vanitas saw an opening and dived right through to end up at the hospital's parking garage. Once coming out of the safety roll, he saw someone he didn't expect to see after the Wayne Manor incident near a parked limousine.

"You!" Vanitas yelled out, getting the man and several thugs' attention.

"Well hello Vanitas." A certain monkey themed assassin dryly said as he focused on the new arrival. "It's been quite some time."

"What the hell are you doing here Monkey!"

"That's Silver Monkey to you hero." Was all the assassin said as he threw a handful of shuriken towards Vanitas. The hero could only run away from the shuriken, along with the added gunfire into the mix.

'Dammit. I need to get the container away from him.' Naruto thought before he summoned a few Dusks to distract the assassin and his lackeys. The summons flew towards the assailants and gave Vanitas enough time to run in close to Silver Monkey. Once close enough, he slid on the ground and gave the assassin an upward kick to dislodge the container from his grasps.

"I believe this is mine." The hero said as he used his grappling scarf to snag the container from the air and strap it onto his back.

Some thugs tried to get in close, but some exploding cards were thrown to send them back and possibly incapacitate them. It seemed to work as some fell onto the floor with the rest confused from the smoke of both the cards and disbursed summons. Needing to get them out of the way, Vanitas dashed into the smoke and made quick work out of them.

With no one else, but Silver Monkey standing, Vanitas stared down at his opponent.

"I'm taking a wild guess that the attack on the transport was your doing." The hero stated as the two encircled each other in a standoff. "Am I right?"

"Pretty much as I expected to possibly have it delay and tire you out if needed."

'Well it worked, I'd give him that.' Vanitas thought before Silver Monkey dashed towards him. He blocked the monkey's strike before pushing him away to duck from a spin kick. From his placement, Vanitas swept kick the assassin. But in the momentary fall, Silver Monkey used his arms to perform a somersault before delivering a kick towards the hero's helmet.

With the hero down on the ground, the assassin jumped into the air to strike Vanitas' head. That failed once the hero rolled out of the way, but the assassin landed a successful kick across the side of his helmet. The ringing echoed inside of Naruto's helmet, causing some momentary discomfort, until he ran at Silver Monkey, grabbed his torso and ran without stopping to slam his opponent to the garage wall. This attempt failed as the assassin momentarily moved around to place his feet onto the wall and run upwards to evade the blow.

"Is that the best you can do Vanitas?" Mocked the monkey themed assassin once landing on the ground. "I thought you could do better than that."

Vanitas gritted his teeth in frustration, but had to focus on his task at hand. So he dispersed his scarf before catching the container behind him. Placing it down on the ground, he pushed it away to let it skid some distance away so the heart won't get harmed.

*Sigh* "You know," Vanitas started off in a calm tone. "I already had beaten you once Silver Monkey."

Said assassin could only glare behind his mask at this Before speaking, he wiped out a pair of hand claws. "You were lucky last time Vanitas."

"Well let's see how far I can push it."

With the worded bait, Silver Monkey took it as he leapt at the hero with his claws in the air. In a quick moment, Vanitas summoned a pair of knives that unbeknownst to him seem to give out a small spark. From there the hero kicked the incoming monkey before bringing down his daggers to deal some damage onto his opponent. With the brief flailing, Vanitas delivered a few punches and kicks at the assassin.

Silver Monkey recovered and went to strike down Vanitas; but in a brief moment, the hero summoned and aimed his arrowguns which surprised the assassin.

*Click*

"Huh? Jammed?" The hero voiced as he glanced at his guns before quickly throwing the jammed weapons at his opponent. They smacked hard against the assassin's mask before they came back into the hero's hands. "Ah there we go."

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

"GAH!"

"Hope you liked my surprise!" Mocked the hero as he dashed at Monkey before holstering his guns. Pulling out his daggers, he came in close and slashed at the assassin to end up seeing the electric coating on the small blades. 'When did that start?' Was his thought before shaking it away to deliver more blows onto the hired assassin.

After the last hit, Silver Monkey retreated back a bit before snarling at Vanitas. "You'll pay for that!"

"Heh. Sure I will." The hero responded back with a hidden smirk before it went to a frown. 'I need to finish this quickly so I can save Perdita.'

Vanitas then ran back as Monkey came towards him. Going up one of the support pillars, the disguised publisher pulled out his arrowguns and fired at the assassin. Several came in contact with the assassin's back before exploding, causing much pain onto him. He whirled around and sent punches and kicks at the hero, but each were either dodged or batted away by his new weapon.

Before long, Vanitas grew tired of the assassin and fired several laser arrows at the man, causing him to fall down. For added measure, the hero smacked the assassin across the masked face a few times before kicking him away. Seeing the assassin panting on the ground of the arrows causing great pain onto him, Vanitas thought that he now had Silver Monkey on the ropes.

"It's over Monkey!" Vanitas yelled out to the fallen assassin. "You've lost!"

"It… will never be over Vanitas!" Was all the assassin growled out before grabbing handfuls of smoke pellets and threw them on the ground to make his escape. Even a pair of flash and concussion grenades he had hidden away helped to cover his tactical retreat.

"Seriously? That again?" Questioned the hero as he dismissed his arrowguns. He looked around for where the heart container was at before making his way towards it. With it soon in his grasps, he made his way towards the stairwell with no one in his way now.

"If you want something done right…" A male voice started off, causing Vanitas to whirl around to see the source. "You've got to do it yourself."

And without warning, the man shot his hand out towards the hero and something crashed into him. Vanitas was unprepared as he let go of the heart container, letting it bounce on the floor, before grabbing his helmeted head in pain. It felt like nothing he ever experienced before. It was like a dozen migraines went off all at once and his vision seemed to become distorted, with everything seemed wonky and slowed to a crawl.

The helmeted Uzumaki fell onto the ground and could only look at the figure coming closer to him. His features looked familiar, despite how odd everything appeared to be in Naruto's vision. Focusing a bit better, Vanitas recognized who the attacker was.

"...Zytle?" Vanitas rasped out as he glared at Perdita's uncle. "You're… a meta?"

"It's Count Zytle to you _peasant_." Werner stated with a sneer. "Soon to be King Zytle, once I deal with the likes of you and the little bitch of a niece of mine. But to answer your question, yes… I am indeed a meta. Though I do gotta enjoy the effect I have to make one go in a vertigo state."

'Well that makes sense.' The hero thought as he tried to navigate himself to the fallen package. 'Not only on... his power, but Perdita… is the only person in his way... to the throne. Very much like Doto and Koyuki back at home.'

*Chuckles* "Crawling away I see." Werner mocked as he slowly made his way towards the hero. "Is that what you're reduced to?"

"I'm not… proud of that… you know." Vanitas rasped out once he grabbed the heart container.

"Apparently."

'Well I'm not... defeated either.' Thought the hero as he tried to get away from the Vlatavan Count. 'I can't use any of my powers... with my head literally killing me. But I think I have one weapon left: my mouth!'

Turning his head back slightly, Vanitas stared at the Count and spoke. "I'm guessing you have a great view... from where you're standing."

"What do you mean _peasant_?"

"On your high horse." The hero answered with a hidden, narrowed glance. "I'd pay... good money to see you fall down hard... Seeing your world crashing upon you... as you try to comprehend the failure you might have after this."

The Count could only scoff at this as he got closer and closer to the fallen hero and glared holes at the back of his helmeted head. "You talk much for a hero that clearly lost this battle. My hired assassin and peasant thugs tiring you out to the best of their abilities so you would fail to save Perdita."

"And why?... Why do all this... Zytle?"

"Because Victor was bringing our country to ruin!" Werner growled out as he stopped his movements. "Everything I've done in the past was for the country to prosper again like in the good old days. Getting us out from the Cold War that plagued our country, but my 'brother' kept making it worse. I grew tired of him not acting accordingly and I had to get rid of him."

'Oh yeah… He's very much like Doto.' The hero thought before speaking to confirm something from the man. "So you had... King Victor killed? Is that it?"

"Why of course I did." The Vlatavan answered with a darkened smirk. "Poison in small doses actually. His body would grow ill over time and no one would be more the wiser. Even helps when I handsomely paid the peasant doctors to falsify the reports."

*Growl* "Bastard! And I bet… you're the one that made... Perdita's heart start to fail."

"Oh no… That was all natural actually." Was the honest answer coming from the Count. "Born with a weak heart, hence the extra measure as to why Victor sheltered her more."

"So… when her heart was getting worse… and needed a new one… Count Heartless heard opportunity knock." Vanitas stated in slight realization.

*Chuckles* "Right on the nose, as the peasants say." Werner stated with a smirk as he stopped his psychic onslaught. He got closer to the hero and pulled the pommel of his cane to reveal a hidden sword inside. Rising it up into the air, the Count was ready to strike on the nauseated man. "Now, shall we see if I can kill two hearts with one blow?"

"Well take your best shot _Count_."

Vanitas tossed the container towards the side, distracting the Vlatavan Count. And at that moment, Vanitas used what strength he had in his legs and sent an upward kick towards Werner's chest. This sent the Count flying back towards the nearby stone pillar.

"Heh… Glad the man loved to chat and be so full of himself. But I got the better out of him." Vanitas stated as he got up from the ground, feeling the vertigo effect fully leaving him, to look for the packaged heart.

*Growl* "You think you're better than me?!" The Count yelled out from his position, making the hero glance at him.

"Hmm… No, not really." Vanitas uncaringly said as he walked towards the fallen Count. "I already know I am. And as much I'd love to continue this chat Count, but you're not my priority." Once said, the masked publisher kicked the man's head hard enough to render the man unconscious.

Running towards the heart, Vanitas swooped in and grabbed the package and ran towards the garage exit. There were a few conscious thugs in the way, making Vanitas leap over them to kick each of their heads to knock them out. Once landing, he continued his run around the building towards the entrance.

With not enough time and power inside of him, Vanitas crashed through the glass entrance. This caused the nearby occupants to startle in their places as they saw the exhausted hero. Coming out of a recovery roll, Vanitas looked up to see the doctor's running towards him.

"Take it!" Vanitas rasped out as he held out the package. "Save Perdita!"

"R-Right! Right!" One of the doctors said as he grasped the package. He turned towards the other doctors and yelled out to them as the one doctor ran ahead of them. "TRANSPLANT TEAM TO O.R. TWO STAT!"

After all the struggle that went on for the evening, after everything Vanitas had to endure, he collapsed onto the lobby floor and passed out.

 _ **-Morning, Starling City General Hospital-**_

" _...This just in. Despite the best efforts of Gotham City's Vanitas, and a team of transplant surgeons, young Queen Perdita of Vlatava died on the operating table at Starling City General Hospital."_ Was what was spoken from the TV's and radios echoing throughout the hospital as many on staff workers and patients heard. Many were saddened to hear this of learning a ten year old child had died in such a horrible manner.

Though out of all of this, one man was smiling as he made his way towards his destination. He opened the door to the hospital room and walked towards the foot of the bed of the unconscious hero. Nothing much could've been done to the helmeted man as none of the medical equipment could pierce the man's body suit. But the conscious man didn't care one bit, as only one thing was his primary focus. He wanted to wait to see the hero wake up so he can gloat on his little accomplishments, but it seemed he didn't have to wait long as he saw Vanitas shift on the bed.

*Groan* "Damn… My head." Vanitas muttered as he held his helmeted head. As his eyes focused from waking up, he was greeted with the smirking face of… *Growl* "Count Zytle."

"That's King Zytle to you, peasant." The male Vlatavan stated with a narrowed glance.

"...King?"

*Chuckles* "Perdita is dead hero. And the beauty of it is, I never laid a hand on her."

Vanitas could only grit his teeth in anger as he glared at the man standing at the foot of the hospital bed. "And now, no one can lay a hand on you Werner."

"Well as King of Vlatava, I'm untouchable."

"Then let's test that theory!" The masked hero stated as he leapt off of the bed, only to be blasted by Vertigo's psychic wave attack. Vanitas struggled to get back up, but the meta's attack was becoming too much for him.

"Now, now _peasant_. You wouldn't want to harm a royal, do you?" The King stated as he smirked at the 'groveling' man on the floor. "Besides, who exactly are you mad at, hmm? She died on the table. So all that planning, all that effort. Neither of us need have bothered."

As the attack ended, the masked Uzumaki glared at the King as he struggled to get back up. "Right… And now it must kill you to know that you owe whatever amount of money and possible favors to whoever you hired for the assassination attempts, for I assume nothing?"

Werner could only chuckle in a dark tone while he played with his cane. "Not at all I'm afraid. They played their roles perfectly in my attempt to rid Vlatava of Perdita. Her father should've made me king instead of giving the title towards her bitch of a daughter, who was quite unwell given her condition. Though we couldn't know it was unnecessary."

"So you would just be credited for attempted murder then?"

The King only smiled at this and spoke out at the failed hero. "It's called regicide peasant. Then again, I had my 'brother' Victor killed to help get things moving." Once that was spoken, he had expected to just have Vanitas to sieve in his place as he couldn't do anything at all. But all that the hero could do was chuckle, making the King question him. "What the hell is so funny?"

"I actually believe it's called 'You're busted, jerk face!" Vanitas yelled out as the curtain for the hospital room was pulled to the side to see several officers there alongside with one Detective Lance and… "Now I believe you know the young Queen. All alive and well _Count_."

Werner could only stand there in shock at what he was seeing. Eyes widening as he shook in his place to see Perdita glaring at her uncle with a tape recorder in her hand. With a few quick actions, the young Queen rewound the recorder and played the tape.

" _...And now it must kill you to know that you owe whatever amount of money and possible favors to whoever you hired for the assassination attempts, for I assume nothing?"_

*Darkly Chuckles* _"Not at all I'm afraid. They played their roles perfectly in my attempt to rid Vlatava of Perdita. Her father should've made me king instead of giving the title towards her bitch of a daughter, who was quite unwell given her condition. Though we couldn't know it was unnecessary."_

" _So you would just be credited for attempted murder then?"_

" _It's called regicide peasant. Then again, I had my 'brother' Victor killed to help get things moving."_

When the tape ended, Perdita placed the recorder down as she glared at her uncle with hate filled eyes. " _Count_ Werner Zytle, as Queen of Vlatava, I hereby accuse you of high treason against the Crown and for the murder of King Victor. As such, I revoke your diplomatic immunity, your titles, your assets and hereby banished from Vlatavan grounds for the rest of your days."

"No… NO!" Werner yelled out as he dashed towards the Queen with the intent to kill her. But with quick actions, Vanitas leapt at the Count restrained the man before slamming him onto the floor. That was all done before the officers pulled out their guns and aimed it at the fallen Vlatavan Count.

"Send this clown away boys." Quentin stated as the officers pulled the man up before placing a power dampening collar on the criminal. Werner tried to use his powers, but was only met with the painful shocks of the collar to render the man unconscious.

As the SCPD carried the criminal's limp body out of the room, Quentin grabbed the decorated cane off of the floor before he and Vanitas turned towards the Vlatavan Queen.

"Thank you. Your plan worked perfectly. And justice has been served." Perdita said with a small smile.

"Yeah well, when I woke up earlier and found out you were in recovery; I knew Werner would make another attempt on your life, with or without any other assassins he hired." Vanitas started off before the detective picked up from there.

"Of course I'm glad that you came to me and told me what was going on to get in on this little plan of yours." Quentin stated as he was indeed surprised earlier from the hero's arrival. The helmeted hero woke up earlier than expected and came out of nowhere while the detective was in a secluded hallway, drinking a little from his flask for a bit of celebration of the successful operation. "Though it would've fully worked if your uncle thought you were dead and that he lost that da-darn immunity of his to be sent away for good."

"And I thank you both for that." Perdita said as the two men nodded their heads.

"So… What do you want to do with this, your highness?" The SCPD detective asked as he held up the decorated cane.

"That sword is an heirloom belonging to my country, not to the _count_."

"A sword?" Vanitas asked as Quentin messed around with it to end up pulling a blade out of the cane. "Oh…"

Putting the blade back into place, the detective handed it towards the young Queen as she nodded towards the two men. "I would offer this to either one of you as a reward or a souvenir, but I'd want to hold onto this for physical support in my recovery."

"That's fine with me Perdita." The detective said with a smirk on his face. "I'd rather have my well deserved reward being your smile on your road to recovery."

"Mine as well your highness." The masked publisher stated before adding in one last thing that could've possibly ruined the mood. "Well that and some props of helping save an entire country."

"Really?" Was all Quentin asked as he glanced at Vanitas.

"What? I'm just stating the obvious."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Well this was an interesting chapter to write and a headache came along for the ride to annoy me. Got to introduce Xigbar's Arrowguns into the story and one of my favorite weapons from Organization XIII. Will be interesting on how that'll work out in coming chapters.**

 **So here are a few reasons on the delays people. First off, work… Thing is that one of the employees at work is on vacation for two weeks and I ended up having to take all of his tasks while he's gone. It's not that bad really, but the only problem was that it is done ALL OUTSIDE IN THE FUCKING HEAT. THE SUN ATE ME ALIVE!**

 **Second is that my sister recently moved into my apartment because of me moving last month and my sister agreed to become my roommate. So some of the time I had off from work was helping get my sister's stuff into my place over the span of several days since I don't have a car. Had to carry the stuff by hand… Not fun.**

 **Anyways with the story, reason why I decided to not have Count Werner Zytle be called Vertigo in the chapter was that there are way too many people with that title in the first place… Especially with the few DC universes I'm combining here. There's the one from Young Justice, which I based his appearance off of, two from the CW that are drug dealers, and one from the DCAU that was a former member of the League of Shadows. Had to bring this up so there wouldn't be much complaint wise.**

 **Just to note, I don't know exactly when Pam's birthday is, along with basically every other comic book character. I'm not that much a hardcore geek to know such things. The only ones I know are Selina's being back in March and Harley's is considered on her very first appearance in the DCAU being in September. Others I'm just going to be guessing and sorry if I'm not accurate with all you comic book fans out there.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	32. Legacies

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 30: Legacies**

It was a pleasant day in Starling City. The sun was shining and the breeze was cool enough to make things comfortable for the city's residents. It was so good that nothing bad could ever happen today….

"GET DOWN! EVERYBODY GET DOWN! NOW!"

...Nevermind…. Spoke too soon.

We cut to those ruining such a perfect day as they're robbing the Starling Trust Bank. They're wearing hockey masks that had playing card graphics of 'King', 'Jack' and 'Ace' respectively. Each of them were carrying assault rifles with two of them carrying duffel bags. King and Jack were attempting to get inside of the safe while Ace stood watch to make sure no one messed around.

"You can't jackhammer into the safe." A bank teller voiced out, making Ace turn towards him. "It's too thick. It'll take you guys too long."

This made Ace punch the man across the face, making him fall onto the ground and possibly get knocked out in the process. "Shut up!"

*BANG* "Alright! We're in!"

"Let's move Jack. We got less than three minutes."

While King and Jack were emptying the vault, one customer slowly shifted his body around. One woman saw the action and spoke in a harsh whisper. "Are you trying to get us killed?"

"Don't worry ma'am. I'm a cop" The man said as he slowly unclipped his ankle gun.

"Please… Please don't do anything, okay? I don't want to die. Please!"

Ace seemed to notice this little conversation as his eyes landed on the ankle gun. With narrowed eyes, he pointed his assault rifle at the cop. The very moment Ace was about to pull the trigger…

*BANG* "Hope I'm not too late!" Ace whipped around and fired his weapon at the new arrival at the entrance, only to have the bullets impact against an odd looking shield. "Well that's not very nice."

The man dashed forward and knocked the one robber back, causing Ace to stumble and drop his loaded weapon. The hero didn't let up and smacked the robber to the side before tossing him to the ground. Not wanting Ace to get back up, the shield wielder slammed down his weapon to the ground and froze part of the lobby floor, encasing Ace in a strong layer of ice.

"Now stay while I deal with whoever's in the vault."

"What is going on out-" Yelled out King before he aimed his weapon at the shield wielder. "Who the hell are you?!"

"Oh me?" The shield wielder blocked several bullets before replying back. "I'm Vanitas and I'm visiting from out of town."

*Whoop* *Whoop* *Whoop*

"And that must be the SCPD finally showing up."

" _Starling City Police Department. Lay down your weapons and come out with your hands up. I repeat: Lay down your weapons and come out with your hands up."_

"You heard the officer 'King'." Vanitas dismissed his shield before throwing a dagger across the room. King instinctively moved out of the way, but looking back he saw Vanitas seemingly disappeared.

'Where the hell did he go?' King thought before he heard a voice right behind him.

"You know..." King turned around and aim his weapon at the hero. "You're supposedly the second 'king' I stopped since I've been here. Wonder what else might happen."

King was about to shoot, but Vanitas grabbed the barrel and phased the weapon out of the robber's hand. The hero soon knocked King out before bullets came towards him. On instinct, Vanitas let the bullets phase right through before turning around and teleported towards his dagger to knock 'Jack' out.

"All I'm missing now is a Queen and a Ten, then I'd get a Royal Flush… Though I wouldn't want that if I played 2-7 Triple Draw."

*Bang* "SCPD! Nobody move!" One officer yelled out as many filed their way through the bank's entrance.

"Oh hey guys." Vanitas cheerfully said, gesturing the incapacitated people. "Got these robbers for you."

 _ **-One Hour Later, Abandoned Queen Consolidated Steel Factory-**_

Sounds of metallic pipes were in the air inside of the abandoned steel factory. If people came close to the building, they would figure it was some punk ass kids messing around inside private property. But with how fast the sounds were being made could say otherwise to someone trained in combat.

Dwelling deep inside of the factory, going through the basement door and through a flight of stairs, you would see two men sparring against each other. Both were in work out fatigues with signs of grime and sweat on them. While one man was feeling exhaustion, the other felt outright fine for the most part.

"Anchor the rear hand Diggle. Come on." The first man spoke as he encircled his sparring partner.

This is Oliver Queen, heir to Queen Consolidated. He's in his mid-twenties with brown hair and a thin beard to match; appearing to be well built with scars littering his body. A playboy and a college dropout that changed five years ago when he was shipwrecked on Lian Yu. Learning how to survive, among other things during his time away.

Now that he's back in his home city, Oliver has one wish to fulfill. Something entrusted to him by his late father: get back home and right his wrongs. Oliver has come home a little over a month ago, planning to bring down those that poisoned his city. To do this, Oliver Queen must become someone else… or rather something else.

"I'll keep that in mind Oliver." The second man said as he readied his stance..

This is John Diggle, Oliver Queen's driver and 'bodyguard'. An african american in his mid thirties that he too has several scars on his body. He got some of these back in his childhood, but got the rest in his time in the army. Honorably discharged with the Master Sergeant rank.

Diggle came into service of the Queen family after being hired by Moira Queen, Oliver's mother, after her son's kidnapping. Diggle eventually found out an interesting tidbit on the man who he is paid to protect. And once that was revealed, Oliver convinced John to help him in his crusade to help fix their city.

They increased the speed of their swings as they were getting faster and faster until…

"GAH!" Diggle cried out as the pipe smacked across his jaw. "Damn that hurts."

"Variable acceleration… Most fighters work at the same pace. You switch it up, you throw your opponent off his game."

*Groan* "That was nice and all, but where'd you learn that?"

"His name's Yao Fei."

"And he gave you those scars?"

"Eh~ Only one of them."

"And the others?" Diggle questioned as he got no response. *Sigh* "You know, one of these days you're gonna be straight with me about what really happened on that island."

"Oh absolutely."

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

"GAH!" John cried out as he was smacked across the lower back. Falling onto the ground to nurse the sore spot.

"But not today!" Oliver stated as he walked away from the training mats.

"Still some pretty sweet moves. But did you have to be a bit more aggressive this time?"

*Sigh* "Sorry Diggle, but just frustrated that's all." Oliver apologetically said as he flipped on his computer monitor.

"Which would be what exactly?" The veteran walked up to the computer screen to see what had Oliver so upset. What he saw actually surprised to him. "TB outbreak in Lamb Valley? Since when?"

"Since this guy got greedy." After typing on the computer, a picture was pulled up.

"That's one smug-looking son of a bitch."

"Justin Claybourne owns Clayborne Pharmaceuticals that recently acquired the rights to this drug, Dycloseral." Oliver started off before typing in more commands to pull up more information. "And this drug fights off a particular strain of Tuberculosis."

Not liking the sound of this, Diggle commented on it anyways. "And let me guess. As soon as the outbreak started, he jacked up the prices."

"Prices went up from $5 per pill to $1,000 overnight." Oliver said as his fists tightened on this bit of news. "The people in Lamb Valley; they're working class Diggle, low income. They can't afford this."

"It's disgusting, I give you that, but not illegal." Diggle then noticed Oliver's darkened expression. Wanting to lighten up the mood, he went to the computer and typed.

"What are you doing?"

"Thought you should learn about this." Once the searching was done, several news articles popped up. "These guys, what the news call the Royal Flush Gang, started off at Keystone three years ago began moving West and hitting banks along the way."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

Diggle went to the side, grabbed the morning paper and showed Oliver the article in question. "This morning they hit Starling City Trust and were about to make away with a lot of money. That is until _he_ showed up."

"He?" Curiosity hit Oliver as he took the newspaper from Diggle's grasp. "He who?"

"Vanitas: one of Gotham's vigilantees. He stopped the robbers and was able to stop an attempted shooting on an off duty cop."

'Ah… That's right.' Oliver thought as he reflected back to what happened last week. Oliver was incarcerated the day the airport was attacked for supposedly an assassination attempt on the Vlatavan Queen's life. Luckily for her, Vanitas came in to save the day but caused property damage when facing off a meta-assassin by the name Hiraishin.

Oliver thought it was pretty suspicious of the Gotham hero to appear in Starling all of a sudden. But the hero stated in an interview that he saw something suspicious at the airport, decided to investigate and stowed away on the flight. It was an odd excuse, but the media seemed to buy it. All except for him.

Oliver couldn't do a thing about it at the time with the next day after his trial as he was placed under house arrest until further notice. Using this to help cover his tracks of him being 'The Hood', due to Oliver realizing that someone's going to make connections. Returning back to Starling after five years and 'The Hood' shows up a handful of days later. To help sell his cover a bit more, he convinced Diggle to masquerade as 'The Hood' to take down an arms dealer the night of Oliver's party he hosted at his family's estate.

It was the morning after Oliver's first night of house arrest that troubling news came to light: Queen Perdita died. He and his family, along with Diggle, were saddened to hear about the ten year old girl dying on the operating table. Learning the reason why Perdita was in Starling in the first place: getting a heart transplant with the donor being a 100% match and the queen had to personally come to Starling for the operation.

Despite it being heartbreaking, this was lie as another news bulletin came up half an hour later. As it was revealed that the earlier news coverage was a ruse created by Detective Quentin Lance and Vanitas to draw out the culprit to what occurred within the past two days: Former Count Werner Zytle. Charged for crimes against the Vlatavan crown, with attempted murder on Perdita's life and murder on the late King Victor. Justice was served that day and Perdita will rest easily until she goes back home for her official coronation.

"But why bring this up Diggle?"

"I thought you should maybe try and extend what you do Oliver. Don't just focus on what you have to do on your father's list and help out on street crimes. At least give yourself a better picture to the city's citizens."

"I think you have the wrong impression about what it is I do."

"You take out bad guys with a bow and arrow."

"I don't fight street crime Diggle. That's a symptom of what's wrong with this city and I'm trying to cure the disease." Oliver stated as he picked up his father's book, getting Diggle let out a mental sigh.

Robert Queen, Oliver's father, gave his son a list of names of corrupted people and it was all inside that book. A good number of them was already crossed out, either getting killed or brought to justice by 'The Hood'. Diggle wanted to be sure Oliver would try and stay on the right path on this crusade of his. From staining his hands with so much blood on this path Oliver paved out. Yes Diggle has killed men back in the army, but he was doing it to serve his country, but not killing others in a meaningless fight.

"CEO's and crooked entrepreneurs. I get it. But I'm just saying maybe you can make a difference if you think beyond the scope of those pages. I'm probably sure your father wouldn't mind."

"No, you don't get it. My father died so that I could live. Live and make a difference by fixing this city that he and the people in this book ruined. Every name that I cross off this list honors that sacrifice. And Claybourne's name is in it." Oliver said as he moved to the towel nearby to whip off the sweat before heading back home. "And about that one comment earlier, I'm not worried about illegal right now to help honor said sacrifice."

"Oliver, there's more than one way to save this city."

"Well not for me. Crime happens in this city every day. What do you want me to do, stop all of it? That's for the police to handle."

John only shook his head at Oliver's statement. "It sounds like you have a narrow definition of being a hero. Possibly take a page out from what Vanitas' doing to at least help make a difference. Maybe then it'll help you see what it means to be a hero."

Once Diggle left the room, Oliver was left by himself to think things over as he prepared for Justin Clayborne tonight. If he doesn't plan to change his ways, then Oliver will make him see differently, one way or another. But as he tried to prepare, one thing echoed through his head… That he's not a hero.

 _ **-Wildcat Gym-**_

Inside of the boxing ring, two men were fighting for supremacy… well it appeared that way to any outside viewer.

One was an older man that looked like he was in his mid-late forties, but he was in fact in his sixties. Apparently with his excellent workout routine, the man was built like in his prime with him being a head taller than his opponent. Balding over the years with hints of grey littering his facial hair to help show his real age. Asides from his physical appearance, he wore workout clothes with a pair of grappling boxing gloves.

This was Ted Grant and he was currently sparing against Naruto, who was in a similar attire. They've been at this for roughly an hour now and neither one showed signs of stopping, despite the younger fighter struggling a little after fighting for so long. He kept up his movements throughout the whole ordeal with Naruto being quicker with his younger age.

Dodging a kick from the elder fighter, Naruto came in close with two fast jabs before performing a combination attack with a series of elbow strikes and kicks in no particular order. Despite receiving the many blows onto himself, Ted was able to send strong uppercuts towards his younger opponent to send him back a bit. He copied Naruto's action earlier of coming in close as he feinted an attack before weaving through the spar with hardly no difficulty at all.

"Come on kid." The elder fighter evaded a few blows as he spoke. "You need to remember: You reach, while I teach."

"You say that while you can take a lot of punishment." Naruto grunted out before getting punched. "Even being so damn fast for your age."

"Heh. Maybe you're just too slow kid."

Ted then grabbed ahold of Naruto, tossed him before coming in at close and unleashed a variety of jabs. The publisher took his punishment as he was forced to be on the defensive. Blocking several punches towards his face, Naruto had to move to the side so he could lay a few hits onto Ted's side before backing away for some recovery.

"You know, you're doing quite well from what the little 'pussy cat' taught ya." Ted complimented as Naruto deflected the incoming strikes he couldn't evade with his open palms. The elder fighter then backed away to avoid an upward kick aimed at his solar plexus. "Though it really can't keep up with my way of fighting."

*Grunt* "Thanks." Naruto coughed when Ted got close to punch the younger man's chest. "And I agree on that old man."

"Good that you're respecting your elders brat. Also you had your guard down for a moment there. You need to focus all the time in a fight so the variety of distractions won't mess ya up."

Ted backed away to give the younger man a small breather before dashing in to deliver another series of jabs. Naruto evaded several hooks before sending a few quick jabs, only to have them blocked with one of his arms trapped in a hold. He gritted his teeth as he tried to pry his arm out, without using his powers, as Ted punched his vulnerable side a few times.

Once free, Naruto kicked the boxer away before the limb was snagged, raised high into the air before Ted grappled the kid by slamming him onto the boxing ring floor. Naruto groaned out from the last attack as he punched Ted several times to get him to let up on the hold, but it wasn't working. Calling defeat, Naruto eventually smacked the boxing ring several times.

*Chuckles* "Seems that it's my win once again kid." Ted smirk as he let go of Naruto before helping him get back onto his feet. "Though I gotta say you lasted a bit longer than last time."

"Watch yourself old man *Grunt* since I'll beat you one day."

"Yeah. You and every student of mine say that and they never get one up on me." The elder man walked to the edge of the boxing ring to lift the ropes to get himself and Naruto out.

It's been a little over a week since Naruto came to Starling and all of the 'exciting' moments that went on between him and Perdita. After Count Zytle's incarceration, Naruto stayed with her for a while to help out a little when she broke down crying of hearing on how her father was murdered. She could've kept it in for so long before it was ready to burst and Naruto had to break it early so it wouldn't be too damaging for her.

After leaving the hospital, Naruto ran by a few locations on his checklist for work: Castlefall, Lamb Valley and the Triangle. Things went well on those assessments and on the next day he went to check on Pennytown and the North District in East Starling. With all that done for work, he called his board of directors to give his full assessment on the locations so they can pick out which one was the best from his initial report.

Going back to the day of Perdita's successful recovery, Naruto needed to let out some steam from dealing with China White and her lackeys, Silver Monkey and Werner Zytle. Eventually coming across the Wildcat Gym, which took a bit of time to find, and spoke with the man. He was pretty pleasant to talk to, even when Naruto told him he was Selina's boyfriend.

They ended up sparing for roughly half an hour so the publisher could get rid of his frustrations. Suffice to say, Naruto was surprised when Ted kicked his ass kicked, but there were no complaints from him. Ted commented it being a good match with how much Naruto kept up. Even had to break out of the typical boxing style to really get into it.

Since then, Naruto kept showing up everyday for the duration of his stay in Starling. Ted was a great sparring partner to help keep him up on his toes and to not rely at all in his powers. Naruto knew that like before, if he solely relied on them, then his powers would be a crutch. So going up against a better physical opponent, that wasn't out to kill him, was great for training than from what Naruto had to deal with on just his clones and Selina for equal terms.

Asides from that, Ted asked Naruto on what Selina was up to these days so he could possibly be caught up with one of his old students. It helped out when Naruto gave Ted his girlfriend's phone number for a surprise call. Made things good when hearing from Selina that catching up with her old mentor went well, despite it only being a phone call and not in person.

"Sucks that you can't stay in Starling much longer kid. It's been great fighting ya."

"Same here old man, but I have to make my way to National City in a few days. Even then I live in Gotham and that's where I primarily work."

"Even then, it would've been nice if I could get a good student to teach that would actually keep up with me after so long."

"Hey, don't count Selina out too short Ted. She's been a great sparring partner and taught me a lot, which she learned from you by the way."

"True, but she has her own feminine charm to it which can't fully muster that of a man." Ted stated with pride before realizing what he just said. "Don't tell Selina I said that or else I'd sound sexist."

*Chuckles* "I won't Ted. Besides you've been teaching me some good pointers in fighting and that must count for something. You might even get a student here in Starling someday, just be patient." Naruto went back to his backpack to get a few things out from it, like his wallet for instance, before going back to Ted. "Well here's the money for today Ted. The lessons and spar were well spent."

The boxer nodded as he was handed the money. Even though Ted has a good amount of people coming by to help keep the gym afloat, he still likes to get paid for private lessons. He didn't want to have the younger man pay him for the lessons, with him being in close relations with one of his favorite students, Naruto insisted on it.

"Then have a good day Naruto. Don't get into any trouble before you come back tomorrow." Ted the Wildcat said as he went towards the showers to clean off the good sweat.

"See you later Ted." Was all Naruto said before making his way out with one destination in mind, after taking a shower at the hotel. 'I should check and see how Perdita's doing.'

 _ **-Later, On the Streets-**_

"Are you really sure we couldn't just use the limo back to your hotel room Perdita?" Naruto asked as he wheeled the young Queen through the city's streets. "It would've been faster to do so."

"It's quite alright Naruto." The young queen smiled while looking at the cityscape around her. "I didn't want to just stay inside of my hotel room until I have to head back to Vlatava for my coordination. I want to see this city as much as I can, with some safety limits of course."

Naruto was surprised to see her already in a wheelchair. Expecting her to not be moving out and about for a while longer, due to her needing to adjust to her new heart. But she was adapting quite easily. Though Perdita was advised that she should be in a wheelchair for another few weeks just to be sure her six week recovery period went smoothly.

"It'll be an interesting sight if you had to wheel yourself down the aisle for your coordination." He joked before she turned around in her seat and smacked him slightly. "Okay. Okay. Didn't mean that."

The young queen could only smile a little at this. "I know and besides, I have my new cane to help steady myself when I'm doing my preparation walks."

"Asides from speaking about your big day in the coming weeks, how are you liking Starling so far?" Naruto questioned as the they were crossing the street with some bodyguards a good number of feet away from them. It's just so they wouldn't draw much attention to the publisher/queen duo.

Perdita hummed in thought as she kept looking around through the sites before her. "It's looking quite well for the most part and I wish I could see more outside of my country… Even wish I could've made friends in such time."

"But aren't I your friend Perdita?" He asked in a mocked hurtful tone. Naruto chuckled a little on her flustered expression. "Nah it's alright Perdita. I understand on that little problem quite well."

"How so?"

"Remember in some of our past chats, I based my Ninja Storm story off of my life. I was being truthful in most parts of my childhood. Hardly having friends at my age and when I was a pre-teen, I eventually gained connections to those of varying ages."

"...I'm sorry to hear that Naruto."

"It's alright Perdita. What happened, happened. But the point is, yes you should have friends closer to your age to have a better connection with them. Not only that, but ones that do want to become your friend despite your status as a queen. Some would want to take advantage of that and possibly abuse their connection at some point."

"I know all of that, but I don't know how to make any."

*Sigh* "You can't just make friends right on the fly, you know. Sometimes it's easy if things work quite well, like us for example, but others take time to earn it." Naruto saw her downcasted look as he thought of something to cheer her up. "I do know a couple of girls around your age that would possibly like to have another friend."

This perked up the child queen a little with interest. "Who?"

The publisher smirked before answering. "Rachel, Artemis and Jade. I can get them in contact with you and possibly have them become your pen pals if you're interested."

Perdita thought it over before she softly smiled and nodded her head. "I-I think I'd like that."

"That's good." He said as he wheeled the child queen through some of the crowded areas. "I'll call them later and maybe have you girls chat to see how things go."

"Like when I chatted with… what were their names again? Lois and Catherine?"

"She prefers Cat, but yeah... those are their names. Also hope that it possibly won't be as stressful or boring to ya."

A few days after the heart surgery, Naruto received a call from Cat while he visiting Perdita. He was about to head outside to talk with her when Perdita's voice was heard over the other end. She convinced Naruto to let her talk to the young queen, but he asked Cat to not dwell too deep, reminding her that Perdita is ten years old.

Some minutes into the phone call, his cell phone went off, causing him to pull the phone away to see that it was Lois. Not wanting to be rude or anything of ignoring the dark haired reporter, Naruto used the hospital phone to call her and tell her why he couldn't answer from his cell. This was a mistake on his part, as like before, Perdita's voice was heard by Lois.

So the reporter asked to be put on speaker phone, eventually the same with Cat, so both of them could chat with Perdita at the same time. Naruto once again asked for them to not overwhelm the queen so it wouldn't over stress her during her early recovery period. And just to be safe on this, Naruto sat next to Perdita so he could keep the two women back if they were going a bit too far.

Lois and Cat did little arguing in this odd interview group call, but just like old times, Naruto went back into being their mediator. Asides from that, the generalized questions asked were on her health condition and why exactly Perdita had to come to Starling for the heart surgery instead of having the heart shipped out. Eventually the two asked Perdita that once sitting on the throne, what would she want to do on first orders of business among other questions.

Naruto was glad that Lois and Cat were patient with the young queen so she wouldn't feel rushed. And he's gotta say, Naruto was impressed on Perdita trying to be mature on answering the questions. Though he had to 'step in' to help fill in some blanks from some of the past chats he had with the young blonde. Like why her uncle killed King Victor and wanted Perdita dead to adding in the little fun tidbit of the queen being all fan girl towards him, much to said queen's embarrassment.

In the end, Lois and Cat were satisfied on the interview and thanked Perdita for her time. They even thanked Naruto for letting them chat with the queen, despite having to share the gained information for a possible headline column as an end result. Naruto then knew the two will now back off like they promised… well Cat promised to convince Lois on that bit.

'It really felt just like old times.' He thought with nostalgia settling in. 'I'll need to get a copy of their respective papers to see what they wrote.'

It was then Naruto heard a bit of a screeching sound several feet ahead of the two. He looked towards the source to see a delivery truck slamming against a taxi, sending it towards a lone woman by the intersection. Naruto left Perdita's side, rushed towards the woman and pushed her away to end up taking the hit instead of her.

*Crash*

"Oh my god!"

"Someone call an ambulance!"

Naruto groaned out in slight pain as he got off of the ground. Looking towards the car that hit him, he saw that his body impacted the car's hood and landed on the front windshield to leave several deep cracks. He shook himself off a little as his powers kicked in to mend his injuries before someone grabbed his shoulder.

"Hey, are you alright?" The woman asked getting Naruto to get a good look at her. She was roughly a head shorter with her blonde hair tied into a ponytail. Wearing a pair of thick glasses that hid her light blue eyes with some pink lip gloss. To complete her look; she wore a pink button up shirt, a knee length black skirt, a pair of black slip ons that seemed to present her form quite well.

"Yeah I'm fine." Naruto stretched out a little to pop some kinks before speaking. "Not the first time this happened, but I'm quite alright. Though question is, are you alright?"

"But shouldn't you stay down and wait for the paramedics." The blonde said in a worried tone before rambling onwards as she seemed to ignore his question. "Though you do look fine to me... Not of you looking fine-fine, but just physically fine. Even though you do look fine."

The publisher chuckled on her odd form of babbling that he thought it was cute, especially with the blush dusted on her cheeks. Reminded him on some of the funnier moments with Harley when the two first started dating. Shaking his head of the stray thoughts, Naruto spoke towards the spectacled blonde.

"I'm fine ma'am. No worries at all." He then spun around slightly to emphasize his point. "Nothing wrong here."

"Oh, good. I was really worried there."

"But you still didn't answer my question."

"...Huh?"

"Are you alright?" Repeated the publisher as he eyed her once more for any scraps. "I pulled you out of the way and I think I saw you land on the ground badly."

Realizing what he meant, she snapped back with widened eyes and answered. "Oh! Yes, I'm totally fine! Thank you for saving me back there."

"It's no problem." He looked to the side to see Perdita wheel herself closer to them. "Hey, sorry I had to leave you back there kiddo."

"It's quite alright." Perdita stated with a smile. "You had to save her life after all, so it's quite the forgivable sin."

*Chuckles* "Good to know." Turning towards the woman he saved, Naruto asked her something. "I don't mean to pry ma'am, but where were you going exactly?"

"Uh... Well um… I'm on my lunch break and I wanted to get something to eat." She honestly answered before gaining a curious look. "Why you ask?"

"I was wondering if you would like to maybe join us for lunch for your troubles." Naruto offered as he gestured to the young queen. "I was showing my little friend here around the city since neither one of us had anything else to do for the day."

"Um.. Are you sure on that?" Questioned the blonde before turning to the little girl in the wheelchair. "And wouldn't you mind at all if I ended up tagging along with you two?"

Perdita adopted a thoughtful pose in her seat, in a playful manner, before answering the older blonde. "I wouldn't mind the company at all and I was told that I should meet new people."

The blonde soon scrunched her face to think things over. *Sigh* "Okay, I'll tag along if it's no trouble."

"Great. And I think I know a good place to eat if you don't mind."

"Well I'll trust your judgement this one time. Though I hope it's not too crazy on the menu."

"It isn't. I swear."

"Okay." The woman said as she followed the two before a thought came to mind. "Aren't we supposed to not leave the accident area? I mean, you were hit and the driver should be doing insurance stuff or something."

"Nah, I think things are doing just fine enough for us to not actually be here." The Uzumaki stated as he looked onto the scene and flared his powers a little to wipe the short term memory of the accident from the handful of people in the area so he, Perdita and the blonde woman would head towards their destination.

 _ **-Big Belly Burger-**_

'This is so nice of him to treat me to lunch here.' Felicity Smoak thought as she opened the door to the food establishment to escort the little girl and her handsome savior inside. 'What an odd way to make my day pretty good.'

Felicity Smoak is a twenty-three year old that has been working for Queen Consolidated in their I.T. department for roughly three years now. One might wonder how she was able to get into the position at successful company at her age. With her brilliant smarts, Felicity was able to graduate high school pretty early and got a scholarship into MIT.

Things have been a little interesting in her line of work ever since Oliver Queen returned to Starling City a little over a month ago. She met him a few times for some random forms of help on his personal life. Felicity did so as she had nothing else to do with her assignments completed for those days.

Today felt like any normal day for her. Working on some projects for her superiors on the latest computer software the company was developing. Felicity wanted to give herself a well deserved lunch break after working so hard. While minding her own business at one particular intersection towards her favorite fast food joint, she was pushed towards the side.

Felicity fell onto the ground hard and was about to yell at the person who did that when she heard the crash. Turning towards the source, she saw someone getting hurt by a taxi instead of her. Realizing the person saved her life and had to momentarily hurt her so she wouldn't die as a result.

When checking on him, she blushed while gazing at the gorgeous man roughly a few years older than her. With his odd spiky, silver hair tied into a ponytail to compliment his hazel eyes on the chiseled, whiskered face. He was so nice to her to see if she was okay over himself, despite him stating that he was fine and didn't require any medical attention.

Felicity swore he looked familiar to her, but couldn't place the name at the tip of her tongue. Even the wheelchair bound girl with him made the IT girl think the same thoughts. Before she knew it, they offered her a lunch with her savior paying for her troubles. She relented and here they are at Big Belly Burger and she thought that this day couldn't get any better.

"...Glad you decided to pick this place." Felicity smiled as she looked for a place to seat. "For a moment earlier, I was thinking of something way too odd for me to handle for some reason."

"You had nothing to worry about Felicity." The blonde child responded as she gazed at the restaurant's interior with mild curiosity. "I kept hearing about this place and how good it is, but I've never tried it at all."

That was a thing that came up on the way over here. The child asked Felicity for her name, but when asked in return the whiskered man seemed to either delay the answer or change the subject. This bugged her and Felicity swore she'll get their names, one way or another.

"Don't know what you were missing, but might as well try it out now. And since this is your first time at this place, I recommend the basics so your taste buds won't go too overboard."

"I agree with her kid." He said in acknowledgement. "When I first tried this place years ago, I tried one of their 'extravagant' combo meals and my taste buds were going way wonky. Next time I went, got a basic combo and I adjusted as time went on."

"Then I trust your judgement my good sir and madam."

Felicity chuckled a little on the display of the little girl being so polite towards her. She admitted it was an interesting little experience on the feeling. Oh how she can't wait to feel that way later in her career of others saying such things with her having a higher position.

It wasn't long after they found an available table when a waitress came on by and handed them menus to look over on what they wanted to get. Even though the older people didn't want to look it over, with them already having their desired meals in mind, the young girl had to take a bit see the delicious sounding meals available.

"Like I said Perdita, you should just get the basic combo."

"I know that Naruto, but some of these meals sound so good that they're giving me second thoughts."

'Perdita?… Naruto?' Felicity thought with a curious glance as she finally learned their first names. 'Where have I heard those names before?'

Felicity was going to verbally question this when their waitress showed up. An african american woman that seemed to be in her thirties. She wore a smile on her face, along with casual wear underneath a restaurant apron.

"Hello, my name's Carly and I'll be serving you three today." The waitress said with a notepad and pen out. "Are you three ready yet?"

"I think we are." Naruto stated before he ordered first. "I'll have a double cheeseburger bacon combo with special sauce and a coke." This order seemed to get a giggle from the spectacled blonde on the table, causing him to look towards her. "Something odd on what I said Felicity?"

"Nope. It's just that's my usual order when I come over here… Well except I tend to have a Sprite." Felicity answered, getting a raised look from the others in which the blonde woman noticed. "Not that I want to copy the same order as you Naruto and stating that we having something in common. But seems that we do… I'll stop talking."

The others chuckled at the blonde woman's expense as attention was put towards Perdita. "Umm… Well it's my first time here madam and I was told that I should just have a basic combo. As for my drink, I'd rather have water with some lemon and lime."

Carly was satisfied in getting their orders and went behind the counter to hand the copy of the order sheet over towards the cook. Said waitress looked towards her latest table with a curious look on her face as the three chatted away with each other. Something about two of the customers seemed familiar to her, but she didn't know how.

Her musings were interrupted when she saw her brother-in-law, John Diggle, coming through the door.

"Oh hey John. I take it you want your usual?"

"Hi Carly and yes I do." Diggle said with a small smile. "How's today so far?"

Carly gave John a 'so-so' hand gesture before replying. "It's been slow for the most part, so nothing interesting to say the least." This got a nod out of the veteran as the waitress wrote up the meal ticket. Once handing it towards the cook, she turned back towards John. "So how's working for Oliver Queen today?"

*Sigh* "Stubborn."

"How so?"

"Let's just say that he and I have different opinions in what he should do 'career wise' and leave it at that."

Carly accepted the answer before her eyes kept going back towards her previous table. This action caused Diggle to notice before turning around to see where her eyes were aimed at. "What's so special about them Carly?"

"I don't know John, but something about the man and the little girl is really familiar to me and I can't quite put the name towards their faces."

Feeling curious, John moved around a little in his current place to get a decent look at the table. He recognized the blonde being an employee at Queen Consolidated and mentally questioned why she was with those two. But said questioned died as he gazed at the whiskered man and the blonde child in the wheelchair. A few seconds passed before his eyes widened slightly and looked away so he wouldn't get noticed from staring.

"John? Is something wrong?" Carly questioned in a worried tone.

"I… uh… I know who they are."

"Really? Who?"

John couldn't really say it outloud, so he ushered Carly to come closer before whispering in her ear. After a few moments, she pulled back with widened eyes and was about to yell something out if John didn't cover her mouth. A few more moments passed after that before he uncovered her mouth to let her speak in a hushed whisper.

"Are you seriously telling me they're Naruto Uzumaki and Queen Perdita?!"

"Yes I'm sure Carly and please keep this to yourself." He whispered back so they wouldn't draw too much attention towards themselves.

"I-I mean how could I?" She questioned as she kept looking back at the table with recognition on her face. "One of my favorite authors is here along with the freaking queen of Vlatava."

"And you should calm down before you possibly cause any problems." Diggle warned his sister-in-law. Before she could say anything else, the cook called her and said that the one table's meal was ready. Carly tried to recompose herself before grabbing the meals and walked. Even as this happened, Diggle's order showed up and he paid it before leaving.

'Okay. Okay. Don't mess this up Carly. You can do this.' The waitress thought to herself. 'Think of them as any other customer instead of being famous individuals.' After dropping off their orders, Carly scurried away so she wouldn't make much a scene onto herself.

"Um Perdita?"

"Yes?" The Vlatavan asked as Naruto chuckled at her expense. She was looking for some utensils for her to use so she could start eating, but couldn't find any.

"You don't eat your burger with a fork and knife, unless it is too big for your mouth." He said before grabbing his burger with his hands. "This is how you eat a burger."

Perdita owlishly blinked as she looked at Naruto taking a bite out of his meal before Felicity soon followed. So the child queen took hold of the burger before hesitantly taking a small bite out of it. After some chewing to get a good taste out of the beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles; it seemed pleasant towards her taste buds.

Once swallowing, she beamed out with a small smile. "It tastes wonderful."

The two adults laughed a little at her response before dining into their respective meals. All three of them chatted during this time on different topics like what Naruto and Felicity do for a living, with the former being a bit vague on his full occupation. Felicity did ask on Perdita's association with Naruto with said man responding that he's just a friend helping her out during the child's stay in the city before heading back home. Naruto did try and hide the truth from Felicity since he guessed she won't keep her mouth shut if something seemed to come up.

By the time the three finished their meals, it was time for them to head off towards their separate ways.

"Thanks for the meal and it's been great chatting with you two."

"It's my pleasure to at least help out a little from what happened earlier."

"Then, as much it is a bit odd of me saying this, I'm glad that I almost got run over this morning…. Not that I would want to be run over in general for this to happen again."

*Giggle* "It would've been odd if you did so Ms. Smoak." Perdita added in, making the IT girl playfully glare at the child. "So what are you going to do now Felicity?"

Cutting off her playful glare, the IT girl answered. "Well I need to head back to work now, but hopefully not get run over like earlier."

"Of course."

"And what are you two going to do?"

"We plan to go see some other areas of the city, but we haven't really decided which one to go to next." Perdita answered getting a nod from the older blonde.

"That's fine. Though I do recommend you guys don't head over to Lamb Valley. Moreso with you Perdita."

This got a raised look from Naruto before he questioned this. "And why not?"

"...I take it you two didn't hear what happened over there." Cue head shaking 'no'. "The tuberculosis outbreak happening over there?"

"...When did that happen?"

"A day or two ago I think. The news didn't want people to know about the outbreak, but it's being carried via word of mouth."

"And why hasn't there been anything to get thing this handled?" The young queen asked getting an exhausted sigh from the older blonde.

"Something about medication prices being raised and hardly no one can afford them. I don't know all of the details going on, but I wish things could be better in the long run."

The answer let a few small thoughts running through the publisher/queen pair. With Perdita, she was thinking of what she could possibly do to to maybe help those of Lamb Valley. As for Naruto, he decided he was going to look into this when he has time and fix things on his end.

"Well thanks for letting us know Ms. Smoak, we'll be sure to be careful near its border."

Making their way towards the counter, they were greeted with their waitress as she rung up the bill. Naruto paid for it via credit card and signed it. Though before he could make his way out, Carly spoke out to him.

"Excuse me sir."

"Uh. Yes?"

"There's something else you could probably sign for me." Carly said, getting him to look at her funny.

'I thought I signed everything needed for the meal.' Naruto thought before he eyed her copies of Gutsy Ninja, Ninja Storm and Loveless. *Sigh* "Really?"

"Sorry Mr. Uzumaki, but this is possibly a once in a lifetime chance for me and I don't know if this opportunity will come by again. So it'll great if I got your autograph." Carley said in a hushed tone so she wouldn't disturb the other customers.

Naruto shook his head and relented as he quickly signed them before turning around…. To end up seeing the wide eyed look of Felicity staring right back at him.

"Y-You're… You're…"

*Sigh* "We should talk of this outside."

 _ **-Hours Later, Starling City Plaza Hotel-**_

"I hope you enjoyed your first day out of the hospital Perdita." The publisher said as the Vlatavan queen was escorted inside of her hotel room by her bodyguards.

"I have Naruto and thank you for spending time with me once again." She responded back before steadily getting out of her wheelchair with her heirloom cane.

After spending additional time throughout the city, Naruto and Perdita made it back to the hotel they both were surprisingly staying at. Neither complained, moreso with the child queen, knowing they'll see each other before having to leave their separate ways when the time comes. Though with the amount of days left for Perdita's stay in Starling, she'll want to exploit the time as much as possible to be with her friend.

The two enjoyed some of the sites like the botanical gardens, the aquarium and the museum; though they'll check other places over the next several days. But after the long day, the two decided to partially call it a day and headed back to rest at their respective hotel rooms.

"You're quite welcome your highness. And what did you enjoy the most?"

Humming in thought, Perdita took a moment or two before responding. "Out of everything I've experienced today, I've got to enjoy spending the small time with Ms. Smoak."

*Chuckles* "Thought so."

"Even when she 'freaked out' of finding out who we are."

*Sigh* "Of course."

Felicity overheard the conversation between him and the waitress, resulting of things piecing together inside her head. She remembered seeing the news reports last week, pertaining to the airport attack and the heart surgery respectively. A small amount of video coverage was shown of the Vlatavan Queen being at the airport and Naruto in the background.

As things finally clicked, Felicity was about to freak out inside of the restaurant if it wasn't for Naruto covering her mouth and ushered her outside. It was an… awkward moment to say the least on how that turned out. And suffice to say, Naruto was so glad he put up a silence barrier around them and the bodyguards so the IT girl's fangirl moment wouldn't be heard.

He signed the Loveless copy Felicity carried around in her purse all the time. Asking her to try and not reveal who they were at this time for security reasons. She understood and complied with the request. Though before leaving, she properly thanked Perdita… in an oddly awkward curtsy given how tight her skirt was, of having lunch with a royal. Even when walking away, Felicity had an odd skip to her step.

"So what are you going to do now?" Asked the queen, snapping Naruto out his thoughts.

"I've got to do a few _things_ before I go to bed?" Though with how he emphasised 'things', Perdita realized he meant by his hero persona.

"Is this about what we heard about earlier about Lamb Valley?"

"Pretty much. Something about this seems odd and I'd like to check it."

"Well I wish you the best of luck Naruto."

*Knock Knock* "Excuse me, your highness." One of the bodyguards said as he peaked his head inside of the room where Naruto and Perdita were currently in.

"Yes Marcus, what is it?"

"I'm here to inform you that you had received a message earlier today."

"...From who exactly?"

"One Moira Queen of Queen Consolidated." Marcus said as he gained questioning looks from the publisher and queen. "She called the hospital earlier, but you weren't there so the message was forwarded towards the suite."

"And what does Mrs. Queen want to speak to Perdita about?"

Not batting an eye at the publisher's question, Marcus answered. "Moira Queen had wondered if you'd like to come on over to her home for brunch tomorrow. Wanting to possibly talk to you for well wishes on your recovery so far and hoping to discuss business."

"Ah~ Thought so." Naruto muttered as he figured this would've happened. Back in his home reality, different companies would discuss contracts and businesses with certain Kage's and Daimyos so trade routes could be made. It's a rough process for either side and this is very much the same in the current reality. But instead of Kage's and Daimyos, replace them with presidents, royals, lords, dictators, mayors, etc.

"So what's your response Queen Perdita?"

Perdita was silent for some time as she slowly paced through the room with the slight clicking on the floor via wooden cane. She was weighing her options and had to figure things out as a proper royal. This is going to be the first of many decisions she'll be making and Perdita learned from her father that first impressions are very important in certain meetings.

"Alright…. Marcus."

"Yes your highness?"

"Contact this Moira Queen and inform her that I'll show up at her home for brunch."

"Of course."

"And tell her that I'll be bringing a guest." She added in as she eyed Naruto, who relentlessly shrugged before nodding his head that he'll come alone.

"Of course ma'am." Marcus finished off as he left the room to complete his task.

"Well… I bet this is going to be an interesting one. Possibly being your first business meeting so soon." 

"And I just realized that I'm going to be pretty nervous on this." Perdita stated as she nervously hobbled around the room. "Maybe I should call Marcus back to tell him to decline the offer."

"Nope~ You got yourself into this and you'll have to work your way through it. And before you say anything, I won't be helping out the entire way since you can't rely on me all the time you know."

Perdita sighed in defeat and fell face first onto the nearby couch in response. Even letting out several groans as well on her being frustrated on the whole thing. She wanted to be mature on this, but she probably jumped the gun on the situation.

Naruto soon got a little idea to lighten up Perdita's mood. Going towards the nearby hotel phone, he dialed and he waited. Naruto hoped that Pam will answer and some of the others were at his loft tonight for the little 'sleepover' that he vaguely remembered happening tonight.

" _Hello? Who is this?"_

"Hey Pam, it's Naruto."

" _Oh darling, it's good to hear from you."_ The Green champion spoke out with a little joy in her voice. _"Harley, Selina and I have missed you a lot."_

*Chuckles* "Yeah I figured honey."

" _So why have you called, especially on a phone I'm not familiar with?"_

"I'm using the hotel phone at the moment since there's something that I need to check up on my own."

" _...That still didn't answer my question Naruto."_

"Figured, but I forgot to mention that I'm currently with Perdita at the moment."

" _...You are?"_

"Hence the reason why I called." Naruto stated before elaborating further in depth. "Perdita doesn't have that many friends her age and I was wondering if Rachel's currently there, along with Artemis and Jade. I figured they could chat together to preoccupy their evening, possibly becoming penpals if things work out."

" _Hmm… It could be good for them to expand their circle of friends, but Perdita being a royal would be a wild card I think. Especially if, at some point, they talk about being friends with an actual queen and people might think of them as liars."_

"Yeah… I figured as much. But still, are either of them at the loft at the moment?"

" _No they are not."_ Pam answered over the phone. _"Harley currently has them on grabbing something for dinner."_

" _And where's Selina?"_

" _Right here Naruto."_ Came a second voice on the phone for him to recognize as his ravenette girlfriend. _"Pam had you on speaker while she was making treats."_

"Well this might actually help me out a little." Naruto vaguely said as he left his two girlfriends with a questioning thought. He walked over to the couch where Perdita laid on and tapped her shoulder.

Raising her head, the young queen gazed at the publisher with a questionable look. "Yes Naruto?"

"There's some people I'd like for you to speak with."

"...Who?"

"My girlfriend and a friend of ours." He said to her before going back to the phone for a brief moment. "Hey, talk to her about the preservation idea you mentioned Selina."

Once that was said, he handed the phone to Perdita before making his way to the side of the room. Morphing into his hero attire before phasing himself out of the building. Naruto was going to be searching for answers with what's going on with Lamb Valley and he hopes this can be solved very soon.

 _ **-Evening, Warehouse District-**_

Inside of one particular building, things seemed to be rather busy in the dead of night. Scientists and gunmen were doing their respective tasks as their boss, Justin Claybourne, was showing some of his private investors around the facility. He was clearly happy on what's currently happening in the company, with people going towards him for their dying needs.

"...And thanks to the influx of cash, from our dycloseral aquisition, our D&D pipeline's fully funded for the next 2-3 years." Justin stated as he eyed the investors. "These are exciting times gentlemen, and it's just the beginning."

Out of nowhere, all of the electricity powering the lights and the equipment was suddenly shut off. It made the entire warehouse pitch black to the point that you couldn't even see anything within a few inches from one's face. Someone was going to make a move to see what was wrong with the breaker when the sound of a bow string being pulled back was heard.

*THWIP*

"GAH!" One of the gunmen yelled out as an arrow struck him into his chest. As a result, sounds of gunfire filled the darkness with the only forms of light shown was from the gun barrels as they fired their bullets. The gunmen were clearly missing as they were blindly firing at varying directions as someone was firing off arrows to take out the armed men one by one.

Claybourne was freaking out right now as he didn't know what was going on. He thought this warehouse was secure for his late night business deals, but apparently he was wrong. Justin made a run for it, resulting in running into a table, when a small explosion was lit up on the far side of the room. He turned towards it, as a reaction of seeking light, when he saw a shadowy silhouette at the source, making him realize who was behind all of this.

'The Hood.' The crooked businessman thought in worry as he eyed the bow in the man's hand with the quiver on his back. It was really hard to tell of the man's other features, due to the lack of light in the room and the only form of it was leaving an intimidating cover on the vigilante.

"Justin Claybourne!" The Hood growled out in a deep voice as he slowly approached the cowering businessman. "You have failed this city!"

"I-I think you got the wrong guy pal." Justin spoke out in hopes of defending himself. "M-My company makes drugs that help people."

"Not the people in Lamb Valley."

"Well it's not my problem that some people can't afford it."

"It is now." The archer then grabbed Justin and slammed him onto the nearby work table. From there, the vigilante turned on a small blow torch and held it up against the businessman's face. "Your days of holding this city's health hostage are over!" Nothing was spoken from Mr. Clayborne, causing the vigilante to yell out. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

"Okay, okay! Yes!"

Getting the response he wanted, the archer turned off the blow torch and started to walk away. "You have until 10 pm tomorrow to make this right."

Glaring back at the man who made his wonderful night go down the shit, Justin snarked back. "And what happens if I don't?"

The pharmaceutical business owner's response was soon met with something rather painful….

*THWIP*

"GAH! Motherfucker!"

...As an arrow was fired and was lodged deep into his leg.

"I'll aim higher!" The Hood spoke out before walking towards one of the investor's bodies and picked up a copied folder before leaving the premises. The pharmaceutical owner glared at the man as he pulled the arrow out of his leg before limping away to make some calls.

If either of them would've stayed a little longer, they would've seen Vanitas phase right through the ceiling. He grabbed onto the beams from up above to halt his fall before sliding down from one of the support pillars. Once on the ground, the masked Uzumaki looked around to see the damage in the area, dropped his head and shook it a little.

"What a mess…. I should've showed up sooner."

Naruto's been investigating as much information about this epidemic for the past several hours. Checking out pharmacies in Lamb Valley to see who the supposed suppliers of the tuberculosis medication were. There were different kinds of the medication, but the one that peaked his interest were the ones that were the most expensive and possibly better effective than from the cheaper, less effective ones.

He was disgusted on the distributer literally stealing money through this method. Only those rich enough could afford bottles worth while families had to fork over portions of their life's savings to barely survive the outbreak once digesting the pills. After finding some information on the pharmaceutical owner, Justin Claybourne, Vanitas decided to pay the man a visit.

Problem was, he wasn't at his office or at his expensive looking home. He scoured the city for any places Claybourne owned or frequently goes to from supposed records via secretary schedule catalogues. Nothing really turned up, until the publisher got the bright idea that since the buisnessman was acting like a crook, then look where crooks usually hide out. With his experience in this kind of work, Naruto went towards the Warehouse District for his search.

By the time he found Claybourne's registered warehouse, Vanitas came onto the current scene before him.

'What the hell am I gonna do now?' He looked around seeing the destroyed concoction containers all over the place. If they were more intact, Vanitas would've contacted the police to see the evidence in whatever Claybourne was doing. All that the police would find were the varying dead and unconscious bodies lying about with a growing fire some feet behind him.

Not wanting to have any of the unconscious people roasted alive, Vanitas summoned several Dusks and Creepers to get them out of the building. By the time all of the living people were out, the warehouse was fully set in flames in destroying what evidence there could've possibly been salvaged if lucky enough. It's been a long day for the publisher and he'll need to get some rest for what he'll need to do for tomorrow.

Before he could go anywhere, a Dusk came before him with a small folder with some edges burnt from the flames. Raising a hidden brow under his helmet, Naruto opened it up and scanned through the first page and then the second. "Hmm…. Interesting."

 _ **-Morning, Oliver's Lair-**_

Diggle was coming down the stairs while he eating a breakfast burrito. He came here to not only fetch Oliver and get him back home for his family's brunch meeting, but to see on the results of last night. By the time he got onto the bottom floor; he saw Oliver, still in uniform, going through the computers with a hunched over form and expression.

*Sigh* "I take it Claybourne wasn't impressed with your Robin Hood act."

"No, he wasn't. So I did some more digging." Oliver lifted up the folder he procured from last night, making John take it before Oliver explained what he found. "Claybourne didn't just price gouge with his drug…. He created the epidemic."

"Are you serious?"

"Very. *Sigh* He's connected to something called the 'AK Desmond Group'. They're black marketeers who specialize in creating bioweapons."

Diggle didn't say anything as he was going through the file before lifting his eyes to see the pages pulled up on the computer screen. It took a few moments before things clicked. "Damn… They're weaponizing tuberculosis. And he tested it in Lamb Valley."

"He created the marketplace Diggle and he didn't care who died in the process."

"And now you're gonna kill him?"

Oliver turned around in his seat to face his 'bodyguard' with a questioned look on his face. "How can you read what I gave you and have a problem with that?"

John soon placed the file down onto the nearby table before responding back. "Have you thought of the ramifications of your actions, of actually crossing names off a list? Being judge, jury and executioner?"

"Men like Claybourne buy judges, they buy juries. The law doesn't apply to them." 

"I'm not saying that you don't do some good Oliver."

"So what are you saying?"

"What I'm trying to say is that maybe one day your actions might have some unintended consequences… Maybe you should try and stop doing all of this and actually do some good that doesn't require you killing men to bring others to justice. Bring proof so that it'll be good enough that the jury won't be bought out that easily with what's right in front of them."

Oliver shook his head as he went to take off his uniform. "If that were ever so simple Diggle."

"It can be Oliver. Don't think that you're the only person in this kind of business. There's Vanitas, Batman and Robin over in Gotham and they've been cleaning up that city for quite some time now."

Oliver didn't say anything as he was getting partially undressed when his eyes landed on Diggle's food on the nearby table. He saw that it was a breakfast burrito and something seemed to click in the right places, making him realize something was wrong. Going to the computer, he saw the current time and came to a realization.

"Crap! I'm late for mom's brunch meeting!"

*Chuckle* "Partially the reason why I came here in the first place." Diggle responded as he saw Oliver quickly getting out of the rest of his uniform and grab his civilian clothes. Fumbling along the way as he tried to get dressed while running up the stairs with the calm veteran grabbing his meal and heading on up.

 _ **-Queen Manor-**_

"I'm so sorry that Walter couldn't join us Moira."

"Oh yes, well, the Australian trip came up suddenly. But he sends his apologies."

Standing in the dining room of the Queen estate, Moira Queen was greeting her guests for this little brunch meeting of hers. Reason behind this is to reacquaint with an old friend of hers, Janice Bowen, and her son Carter after a good number of years. Moira couldn't even remember the last time Janice came over, hence part of what's going on today.

Moira Queen's the widow of Robert Queen, wife to her second husband Walter Steele and mother to her son and daughter, Oliver and Thea Queen. She's a blonde woman in her late forties with bluish green eyes that tend to show hints of worry and sadness every so often, due to what she's been through since the Queen's Gambit incident, yet she hides it through pushing onward with her life. Moira is currently wearing a purple sweater with a black knee length skirt with a pair of black one inch heels.

Standing next to Moira is her seventeen year old daughter Thea, a brunette with her hair reaching past her shoulders to help frame her face. Having light brown eyes, that similar to her mother, showed signs of worry and sadness at times. But in contrast towards her mother, instead of pushing onward Thea just parties and messes around with her life to cope with her troubles. The Queen heiress was currently wearing a black sleeveless shirt with a pair of khaki pants with black slip on shoes.

"And where's Oliver?" Carter Bowen asked as he simple mindedly looked around for any sign of him. "He's not out of town too, is he?"

"Oh I'm sure he's just-" "Stuck in traffic." Interrupted the Queen heir as he walked into the dining room, wearing a casual business suit. Moira quietly forgave her son's interruption that he had made it to this meeting of hers. "One of the things I didn't miss on the island: Sunday drivers. And sorry I'm late mom."

"It's quite alright dear." The Queen matriarch responded kindly as she kissed her son's cheek.

Thea pulled her brother close for a small hug before whispering in his ear. "Thank god you're here."

Now normally for the brother and sister of the Queen household, they wouldn't bother in coming to any of their parent's meal meetings in the manor. Both would just do their own thing so they wouldn't interrupt said meetings like some instances when they were kids.

However, their mother has been feeling down ever since Walter suddenly left for his business trip to Australia. There wasn't much on it, but Moira needed some comfort to help ease the little pain. So she got this brunch meeting set up and convinced her children to show up, much to their little frustration. But sacrificing whatever morning plans they had to make their mother happy, Oliver and Thea will try to suck it up for her sake.

"It's so good to see you." Janice Bowen said as she came up close to give Oliver a hug. "We all thought you were-"

"Oh well, we are just happy he's home." Moira finished off getting her old friend nodding in response.

Oliver soon noticed that the dining room table had two extra seating placements. He only thought that it was just him, his sister, their mother and the Bowen's for brunch. Turning towards his mother, Oliver asked the little thought crossing his mind.

"Mom."

"Yes?"

"Why are there extra placements here?" Oliver asked as he gestured the table. "There's five of us here, yet seven spots total."

"Yeah mom. I was wondering the same thing." Thea said in agreement. She thought it was odd earlier, but didn't comment on it due to her not wanting to seem rude.

Moira smiled a little as she answered everyone's thoughts. "Ah yes, I forgot to say earlier that we're having an extra pair of guests coming over."

"And when were you going to tell us?"

"Well I didn't know if she would show up, but I got a call last night while you two were away that she'd come over with a guest she's bringing along." Moira answered her daughter's question, but this honestly left more questions for everyone else.

*Ding Dong* *Ding Dong*

"Oh I think that might be them." The Queen matriarch said as she made her way out of the dining room. "You stay here and I'll fetch our arrivals."

With Moira out of the room, a few moments passed before Carter came up to Oliver and gave the Queen heir a firm handshake. "Oliver Queen, it's been some time."

"That's right Carter. Haven't seen you since highschool I believe."

"Pretty much."

"And if I remember correctly, you were accepted into both Princeton and Harvard."

"Of course and I went to Harvard for med-school." Carter said with a bit of pride in his voice. "Though if memory serves, you dropped out of three Ivy league schools."

"Four actually." Oliver corrected since the additional one was only known to his family and his very small circle of friends. "And that was a little lifetime ago."

"Right and when you came back from your time 'abroad', you returned as a celebrity."

"...I don't know what you mean by that Carter."

Wanting to clear up Oliver's thoughts, Carter explained a little. "Billionaire scion, castaway for five years. You know, there's a bidding war for the rights of your life's story. At least that's what my agent says."

"Then you'll need a good publisher to help get the copyrights taken care of." A voice called out, causing the Queen children and the Bowens to turn towards the source. "That and the original sources' consent if you want to make it into a book or a movie someday."

He appeared to be Oliver's and Carter's age with the strangest appearance for him. He had spiky silver hair with some of it tied into a ponytail with hazel eyes and whiskered cheeks that looked like birthmarks. He was currently wearing a dark suit with a white undershirt to help pop out his features.

The person with him was a little blonde girl that was ten years old in a wheelchair. She was currently wearing a blue button up shirt with a dark sweater over it along with a black skirt. The blonde girl also wore white stockings with a black pair of slip ons to help complete her appearance.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Carter questioned as the silver haired man was about to speak, but Moira beat him to the punch.

"Yes, I forgot to tell you all, but I figured that this was good enough of a surprise." The Queen matriarch said with a smile. "Let me introduce Queen Perdita of Vlatava and her friend Naruto Uzumaki of Spiral Publishing."

The reactions given were pretty expected for Moira, Perdita and Naruto as the sibling pair widened their eyes slightly with Thea's mouth partially opened. As for the Bowen's, they were a bit more controlled to some degree in their own respective ways (possibly from years of family discipline). Of course the first person to snap out of the shocked feeling going on was the Queen heiress with a question that was unknowingly shared with everyone's thoughts.

"How the hell did you get those two to come here?" Thea asked, causing Moira to look at her daughter of cussing in front of not only a child, but also the very queen of Vlatava. "Uh… Sorry mom." She then turned her attention towards Perdita and apologized. "Also sorry, your highness."

Perdita could only chuckle a little as she knew what the corporate heiress was referring to. "It's quite alright Ms. Queen. An honest mistake that slipped on by."

"Uh… Thank you."

After that, little greetings were firstly made towards the child queen before going towards the publisher in the room. It was a little unexpected to see a renowned publisher and writer, but more so of him seemingly good friends the Vlatavan in the room. Simple greetings were made towards him by the Bowens and Thea Queen before the corporate heir had his.

"So you're the Oliver Queen that I've heard as of late." Naruto said as he firmly shook Oliver's hand. "Good grip you got there."

"So does yours and I hope on what you've heard wasn't that bad about me."

"Just the usual bits here and there of you being a playboy." The publisher said before he ended the handshake. "Though it might be a bit higher than my one friend back at Gotham."

Oliver didn't press onto that bit since he's wanting to change who he really is from his previous life. But to help hide his identity as 'The Hood', he'll have to play the role so others would be mislead. A small price to pay for what he wants to do for his home city.

"You know..." Oliver started off as he made his way towards the dining room table with the others following. "I never really heard of you before."

"Given that you've been living on an island in the North China sea for the past five years, how wouldn't you know about me." Naruto wheeled Perdita to one of the spots at the table, once moving the chair to the side of the room. "I started out my publishing firm, eventually company, roughly five years ago as well. So there's no problem on you not knowing Oliver."

"You should probably check out one of his books sometime Oliver." Moira suggested as she sat at the head of the table while facing her son. On the one side of the table sat the Bowens while on the other Thea sitting next to her brother, Naruto sitting next to her and Perdita in the middle. "Or at least some of the writers that are signed up with his company. Especially with what free time you possibly have on most days."

"I just might mom."

Naruto then looked at the Bowens and remembered the bit of what he heard earlier before introductions were made. "Carter, you said something about having an agent and something about writing a book?"

"Agent? I thought you were a neurosurgeon Carter." Oliver questioned as he took a sip of his drink.

"I know, it's crazy." Carter started off as he went into his little tale. "One minute I'm getting this book published on how long-term potentiation initiates the creation of a slow-moving protein synthesis, and the next there's an agent trying to get me into starring in a medical show of sorts."

As this little bit went on, Perdita had no idea what Carter was saying and turned towards Thea and whispered to her. "Do you know what he's talking about?"

"None at all."

"Good, because I don't know either."

This got a small smirk out of the corporate heiress as she tried to hide said smirk from her mother and the Bowens. In Thea's time in school, she sucks at science and can't really make heads or tails out of it. Though with Perdita, Thea knew figured she would possibly be in the same boat, even if it's at an early age, unless she wants to delve into it later on.

"Well, truth is, I just feel it's our duty as Starling City's more fortunate to help those most in need." Carter said getting a few to nod at this.

"Like those in Lamb Valley perhaps?" Perdita asked, getting several others to look at her.

"What do you mean exactly?" Oliver asked since the bit with Lamb Valley right now is still strong with him on what he has to do with Justin Clayborne. He knows the details behind it, but Oliver needs to keep up his little act like he doesn't know at the moment.

"Perdita and I were going around the city yesterday, since she was finally able to get out of the hospital, and both of us wanted to see the sites." Naruto started off as some of the manor staff were bringing in food for the dining room occupants. "We asked for directions at some point, but one person told us to stay away from Lamb Valley, especially with Perdita here coming out of surgery last week."

"Yes. The TB outbreak going on right now." The young queen said before saying a brief 'thank you' to the maid. "If we didn't know, my condition would've been worse and things wouldn't have gone great for my recovery period."

"That's just awful." Janice said in sympathy with her son nodding.

"I'm probably sure some people will do what they can to help out on this problem." Moira said as she cut into her meal.

"There probably are." Oliver and Naruto said at the same time, causing them to look at each other funny before shaking their heads on the oddly timed moment.

"So now that you're back, what are your plans Oliver? Will you be taking a job with Queen Consolidated?" Janice asked since she wanted to change subjects now.

Turning his attention towards Janice, he honestly answered her. "I'm opening up a nightclub actually." This got a little laugh out of Thea while earning a disappointed look from his mother.

"Well that's an interesting idea that you have there Oliver." Naruto commented as he took a small sip of his drink. "A decent business opportunity to delve into. On most days it can be just a regular night club while others could be booked out for certain events. Like persay, campaign rallies or fundraising parties."

"...Thank you Naruto." Oliver said as he appreciated the thought. To honestly admit, Oliver didn't fully think things over for his night club idea to help cover what he'll do on his nightly activities as 'The Hood'. He only thought of just having it be a night club so far, but this idea could help him a little down the road if needed.

"Your welcome."

"But isn't Queen Consolidated his right to take over someday?"

Naruto looked towards Janice before answering her. "It's his right if he so happens to take it Mrs. Bowen. But let me ask you this: Should he take a leading position in his family's company now?"

"Um… I don't know." She answered to which Naruto responded back.

"To me, he shouldn't have a position in his family's company. Not right now that is." He said as he took a bite out of his meal.

Moira took slight offense to this and spoke out at this. "And what do you mean by that?"

Putting his utensils down, he looked towards the Queen matriarch before explaining his thoughts. "First off Mrs. Queen, Oliver's been away from civilization for five years. He hasn't learned much, asides from knowing how to survive and the many ways to properly camp out in the wilderness with just nature's resources. Second, if memory serves, he's a college dropout. So no offense to you Oliver; but you probably don't have the proper education and training on leading others, along with knowing how to manage others working under you."

"None taken actually." Oliver said as he was a little relieved someone was taking his side from a previous argument he had when he first came back. He had stated some of those facts before, but his mother wouldn't listen all that well.

Putting his attention back to Moira, Naruto continued. "So to me, I think the idea of him opening up a nightclub could be a decent way for him to slowly get back into things. Reacquainting himself with a good job and learning the ropes of running a business with something he was quite familiar with before… you know… And this could be a good way for him to learn and gain the experiences he needs in life. So if he wants to work for his family's company someday, this nightclub could be a good start until such time.

But know this, a child is not their parent. They may take qualities and traits from said parents, whether they be adopted/fostered or biological, but they are not their parents. Most people would accuse something like that when rounding up the person with their family and labeling them as a whole as 'good' or bad' for some sort of legacy. But whatever choices they make, they don't define them. They don't have to define who your family will be, because there's always one moment when you can turn it all around for the benefit of your loved ones.

Take me for example, I never knew my parents or get taken in by anyone when I grew up. No legacy to fall back on if needed and didn't get any of the supposed privileges that came with it. So in the first fifteen years of my life, I had nothing before I decided to make something of it and left home to make a new one. And now, roughly ten years later, I made a name of myself that I've become quite successful in what I do now and I'm glad for it. Hoping that it'll be good enough for when I have a family of my own, it'll help start off a decent legacy for them to maybe live up to or take their own paths."

Part of the last bit in Naruto's little speech was a partial lie. He did learn who his parents were, despite learning and meeting their chakra spirit whatevers, but they were during the Pein/Nagato attack and Bijuu training respectively before the Fourth Shinobi War. If he did stay in his home reality after the war, Naruto would've been able to reap the benefits of his birth parents' legacies. But since he didn't have it here, he had to make a legacy for himself.

Nothing much was said towards what Naruto spoke as everyone else digested his little speech. Thinking quietly towards themselves while they ate their morning brunch. Though everyone chatted to make things more pleasant for the long run of this little get together. It wasn't long afterwards when the meals were almost done that Janice and Carter had to leave; due to some prior engagements they need to attend to so they pleasantly said their goodbyes. But they said they'll meet the Queen family at the benefit event tonight.

"What event were the Bowens talking about?"

Answering Perdita's question, Thea came on in to answer. "A friend of ours, Tommy Merlyn, is hosting a benefit event tonight to help raise money for another friend of ours, Laurel Lance, due to her legal firm being recently cut on funding."

"That sounds awful."

"Don't know why Stagg Industries did this, but they were the main provider of CNRI… The place where Laurel works at." Moira said, getting nods from Naruto and Perdita. "Maybe both of you could come." The queen/author pair were taken back on this before the matriarch explained. "Possibly both of you could donate some money to help her out if you want."

"...It sounds tempting Mrs. Queen, but I don't have full access to my royal treasury until I get back to Vlatava." Perdita said in an apologetic tone, to which Moira nodded in understanding. "After all, what ten year old girl would want to have access to checkbooks right now."

Thea only snorted in a little agreement. When growing up, she didn't know much on spending money until she was a preteen. But prior to that, Thea didn't even fully know what a checkbook was or even a credit card.

"And what about you Naruto?"

"...I could maybe donate a substantial amount to CNRI if I could chat with this Laurel, or a close associate of hers, at the event tonight." The publisher said getting a small smile out of Moira and Oliver. "Though is it invitation only or is it a semi-open event that you donate to actually attend?"

"The former actually." Thea answered before she opened up her phone. "Though I'll need to call Tommy to try and add you two to the guest list if you want."

The queen/publisher pair looked at each other for a moment, having a silent conversation with each other. Getting a nod from Perdita, Naruto gave the answer. "Get us in if you can Thea."

"Great." The heiress said before asking them an additional question. "Though what are you two going to be doing for the rest of the day?"

"...Well~ we plan on just seeing what else this city has to offer for the next few days before Perdita has to go back to Vlatava while I head to National City for work." Was Naruto's honest answer, getting nods from the Queen family members. "Yesterday we hit the aquarium, the botanical gardens and the museum. Though we were told at the museum, by one of the employees, that your family amassed an interesting collection over the years."

"Yes and while my family has a decent collection back home, asides from family portraits, it gets boring to see them too often." The Vlatavan added in before continuing. "So seeing the works at the museum was nice, but I'm wondering if we could see your family's collection… If that isn't too much trouble Mrs. Queen."

Moira smiled at this while her children smiled as well when seeing her reaction. It seemed that the publisher/queen pair are helping their mother get out of her depressing mood better than the Bowens. Hopefully this will help their mother to settle down a bit better than from before.

"Well I don't know what you'll be expecting Perdita, but my late husband had amassed quite the collection of 19th century American landscapes." Moira said with a smile before walking out of the room. "Though let me just get my staff to open up the rest of the house so we can give you a tour."

Perdita returned the smile with her own. "That would be lovely."

 _ **-Evening, CNRI Benefit Gala-**_

The sun had set for the day and things seem pretty good so far for Oliver Queen, despite of what happened this early morning.

"You seem rather chipper Oliver." Diggle said as he gazed at his client/friend.

"Well if things can go according to plan, then it'll be a whole lot better."

The brunch meeting went really well throughout the entire time. There was some little annoying moments, mostly with Carter and his inflating ego, but things got better with Naruto and Perdita being there. His mother's mood changed for the better with the two additional guests and that made things better for the siblings. Even Naruto's explanation during brunch made him feel a little happy, but made him think things a bit more than he thought he would.

During the time strolling through the family art gallery, Moira popped up the question if the company could have business with Vlatava. Though much to his mother's slight displeasure, Perdita had turned down the offer since she has enough on her plate that she'll need to do once she's back in her home country. But the young queen did ask if the offer will still be on the table down the road, so once Perdita's country is a bit more stabilized that she'll open talks for a business opportunity.

After hearing the explanation, Moira accepted it and moved onwards with the tour before Naruto and Perdita left for the day. Though before leaving, Thea asked for Naruto to sign her copies of some of his books while discreetly hiding her copies of Icha Icha from her mother's view. It did unnerve Oliver when he saw those books, due to him previously seeing them in the Yamashiro household back in China and Anatoly Knyazev's office back in Russia. He didn't know what they were on the separate times, due to the different written languages, but after a brief explanation Oliver didn't want to read them all that much.

'I'm going to burn those books when I get the chance.' Oliver thought with a twitch in his eye.

"And you're gonna do an abrupt exit?"

The only answer the veteran got was a smirk from Oliver before he walked inside. "I'm getting better at it with practice."

Inside of the gala event, it was decently packed and people were enjoying themselves. From the food and drinks being served to the music playing. It appeared to be a good fundraising event so far with how many people wrote checks towards the law firm.

"Honey, keep the alcohol flowing." A man said towards the waitress as he grabbed a glass of champagne. He was currently wearing a dark suit with a red-lined shirt and matching tie.

This is Tommy Merlyn, heir to the Merlyn Global Group and Oliver Queen's best friend. He is a twenty-six year old man with semi-short brown hair and brown eyes that had glee and traces of a mischievous nature on the surface. Though if you delve deep and really knew the man, you'd see the pain he had to go through in his life.

He hosted this event, through his father's company, to help out his old friend, Laurel. This was due to the funding of the law firm she works at was cut off recently. Laurel enjoys what she does in life right now and Tommy wants to do what he can to make that happen, even if he has to do this event for her. Sure he said that it makes his company look good, but he's doing this for the right reasons to help out a law firm that he knows that they're doing their jobs right.

As Tommy took a sip of his drink, his eyes caught sight of one of the most beautiful people he ever knew: Dinah Laurel Lance.

Laurel Lance is the daughter of Detective Lance and registered lawyer of CNRI. She is a beautiful, twenty-six year old woman with flowing brown hair and matching colored eyes. She has dated both Oliver and Tommy in the past with both relationships ending not that great, even though she is decent friends with the two of them now. Laurel was currently wearing a black evening dress that hugged her curves ever so nicely that would make single men look her way along with very little makeup to help pop out her defining facial features.

And from the expression she was getting from Tommy helped prove her point.

"I can't… Wow." Tommy said with a smile. "You just look… really lovely."

"Lovely?... Well it's nice that you've expanded your vocabulary from words like 'hot' and 'mega hot'."

"You can just say 'thank you', you know." He said with a mocked hurtful tone, to which Laurel smirked at him before placing a palm onto his shoulder.

"Thank you, you know?" She responded making him snort at the little joke she pulled. "Still though Tommy, thank you for everything you've done for tonight."

"You're welcome."

The two just stood there for several moments doing nothing when Laurel's friend and coworker, Joanna, showed up to greet the two. She is an lovely african american woman in her mid-twenties in a slimming red dress. Joanna clearly had a pleasant expression on her face as she was enjoying the event so far.

"Tommy, this is wonderful. This means the world to us."

"Well you're welcome as well Joanna." Tommy said before he saw Thea by the check-in table. "Oh god. Excuse me for just one second. I need to check up on someone."

As he walked away from the two, Laurel glanced where he was going and got the idea on what he was probably doing. 'He's such a decently good brother figure to her.' Laurel thought with a small smile.

Back with Tommy, he greeted Thea who was currently in a black sleeveless dress. "Thank you for coming."

"And thank you for inviting me Tommy."

"Well I figured the entire Queen family and their checkbooks should be present."

"Oh right. And how is that going for you so far?" Thea responded with an eyeroll.

"I should let you know that it's going amazing and it's all thanks to you." He stated with smirk. "Thea Queen, the unlikely voice of reason."

"Really? And what did I do exactly?"

"You gave me great advice for starters. And I thought about what the girl was interested in that things turned alright in the end."

Thea was wondering what he was referring to, but looked at where he turned to see Laurel chatting with Joanna.

"Ah… Of course." The Queen heiress said before a thought crossed her mind. "Have you properly added in Naruto Uzumaki and Queen Perdita into the guest list like I asked you to?"

"Yeah… I have." He said as he remembered the phone call from earlier. It was rather sudden on the request and he didn't believe on Thea doing such a thing. But after a small explanation on what happened earlier in the day, Tommy believed her and added the two in on the guest list. "Though I do wonder if they'd showed up or not."

"...I think they have." Thea said, getting the Merlyn heir to look where Thea was looking at.

"Well that solves one problem."

With the publisher/queen pair, they had arrived a while ago and went straight towards the little buffet table to grab a light snack. It wasn't much, but they just wanted to see what was currently available. Luckily there was some carrot cake and some sparkling grape juice for Perdita to enjoy while Naruto had some champagne.

"This is looking well so far."

Perdita nodded in agreement as she took a small bite out of the desert. "And I'm glad that the host of the evening got us in here. Especially not having my full name put on the guest list."

"Yeah…. That would've been awkward if we had to deal with people freaking out because of you." He said only to get a slap to his side. "Alright~ I'll lay off the teasing for now. Sheesh."

"I know, but still… It's nice to go to an event where people wouldn't automatically recognize me on the spot and try sweet talking to me."

Nothing was said as the two looked at the surrounding area for their own respective thoughts. While Perdita was thinking of what kind of upcoming events she'll be attending to in the future, Naruto's was something else. Something that he tends to have whenever he rarely comes to these kinds of events.

Naruto's brief thoughts were interrupted when a man came up to them like he apparently knew them.

"Hello." The man started off getting the publisher/queen pair's attention. "Don't know if you know me, but I'm a friend of the Queen family."

Took the two a moment before things clicked. "You're Tommy Merlyn, aren't you? We've heard good things about you from Oliver and Thea." Naruto asked, getting a smile out of the man.

"Yup and you two are Naruto and Perdita." Tommy said before giving a small bow to the young queen.

"The pleasure is ours Mr. Merlyn."

"Please your highness, Mr. Merlyn is my father. Call me Tommy."

*Chuckles* "Very well. And thank you for letting us attend this event."

"Well you've got to thank Thea for giving me the head's up or else things would've been awkward." He said getting nods from the two guests. "So have you met Laurel yet?"

"No… But I think we see her, right over there with Carter Bowen." Naruto pointed out, getting Tommy to look and let out a frustrated sigh.

"...Great. Him."

"I take it you and him don't get along."

Tommy looked at the young queen and nodded slightly. "You can say that. Oliver and I never really liked him, being so full of himself."

"Being a giant prick you mean?" Questioned the publisher, getting a small chuckle from the global group heir. "Don't worry, Oliver gave me a little history lesson back at his place and I felt the same way when I chatted with Carter during brunch."

"Glad that Oliver and I aren't the only ones."

"I've had my fair share of that grouping of people in my life Tommy and there will be no shortage of them."

"All so very true." Tommy muttered as he took taking a sip out of his champagne glass.

"Though that is only the tip of the iceberg that I've had to deal with for almost a decade."

"Oh? What do you mean by that?"

*Sigh* "Well Tommy, answer me this: What do you see? And don't worry about the answer."

Took a few moments of looking over the room before giving out a nice shrug. "A pretty good party with nice music to keep things a little upbeat. People wanting to contribute to CNRI so the law firm will keep on running so it's lawyers can keep up the good, honest fight."

"That's a pretty good assessment Tommy."

"Thanks."

"Though that's not all that I see here." Naruto said getting Tommy's undivided attention because of his curiousity. "I do agree with you on what you said on people coming here to help out CNRI, but that's only touching the surface in these kinds of events…

I also see people who only showed up to make things appear that they're supporting the law firm, but only wanted others to think that way as said people aren't donating that much money. Others are mostly a mixed bag if one really looked hard enough like wanting to get into other people's pants for example." Naruto started off before he realized what he just said. So he and Tommy looked towards the young Queen to see if she was offended or anything.

"...What? I already know about the birds and the bees from one of my maids back home. So don't worry about that." Perdita stated, causing the two older men let out a sigh in relief on this since that would've been awkward to discuss the phrase the publisher spoke. After a brief moment, Naruto continued with his explanation.

"Thing is Tommy, this is what I had to deal with and experience in nearly the past decade whenever I rarely attend social events like this. I tend to keep hearing people that really didn't want to contribute towards the event's cause as they only cared for one thing: themselves. Those people would only talk about nothing at all, just random stuff about themselves to impress others. From their hair, their clothes, their money, their stupid little problems that doesn't really mean anything towards what's really going on.

But I try to attend these things because their goals are noble and I want to at least help out one way or another. I talk to the person mostly behind the event to see if I would contribute a good amount of money towards their cause. If things are truly genuine, then things go quite well for them in terms of donations. But if the person is just trying to suck up to me for a substantial amount of money, then they're in for a rude awakening."

Once that was said and done, Naruto paused his movements as his clones' memories started to flood into his head. After processing everything, Naruto realized that it was time for him to leave. He gazed at Tommy to see that he was processing what the publisher just said.

"Hey Tommy."

"Huh.. Yeah?"

"Mind watching Perdita for a moment? Possibly chat with her if you want? I need to go use the restroom for a bit."

Tommy nodded, getting the Uzumaki to briefly excuse himself. Naruto went towards the restroom so he can safely create a clone to take his place at this event. But back with the global heir, there was only one thing Tommy came to realize from the publisher's explanation.

'He's probably not wrong in what he said.'

 _ **-AK Desmond Group-**_

It took a bit of time to get over here from the fundraiser event, but Oliver was finally able to make it by 10pm like in his threat last night. The archer stayed around for a bit, chatted with some people to make Oliver known that he was there for a decent alibi. He knew that Justin Claybourne wouldn't hold up onto his deal after what he had found out earlier today. So he needed to be taken care of tonight.

Though with how he was able to find this place, he went to see Ms. Smoak at the IT department again and lied to her to find out where the AK Desmond Group was located. She seemed a bit more chipper than usual when helping him out earlier today. Though after a little accident with her desk, Oliver learned why she complied a bit easier: seeing the signed copy of her Loveless novel by Naruto Uzumaki himself.

Preparing himself, Oliver took several deep breaths to steady himself before he kicked the wooden door in to give himself access onto the 30th floor.

*BANG*

"The hell?!" One of the guards yelled out before an arrow was shot and was buried deep inside of his chest.

As 'The Hood' was walking down the hallway, another guard came running towards him. The archer grabbed the armed man and tossed him through a glass door, shattering upon impact before quickly knocking an arrow onto his bow.

*TWHIP*

'Dead.' Oliver thought as he walked over the corpse. Going down another hallway, the vigilante found his desired target for the evening.

"Kill that Robin Hood son of a bitch!" The pharmaceutical owner yelled towards his two guards as he ran away.

The men complied with their boss' orders and pulled out their handguns, but they were too slow to fire their weapons.

*TWHIP* *TWHIP* *TWHIP*

Oliver fired an arrow into one of the men's chests, getting to instantly kill him, while having to fire two on another when he wouldn't go down all the way. Once those two were dealt with, 'The Hood' kept walking down the corridor before passing some doors to reach an escalator… An escalator with several men guarding it and coming down to hopefully stop his advancements.

'Like that'll ever happen.' The vigilante thought as he fired several arrows at rapid succession to kill the closest ones before firing at the ones coming down the escalator. Oliver ran and jumped onto the divider before kicking a man that came up from behind. In that moment, the archer pulled out an arrow, stabbed the man in the chest several times before pulling it out and firing it at another hired gun.

The men kept on coming as Oliver had to duck from incoming punches and kicks in his awkward position on the upward escalator. Having to grab a man's neck, the archer placed him into a chokehold before breaking the man's neck. The archer had to kick several men to the walls before firing arrows at each of them so they wouldn't interfere with his 'meeting' with Justin Claybourne.

There wasn't much left in terms of enemy forces for Oliver to deal with. They were clearly untrained goons bought by Claybourne's dirty money. So by the time he reached the rooftop, the archer saw Claybourne standing in front of a pool with two guards right in front of him. Without warning, the two men aimed their guns and fired, but Oliver rolled out of the way and knocked his bow...

*TWHIP* *TWHIP*

...Leaving Justin Claybourne all alone and defenseless.

"You gonna tell me again that 'I failed this city'?" Mocked the businessman, causing the archer to narrow his eyes in disgust.

"You infected the people in Lamb Valley to turn a profit."

"You want to make this city great again? Well this is how: with business, money."

"You are sentencing innocent families, children to death!" The Hood growled out, only making his target chuckle a little at this.

"Nobody cares about those people. They're a blight…. And I'm just thinning the herd, the surplus population if you will."

"So am I." Was all 'The Hood' said as he quickly drew and arrow and fired. But instead of it landing it's desired mark… it penetrated an oddly thin, sinuous body in a light grey jumpsuit that flew in front of Claybourne before it combusted into grey and black smoke.

'The hell?' Was, unknowingly, the same thought shared between the vigilante and the crooked businessman. Soon a helmeted figure came down from the sky with a lance in his hand, landed on the rooftop before disbursing his lance.

"Man… Got here just in time." Vanitas spoke out before turning his attention towards 'The Hood'. "So you're the vigilante that I've heard so much about… Thought you'd be buffer."

"What are you doing here Vanitas?" The Hood growled out as he glared at the Gotham hero. "This doesn't concern you."

"It does if you're trying to kill this guy." The black/white themed hero said as he pointed towards the crooked pharmaceutical owner.

"Oh thank you." Claybourne said in relief several times, much to his savior's annoyance.

"Don't thank me for this Mr. Claybourne. *Chuckles* You're ass is going to jail." Vanitas said getting a shocked look from the pharmaceutical owner and a raised brow from the vigilante.

"...What?"

"I got evidence for your crimes Claybourne and it's already in SCPD's hands right now."

Part of what Vanitas had to deal with for most of the evening, while he was at the gala event, had several clones search through Claybourne's office and home for anything to help back up what he found in the burnt folder his Dusk found last night. Even had one follow the man's movements throughout the day just in case the man tried to flee the city. There was only very little Naruto scrounged up to help back up the evidence he got on hand.

But when Claybourne came to this building earlier, Naruto's clone went to work to find anything else of value. He was so glad he had his 'memory manipulation' ability on hand when a few guards spotted the clone going through Justin's private office safe. When everything was done, Naruto's clone made his way to SCPD and phased all of the comprised evidence onto Detective Lance's desk from the ceiling with a note for him to read.

His clone silently laughed when he saw Quentin's reaction… especially with the spilled coffee on his shirt from the brief surprise. After it disbursed, Naruto had to leave the benefit and quickly make his way here to help apprehend the man before The Hood killed him. It was very lucky he barely made it on time.

'Selina would've been proud if she was here to see it.' Naruto thought with a small smile. Though it became a frown when his shoulder was grabbed by the crooked businessman.

"Y-You can't do this to me!" Claybourne yelled out before he was punched in the face and held his bleeding nose on the ground.

"I already have Claybourne." The masked Uzumaki stated as he turned around to see The Hood aim an arrow at him. "That's cute… Can you try and be more intimidating than that? I've dealt with worse."

"He needs to pay for what he's done to this city!" The archer growled out as he kept his weapon steady.

"And he will, but not by death Mr. Hood." Vanitas said as he was walking up to him, but not too far from Claybourne. "Let the courts help serve out justice on this one."

"Men like him buy judges, they buy juries! The law doesn't apply to them!"

"Then try and trust the system." The Gotham hero urged out in hopes of convincing him to let this man go through the right way. "Let those in the system help carry out the justice people like Claybourne deserve… Not like this."

*DONG*

The nearby bell tower sounded off as the two just stood there, hardly moving an inch as the archer spoke out. "I'm not going to take that chance Vanitas."

*DONG*

*Sigh* "Seems I've got no choice in the matter." The Gotham hero said as he got into a relaxed fighting position. "You have so much potential than you would've made a difference if you did the right thing Mr. Hood."

*DONG*

After the last bell tone was rung, the archer fired his arrow making the helmeted hero to move out of the way before running towards his opponent. Vanitas shot out a punch to which the archer ducked before upwardly swung his bow to hit his opponent hard on his chest. Vanitas skidded back a bit from the blow but used this opportunity to throw out an assortment of cards and daggers at the vigilante.

The Hood had to move out of the way, while using his bow to block a few of the projectiles before hiding behind a roof mounted fan. Though he soon grabbed his arm in pain when one of the razor sharp cards seemed to graze him. Even looked at his bow to see a small nick there to show how bad one of those weapons could be.

'I'll need to be extra careful apparently.' The Hood thought before several glowing magenta arrows pierced through his cover, making him widen his eyes in surprise. '...And those as well.'

Needing to find better cover, The Hood glanced about for a better defense. Saw that the concrete walls were the only available option, he bolted towards it while dodging the incoming laser arrow onslaught. Once in his better form of covering, he saw the glowing arrows fade away to possibly give him a little idea on what those projectiles could possibly do.

'Come on Oliver. You can do this.' He thought to himself as he pulled out several arrows from his quiver. 'First time fighting a meta… so you might as well get used to it now than later.'

Momentarily coming out of his cover, he quickly shot his arrows before going back behind his cover so he wouldn't get hit by any of Vanitas' shots. These were clearly different than from bullets, but these can be a bit faster than any normal bullet much to the archer's slight frustration. As the two kept firing at each other, the two kept dodging and missing each other from their respective covers.

"Yes! I can shoot and dodge at the same time thank you very much!" Vanitas spoke out in a taunting fashion. "Though can you Mr. Hood?!"

"That I can!" The vigilante growled out as he ran out of his cover before rolling into a shooting position, but only saw an empty space. 'Where'd he go?'

"Up above!" Vanitas cried out as he slammed his energy covered fist onto the rooftop. The Hood barely had time to move out of the way to see the cracks on the impact. In a brief moment, the archer dashed in close by swinging his fist at the helmeted hero's head.

It smashed against the disguised publisher's side, sending him spinning away with a grunt of annoyance with the vibrations. But much to The Hood's surprise, Vanitas rolled with the punch. And using that momentum, the hero spun low and kicked the archer's legs out from underneath.

Falling onto his back with a grunt, the archer rolled away to avoid the Gotham hero's leg from meeting his face. Springing back up, The Hood immediately bolted towards Claybourne to hopefully end him before hopefully making a getaway. Vanitas saw this, causing him to run after him as he formed his grappling scarf and shot it towards the vigilante. The scarf grabbed the Hood's legs, sending him down to the ground in response in an awkward position. This ended up causing him some pain in his arm to realize he might've dislocated something.

"It's over Mr. Hood. You lost."

Not wanting to be defeated too soon, the archer swung his bow at the hero and smacked him across his helmet several times. Vanitas backed away from the ringing before The Hood used this opportunity to throw small dart like arrows at the Gotham hero. Though instead of penetrating, the dart arrows bounced off to cause the vigilante to groan in response.

'Should've realized that was body armor instead of odd looking spandex.' Was the disguised Queen's thought as he grabbed one of the small dart arrows to help cut himself free. When Vanitas tried to get back at his opponent, The Hood kicked the man's chest from the rooftop floor to send him back a bit.

As this was going on, Justin Claybourne was trying to get himself back up while holding his bloody broken nose. He even couldn't see that well due to some blood covering his eyes. This was because on how he fell face first onto the ground, the crooked pharmaceutical owner cut his forehead to end up bleeding from the recent wound. All that he could possibly make out on what's going on at the current moment were the sounds of fighting.

"I hope they kill each other to save me the trouble." Claybourne growled out as he tried to clear his face from the blood. He dunked his head into the nearby pool to try and clear his face from the blood before pulling back out to look around for safety.

Back with the duel, the two were punching and kicking each other due to the Hood realizing he wouldn't be able to really harm him with his current arsenal of arrows. The only good weapon he had right now was his bow as a blunt force weapon and that could only go so far. He needed to end this now, but Vanitas wasn't letting up on this fight.

"I can possibly do this all night you know."

"We'll see about that." The Hood growled out before he leapt over the hero and grabbed his shoulders to toss him to the side to give himself some space. Though it wasn't long until something was thrown right past him, embedding itself into the wall and Vanitas suddenly appearing right in front of him.

"Not really."

Receiving a punch towards his chest several times before being kicked back to roll a few times in the process. It wasn't great but it did give him a view to see Claybourne try to get away. Hoping that this could work, the Hood pulled out two arrows and quickly fired to try and imobolize the man so he can be dealt with later. Though that didn't go all that well when Vanitas knocked one of them away while the other ended up cutting through Claybourne's Achilles Tendon.

Justin Claybourne felt excruciating pain from his foot and stumbled before falling over. He tried to catch himself, but with additional blood seeping over his eyes, Justin ended up missing his hopeful target and fell over the side of the rooftop. Screaming as he fell down from a thirty story drop.

*CRASH*

Both Vanitas and The Hood rushed over to the side of the rooftop as the two saw Claybourne dead on top of a parked taxi. The driver got out of his car with several other people gathered around it to see the corpse on the damaged vehicle. It was even then that the police arrived onto the scene to end up seeing an arrow sticking out of the man's foot to realize the Hood had struck again.

"I hope you're happy with this Mr. Hood, because this is all on you." Vanitas said in a low tone as he glared at the archer. "If you had cooperated earlier, then this wouldn't have happened."

Not wanting to deal with the vigilante anymore, Vanitas summoned a Kazekage lance before taking off into the night's sky to leave the Hood all by himself to find his own way back to his lair.

 _ **-CNRI Benefit Gala-**_

Naruto had made it back at a good of a time as any, despite his sour mood from the earlier fight. The moment he phased back into the public restroom, the publisher went back into his normal attire and snuck out to find his clone. He was able to spot the clone chatting with a few people while trying to keep Perdita entertained. Though by the look of things, she was starting to feel a little drowsy due to how late it was.

'I should probably get Perdita back to the hotel soon.' Thought the Uzumaki before his eyes met with his clone. Getting a silent nod, the clone excused himself as he quickly made his way towards the original's position. Taking cover, the copy disbursed so Naruto would gain it's memories before getting back to where Perdita was at.

While walking back, the publisher saw Laurel dancing with Carter. To most people, one would think that both were enjoying the little dance together. But to one of a trained eye could tell that the brunette was not enjoying it one bit due to the slight twitch of her eye and the strained smile on her face.

'Wonder if I should break that up now.' Thought the publisher before he heard something crash some distance away. Looking towards the source, he saw a waiter cleaning up several broken glass bottles with Tommy escorting Thea out of the event hall. 'I should maybe help out on that.'

With that in mind, Naruto pushed Perdita's wheelchair towards the one side door where he saw Tommy and Thea exit out of.

"Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Where we going?"

"Going to check on Thea and Tommy before we head back to the hotel." He briefly explained to her. "Didn't want to leave you alone back there so might as well kill two birds with one stone. Afterall, it's getting pretty late and I bet your bodyguards wouldn't like me keeping you up for too long."

The queen nodded as she was rolled outside by her friend/savior. The two were soon greeted with the sounds of retching nearby. Being a bit curious, Naruto rolled Perdita to end up seeing Tommy standing near a sickened Thea with what appeared to be his suit jacket around her.

"That doesn't look good."

"Yeah, it doesn't." Tommy commented the publisher's remark.

"Tommy?" A female voice called out, causing the two men to turn around to see Laurel walking outside. "Is Thea okay?"

"Oh yeah." The global group heir replied in a joking tone. "She probably just ate some bad crab cakes."

"Oh no! I had some of those crab cakes." Perdita spoke out in a worried tone, causing the three adults to look at the young blonde child. "...You were joking right Tommy?"

"Yes I was Perdita. Sorry on worrying you on that."

Letting out a sigh of relief, she placed a hand on her chest before glaring at the dark haired man. "Good because that wasn't funny in the slightest."

"...Then I'm very sorry on that m'lady." What he got in return was a small smile from the little girl making him know that she forgave him.

"I'm sorry but who are you?" Laurel asked as she eyed the young girl before looking at the other man in the alleyway. She would actually admit that the man was attractive, given his exotic looks that seemed familiar to her, but Laurel shook her head for the current moment.

"I'm sorry Ms. Lance I take it?" Naruto asked getting a nod from the lawyer. "Well Perdita and I were invited by the Queen family to attend this little event. Got to know Tommy a little and that's pretty much about it."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, every word of it Laurel." Tommy replied in confirmation. "And I gotta say, these two are pretty good company."

"...If you say so."

*Retching*

"Okay so I'm taking a wild guess that Thea had too much to drink, again."

*Sigh* "Pretty much."

"Does this happen often Tommy?" Questioned the publisher, only to receive a tired nod in return. "Surprised she hasn't gotten in trouble."

"Oh she has and she's been to court several times now." Was the lawyer's response, making the publisher/queen pair widen their eyes.

"Surely you must be joking Ms. Lance."

"Sorry kid, but it's the truth."

*Retching*

"Okay so you guys can go back inside and enjoy the party while I take care of Thea." Tommy said as he tried to shoo them away. "Besides, you looked like you were having a nice little do-si-do with the good doctor." This statement got a chuckle out of Naruto, causing the other man in the alley to look at him funny. "Is something funny Naruto?"

"Yeah… She looked like she was going to knee the guy in the groin." Was his response, making Tommy look at Laurel for confirmation.

"...He's not wrong Tommy. He's a gigantic ass just like in high school." Laurel stated with a frustrated look. "The only reason why I danced with him is because he wrote a massive check to CNRI…. Why would you think anything else?"

"Honestly?... Well when it comes to you Laurel, I can't think straight."

"Aw~ That's so sweet." Perdita said with a small smile at the little moment in front of her.

"Heh… Getting something like that from you makes it seem much better." Tommy replied as he also saw Laurel's beaming smile towards him.

*Retching*

"And the moment's ruined."

"Though what I think could make things much better is if I write you a check Ms. Lance." Naruto spoke out, getting her attention. "Chatted with your friend Joanna earlier and she helped convince me to donate towards your law firm."

"Why thank you." Naruto then pulled out his checkbook and quickly wrote out a check to the lawyer before ripping it out. Once handing it over, Laurel looked at the pricing to see that it was for $15,000. "Wow… That much?"

"It's the least I can do for your current situation Laurel… If that's alright of calling you that."

"It is Mr…" She started out before briefly glancing at the name on the check. "Wait… Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Yup. That's me."

"So you're the one my father talked about last week." She said for a confirmation. Then memories on the conversation came rolling in, making her look towards the young girl to realize who she is. "A-And you're…" 

"Queen Perdita of Vlatava Ms. Lance." The child queen tiredly said. *Yawn* "S-Sorry if I can't give you a proper greeting since I'm tired at the current moment."

"No. It's quite alright." Laurel simply said as she didn't expect such a meeting with a royal to go this way.

"Could you call me a cab?" Thea weakly asked as she tightened Tommy's coat around her.

"Absolutely not. I'm taking you home right away." The dark haired man said as he brought his arm around the younger girl. "I'll get you to my car."

"Okay…" Was all Thea said before glancing at Perdita and winced a little of having a royal see her in such a state. "I apologize for making such a scene Tommy, Perdita."

"Just feel *Yawn* better Thea, okay?"

Thea nodded at the queen before she was escorted away by Tommy, though before he could make it too far Laurel called out to him.

"Hey Tommy!" She spoke, making him turn towards her. "I owe you a dance! You earned it!"

Tommy smiled before glancing over to Naruto to see him giving a small smile with an approving nod. The two then went their separate ways with their temporary charges for the evening. Silently wishing each other the best of luck in whatever they have going on in their respective lives.

 _ **-Oliver's Lair-**_

Inside of Oliver's little hideout, the Queen heir grunted out in pain as he tried to reset his shoulder from the encounter with Vanitas earlier. It did help a little that Diggle was there to hold his body in place. Once in position, the veteran spoke to his client.

"So one... two... three."

*POP*

"Damnit!" Oliver groaned out as relief soon washed over him despite the sore feeling slowly fading away.

"Well that didn't seem too bad."

"Easy for you to say Diggle." Oliver said as he eyed the older man. "You didn't get to fight him."

"True, but it would've been better if you didn't have to." John said before he saw the downcasted look on Oliver's face. *Sigh* "Look… It wasn't your fault."

"It pretty much is." Oliver muttered as he remembered seeing Claybourne falling to his death. He never wanted that to happen honestly. All he done in the past was to make sure people's death's were quick to ease himself. Blame the past five years away for making him think that way, with what experiences he had to deal with.

"Well listen… I'll tell you this much. You say going after the guys on that list of yours is the way you honored your dad?" Oliver slowly nodded, making John scratch his head a bit. "Well, if your dad saw what happened… I don't know if he'd be disappointed or not on what went on. You wanted to help those people in Lamb Valley, but you did it at the wrong approach. Vanitas did something that you could've done to help bring them the justice they deserved."

*Sigh* "Yeah… He did."

"So maybe there is more than one way to save this city?"

"...Maybe."

When Oliver got back, Diggle had the TV on inside of the lair. The late night news was on reporting what happened in front of the one building where Claybourne fell towards his death. They explained that the SCPD got evidence of the man's crimes and action was going to take place in the morning to help those in Lamb Valley on the TB outbreak.

There was some praise for Vanitas' efforts on this, but once again Oliver was being dragged through the dirt on what he did of targeting the crooked 'rich' people. He wouldn't have minded in the past several weeks, but tonight seemed to sneak right through and hit him hard. Oliver didn't know what to do now since he promised his late father that he'll do what he can to fix this city.

But was he doing things in the right approach? That was the small thought running through his head and it's probably going to be keeping him up once he gets back home to sleep off the pain. Oliver just hoped that he could figure this out soon enough.

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

Inside of a darkened room, a man was watching security footage of two separate fights with his utmost attention. Each of them were different, yet had a few things in common. Being the fact that Vanitas of Gotham City was present in both of them as he fought against Hiraishin and Qarrad Alfidd, in separate occasions, within a span of 48 hours.

'Two powerful assassins, who trained for years to get to their current levels, defeated by someone who just came onto the scene months ago. *Chuckles* There must be some form of irony to all of this.' Were the thoughts of Ra's al Ghul.

The Demon's Head was very displeased that Silver Monkey left without his permission and broke Minato out of prison, resulting of him becoming an enemy of the League itself as a whole. So once his members track them down, they are either to bring the two assassin's back dead or alive. If it be the later, it would be for the Demon's Head to kill them himself.

Going back towards the video footage, Ra's requested to acquire the recorded fights if possible so that he can assess the confrontations with his own eyes. The quality of the footage was the best that could be done; especially with the one pertaining at the airport of the slight moments of static before the camera feed blew out at the end of the fight. In the end Ra's got what he needed as a whole, though it didn't hurt to check each and every detail.

He carefully studied the meta-hero's unique fighting style, showing that it was several moves and styles meshed together. Making the fighter unpredictable and following through with his instincts and personal touches. Ra's even remembered the hero's fight broadcasted live months ago when he dealt with the one meta-human that went by the name Clayface. Vanitas was brutal with that scythe of his, showing that he could possibly go through what others may not… but it's too hard to tell right now.

As the leader of the League of Shadows, he wanted to bring order to the world and have it be cleansed of the filth that pollutes it. With what resources he had over the years, he would have only done so much in each era when he did his conquests. But as years went by, there was one thing that he hoped and longed for so he could finally rest in peace instead of prolonging his eminent demise: an heir.

With him being at least 900 years old; he has prolonged his death time and time again, to see his goals flourish. Part of what caused him to live so long was his own stubbornness to see things through to the bitter, yet glorious end. And in this expanded lifespan, he had sired and fathered many children, but none would fully met his expectations.

Sure he had plenty of son's, but each and every one of them disappointed him due to their own cruelty and arrogance to the point that they weren't worthy to rule in their father's stead. As for daughters, he even had plenty of them that could've been worthy to taken the true mantle of Warith al Ghul, Heir to the Demon. But it's sad to say that Ra's was old fashioned and wanted a man to take his place.

So at different points in time, the assassin leader took on apprentices in hopes of one of them properly replacing him sometime in the future. Some were close, while others hardly even worked out. But in the end, each and every one of them became too unbalanced and blind on what the League was truly about. So he had each of them removed so they wouldn't disgrace the League of Shadows.

But here… Here could be someone that could take Ra's place as the true Warith al Ghul, he can very well feel it in his soul. More assessments will be needed to be sure if this candidate would be worthy for such a title. Though there is one other who could possibly become a candidate, asides from the Dark Knight of Gotham, but his expectations went low after his name came to his attention: Naruto Uzumaki.

After the failed assassination attempt on his life by Minato last year, Naruto has been kept under the radar in terms of activity and hasn't really shown much in terms of candidate material. His current, eldest daughter insists that her old friend and traveling companion is quite the fighter and has the training from past spars they had 9-10 years ago; but time sometimes delude one's skill if not used long enough.

Though Talia has stated that Naruto had proven to her time and time again that he tends to be quite unpredictable.

Ra's was going to call it a night when he briefly saw something in the hospital security footage.

"Hmm… I wonder." Ra's muttered as he rewound the video before playing it, slowing the footage down to a crawl on the hospital debacle. Ra's thought he saw something and wondered what it was. Though at a very brief moment, the old assassin saw what caught part of his attention in the first place: glowing green eyes coming from Silver Monkey's mask.

Ra's narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure out one thing at the present moment. "What are you planning Odysseus?"

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **If I got this right, this is probably the longest chapter I've written… I think.**

 **For those wondering when I'll do another chapter or so pertaining to Starling City… Well that won't be for a while. See I'm only going to mainly focus on episodes with Batman and Superman before Justice League stuff while the other shows and whatnot I have planned to put into this story will be 'crossover' chapters. Like of what they do on some of the CW shows as of late of the shared universe(s). Thought they'll be frequent depending on what specific episodes and events I'll be using exactly.**

 **Also sorry if there wasn't much interactions with certain characters than you hoped since I'm trying to make things well on writing. Had to rewrite certain scenes several times until I felt that things were good as they should.**

 **Not only that but the site has been giving me problems on uploading this chapter for a while now after I finished writing this chapter.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	33. Power Listings 3

Hey readers of 'A Nobody'. Jebest4781 here.

Here is the next chapter of the powerlistings. It's up to date with how things are now and will follow the trend of posting the listings every 10 or so chapters. This is just to show how big of a leap Naruto has been with his skill sets and additions to his inventory.

Like I stated before, I'm not going to be super accurate on this. So please take it easy on me on this.

 _ **-Abilities-**_

Natural Physical Skill: Physically fit, along with reflexes and agility, despite him losing a lot of skills when he came to the current reality. Despite all that, Naruto's basic physical skills remained.

Enhanced Physical Skill: Due to Pamela's vaccine serum, it enhanced his strength, speed and agility that he can now jump higher with better reflexes, run faster and have better strength and durability.

Healing Factor: Originally, Naruto's healing was exponentially great due to Kurama's influence inside of the seal that he can practically have his skin burnt off due to using the Tailed Beast Cloaks and afterwards the skin grows back after a given time. Excluding Kurama's influence, it was also great due to his Uzumaki heritage. But due to coming to current reality, Kurama level healing factor was removed and went back to one of a normal person. Over time, the healing factor started to come back of slowly 'healing' the body by removing 'erasing' or 'fading' the pain away. Does have limits though…

Disease Immunity: Was given to Naruto by his girlfriend/lover, Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy, when injected by her vaccine serum. The user's immunity, digestive, and other organ systems are enhanced or evolved far beyond that of a normal human's. They are completely immune to every form of disease brought on by bacteria, viruses, or even parasites.

Brawler: Naruto's basic fighting style for many years due to not being properly trained in the academy. Helps make him unpredictable during confrontations but tends to be downfall at times with him not rationalizing through in physical fights by just relying on brute strength.

Frog Kata: Naruto's fighting style when he trained to become the new Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku to use Natural Energy/Nature Chakra to improve his physical strength, speed and agility. When Naruto came into the new world, this ability was mostly useless due to not accessing nature chakra but fighting style still works well despite being limited. When Yggdrasil had given Naruto access to nature energy again, Frog Kata could work to its full potential… in time.

Other Fighting Styles: eskrima stick fighting, scythe fighting, bo staff, lance. Kickboxing via Selina Kyle, but not at her level on what she was taught. She was taught by Ted Grant/Wild Cat just to clear things up. Even was trained under the man for a bit of time. Was also taught by Talia al Ghul years ago.

Memory Manipulation: The user can selectively remove their presence from the target's memories as soon as they disappear from sight or can do so via other means. Will leave person to be partially invisible for a given time if needed. Could remove recent memories from someone to help cover up user's identity if needed.

Sound Manipulation: User can create, shape and manipulate silence, absence of noise/sound. Example would be creating a barrier of sound, or lack-of, around certain objects or on one's self.

Intangibility: User is able to move through objects and ignore most physical effects in their way, exact means how this is done vary between slipping partially into other dimensions, being able to make their own particles move between other particles, being non-physical being of energy, vibrating their molecules into a new quantum frequency, etc. Regardless the user is able to ignore most attacks, physical dangers and gravity. Of course the ability won't be able to work against certain materials and barriers depending on how powerful they are.

Defensive Capabilities: Naruto has a hexagonal barrier of sorts to protect him from oncoming threats to be similar to Gaara's 'Ultimate Defense'. Most projectiles can be bounced off but can be penetrated though if given enough force to break through.

Emotion Detection/Presence Sensing: User can sense the presence of emotions, including feelings, moods and their effects, of themselves, people, animals and other creatures. They can sense the presence of others by sensing their emotions. Naruto used to have really good mastery of this ability in a short amount of time after gaining Chakra Mode but was lost after coming to current reality. Currently he can detect how many people are in a building or room but not their location.

Void Rasengans: Variant of Naruto's Rasengan attack from home reality that instead of chakra manipulation it is comprised of void manipulation. There are variants of them like the varying sizes and strengths of them to the ever popular Rasen-Shuriken attack. Could even be powered down to be thrown to blow back some opponents without any real harm if needed.

***Note that Void Rasengans help more on void manipulation in terms of raw power. Not only that but other variants of the rasengan will be present as time passes with different elemental factors.***

Clone/Copying: Naruto had the ability to create Shadow Clones due to his vast chakra but after losing the ability to use chakra, Naruto can only make singular clones. They are primarily Void clones, but with current skill right now he can only make a few at a time with the same ability of knowledge gaining and reconnaissance. Given time he can create more with different ability variants like card, water, etc.

Warp/Teleport: Similar to the body flicker technique or shunshin, Naruto can go to one place to another quickly because of his speed and agility. But with his powers enhancing the technique that he can travel vast distances easily that could possibly rival his father's Hiraishin technique in terms of speed. Does have limits of traveling certain distances at a time that it sometimes is limited to visual distances up to roughly a two mile radius.

Sometimes could use weapons to warp to locations like Minato's Hiraishin technique or Noctus' warp ability from Final Fantasy XV.

Hawkeye/'Zoom': A visual ability in which three purple circles appear to zoom into anything within a four kilometer (2.5 mile) range. Often used for scouting to help survey anywhere by simply looking up or down, depending on one's position. Even helps more to execute projectile weapons

 _ **-Nature Abilities-**_

One would say these would be apart of Naruto's chakra echo's or something of that sort due to his life in other reality and losing chakra when coming to current one. Due to his unique circumstances of having most powers from the Organization XIII weapons, he can be able to access those abilities only when weapon of Nobody member is present. Given time and full mastery over weapons, Naruto won't need to summon said weapons to use certain nature abilities.

 _***Note that with Nature Chakra/Natural Energy also has traces of the Red, Clear/Blue and White due to how animals can feel at peace when around Naruto. Not only that but concept with Sage Mode dealt with him being one with nature so there's that.***_

Air/Wind: Naruto's original nature trait when he was a shinobi. Can channel said nature ability around an object to make things sharper and faster on attacks. Even used it in his Rasenshuriken to penetrate things on a cellular level.

Lightning: User can create, shape and manipulate electricity, a form of energy resulting from the movement of charged particles, allowing control over electric fields, all charge carriers, electronics, and electromagnetic forces.

Ice: User can create, shape and manipulate ice, water frozen into a solid state and appears naturally in forms of snow, slush, hail, icicles, ice spikes and candles, glaciers, pack ice, frost, and polar ice caps, and cold by reducing the kinetic energy of atoms and thus making things colder, for various effects and combinations. Could possibly use techniques remembered when battling Haku from original world to make things more interesting.

Plant/Wood/Green: With Naruto originally having access to Sage Mode, he was able to access Natural Energy/Nature Chakra so he can be one with nature. Has come back when Yggdrasil tapped into remnants inside of Naruto's soul. Argued on it being from connection of Sage Mode training, Kurama because of him being 1/9th of the Shinju Tree, because of Naruto's past life was Hashirama or furthest back life being Asura (Hagomoro's youngest son). Will be able to gain skill of controlling plant life after becoming a deputy Green champion of sorts. Not full control over the power for obvious reasons.

 _ **-Constructs-**_

User can create objects from nothing by imagining object, or rather "idea of an object", and then removing non-existence from it, thus making object real. Is better to research on concepts of what user wants to create to have better understanding and use out of object(s). Some small constructs wouldn't be listed like morphing fingertips into claws or making vambraces.

Motorcycle: Hardy-Daytona from Final Fantasy VII

Twilight Thorn Scarf: Can be used as a grappling hook/gun to latch onto certain surfaces or objects to be pulled towards or pull the object to the user.

Outfit: Vanitas Remnant outfit from KH franchise with some changes from no logo on the mask and has a utility belt. Organic bodysuit to be like a second skin to user. Mask covering can 'disperse' to show user's face to the world. Pretty much is merged with the Stealth Suit MK II from Fallout series that Kurama has given him. Mostly named as a psychoanalytic cardiac-dampening sneaking equipment. There is supposed to be a built-in medical system that dispenses some stimulation and medical packs. Has a multi-vision function based off of the Splinter Cell series that has thermal/infrared, night and electromagnetic field capabilities.

 _ **-Weapons-**_

Similar to the construct portion on the list but this time is to create weapons. For the story, Naruto will have access to the weapons of Organization XIII but will take time to access them and use their full capabilities. Color scheme of the weapons will be White, Black and Silver/Grey with some regular color put into weapons depending on what they are.

Also note that any power Naruto has, excluding the main ones, will only be present when he is using one of the weapons down below. Naruto gains full access to the weapon's powers after fully defeating the Absent Silhouettes of each Organization XIII member.

Void Shot: Based off of Xigbar's weapons in the KH franchise. Firing laser like projectiles filled with Void energy. Has three settings in terms of firing the 'bullets': non-lethal, lethal, and tether. With non-lethal, strength of the shots equal those to BB and rubber bullets so one won't die upon impact even as they are lodged into person. With lethal, person would suffer intense pain upon impact or disintegration depending on how strong one is. With tether, holds person down in place while making person weaker over time.

Regardless, non lethal and lethal projectiles can ricochet off of certain surfaces. Weapons can be charged to fire a more powerful shot.

Kazekage: Based off of Xaldin's weapon in the KH franchise. Attacks tend to become rapid due to the wind enhancing the speed of the weapon. Limit on summoning them is six in total and user can carry three at a time while the rest float around the user. Lances can help form a wind barrier or a natural defense if needed. Helps the user ride through the wind.

Yuki: Based off of Vexen's weapon in the KH franchise. An elongated, combat shield having protruding spikes in the end to help both defensively and offensively. Even more so to help when defending oneself while on the move rather than stationary like his barrier. Using ice related powers from it can help out at times by freezing ice over the shield to make a gigantic sword. Can orbit around and defend the user when needed for a hands off approach. Though it can shatter if attacked too often, but will reform given time.

Lexicon: Based off of Zexion's weapon in the KH franchise. It will allow the user to record knowledge into it like a notebook within it's unlimited pages. Things from regular notes, story writing, spells, schematics, etc. Current form is that of a regular sized hardcover book, but later on it'll look like a regular thick bounded grimoire and can be used as a blunt force object containing knowledge of previously mentioned stuff on the weapon. Other ability it will eventually have will help create illusions to make up for Naruto's lack of genjutsu handling in the past along with trapping other's within its vast pages. Can be used as a thick defensive barrier if needed since it's contents are unlimited amounts of paper and never go away.

Fair Game: Based off of Luxord's weapon in the KH franchise. Playing cards or tarot cards that can be used as throwing weapons. They are sharp enough to cut through nearly anything from flesh, stone, bullets, etc. At some point, full uses will be accessible from creating a defensive barrier of either a single, large card that can grow up to 10 ft. or rapidly spinning cards around the user. Act like like exploding tags if needed. Can alter/warp reality to some degree. Also could allow the user to put oneself or others into cards for safety or entrapment until further notice or death. Can be able to create card clones and cards large enough to hold a few people at a time while floating in the air.

Lunar Rose: Based off of Marluxia's weapon in the KH franchise. Scythe weapon accessed after the meeting with Yggdrasil to have some limits with the Green and possibly the Black later on. When using the weapon, Naruto's warp/teleport ability will gain a white flower petal appearance to be similar to Ruby Rose from the RWBY series when she moves at fast speeds.

Foudre: Based off of Larxene's weapon(s) in the KH franchise. Throwing knives/daggers/kunai that can be used close quarter fighting. Electricity coats each of them when activated to deliver more damaging strikes.

 _ **-Summons-**_

Back in Naruto's home reality, he was able to summon the Toads after signing the Toad Summoning Contract. Though once coming to the current reality, he lost the ability to summon his old Toad friends. But in exchange for this loss, he is able to summon an array of help based off of beings from the Kingdom Hearts series. Though with most Nobody summons, they can only be able to be summoned once certain Absent Silhouettes are defeated.

Dusk: A low-ranking Nobody summon that are the only ones able to 'speak'. Used primarily for simple recon and courier operations. Their name refers to the period of time when the sun begins to set and twilight begins to set in. This emphasizes how Nobodies are beings of neither Light nor Darkness, but are closer to the Darkness.

Creeper: A low-ranking Nobody summon that maintain an astounding ability to contort themselves. They display the ability to shapeshift; turning into a large lance similar to the ones used by the Dragoons, a large sword, and a small, hexagonal shield. It can also turn its arms into small wings. The Creeper's name refers to its tendency to crawl using its large hands rather than its feet. Mostly are better effective in large groups.


	34. Wonder what National City is like

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 31: Wonder what National City is like.**

'Man this is a really nice day.' Naruto thought as he was riding on his motorcycle through the freeway towards his destination. The publisher didn't bother in taking a cab in getting to National City, so he formed his Hardy Daytona motorcycle (what he uses as Vanitas) earlier for his little trip from Starling City. Listening to a mixtape on his walkman the entire ride over there with his bags securely tied down.

Several days went by since the CNRI fundraising event, along with Justin Claybourne's death and reveal of his TB outbreak connection. It was an interesting experience suffice to say on hearing the discussions on the later while watching the news. All that Naruto knew was that the Lamb Valley residents were being taken care of for what happened to them and that was all that mattered.

During the rest of the time of him being in Starling City, the Uzumaki had sparred and trained under Ted Grant to get a really great workout from the old boxing champion. Asides from hitting the gym, Naruto hanged out with Perdita a few times while also meeting up with Tommy and Oliver yesterday for drinks. Nothing bad happened during those days and that was all Naruto wanted with how several days since being here have been crazy.

While going out for drinks with the 'party boys', to what Naruto referred Oliver and Tommy as, the publisher got to know the two a little bit better than from first meetings. They were an interesting pair to be with, along with being an odd change of pace with what he was used to back in Gotham. Then again, Naruto currently doesn't have any guy friends his age.

He does have Bruce and Dick but they were older/younger than him respectively and the publisher hardly spends time with them these days. So that night of drinking felt pretty good to him, making the Uzumaki feel a sense of nostalgia when he was back in his home reality. Spending time with Choji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Lee and Sai was one of the things he missed, but last night made him feel that old feeling once again.

As for Perdita, Naruto did what he can to make her remaining days in the states enjoyable. Going to see what else Starling had in store for them, with some obvious limitations. The Vlatavan child was satisfied, to a certain degree, that she'll cherish those memories very much.

On the other day when chatting up with his girlfriends, Naruto was informed by Pam saying that she caught Rachel talking to Perdita over the phone late into the night. Even a similar one from Harley when Paula said to her that Jade and Artemis, mostly Artemis, were hogging one of the house phones for too long when chatting with Perdita. Naruto could only imagine on how adorable those moments could've been like after Naruto somewhat introduced the three Gotham girls to the royal. But at least now Perdita had penpal-like friends right now so that's all that mattered for the Uzumaki.

Before leaving Starling earlier this morning, Naruto went to the airport to see Perdita head back home to Vlatava. Naruto wished her the best of luck on her coming days and after that tender moment, Perdita headed through security with a little smile on her face. Even though she was going to miss the publisher very much.

The shinobi turned publisher saw a highway sign showing that he is roughly a few miles out of the city limits. Naruto smiled in anticipation of wanting to reach it sooner, especially with the next song now playing in his walkman. One of the many songs he has enjoyed since coming to this reality.

 _ **-Insert Jay and the Americans: Come a Little Bit Closer-**_

*Chuckle* 'Come a little bit closer indeed.' Was the publisher's thought as he revved up his motorcycle to go a whole lot faster. Speeding past a few vehicles that were _apparently_ going a little slow for Naruto's liking. It wasn't long before he entered the city's border that his eyes caught onto the metallic and concrete landscape before him.

In appearance and feeling alone, National City made the Uzumaki think that this was possibly a second Metropolis. It was hard to tell at first glance and wondered what else this place had in store, asides from what he's heard from Cat in prior calls. Naruto could see if Cat could give him a tour of the city, if she has any free time available. But for now he'll do some self exploration before making his way to CatCo to see his old friend/co-worker.

Speaking of, Naruto caught glances of several large corporate buildings that belonged to LexCorp, Lord Technologies and CatCo Worldwide Media respectively.

'At least I could see where Cat's main office building is at.' He thought as he mentally mapped out a little path on getting over there. 'Though I do need to check in at the hotel first-' Suddenly his stomach growled, causing him to chuckle a little. 'Right after I get some food.'

 _ **-Noonan's-**_

There is one inside of National City that is pretty popular for most people that are into their adulthood. Opens up at six in the morning for breakfast, lunch starts at 10:30, and both dinner and the bar opens up around six in the evening. But throughout the majority of the working hours, it does serve basic necessities like tea or coffee related drinks.

"Well here you go ma'am." A waitress said as she handed the customer her order. "One tall strawberry and creme frap, a grande green tea creme late, a venti cappuccino with double shots of espresso, and a grande macchiato with almond milk extra hot. And to top it all off: several assorted, freshly baked muffins."

"Thank you Kara." The customer said as she left a few bucks worth of tip for the waitress. The person grabbed the order and headed out the door to head back to work.

"Have a nice day!" The employee called out before heading over to check on some other tables.

This is Kara Danvers; a dirty blonde woman in her early twenties that graduated college several months ago, earning a bachelor's degree in marketing in the end. Her rich blue eyes showed a lot of joy in her life behind a pair of glasses. She currently had her hair tied into a ponytail while wearing a simple, casual attire that tried to hide her excellent figure with a work apron on.

*Ding*

Turning towards the entrance of the establishment, Kara spoke in a normal fashion. "Hello, welcome to- Oh hey Alex!"

"Hey Kara." A brunette woman responded in kind.

"I take it you want your normal order?"

"Yup." The woman said as she went towards one of the nearby tables. "Need to have it before I head back to work."

"Right." Was all Kara said before writing up the order.

The brunette is Alex Danvers, Kara's foster/adoptive sister and current roommate. She's in her mid-twenties that graduated from med-school last year and in that same year she started working at Star Labs as a bio-engineer. Her dark brown hair was in a pixie cut to help compliment her dark brown eyes that held some mischievous nature laced with intelligence over the years. Alex was currently wearing a simple casual attire for work, given the fact that it's mostly covered up with lab attire.

These two women have known each other for a little over a decade ever since Kara was adopted by Alex's parent's, Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers. The Danvers has been a family of scientists that have spanned back generations, due to their smarts in the field that have expanded each generation. Though it really has jumped considerably when Kara joined the family, but the details on how that happened will be explained a little later.

Coming back to Alex's table, Kara spoke to her foster sister with a questioning look. "I didn't see you come in last night Alex. Work kept you there all night?"

*Sigh* "Pretty much. Practically slept there with the latest project I'm working on."

"And what is it exactly?"

"Sorry, but can't tell ya. Company policy on this one Kara." The waitress nodded in understanding before the scientist spoke again. "And how's preparing for the interview going?"

"Being a nervous wreck actually. I just hope it's my first real job after graduating college Alex."

"I'm sure you'll do fine. You have a great resume, to which me and my parents helped you out on, and it does help with your one internship with the Midvale newspaper."

"Not real sure on that." Kara stated, getting a curious look on Alex's face. "When I dropped off my application the other day, I've heard that Cat Grant can be a bit ruthless in terms of hiring people. Supposedly breathes fire, eats babies. Those two were obviously not true or else things would be really crazy at the workplace."

*Chuckles* "It's nothing but rumors Kara. You'll do fine."

*Crash*

The sudden noise got Kara out of her conversation to turn towards the source: broken dishes by a customer trying to balance things too high in terms of stacking.

"I'm so sorry ma'am, I didn't mean to." The customer said getting the waitress to shake her head.

"No it's fine. I'll get things cleaned up miss." Kara said as the customer nodded and walked away.

As Kara went towards the work closet to get a dustpan and broom, her foot landed on a broken cup. Rolling on the curved surface, Kara slipped on her footing and was about to land on top of the pile of broken dishes, possibly having her end up injured in the process. Before making it onto the floor...

"Whoa!" Spoke the Uzumaki as he caught ahold of the spectacled waitress. "You almost took a bad fall right there."

Naruto had just arrived and parked his motorcycle outside as he silently hoped no one would be stupid enough to steal his belongings. If someone did, then he'll have to track the person down and have an _interesting_ chat with them. And what a conversation that would be.

But getting back to the present moment, Naruto was searching for a decent place to eat when he remembered the one restaurant Cat had talked about in the past: Noonan's. It's supposedly a pretty good place to eat for any time of the day and Cat sometimes prefers her meals coming from this place. Trusting his old friend's words, Naruto asked someone for directions and here he currently was. Just in time as well when he saw a waitress about to fall onto a pile of broken dishes.

When Kara realized what just happened, she saw the person that stopped her from taking the fall onto the floor. She took in her features and faintly blushed on how handsome he was with his exotic features and the strong hazel eyes staring right into her own. The two didn't move for a few moments until the man got her right up onto her feet.

Realizing that he spoke to her on the little save, she spoke to him while everyone else went back to their respective business. "T-Thank you for that."

"It's no problem. Accidents happen every so often. But it would've been bad if a pretty girl like you got hurt in the process." He said with a fox like smile, resulting with her blushing a little more with a small smile and looked away from how charming that was.

Off to the side, Alex couldn't help but smirk on seeing the little moment before her. She was really going to be teasing her foster sister for this. Even more so when Kara was fidgeting herself and started… to float? Knowing what might possibly happen, Alex got up from her seat and went up to Kara and placed a hand onto her shoulder to push her down slightly.

"Thanks what you did back there." Alex said with the ever present smile on her face. "Didn't want to see my little sister take the fall like that."

Giving the brunette a regular smile now, Naruto responded back to her. "Like I said before, it's no problem and I didn't want Kara in getting hurt."

"...How'd you know my name?" Questioned the waitress before the whiskered man pointed towards her name tag. "Oh… right."

"Sorry… Haven't introduced myself" He simply said before holding out his hand towards the spectacled woman. "Name's Naruto Uzumaki. And if you'd be so kind, mind telling me yours?"

"Uh… M-My name… My name is Kara Zo- *Cough* ...Kara Danvers." She answered with a slight correction because of slight nervousness. She shook his hand and ended up having a firm grip, to which he responded back to her.

"That's some grip there."

"Yeah I tend to work out… Not that I do that often because of work, but just doing it for fun actually." Kara responded, getting a little choked laughter from her foster sister. With Alex now at the little attention, Naruto let go of the firm grip and looked towards the brunette.

"You said that you're her sister? I... hardly see any resemblance between you two."

"She's adopted actually." Alex responded to get Naruto to shake his head in understanding.

"Not that there's anything wrong with it. Family doesn't always have to pertain by blood, but by the bonds they share." He said getting smiles from the two 'sisters'. "I can probably tell that it's a beautiful relationship between you two, just like how beautiful you two are."

He shortly left the two sisters behind as he went to use the restroom. If he would've stayed, Naruto would've seen the varying looks each of Danver girls had. With Alex, she couldn't help but think on how smooth that was and enjoying the little compliment given towards the two. It was then that the brunette turned towards her 'sister' to see her reaction.

As Kara saw the whiskered man walk away, the waitress couldn't help but keep a smile on her face… that is until she saw Alex smiling at her. "What?"

"You're blushing."

"I-I am not, it's just hot in here…" Kara stated as she pulled her collar a little at a rapid succession to try and emphasise her claim. "Aren't you feeling hot?"

"You're lying." Alex simply said as her smile grew a little more. "I can tell with this little thing you do with your nose. You always move it in a certain way to always show you're not telling the truth."

"I do not!" Kara harshly whispered out.

"Oh please. Even my parents know on this. I mean, how do you think they know whenever you try to lie on taking extra slices of mom's pecan pies or even sneaking back home late at night." The scientist listed off before poking Kara's nose in a 'booping' fashion. "It's always this little nose of yours."

Knowing that she isn't going anywhere now, Kara caved in. "Okay, fine… He's cute and I've never been complimented like that before, outside of Eliza and Jeremiah. It was… unexpected, yet nice."

"See. Wasn't that too hard?"

Kara could only glare at Alex before leaving her behind to get back to cleaning up the mess. By the time she was done, Kara was heading towards the back to dump the dustpan contents when she saw Naruto walk out of the restroom. When the two were getting closer, things started to shake.

'The hell?' Were the unknowingly shared thoughts between the two as they tried to keep themselves balanced. The shaking increased as the two heard the building's occupants screaming along with various objects crashing and breaking in the process. It got so intense, both Naruto and Kara lost their footing and fell onto the ground.

'That isn't good.' Naruto thought as he shook his head before seeing Kara beneath him. Kara barely opened her eyes to see the whiskered man hovering over her with his hands placed either side of her to give himself some support.

"Are you alright Kara?" Naruto asked as he got up from the ground before pulling her up.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." She responded before seeing Naruto looking at her intently for some reason. "Something wrong?"

"…You've got really pretty blue eyes Kara." Naruto muttered, making the dirty blonde blush a little more as she gazed into Naruto's hazel eyes. Though neither one of them seemed to notice a small glow in their respective eyes, thinking that it must've been the light hitting on them.

Naruto was the first to break the 'staring contest' as he looked down to see the waitress' glasses on the ground. He picked them up and presented them towards its owner. Realizing that her glasses were currently off, hence why Naruto complimented on her eyes, she took them from his grasp and placed them back on.

"Thanks."

"Your welcome."

The two then left their placement in the hallway as they made it to the main part of the resturant to see it in mostly shambles. Dishes, tables, and alcohol bottles were on the ground with several people either leaving or staying to check on others. Seeing Alex nearby, Kara jogged up to her sister.

"Alex. Are you okay?"

*Groan* "Yeah I'm fine." The scientist simply said as she nursed her arm. "Okay I think I lied… I think I sprained my arm in the fall."

"Broken is more like it." Kara muttered with part of her glasses slid off before she readjusted it.

Wanting to help out, Naruto took off his leather jacket before pulling off his button up shirt. The Danver girls saw this before they slightly blushed when seeing how defined he was without the long sleeve shirt. Even moreso when briefly catching a glimpse of his lean, six packs before the white t-shirt covered it up.

"Let's get that arm of yours in a sling Alex." He said as Alex tried to lift her arm up, much to the pain she was going through. After getting the makeshift sling wrapped around the scientist, Kara and Naruto helped her back up before Naruto got his jacket back on.

Eventually the three made it outside to see what the damage was from the recent earthquake… and the results were not pretty.

"Oh my god." Kara muttered as she saw the chaos going on. From people running everywhere, varying car accidents and smoke coming out from numerous buildings.

 _ **-On the Streets-**_

The little group of three were riding Naruto's motorcycle down the street from Noonan's after Kara told her boss that she needed to leave to check on some family members. It was a lie since no one else asides from Alex was living in the city limits, but Kara's boss didn't know that. Alex was currently riding in a sidecar Naruto conjured up without either of them noticing with the chaos running around while Kara had to ride bitch as she encircled her arms around Naruto's torso.

The three wanted to help out as much as they could. Hence the reason why they were doing their current course of actions. They even helped pull out several people out of cars while both Kara and Naruto helped several people move debris off of injured people.

"This is crazy!" Alex stated in her current seating arrangement.

"I know!"

The group soon heard a woman cry for help, causing Naruto to swerve his motorcycle a bit before coming to a stop.

"Please! You need to help me!" A woman cried out as she looked like a sobbing mess.

"What's wrong?"

"It's my dad! He needs help!" She stated before running back towards where her father was at. Jumping off of his bike, Naruto ran right after her causing Kara to soon follow him and Alex struggling to get herself out of the side car.

"Sure… Don't really help me get out of this Kara." The scientist muttered before Kara stopped and ran right back towards her sister. "Thought you'd help me on this."

"Sorry Alex."

The Danver girls eventually got back onto the trail where Naruto ran off to before they saw a car crashed into a wall. Nearby they saw Naruto carefully pulling out an elderly man out of the driver's seat and onto the cold pavement. Needing to do a medical analysis; Alex went up to the unconscious man and checked him over, despite the pain coming from her arm.

"He's got a tension pneumothorax." The scientist said before looking over at the woman. "How long ago did this happen?"

"I d-don't know. After the crash, everything blacked out until I woke up earlier."

"And have you called the ambulances?"

"I-I called 911, but they haven't come yet."

Naruto didn't like hearing about this as he commented what was on his mind off to the side. "Paramedics are practically swamped."

"Then that means that we're you're father's only hope." Alex stated as she was about to try and keep the man alive when a low *thud* was heard, causing the others to look towards the source.

"Unless I can help him out." The Gotham hero known as Vanitas revealed himself.

Without the group noticing him, Naruto created a clone earlier and had it quickly go into the Vanitas attire so that it'll help out in the current crisis going on. Said clone formed several other clones and was spreading out across the city in the far limits in what the original could make at the present time. He'd rather exhaust himself instead of not doing what he can to help save people's lives in this natural disaster right now.

The clone ushered the group to stand back before he formed a card platform underneath the unconscious man. Lifting him up into the air, the Vanitas clone stepped on top of it before turning towards the man's daughter. He ushered her to come closer, much to her confusion.

"I'm taking him to the hospital, but I need you to direct me over to the nearest one ma'am." The clone stated in honesty since in general, Naruto hasn't even explored the city just yet to know where things are properly located.

Nodding in understanding, the woman soon grasped his outstretched arm before they floated up into the sky and went their way towards the nearest hospital.

"...Why is Vanitas here?" Questioned the scientist as she also voiced Kara's thoughts.

"I thought he was still in Starling City last time I heard."

"He could've heard what happened and flew over as fast as possible." Naruto's comment was a lie, but he thought of the little excuse. The Danver sisters curiously looked at him, making him shrug for a response. "I'm from Gotham and I've seen the guy fly on not only that giant playing card, but also on an odd looking wind lance."

The two girls nodded in acceptance before they made their way back towards Naruto's motorcycle. Naruto wanted to properly take them back to their respective places, whether it be at their workplaces or at their home. They wanted to protest, but the publisher brought up points that Alex is injured and wouldn't help others that much while Kara would probably have to go back to work soon to help clean up the restaurant.

The way Naruto explained it all, on how he exactly said it, made the two women comply. It was a hard pill to swallow for them wanting to do more, but the publisher stated that they can do more near their respective areas instead of running around with no plan on where to exactly go. So swallowing their pride, the Danver sisters made their way towards Naruto's motorcycle to head back to Noonan's.

On the way over to the restaurant, several thoughts were running through Kara's mind. 'I should've done something... I should've done more.' She thought as her eyes soon caught onto Vanitas' form in the sky… with another(?) going towards another incident. She shook her head in remembrance of the Gotham hero making copies of himself from the news. 'I should've used more of my powers... not just my strength. Then I could possibly be able to save more people from this.'

You see, Kara isn't what you call normal… by human standards… if she was human to begin with.

Kara Danvers, or Kara Zor-El of the House of El, came from the planet known as Krypton; which is located in another sector of the known universe. Her home planet was a practical paradise with science being at its peak, but her kind were getting greedy in their planet's resources. Krypton's inhabitants were slowly killing the planet by digging too close into the core, resulting with it's inevitable destruction.

Kara was sent to Earth, located in the neighboring sector, with her infant cousin Kal-El so that she can look after him. Reason being was Earth's yellow sun and the planet's lower gravity will give the two extraordinary powers and go on and do amazing things. Before leaving though, her uncle Jor-El entrusted Kara a crystal matrix that will create a safe-haven for the cousins. Containing much of their race's knowledge, technology and history so they can at least feel a bit back at home.

The cousins were sent out into space, with Kara seeing her homeworld imploding shortly afterwards. She tried to focus on her mother's words that she'll be put into cryo-sleep to make the trip easier, but the destructive wave, followed by a bright flash, separated the two cousins just as Kara was put into sleep. The last thing she remembered seeing was a trio of dots, in a triangular fashion, on her ships dashboard with a feminine voice saying _'All will be well'._

When Kara woke up, she was found by the Danvers family when they were returning home from a nightly outing. The family of three listened to her story and believed her, especially with the technology her ship contained. So after a bit of time, Kara was adopted into the family roughly a decade ago.

Now pertaining to Kara's powers, she had trained under her adoptive parents' guidance and watchful eyes so the Kryptonian wouldn't end up causing accidents. But after one incident years ago, involving a car accident, Jeremiah and Eliza decided it was best for her to hide her powers. Kara reluctantly accepted, especially since part of the car accident ended up having Alex injured by an exploding car door.

So for about ten years, Kara enjoyed being human as she tried to keep everything in check. Loving many aspects on the planet with her adopted family. But as for her real family, Kara didn't know what happened to her baby cousin. With their separation, she didn't know if he'll come to Earth some years later, if he ended up on another planet, or worse.

Regardless, she still kept her uncle's crystal matrix for the safe-haven, but Kara didn't have the heart to activate it without Kal being with her. She's been tempted several times in the past decade, but she kept her promise to her late family that she won't start it up without her baby cousin. So no surviving Kryptonian technology, no history, and no knowledge will be coming anytime soon much to her adopted family's understanding and slight disappointment.

"...ra…. Kara…. Kara!"

"Huh? What?"

"Kara." Naruto spoke out as he gained the Kryptonians attention. "We're back at Noonan's."

"O-Oh… Sorry." She said in an apologetic tone. "My mind was elsewhere."

"It's no problem Kara." He said with a nod of understanding underneath his helmet. "And Kara…"

"Yes?"

"Mind letting go? You're grip is starting to get a little tight."

Blinking in confusion, Kara realized that her head was leaning against his back while her arms were encircled across his chest. Feeling the tight muscles with the white shirt being the only barrier from actual skin contact. She leapt out of her spot on the motorcycle with a blushing look across her face as Alex's giggles filled the small area.

"Oh god Kara! *Giggling* You sh-should've se-seen your face! Hahahahaha!"

With a twitchy eye, Kara responded back with a glare. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." Naruto soon got off of his seat before getting to the sidecar to help get Alex out of her respective seat. The scientist was still a giggling mess as she slowly calmed down on her sister's reddened expression.

"So I guess this is where we part ways?"

"Pretty much." Alex responded before her sister came up to the man with a small smile.

"And thank you for letting us help you earlier."

"It's no problem Kara. Anyone can be a hero whether they have superpowers or not; firemen, police, doctors, or ordinary people."

The sisters nodded before moving towards their separate directions. But before anything could happen, Kara stopped from opening the restaurant door and turned around towards the cyclist. "I don't mean to pry or anything, but you said your name was Naruto Uzumaki... Right?"

*Sigh* 'Here we go.' "Yes that's my name." He answered as he saw the dirty blonde shuffle her feet a little with a curious look on her face.

"The same Naruto Uzumaki that wrote Loveless?" Kara asked, getting Alex to widen her eyes on the question as she came to the same realization.

"Yup… That's me alright." He said before he pulled out his wallet to show the sisters his ID for confirmation.

The results were predictable as the two squealed a little before running towards their respective destinations (Kara inside of Noonan's and Alex for her parked car) before coming back with their respective copies of Loveless. The two got their books autographed and everything to at least brighten up their moods from earlier. With that done, the publisher gave the two a little saluted goodbye before driving off towards the next destination he had in mind.

"...Hey Kara."

"Yeah?"

"I forgot to ask him something."

"What was it?"

"...Is he single or seeing anybody?" Questioned the scientist with a thoughtful look, getting a surprised one from the Kryptonian. "Cause I think he might help get mom and dad off our backs on us being single."

"ALEX?!"

 _ **-CatCo Worldwide Media-**_

Once Naruto made it to Cat's building, he saw varying paramedics rushing past him to head towards one of the nearby hospitals. He was doing all that he can with his clones assisting in getting other injured civilians towards any of the hospitals. Even stopping several crimes along the way as robbers tried to steal varying goods and money from different businesses.

The moment Naruto went inside, he created one last clone (in civilian attire) to get over to his hotel and properly check in so his luggage will be safe.

The time it took scaling so many flights of stairs was not that great for Naruto. Due to the earthquake earlier, people were advised to not use the elevator until things fully got settled down. The publisher could've used his grappling scarf or his lance to literally get towards his desired floor, but he didn't know if there were security cameras in the small area that would've exposing his secret. He could sneak into the security room and tamper with the tapes, but that would've been too much of a hassle.

*Phew* "Now that was a workout for the legs." Muttered the Uzumaki as he soon saw the floor where the main action is.

The area was primarily white, silver and blue in terms of color scheme with several glass walls separating varying sections here and there along with a cream colored carpet. Though there are regular walls, but the doors were primarily glass in terms of style. Probably a way for others to effectively see if certain people were currently doing their job without having to open the door at times.

When looking at the receptionist desk, Naruto saw an oddly purplish pink statue of either a jaguar or a leopard situated in an open spot behind the on duty receptionists. It was hard to tell what the feline statue was entirely as the features were really hard to differentiate for the most part. The publisher guessed it was placed there for intimidation purposes, along with Cat trying to make things similar to her taste in style from last time he saw her.

'Her and her cat figurines.' He thought with a chuckle with little nostalgia kicking in. Back at the Planet, Cat's desk had a lot of cat figurines to the point that Naruto called her Kitty Cat and the nickname stuck later on.

Passing by the varying desk islands and the semi clean work place, Naruto saw not only a second elevator door, but the opened doors to Cat's office. As he passed through the opening, he saw many widescreen TV's covering the majority of the back wall with different news channels being shown right in front of Cat's desk. Off to the side was a small bar with different non-alcoholic drinks were displayed for ambiance to match with the couches and coffee table situated at the very middle of the office space. The rest of the space was filled with some lamps next to small, one person couches tucked into the corners with a large window covered with drapes to really give Cat a great view of the city.

'This is quite the office. Better design compared to my boring looking one…. Wonder if I should get the girls to help decorate it.' He thought before he heard someone speak out at the office entrance.

"What are you doing in here?" A familiar sounding voice called out as it seemed to get louder with her getting closer. "This is my office and you shouldn't be in here."

This got Naruto to turn around right as the woman came within a few feet away from him. Making Naruto see his old friend and coworker after five years. And there was only one word that came across his mind when he laid eyes on her: beautiful.

"N-Naruto?..."

Overcoming her beauty and seeing her surprised expression, he gave her a soft smile. "Hi Cat."

Cat Grant is a stunning woman in her early thirties with her shoulder length dark blonde hair with it curled along the edges. Her sharp blue eyes showed her personality quite well to help compliment her sharp features. Her full lips resembled a little to a feline's mouth in some small degree, but only showed at certain times. Cat was currently wearing a small dotted white blouse, a black business jacket and a black and grey striped knee length skirt with a pair of black one inch heels to elevate her height just a bit.

The Media Queen faintly blushed at the stunning man Naruto has become in the five years since she last saw him. Even at the point her breath left her before speaking to him, in person, after such time. "H-Hi."

"I… I'm sorry to… um… to show up while you're working. But I didn't know if you were off today and where you lived exactly."

"That's… That's not a problem. That's not a problem at all Naruto." She said with a growing smile on her face. After so long, Naruto is finally here to see her and she couldn't help but be happier. "W-When did you show up?"

"Earlier today actually. I was planning on getting something to eat, but the earthquake happened and I needed to help out. You know?"

*Chuckles* "Of course." Cat simply said as she came closer to the publisher with a relaxed smile now. "Doing much on what you can to help others."

"That's me for ya."

"We'll I'm so glad that you're here, finally."

"I know and I gotta say," he said before looking around the office and eyes hitting the parts outside of the room, "you've done quite well by the looks of it."

"That I have Naruto." She said as she gazed into his rich hazel eyes before the sounds of phones ringing filled the air, breaking her little concentration. "Naruto… there's so much I want to say to you, in person, b-but I have a million things that I have to do right now. From covering the earthquake incidents, getting coverage of Vanitas showing up out of nowhere and helping calm the masses."

"I understand that Cat and it's no problem… But you know, I'm in town for roughly a week so we can discuss the partnership and try to set up a meeting to get things official."

"Right… that." Cat muttered in slight remembrance on one of the things why Naruto's in town. Sure he came to possibly have the partnership rolling, but Naruto also came in town to see her."

"So are you free for dinner?" He asked, getting a small smile from her. "Or lunch even?"

"I-I will make myself free for dinner."

"Great and since I have nothing else to do right now, how about I help you out here?"

"Naruto you don't have to."

"I insist Cat. I would be out there helping civilians out, but Vanitas is running around saving people as we speak. And with a lot of businesses shut down until things settle down, I got nothing else better to do than helping out one of my oldest friends."

"...Well if you put it like that… then I might know what you could possibly do for me." The Media Queen said with a little smile.

Cat soon asked him to help set up a live feed in her office so she can tell the city's masses on what she has to say in the crisis right now. Getting things set up was a little bit of a challenge for Naruto in finding the equipment on his own, but one of the employees helped him out. Currently the publisher was now fiddling around with the equipment as a woman was doing small touches of makeup on the Media Queen.

"You know… The last time I hooked up a live feed like this was back at the Planet." Naruto said with a small twitch in his eye. "And it wasn't as difficult back then as it is now."

"And the last time I did a broadcast was to end my award-winning talk show. So you and I are both returning to our roots." The Media Queen stated getting a raised look from the publisher.

"...You had a talk show?"

Cat looked away at this since she didn't want to be in eye contact with her former co-worker. "It was very brief and I needed to help get my company off the ground somehow and a talk show was the only thing that came to mind."

"Eh… Fair enough." Admitted the publisher. "Had to clean out a casino when I moved into Gotham to help start off Spiral Publishing and get my opening books on the map."

"That must've been fun." Cat muttered with slight remembrance on Naruto's luck. "You must've been whacked way too much with the luck bat as a child."

"I wouldn't say that. More like born with an odd affinity of it if you will." He said before testing out the equipment to end up showing said live feed from the office. "Okay... we are golden. So what are you gonna say to the masses Cat?"

Looking back at the TV screens to see herself, she turned back with a little smile. "I plan on telling them that they can rise to the occasion to help save this city. Even telling them that they can't rely on Gotham's hero to be here for the entire time.

"And you think that Vanitas isn't here to lift everyone's spirits?"

"Well he resides in Gotham Naruto and he was only out here because of Queen Perdita so he's got to head back East sometime." She answered, getting a nod from the Uzumaki. "Sure he'll raise their spirits, for now, but people need to know that ordinary citizens like you and I, used to doing mundane and small things, finding themselves in a midst of a crisis… doing something extraordinary."

"Self made heroes I take it." He said getting a small smile across her supple lips.

"Exactly."

Out of nowhere the building started to shake, causing many of the floor's occupants to hang onto something sturdy so they wouldn't fall down. When things seemed to calm down, everyone heard a loud explosion causing everyone to go into a small form of panic. Coming up to Cat, Naruto saw a wide eyed look from her.

"That last one wasn't an aftershock… that was an explosion." She said in realization. "It must've been the gas line."

"I'll go check the stairs." Naruto said getting a nod from his friend.

The publisher ran towards where the stairwell with several others checking to see it was okay. It was for the most part when going down from the 23rd floor (current floor). But the resulting explosion caused everything going up to be blocked by debris. Naruto ran back towards Cat's office as she just hung up with someone.

"Good god I just lied to an entire floor trapped in a possible burning building." She muttered loud enough for Naruto to hear.

"Cat. The stairwell is blocked going up. We have to at least get everyone on this floor downstairs until proper help arrives."

"But what about the people a few floors up? The stairwell is blocking their way going down and they told me the elevator doors are not opening up so they can use the escape ladder." Cat stated with worry. Taking a deep breath, Naruto walked out of the office getting her attention. "Where are you going?"

"Helping those people." He soon came towards the elevator doors as he saw several people start heading downstairs. The Uzumaki placed his hands onto door and tried to pry them open before calling out. "Can I get some help here?!"

One of the workers came to Naruto's aid as he helped the publisher open up the doors. The one man ended up looking downwards and retreated back to show that he wasn't all that great with heights. Peeking inside of the elevator shaft, Naruto used his powers to see where his targeted location was at. Luckily for him, the purple circles in his vision landed upon the elevator door a few floors up.

"Okay. I'm gonna have to climb up and open it from the other side."

"Are you crazy Naruto?" Cat questioned as she stood some feet away from him. "We are twenty three floors up?"

"Hey. I didn't say that I'm excited about this, okay?" He retorted as he got a worried look from his old co-worker. "Cat. I'll be right back. I promise. And you know with me and my promises right?"

"...That you always keep them."

He nodded before reaching towards the escape ladder before making his way up. Naruto was able to climb it at a quickened pace before he made it towards his little destination. When his hands landed upon the closed elevator doors, he felt the stinging sensation with how hot the metal was getting.

'That isn't good.' He thought before he used a lot of his strength to pry the doors open. Naruto would've been able to do it a whole lot quicker, but he spent a lot of energy on making clones that'll last a long time to help out with current crisis. Once he got the doors wide enough, he called out to the crowded people. "Okay people. Grab the ladder, hug the wall and slowly make your way down."

It took a bit of time with the dozen or so people he helped escort towards the emergency ladder. He soon asked one of them if that was the last of them, getting a positive response out of it. Naruto gazed down to see Cat and a few other employees help get the people onto the floor so they can be safe. By the time he saw the last person make it out, Naruto started to climb back down… only for the building to rumble once again.

"Shit!" Naruto slipped and fell off of his placement at the elevator entrance before latching onto the metallic cable for the elevators. Cat saw this and screamed out in worry of seeing her friend in such a position.

"NARUTO!" Cat yelled out before looking at the employee's. "Go! Go get help! Hurry!" She saw them scamper to do just that before turning back towards Naruto. "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah! I'm fine!" He yelled out as he slowly made his way down the cable. 'Need to get to either the 23rd floor opening and jump or try and reach for the ladder on the way down.'

"Naruto! It's going to be okay!" She yelled out in worry as her heart was racing and felt like it was about to beat out of her chest. "Just hang on!"

"Don't worry Cat! I got this!"

Naruto slid down the cable further down and was on the floor right above Cat when the two heard it.

*SNAP*

"Oh that's not good." He muttered as he saw the metallic cable snapping several feet above him. "Hey Cat! I'm gonna have to jump!"

"No Naruto! Go for the ladder!" She yelled out in hopes of him listening to her.

*SNAP*

"There's no time!"

Swinging himself slightly, he built up the momentum for him to try and reach for the opening. The last swing caused the cable to finally break, sending Naruto downward to end up letting go. He outstretched his hands to latch on top of the elevator opening for a successful grab. But with the bit of momentum Naruto had, he swung too hard to end up slipping from his grip, awkwardly shot through the opening and landed on Cat.

*OOMPH*

The two rolled a little on the floor until both came to a stop, with the Media Queen lying on top of the publisher. They were quite dizzy on their tumble but the two soon shook off the feeling. Cat then looked at Naruto, who soon gave her a cheeky smile.

"See. I told you I'll come back." He said before he was being smacked the woman on top of him. It soon came to a grinding halt when Naruto grabbed the offending limbs. "Ow! What was that for Cat?!"

"You almost gave me a heart attack you idiot!" She yelled out before she soon cried into his chest. "I thought I almost lost you."

Naruto could only let out a tired sigh as he wrapped an arm around her for a little hug as he patted her head. He wanted her to let it out as he felt bad on what he did, but he couldn't let those people earlier die and he didn't even know of how much power he had left that he couldn't risk it. This was a small price to pay, but at least those people are safe and he came back to his old friend.

Though Naruto soon noticed a few people gathering around the two, making him put up a silence field around Cat so she wouldn't hear what came next from the publisher's mouth.

"Shouldn't you guys be somewhere else?" He rhetorically asked in a tone that made the others quickly disperse and do their own separate ways. When they were gone, Naruto expanded the silence field to just the two of them to at least give them some privacy. "It's okay Kitty Cat, Mr. Whiskers is here for ya."

*Chuckles* "God, that nickname really sucks. Haven't heard you say that since I was pregnant with Adam."

"And it tends to cheer you up with how corny it sounded."

She tried to get up from her position when her hands ended up feeling his hard, muscled chest and feeling a certain body part from where she's sitting at. Cat blushed and awkwardly got up without looking at her old friend in the face. "W-Well it's good that you're okay. A-And that's all that matters."

Cat started to walk away when Naruto called out to her. "Are you sure you're okay Cat?"

"No… I'm completely fine."

Naruto knew she was lying but he didn't want to press on with that, possibly asking about it later. "Then are we still good on dinner tonight?"

"Yes. We're still good." Cat said before she walked through the doors. "I'll have my current assistant call you to inform you where to meet."

"And why can't I just pick you up?" He asked, getting Cat to once again stop in her tracks. "I could pick you up here… or maybe at your place? If it's the later then I'd like to see Adam if that was possible."

His response was something he didn't expect to see as Cat turned around and had a look of nervousness across her features. She didn't fully say anything for a few moments, as if she's trying to sort through her thoughts while biting her lower lip. He was going to ask again when she spoke up.

"My place will be fine Naruto." She said with barely any eye contact. "I'll have my assistant let you know when and where to come and get me." Cat then turned back around to head back towards her office to redo her makeup for the live broadcast she needed to do for the city's masses.

Once left alone, Naruto wore a worried expression on his face and wondered what was going on with Cat as he made his way down the stairwell.

 _ **-Later, Grant Residence-**_

"He going to come… He's gonna be here." Cat muttered to herself as she nervously paced by the door to her home. As much as she'd like to attribute that nervousness to the first date she's had in years, she couldn't…. Not without lying to herself.

She's been a nervous wreck after what happened with the elevator incident. Her mind kept going back towards the moments being with Naruto earlier today and said moments made her happy, yet depressed. They slowly crept up to her while doing the live broadcast and suffice to say, she did a good job in hopefully calming the masses. But afterwards, those memories, including ones of the three years working with Naruto; kept distracting her from working on her daily tasks.

In that entire time, feelings she had for Naruto was starting to surface after five years of being away from each other. Cat kept them buried deep, even before he left the Planet, and nothing bad has happened since. Her main focuses in life was her little boy Adam and her career since nothing else mattered to her, even romance. But when Naruto called her last year to catch up a little, and times afterwards, her thoughts tended to drift back towards the whiskered co-worker she grew to care for.

Cat didn't know why all of this made her nervous for tonight's dinner, especially when he came to her Metropolis apartment several times before; albeit unannounced, but it did. For some reason, this specific instance made her heart hammer more than any other recent memory throughout today. Not physically seeing his handsome features after five years, not personally hearing his kind words and not seeing him save those people…. Well actually that last one made her heart hammer just as much then as it is now.

Which was why the Media Queen distracted herself earlier by creating a list of her symptoms, hoping to narrow down everything that was occurring to her wasn't what she thought it was. After all, Cat was not only just a mother but also a reporter. She needed all of the facts so she can get an accurate answer in the end.

First was the uncomfortably tight feeling in her chest, which eased and grew stronger just like their friendship when they both worked at the Daily Planet. Second was the heat that pooled into her cheeks, even across her entire body after feeling some of his muscles and a certain appendage on accident when they collapsed onto each other. The third being a loss of breath that could be attributed to her old co-worker. And, perhaps the most infuriating symptom; the feeling of nervousness that prevailed whenever she knew they were going to see each other.

Of course these symptoms made her remember times back at the Planet, after working together for about a year. Naruto was the one person that made herself get out of bed every morning by that point so she could see and be with him each day. Cat didn't know why back then, but blame it on the stereotypical dumb blonde problems she subjected herself into to get ahead in life and to get men to do everything she needed done...

Well that and her rivalry with Lois Lane. But Naruto was truly different from what Cat was used to after he knocked down her barriers. She realized that he was practically a breath of fresh air to her and not some potential boytoy for her until she dumped the previous men in her life.

As time went on, they became good friends and even Lois got roped into the small circle somehow. They were the best and they did damn well on making great stories together and getting details right. He practically replaced the cold atmosphere into one of warmth. So much so that Naruto changed the ice queen reporter/assistant to a warm and caring person, only if you don't ruin the mood of things.

Each of them were happy in their own right and things were literally perfect.

Of course things started to change as time went on as Lois and Naruto seemed oblivious on what was happening: Cat started to change her views on things. Not outwardly, but inwardly. With how much time she has been with Naruto for the entire time up to some unknown point, she started to feel differently towards him, something she questioned immensely. Of course someone pointed this out, didn't know what it was, but the person said that she was falling in love with the whiskered man.

From what Cat could remember of the person, said person was definitely transgender that seemed to look like a man and a woman at the same time. With the short black hair and masculine yet feminine features. His/Her skin as pale as smoke and eyes were taunty and sharp like yellow wine. There was no physical interaction, but something about him/her spoke out to the inner parts of the reporter that made Cat truly realize that Naruto was meant for her.

After that conversation, she delved deep inside of herself to figure things out and she ended up realizing this fact. But she got depressed about it thinking that by coming into this, she might end up ruining her friendship with Naruto and Lois and she didn't want things to change between them. Though this soon lead her into doing something stupid by sleeping with _him_ , which resulted into giving birth to her beloved son Adam. The only good thing that came out of her mistake.

Her musings were soon cut short when her doorbell was rung several times.

*Ding Dong* *Ding Dong* *Ding Dong*

*Deeply Sigh* "Oh my god, he's here."

Cat checked herself in the hallway mirror for anything amiss about her appearance. She was currently wearing a purple sweater with some white cloth folded over to help show off her shoulders. Cat was also wearing a black knee length skirt with black nylons, stylish black heeled boots with no jewelry on, some light makeup and a matching purple purse.

The Media Queen was originally going to be wearing something else, thinking Naruto was going to driving her to the restaurant in a rental car. Much to her surprise when her former assistant (her last day being today) told her that Naruto was driving a motorcycle instead of a car. In the entire time working together, he never once rode a motorcycle; only walked or rode a car.

Once checking her teeth and hair, she took a few deep breaths before opening the front door to see Naruto as dashing as ever.

The publisher changed out of his attire earlier, due to him having some grime and dirt on him from helping people for most of the day while seeing the sites in an outward perspective. He was currently wearing a pair of loose jeans and black boots that complimented the black button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His attire complemented the brown leather jacket he had on with his silver haired features.

"Wow… You look great Cat." He said as he looked over her appearance.

Getting a very appreciated look on the compliment, she responded back. "Same to you Naruto."

The two were going to say something when a little boy came walking down the hall while wearing a backpack. He was a six year old boy with short blonde hair with innocent blue eyes and even wore a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt with the Nobody symbol on it, much to Naruto's curiosity. The publisher was going to speak to the child when said child beat him to it.

"Mommy? Has my ride shown up yet?" The boy asked before he spotted the man in the doorway. "Who're you?"

"Wow… You've gotten big Adam."

"...How'd you know my name mister?" The now identified Adam asked with a tilt to his head.

"Because I was there when you were born kiddo." Naruto said with a grin. "I've been a friend of your mom for a long time even."

"Really?"

"Really really."

"...That's cool I guess."

Gazing at the kid's shirt once again, he wondered how this shirt was made with his hero insignia. Sure he saw plenty of Batman and Robin clothing in the past, but this is actually a first with him. So he decided to comment about this.

"I have a feeling you like Vanitas huh."

Adam seemed to brighten up a bit in mentioning the helmeted hero of Gotham. "Very much actually. He's pretty awesome with how he beaten up that Clayface guy earlier this year and even that giant some months ago with Batman, Robin and that odd plant lady."

'So that news coverage really came all the way over here then.' Naruto thought before he spoke once again. "Well do you want to know a secret?... I've actually met him several times already."

"...What's he like?...Is he cool like what everyone says he is? Possibly better than Batman?"

*Chuckles* "Very and he's one of the best guys that I know." The publisher said before holding out his hand. "Sorry that I didn't introduce myself a bit ago. My name's Naruto and like I said before, I'm a friend of your mom for a long time now."

Adam shook Naruto's hand as the two were oblivious to the happy expression Cat currently had right now. More would've been spoken between the two when the a car honked off to the side of the road, getting Adam to peak over the publisher to see that it was for him. So he properly excused himself and ran past Naruto to get to his ride for the evening.

"Where is he off to?"

"He's got a sleepover with some school friends of his tonight." Answered the Media Queen as the two of them got out of the home before she locked the door.

"That's cool." He simply said as the two were walking towards his motorcycle. "You know Cat, if it's not too much trouble, I could look after Adam on some of the days when I'm not busy this week."

"...Excuse me?"

"Oh… sorry if that came out of the blue or anything Cat." He apologized quickly before explaining himself. "It's just... I don't know much about him, asides from what you've told me in past phone calls… And I would like the chance to talk to him, possibly play with him if that'd be alright with you. I'll even promise that we won't be doing anything crazy, I promise."

Cat could only chuckle this time with a small nod on her head to signify towards her date that she'll approve of it. The two soon approached the motorcycle before Naruto gave Cat one of the helmets he made earlier for tonight. He helped her get onto the motorcycle before himself. Once starting it up, Cat wrapped her arms around Naruto as the two soon took off into the night.

 _ **-Evening, Chow Hong's-**_

"...I'll never forget, I was at a party with Steve Jobs and I said to him: 'Steve, people want to read the news and possibly listen to music at the same time. But it'll be too complicated of having too many items on their person. Possibly something that they can hold in the palm of their hands'." Cat stated before taking a small sip of her drink for her parched throat. "And he responded back with that he likes the idea, but give him sometime to really develop the product."

"And did he have a name for it?"

She thought about it and seemed to motion that it was at the tip of her tongue. In a quick moment, she snapped her fingers before answering. "IPod, it was definitely IPod… Then again, Steve had the odd fetish of the letter _**'I'**_ to be in front of each of his products like IMac."

"Who knows if that name will stick or not." Naruto muttered before taking a sip of his drink. "And with that IPod idea, I think that product will be a bloody brick if trying to cram that much tech into a small item to do what you mentioned earlier."

The two had arrived at the popular chinese restaurant roughly an hour ago and it was surprisingly quite packed this evening. The two figured the place would've been slow, given the earthquake earlier today, but the place wanted to stay in business. So they wiped out their extra dishes to feed the hungry customers who didn't have any good food at their homes. I mean, having their refrigerators powered out due to the earthquake would make anyone want to go out for the day or so.

So while the pair of old co-workers sat there and waited for their table to be ready, the two started talking. Things first started out for the ideas on their companies partnerships to at least get that out of the way. In the entire time of waiting, the two had a better understanding on what to possibly do instead of just the simple trade off on ideas in past phone calls. So now they'll need to contact their respective board members to see if things could go through with the idea and set up a meeting in the possible, near future.

Once at their table and ordered their respective meals, the two started talking about their respective job occupations with some interesting moments here and there. Before long, things transitioned to their personal lives with Cat starting off that part of the conversation. It was nice for the two to sit back and unwind with someone they were somewhat familiar with. Then again the two haven't had good contact with each other in such a long time so give them some slack.

"I know right?" Cat said in agreement as that thought came across her mind. "What's next, a phone attached to all of that?"

*Chuckles* "Who knows for sure."

"So… Enough about me. I want to know more about you Naruto."

"Well, what do you want to know?"

Cat bit her lip a little to come up with a decent, opening question to this part of the conversation. One did come up, before she voiced it. "How's your ward, Rachel, coming along?"

"She's doing fine actually. Having a good time in the remaining weeks before she goes to public school in a few weeks."

"That's good. And Adam is going to be in the same boat around that time as well." Cat responded back as their meals started to arrive. The Media Queen had pot stickers and Kung Pao Shrimp with Dan Dan noodles. As for Naruto, he got egg rolls, dumplings and beef/broccoli stir fry with Dan Dan noodles.

"Nice to know on that and hope he doesn't get in trouble too much from what I've heard from you." He stated with a grin, causing Cat to playfully sigh in frustration.

"Who would've known my boy is already in his rebellious stage at that age. It should've been in his teenage years since that's when it typically turns up."

"Eh~ Don't sell yourself too short Cat." The publisher said as he broke his chop sticks. "I was somewhat like that around his age and I turned out alright."

"Yet if memory serves, you told me that you were a bit more rebellious up until you barely became a teenager."

"...More like having it be a simmered down version." Was all he muttered with a pout, getting a little chuckle from the blonde.

The two dug into their meals for a few minutes, savoring how delicious things were in their own right. Both used this time to try and think of something else to say, but Cat seemed to beat Naruto to it. So once finishing off a pot sticker, she spoke to him.

"And how is Pamela doing?... Are you two still seeing each other?"

He was curious as to why she brought the second question up, but decided to answer. "Pam's doing quite well right now Cat. She was able to get a new job at the Gotham Botanical Gardens and is doing well in the position so far in terms of projects. As for us being together… Yes we are still going strong." There was a look that she gave him in response to his answer, making him question about it. "Is there something wrong Cat?"

"I distinctly heard a slight uplift, which suggests a hesitation, a vacillation, and maybe an ambivalence?" She stated with a slightly narrowed glance. "Is there something you're not telling me Naruto?"

*Sigh* "You caught on that huh."

"Yes and you better start talking."

Knowing this might take a bit of time to possibly explain, he placed his chopsticks down before talking to her. Knowing that if he didn't give her a good amount of the truth, she'll just keep pressing onwards for the answers she's looking for. "I told you before that Pam was in an accident around the beginning of this year, resulting of her becoming barren, yes?" She nodded at this before he continued. "Well… she got the idea that I should try to see other women, to get the family that she couldn't provide for me. We argued on this several times, me saying that we could adopt someone if we decided to get married one day. But I… I couldn't get mad at her in the end. So I decided to go along with the little idea of a semi-open relationship."

This was an odd answer that she got, with her uniquely surprised look on her face. "...Well that's modern, I suppose."

He could only scratch the back of his head as he let out a tired sigh. "Yeah, I know. And there are days that I wonder why we're doing this sort of thing, even though Pam stated time and time again that I have a really big heart. A void that needs to be filled with love that there's room enough for more than just her."

The two sat there in silence as Cat was thinking things over on what she just heard, playing with her food a bit as a feeling of awkwardness filled the small area. Naruto doesn't like talking about that often since he knows it always brings such feelings, depending on what situation it's presented in. Wanting to hopefully get rid of the awkward feeling going on between the two, Naruto changed the subject.

"Do you remember when we first met Cat?"

She snapped out of her concentration before blinking at the registered question. Took a moment or two as she adopted a thinking pose before a faint smile came across her features. "Yeah… I do and it wasn't great on how things started out."

*Chuckles* "No kidding, with you being a complete ice queen on most instances if I remember correctly." He said as he carved out another piece of his meal with her following his action.

"Yeah. Everything was all about me, me, me and I sometimes wonder to this day how the co-workers had put up with it."

"Who knows for sure right now. But that was apart of the reason why you and Lois butted heads way too often."

"Ugh. Tell me about it." She said with slight remembrance of the two rivals going at it at work to get the best stories and writing them to be known for. Even though the two were in different positions, they would always end up writing stories for the paper and both saw it as a competition. "Though that changed when you came along."

"On my first day at the Planet, befriended Lois first with how things seemed to hit it off between us. Heh, saw me as a little brother and I eventually saw her as a sister." The Uzumaki said with a smile before it turned to a smirk. "Though that seemed to piss you off, right? Why was that by the way?"

…..

He didn't get the chance to correctly hear her, due to her mumbling something under her breathe. "What was that?"

"I th… you we… …te."

"Can you speak a little louder please?"

*Groan* "Okay. I thought you were cute. Alright?" Cat said in admittance. As she was going things over earlier today, it was one of the things that she remembered back then that she was too damn stubborn to admit at the time.

"Really?" He questioned with slightly widened eyes.

"Yes really. I mean, you had these exotic features on you from your wildly odd silver hair, your mischievous hazel eyes and those whisker birthmarks of yours. Made me think you were a rare fox or a cat even. Hell I honestly wanted to find out what made you tick."

"...Was that the reason why I kept getting assigned to work under you instead of Lois on most assignments?" He always wondered why he kept doing partner assignments with Cat in the first place out of the other reporters in the Planet's roster.

"Well I kept bugging Perry about it and he decided to comply to get me out of his hair actually."

"Yeah… and those first several assignments under you were not great and it could've gone better." He looked away into empty space for a few moments as he continued. "We were practically at each other's throats by the time the third or fourth assignment came in."

"It was a complete mess on how that turned out."

"Well… I'm still sorry on how I acted back then Cat. It was just that back then, you reminded me of a former friend of mine and the way you acted seemed to tick me off." He admitted, much to her confusion and slight realization on that tidbit. "Though after we had that big fight at work, I felt horrible and after some time by myself I wanted to apologize to you so we could start things off on a better note."

She smiled on the memory as she leaned back in her seat. "Yeah, you found out where I lived and decided to cook me lunch on our day off. And damn… that was honestly one of the best meals I've had in a long time."

"Hell, we talked for hours." He simply stated with a smile of his own. The apology took a while for Cat to digest and she apologized herself on how she was acting at the time. It was a small rough patch in their lives which was easily fixed. "Later on at work, I don't remember how it happened, but Lois eventually became your friend."

"I believe we've got you to thank on being our mediator whenever we ended up doing the 'group' assignments and things went off from there."

Both sat there as they reflected on the many assignments the three had together. The good, the bad, the ugly and the ones in between. Each had fond memories to look back onto to see how some happy and depressions there were, but the three had each other's backs to lean onto for small times of need.

"How the hell did things go downhill?"

Cat already knew the answer to this, but only voiced part of it. "I believe it started when I got drunk and slept with Joe Morgan." Naruto narrowed his eyes and growled at the memory of the man.

Joe Morgan was a movie mogul at Monarch Studios in Metropolis that he was quite popular back then in terms of business. You wanted to possibly get a movie run and funded quite well to get great reviews in the box office, you go to Joe Morgan. You want to star in the big time as a fresh listed actor, you do a lot for the man and he'll make the actor/actress golden.

Neither Naruto or Lois knew the full reason as to why Cat got drunk that one evening and slept with the man, but he got the blonde reporter pregnant. A lot happened afterwards when the movie mogul found out Cat was pregnant and wanted custody, for full access of his legacy. At first the reporter was fine with it, but as time went on, she fell in love with her unborn child.

Cat pleaded Joe to let her have her baby, or to at least see it from time to time, but he wouldn't have it. So the movie mogul brought in the best lawyers he had to claim ownership once the baby was born. Even brought up statements on what she did prior to her pregnancy of being a 'slut' with how she slept with many men in her life to get a better standing in her career. He even went so far to subpoenaed all of her 'male friends' into siding with Joe at the court case. Cat had admitted she slept around; but many of the men listed were lying and she hadn't slept with anyone, prior to Joe and Naruto becoming her friend.

Fearing for the loss of her first born child, she pleaded for Lois and Naruto's help on the matter. The former had her hands tied and couldn't do much, but the later (Naruto) promised he would set things right for his dear friend. So Naruto used everything he had in his training as an 'assistant investigative reporter' (Lois' and Cat's job title for him back then) mixed with his shinobi training to find some dirt on Joe.

Naruto had Lady Luck on his side on his self appointed assignment as he dug up something big. As it turned out, Joe Morgan was not only a movie mogul, but also a drug trafficker and had heavy ties to the underworld. Many of the times Joe wanted things done for his studio career, he used blackmail to get certain people to do what he wanted. Had drugs planted at certain places so certain people would have their reputations ruined. Joe even drugged and raped many female actresses and executives, using blackmail to keep said women under his thumb and tight leashes to do whatever the hell he wanted.

Naruto gathered everything he needed to write up the story that can save Cat's chances in keeping her unborn child. But luck wasn't on the Uzumaki's side that time as Joe found out of what Naruto found out and used his underworld connections to hire hitmen to kill the whiskered reporter. Even worse luck when Lois and Cat were at his place when the attack happened.

He couldn't remember everything that happened in that incident, but Naruto protected Lois and Cat's lives until the police arrived to arrest the hitmen. The Uzumaki had been sent to the hospital for what he did for his two friends and Lois had helped him finish up the story to get Joe sent to jail for good. Of course the man took the easy way out and hanged himself so he would get away from the underworld connections and from jail time.

'And things went happily afterwards.' Naruto thought before speaking to Cat. "But when everything was fine in the end, what changed Cat? What caused to go bad between us?"

"You wanted to resign and move. That's what." She bluntly said, causing him to flinch a little. "Lois and I were fine at first, or so we thought. And when you left, we slowly went back into butting heads to the point that I wanted to move as well. So I needed a change of venue to get away from it all for both Adam and I."

The publisher looked down onto the table as he felt guilty on that bit of info. Back then, Naruto felt that he needed to expand his horizons and needed a change of venue as well. So he blindly chose Gotham for where he wanted to start up his publishing firm that eventually became a company. He didn't know at the time that him leaving would cause such a thing to occur to his two friends and it was a regret had.

"But you know what Naruto." She said as he looked at her to see a faint smile on her face. "I sometimes considered what I did was a mistake of moving across the country, while sometimes I didn't. It was hard work to get where I am today, in which you had the same thing happen to you. But what I did regret was arguing with Lois after you left. It caused a rift between us and it probably hurt us both by the end of it."

"Well… We both love our current jobs, so there's that." He said as he slowly ate his meal again, with Cat following suit. "But… But did you consider what happened to you with Joe a mistake?"

"...No."

"No?"

"At first I did, but I somewhat considered it a blessing in the end for several reasons. And one of the biggest ones being you bringing Joe Morgan to justice for his crimes and the other helping me keep the joy of my life."

Both had bittersweet smiles and feelings after that as they both finished up their meals and headed out of there.

 _ **-On the Streets near Grant Residence-**_

"Man. It really is a beautiful night."

"I know." Cat replied with a small smile as she hugged Naruto's arm, who didn't mind the action with how faintly cold it is. "Reason why I moved to this part of the city: to see many of the stars on most nights."

When the two got back to Cat's neighborhood, Cat didn't want to call it a night just yet as she wanted to have an evening stroll with her old friend. So Naruto parked his motorcycle in front of her home before the two were walking several blocks so far as they later made their way back. Neither said much during said walk, just enjoying the small silence as they enjoyed each other's company.

"You know, you get away from the city's pollution and can actually see stars." She said as she hugged his arm a little tighter. "And all this time I sometimes thought they were just special effects."

"They are beautiful." He said, gazing into the night sky with a far off look. "And they're warm… Possibly filled with worlds with life of their own. Each one of them special, unique." She looked at him with a sense of yearning as he continued. "We all have dreamt about them, reaching and embracing them at some point in our lives. For me it was when I was a little kid, wanting to leave my home several times to get away from it all. I even dreamt of flying into the sky and visiting other worlds so I can leave my old one behind to have a new life to experience.

Cat could only smile a little at this as she leaned her head onto his shoulder. "You know, you're nothing like the men that I've ever been close to Naruto. Fact is… I didn't think they'd make gentlemen in the truest sense of the word anymore. But you're the most gentlest man I've ever known. Gentle without being weak and that's all because of what you are on the inside."

"Thank you Cat… It means a lot." The two eventually made it back to her home as Naruto walked her up to the door. "Well here we are."

"Yeah and I've had a really nice time today Naruto." She fiddled with her keys. "Though I wish it could've lasted longer."

He faintly smiled at this as he brought the blonde Media Queen into a hug. She didn't mind it as she wrapped her arms around him to enjoy the warm feeling coming off of him. At some point the two would break it, but she didn't want that. Not without telling him something that's been on her chest for a long time.

"Naruto…"

"Yes?"

"About that night I went drunk and slept with _him_ , I never told you the reason why I got drunk in the first place; did I?"

He broke away from the hug and looked at her with a curious expression on his face. "Why are you bringing this up Cat?"

"Because… Because I wanted to finally tell you why."

"Well… What was it?"

She couldn't make eye contact with him just yet as she spoke to him. "I-I was feeling certain things prior to that time that made me very confused. Confused enough that I didn't know if it would've harmed the friendship all three of us had together. But after talking to this one person, I eventually realized that it was the truth and I fell into a state of depression and I wanted to drink my sorrows away. And… And you know the rest."

This really got Naruto confused now as he finally learned part of the reason why Cat went drinking that night, but he didn't get everything he wanted. So he asked the question on his mind. "And what was the thing you came to realize?" She didn't say anything as she kept looking away from him. Not wanting to be denied on the answer, he brought his hand underneath her chin and gently guided it to make eye contact with him. "Cat… You can tell me. I'm your friend and I won't badly judge you on whatever you have to say."

"...I don't know for how long... how many times I've rehearsed this for when I finally got the chance to say this Naruto." She said with a determined voice. "I wanted to explain, but I was too scared back then. If there was anything... I would've been able to do it all again, I would've done one thing to possibly change it all."

"And what is that?" He asked her as she took a deep breath. Without warning, she grabbed the sides of his face and brought him into a searing kiss. His eyes dramatically widened because of this sudden action. Cat kept her hold on him for a few more moments before breaking the kiss with a small smile on her face.

"I would've told you back then that I've been in love with you. Even now, I still do." She said before bringing the love of her life into another kiss on her supple lips. It felt so damn good for her finally doing this and it felt even better as he wrapped his arms around her to bring themselves closer into the kiss, returning in kind.

 _ **-Lemon Start-**_

The warm feeling the two had was starting to rise as the kiss went on. Cat soon let go the sides of his face and wrapped her hands around his neck as Naruto's hands loosened and traveled down to the small of her back. The blonde moaned into the sensations she was feeling when the publisher seemingly lifted up her sweater a little and his hands made contact with her bare skin. Wanting more out of this, she opened her mouth slightly and licked his lips for entrance, to which he complied as his mouth partly opened for their tongues to come in contact with one another.

Neither realized on how into the kiss they were as an old feeling surfaced, causing Cat's body to go on autopilot as her hands soon left his neck before finding her keys to open the front door. This has happened many times when Cat was dating men, prior to her friendship with Naruto, wanting to get inside the comfort of her home so she can have the privacy needed for what's to come. It didn't take long though as the door opened and the two scuffled inside before Naruto broke contact to lock the door so they can continue their make out session.

Things were starting to get a little hot between the two, causing Naruto to fully break contact so he can take off his jacket before assaulting Cat's mouth. Not wanting to feel left out, Cat grabbed ahold of his shirt and started to unbutton it so her hands can make contact with the muscled skin underneath. But this action was stopped as Naruto grabbed ahold of her wrists and pinned them against the nearby wall before he assaulted her neck.

'Oh god!' Cat thought as she felt the whiskered man biting and sucking on her neck. 'This is really happening!' She soon felt her legs part as a knee wedged between the limbs and came in contact with her crotch, grinding into her lower parts of her being and sending pleasurable sensations through her body. Cat whimpered as she tried to free her hands from their confinement, but the Media Queen truly yearned for more on being dominated right now.

Opening her eyes, they were starting to get clouded more and more in the lust and sexual frustration starting to be released after seven years. Naruto soon let go of her wrists as his hands traveled down her form so they can reach her sweater, dived right under it and felt the sides of her body. With her free limbs, she finally grabbed ahold of his shirt and tried to pull it off of him. Naruto realized this and he momentarily let go of her so he can help her out on her little task before he grabbed ahold of her sweater and phased it off of her.

Taking a momentary breath on what's about to come next, Naruto gazed at the very stunning and beautiful woman in front of him. All the times he saw Cat in her attires in the past showed quite the slender form with hints of her perky breasts. In truth, her clothing truly hid her modeled form as her half naked appearance showed her physique as her 'perky' globes were actually a cup and a half larger, being quite defined as they were held by a red lacy bra with a possible matching pair of panties underneath her skirt.

'Possibly because of her giving birth to Adam.' Naruto thought as he leaned forward and captured her lips once again. Wanting to be dominating this time, Cat pushed forward to have Naruto's back land against the opposite wall. With this bit of freedom, Cat's hands frisked his chiseled torso as they soon made it towards the hem of his pants before unbuckling it. Of course since Naruto wasn't pinned down like his loving partner earlier, he grabbed ahold of her slender waist and lifted her up. Realizing what he wants to do, Cat wrapped her legs around his waist before grinding herself onto him.

Wanting to give Cat support, his hands snaked their way towards her ass and gave it a very firm squeeze. She growled out some carnal sounds while she was now humping her lover to try and get herself off before reaching the bedroom. They both attacked each other's mouths again and melted into the kiss as their bodies were feeling hotter and hotter.

"C-Cat. Where's the bedroom?" He asked before he kissed the side of her face and soon came across her ear to nibble on it.

"H-Hall-way past the ki-kitchen." She started off with several pants to try and calm her racing heart. "La-Last door on the right."

With him now taking the lead, he tried to walk his way towards their destination. But the two kept bumping into different walls and furniture along the way, not that they minded at all. During the little trip, Naruto momentarily let go of one of his hands to grab ahold of her boots and phased them off as he phased out of his shoes. Once the two made it to the bedroom, they eventually fell on top of the bed with Naruto hovering over Cat.

*Panting* "A-Are you sure you want this Cat?" The Uzumaki asked as he gazed downward to see the diamond-hard nubs of her nipples. Knowing that she is really turned on right now.

"Naruto. I haven't had sex since that drunken night with that bastard. I've been sexually frustrated for years and _I need this now!_ " She said with her emphasizing the last bit before leaning up close enough for their noses to barely touch with a hand placed against his cheek. "Who would be better in screwing me senseless than the man I've dreamt of being the one to impregnate me back then and not _him_."

"...You really love me, don't you?" He said as he truly saw the love in her eyes as they were starting to water.

"Yes Naruto." Cat said as she sobbed a little. All of these feelings she had rising to the surface was now flooding out. Things she'd kept buried were coming out and with the sexual urges mainly out, her sorrow was kicking in. "I've fallen madly in love with you and you cemented it more during my time being pregnant. Loving and caring for me as one of your closest friends… but I wanted much more than that. So please… make love to me Naruto."

Naruto deeply sighed before kissing her forehead to end up kissing away her tears and the sides of her lips before replying. "We can talk more of this in the morning. But for now, for tonight, I'm all yours Catherine Grant."

That was all she wanted as she brought his head down for a searing kiss while bringing herself down onto the bed. Wanting a little support, Naruto cupped one of her breasts and felt the hard nipple behind the cloth before fondling it. Cat soon let out a pleasant moan as one of her hands reached down to unbutton and zip down his pants so more of him will be free from his clothed confinement. He wiggled himself a little for his pants to fall down before he grabbed Cat's skirt and unzipped it.

Naruto stopped fondling her breast so he can pull Cat's skirt away. Knowing what he is trying to do, she lifted herself up slightly and let her man pull the piece of clothing away to leave herself with her red lacy panties underneath the black nylons. Naruto leaned down and started kissing the small valley of her breasts, made his way down to her navel, tongued it for a few moments before reaching towards her bottom clothed layer.

'Well this has got to go.' Naruto grabbed the small edges of the nylons above her panties and ripped them. With that bit out of the way, Naruto leaned closer and licked the soaked panties for an experimental taste, getting Cat to jolt a little in response. 'Oh this is going to be fun.'

The Uzumaki started to kiss the Media Queen's thighs, causing her to gasp a little on the feeling on her legs. He somewhat tasted her juices, but the nylons were making it hard to get an accurate read on it. So he grasped her legs to spread them wider before he gripped the nylon hole in front of her panties and made it bigger. With enough of her skin now free from confinement, Naruto soon trailed his tongue across her inner thighs.

'Tasting a little good so far.' He thought as he soon made it back towards her panties and pulled them off to the side to see her pink lips. Came closer and breathed on to her nether regions, sending chills down her spine before he gave her an experimental lick. 'Do I detect a bit of peaches, honey… and coffee beans? Huh... never thought I'd get that before. Then again, Cat drinks much of that everyday.'

Naruto had tasted the nectar from his other lovers', with both having their own unique tastes. With Selina, it was mostly vanilla and bananas unless she was going through certain diets. With Pam, Naruto can hardly remember what she tasted like before her accident. But now she tastes like a wide range of fruits and vegetables whenever he eats her out and he sometimes calls her a cheat of changing that on the literal fly. Regardless, he loved their respective tastes and somewhat developed a little addiction to it whenever he made love to them.

Pushing that thought to the side, Naruto started to lick, slurp and eat his new lover out. Cat started to moan and squirm from his actions. She even clamped his head between her thighs before grabbing a handful of his silvery mane. Cat was truly enjoying this, even when he occasionally licked, flicked and sucked on her hardened clit.

"Yes!... Naruto! I love this….I REALLY LOVE THIS!"

Naruto smirked, swirling his tongue a bit around the center. The blonde woman's center was starting to flow with nectar, with the publisher brushing his tongue back and forth against her. He soon added a finger inside of her, causing her hips to buckle of the sudden insertion, before he added in another to pump the mother out.

This went on for several minutes and Cat felt something bubble on the inside of her tummy. Something that she hasn't felt in years and was finally going to have her release. Cat soon cried out as she lifted her hips up towards Naruto's mouth and released herself into his mouth. The orgasm she experienced was far more intense than anything she experienced in the past or might ever experience ever again. But Naruto might prove her wrong soon enough, especially since he didn't insert his dick inside of her just yet.

By the time Cat's orgasm ended, Naruto drank as much of her juices as he could before rising up from her nether region. Crawling forward, he saw Cat's blissful face before he cupped her face and kissed her fully on the lips. It was quite shocking for the mother to taste herself after so many years since the last time she tasted her nectar was before she and her new lover became friends back then.

Once Naruto broke the kiss, it was time for the main event. He phased the last article of clothing off of him, to let his member be free from it's confinement. With how mostly dark the bedroom was, Cat didn't see his member… but she felt it once it brushed against her lower lips. She hitched her breath several times as his cock was lubing itself up against her folds.

"Oh god. It's finally going to happen." She muttered as she once again felt Naruto's palm caress her face.

"I'm going to be careful with you Cat. I don't want to hurt you. Hell, I never want to take advantage of you."

The blonde mother smiled at him, with how sincere his words were, as her heart was starting to quicken its pace with what's about to happen. So with a nod, she gave him permission to finally enter her. Seeing this, Naruto used his available hand to guide his member to her folds before said hand went up and grabbed ahold of her hand. He slowly inserted himself in and felt how extremely tight she was as her velvety walls encircled his prick.

On Cat's end, her eyes slowly widened further and further when Naruto went deeper and deeper inside of her cavern. Even with how far he stretched her out, made her mouth gape. He was definitely bigger than any of the men she slept with in the past and by the off chance she slept with anyone else, Naruto might just ruin her.

"S-So f-f-full."

"And so tight." He grunted out as he waited for Cat to fully adjust to her. It took about a minute for her do just that before she spoke out to him with a smile.

"I want you to fuck me. Please Naruto, I want you to fuck me."

He nodded in return with a small smile of his own before he started to slowly move his hips. It felt so weird for Cat on the feeling coming back to her of being spread out. Soon the slow pacing eventually made it into a steady one as he was going in and out of her like a piston. Each time he started to slam into her, Cat felt that he was getting deeper and deeper into her each time. The sounds of flesh slapping against each other filled the room with the growing intensity of their sexual intercourse.

Naruto reached towards her and pulled Cat into an intense kiss, working his tongue into Cat's mouth. Both were soon fighting for dominance as Naruto repeatedly slammed his member inside of her. It was a losing battle for the Media Queen as the pleasure she was experiencing was starting to overwhelm her. Cat moaned and whimpered from being assaulted in both her top and lower halves and she didn't mind at all with how much she was enjoying the feeling.

Naruto fondled her clothed breasts once his hands were free as her hands soon encircled his back to keep him closer. He occasionally tweaked her nipples, causing her to moan louder and make herself a little tighter down below. Naruto soon felt Cat rake her nails onto his back and felt her scratching him with how intense things were getting right now. He grown used to this by the various times he made love to his two girlfriends.

Speaking of, Naruto thought of his times being with Selina and Pam on both separate occations and together in threeways. With how much he spent in bed with the two, the publisher really built up his endurance in the ways of sex. Naruto knows that it'll end up taking a while for him to really release by this point and would guess that Cat would be somewhat exhausted at that point. Hell when he eventually starts sleeping with Harley, he doesn't know how she can handle all of that as he was even curious on what she tastes like. 

The Media Queen at this time was truly enjoying and loving every moment here as she was being screwed by the man of her dreams. The man who did so much for her during their time together at the Daily Planet and possibly the one she hopes to be in a real relationship with down the road. Any thought she possibly had was soon tossed out as she felt she was going to cum once again, but this time from being pounded by the whiskered stud in her arms.

"N-Naruto." She rasped out. "I-I'm… I'm cumming."

"Then cum. Cum my naughty little Kitty Cat." He whispered into her ear.

Cat soon followed through with his little order as she felt herself cum with her spraying a little onto him. Naruto stopped pounding into her to let her rest slightly and gave the blonde woman a kiss to keep up her momentary sexual high. Once the kiss ended, Cat soon saw the smirk on Naruto's face, felt his still hardened member… and none of his spunk?

"Sorry if you were expecting anything Cat." He said as he slowly moved his hips, causing her to moan. "But this isn't over for me just yet.

Cat widened her eyes at this realization before they rolled back a bit on how great she was feeling right now. The Media Queen was truly losing herself in what Naruto is doing to her. Her mind had been blown with several orgasms and losing track on how much time has past. Naruto unintentionally used her as a fuck doll, pushing his hips down onto hers, caressing her body with touches. The publisher exhibited the right combination of control and caring, which sparked her motor.

"Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck me like your little slut!" Cat yelled out as she lost her control. "I'm yours Naruto!"

Naruto chuckled as he got similar reactions from Selina and Pam during the pastimes with them. Of course he wouldn't really consider his girls his property. They are their own persons after all. He soon felt his release coming and it was going to possibly be a lot on what's about to come out.

*Grunt* "Cat! I'm cumming!"

After a few more thrusts, he soon emptied himself inside of her. Causing the blonde woman to loudly moan out as she felt his warm essence enter into the deepest parts of her. Cat felt his spunk fill up her womb and she truly enjoyed the feeling. Though she moaned out a little of feeling the slight vacancy inside of her once he pulled out and flopped onto the bed right next to her.

 _ **-Lemon End-**_

Both panted deeply as their widened eyes stared up at the ceiling with sweat covering their forms. Needing to control their breaths on the amazing romp they just had. Of course for the Media Queen, it was pretty much hands down the best sex she ever had. She briefly remembered all of the other times she slept around but they weren't as good as the man lying right next to him.

'Probably because I truly put my heart into it.' Cat thought with a smile. 'I never loved those men to begin with. Just 'toys' to get off back then and whatnot.' She turned her head towards Naruto as she scooted herself a little closer. 'But Naruto… he's so different from them and made me feel complete.'

She touched the side of his head and turned it so she could bring her lips onto his as their tongues encircled each other to keep up their feelings right now. Naruto eventually broke the kiss and smiled a little at her. Of course it wasn't just any smile, Cat realized it was a mischievous one, making her slightly worried for some reason.

"Cat…"

*Panting* "Y-Yes?"

"You up for another round?"

She wasn't able to give him a proper response as Naruto grabbed ahold of her and flipped themselves over with her straddling on top of him. Cat widened her eyes of her feeling how hard he got after the intense love making they just had. She soon let out a chuckle before stretching out a little to pop a few kinks that possibly came up earlier. Cat even unclipped her bra and let them free from their confinement to get more of a rise from her lover.

"Ah what the hell. Another round wouldn't hurt. But only one round for me, not you, since I obviously can't go another round on your end." Was all she said as she got an understanding nod before they continued for just a little longer.

 _ **-Morning, CatCo Worldwide Media-**_

*Ding* The elevator to the main floor of CatCo opened up to reveal several people starting to walk out leaving Kara at the very back of it. She was currently wearing a purple sweater on top of a plaid work dress with black slip on shoes. Around her shoulder was a decent sized purse that had the majority of her feminine needs, along with several things like a copy of her resume just in case.

Kara was here for the assistant position that was currently available. Not just any assistant position for any of the department heads, but the assistant position directly towards Cat Grant herself. She was about to enter the main office area of the company when she ran into someone, causing the two to fall over. The two groaned out a little with Kara shaking her head a little.

"Oh I'm so sorry. I really didn't mean to- Naruto?" She said in a surprised tone.

Rubbing his head a little, Naruto realized who ran into him. "Oh hey Kara." He said with a smile before a questioning look crossed his features. "Uh… What are you doing here?"

"Ah… Well I uh… Have this big interview with Cat Grant, actually."

"Really? What position?"

"Her assistant." She answered before the two of them realized of how close their faces were, along with their current positions as Kara was apparently straddling Naruto's waist. Realizing this, both tried to get back up with faint blushes across their faces. "S-Sorry on that. I-I didn't mean-"

"It's okay Kara. *Cough* Was just a simple accident." The publisher said while trying to advert his eyes. But they seemed to come back a little to the dirty blonde. "You look really great by the way."

"R-Really? Thanks!"

"Okay, next!" Cat called out, making Kara jolt a little on the suddenness.

"...Is that you?"

"Yeah... I think that's me." The dirty blonde muttered as she tried to control her breaths.

"Where's my 10:15?!"

"Any advice Naruto?" Asked the Kryptonian. "You're the head of a famous publishing company. Clearly you know what to do for this."

Naruto could only chuckle a little at her little desperate moment. "Just be yourself Kara and you'll do fine."

"...Right. Myself…. Okay." Was all she said as she left the whiskered man behind her.

"Well good luck Kara." He said to her, in which she smiled back to him. 'You'll need it.'

Walking through the desk islands, Kara made it towards Cat's office. All cleaned up after what happened the previous day of the earthquake. When passing through the glass doors, Kara saw Cat Grant herself sitting at her desk as she went over various documents.

"Ms. Grant?" Kara said getting the blonde woman to glance upwards. "Hi I'm-"

"Oh for god's sake. I thought I told them to not send me any more graduates." Was all Cat said before swerving her chair around to look at the various TV monitors on her back wall.

"...I'm sorry?"

*Sigh* "You are the ultimate example of what is wrong with parenting today…. All that god-awful self-esteem building, everyone is special, everyone gets a trophy, and you all have opinions that you think deserve to be heard. And yet the truth is you need to _earn_ the right to have an opinion in the first place." Cat stated before swerving her chair back around to get a good look at Kara, who was adjusting her glasses. "So, my 10:15, tell me why you're so special."

"...I'm not special, actually." Kara said, getting a raised look from the 'Media Queen'. "I'm not special. There is absolutely nothing special to me." The spectacled woman then sat down in the available chair in front of her as she continued her response. "I'm totally, completely, 100% normal."

"Yes. You are."

"Absolutely. And I am nothing, if not average." Kara said to back up Cat's statement. "Average strength, average hearing, less-than-average vision. *Chuckles* There's… There's nothing out of the ordinary about me."

"Okay, I get it." Cat said in a bored tone as she looked at her workload once again.

"Except, except that I am extremely committed." Stated the Danvers girl as she stood back up. "I care. I'm a hard worker… I just want to help."

Cat glanced at the interviewee before having a hint of a smirk on her lips before it died out. "Hmm… That's refreshing."

"I… I could, uh…" Kara tried to say before glancing about and used her x-ray vision. "I could make pharmacy runs for you, pick up your prescriptions."

Hearing this, Cat have Kara a face that was a mixture of surprise and curiosity. Mostly curiosity in wondering why she brought that up. "...Funny that you should say that."

"Maybe getting you a new pen." The Kryptonian added in, getting a curious look on her face once more. "I think your pen's out of ink from writing all day."

Being cautious now, Cat picked up her pen and used it to write onto her document in front of her… Only to realize that it was indeed out of ink. She was about to grab one of the other ones on her desk before Kara picked one up for her.

"I just wanna be useful. To somebody… I wanna be worthwhile."

"And you're not worthwhile?"

"I haven't done anything to prove it Ms. Grant. Not yet that is."

Cat only folded her fingers as she briefly focused on Kara for a few moments before getting into her personal thoughts. After a few moments, the 'Media Queen' spoke up. "I think you should know that I expect _complete_ and _utter_ devotion to this job." Cat started out, gaining Kara's complete and additional attention. "Are you willing to sacrifice everything in your life to be my assistant?"

Possibly realizing that she just got the position, the spectacled woman responded with a smile. "Yes. Yes of course Ms. Grant."

"And what was your name again?"

"It's Kara Danvers ma'am."

"Okay then _Ker-rah_... I expect you to be here tomorrow morning around eight and don't be late." Cat ordered making the dirty blonde to smile a little, despite the slight name mistake there. "Though I do need you to grab me a venti Chai latte every morning, unless I say otherwise on anything else, and it'll be compensated towards your paychecks. Is that clear?"

"Of course Ms. Grant. You won't regret it." Was all Kara said before she reached her hand out for Cat to shake. The 'Media Queen' paused for a moment or two before she took the new employee's hand and shook it.

"You may go." Was all Cat said as she shooed her new assistant away. Kara smiled and left her office with a slight spring to her step. When she was gone, her new boss rummaged through her workload and found Kara's resume and before pulling out a red marker and wrote on it.

"Mispronouncing names huh?" Naruto spoke out, making Cat jump a little in her seat. "I thought you got out of that phase when we became friends." She soon glared at him, in which he chuckled a little more. "I mean you called me Ruto or Narita for instance."

"What are you doing here Naruto?" She asked in a stern voice. Even though she was happy in seeing him here right now.

"Wanted to hand you this and see how your day was going so far." Said the publisher as he placed a thermos on the table with a little note attached labeled 'Bulletproof'. He soon gazed at the resume in Cat's hand and was a little surprised on what was written on it. "Reporter huh? She gave you that impression, didn't she?"

She smiled at her old friend and gave him a little explanation before pouring out some of her secret favorite coffee into the attached mug. "She gave me a little impression Naruto. Something that you've clearly left on me since you left Metropolis all those years ago."

"Huh… So I rubbed off that little trait huh?" He questioned as he sat down on the corner of her desk. "When will you give her that position?"

"In a few years when Ker-rah fully adjusts into her position and whatnot. Just don't want her inspecting that I'm making her my assistant and end up having a different position instead on her first day. Made that mistake once when I first started this company and it was rough afterwards on the recovery."

*Chuckles* "Don't worry Kitty Cat. It was just an honest mistake."

"True, but asides from that, I guess I saw a bit of myself in her."

"Yeah… I think so too. When we first worked together Cat."

"But not with the strip mall outfit she was wearing." Naruto could only chuckle at her response as he remembered that Cat's wardrobe back then were outfits that were designer labels to some degree. "Though I do wonder if she'll decide to take the plunge when the time is right."

"Yeah... And I think that's good advice for all of us Catherine." Naruto said as he grasped her hand before their fingers interlaced with each other. She didn't say much from there, causing Naruto to show signs of concern. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… I will be… It's just that last night…"

"We took the plunge ourselves." The publisher said, getting a squeeze from her. "I don't regret what happened Cat and neither should you."

It was an awkward morning for the two of them, once they woke up. But things soon went well afterwards once they showered together and had breakfast. They both chatted about their new possible relationship, but more on why Cat did what she did. She confessed that one of her biggest regrets was not doing something in making him stay in Metropolis about five years ago. Regretting on not telling him back then that she was in deeply in love with him. She wanted him to stay with her and raise Adam with her as possibly his father.

"Maybe… But you're with Pamela and-" Cat was silenced by a small kiss on her lips, held for several seconds that felt like an eternity towards her before Naruto pulled away.

"I know Cat and if you want, this can be more than a one time thing between us." He said in a calm tone. "I told you on what happened with Pam and me trying to see other people this morning. I still admit it's odd for me to do this, but… but last night felt right. Right?"

"Yeah… It did." She bit her lip in response as she took a deep breath to cool herself off from the memories last night. "Though what about us Naruto? I don't think we could really be together. My career and reputation would get hurt in the process."

"Then we could maybe be… friends with benefits?" Naruto said in making the 'Media Queen' to think on it a little as they let go of their hands. "Possibly whenever we visit each other, we can meet up and-"

"I know what it means Naruto… and… and maybe I can be fine with that. But I'd like to explore more if we have the chance to do so." Cat said with a small smile before Naruto got off from her desk and helped her out a little in the office. Spending time together for the day before Naruto headed out to grab his possible lover her lunch and later dinner after getting off of work.

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

*Sigh* "What a day." A pale, dark haired woman said as she walked into her apartment. "So many souls to deliver as of late."

Life and Death is a universal concept, no matter when and where, in any reality or dimension; it always happens. With Death of the Endless, it's her literal job occupation since the very first mortal being came into existence. Being there when any soul is brought into the world and being there when the person dies.

Her main role is to guide the departed souls into the next plain of existence. Whether it be Heaven, Hell, Limbo or the Well of Incarnations with the former three dealing with their respective Pantheons. It tends to be quite confusing with how many religions and groups there are, so just leave it be. Though Death tends to leave certain departed souls on the mortal plain so she'll come back to some of them once her workload lightens up. Some are even left alone, depending if they catch Death on a good mood, until they want to see their 'unfinished business' fulfilled.

People are a mix bag in terms when they are greeted by her. They can be accepting, fearful or somewhere in between. Death has accepted this in the countless years of her existence. Though she tries to greet each of the souls with a pleasant smile to help ease them when going to their next destination.

This can be tiring for her, even back then, hence she had many Aspects of Death to help out in her workload. From the different pantheons in existence with a personification of Death, like the Thanatos and Set of the Greek and Egyptian religions respectively. To the Death of certain elements that could be hard to truly take care of; like the Black/Rot of Nature, the Black Racer/Black Flash of the Speed Force and the Black Lanterns of the Light Spretrum.

In the words of her younger brother, Destruction, she isn't the personification of Death… She _is_ the concept of Death. Death is Death. But an interesting thing about her concept is this: Death brings Life and Life brings Death.

In her long existence, she has seen realities and 'Earths' die and be reborn time and time again. She was even stuck in one of those 'Earths' when this happened and in that time; Death was alone, went crazy and came to acceptance of being alone until she felt things start back up again. Existence came knocking on her apartment door on those times and like every other time, she was curious on how this happened.

Especially since this recently happened with one of the 'Earths'. But unlike the first time of being trapped, she got out just in time. Now Death just has to wait for her little 'Existance phone line' to go off for said 'Earths' and she'll get back to work in those realities, just like several other ones.

Death flopped onto her couch and rested for a moment before setting her gaze at her pet goldfish. "Well Goldie, I think I've got a few free hours for myself? What should I do until I get back to work? Read a book? Watch a movie, TV show or stage production? Or should I check on some people?"

This is the usual set of questions Death asks her little companion every so often. With her constant workload, she rarely has time just for herself and in those times, Death gets easily bored. So she tries to find some entertainment or do some little personal chores.

…..

"Oh yeah…" Death drolled out as she massaged her head in slight frustration. "I completely forgot to talk to him/her on that. Thanks for reminding me Goldie."

Getting off the piece of furniture, she made her way towards a particular room of her apartment. She entered the room and flipped the light switch to see a small gallery with six portraits with pedestals in front of each of them. And on top of each pedestal, there's a particularly unique item that symbolizes each of her siblings of the Endless. A chain bounded book for Destiny, a mirrormask for Dream, a dagger for Destruction, a glass heart for Desire, a claw-like ring for Despair, and a kaleidoscope colored butterfly for Delirium.

Reaching towards the glass heart, Death picked it up and sat on the nearby chair before speaking into it. "Hello sister/brother. It's me, big sister Death. I'm standing in my gallery and I hold your sigil… I'd like to talk to you."

There was a slight hum coming off of the glass heart before a masculine, yet feminine voice (or a feminine, yet masculine voice) spoke from the object.

" _My oh my. Why if it isn't you dear sister. This is certainly a surprise to hear from you… Almost an event I dare say."_

"With how rarely we talk or interact, it's quite understandable."

*Chuckles* _"All so very true… So why are you calling me in the first place? I was about to watch the latest episode of All my Children when you decided to speak to me."_

Death could only shake her head a little on one of her little sibling's hobbies/interests that is sometimes shared with his/her twin sibling: soap operas. Romance, tragedy and melodrama scenarios rolled into one. Something that both Desire and Despair sometimes enjoy watching together that isn't happening in real life… or is actually happening in a different reality.

Desire is everything you have ever wanted. Whoever you are. Whatever you are. Everything. S/He has loads of interests and hobbies that works well with his/her occupation. Like going to a variety of clubs for instance to sate his/her 'appetites'.

"Reason why I'm calling Desire is that just the other day, I came across something while I was on the clock in National City."

" _Really?... And what pray tell is it Death?"_

"I saw a particular couple having a pleasantly nice dinner when I saw someone with your mark flaring up."

For those that are not in the know, the Endless can bestow their marks on people of interests. Whether they be people who caught one of the siblings' attention or someone of great importance. But when marking certain individuals, it varys on how it is given like Delirium asking permission to give her mark or Destiny silently marking someone that has a grand role to fulfill.

Desire hummed in thought on his/her end of the line before speaking up. _"Well it could be anyone honestly. I mean, I've marked a lot of people and it's hard to keep track at times."_

"Then I'll help you out on the name sister/brother. The woman's name is Catherine Grant or Cat Grant for short."

" _...Oh yeah… I forgot I marked the Media Queen of National City. I think that was about seven years ago if my memory serves correctly. So why are you bringing her up Death?"_

"It's because of who she was with exactly that goes by the name Naruto Uzumaki."

" _Really? Huh... didn't know she was into him."_ Desire stated with surprise in his/her voice. _"He wrote a good set of porn and his recent epic poem that I seem to enjoy."_

"Don't lie to me Desire." Death stated in a stern voice. "I know some of your methods and I do not like how you toy around with people. So tell me the truth."

 _*Sigh* "There's no escaping you, is there?... No matter the method, no matter how one hides it, the truth will always come to you in the end."_

"It's what I _Desire_ right now little sister/brother: answers. And I'd like them now."

" _...Ask away…"_

"Why have you marked Cat Grant in the first place and you better not lie to me or else the results will be unpleasant."

"Well~ I wanted to pay Naruto back for what he did by getting dear brother Destruction to come back from his self-exile of his, that's all." Stated the younger Endless sibling. "Saw them together the other day and I thought that Cat would've been a nice edition to his little love-shape relationship."

It was a couple of months ago when Destruction and his faithful companion, Barnabas the Dog, decided to come in contact with Delirium, before being dragged by the youngest of the siblings to meet back with the others. It was a nice little get together when Delirium borrowed Destiny's gallery to call everyone that their long lost brother came back home. It was quite pleasant to say the least. But during the little get together, Olethros told the family that he won't be taking up his previous occupation since things are still moving forward without him being apart of it.

Things were a bit expected in the results with Destiny and Dream since both wanted Olethros to get back doing what he did best, but he shot them down hard. Delirium, Despair and Death were fine with Olethros' decision since they were just glad that their brother was back. And as for Desire, s/he was neutral on the whole situation.

"I don't think that's the whole truth Desire."

" _...How so?"_

"Because roughly seven years ago, when I came to collect Joe Morgan, I saw your mark on both him and Cat Grant. Joe's was obvious with him desiring a legacy and would've done anything to secure his unborn child. But the mark you gave Cat is old, not freshly made. I can tell the difference on how long one's mark has been placed onto people."

" _...I forgot about that."_

"So tell me, dear sibling, why did you mark Cat Grant?"

*Groan* _"I just wanted a good drama to watch and when I came across the reporter at the one bar, she was quite interesting once I heard her tale."_ Answered the young Endless sibling as s/he felt that s/he was backed into a corner now. _"How she was confused on her feelings on her closest friend and I decided to give her a little push… with an interesting flare into the mix."_

Death was not pleased when hearing this from her younger sibling and spoke out in a tone of voice that would've scared many if they'd heard it. **"Listen carefully Desire and listen well. We of the endless are the servants of the living,** _ **not**_ **their rulers.** _ **We**_ **exist because of them. We** _ **don't**_ **manipulate them. In fact, they can actually manipulate us. Each of us of the Endless should know of this."**

" _W-What are you talking about?"_ Despair asked in a frightened tone as s/he never heard his/her sister speak this way to anyone before. _"I-I don't understand."_

" **...Then let me tell you something that will make you understand Desire. Do not interfere with the lives connected with Naruto Uzumaki, since he has a much bigger role to play since he came here. If you do, then I might possibly bring Hell upon you… And don't think that you have enough power to go up against Dream, Destiny or I. You are not that strong to go up against the three eldest, much less each of us on our own."**

Death was about to end the call when Desire spoke up with a curious tone to his/her voice. _"Why are you so interested in him in the first place Death? This isn't like you at all."_

"There is nothing to talk about Naruto Desire." The second eldest sibling said as she rose from her seat to place the glass heart sigil back onto its pedestal. "We are done."

" _We are not done, dear sister. You are clearly defending him all of a sudden. Someone that you never took any real interests in since I've known-"_ *Click*

Death had let out a frustrated sigh once she ended the call. Her mood was ruined on what to do for the rest of her free time for the day. So she went towards her apartment door and opened it to head back to work. Once exiting her residence, she muttered her little mantra as she locked the door. Something to remind her on what she is and why she does in a daily basis.

"I'm _not_ blessed, _or_ merciful. I'm just _me_. I've got a _job_ to do and I _do_ it."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Now you people might be wondering on the idea on why I possibly like Cat Grant, well I sympathise with her very much. She had been dealt with a bad relationship in her past, causing her custody battles with her son Adam to which she won in the end. She went through a really bad time in her life when given the opportunity to interview the Justice League, but was rendered unconscious by Selina Kyle/Catwoman to infiltrate the place. So she lost that great opportunity, which hurt her career badly. And To top it all off, Toyman killed her son Adam.**

 **Yeah she had to deal with a lot with the earlier stuff being some examples.**

 **So with Cat Grant, I'm iffy on having her being in the harem at this time. Despite them having their odd night of romance in the chapter since I had this urge to write it out for them. And just so you readers know, not every woman Naruto sleeps with will be in the harem as they could be 'friends with benefits' until things seem appropriate to get the specific girl into the main romance of things. So consider this an iffy one time thing between the two of them at the current time.**

 **And with that, it's just because I'm not entirely comfortable yet on writing relationships that are long distant at times. Hell sometimes I don't know all that well if such relationships could work out well to begin with. My older sister and her boyfriend turned husband earlier this year had a long distant relationship for several years and they worked out well in the end. Sometimes I wonder how that works.**

 **But anyways, I just needed to put this little bit down that the idea of Cat Grant being with Naruto will be put on hold until later in the story. Don't worry folks, I have a plan for this situation when the time comes so don't complain or whatever. I'm just trying to make things a little realistic in terms of seeing someone.**

 **Imagine that you are in a relationship with someone that lives so far away that it'll be difficult to see said person quite often. Taking time out of your schedule to actually see said person will be quite stressful if you ask me. So the current thought of Naruto going over to National City too often via airplane would be too time consuming and I don't want to deal with that. Hence the idea I have for later in the story and I'm not going to spoil it.**

 **Hell, same goes with seeing episodes pertaining to Arrow and the Flash that I can't be doing them too often with terms of travel. Hence I'll be doing chapters with said series as 'crossover' chapters, depending on which ones seem appropriate when the time comes to when I write them. So don't be asking on that topic please.**

 **Also for those that are wondering about the possible relationship between Naruto and Kara, don't worry we'll see more of this way down the line of the story. Just not too soon actually. So once again, don't ask me on this topic for a while.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	35. Trust Your Instincts

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 32: Trust Your Instincts**

It was in the dead of night with the full moon at its peak, shining it's lunar light upon Gotham City. Nothing seemed amiss as the majority of it's residents were either asleep or working the late night hours. Though with the later, that can be quite said with a pair of shadowy figures scurrying their way towards one part of the city. They would've made it towards their destination faster, but for the thrill this evening the two went for the old fashioned approach.

The two figures soon reached their destination: a heavily guarded japanese styled mansion belonging to businessman Hideo Katsu. The man has been questioned as his late in terms of investigations, but no success has been proven on his other activities… so far. Inside of his residence lies a vast, extensive collection of antiques. In which the two figures were targeting this evening.

Standing ontop of one of the rooftops of the estate grounds, the moon was briefly shown from some passing clouds to reveal Vanitas and Catwoman (with Isis around her neck) observing the patrol.

"Are you sure you want to do this Selina?"

"I'm pretty sure honey." Said the confident thief. "I'm getting paid on doing this and I thought it'll be a great bonding experience."

Selina was anonymously hired by someone to steal a particular jade lion statue from Katsu's gallery. She was going to decline, but the amount for her services were pretty big that it was hard for her to turn down. Upon a bit of research on the man being quite shady, Ms. Kyle decided to take the job help with back up of her now robbing those of questionable nature.

Using this little job, she dragged her lover along for the ride so she can do her thing while Naruto could find incriminating evidence against the businessman.

"Uh huh… Though I don't see much bonding as it were with me finding Katsu's office and you snag that statue."

"...Well if you put it like that, then what's the point honestly." She responded with a cutesy pout that made him roll his eyes at this.

"Maybe we can hit the man's office first before his gallery… You know, business before pleasure?" Naruto suggested, getting his dark haired lover to momentarily gaze at him before looking back at the patrols. "I mean, you told me once before you wanted me to see how you work when getting incriminating documents. So maybe this'll be a good chance to do so." She didn't relent, but stiffened slightly when feeling his arms around her and brought her into a comforting hug from behind before whispering into her ear. "And I'd _really_ like to see how you work Selina, in both getting said documents and snagging your target tonight."

Feeling a little hot under the collar now, she leaned and rubbed herself slightly onto him. "Hmm… You somewhat know the sweetest things to say to me Naruto."

"Somewhat?"

She got out of his hold and gave him a coy smile. "After these months being together, you don't know everything about me. It'll take a long time for you to know every detail about me."

He chuckled under his helm before speaking. "Then I believe we've got plenty of time to do so… But we can talk about that later Selina, let's get this done and over with."

The two jumped down as Vanitas made a silence field around them so they wouldn't be heard by any of the patrolmen. Even though they weren't giving off any sounds, the two were still careful on their approach when entering the building. They kept checking their corners while passing every other corridor so they wouldn't get spotted. There were close calls when opening every door to hopefully find Katsu's office, but after a good number of minutes the lovers found it.

"This guy is obviously compensating for something." Selina muttered as she eyed the heavily decorated office.

"Maybe making himself look more handsome to balance out his ugliness." Her lover responded with a shrug, earning a little chuckle from the thief. This caused Isis to wake up and jump off of her 'mother's' shoulders and walked about.

They soon searched the room by lifting up paintings for a potential wall safe, checked behind bookcases for a secret passage way, and even looked through his filing cabinets and drawers. Nothing could be found find that would've been valuable evidence against the businessman. The two were about to head on out to find the gallery when Isis called out to them.

"What is it girl?" The thief asked before seeing Isis paw something against a piece of furniture. Upon closer inspection, she saw faint indentations against the wall. "It's probably nothing."

"Looks can be deceiving Selina." Spoke the hero as he crouched down and pushed the furniture slightly. He inspected the piece of wall with his finger and felt a hidden keypad behind the wallpaper. "Well… Seems Isis is getting some nice tuna and chicken once we get back for finding this. Good girl."

Isis purred in response as her 'father' petted her in just the right places, along with knowing she is being gratefully rewarded for finding the keypad.

Turning on the scanner in his helmet, Vanitas saw fingerprints onto the wallpaper in a precise order. Trying out his luck, he let his instincts drive him and carefully typed down the desired sequence. Nothing worked at first until Naruto saw faint fingerprint traces a bit lower and fully got the idea.

"#-5-6-3-2-*" He muttered as he pressed the buttons. Soon a small compartment opened up on the floor that had a variety of documents stored.

"First try? Man you're really lucky Naruto." She said with a wide eyed look before it narrowed. "Give me some of that luck next time."

"It wasn't luck… I just followed my instincts and it worked." Not wanting to waste time, Selina pulled out her camera and took pictures of each and every document in the compartment before closing it while Naruto got the furniture back in place. Neither wanted Tatsu to know that someone was in his office once they left. "Now let's find Tatsu's gallery."

When finding the gallery, it was actually a little quicker than finding the office with the entrance being grander looking doors. Once entering, the two saw a vast collection of Asian, Japanese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Korean antiquities. Greed soon gleaned from the thief's eyes as she practically drooled of the amount of jewels shown in varying displays. But her lover snapped her out of her trance by grasping her shoulder and turning her around.

"We aren't here for those Selina. We're here for the lion, remember?" He stated, causing her to scratch the back of her head and nervously chuckle at her expense.

"Oh, yeah. Right." Her eyes soon landed on the prize for the evening as the jade lion was presented on a pedestal on the far side of the room. "Me-ow~" She was going to walk forward when Vanitas grabbed her and pulled her back. "Okay. What's the big idea now?"

Nothing was answered right away as the hero pulled out a can from his belt and sprayed it's contents into the air, revealing a moving security laser grid protecting the gallery. "I don't know about you Catwoman, but I think you're ignoring your instincts as of late."

"I am not."

"Yes you are." She could only glare back, causing him to sigh in response. "Can we do this when we get out of here, please?"

 _ **-Insert Ocean's Twelve: Laser Dance Song-**_

Nothing was said from the thief as picked up Isis off of her and placed the cat in his arms. Turning around and walked away several feet before turning back to run into the laser grid. Before getting close, she performed several front handspring flips. Twisting her body around several times so they wouldn't touch the laser grid before landing right in the middle of the grid. Adjusting herself, Catwoman moved about in a sensual manner when avoiding the security beams.

Having to duck down several times, she arched her back and slowly flipped over and firmly placed her feet in front of her. Using her back muscles, Catwoman pulled herself back up and ducked once again before moving her feet in a sweeping fashion to get away from the traveling light. Getting back up, she performed several cartwheels to get closer to the end of the gallery.

She was almost there when her feet slipped and fell onto the ground. Selina berated herself on this, but soon rolled out of the way from the incoming lasers. She did have to stop towards the end and suck in a lot of air to help lower her chest before exhaling once the last laser past by her. Quickly getting back up, she did a front roll to get out of the laser grid and ended up right in front of the pedestal.

"How's that for 'ignoring my instincts'?" She said as she glanced back at the gallery entrance, only to find Vanitas and Isis missing. "Where'd you go?"

"Right here."

"GAH!" Selina jumped in her suit as she quickly turned around to see him standing there with Isis looking right at her 'mother'. "H-How did you get here so fast?!"

"...I walked around the gallery Selina." He answered, pointing to the narrow areas where the lasers weren't touching. "It wasn't that hard. Though nice show there."

The thief's eyes started to madly twitch at this before seeing her 'baby' giving her an odd smile, knowing that Isis probably found this amusing. "It's not that funny."

"Let's just finish this up please." Once again, no response as she just walked past him and grabbed the statue. Realizing of a possible security measure, he called out to her. "Selina wait!"

But it was too late as she lifted the jade lion and smiled back at him. "What's the big deal? Nothing happened."

*BWEEE* *BWEEE* "BWEEE* *BWEEE*

"It had a pressure sensor Selina!" He yelled out as he grabbed ahold of her and formed a giant card underneath them. "Hang on! We are getting out of here now!"

Commanding his construct to float, the two soon zoomed and phased right out of the building. Just in time as several guards came rushing into the gallery with the alarms still blazing. Finding the source in the disturbance, they saw the jade lion statue missing on the far side of the room.

"Well shit. Katsu's going to be pissed."

"Definitely… Though we should blame him for not having better security measures."

"...Like security cameras for instance?" One of the guards stated as he looked around the room for any sign of them. "He got moving laser grids installed but he forgot to get cameras. But seriously though, anyone could just walk right in here and steal all this stuff."

Coming to the realization of this, the other guards looked around and smirked before going to some of the displays, took some of Tatsu's belongings and bolted out of there to officially quit their jobs.

 _ **-Selina's and Shizune's Loft-**_

Getting back to the loft was rather quick for the two. Then again with the very moment the alarms went off made the masked publisher push their transport faster. If his girlfriend was caught in the act, then she'd be sent back to prison and that would not be great.

"Don't know if it's just me," Selina stated as she pulled back her mask off of her head, "but I'm so glad to be back here." Going to her sofa, she dropped the bagged prize onto one of the cushions before sitting down.

The publisher nodded in agreement as his suit went up in smoke. "So since that is done and over with, what should be done with the jade lion?"

"I'd need to drop it off for the buyer." Answered the thief before her eyes landed on the camera in his hands. "And are you going to develop those photos now?"

"Well not now-now. Just a little later with a clone doing the work." As much as he'd like to get these done and over with before dropping them off to the GCPD, Naruto wants to fully relax for a little bit with no clones or anything else for that matter. "And of the buyer? Do you need any backup?"

"I'm sure I can take care of myself honey. You can trust me on that."

"But the buyer is anonymous Selena. He could be some creep that would maybe try to kidnap you or something..."

She raised a brow at her lover as he went on with odd scenarios pertaining to her safety. Even Isis, who was currently on her mother's lap, looked at her father oddly. Having enough of his paranoid ranting, Selina got up and walked towards Naruto before placing her lips onto his to shut him up for a kiss.

Once parting the lip lock, the ravenette patted his cheek slightly with a cheeky smirk. "You can be such a worrywort sometimes."

"Yes but it does help at times with me being paranoid… to some degree." He responded before he kissed her once again.

"And yet his ass has been kicked more times than I can count." A voice called out from the kitchen area, making the two lovers whirl towards that direction. "But he has done his best to make up for that."

"Who are you?" Naruto demanded as he got into a fighting stance. "What do you want?"

The two only heard a slight scoff before the voice spoke once again. "Geeze, such hostility Naruto... Then again I have come here unannounced, so I apologize for that." Wasn't long after the man spoke that the lights were flipped on to reveal...

"Kurama? The hell are you doing here?" Naruto asked in bewilderment as he saw the crime lord sipping from one of Selina's tea cups.

Selina was in a similar expression as her lover as she wondered why the humanoid Bijuu was here. The thief only knew him from the memories she saw in Naruto's mindscape some months ago and only saw his human appearance for a brief moment. And like Naruto, she too wondered why he was here.

"Several things really." Was the Bijuu's response as he placed the cup down onto the kitchen counter. "Mostly seeing how things were going for you lately."

"And yet you would already know that with that network of yours."

Kurama chuckled. "True. So I might as well get to the point of me being here." Turning towards the cat burglar, he spoke. "I'm here to finish our business arrangement Ms. Kyle."

"...Excuse me?"

"I should probably remind you what I'm paying for exactly." Kurama mock sighed as he pointed his clawed hand towards the bag on the couch. "I'm here for that."

Realization dawned onto the lovers as Selina voiced their thoughts. "You're the buyer?"

"Yup and I gotta say Naruto, but you were quite rude on saying such things towards me." The crime lord pouted that didn't sit right with his appearance. "And with all that we've been through together."

"Right… And yet the majority of our time 'together' was you just napping in my gut while I got my ass handed to me, as you put it."

"Once again true." Walking towards the couch, Kurama reached for the bag as Isis moved out of the way. "Good kitty."

"I do have a question for you though." Selena spoke towards the redhead in the room. "Why hire me to get that for you?"

Pulling the jade lion out of the bad, Kurama spoke as he inspected the statue. "I wanted to test you out a little on your skills from what I've heard."

"...And?"

"And I wanted to finally meet the last of Naruto's mates today." Was all the Bijuu said as he tossed the statue towards Naruto, who caught it with an alarmed expression.

"You did what now?"

"Meeting your girlfriend's Naruto and I gotta say both of them were entertaining in their own right." Kurama stated before he listed them off. "Harleen was interesting when I spoke with her at Arkham as she tried to psychoanalyze me the entire time. And I gotta admit she had hit several things right on the nose, which I'm glad she promises to keep things between strictly doctor-patient confidentiality.

Pamela was an odd case, when I visited her once you two left, as I felt nature wafting around her. So much, that given time, she could possibly rival Hashirama's strength when he was alive. And she was such a nice host once I gave her some rare and exotic plants for her garden outside of city borders."

Naruto didn't know what to do at this point now as he heard the compliments towards his other girlfriends. He'll obviously need to talk to them when he has a chance just in case Kurama made them unsettled in their conversations with him. Though all that he could say one thing on this moment. "Thanks, I suppose."

"Though I wish I could've chatted with that daughter of yours." Shrugged the Bijuu as Naruto and Selina stiffened slightly. "But she's currently having that sleepover with Harley's 'nieces' I believe so I couldn't get a good, personal assessment from her."

"Rachel's not my daughter Kurama." Naruto corrected as he stared his former tenant down slightly. "She's my ward."

"Doesn't seem that way when I chatted with your lovers, since they told me that you've been quite the father to her ever since she's been in your care."

Selina couldn't help but silently agree with the man's statement as she looked over to her boyfriend. Despite being Rachel's guardian, Naruto has acted more like her father than he realized. On nights when she woke up screaming from nightmares, Naruto was there to calm her down and stayed with her throughout the rest of the night. Rachel got his full attention whenever needed and he'd get her everything she wanted, even though it's very little she desires.

Wanting to move back to the subject at hand, Selina spoke towards the unexpected guest in her loft. Even as she looked at the jade lion in Naruto's grasps. "What did you need this statue for anyways?"

Looking at the object in question, Kurama spoke towards the publisher. "Mind phasing your hand through the statue please?"

"What for?"

"Just humor me."

Not getting what Kurama was getting at, Naruto complied so he can get the furball out of Selina's loft. He slowly phased his opened hand through the statue's body slowly and was going to leave it like that. But as he did so, Naruto felt something in his hands.

"The hell?" He said before looking at his hand to see a floppy disk. "Why was that in there?"

Walking over to his former landlord, Kurama snatched the disk from Naruto's grasp. "Because Katsu put it there for starters." Seeing their curious expressions, the crime lord explained. "Hideo went to such lengths to hide this from me so his underworld connections wouldn't get exposed as he tried to weasel his way into Gotham's underbelly from Japan. And I had my suspicions in where he kept this, but I wanted to be sure."

"And the point in hiring Selina? Couldn't you have Anko or Claudia get this for you?"

"I would've, but where was the point." Stated the Bijuu, earning an eye twitch from the former shinobi. "Though the thought did cross my mind, but I did remember about Selina needing some work so I wanted to hire her for this endeavour. Possibly hire her for future ones if the situations present themselves."

"She will do no such thing Kurama!"

"Oh~ And why not?"

"Because I'm pretty sure she's not going to be safe while involved with you!"

"Hey!" Selina spoke out as she walked in front of Naruto. "I can speak for myself you know!"

"Selina…"

"Naruto, I can understand you being concerned for my safety on this situation. But you need to remember I've done this far longer than you've known me. And my life has been in danger time and time again. So whatever offer he has for me, I can accept it or not since I'm quite certain he needs my willing consent to do so."

As much as he'd hate to admit it, Selina was right. She is her own woman and has the right to do and say whatever she wants to… as long as it's not really illegal or anything in that nature since Selina's been thieving around and help deliver justice in Gotham.

'And I really don't wanna get into that argument with her again like that time when Magpie broke out of Arkham.' He thought before speaking to the human Bijuu. "Okay... She could work with you, not _for_ you, since I don't really know what kind of assignments you'd give her."

"It'll mostly be stealing artifacts or sensitive documents from specific people in mind. Something that Selina here knows quite well, mind you." Kurama stated his intentions as he looked at the ravenette in question. "After all, she is a freelance thief with an environmentalist cover… before her arrest got that blown wide open back in January."

"Right… And is there anything else I should know about this possible position your offering?" She asked with a curious glance.

"We can discuss terms for the contract on a later date Ms. Kyle, but I'll be sure to not have anything too demeaning of your expertise. Even on certain… assignments, since I'm going to let either Anko or Copperhead deal with those ones."

Not knowing on how to respond on that, Selina just nodded in understanding.

"Then I best be off. Need to look over this disk and do some clean up work." Kurama said as he slipped the floppy disk into his suit jacket. "As for talking or locating me, ask Naruto to help you out."

"And where's my payment?"

"Hmm?"

"I was getting paid for this, right?" Emphasising her point, Selina pointed towards the jade lion in Naruto's grasp.

"Oh that? Keep it. It's worth at the valued price I messaged you. Possibly more, depending on who you sell it to." As fire appeared beneath Kurama's feet as it slowly started to consume him, he spoke out one last thing before leaving the loft. "And by the way, your welcome on the Penguin debacle."

Once the Bijuu was gone, Selina walked over to where he left and crouched down to inspect the floor. "I hope he didn't leave any burn marks or else I'm gonna kick his ass."

"He probably didn't." Naruto responded as Isis jumped into his arms before being petted once the jade lion was placed onto the couch. "Though he has done that to my office at work a few times and it was a bitch to clean off of my carpet. Probably did those just out of spite on having a bad day or wanting to annoy me."

Getting back up from her inspection, with no scorch marks left behind, she had a curious look on her face. "What I don't get is why he mentioned Penguin and me thanking him."

"Oh yeah… that."

"...Is there something you're not telling me?"

He would've held his hands up in surrender, but they were currently occupied by the black cat in the room. "I was going to bring that up Selina, honest. But I just… forgot to mention it."

"Mind explaining then?" She demanded with a narrowed glance that made Naruto nervously chuckle. All that he could do at this moment was he mentally beat his past self on not explaining sooner.

 _ **-Days Later, Spiral Publishing-**_

'As much as I'd like to use clones right now, I don't want to be caught in the act so suddenly.' Thought the publisher as he went through document after document so far today. 'I sometimes wonder how Sarutobi and Tsunade dealt with this in the past without clones is beyond me.'

Getting up from his seat to shake his legs, with them falling slightly asleep for the past hour, Naruto had been going through a lot of things on his list for today. Signing many documents for his Starling City branch opening and seeing who will be good for the transfers over there. Not only that, but he had books he needed to go over that he hoped wouldn't take too long with his speed reading. All consisting from R.L. Stein on both his Goosebumps and Fear Street series.

Though with his ever present workload, with the possibility of it growing today, he might have to use clones to help take care of it while he slipped out with no one noticing. Naruto did promise to take Harley and Rachel to the arcade sometime today to have some fun. And there was no way he'd break any promises.

His desk phone started to beep, indicating that his secretary needed to speak with him. Pressing the button on his desk phone, Naruto answered the call. "Yes Jillian?"

" _Your appointment at 11:30 is here."_

"Ah yes. Send him in." It wasn't long until the door to his office was opened to reveal the man Naruto wanted to see. "Hello Mr. Trent. Hope your day so far is doing well."

Simon Trent is a man in his late 50's, with his grey hair slicked back and his light grey eyes to match. His weathered features held strong over the years, but with what he had to endure was shown. Simon was currently wearing a red button up shirt, dark pants and shoes with a brown jacket.

"It's doing quite well Mr. Uzumaki." Simon said as Naruto came up from his seat to shake his hand. "And thank you for asking."

"Your welcome."

"And before we get started, I just wanted to say that I've love some of your novels since they've been a great read. Especially with your Loveless novel."

"Why thank you Simon." Naruto said with a small chuckle. "Would you like some refreshments? Something to drink perhaps?"

"Just water." Going over to the small fridge in his office, Naruto pulled out some bottled waters he keeps on hand for people he would have appointments with. "You know, I was surprised to get a phone call from you the other day."

"Life can be quite unexpected in one's perspective." The publisher stated as he handed the man the bottled water.

"True, but asking me to come here about a potential book deal was something I didn't expect."

"I know that Simon, but with your fame being rekindled after what happened last month, I heard opportunity knocking."

On what Naruto was referring to was during his time back West were a series of events that took place in Gotham. One of them pertained to Simon Trent specifically as he was involved with a string of mass bombings that happened all over the city. It was crazy on what happened and Naruto wished he could've been here to stop those from happening. And in an interview, Simon Trent explained on what happened and how he was involved in the bombings.

You see, Simon was once a great actor that portrayed a character named The Grey Ghost from the same show his character was named from. The show was a hit among fans back in the 50's and 60's, but once the show ended it eventually caused problems for the actor. Simon was too well known as The Grey Ghost and all of the auditions he did for other roles couldn't really take him on.

As years went by, his bank accounts started drying out and forced to sell his shows memorabilia to make ends meet. At one point, he sold what remote controlled cars he had in his possession to an innocent toy collector and store owner. But this act would eventually rear it's ugly head back around, which happened last month.

A string of bombings happened and Batman was on the case. Though after some investigation, the Dark Knight tracked the actor down to find out more on details with the bombings. Reason being was that recent events reminded the hero an episode of the Grey Ghost named 'The Mad Bomber' on the exact details used in said episode.

Simon didn't explain on how he teamed up with the Gotham hero, since it was something very personal to him, but in the end the two were able to catch the Mad Bomber. Turned out the one toy collector was in fact behind the attacks with Trent's remote controlled cars to hold the city ransom for a fortune. And after what happened, Simon was inspired from his team up of a lifetime to release the entire series filmed footage.

This action got Simon Trent back on the map as new and old fans alike fell in love with the show as it went back on the air. This got people investing money to get the entire series to VHS tapes and from what the publisher heard, the event will be happening sometime later this month. And this gave Naruto an idea to get his business more profit and to help a man desperate for an honest pay after so many years.

"Still though, why come to me for a book deal?" Questioned the actor. "I'm not that good of a writer at all to tell you the truth. Not even the time when I helped write the script on one of The Grey Ghost episodes that it was just more on input really."

"I know that, but I have told you over the phone that I could be interested in publishing your memoirs. Knowing stories on most of your life, both good and bad. The ups and downs on what you had to deal with could be an interesting read to your growing fan base."

"I don't know about that Mr. Uzumaki." Simon stated as he scratched his head. "I don't feel comfortable in writing a lot about my life."

"And it's quite understandable really. I've published several autobiographies and I came across the same action each of those people stated. And to tell you Mr. Trent, it's your novel and you can write whatever you want with it. You don't have to put absolutely _everything_ in there you know, just subjects that you think are comfortable for you to jot down.

Take Robert Reed for example. I ended up publishing his autobiography and it was quite interesting on what I read on what he put down. Stating that despite him being successful when The Brady Bunch ran it's course, he absolutely despised his role. He considered himself a real actor and thought the role he was in was beneath him.

So most people don't even get to do the Brady Bunch of the thing they want to do with their lives. You're in a really good position at this moment because you can pretty much do anything you want now with your recent success. So you're responsible for your own happiness, despite on the struggles you've dealt with. And you've worked hard to try and land an acting role for a long time now, but with recent events you could get back out there in what you truly love to do."

"...I guess you're right on that." Simon soon saw the publisher pull off a folder from one of his desk drawers and opened it up to reveal a company checkbook. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Naruto rhetorically asked. "I'm writing you a check."

"B-But I haven't agreed to signing on with you."

"I know that Mr. Trent, but I want to at least help you out on this endeavor." Pulling the check out, the publisher handed the slip of paper to the aging actor. "So I hope this amount could help as a start up for you to get writing about the parts of your life you want others to possibly read about."

Taking a look at the check, Simon had to pull his collar slightly when seeing the amount written down. "Didn't expect to see this amount."

"Consider it a down payment. And, if needed, I could get you in touch with one of our ghost writers. He or she could help you out on this opportunity."

"...Can I at least think about it?"

"Yes and if you want to accept the offer, deposit the check and contact me so we can get started. If not, still contact me and turn down the check so I can cancel it."

Nodding in understanding, Simon shook Naruto's hand before heading out of the office. Though before he could leave, he turned around and spoke. "Still thank you for offering me this opportunity Mr. Uzumaki. I think it might mean a lot to me, along with people enjoying the old show again."

"You're very welcome Mr. Trent. And good luck out there." Seeing the man smile at him one last time, Simon left Naruto's office to deal with what he needs to do next. With the actor gone, Naruto looked at the clock before seeing his workload.

"Hmm… Maybe I should head out now." Creating a clone, Naruto pulled out his phone and called Harley to see if she's still good in meeting him at the arcade with Rachel. Not with his clone, but himself so it would feel a little bit better for both parties.

 _ **-Later, Wonder City Arcade-**_

"Wonder what games the owner now has on display." Naruto said as he, Harley and Rachel entered through the front doors of the establishment.

"I heard there are several out right now that are all the rage." Harley added in with anticipation in her voice.

"I do hope the owner got the games Artemis and I suggested."

"We'll have to see for ourselves Rachel." Her guardian said as the group went up to the counter to pay for their tokens. "Remember, the owner can't get all of the games all at once or else customers wouldn't be all that interested on the releases."

For years, Wonder City Arcade has been a hangout spot for several generations with the original owner growing up at the time when Gotham was called Wonder City. As years past, his next of kin kept up the business by adding in new attractions to the arcade. And once computer and video games started hitting the market in the 70's and 80's, the owner at the time wanted to incorporate them to keep up with the newer generations. Even maintaining the steampunk decorations as years went by to keep the atmosphere alive.

"Same thing goes with bookstores I take it." Harley guessed, earning a nod from her boyfriend. "Yeah I remember this one place I used to go to wouldn't release all of this one book series all at once in order to maximize profits."

"Pretty much."

Once the party got their tokens, they made their way to find what new games were in stock or what they could be fine with playing with. Harley had spotted a few weren't there before, assuming they were new. From Wolfenstein, Dune 2 and Doom apparently being shooters while the new X-Men game and one Bucky O'Hare being side scrollers.

Getting closer one of her favorite arcade games called Dragon's Lair, Harley spotted a familiar face she hadn't seen in awhile as he and one other person were playing said game.

"Oh hey there Dickie!" She called out, getting said person to flinch on being called out. "It's been a while."

Turning around, Dick Grayson saw the changed Arkham doctor with Naruto and Rachel walking towards him and the girl he's currently dating at this time. "Oh hey guys. It's been a while."

"That it has Dick." Naruto stated with a smile. "And who's this?"

The girl standing next to Dick is an attractive blonde girl around the Wayne ward's age as she wore a casual set of clothes. Nothing fancy at all, just simple to compliment her appearance. Though her sky blue eyes held a lot of joy behind them as she stood next to Dick.

"This is Lori Elton." The Wayne ward said before he introduced her to the coming group. "And Lori; this is Harley, Naruto and his young ward Rachel."

"Hello." Lori greeted to each of them. "So you three here for fun or what."

"Pretty much." Was Harley's chipper tone. "Wanting to have some fun before schools start in a few weeks. And when that starts, then Rachel here will possibly be bored depending on who is teaching her."

"I hear that." Came Dick's reply with a small smirk. In his first two semesters in college, he didn't enjoy certain teachers as they were pretty bland that the acrobat almost fell asleep several times. "But grade school can't be all bad you know Rachel."

"I know that Dick, but I'm just nervous really for my first day."

"As do all of us Rachel. Whether it's school or work. First days always make people nervous no matter what. So you won't be the only person out there."

"I'll take that to consideration then." Was the ashen girl's response.

"Let's not talk about something so dreary that's right around the corner please." Lori said in a chipper tone. "Come on, we're here to have fun. So let's have fun."

Harley couldn't help but agree with the younger blonde as she matched the same tone. "Then let's have some fun." The changed blonde dragged Rachel along as they tried to find something to play with that wouldn't upset the ashen girl.

As Lori followed her fellow girls, Dick and Naruto were left behind to chuckle on the doctor's actions.

"So how are things going for you Dick?"

"Doing well actually. Why you ask?" The young ward asked as they walked down the aisle to catch up with the others.

"Well I heard some stuff that happened last month while I was away and I didn't get the chance to talk to either you or Bruce about them." 

"Like what exactly?"

"For one being the string off robberies at some of Bruce's businesses for starters." Naruto started off as they turned the corner. "Seven robberies in two weeks, all done by a ninja of all people."

"Right, that." Dick shortly said as he waved off the statement. "At least it was taken care of and that's all that matters."

"If you say so Dick."

Once said, the young acrobat thought back of what happened last month while Naruto was away on business out West. One Kyodai Ken was behind the robberies as he wanted to have revenge against Bruce ever since he was banished from the dojo the two studied at years ago in Japan. Kyodai trained for years and came to Gotham in hopes of robbing Bruce of much of his fortune. The exiled student was later defeated at the charity event at the Gotham Museum with Bruce as the victor, but Kyodai escaped in the end to evade custody.

"Though there is one thing that I really do want to ask you Dick." The publisher said as his tone was a bit more serious. "How are you _really_ feeling?"

"About what?"

"Tony Zucco's arrest." Dick stopped his movements for a brief moment before moving forward as he took small breaths. "I knew he was behind your parent's… passing, but I'm glad that Batman and Robin were able to finally catch him for about 8-9 years from evading arrests."

It was shortly after the Kyodai incident that a big event happened in Dick's life. It started out as a simple patrol for him and Bruce until things eventually went sideways that got Bruce to change quite suddenly. Once using the Batcomputer, Dick learned that the sudden change in Bruce's mood was when hearing one of Tony Zucco's aliases and thus made the young ward change his mood as well.

Dick went on his own and tracked the man down to get revenge on what Zucco did on that very night that changed his life. The man who took his parents away from him and Dick wanted to be the one to take his life as well. After defeating the man, Dick was so close into going past the line as things were going very blurry on that very moment.

But he was extremely glad that Bruce stopped him in time from doing the action. Dick asked for forgiveness from the man who took him nearly a decade ago. And yet there was nothing to really forgive since after taking the man to the GCPD, Bruce said he would probably be in the same position as Dick on the day he finds the man who took away his parents. Admitting that justice and vengeance will truly be blurred in his eyes and it would truly test everything he grew up and believed in.

"Yeah… I'm glad about that as well." Dick said with a small smile as they approached the girls, who stopped wandering around and were playing a game on the far off corner. "At least I'm glad my parents can finally rest in peace now that he's in prison now."

"Then that's all that matters." Naruto said as he stood a bit away from the girls, so they wouldn't hear what he says next. "It wouldn't be great if you had let that consume you and wished the man dead in the end."

"Excuse me?"

Wanting to elaborate, Naruto spoke to his younger friend. "Vengeance can be a double edged weapon Dick. It can strengthen us, yet weaken us. And I know all too well in what it can do to someone who falls into that nasty, abysmal pit."

Memories came to the forefront of the Uzumaki's mind as he reflected back to his former rival. Sasuke wanting revenge against the man who practically wiped out his clan. He had let it all go towards his head as he wanted power to kill his older brother and did treasonous things to do so. Sasuke did kill his brother, but the Uchiha learned more truths that Danzo was behind the clan's execution and he sought to kill the man as well. Once the Root leader was dead, Sasuke wanted to kill all of Konoha to finish things off.

Kami knows what would happen if that were to happen and possibly beyond that. Something that Naruto sometimes wonders from time to time and yet doesn't wish to imagine at all.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Nah, I'm good Dick." Wanting to change subjects, Naruto went back onto the main topic. "So are you planning on going to Zucco's trial?"

Knowing what Naruto wanted to do, Dick humored his older friend. "I pretty much have to. Me being a prime witness on what he did back then, I need to state to the judge and the jury on what happened to me. It's not going to be great on recounting that day, but I've got to do what I've got to do."

"Just so you know, if you want me to, I could show up at the trial for support."

Smiling at the given offer, the college student accepted it in stride. "I'd like that very much Naruto. Going to need all the support I can get to finally move on."

"Then I'll be there."

"What are you two standing around there for?" Lori spoke up as she ended their conversation. "Aren't you two gonna come and play?"

"Sorry Lori." Dick apologized on Naruto's behalf. "Guy talk."

"Yeah yeah. Whatever." Joined in the changed psychologist. "Though you should at least see Rachel do a good job on this game so far."

Feeling interested in what his ward is currently playing, Naruto stepped closer and saw it being one of the games he sometimes plays while at this arcade. Nearly a decade old, the arcade machine was still popular with many customers. Playing as a simple maintenance man as he tries to fix up the apartment building he lives at from a wilderness man.

" _I'm gonna wreck it!"_

"Not today Ralph." Rachel muttered as she was in the zone as her left hand was working the joystick while her right handled the buttons. "Not today."

"Damn… Rachel is doing well on this game." Lori commented as she saw the ashen girl's hands blur on the machine console.

"No kidding." Harley said in agreement. "I'm afraid she might smack me if I try to stop her."

"Sucks that this game isn't two player or else I would've tried to play with." Naruto said with a slight pout. "And of course she wants to try to beat my score."

"Your scores? What about mine?" Dick questioned as he saw Rachel's score reaching towards one of his lower ones.

"Oh boys." Lori sighed out as she and Harley saw their respective boyfriends start complaining about each other's video game scores before trying to go against each other on one of the nearby arcade machines.

The changed psychologist could only chuckle in agreement in seeing them go as she stood by Rachel to eventually cheer her on to beat her guardian's scores.

 _ **-Evening, Club Plush-**_

Outside of one of Gotham's many nightclubs, a white haired woman stepped out of it's entrance and strutted her way through the crowds of paparazzi waiting for her entrance. Her hair was slicked back with some stylized on top to look like bird feathers to match the dress she was currently wearing. Said dress appeared to be made out of white feathers with a black belt around the waist. To finish off her appearance were the black heeled shoes, the pink mascara around her green eyes and the scowl across her features as she spoke into her cellular phone.

"...I don't care how expensive or endangered they are!" The woman yelled out as she rounded the corner towards the parking lot, where her limousine was parked. "I am Azzura, one of the best fashion models in the damn city! So there's no way in Hell that I'm doing the show without wearing Condor!"

Ending the call, the now identified Azzura approached her limousine and opened the door. She had expected her bodyguards being inside of the vehicle, but they appeared missing with the other door opened. Going around the other side, Azzura saw the guards passed out on the ground with what appeared to be tranquilizer darts lodged into their necks.

"What the hell?" She muttered out in worry before hearing someone approach her.

"I can understand your shock, little bird." The large man said as the model slowly backed into her limousine. "We hoped you could've come out sooner, but we were too impatient with your guards lying about."

"W-We?"

A figure soon landed onto the vehicle's roof from above, causing her to shriek on the surprise. Though Azzura then held her breath as she saw the grotesque being looking straight at her, with it's large amphibian eyes in the old English styled suit. It would've looked fine for most people, but in the model's eyes they only made the being's presence more horrendous.

"I know, I know." The amphibian spoke out with his ghastly smile. "My looks are both a blessing and a curse."

"W-Who are you two?"

"Not 'who' dear, but why. Why we are here exactly?" The larger man stated as the light shined upon him to reveal his pig mask towards the model. "Do you know how many birds had to lose their plumage so you can look absolutely atrocious?" Coming close to the model's face, Professor Pyg yelled right at her. "Do you?!"

"S-Six." Azzura weakly answered, causing the two eco-terrorists to look at her in disgust.

"That was actually a rhetorical question my dear." Pyg said with malice laced in his voice. "But this one isn't. So please give me your honest thoughts. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a bird who can't fly?"

Fearing for what might happen to her, Azzura opened her mouth and screamed.

 _ **-Meanwhile-**_

"Mmm… This is good." Selina muttered as she savored the dish being served.

Naruto chuckled as he shook his head at the display in front of him as he ate. "You and your seafood Selina."

"What. Can't I appreciate really good, tasting fish?" She rhetorically asked, once swallowing her food. "Besides we try not going out that often so the dates feel more special."

"Same goes with Harley and Pam, you know."

"Yeah, yeah I know." She said as she cut into the next portion of her meal. "Though you have forgotten one other person."

"...Rachel?" He asked. "Then yeah forgot to mention her." Naruto would sometimes take his young ward out for breakfast or lunch every so often to help explore her interests. With her not able to experience such things before he took her in.

"No, not her."

"Then who?"

"Cat Grant."

"Oh… Right."

It was on Naruto's second day while in National City, he called his girlfriends and informed them on how things went so far. From the earthquake situation and him helping out throughout the entire city as a result. They were happy to hear about this, but ended up a bit iffy when learning Naruto slept with his old Metropolis friend, Cat Grant.

Pam was accepting on the idea as she knew how much Cat was to the publisher, even as the changed botanist knew the two were in the 'friends with benefits' kind of relationship. Harley was okay with it, but wanted to meet with the Media Queen to know more about her. As for Selina, she was along the lines with somewhere in between Pam and Harley's reaction to feeling something else on the situation.

To simply put it, Selina was angry. Angry that he slept with Cat Grant while he was away and that hurt the ravenette in a way that was hard to describe. Selina is completely fine with sharing Naruto with Pam, and eventually Harley, since she's great friends with the two women and vice versa. But Naruto sleeping with someone that she hardly knew about made her hurt, causing her to cloud her judgements on the whole thing since Naruto told them over the phone.

"Look Selina, I'm still sorry on what happened." His hand reached out and grasped her free hand to give it a comforting squeeze as he said this. "It was a spur of a moment at the time, since I didn't expect that to happen. But…"

"It felt right, didn't it." She stated as she looked in his hazel eyes. "I can understand that, since we had such a thing months ago. But you sleeping with her on the very day you two met again after five years is not what I expected."

"You and me both." He sighed out as he ate some portions of his meal. "Though, right now, Cat and I are still trying to figure things out between us."

"Yeah, I heard." Taking a sip of her drink, she continued. "Especially this morning before you headed off to work."

"Hey in my defense, she called me and I do try to respond back to her calls quick enough when she's not at work. Though can't say the same with Rachel and Artemis on their respective calls with Perdita. I swear there needs to be good time placement for them if they want to appropriately call each other without much hassle."

Selina chuckled slightly when seeing some of those moments. She was going to comment about it when noticing Naruto rub his eyes in slight frustration. Knowing what it was exactly, as she saw it herself several times, she spoke.

"Are your eyes bothering you right now?"

"Yeah… along with memories of my clone after a long day at the office. A lot to take in and it doesn't help with them breaking my concentration lately on the suddenness."

"So what are you seeing now?"

"A lot actually." Purple circles then entered the publisher's vision and went towards different people in the restaurant. "I see a waiter taking money from the register, a cheating husband… and a couple entering a restroom which I have a distinct feeling they're gonna have sex in."

"Huh… thought I wasn't the only one." Stated the thief as her eyes traveled around before chuckling a bit. "Though I also see outside of the window a pickpocket getting his ass handed to him by an old lady. Which by the way is quite entertaining."

Turning his head to the side, he saw what was happening outside on the other side of the street. Naruto chuckled as well on the sight he was seeing. "Can't help but agree on that."

"Though can you turn it off Naruto?"

"Honestly? It's hard to do so, even with this ability of mine." He said as he focused on shutting off his zooming ability. "You?"

"It's the same actually. Living on the streets for most of my life, I had to constantly keep it on if I wanted to pickpocket at the right times so I wouldn't get caught to trying to get certain jobs done successfully."

"Yet you weren't all that attentive at Katsu's mansion."

Selina could only roll her eyes at the reminder yesterday. "Reason why I have Isis help me out on such things."

The two continued chatting as they finished up their dinner before Naruto paid the check. Once leaving the restaurant, the two made their way towards his car when both of them saw several people running past them. Curious on what's going on, they followed and eventually approached a growing crowd in front of the city's clocktower.

"The hell's going on." Naruto muttered as he saw everyone staring up at the clock. Activating his zoom ability in his eyes, he widened them as he saw a woman in a feather dress dangling on the hour hand with a speeding minute hand. If that wasn't enough, the minute hand had an attached meat clever as it was ready to cut the woman's restraints.

"Selina, I'll be right back." He said without getting a response from her. Rushing towards the nearby alley, Naruto shifted into his Vanitas attire and summoned his wind lance before shooting off into the sky. "Let me make it, please."

Just as Vanitas drew close to the hanging woman, the hands met as the clever sliced through the ropes holding the woman in place. The woman fell screaming for dear life and would've perished in the end if it wasn't for the helmeted hero catching her half way down the tower. Whipping back around, the hero landed his lance onto the nearby building and checked to see if she was alright.

'Just passed out.' He thought as he removed the bird mask from her face. 'Must've happened during the fall as it was too much for her.' His eyes soon landed upon a strange piece of parchment attached to the woman's belt. Taking a closer look, he saw writing in a bad form of penmanship: One for the dame.

Back at the clocktower, at the very top of the structure, Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad saw the whole spectacle as they sat down while having tea.

"...It's really quite good you know." Mr. Toad commented as he lifted up a plate from the picnic basket next to him. "Would you like a biscuit?"

"I really shouldn't, old friend." Replied the larger man. Just as Toad was about to put the plate away, Pyg spoke up. "Maybe just one before we need to leave."

"Right. Wouldn't want Vanitas to catch us this early in the game huh."

"Indeed."

With that said, the two eco-terrorists clinked their tea cups and drank it's concoction before making their way towards their next destination.

 _ **-Selina's and Shizune's Loft-**_

In the living room; Naruto and Selina watched from their respective spots as the news report was on the nearby TV set.

" _...Earlier tonight, Azzura had been kidnapped outside of Club Plush with her bodyguards incapacitated by eco-terrorists: Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad."_ Summer Gleeson stated as the model's picture was shown on the corner of the screen right next to the mentioned terrorists. _"She was later seen dangling at the Gotham Clock Tower before her eventual rescue by the hero Vanitas as he eventually brought her to GCPD custody for her safety._

 _For those not aware of who Azzura is, she's one of Gotham's top models in the circuit at this time. Though her methods on the runway are questionable with her only working with clothing made with exotic animals. Probably the reason why the eco-terrorists have targeted her in the first place."_ *Click*

"And she deserves it." Selena stated with a scowl before seeing the received look from Naruto. "What~ You know she does."

"As much as I do agree with you Selina," said the publisher as she held the TV remote, "it doesn't give them the right to have her suffer from such methods." Naruto looked back at the one piece of parchment placed on the kitchen counter. "Asides from not getting any fingerprints or any form of DNA, what do you know about these words?"

Looking back at the parchment, she read it over as a bit of remembrance came to her. "These are from the nursery rhyme 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'." Holding out her fingers, she listed off the lines. "One for the master, one for the dame and one for the little boy who lives down the lane."

Nodding at this, Naruto pulled out a map of the city and located many of the streets with 'lane' in the name. "Since rhymes are typically the calling cards of Pyg and Toad, along with Azzura clearly labeled as 'the dame', they'll want to target two more times to finish off the rhyme. And the 'boy who lives down the lane' must be the next target on their list."

"But with so many 'lanes' in this city, it'll take forever to find who might be next." Muttered the thief as she tried to think of where'd the terrorists will strike next. "I mean, there's at least a hundred 'lanes' in this city."

"And I have it narrowed to three." Naruto stated, getting a confused look from his lover. "I'll explain on the way. So let's get going."

 _ **-Downtown Gotham-**_

Sounds of machines filled the air as a man was working on one particular project for the evening. Not just any project, but one of fashion as he had a mannequin placed not far from him with a specific outfit being made at this time. To drown out some of the noises in his workshop, the man had his headphones on with latin music played at it's maximum volume.

If he didn't have the loud sounds going on, the man would've heard the elevator to his studio ringing out as it's doors opened up. But even then, the designer was too focused into his work and music to notice anything outside of his vision. Though that seemed to stop as a pair of shadows came across his work table to see the well known eco-terrorists.

"H-How did you two get in here?" The fashion designer muttered out as he backed away from them. "And why are you here?"

"You have lousy security, for starters." Answered the walking amphibian.

"As to why we are here," Pyg spoke as he walked closer to the designer, "we're here to punish you on your crimes against animal kind."

"Not to mention fashion." Mr. Toad added in with a smile. The talking amphibian raised his cane and pressed a button to cause fire to shoot out of it's bottom. The designer screamed as he ran out of the way, causing his current project to literally go up in flames.

"It seems that he's suffering quite the case of thanatophobia." The 'professor' stated as he placed his medical bag onto one of the nearby tables. "An intense fear of dying."

Just as the designer was about to reach the exit, Mr. Toad jumped above him and kicked the designer back into the room.

"It's rude to leave while you're having an appointment." Exclaimed the Toad as he saw Pyg sort through his bag. Taking out scissors, pliers and his trusty saw until he pulled out his rifle.

"Here we are." The professor said as he aimed his weapon at the recovering designer. The man tried to retreat, but once the weapon fired the man thought he was dead, only to end up flying to the nearby wall as he was ensnared by a metallic net.

Coming up to the fashion designer, Pyg brought up a stethoscope onto the man's chest. Hoping to hear nothing at all, except he heard the man's heart beat. "Such a shame, the man's still breathing."

Back with Vanitas and Catwoman, they came across the last destination on their list on the hero's wind lance when they saw the gaping hole inside of the building.

"Seems third time's the charm." The thief muttered as she got off of her lover's weapon.

"And we've got no time to lose."

Rushing inside, the two saw the varied security detail knocked unconscious and checked the directory. Seeing their destination in mind, they quickly went down the stairs to the basement and opened the door to see the damage done to the workshop. And on the far end of the studio lied the fashion designer as he was tied up with a cat mask on and columns of engineered band saws coming closer and closer to him from both sides.

"What do we do?" Questioned the feline fatale.

"Trust your instincts." Came his reply as the two walked closer to the man to see how to stop the machine.

Looking over the contraption, Selina was able to get a good idea as she went to one of the nearby tables and picked up a pair of tools. Taking aim, the thief threw them at the gears on top of the contraptions, causing them to grind and halter long enough for her and Vanitas to pull the man free. Once away from the bandsaws, the tools broke away to let the machine work once more until the blades came in contact with each other.

"That was a close call."

"Pretty much." As Vanitas inspected the unconscious designer, he saw a piece of parchment tucked into the man's jacket pocket. Pulling it out, it was the same as the one from earlier. Though this time, it had the following words: the little boy who lives down the lane. "Seems we got one more target left before Pyg and Toad go back into hiding."

Looking at the piece of paper, Selina's eyes caught onto something that seemed odd and commented about it. "Do you see what I see?"

Confused for a moment, Vanitas looked back onto the paper and inspected it. Not focusing on the writing, he saw something on the edge of the paper as some smuggy material. "Huh… Good eye."

"Thanks." She smirked before checking on the unconscious designer. Pulling off the mask, Catwoman recognized him. "This is Liam Taylor."

"Who?"

"Right… You don't know fashion all that well." She muttered as she handed the hero the cat mask. "He does bold statements in leather, exotic leather as a matter of fact."

"Not a fan I take it."

The thief scoffed as she narrowed her eyes on the man. "Not at all. He gets paid a pretty penny with designing clothes with the skins and furs of the feline variety." Growling a little, Selina walked away a little from the downed man. "Should've let those two finish the job to rid the world with him."

Sighing out on this possibly being a thing with his girlfriend, Vanitas inspected the mask before seeing a familiar logo. "Cole Plastics huh… Great. Now I'm gonna have to rethink my business opportunities with them."

"Why's that?" She asked, once turning back to him.

"Spiral Publishing does some work with them on some of the children's books we publish. Like the plastic coverings for some of the 'kid-friendly' coverings to stop choking hazards on the electronic parts." He explained as he handed the parchment to her. "I'll check them out while you head over to the Botanical Gardens and ask Pam to help us out on this."

Selina nodded as the two headed back upstairs before going their separate ways. Though before leaving, Catwoman asked Vanitas to make his motorcycle so she can ride it. With that done, she went off to see her friend at the gardens.

 _ **-Gotham Botanical Gardens-**_

"How's the project coming along Pam?"

"It's doing quite well Luisa." Said the changed botanist as she stretched out a little in her seat. "Some of the acquired plants we got are doing wonders in the crossbreeding."

Smiling at the news, Dr. Cruz looked over at Isley's current work. "And what of this one here?"

"From what I've noticed in the video feeds in the past month, this little guy only grows in moonlight." Pam stated as she looked onto the grown plant with the unblossomed white bulb. "It's quite strange since we tried to mix several extinct plants in a stronger fortitude and it turned out like this."

"Then I can't wait to see it blossom."

The Green champion smiled at her supervisor. "Me too."

Taking a sip out of her mug, Luisa spoke a certain question in mind. "And what of your _other_ project?"

Rubbing her arm slightly, Pam was about to answer when someone knocked at the door to her lab. Turning their attention at the entrance, the changed botanist was surprised to see her shared girlfriend in a pair of street clothes.

"Hey Red." Selina said with a smile. "You got a moment or should I come back a little later."

"You can talk to Pamela now if you want." Luisa said as she started to head out of the room. "I planned on heading home anyways. So don't stay here too late Pam."

Once gone, Selina closed the door to Pam's lab and looked at her friend with a raised brow. "Something I should know about this project you're working on? Sounded important."

"Just a personal one that Luisa is helping me out with." The botanist answered as she seemed relieved somehow. "Though I'm glad that you did show up since I didn't know how to tell my boss on the progress so far."

"Not well I take it?"

"It's still in the early stages, with different theories mind you, and there are bound to be many errors at this point in the project."

"Mind giving me some kind of hint?" Pondered the thief as curiosity was getting to her. "It's fine if you don't want to, with science being completely out of my field."

Not seeing any problem with it, Pam answered. "It's pretty much hybridization of adding specific plant traits with animals to see if we can improve immune systems so far. It just takes the correct ratio to see if things will properly work."

"And what kind of testing have you done so far?"

"Rats are the typical test subjects for first trials before later ones." Pam stated as she pointed to the cages on the far end of the lab… with a lot of them dead. "Though the ones we have at the moment majorly died, making me have to figure out the proper sequence to have things work."

"Ain't that a bummer."

"Tell me about it." The redhead said as she rubbed her eyes. "We thought that things were well at first with many of the rats performing extremely well. But it turned out the specific ratios we introduced to them shortened their lives considerably, from the typical six months to literally a few weeks."

"And is this for your one project your boss mentioned or is it just a starting point for what you're really going for?" Selina questioned as she looked at her friend dead in the eye. "I know that most of the time since you started working here, you'd either spend much of your time either here or at your private garden outside of Gotham with very little time with us."

"I'd rather not talk about it Selina." Responded the botanist. "So if that's all, I'd like to get back to this project right now before heading home. It's been a long day."

"It's not just me checking up on you Red, but something else Naruto and I are working on right now." The thief said before going into details of what's been going on since the date earlier tonight ended. With the details on both the model and fashion designer targeted by Pyg and Toad.

" **I'd agree with you on those two people deserving such things."** Stated Pam's darker half as she didn't like such things towards nature. **"And as I'd like them eaten by some of my more… carnivorous plants."** Taking a deep breath, Pam took back control with an even tone. "But possibly this could get them to change their ways for the better, I suppose."

Selina rolled her eyes before pulling out the parchment she acquired earlier and handed it to her friend. "Anyways, Naruto was wondering if you could check out this resin while we hunt down Pyg and Toad. We don't know what they plan to do, but something tells me this resin is apart of this."

Ignoring the writing on the parchment, Pam saw the resin in question and nodded at her friend. "I'll get right on this when I have a moment Selina."

"Great and let us know when possible."

"Will do." Pam said as she saw Selina walk out of her lab and placed the parchment to the side before sighing out. "I should really work on this. Need a little break from work after I check on the rats." Stretching out a little, Pam soon walked over to the rat cages and checked on the live specimens and saw another one was dead. "Hmm… another day better than the last rat then."

 _ **-Meanwhile, Cole Plastics-**_

Landing on top of the building's rooftop, Vanitas dispelled his wind lance as he walked towards the skylight. The helmeted Uzumaki peered through the window and saw nothing amiss before he phased right through. Landing in a crouch, Vanitas activated the heat sensors in his helmet to find the eco-terrorists.

'Might be easier to find Pyg since Toad is a cold blooded being.' Thought the hero as he looked around the area. 'Though I wouldn't be surprised if the big guy was cold blooded as well.'

Moving around the area, Vanitas silenced his footsteps so he wouldn't make any sounds. The added silence made the factory extra sensitive that for any given sounds will immediately give out either of the eco-terrorists positions. And that seemed to work as Vanitas heard some chains rattle from up above.

'Got ya.' Vanitas thought as several daggers materialized in his hands. Throwing up into the air, he heard Mr. Toad cry out as he dodged out of the way from the rafters. And before long, the hero heard loud steps coming towards him from behind.

Vanitas tried to move out of the way in time, but Professor Pyg seemed to be extra quick as he lunged himself at the hero. The larger eco-terrorist grabbed ahold of Vanitas and tossed him into a grouping of mannequins. Collapsing onto the hard material, Vanitas stood back up and readied himself as he saw Mr. Toad join the party.

"Hello Vanitas." Mr. Toad spoke as he placed a monocle over his eye. "Welcome to our Summer lair."

"As much as we'd like to invite you for a spot of tea, you were quite rude of showing up unannounced." The 'professor' stated as he pulled out his hacksaw from the inside of his coat. "So I'd think it would be best for a good old fashioned pummeling."

"I couldn't agree better myself." Said the hero as more daggers formed into his hands.

Just as Pyg lunged at Vanitas, the hero threw his daggers at Mr. Toad. Said amphibian jumped out of the way as he didn't want to be skewered from the blades. As this happened, Vanitas had to block several blows from the larger eco-terrorist before he grabbed ahold of Pyg's arm.

"How about you go on a nice ride on the merry go round." Vanitas stated as he used a lot of his strength and spun the larger man around before letting go. Professor Pyg cried out as he ended up colliding against his smaller associate into more mannequins.

"That was extremely rude Vanitas!" Pyg growled out as he got onto his feet. "As a physician, I'm quite concerned about your violent outbursts. Rage, after all, is a common problem with hypertension."

"Well my psychologist says otherwise as fighting helps relieve my stress." The hero said before thinking to himself with a smirk. 'Among other things.'

Pulling out a pair of portable defibrillators, the larger eco-terrorist turned them on to have sparks fly from the metal plates. "Then maybe we should give your heart a quick stress test. Just to be safe, you know."

"Heh. I'd like to see you try."

Without another moment, Pyg ran towards Vanitas as he swung his arms around in hopes of landing hits on the hero. Vanitas rolled out of the way and grabbed a few broken mannequin pieces and threw them at the larger man. Same man landed his defibrillators on the pieces, causing them to break quite easily as they fell onto the ground with smoke coming off of them.

Once back up, Vanitas came right in and delivered a series of punches across the man's masked face and torso to skid him back some feet. With a roar, Pyg jumped and used a lot of his strength to deliver a mighty blow against his opponent. The attack did land, but that gave Vanitas the opportunity he needed. As the shocks ran through his system, Vanitas grabbed ahold of Professor Pyg's waist and lifted him up to perform a german suplex onto the terrorist.

Getting back up, the hero breathed out several breaths as he felt the shocks go away. "Man that guy was heavy. Now where the hell is Toad."

"Right here." Was all the warning Vanitas got as he was blasted by a sonic attack from behind, sending him to the far side of the building. Once impacting the wall, the hero fell onto a series of shelves holding up varied materials before falling onto the ground with said materials and shelves covering him.

The two eco-terrorists came up to the large pile with smiles on their faces. And with a little joy in his voice, Mr. Toad asked his larger associate. "May I do the honors?"

"By all means, my friend." Said the larger man, getting the smaller one to clap his hands in glee. "You do have quite the flare in this kind of work." Taking in a deep breath, Mr. Toad was about to launch another sonic attack when the two of them heard sirens coming from the distance. "Oh drat, the police. Gotham's killjoys arrived too soon." Letting out a sigh, the professor turned to his friend. "We should make a hasty retreat."

Slowly puffing out the large breadth, Mr. Toad let out a huff as he wasn't pleased in hearing this. "Oh phooey and fiddlesticks."

"Language Mr. Toad."

With that said, the two terrorists ran off as they left the factory in a quickened pace. Once leaving, Vanitas pushed the shelves out of the way before pressing a button on his helmet. This caused the police sirens to go off, making the helmeted Uzumaki let out a small chuckle.

"Gotta love that little function." He said as he moved his arms to get rid of a few kinks. "Helps stop certain fights pretty quickly if needed." He was about to head on out and possibly catch the criminals when he noticed some blueprints nearby. Coming closer for a better look, he saw they were building schematics. Though for which building, he looked onto the bottom corner to see they were for the Gotham Opera House.

'Need to call Selina.' He thought before calling said lover through his helmet. Before long, she picked up with sounds of wind in the background. "Catwoman, where are you now?"

" _I just left the Gardens Vanitas and I'm heading to you now!"_ She said over the line. _"How was the factory?!"_

"Pyg and Toad tried to ambush me, but I made it out well. But that doesn't matter now since there's a change of plans."

" _What do you mean?!"_

"I know where the next target is going to be." He said as he phased through the building's wall. "Can you meet me over to the Gotham Opera House as soon as you can?"

" _Did you say the opera house?!"_

"Yes I did. Though do you know something I don't?"

" _Saw some ads along the way showing an event is going on over there!"_ She replied as the sounds of the motorcycle engine going off a little louder. _"The Masters of Fashion are stationed there this week!"_

"One for the master." The hero muttered as he visually thought of Selina nodding. "We need to stop whatever is going to happen over there and fast."

Ending the call, Vanitas brought forth a Kazekage lance and rode it to his next destination as fast as the wind can take him.

 _ **-Gotham Opera House-**_

Sounds of motorcycle engines were heard on the streets as two blurs went through them. Both Catwoman and Vanitas rode their respective rides through the parking garage underneath the opera house. Once the male hero got close to the thief along the way, he dispelled his lance and made an extra motorcycle for himself to ride alongside his partner.

"Question!" Catwoman sounded off over the motorcycle engines. "What are we looking for?!"

"I'm guessing a large bomb hidden in plain sight!" Vanitas yelled out as his hawkeye ability was currently on in hopes of finding what they're looking for.

The two kept riding further in until Vanitas stopped his motorcycle with Catwoman soon following.

"What is it?" She asked as she looked around. Though her action stopped once her eyes landed on a large delivery truck with an ad plastered on it's side. "Pat O'Dygs BBQ. Our ribs are da bomb… Seriously?"

"Might be, but only one way to find out."

Getting off their bikes, with them dispelling soon after, the two ran towards the truck and opened the back to see many oil drums with a timer on top of one of them. And checking said timer showed that less than a minute was left before the truck exploded.

"Vanitas." Catwoman worriedly said as she looked at the man beside her. "What are we gonna do? Disarm this?"

"No." Jumping inside of the truck and ushered her to follow. "We're gonna let this blow outside of the building."

Getting the idea, she followed his command and closed the door behind her. Coming to the front seat, Selina saw Naruto hotwire the truck and started up the truck to move. He navigated through the parking garage as he tried to find a good way out of the area. But with the seconds passing by, he won't make it in time.

"We're gonna have to jump soon."

"What?"

"I'm going to phase us and the truck out of the garage and hopefully get this to either the street or the water." He said as he floored the pedal to make the truck go faster.

"Then I hope you do it soon since we don't have much time!" 

As the timer was coming closer to it's end, Catwoman grabbed ahold of Vanitas' arm and waited for the inevitable. The masked publisher narrowed his eyes at the wall in front of him and poured much of his power into the truck to get them through the wall at the right moment. Though once free from the concrete area, the truck fell down to the waters below as the two lovers phased right through the vehicle's roof. Quickly summoning a giant card beneath them, they saw the truck explode underneath as they let out the breath they unknowingly held in their chests.

 _ **-Selina's and Shizune's Loft-**_

A can of catfood was opened, causing Isis to jump onto the kitchen counter as she waited for anticipation for her meal.

"Here you go Isis." Selina said to her beloved 'daughter'. "We're celebrating after a long night and stopping those pesky eco-terrorists' work."

*Meowr* Sounded off the black cat as she dug into the tasty chicken and tuna presented to her.

"Now I need something for myself." Selina muttered to herself before seeing her boyfriend stare off into space. "Not celebrating?"

"We missed something." Naruto said as his mind was going in overdrive. "I can feel it Selina."

"Pyg and Toad got away Naruto. Either we or Batman and Robin can catch them another day you know. So relax, we stopped the deaths of many tonight."

"That's just it Selina. The timer was set to only blow up an empty building. And why not earlier instead when the building's packed with all of the guests for the runway show? They really can't make a point if there aren't victims involved."

The thief sighed out as she opened the fridge and pulled out a gallon of milk to treat herself with a nice, cold glass of nutrients. "You really need to turn off your instincts Naruto, sometimes they might just drive you crazy. Hell I think I Batman might have the same problem as you have right now."

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

"Now who's calling at this late hour?" Selina said as she placed the gallon of milk on the kitchen counter. Going over to her cellular phone, she saw that it was Pam and answered. "Hi Red. What's up?"

" _Hey Selina, just calling to let you know that I'm finally heading back to the loft."_

"Really? And why not sooner?"

" _Got carried away on the project I'm working on. Sorry."_

"It's fine. Though you should try and get some sleep in your comfy bed once your back."

" _I will. Especially since I don't want to end up sleeping at the garden at work or else I'll get in trouble… again."_

"Again?" She asked in bewilderment. "When did that happen Red?"

" _Sometime on the first week I worked at the botanical gardens actually."_ Came Pam's honest answer. _"I just really liked the feel of the place and the ancient tree in the garden was very soothing when I slept on it's branches. Though Dr. Cruz did give me a lecture that morning when she caught me instead of the other scientists and workers."_

"So is that all Pam? I was just about to celebrate a good job well done after Naruto and I stopped the bombing at the opera house."

" _That's good, I think. But no, that's not why I also called."_ The botanist said over the phone. "I was able to check out the resin you gave me, before I left, and found something odd about it."

" _Right~ The resin. What about it?"_

" _It's quite odd Selina since I had to use some special equipment in one of our labs to find out it's properties. And it turns out that it's a rare phosphorus resin from African toads."_

"...Did you just say toads?" Selina asked, getting a bad feeling on what's about to come up.

" _Yeah, I did. Though whoever messed around with the resin altered it to explode once exposed to high heat."_ Pam explained as she breathed in a bit in annoyance. _"Had to test it, just in case, and the thing left scorch marks on the lab table. It was not fun to clean up, just so you know."_

"Are you serious?"

" _Yes I am Selina and you need to let Naruto know asap."_ Was all the changed botanist said as she ended the call.

Turning towards her boyfriend, she spoke. "Naruto, we got a problem."

"Yeah I heard Selina." He said as he was looking at something in his hand. "Apparently you need to get the volume on your cell to go down, just for future reference."

"Sorry."

"Don't be, well not at this moment." He reassured her. "Since we just got the last clue on what Pyg and Toad are planning to do." Handing over the object in his hand to the thief, he explained. "They were planning to attack 'The Masters', but the opera house was a diversion from the real location."

Looking at the object, she saw it was an invitation to the fashion show's after party. "Wait, why were you invited?"

"It was addressed from one of my employees, since she was going out of town this week with her family." He said before shaking his head. "But it doesn't matter, we need to get to this party immediately."

"And when did it start?"

"Two hours ago Selina." Naruto stated as he went into his Vanitas attire. "So we need to get moving."

 _ **-Gotham Harbor-**_

Music can be heard if you were near the docks as it was blaring from the charter yacht. Making people feel very upbeat to celebrate a job well done on the runway show earlier that evening. Though under the surface of the party lies something sinister that's a threat towards the party goers.

Landing with a small thud on the ground, Catwoman and Vanitas arrived onto the scene as the helmeted hero dispersed their form of transportation.

"Okay, I'll go below deck and hopefully find Pyg and Toad in time." Said the masked Uzumaki.

"And what will I do?"

"Try to get people off the boat." He replied as the two walked closer to the yacht. "We don't want them to panic, so do it quietly."

Selina could only sigh as they went their separate ways. "Easier said than done."

Sneaking onto the side of the charter boat, Vanitas soon phased his way through the hull and navigated his way through the varied corridors. Checking every room with his clones for any sign of the eco-terrorists. But the hero figured that the only way to really cause so much damage to so many people will require an explosion from the engine room.

Once entering the room, the masked hero saw the same kind of resin he saw earlier this evening heavily layered on the pipes.

"Bravo Vanitas!" Professor Pyg called out from down below. Whirling towards the source, Vanitas saw the two eco-terrorists standing in front of several dozen heated coil pillars that must've been installed recently or several days prior. "Seems you finally found us out!"

Jumping over the railing, Vanitas landed onto the bridge below as he faced Pyg and Toad. "You're misdirect failed. Give it up."

"Oh I wouldn't say that." Drawled out the Professor.

Jumping up and down in anticipation, Toad spoke in excitement. "Oh tell him the plan boss. I love it when you tell the plan."

"Heh, why not." Turning over towards their opponent, Pyg explained. "You see Vanitas, we rigged the upper deck with a state of the art body-heat scanner. Such a device was hard to come by, but it was worth it as it's connected to the contraption on the other side of this room." Turning around, Vanitas saw a metallic counter as it slowly went up. "As each animal oppressor enters the party, their temperature raises the coils by one degree. And once hitting 280 degrees, then there goes the lot of them."

"That's not going to happen Pyg since guests are being evacuated as we speak."

"Really?" The professor asked with a sigh. "Such a pity. Then it seems we've got to end the party much sooner than we hoped. Mr. Toad, will you be so kind to help."

Smiling at the request, the anthropomorphic amphibian chuckled. "It will be my pleasure."

Mr. Toad leaped from his position as Vanitas tried to stop him, but Pyg threw a handful of scalpels at the hero in the room. Having to block the projectiles, Vanitas was forced to take care of Pyg while the smaller terrorist messed with the machine. Not wanting this to happen, the masked Uzumaki had to quickly create a clone to hopefully stop the amphibian.

"Not gonna happen Toad!" Called out the clone as he smacked the amphibian away from the machine.

Growling at the clone, the smaller eco-terrorist retaliated as he assaulted the masked man. "No fair! No fair! You're cheating!"

"On the battlefield, cheating tends to make the upper hand you poor excuse of a toad."

Both ends of the room, each eco-terrorist dealt with their own Vanitas as they tried to incapacitate the villains. Each could do real harm on the terrorists, but that might cause problems in the long run. All that both the original and clone could do was try to knock out their opponents.

Pulling up a giant hose from the side, the professor called out to his opponent. "Let's slow you down a bit, shall we?!" Releasing the high pressured valve on the hose, the resin was sprayed all over the place as Vanitas tried to not get caught. Though that can't say the same with the clone as it got blasted from behind and poofed out of existence.

Wanting to help his larger companion, Mr. Toad leaped into the air and fired a sonic blast at the original. This sent Vanitas into the hanging wires in between a pair of heated coils. The masked Uzumaki was about to phase his way through his entrapment when Pyg released the hose's valve and sprayed the altered resin onto him, hardening him in a thick layer.

"Seems that you're in quite the pickle Vanitas and soon you'll be… What's the word I'm looking for Mr. Toad?"

"Crispy?"

"Ah yes, that's it." Aiming the hose at the captured hero, Pyg smirked a bit more. "Though just to be safe, let's add in a second coat."

Just when the valve was turned, a whip latched onto the hose and quickly got it out of Pyg's grasps. Before he could do anything, a figure landed onto his back and kicked his head before leaping towards Mr. Toad. The smaller terrorist was knocked to the side to be rendered immobile.

"Sorry I'm late." Catwoman said with a smile. "Wasn't great trying to get a lot of those rich snobs off this ship."

"And are they all off the boat?" Vanitas asked as he phased out of his bindings.

"The evacuation is still going on right now."

"You know, I really hate party crashers." Pyg growled out once back onto his feet. "Mr. Toad, mind giving these two a good lesson in etiquette?"

"With pleasure." Came Toad's response as he fired a sonic attack at the couple.

Not wanting to be sent flying back, Vanitas quickly formed a barrier around them. "Not this time Toad!" As the amphibian kept up with his attack, Vanitas quickly made a clone as it and Catwoman left the barrier to deal with the terrorists.

The thief went around the heated coils and used her whip to snag Toad's legs, causing him to fall down to the ground. He tried to get back up, but it was useless with how tight the leathery bindings were. Using her strength once spinning around, Selina was able to send the amphibian flying away.

Pyg made his way towards the controls, but the clone brought out his ice shield and bashed the larger man away. Pyg pulled out a hacksaw from his jacket and slashed at the clone, but the shield held up. Growing tired of the assault, the clone came in close and smacked the hacksaw away before bashing the larger terrorist across the bridge.

Seeing the counter rising and rising, the clone didn't know how to stop the machine. So the best thing he could come up with was raise his ice shield and slammed it onto the controls several times. And in each time, ice spikes struck the contraption until the counter stopped several degrees from its targeted number.

"At least that's over." Stated the clone.

"Not quite!"

Whirling around from their positions, Vanitas, Catwoman and the clone saw Pyg and Toad ignite several bombs in their hands and tossed them at their opponents. In quick reflexes, Catwoman and the clone smacked the bombs away, causing them to quickly explode. Vanitas was able to protect his lover, but the clone quickly dispelled as his shield wasn't able to handle the largely unexpected explosion.

As the blast settled, Vanitas and Catwoman saw flames from the explosion rise higher and higher. Not wanting the flames to touch the explosive resin, Vanitas quickly summoned his ice shield and slammed it down onto the ground as he poured much of his power into it. This resulted with ice spikes to protrude from the sides as none punctured the surrounding engines. With the heat contacting with the ice, the area started to cool down considerably until the flames were extinguished.

"Nice thinking Vanitas."

"You're welcome Catwoman."

"So what are we gonna do with these two?" She questioned as she pointed to the unconscious eco-terrorists.

"What do you think?" He rhetorically asked with a hidden smile.

Summoning several Dusks to help place the two terrorists onto a giant playing card, the couple spoke as they made their way to drop their captives to GCPD.

"I admit, I didn't expect the misdirect." Selina admitted as the wind breezed past her exposed face. "I figured that once we solved the clues, the case would be done and over with."

"Same here, but things like that always can't be easy. I even couldn't shake the feeling that we missed something."

Not much was said afterwards once the masked couple dropped off the terrorists and made their way back to the publisher's loft. Wanting to have a well deserved rest after a very long day. No sex at all, just a peaceful sleep with his lovers was all he wanted at this time.

 _ **-Naruto's Mindscape-**_

"Okay… Why am I here?" Questioned the publisher as he stood on the white platform in his mindscape. "I only show up here for mental training, seeing each of my girlfriends' memories or doing stuff for Yggdrasil at different trees around the city. But I'm not doing either of those things."

Naruto had wandered around the white platform in hopes of finding any stained glass walkways for him to travel on, but none appeared. He even tried to summon any of his Nobodies, yet they would not appear. Naruto had done the summoning dozens of times in the past in his mindscape and they always showed, but not this time.

"This is really odd." He muttered as he scratched his head. "What the hell is going on here?"

Naruto didn't know what happened next, but he felt something truly chilling run down his spine as his eyes landed on his shadow. He didn't know why, but it wasn't his at all. Especially with the white dots for eyes.

Before he could comment about it, Naruto's 'shadow' stretched and grew on the white platform. Once stopping, a figure emerged from the shadow and came to a stop once it came to roughly Naruto's general height. Possibly more, but hard to really tell as the figure was quite imposing to the former shinobi.

It was a tall, gaunt man with the most pale skin than Naruto has ever seen, almost white as snow and paler than Orochimaru. His pure black hair was truly disheveled that could make a wild mane look like bed hair. His eyes were bottomless pits of pure inky blackness; his pupils were like radiant stars that shone brighter than any other of the stars in the sky. It gave the impression that if you looked too much into said eyes, you could run the risk of losing yourself inside of them forever. As for the man's clothes, they seemed as if he was covered in a mantle of stars; as if the most starry of the nights had enveloped him and cloaked him entirely in its infinity.

Naruto's instincts were running wild as he didn't know what to do as he gazed at the man before him. He didn't even know what to do as this being before him made him truly scared without realizing this. Though one thing came to mind and was voiced.

"W-Who are you?"

The man merely stared at the publisher, which felt like an eternity to him. And before long, the man spoke in the smoothest tone one could ever hear. The very sound of his voice felt as something far older and wiser than the earth itself.

" _ **Hello Naruto Uzumaki. My name is Morpheus and I need your services at this time."**_

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Man it's been awhile since touching this story.**

 **First off on delays, my sister had to hog my laptop since hers broke and needed to use it to get things ready for a trip for the college. So she was on a tight schedule and couldn't work on this chapter all that much.**

 **I do have something to confess about this story. Reason why I worked on it for so long for months was to hopefully try and make it connect with certain months in particular in what I made for the timeline I made for this. Of course since I started 'A Dragon's Guardian' that seemed to derail that streak to make things flow each month that I'm currently writing it.**

 **Though since I couldn't do that anymore, I'm just going to mention the months every so often that chapters are currently taking place until I decide to scrap that or whatever. It's just to show on how long the story takes place to help show age progression and referencing on how long things took once mentioned later on or something in my opinion.**

 **So I'm going to flip flop between both of my stories now since I consider this story easier to write than my GoT/Naruto story. Just because, as of right now, the Dragon's Guardian story is primarily original chapters that'll take quite a while till I hit canon events. As for this story, it's easier with me using varied episodes and comics for easier references to use from… with my own spin on things.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	36. Perchance to Dream

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 33: Perchance to Dream**

Naruto could only blink in confusion as this 'Morpheus' requested such a thing. The publisher merely shook off his uneasy feeling as he looked at the man before him. Though he tried not to go in direct contact with the man's gaze, as it seemed to pierce deep into the whiskered man's very soul.

"What do you mean 'you require my services'?" Asked the publisher. "I… have no idea what you're talking about Morpheus… if that's really your name."

The gaunt man tilted his head slightly in response before speaking back. _**"Morpheus is merely one of many name's I've been given, by mortals, throughout the years."**_

"When you say 'mortals', you're saying as if you're older than anyone currently alive."

" _ **There are a few individuals older than me, but as to what you're referring to, then yes I am indeed much older than many currently alive to this day."**_

"So are you some sort of... god perhaps? Like Yggdrasil?" Questioned the Uzumaki, earning an odd chuckle from the man before him. "Is there something funny about what I said?"

" _ **Something like that."**_ Replied 'Morpheus'. _**"Throughout my many years of existence, I always wonder why mortals always label beings that are beyond their comprehension with a god. Labeling others as certain aspects of a much bigger picture would merely boost one's ego."**_

"...Okay…"

" _ **And with Yggdrasil, I know who you're referring to and he can be considered a god."**_ Answered the gaunt man. _**"Or at least one of a higher plane with his connections to the Green."**_

"So you're not a god then." Naruto guessed, earning a nod in return. "Though given with your appearance, you could possibly pass as one. No offense."

" _ **None taken, since you're not the first and will surely not be the last with that thought in mind. But I should at least clarify to you, at least, that there's much that separates me from the gods that you mortals worship."**_

"Well by all means, what does separate you from 'gods'?" Replied the publisher as he soon sat down on the ground, with the man soon following. "As a matter of fact, who are you exactly? 'Morpheus' is a god's name from the Greeks with said god governing sleep and dreams."

Nodding in understanding, the man spoke his explanations. _**"Like I said before, Naruto Uzumaki, Morpheus is one of many names I've been given by mortals years ago. In fact, it's one of my favorites I go by alongside Oneiros since they describe my roles and designations so well."**_ Earning a head tilt from the whiskered man, 'Morpheus' continued in a strong, dignified tone. _**"My true name is Dream of the Endless. For I am the Shepherd of Dreams; the Lord and Master of every idea, every thought and illusion that has ever existed or will come to fruition one day."**_

Naruto could only blink as the man's introduction started to sink in as questions rose with only a mere answer was given. All that he can do how was hold out his hand for the Lord of Dreams to shake. "Uh… Hi Dream."

Looking at the held out appendage, Dream soon grasped Naruto's hand as a cold feeling was momentarily felt by the publisher. _**"And hello to you, Naruto of Konoha."**_

"...How do you know that?" Naruto asked with a narrowed glance.

Letting go of Naruto's hand, Dream elaborated. _**"Apart of my duties, I oversee the dreams of many that sleep each and every day once they enter my realm. And dreams hold one's memories: the good, the bad and ones in between. And you were quite the oddity once you came to this world close to a decade ago, making me look into your memories out of curiosity."**_

Naruto felt unnerved when hearing this as this higher being already knew of his entire past. Though not wanting to quickly show his displeasure, the publisher slightly joked around this. "Makes me think that you're some sort of stalker."

" _ **I do apologize if my confession made you unsettled, but I cannot feel guilty on my actions. For it's necessary since I'm responsible to oversee the dreams of gods, immortals and mortals alike and their welfare while traversing the Dreaming."**_

"The... Dreaming? What's that?" Naruto scratched his head as he pondered the importance. "Sounds like it's your domain since you keep talking of dreams and sleep."

" _ **That is indeed correct since I'm the embodiment of the Dreaming itself with me as it's ruler."**_ Dream pointed out as he continued. _**"And as it's ruler, I guard over their dreams as they pass my gaze. So whatever secrets you have, I won't be that easy to spill onto others."**_

"Okay, I get that that idea now." Muttered the whiskered man. "But earlier you said that you wanted to clarify on what separated you from 'gods'. Mind explaining that now?"

Nodding in consent, Dream spoke. _**"Before we start Naruto; what do you know on how gods are born?"**_

Once again, Naruto scratched his head as he racked his mind for some ideas. "Much to my understanding Dream, many religions start with people wanting to explain how certain occurrences happened. From hurricanes, earthquakes, states of harvests and many other instances. Telling stories on each moment and do a connection on beings they made up. And in time, people would worship and pray towards them for comfort and success in whatever is currently going on."

Dream smiled slightly as the former shinobi got a good understanding on how gods first started out. _**"It seems you got a good grasp, but there's more than you realize."**_

"Really? How?"

" _ **It is like you said that men had created their own gods to explain occurrences and would pray towards them. But it's their dreams that helps bring the gods life. For they are born in the Dreaming and once ready, they leave that realm behind and search for power to take for themselves.**_

 _ **But you need to realize that the source of power gods relies on heavily comes from their followers. And if a god loses its acolytes, if there's no one to believe in either of them; then the god falls in disgrace and eventually fades. This process does take centuries to happen and in that time the gods lose much of their strength. They'll be forgotten by the very people who once revered them and will eventually be forced to return to the Dreaming from whence they came.**_

 _ **Of course the gods do try to exploit this through different loopholes, but I'm only entitled to know such things and knowing what happens once they return to the Dreaming."**_

"That's… That's a lot to take in and think about." Naruto simply said as he massaged the side of his head. "But what about the difference between you and the gods?"

" _ **Unlike them; we of the Endless, which consists of me and my six siblings, do not require someone to believe in us in order to exist. We carry out our tasks, whether people acknowledge our existence or not, as we'll always be here until the very end. And asides from the Endless, there's the Presence, who is beyond our understanding and whom I'll not discuss."**_

Naruto nodded in understanding as he looked up into the void above. Processing everything Dream laid out for him as the publisher got a better idea on how gods were born and the odd difference from them and these Endless. Naruto looked back at the Lord of Dreams and saw the man was still sitting patiently for any form of response from the publisher.

"Thanks for informing me on such things Dream."

" _ **You're welcome."**_

"But I do have to ask: why do you require my services?"

Dream merely tilted his head slightly in hearing the question, but nodded in remembrance as his voice went into a serious tone. _**"There is a problem involving with a particular man of great importance. Trapped in a dream that was manufactured by someone who wishes to be rid of him."**_

"Can't you just go in there and end the dream? After all, isn't that your territory?"

" _ **It is, but I'm afraid I can't interfere?"**_

"...Excuse me?" Naruto was baffled at the response and voiced it further. "Why can't you interfere on this situation? You clearly said this man is of great importance and yet you can't do a thing about it. What the hell is wrong with that?"

Dream sighed in response as he looked straight into Naruto's eyes, making the mortal try to look not too deep. _**"Reason why I can't interfere was the specific manner on how the man got into the dream and of how important he is being a key factor to a larger scale... Not only that, but I was ordered by my older brother to not interfere, directly."**_

"Then mind explaining to me Dream?"

" _ **That I cannot do since I can understand with your current… mindset, my further explanations would not make much sense to you unless you are of a higher form of intelligence."**_

'Wow… That has got to be the oddest insult to my smarts I've ever heard.' Thought the Uzumaki before remembering Dream mentioning 'directly'. "You want me to get the man out of his dream, aren't you?" Seeing the Endless nod, Naruto spoke again. "And with your occupation, and with me here, I'm guessing you want to put me into the man's dream."

" _ **Right on the nose, as the mortals say."**_ Getting up from the platform's surface, Dream dusted himself off of the imaginary dust before speaking again. _**"In your previous occupation, you were given missions for the betterment of others if I'm not mistaken. And with this current situation; if this man isn't awoken from his dream, then many fates will be greatly altered and countless lives would be lost."**_

"...He's really that important huh?" Naruto asked, seeing the seriousness in the man's features. Naruto merely sighed as he stood up as he adopted the same features as Dream's. "Alright. I'll do this Dream."

" _ **Good."**_ Walking to the edge of the platform, the Lord of Dreams placed his hand onto an invisible surface. Before Naruto could question his actions, a door started to materialize from specks of light. _**"This doorway will get you to your destination."**_

"Okay… Is there something else I should know exactly in where I'm going?"

" _ **The people that you'll interact with are those that you know in the waking world."**_ Dream stated as he pulled out a key from out of nowhere, seemingly to access the doorway. _**"But because of one man's manipulations towards the dream, not all will be the same. So play along, to not be noticed, and not give away your Vanitas identity on accident… to anyone. Even to the dream version of your lover."**_

'This is really similar to what Kurama warned me when we got to this world.' Naruto thought as he approached the door. 'At least I have a lot of experience on that.' "Anything else?"

" _ **You'll wake up once he wakes up from his dream."**_ Inserting the key into the lock, Dream unlocked the door and opened it. _**"Good luck."**_

Nodding at this, Naruto peered into the blinding white space beyond the door and stepped through. Once gone, Dream closed the door and stepped away as the door reverted back into specks of light.

" _ **I do wonder what surprises Naruto will see once there."**_ Mused the Lord of Dreams as he left the white platform to continue his continuous work in the Dreaming.

 _ **-Unknown Dream, The Dreaming-**_

Opening his eyes, Naruto groaned as he lifted himself from his bedroom mattress. Though he couldn't get up all the way as he felt some weight clinging onto his arm. Looking towards the source, Naruto saw Pam snuggling onto said limb.

'Well that's good for starters.' He thought as he slightly feared he wasn't going to be with Pam in whatever dream he was in. Looking off to the other side of the bed, Naruto didn't see Selina there. 'Though where is she.'

He felt Pam stir in the bed as she woke up with a yawn. "Morning Naruto."

"Morning Pam." Leaning close, he captured her lips and held for several moments before releasing them. "How was your sleep?"

"It was good." The botanist muttered as she tried to rub her eyes awake. "Though I wish the babies would stop kicking in my sleep."

"That's good." Naruto replied in his slight daze. But then his mind processed on what 'dream' Pam said, causing him to stiffen and look towards his girlfriend. 'Did she say… babies?'

Being really curious, Naruto lifted up the bedsheets and gazed towards Pam's stomach and saw that she was indeed pregnant with her swollen breasts due to said pregnancy. And in his mind, he guessed she was roughly 7-8 months pregnant… with triplets. His eyes watered slightly and his breath hitched as his hand came in contact with her pregnant belly, grazing against its surface.

'Pam's… pregnant?' He thought as apart of him wanted to scream out in joy on such an occasion. Though the other part told him that this was not real as its only a dream. Yet this was so hard for him to accept as his hand started to shake, causing Pam to quickly notice.

"Naruto? Is something wrong?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, the publisher shook his head as he tried to hide away his worry. "Nothing's wrong Pam. J-Just worried about the kids, that's all."

She chuckled in response as her hand came towards his whiskered cheek and petted him slightly. "My husband being such a worrywart. God, what am I gonna do with you?" Pam brought up her head and kissed Naruto on the lips, missing the widened expression being shown.

'We're married?!' Naruto yelled inside his mind as his heart seemingly soared once again. But once more, his rational thoughts had to kill such feelings as he reminded himself that this was not real. Whoever was behind all this was making this happen.

Pam separated the kiss as she patted his cheek before rolling out of bed. "Come on Naruto, I'd like to start today off well with a nice breakfast with Rachel."

"R-Right." He said as he quickly got out of the sheets and went to the bed's opposite side to help get his 'wife' out of bed.

"You don't have to keep helping me like this, you know. I'm a big girl and I can handle such things."

"I know honey, but I didn't want you to overexert yourself."

The two eventually made their way towards the kitchen, with Naruto right behind Pam in case of anything, as they saw Rachel already there making breakfast.

"Morning mom, dad." She said with a soft smile on her face.

"Morning Rachel." Voiced the botanist while her husband nodded towards the ashen girl. Though underneath the small smile, Naruto was freaking out once more.

'Seriously? Rachel calling us her parents?' He thought as he tried to control his emotions. 'What's next? Someone I know here is engaged?' "Is there enough for us?"

Rachel merely chuckled. "Of course dad. I know how much you eat, so I made extra." Nodding at this, the small family was about to eat when they heard the doorbell ring. "I'll get it."

"So will you finally tell me what's going on?" Pam asked, getting an odd look from her husband.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He defended as he took a sip of his drink in front of him.

"Right~ It's about the wedding next week, isn't it?" As she said this, Naruto coughed as some of the liquid came out of his mouth. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… I'm fine. J-Just ended up having it go down the wrong pipe."

"I'm guessing it's more than that Naruto." A voice called out from the doorway, causing Naruto to swirl around on his stool to see Selina walking in with Rachel not far behind. "Probably nervous about getting things prepared for Bruce's bachelor party soon huh."

"W-What?!"

"Seriously? You're shocked about that?" The ravenette said as she curiously looked at her friend. "Red, has he been sleeping well?"

"Yes he is. Why?"

"Well look at him." She said as she pointed at the only man in the room. "Looks like he's a bit of a nervous wreck right now."

"Give dad some slack auntie." Rachel said as she wanted to defend her adoptive father. "He's in a lot of stress trying to deal with a lot of things right now. From work, soon-to-be uncle Bruce's party and your guys' wedding coming up." She listed off as neither girls saw Naruto's shocked look. "He wanted to help plan a lot of it so please take it easy on him."

"Uh… Thanks Rachel." He voiced as he mentally sighed in defeat. 'Okay… seems I ended up calling the engagement part too soon. More like marriage was supposed to be the right answer here.'

"Ah~ Aren't you cute on trying to act all mature." Selina cooed as she planted kisses on the ashen girl's cheeks.

"Ugh! Quit it!" Responded the adopted child as she tried to push her aunt away, but it was unsuccessful.

"I will once you stop being so cute!"

Naruto smiled at the scene before him that it seemed quite the same like what he does know, yet different. It seemed that Rachel seemed a tad more confident and less shy here than from the waking world. But asides from this from his… adopted daughter apparently is the only change about her in general.

Though he does wonder what else is different here in the Dreaming from the Waking World.

The additional person in the loft did join them for breakfast as the girls talked about the Wayne-Kyle wedding next week. The manor will be where the event will be taken place, upon Thomas and Martha Wayne's insistence (que spit take from Naruto on hearing this). After the little clean up, further discussions went on of little reminders that's supposed to happen around the event like Rachel being the flower girl, Harley being apart of the bride's maids alongside Selina's sister Maggie and Naruto being Bruce's best man for the occation.

As things were being cleaned up, on both dishes and taking showers, Selina came up to the publisher once he got fully dressed with a worried look on her face.

"Is something wrong Selina?"

"Yeah. It's about Bruce."

Feeling curious, the whiskered man asked the environmentalist. "What's wrong with Bruce?"

 _ **-Wayne Industries-**_

'What the hell is going on?' Bruce thought as he tried to fill out paperwork at the company office. Keyword tried as he didn't touch a single document. 'Everything is so strange.'

He didn't know what was happening to him since he woke up this morning. All that he can remember the night before was him chasing some crooks before ending up at a warehouse. Next thing he knew, he woke up in his bed with Alfred being confused on who Robin was… Who Dick Grayson was for crying out loud!

If that wasn't odd enough, apparently his parents were alive as well, but that was impossible. Bruce saw them die when he was eight and yet there they stood at the manor with grey hair and slightly wrinkled skin on their features. It was truly hard to believe that was happening to him as this must've been some sick joke of some kind, but he couldn't explain it.

Though one of the oddest things happened as he tried to get into the batcave through one of the many entrances at his home. He didn't know how, but none of them were working or even there to begin with. Bruce tried to discreetly ask Alfred, but he was confused on what the billionaire was talking about.

Of course to finish off making his day quite disturbing for him was learning he is set to marry Selina next week. That really threw him off in a loop as Bruce was fine with not being with Selina in the first place, as she wanted to just be friends. Yet, from his understanding once Alfred explained things, the two have been lovers for over a year now ever since Naruto introduced the two of them on a blind double date.

"Not to mention him being married with kids on the way." Bruce muttered as he massaged his head. "God this is insane."

*Knock Knock* *Knock Knock*

"The door's open!" The billionaire called out before the entrance to his office opened. Stepping through, he saw Naruto and Selina come closer to his desk. "Naruto? Selina? What are you two doing here?"

Bruce's 'fiancee' merely walked closer and sat on his desk before responding. "Your mother called saying that you needed some cheering up. And who better than the woman you're marrying quite soon."

"And me. Don't forget about me." Naruto added in as he felt a little uncomfortable seeing Selina act this flirty towards another man. Sure this ain't 'his' Selina, but she's really close to the same woman he fell in love with. So it's a tad hard for him not showing any form of jealousy at this very moment.

Bruce didn't respond to either of his friends as he kept looking away from them. This got said friends to look at each other in worry as neither knew what to do.

"Wow… you really are upset." Selina said in worry as Bruce couldn't meet her eyes. "Honey… Is something wrong?"

"I… I feel as if I'm missing something." Came the billionaire's response.

"Missing what Bruce?"

"I don't know how to explain it Naruto. It's like I'm someone else."

"You're probably having pre-wedding jitters." Selina said in reassurance. "It's so close to the wedding that you're already nervous as it is. Yes, that's probably it."

"No, it's not that at all." Came the quick response from her future husband before he turned away from her. "I-It's crazy, but it feels like I'm-" "BATMAN!"

Hearing Selena's interruption caused Bruce's eyes to widen and snap his head towards her direction. Seeing her shocked expression, he turned towards the source of her attention and saw something that was completely impossible. Something that _definitely_ should not be happening right now.

'What the hell is going on?!' Bruce thought as he saw Batman gliding through the Gotham skies. He was in so much shock, he stood up from his seat and quickly ran out of his office.

"Bruce?" Naruto questioned seeing his friend go in a hurried state. Seeing the panicked look at his face made the publisher feel uneasy like there was more to his friend than meets the eye. But none of that mattered at this time as he and Selina ran out and followed Bruce's trail. "Bruce! Wait up!"

Naruto and Selina rushed through the halls and saw Bruce enter one of the elevators. They tried to make it inside, but they closed at the last moment. Not wanting to lose the trail, they went into the one that recently opened and quickly got inside.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Selina asked as she pressed the first floor button.

"I don't know, but I'd like to find out." Came her friend's response with determination in his voice. With how Bruce was acting, Naruto wants to do just that.

By the time they came out of the building, they saw Bruce stop his movements and looked onwards to see several robbers run out of a store across the street. It wasn't long before a shadow flew over head, causing several people to look up to see Batman gliding downwards from the sky. By the time he closed his cape-like wings, he dived towards one of the robbers and kicked the man's back.

"FUCK!" The one robber cried out as he dropped his share of the loot.

Several of the other robbers looked back to see what happened. By the time that occurred, they were assaulted by the Dark Knight as he dashed towards the closest one. Landing blows across the robber's chest before spin kicking the man into another robber to tumble both to the ground.

Another robber pulled a gun and fired several rounds towards the hero, but each missed as Batman weaved his way closer to the armed robber. Once close, he quickly grabbed the gun and dismantled it like it was nothing. Dumbfounded by this, the robber tried to pull out another gun from his side, only to fail as Batman punched the man's lights out before going after the others.

"Isn't he fantastic?" Selina asked with a smile on her face. This ended up getting odd looks from both men, which neither noticed. They didn't expected such a response from her in the first place as if it's like she's seeing Batman for the first time.

"Actually… yeah." Bruce muttered under his breath with widened eyes. He didn't know how to make of it, but he could happily agree with Selena's assessment of seeing his alter ego fight like that. Strange that it is with him seeing it through another's perspective.

Naruto chose and said nothing as he studied the Bat's movements and fighting style. Having seen it several times in the past when he interacted with the hero in question. Then again, the Uzumaki has experienced such things when he was Vanitas and not as his civilian self.

As he gazed to his friends, Naruto started to suspect things were clearly off in this situation. He knew for a fact that _his_ Selina saw Batman fight before and interacted with him, yet shouldn't be this impressed. As for Bruce, he noticed an odd look of familiarity across the billionaire's features. It was as if Bruce was picturing himself as Batman. It was hard to explain it, but Naruto started to suspect things were up.

By the fight across the street ended, police sirens were heard as the GCPD arrived onto the scene. Before any of the police could get out of their vehicles, Batman pulled out his grappling hook and fired it. Once it landed it's mark at a high enough spot, he pressed a button and shot himself into the sky before gliding away from the scene.

"W-Who is he?"

"He's Batman Bruce." Came the publisher's response. Though he oddly got a shake to the head in return.

"No, not that Naruto. I meant _who_ is he?"

"...Isn't that the reason why he wears a cape and cowl?"

Selina giggled into her hand at her friend's response. "I do agree with Naruto on this one Bruce. But to answer your question… no one really knows. He just appeared one day a few weeks ago." She then gained a worried look once more as she looked onto Bruce's features. "Are you alright?"

Bruce merely looked at his 'fiancee' and had one question in mind. "Selina… Does the name Catwoman ring any bells?"

"I… I have no idea who you're talking about." She said in complete confusion. "Bruce you're really starting to worry me."

"Same here." Naruto said in agreement, but in not in the way the others were expecting. Inside of the publisher's mind, he was really starting to piece together things that he didn't expect to find out while in this dream. But to keep things flowing and try not to give himself away, Naruto quickly formulated a plan. "Maybe you should see Harley Bruce. She could possibly help."

Selina nodded as she spoke. "I agree. Her being one of the best psychologists in Gotham, she could maybe help you out on whatevers happening."

Being ganged up like this, along with his mind being such a turmoil, he sighed out in response. "Okay… I'll go check on her once I'm done with work. After all, I still have other things to take care of in the office."

 _ **-Evening, Dr. Harleen Quinzel's Office-**_

"So mind telling me what's going on Bruce?" Harley questioned the billionaire, who was lying on the patient chair in her office. "When Naruto called me earlier to set up the interview; it was odd to hear you wanting to see a psychologist. Even me, no less, since you apparently don't like going to them at all. Hell I even remember hearing about you trying to date that one psychologist last year before she died and even then you two never got along as she tried to psychoanalyze you."

"I'm sorry on that Harley, but it's just I never felt comfortable going to one to begin with… And as for Bethanie, well, she started to push the wrong buttons that made me feel quite uneasy with her."

"How so?"

"Well…" He drawled out as he tried to think on the proper answer. "I didn't want to be downgraded like a child after my parent's accident."

"The one with the car accident?"

Blinking in confusion in what she meant, Bruce decided to play along since he has no memory of such a thing. Only the memory of his parent's death entering his vision. "Right… that. It was a hard experience for me to endure and I started bottling things up for a long time. And when Bethanie started to probe me on such sensitive and personal subjects, I had to end things with her."

"That's quite understandable Bruce." The blonde doctor said as she wrote on her clipboard. "You didn't give her the proper trust to know such things and her being a psychologist seemed to add to the problem of a notion you never wanted to come across, ever since your childhood."

"That's pretty much it I suppose." 

"And yet here you are in my office, a psychologist's office, to deal with your problems." Harley pointed out with a small smile.

"You got me there Harley." He chuckled a little. "You're Naruto's dear friend and I want to put a lot of trust in you on this."

"Then I'm glad you want to do so." Came her response with a genuine smile. "So… What's troubling you Bruce?"

The dark haired man could only sigh in frustration as his hands were massaging his temples. "It's like I'm living another person's life Harley. I don't really know myself anymore. All I know is so different from things that I'm seeing right now."

"Mind telling me some examples? If you're comfortable that is."

"Well… there's you for starters."

The psychologist blinked in confusion and pointed towards herself. "Me?"

"Yes you. I don't know how to say it without offending you or hurting you, but you were in an accident that ended up bleaching your skin and hair and you ended up childish." Bruce said as he looked her way to see a raised brow look across her features. "But you do keep your childish tendencies from your work so you can work better at Arkham."

She merely blinked at this and only muttered a little. "Huh… weird."

"Then there's Selina that she's a thief to help fund many environmental situations, Pam's not pregnant and she has plant based powers and I know that I took in a child when he was roughly eight years old and practically raised him like a son. Yet none of that happened."

Harley hummed a little as she wrote these down before addressing her patient. "I could say that you're a little crazy and stay away from comic books on giving you such ideas." This earned a little chuckle from Bruce. "Though joking aside, I think the problem is a little clear to me. Now you've lived this carefree life with everything handed to you since you were born in privilege. For example, you were given Wayne Enterprises ever since your father retired.

Yet you fear that you never really accomplished anything noteworthy with things laid out for you. And I'm not talking about of you graduating college as such a thing since that takes a lot of hard work mind you. But getting back to the matter at hand, you're at a big point in your life that's going to change yourself for the next big step towards your future."

"Marrying Selina?"

"Yes and instead of going through your typical life crisis, you started to fantasize and create a life more satisfying for you. Replacing yourself with someone else that's doing so much good for others and is worth of great value." Harley explained as she saw the billionaire's head nod and come to some form of understanding.

"Batman."

"I guess so and to simply put it, you're suffering from dissociation. The only way to treat this problem is for you to find pride in your own existence and then these delusions will fade away. Merely becoming thoughts that you'd laugh about years later."

Bruce seemed quite unsettled in hearing this and didn't know what to do. He could only mutter his response. "And all these years of training and discipline ever since my parent's murder in Crime Alley… A delusion?"

"I guess so Bruce." She responded with a shrug before seeing the billionaire rub his temples with a small smile seemingly grow on his lips.

"Then… Then the nightmare is over." Bruce declared as he stood up from the patient chair and shook Harley's hand. "Thank you Harley for helping me on this."

"Your welcome and I'll be sure to forward the bill to your family."

Nodding at this, Bruce headed out of the office to head home with the ever present smile on his features. Though if he were to look back in the hallway, Bruce would've seen Naruto drop down from the ceiling with a frown on his face. Clearly hearing the whole conversation taking place.

"Seems this finally confirms things, more than I would've liked." The publisher muttered as he made his way out of the building. "Now I need to get Bruce out of this dream or he'll be trapped here, with me in it."

 _ **-Wayne Manor-**_

Going through the hallway as the happiest he'd ever been in years, Bruce made it to his father's office. Standing by his desk was the man who helped raise him for years alongside his mother. Going up to him, Bruce tapped his shoulder, causing Thomas to turn around before he was assaulted by a hug.

"...Not that I mind this Bruce. What brought this on?" Questioned the Wayne patriarch.

"Nothing dad, nothing at all." Separating from the embrace, Bruce spoke to his father. "Though I was wondering if you and mom would like to join Selina and I out for dinner."

"Heh. Seems that you're in your old self Bruce. And as for dinner, I'll have to check with your mother."

"That's fine dad and yeah… I've never felt better."

Leaving the office, Bruce searched for the family butler. It did take some time, but he found Alfred cleaning the library near one of one of the 'supposed' entrances to the batcave. "So did you find that cave yet Alfred?"

Turning towards the source, the Wayne butler merely shook his head. "I'm afraid not Bruce."

"Good because if you did then both of us would've been crazy." Bruce responded with a grander smile.

The Pennyworth smiled at his young charge at his better spirits. "It's good to see you in best of moods Master Bruce."

"Why not Alfred, my life is a dream. Practically the best I've ever had."

"Then if you'll excuse me, I'll need to prepare dinner." Alfred said as he made his way out of the room.

"Check with my parents though since I think they'll want to go out with Selina and I."

Turning back, the butler nodded before going to search for the patriarch and matriarch of the household.

Bruce merely looked back at Alfred exiting the room, leaving him all by himself. Wanting to finally treat himself, the man made his way towards the nearby coffee table where a book laid there. Knowing it being one of the books he wanted to finally finish reading, yet delayed himself because of his supposed life as Batman.

"Now where I was I?" He questioned himself as he opened the book at it's bookmarked page. Bruce was about to sit down and read, but something odd occurred as he gazed at it's pages. "What the hell?"

Before him were jumbled up words, in various fonts and designs, that didn't make any sense to Bruce at all. He rubbed his eyes from what he was seeing and gazed back. Bruce didn't know what to make of this now as he started to flip through the pages. Each and every one of them were practically the same of the jumbled mess. His heart was starting to beat louder and louder with his eyes widening.

"N-No… I-It can't be." Needing to find if this was true, Bruce made his way towards the other books in his library and opened them up. Each and every one in his frantic state saw the same mess as before. "No. No. NO! This isn't making sense!"

"Bruce? Is something wrong?" Came the voice of his mother. Turning around with widened eyes, Bruce saw her alongside his father with concerned looks on their faces.

"...You're not real."

"What?"

"You two… You're not real." He said as he backed away from them. "None of this is real! It's all a lie!"

Running out of the library, not seeing the worried looks of his parents, Bruce made it to the living room to see the TV set was on.

" _...And in latest news, Batman has once again captured the criminals before fleeing-"_ Sounds of the TV set were destroyed as Bruce threw the lamp at the screen.

"Batman… Always Batman!" He yelled out in rage.

"Bruce! What the hell is the matter with you?!" Thomas yelled out as he came close to his son.

"It's him! He's behind all of this!" Bruce cried out as he moved out of the way from his father's grasp. "And I'm gonna find out why!"

Running towards the garage, he hoped into one of the nearby cars and drove out of the manor grounds. Bruce did not see the concerned looks of his parents as he made his way off the area. Though if he did look back slightly in his current pursuit, he would've seen Naruto's car drive near the family grounds.

"The hell?" Muttered the Uzumaki. "Was that Bruce?" Turning around his car, Naruto made his way to follow his friend.

 _ **-Streets of Gotham-**_

It took a bit of time to catch up to his target since Naruto ended up hitting some red lights along the way. Though by the time the publisher saw Bruce's car, which was in front of a sport's shop, there was a police car right next to it. The billionaire was clearly talking to a pair of officers with a grappling hook and rope around his shoulder. And before Naruto knew it, Bruce ran away from the officers into the nearby alleyways.

Not wanting to lose track of his friend again, Naruto drove around the block to hopefully find him. Though after several minutes, Naruto saw him running once dropping down from a fire escape. The Uzumaki stopped his car at the alley's entrance and opened the passenger door.

"Get in Bruce!"

"Naruto?"

"Get in the fucking car Bruce!" Naruto called out. "Right now!"

In the heat of the moment, Bruce complied and entered before Naruto drove them through the streets.

"What are you doing here Naruto?"

"I can ask the same thing. What the hell did you do to piss off the cops? And while I'm at it, what were you doing as you drove off from home like someone on a mission?"

"You saw that?"

"Yeah, I did. So mind telling me what's going on?"

"I… I don't know if you'll believe me. Hell I don't even know if you're really there." Bruce said from his seat.

"Like I'm not even real? Like everything around us is merely a dream?" Naruto questioned in a serious tone, getting his friend to look at him.

"Wait… How do you-"

"I know since I'm stuck in here with you Bruce." Naruto stated as he mentally slapped himself of revealing this without doing it in a proper way doing so. Things were getting nowhere and Naruto needed to do his part now. "I know since none of this was right when I woke up this morning."

"...Tell me something only I would know."

"Excuse me?"

"If what you're proclaiming to be true Naruto, then tell me something only I know that isn't from _here_."

Naruto gave Bruce a look for a brief moment since he needed to keep his eyes on the road to… wherever really. The publisher was just merely driving without a proper destination in mind. "You really want one or would you like several?"

"Just tell me already." Bruce growled out as his patience was wearing thin.

"Alright sheesh. Okay so here are a few things: Selina is a thief that has a criminal record. There's Pam who definitely isn't pregnant and my wife and doesn't work for Star Labs anymore since she currently works at the Botanical Gardens. Harley has her skin bleached because of the Joker and works at Arkham. And there's also the fact I tried asking about Dick Grayson earlier if he was going to the wedding and no one knows who he is."

Hearing these facts made Bruce call down a little. They were indeed true to his memory and not from this… dream he was experiencing. Though there was one question that came to mind.

"But if you're in this dream, then how did you get in here?"

"I'd like to know as well Bruce, but I have no idea how exactly." Lied the publisher since he didn't want to give out that part out of the Lord of Dreams being the one to get him in here. "I thought things were odd when I woke up but you seemed to really confirm you weren't from _here_ when you asked Selina earlier if she was supposedly Catwoman."

"Then I'm not the only one in here." Bruce sighed out. "But why did you try and find me earlier and not ask me back at the office?"

"Call it a guess, but I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy books pertaining to dreams. In this kind of scenario, if you start to talk about it around those that are apart of the dream, instead of in private with those not apart of it, then it's defenses will eventually start kicking in to make the dreamer feel more convinced it's real instead of being fake. It's either that or possibly whoever did this whole mess is gonna go through many lengths to keep this going."

Hearing this made Bruce nod a little on the explanation. It wasn't the best but it gave him the general idea. Looking out of the window, he noted some of the areas and asked his friend.

"So where are you taking me?"

"Nowhere in particular since I have no idea where to go exactly." Answered the publisher. "Though do you have an idea on where to head off to? You clearly have some gear on you that you need to get somewhere."

"You're right. Now I really can't explain it, but I need you to take me to the cemetery. It might help lead to who is behind all this."

Nodding at this, Naruto spun his car around the corner and made their way towards the cemetery in question.

 _ **-Gotham Cemetery-**_

"This is it Bruce." Naruto said as he pulled up to the land's gates. "Are you sure you don't need me with you?"

"I'm sure." Replied the billionaire as he got out of the car. If what he guesses is true, then he doesn't want Naruto to know what he might possibly say. "You stay here and wait for me in case of anything."

"...If you say so Bruce." Seeing the man back up onto the road, Bruce took a sprint and jumped onto the cemetery wall before climbing the rest of the way up. "Though I don't know if I plan on waiting in here for you to get back." Just as Naruto got out of his car, he saw a police car pull up from behind before one of cops walked towards him. "Is there something wrong officers?"

"Yeah, we're wondering if you spotted Bruce Wayne around here."

Naruto shook his head as he lied to the officer. "No I have not sir. Is something wrong with him?"

"Nothing that you should be concern about."

"If you say so."

"Though why are you here so late at night?" The officer asked as his eyes narrowed the whiskered man.

"Oh, no reason." The publisher said with a shrug. "Just driving around to clear my head."

The second officer got out of the car, pulled his partner back and whispered something into the first officer's ear. Not long after, the man pulled back before both had a narrowed glance across their features. "I think you're lying."

"And why's that?"

"Because one of our guys saw from the security footage from one of the intersections and reported it in."

"Wow~ That is really fast." Was all Naruto said before he ran in close and knocked the two officers out. "And that was a really stupid excuse for a dream defense. Not long after, additional cars started to arrive onto the scene. "Yeah… This is gonna be an annoying way to buy Bruce time to get things done."

Back with said billionaire, Bruce made it to the cemetery's center as he eyed the small church located here. Pulling out his grappling hook, he swung it high enough to help him climb up the wall. It wasn't a great process, having grown used to using his grappling gun for so long, but this had to be done. Having to repeat this process a few times to get to the very top of the church's bell tower, Bruce rested for a little moment as the rain started to pour from the sky.

"HERE I AM!" He cried out to the heavens as the thunder roared. "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU! YOU DID THIS TO ME SO COME ON OUT!"

Bruce waited not that very long as he soon saw a figure glide through the thunderous skies. It flew closer and closer to the bell tower until it slowed itself down once close enough. In a quick movement, the figure landed a few feet away from Bruce as it revealed itself to be Batman… or something else posing as the Dark Knight.

Wanting to let out his frustrations, Bruce lunged at his opponent and swung his fist. 'Batman' caught ahold of it and tossed Wayne aside, who landed as he recovered in the air. Bruce went back towards his assault as he slid on the ground to sweep the 'hero' from below. Though this wouldn't work at 'Batman' jumped out of the way from the strike. Getting back up, Bruce was about to attack when the 'Dark Knight' walked towards him.

"You're not well Mr. Wayne." 'Batman' stated as he held out his hand. "You need professional help. Please, let me help you."

"LIAR!" Bruce growled out as he pointed at the man in front of him. "You know what's going on! This is a dream! A very elaborate dream and you're the one responsible for all of this!"

"A dream? Why would you think that?"

"I suspected something was really off from the start as I started asking questions. Though this dream was really convincing me otherwise and I was about to cave in. But things started to become clear when I tried reading a book at my library. The print didn't make any sense."

"And what of it?" Questioned the 'Bat' as he walked closer to the billionaire.

"Because reading is a function on the right side of the brain while dreams come from the left side. And it's impossible to read in a dream." He explained as his adversary advanced his movements, making Bruce back away.

"Granted that's true, but how is it my fault."

"I don't know, but I know that you're the key to all of this. I just know it. Just like I know that you'd be here. This tower is apart of my nightly patrols." As 'Batman' got close enough, Bruce grabbed ahold of the man's costume in a fierce grip. "NOW TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!"

Soon a spotlight was shone onto the tower, making Bruce squint his eyes as he heard something from a megaphone.

" _We don't want to hurt you Mr. Wayne, we just want to talk."_ An officer spoke through the speaker. _"Though it's hard to do so with your friend cooperating."_

"This guy's crazy!" An officer cried out as he was smacked to the side. "We can't seem to stop him!"

"Then keep him down-GAH!" The megaphone officer cried out as one of the other officers landed ontop of him.

"Yeah that's not gonna happen." Naruto stated as he twirled around a pair of tonfa batons he acquired from the officers. "I can possibly do this all night assholes!"

As the publisher readied himself, more and more officers seemed to appear into the cemetery to take care of the situation at hand. In real life, this would've been too much but it seemed the dream defenses were really starting to go haywire to stop the publisher from ending the dream.

'Naruto.' Bruce thought as he peered at the scene below with several piles of officers lying on the ground with his friend fending them off all on his own.

This distraction costed him as 'Batman' kneed him in the stomach, causing him to hunch over before he was smacked around at the top of the tower. Getting tired of the hits, Bruce grabbed ahold of one of Batman's arms before punching the man across the face several times. On the last punch, the 'hero' grabbed the offending arm and headbutted the billionaire before kicking his side.

Before Bruce could recover, 'Batman' lunged at him as they tumbled to the ground. They rolled around the room and punched at each other as they tried to gain dominance over the other. It was a difficult process for the billionaire as he was able to get on top, with both of them evenly matched. Though to let go of some of his frustrations, he did kick Batman across the head several times for good measure.

"Now let's see who you are!" Bruce growled out as he reached for his opponent's mask. Pulling it off, the billionaire gasped as he saw the one behind all of this. "The Mad Hatter?"

Jervis Tetch could only cackle at Bruce's face as he backed away from the unmasked man. "Congratulations are in order I suppose. And you are indeed right Mr. Wayne. This is a dream, a _very_ special dream."

"Then… Then you know everything about me."

Jervis shook his head as he pulled off his Batman costume as his Mad Hatter attire appeared to be worn underneath. Once pulling out his signature hat from the discarded cowl, the former Wayne scientist spoke. "Indeed I do, but I think I should clear this up Mr. Wayne. I am merely a figment of this dream, representing the real Jervis Tetch from the outside as he toils away to keep you locked in here."

"What do you mean Tetch?!" Bruce growled out as he stared down his former employee.

"The real Hatter had to acquire tech from Star Labs at various locations around the country to build the Dream Apparatus so that he can place it onto you to keep everything locked in so nothing can interfere." Explained the Hatter as he pointed his finger at the billionaire. "At the cost of not revealing anything to the outside world, it's purpose is to create an ideal world for you and you alone."

"But how is Naruto in here in the first place?" Bruce demanded as he smacked Jervis' hand away. "He clearly knows that he's stuck in here just like me."

"You mean your friend down there?" Jervis stated as he pointed towards the scene below. "That I do not know for sure. He could be apart of your subconscious represented to remind you of who you really are. A form of defense that came into being to help you on this endeavor."

"And what of you Jervis? You're not real."

"Ah but I could be real, just as real as everything else in this world." His answer was not met well as he was punched across the face several times. "FUCK THAT HURT!"

"Then end this Tetch! End this now!"

Holding onto his bleeding nose, Jervis waved over it to have it mended before glaring at his former boss. "I'm hurt that you're not appreciating the world I created."

"But it's not real!"

"Ah~ But it can be, once you accept it." The Hatter said in a sinister tone. "Though I must ask: Are you the dreamer or merely a part of someone else's dream?" Jervis cackled as he smiled. "That was the question Twiddle Dee told to Alice in Looking throu-"

"THIS ISN'T SOME STORYBOOK JERVIS!"

The Hatter ignored the outburst as he walked around the dream trapped man before him. "But it is Mr. Wayne. A beautiful story to fill your heart's content. A world where your parents never died, a world where you got all the love you ever wanted and friends just as happy as you are. Your very own Wonderland to do as you see fit."

Bruce gritted his teeth as he hotly glared at the criminal before lunging at the man and punched him several more times. "WILL YOU SHUT UP FOR ONCE!" Once he stopped punching the man, Bruce spoke once again. "I will not live a lie, no matter how attractive you make it to be!"

Jervis was in a sour mood at this point as he glared back as he mended his injuries. "It's a moot point yet there's no way out of this."

"Tell me how to get out of this Tetch!"

"I don't know and even if I did, I'd never tell it to you." Soon the sounds of doors being blown in were heard all from above, causing Tetch to gleefully smile. "Seems that your friend wasn't able to take care of all of them. And in a moment, the police will be here to take you in. But do you want to spend the rest of your dream life in Arkham?"

Additional sounds could be heard at the doorway in the bell room as the officers were trying to make their way through. "Open up Mr. Wayne! We just want to help!"

Bruce looked onto the side and saw more people arrive onto the scene as he gazed at Naruto's form being outnumbered with the police rushing in all at once. The billionaire tightened his fists in anger as several throughts arrived. Though one thought seemed of most interest as he smiled, which caused Hatter to become quite nervous.

"There is a way out." He said as he walked back to the edge of the room.

"J-Just wait a damn minute Mr. Wayne." Tetch warned as he tried to stop him. "Don't do anything foolish! This isn't an ordinary dream! And what if you're wrong?!"

As the sounds of the door were giving way, Bruce glanced at Jervis and growled out a simple response. "Then I'll see you in your nightmares."

Taking off into a sprint, the door was finally opened as the police came through. But it appeared to be too late as they saw Bruce about to leap through the room's gap.

"No Mr. Wayne! Don't do it!"

He ignored them as he jumped. Falling down from up high as he saw the shocked faces from down below. Plummeting down towards the earth, heads first and not for his safety, he awaited death. But the last thing he saw before he met his demise was seeing Naruto's shocked appearance as he cried out to him.

"BRUCE!"

 _ **-Waking World-**_

Waking up with a gasp, Naruto panted as he tried to calm his beating heart. It was truly hard to picture on what he just saw before being forcefully ripped out of the Dreaming. Once calming down, Naruto gazed onto the sides of his bed and saw his girlfriends were still asleep.

"How… How did they sleep through me yelling?!"

" _ **Because I put them into a deeper sleep than usual Naruto."**_ Looking at the far side of the room, the publisher spotted the Lord of Dreams sitting in one of the chairs of the room as he sipped some tea from one Naruto's cups. _**"I didn't want them to hear this conversation once you woke up."**_

"Why didn't you tell me I was going into Bruce's dream?" Questioned the publisher as he got out of bed and walked towards Morpheus.

" _ **Because it was not my place to say. You needed to figure things out on your own and you needed to help him out once you did so."**_ Morpheus explained as he placed the cup down. _**"Though I at least have to say good job on what you did to get him out."**_

"All I did was hold off the police as I saw one of my friends commit suicide off the side of the bell tower!" Naruto growled out as he hotly glared at dream lord before him. "How is that a good job?! He could've died!"

" _ **And yet, he didn't. He's currently awake, dealing with his assailant as we speak."**_ Dream said in a reassuring tone. _**"Though the method of killing himself was the only way his mind can release him from his confinement. And as drastic said method was, it proved to be the most effective in that situation."**_

All that Naruto could do was tightening his fists as he walked around his room for several moments. "Mind telling me who trapped Bruce inside of his dream at least."

"Does it matter?"

"No, since he as Batman is already taking care of it. But I just wanna at least know and why the man did this."

If Dream's eyes were visible, he would've rolled them. _**"He goes by the name Jervis Tetch, otherwise known as Mad Hatter, and he wanted to trap Batman so Bruce would not meddle in his life anymore."**_

Groaning out, Naruto massaged his temples as he remembered the escaped Arkham inmate. "Great… Him again… At least he's back in jail again. But… But does he know Bruce's secret?"

" _ **He does not. The machine used could not allow him to remove his cowl as the harness was fastened around your friend's head and Tetch was too impatient on putting on the device that he forgot to check on his adversary's identity."**_

This earned Naruto a relieved sigh. "That's a relief." Looking back at the man in his bedroom, he wondered why Morpheus was still here. "Is there something else you need to talk to me about?"

" _ **Yes I do. Since you've helped out in this endeavor, I want to gift you with something."**_

Blinking at this, Naruto was surprised to hear this. Him being gifted by a primordial like being. Someone that dwarfs gods?

"Are you sure you want to give me something Dream? I mean I did yell at you earlier."

" _ **I know that, but I've grown used to it that it doesn't really bother me."**_

"...Okay… So what's this gift you want to give me?"

" _ **You'll see your reward once you fall back asleep."**_ Blinking in confusion once more, Morpheus elaborated. _**"It's something my youngest sibling and I had made in a joint project years ago before her 'change' to help spread the influence of pleasant dreams among the mortals. And their appearances being cute and cuddly helps on such a thing… My sister's words not mine."**_

"Then thanks?"

" _ **You're welcome."**_ As Dream started to fade into the darkness of the night, he spoke one last thing. _**"Have a pleasant sleep Naruto. You earned it."**_

Seeing the Lord of Dreams no longer in his room, Naruto looked at the teacup left behind. Not wanting it lying around, he took it and exited his room to get it cleaned up before properly storing it away. As he did so, Naruto reflected back on the dream he had and what he saw exactly.

'I'm gonna need to talk to Harley when I see her next.' He thought as he washed the cup and plate. 'She might help me out on this in a psychologist's standpoint. And even then… I don't know how to properly talk to Selina and Pam about what I saw in there.' Placing the wet dishes onto the side to air dry, Naruto leaned against the counter as he pondered further. 'And there's the fact that I interacted with the real Bruce in there and me knowing he's Batman. What the hell am I gonna do with that?'

Feeling too tired to think on this now, the publisher walked back to bed as he wanted to rest his mind from what he had to deal with. Hoping that Morpheus will give him a pleasant sleep like he promised. Though he did wonder what Dream gifted him with that'll make his sleeping experience enjoyable.

All that he could do at this point was lie back and dream a pleasant dream and deal with his worries in the morning.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **You gotta admit that when you originally saw the episode for the first time, it was something that went over the edge… in an opposite approach. Bruce dreaming the fantasy he always wanted: his parents are alive, having a family of his own in the future and someone else being protector of Gotham. But of course things can only be too good to be true with how one sees it. Though once coming to terms with such a fantasy, you'd realize that some part of reality will butt in and make you realize that it's not meant to be.**

 **This was actually an episode I originally thought on passing. But as things have been going on lately on my end made me reconsider such a thing. Especially with dwelling deeper into personal thoughts and wanting to exploit things that Naruto might get roped into the whole situation with something similar to Road to Ninja.**

 **In that animated movie, Naruto seemingly got something similar that his parents were alive but some drawbacks had to occur from friends being completely different than he grew up with. Though, of course, things are truly not meant to be that one has to come to terms with the concept. But you do have to admit, certain dreams can be hard to accept as being not real. Wanting you to hopefully not wake up from.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	37. The Laughing Fish

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 34: The Laughing Fish**

It has been quite the stormy day for the eastern seaboard as many fishermen were not able to go out and do their jobs. So much so that varied companies in said areas had to call off workers for the day with the low productivity for the time being. Of course there were those that wanted to try their luck and nab their daily catches to earn a good wage.

Though one such fishing boat was able to return to Gotham port after a long day of trial and error. But with how dark the sky was throughout the day, it was impossible to check out the load the fishermen caught until they safely docked. And with how drenched each of the men were, they were glad to finally travel on safe land and call it a night.

"Okay boys," said the fishing captain, "let's finally see what we got."

Lowering the crane that hoisted the netted fish, the large bundle landed on the ground for inspection. The workers brought out their flashlights to get a good look of their hard worked load. Though upon closer inspection, each man reeled back in disgust on what they just saw.

"Dear god."

"It's impossible."

"I'm gonna be sick."

"They have his face!"

"How the fucking hell did the Joker do all of this?"

In what each of the men were referring to, somehow the fish they acquired were tainted as they gazed at the smiling grins plastered on their faces. With the pale white scales, the green fins, the wide eyes and the stretched ruby lips. Though if they somehow showed off teeth then the men would've really been disgusted.

"We need to call the police." One of the sailors started with a grim look on his features. "We need to tell them that the Joker's back."

 _ **-Batcave-**_

Sitting by the batcomputer, Alfred was reading a book and drinking some tea as he waited for Bruce to come back on his nightly activities. There wasn't much for him to do as of late since he cleaned the manor earlier today and prepared Bruce and Dick's meals. Alfred would've enjoyed spending more time with Maggie, but she's been rather busy lately at work that his girlfriend didn't have much free moments to go out on dates. He respected such things and she promised that she'd call to go out on her next free day.

The butler's alone time came to an end once he heard the batmobile's engines coming from the distance and it's wheels came to a grinding halt. Seeing his costumed charge exit the vehicle, Alfred stood up and walked towards him and greeted Bruce with a small smile.

"How was your nightly patrol Master Bruce?" Questioned the Wayne butler as he received the typical frown Bruce wore the majority of his days. "That bad I take it."

"You have no idea." Batman muttered as he went towards the nearby table. Pulling out a bag from underneath his cape, he emptied it's contents onto a tray before turning on the desk light.

Taking a closer look to what Bruce brought back, he covered his mouth from not only the strong smell coming from the fish but also the ghastly sight of it. "My word."

"May I please have the dissection tray Alfred?"

"Of course sir." Walking off to the side to acquire said tray, the Wayne butler voiced his thoughts. "Any clue to what scheme the Joker has this time around?"

Batman merely shook his head as he waited for the tray to arrive. "Normal criminals have a logical motives, but the Joker's are only clear to him and him alone.

 _ **-The Dreaming-**_

Sounds of fighting could be heard in one area of the Dreaming. Normally such dreams could be just memories resurfacing for those that were battle starved warriors or suffering from nightmares of tragic moments of their past. After all, this is the Land of Dreams and such memories are experienced if one could access them.

But it should be noted that this dream in particular is neither of them.

Overlooking the vastly dense forest, many buildings could be seen once past a mighty gate. And beyond the city's worth of buildings and bazaars lies a mountain that one could mistaken it for Mount Rushmore with the carved faces chiseled onto its surface. And beyond that lies the continuous forests that spread out for miles on end that could make any nature lover possibly cream their pants with how beautiful the landscape is.

For those not in the know, this is Konohagakure or Village Hidden in the Leaves for translations sake… yet it is not. For the birth home of Naruto Uzumaki that we see here is merely just a dream. A dream that the former shinobi was able to access after trial and error.

After his discussion and mission given by the Lord of Dreams himself two weeks ago, Naruto wanted to possibly access his own dream world and see what he could do with it. He remembered seeing how Morpheus made the door to Bruce's dream world and from there, the former shinobi had experimented in trying to make such a door. It was an odd feeling as Naruto attempted in making the entryway, but he gained unexpected results.

The first few times were honest failures as he couldn't get the feeling right in creating the doorway. The next one didn't exactly create a door he imagined it would be; that instead of a typical door he saw everyday, Naruto ended up seeing a small dome of dark purplish fire that was cold to the touch. The Uzumaki didn't know how, but he got a distinct feeling it was indeed a doorway but it wasn't what he wanted at the current time. But that didn't mean he won't look into this at a later day.

After a few more tries, Naruto succeeded in creating a door and was able to enter the dream world but it wasn't his desired destination. Naruto first thought it was his as he sometimes dreamt of being back in the Konoha forest, but when he saw Pam being with the older version of herself, the Uzumaki realized that he somehow stumbled into her part of the Dreaming. The reaction was typical when he told her what he tried to do and it creeped her out on the idea.

Naruto tried getting into his dream world a few other times, but he ended up in his other girlfriends' dreams. Selina was interesting of her making the biggest score of her life and celebrating the occasion with 'him' in the snobbish apartment of said score. With Harley, it was rather trippy as the kaleidoscope of colors made things hard to focus. But he did make out of there being several versions of the bubbly blonde before they assaulted him with unrestrained love and affection… too much in fact.

After that was taken care of, it became a good experience for Naruto and his three lovers that they could enter each other's dream worlds… provided that the Uzumaki is there to bring them along.

Now going back to the sounds of fighting mentioned earlier…

"On your left Puddin!"

"Got it Harley!"

...Naruto and Harley are currently fighting a wave of enemies that appeared to resemble real-life animals in a darker variety. Bearing symbols on their bodies that resemble a darkened heart with bat like wings coming out of the bottom. They reeked of negative emotions and dark intents that would harm someone's dream if left unchecked.

These are the Nightmare Dream Spirits… Odd representations on actual nightmares in the Dreaming.

Naruto, who was currently in his Vanitas attire, blocked several incoming blasts with his ice shield before bashing some of the Nightmares away. As they flew back, the whiskered Uzumaki slammed his ice weapon to the ground to shoot several spears from underneath. As several Nightmares were destroyed, Naruto held up his shield as he lowered himself to help get Harley to jump higher into the air.

Leaping from her puddin's shield, the changed psychologist swung her weapon at the enemy Halbirds (hawk-looking creatures) and Peepsta Hoos (owl-like beasts). Her Creeper formed mallet smashed against the Nightmares' forms to send them crashing to the ground. Using much of her enhanced strength, Harley slammed her Nobody weapon onto one of the enemies to extinguish their existence before spinning herself around to smack other Nightmares in her site.

"Man this is really fun!" Harley proclaimed with a widened smile as she skated through the Nightmares. Her appearance was different from the norm as one side of her hair seemed sprayed red and the other black. From there, her attire consisted of being in a roller derby as the color theme was red and black with opposite colored diamonds decorating every other piece of the suit.

"Harley, you need to pay attention your surroundings!" Naruto called out as he replaced his shield with his scythe before slashing at several incoming foes.

"I am puddin!" She responded as she kicked another Nightmare away when she backflipped away. "But it's a little easier to forget with our backup!"

Said backup were blasting and slashing their way through the Nightmare forces as they consistently helped out the two humans. Two of them appeared to be frogs as one's winged with a lilypad shield and a cattail blade while the other wore a crown and a small cape as it wielded a buckler shield and a rapier. One appeared to be a jester-like ghost and the other was an electric themed unicorn.

Each of them bore symbols on their bodies that resembled a smoother heart, unlike the darker Nightmare ones. They were pleasant looking as they radiated kindness and affection, soothing others from the harshness of reality. Even baring brighter color schemes than from ones being fought on the battlefield.

These are the Dream Eater Spirits, opposites of the Nightmares in the Dreaming and the accessible gift Naruto received by their co-creator Morpheus of the Endless.

Sometime after Naruto was able to freely access his dream world, he came across both of these dream spirits as they fought each other. The Dream Eaters were clearly outnumbered and feeling the negative aura from the opposing number, Naruto clearly knew who to help out. Once taking care of their dark counterparts, the publisher was greeted by the lighter spirits before the Dreaming Lord arrived and talked to the Uzumaki.

Morpheus explained that both the light and dark spirits exist in the Dreaming, where they consume the good and bad experiences of it's denizens to help out it's ruler's workload. But as of late, the Nightmares started to outnumber the Spirits and Morpheus needed to take care of the problem. And much to Naruto's slight annoyance, Lord Dream dropped some of that problem onto the publisher.

Though this did give Naruto an idea to somewhat exploit by using this opportunity to help train his girlfriends in their fighting capabilities… especially Harley at the present time.

"Phew, I'm beat." Harley stated as she wiped the sweat from her brow. "And today's session was intense."

"No kidding." Came her boyfriend's response. "But once again, we've got to thank these guys for the help."

"Yup, yup." The psychologist was soon assaulted by a giant lick from the present Jestabocky. "Hey! Cut it out! It tickles!"

He chuckled at the sight before him as he petted the Electricorn and shook the hands of the two Kyroos. "And here I thought you'd be used to that by now."

"Well it's hard with these guys being so damn cute, adorable and cuddly!" Was her response as she glomped the jester-like ghost and rubbed her face against the top of it's head. This made the Jestabocky let out small squeals of joy on Harley's actions.

Naruto merely shook his head as he reflected back on the time when his girlfriends first met the Dream Spirits. Harley's was obvious, with her current actions reflecting the same ones back then; Selina loved the exotic animals and enjoyed interacting with them and Pam wanted to study them thoroughly while interacting with the Wheelflowers and Woeflowers. Given the fact that said Dream Spirits were plant based and had very small traces with the Green.

"Though I do wonder what Rachel's reactions will be like once coming here?"

"I'm sure she'll love meeting these guys puddin."

"You're probably right." Naruto smiled as he walked towards her. "Though I think it's time we woke up Harley." This made her cutely pout as she wanted to stay a little longer, causing him to capture her lips to cause her to lift up her legs on the action. Once ending the kiss, Naruto spoke once more. "We do need to go to work and I really don't want to make this a habit of us sleeping in too late on our work days."

The changed psychologist groaned as the two of them started to glow to signal their awakening.

 _ **-Waking World, Harley's Apartment-**_

Letting a small yawn, Harley rubbed the dust out of her eyes. "That was a good sleep."

"Pretty much." Turning her head towards the love of her life, she reached up and captured his lips while they lied in her bed. Once ending the kiss, Naruto smirked as he rubbed her sides to let out a pleasant moan. "And a good morning kiss helps start the day out well."

"Though I think I know a better way to make it even better." The changed blonde started to grind against her puddin's lower region, making him groan in response. "And us fighting those Nightmares really made me feel hot."

"You're really making it hard for me to stay in bed all day." Lowering his hands towards her panty clad ass, he groped and massaged them to earn a squeal in response. "With Selina and Pam out of town for their respective jobs, you have me all to yourself my pale princess."

"Well I am to please." Though her excitement had to end as her boyfriend started to move out of bed. "Ah~ Can't you just leave a clone and have it go to work in your stead? I really want to finally do it with you~"

"I want to do it as well Harley, I really do, but I feel it should be done on a really special day. And that will make it much more special for the both of us."

"Hmm, good recovery puddin." She said as she got out of bed as well. "Though I don't know when a such an occasion will come up."

"It'll come up when the opportunity presents itself."

For the months since the two have been dating, neither of them had gone beyond heavy petting. It seems a little unfair since Naruto has been sleeping with Pam and Selina quite a lot, even the one time with Cat Grant. But the psychologists ever present mindset on the matter keeps changing on the issue and her patience has been holding out as long as it can be.

Though it might be reaching the end of it's rope and when it happens, Harley will want her world rocked long and hard.

Naruto prepared breakfast while Harley first took her shower and once done, he'd take his turn while she ate. The two had a pleasant time to start the morning before the two of them had to go their separate ways for work. And when getting out of her apartment, the two were greeted by Paula.

"Good morning Paula."

"Morning Naruto, Harley." Harley's former teacher greeted the two as she locked her apartment door. "You two seem rather well."

"Isn't that obvious?" Naruto retorted as Harley nodded gleefully.

"Nothing really, just an observation." Paula said as she double checked herself for her job today. "Though I've been meaning to ask this the other day, but you were preoccupied at the time with Harley."

"About what?"

"Were you feeling alright? You seemed down when I spotted you two on your date."

Naruto sighed out a little breath as he knew what Paula was referring to. "Yeah I am Paula and before you ask, Harley was able to help me out on my problem."

"Was it a psychologist standpoint?" The neighbor said before her mouth went into a cheshire grin. "Or was it in a physical one?"

Harley merely twitched her eye on what her former teacher was suggesting. Responding with a groan, the psychologist rubbed her temple slightly as she spoke. "Puddin was suffering from some nightmares and he came to me to help take care of them."

"Oh~" Paula voiced as she nodded slightly. "Yeah I can understand that. Hell I even had to come to you a few times for some help in the past."

"Which you paid handsomely with some of your tasty dinners."

Paula chuckled alongside her neighbor on this. "Best bills spent." Looking back at the publisher, she spoke a statement. "And you won't tell me what it was about then."

"Doctor/Patient confidentiality Paula. Whatever we discuss in our sessions stay between us, unless needed to talk to others about it."

"Yeah, yeah." Waving off the two, Paula made her way down the building stairwell as the couple stayed around a little longer. "I'll see you two later and until then, have a good one."

As the Vietnamese woman made her way towards the parking lot, Paula slightly looked back as several things came to the forefront of her mind and they pertained towards Harley's boyfriend.

She and her husband were contacted by their boss, Ra's al Ghul, last year after Minato's defeat by Naruto's hands while he was out on a date. They heard about it and were surprised that it was indeed real. Even laughing about it of the former League member defeated in such a way.

Going back to Ra's, he called them and assigned the two to find out everything there is about the Uzumaki publisher from what he didn't know from his eldest daughter. They were confused on the request, but they didn't question their lord since it wasn't their place unless given. And with that, they did what they could to find about the whiskered man.

On what could be said on it being an easy assignment was anything but that. The two did get a general amount of information on Naruto through public records; but when trying to find out more of his personal life, the married couple were intercepted at every turn. And said interceptions were caused by a pair of snake themed assassins that neither Paula or Laurence saw before and it frustrated them to no end.

The two eventually realized they were highly trained assassins from the Kobra Cult, a fanatical group that sought to take over the world under tyrannical might and greatly opposed the League of Assassins' end goal. The couple wondered why they were involved in getting in their way on their task, but nothing could be done as they fended off the Kobra assassins each and every time.

When they were about to call Ra's on possibly failing their task, their neighbor ended up bringing their target to dinner one evening months ago. Things were quite interesting when learning more about the publisher as time went on. For instance, Naruto and Harley were starting to date after her accident over at Ace Chemicals and the publisher becoming friends with the Vlatavan queen while away on business.

All of this was fine and helped get their assignment done quite well in their favor. But at one point, Ra's eventually became uninterested in the publisher and ended their task... for some reason. Laurence gave a rat's ass on the whole situation and let things just breeze right through since he didn't want to get personal with his present target. As for Paula, she didn't let this go all the way as she had a feeling there was more to Naruto than meets the eyes.

'You are quite the enigma Naruto.' She thought as she started up her car and made her way towards her day job.

 _ **-Later; Office of Copyright, Gotham City-**_

Walking down the hallway, Naruto sighed as he looked through the paperwork in his messenger bag that he needs to turn in today. It was his turn to turn in all of the copyright forms for the upcoming novels and works his publishing company are going to release in the coming months. The majority of the staff does this sort of thing to at least be familiar with the copyright department, just in case of anything so no lawsuits will breathe down their necks.

'And there's a whole lot of them.' He thought as he came towards his destination. Opening the door, he was greeted with the sight of everyone busy with their daily tasks with some people talking amongst themselves. 'Now I wonder if he's here today.'

Walking further in, Naruto's eyed wandered in any sign of the man being in today. By the time the publisher reached the man's desk, he saw it was empty. Naruto considered coming back later or just stay nearby and wait, but he didn't have to do either of them as he saw the copywriter come back to his desk with a hot cup of coffee.

"Morning Carl." Naruto said with a smile, making the copywriter turn his attention towards the whiskered publisher.

G. Carl Francis is a man in his thirties and held the director position at the copyright office here in Gotham. He has short brown hair with a pair of dark eyes behind a pair of glasses. And to finish off his appearance was his fading red button up shirt, grey pants and suspenders to hold it up.

"Oh hello Naruto." Carl greeted in return as he got back to his desk. "Nice seeing you around here again."

"Same to you as well."

"So I'm guessing it's your turn today to drop off the varied forms?"

"Pretty much." It took a bit of effort to withdraw all of the documents from his messenger bag all in one go, making it awkward for the publisher performing the task. "And there's a whole lot of them this time."

"I can tell." Once the stack was on Carl's desk, the copyright director shook his head. "I swear, you guys at Spiral Publishing keep us quite busy with how many authors are under your employ Naruto."

"True, but at least you guys get something to do."

Taking the first set of documents from the pile, Carl briefly looked over it and quirked his head to the side. "Final Fantasy? Huh, interesting title… And you wrote this?"

During most of his time over at National City, Naruto had a clone work through most of the first book from the set of ideas he thought of back at the Gotham Airport. Hiding away at the hotel room he checked in, the cloned publisher got a good amount of chapters written out by the time Naruto came back home. And after that, the Uzumaki took his time to write the rest with Rachel and his girlfriends helping out on some details and opinions.

"Pretty much Carl."

"And mind giving me a hint on what it's about?" Asked the director, only to receive a shake of the head. "Figures."

"You'll have to wait for when-" *BANG*

The conversation was abruptly ended, among other ones around the room, when the office door was harshly opened. Everyone turned towards the entrance and many held their breath when they saw two large figures coming through the door. Both wore purple and green jester-like outfits, with their sleeves ripped off to show off their muscled arms, and wore white face paint with red circles on their cheeks. To finish off their appearances, their hair was either dyed or painted green and one of them had a large sack in their hands.

'Wait… I've seen those two before.' Thought the publisher as he eyed the muscled men. 'And if they're here then… shit.'

"Great Scott." Carl said in worry as the Clown Prince of Crime himself entered the room.

"Actually I'm Irish." The Joker stated in a joking tone. "An honest misconception to be sure." Coming up to the director's desk, the pale criminal shoved Naruto's forms off of the table so he could sit on the edge. "So Mr… Francis, let me introduce my associates with me at the present time." Waving his arm towards the larger men, the Joker spoke. "These are Punch and Judy. Though I do have other associates under my employ, but I felt that their presence might cramp up the space here."

'No kidding.' Thought the publisher as he stepped away slightly so he wouldn't get noticed. 'It would've caused too much tension if more of his goons were here.'

"W-What do you want?" Carl questioned.

"Why us gentlemen of business have arrangements to discuss." Came the Joker's response.

"...Arrangements?"

With a snap of his fingers, the Joker signaled one of his men to come forward and dump the contents of the large bag. "For my fish of course!" As this was said, varied objects came onto the director's desk to have several changed fish land onto the wooden surface with other items that were hard to tell at the moment.

"The hell?" Muttered the Uzumaki as he saw these.

"Beautiful aren't they?" Retorted the demented clown as he drew closer to the worried copywriter. "This has been worked and prepared far in advance, mind you. And you, Mr. Francis, are merely the last cog in my grand design. Oh and don't dare to speak to me unless spoken to, kay?" Pulling back, the Joker picked up one of the fish and played around with it. "Now what is Gotham talking about lately?"

"I-I don't know." Carl answered as he tried to scoot away from the criminal. "I woke up late and rushed over here. Didn't get the chance to check the morning news and paper."

Not liking the answer, along with something else going on in his head, the Joker smacked the clerk with the fish. "Who told you to speak?!"

"Hey! What the hell is your deal?!"

Turning towards the source, the demented clown eyed the whiskered man in the room and gained a curious look. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

Realizing his mistake, Naruto mentally groaned as he tried to play dumb. "No, I don't think so."

The Joker narrowed his eyes and racked his mind on where he saw him before. His appearance was at the forefront of his crazed mind, but had a hard time placing it. It'll probably come back at a later time, but for now his current objective.

As this went on, one of the larger men came up to Carl and pulled out a small spray bottle and spritzed the director a few times. The process left a big plumb of air freshener on him. This made Carl cough in the process.

"For the fish smell." The man mumbled before backing away.

"...Getting back to business," said the clown as he backed away from the publisher, "every fish in Gotham bears my famous, and quite frankly fabulous face; I'd like to earn a profit from practically every fish product sold." The Joker explained his goal for being here. Picking up one of the dropped items on his desk, the clown presented the label towards Carl. "Possibly a nickle for every fish sandwich, fifty cents for sardines, practically millions of dollars per day to help finance my hedonistic lifestyle."

'So that's his game.' Naruto thought as he eyed the odd Joker labels on different products laid out in the open.

"So what tedious copyright forms do I need to fill out first?" Questioned the deranged clown. "Oh and you may speak now."

"B-But they're a natural resource." The director weakly said as he spoke back. "You can't copyright fish."

"But they share my unique face." The Joker said in a pouty tone. "I mean Coronal Saunders has his stupid chickens, yet they don't have moustaches."

"But I can't help it Joker, it's the law."

The Joker didn't like this at all as he leaned in too close for comfort for anyone nearby as he snarled at director. "Trying to cheat me out on this are you? Well we'll see who has the last laugh." Walking away with Punch and Judy on toe, the group almost exited the office when the Joker turned around and pointed at Carl. "You have until midnight tonight to change your mind Francis or else you'll be the porush fish of all."

All that was done afterwards was the Joker storming out of the office with the larger goons behind before one of them grabbed the office door and slammed it shut for their boss' slight anger.

"Oh god." Carl muttered as he massaged his head. "He's freaking crazy."

"Tell me about it." Naruto said in agreement. "We need to call the police for your safety Carl."

 _ **-Evening, G. Carl Francis' Home-**_

This has not been a great day at all for the copyright director as he's been a nervous wreck all day. Carl couldn't focus all that well on his job before the police arrived to escort him back to his home. He tried to take a nap and distract himself with his small hobbies, but he couldn't with how scared he was.

So here he was sitting in his living room late at night with Commissioner Gordon and several people from the GCPD watching over him.

"Don't worry Mr. Francis," James Gordon said in a reassuring tone, "we'll be sure to protect you."

"I hope so Commissioner." Came Carl's worried tone.

"How about we turn on the TV and see what's on." Suggested the Commissioner as he got to the television set. "Maybe that might help."

"I don't know about that Gordon." Bullock voiced as he entered the room with a small tray of food he pillaged from Carl's fridge. "All I've heard lately was just a bunch of news with those gross fish. And asides from that, nothing else is good lately."

"...It doesn't hurt to try you know." Came James' response before he glanced at the platted food in Bullock's grasp. "Also that's coming out of your next pay."

Bullock merely groaned as Gordon turned on the TV to see some news coverage over the latest news on the 'Joker Fish'. It wasn't pleasant for Carl to see as he cringed at the sight. Then the monitor went to static, causing Gordon to smack the top of it a few times.

"Sorry about that Commissioner, it's an old TV that I've been needing to replace." The copyright director apologized as he went up and adjusted the satellite wires on top.

Soon odd sounds were heard over the television set, causing the room's occupants to look towards it. One of the officers was about to change the channel when he saw something odd about the TV ad. Especially with the Joker's head plastered for the first few seconds.

" _Their filling and hearty and all so delice~ Their joyful and jolly Joker Fish~"_

"The hell?"

"The Joker must've tapped into the airwaves."

" _Say, do you wonder on what you'd want to feed your family tonight?"_ The Joker's voice called out from off screen before it transitioned to a kitchen scene with two of the known Joker Gang members sitting. They appeared bored and hungry, given their body language with their faces covered by the large masks.

Walking on screen came the Joker in a sailor outfit with a sack over his shoulder. _"Arr~ Then try my famous Joker Fish, why don't ye?~"_ Coming towards the empty table, the clown dumped the sacks contents to reveal many of the contaminated fish. _"They're smilingly delicious~"_

"You know, I think this might drive me away from seafood for a while."

"Gavin, shut up and keep your thoughts to yourself." Bullock said in a rude tone, causing several officers to glare back at the detective on the comment.

Back on the fake TV ad, some of the gang members rubbed their hands together in acting glee. _"Yummy yum yum~"_ The Joker voiced as he cut into his fish and took a bite out of it… before he threw up off screen. _"Should've cooked that instead of eating it raw."_

" _Eh boss."_ One of the off screen gang members whispered loud enough for others to hear. _"I think they heard you."_

" _You think?!"_ Growled out the deranged clown before he went into his signature grin towards the viewers. _"Yes folks, that was my Joker Fish. Very tasty and very tempting… once you cook it that is. And they're naturally low on cholesterol."_

"Highly doubt it."

"Gavin, what'd I say?!"

"Bullock, shut up."

"...Yes Commish."

" _...Coming soon to a market and grocery store near you."_ Stated the smiling Joker before his plastered grin went into a snarl. _"Just as soon as that damn copyright director G. Carl Francis finally decides to give me my legal cut of the profits!"_

"Change the channel!" Ordered the Gotham detective towards a random officer.

One of them went up to the TV set and flipped through the channels, but the Joker ad was still present. "It's on every station sir."

Growling to himself, Gordon pulled out his walkie talkie and radioed in his orders. "This is Gordon. I want people tracing the hacked TV signals so we can nab the clown as soon as possible."

" _I hope you changed your mind Francis, because I haven't changed mine. HahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_ Was all the Joker voiced out before the signal got cut off and things went back to their scheduled programming.

 _ **-Close to Midnight-**_

The home was rather quiet as the seconds passed on by. Moreso with the clock's ticking seemingly louder than usual, causing Carl to feel much dread on what is going to happen.

"Don't worry Mr. Francis." Detective Bullock said as he walked over to the copyright director. "We got people stationed at every entrance and window. So there's no way anyone can sneak in here tonight."

"Are you sure about that?" Came a voice from the shadows. Many police officers pointed their weapons at the source and saw Batman walking in from the far corner. "If I got in that easily, then so will the Joker."

"You're not the only one Batsy." A voice from above stated, getting the officers to aim their weapons up to see Vanitas' upper half phased through the ceiling. "I've been here for hours and no one has actually noticed me."

Bullock wasn't pleased in seeing this as he yelled out. "Hey! This is police business! So haul your asses out of here you two!"

"Hold it detective." Gordon said as he walked in between Bullock and Batman, while Vanitas fully phased through and landed on the ground. "Batman is the only one more knowledgeable on the Joker than any of us. So he might have some insight on what to possibly do next."

Bullock merely growled under his breath and walked away to blow off some steam.

"Um… Batman, Vanitas." Carl said towards the two heroes. "Why is this happening to me? I'm merely just a pencil pusher, despite my director position at work. I've never done anything wrong towards the Joker and I can't change the laws to make him happy."

Vanitas placed a comforting hand on the director's shoulder as he spoke. "You're practically harmless to the clown, but in his mind that's the joke of it all."

"As much as I'd hate to say it, Vanitas is right." Batman backed up the black/white themed hero's response before he noticed Carl scratching himself. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah I'm sure Batman." Carl answered as he kept scratching himself. "It's just that I've been so nervous with how crazy today has been that I forgot to take a shower to get this gunk one of the Joker's guys sprayed on me."

"...What did you just say?" Vanitas asked with hidden widen eyes that matched the Batman's. 'He didn't clean that off?!'

"GET THIS MAN TO THE HOSPITAL NOW!" The Dark Knight yelled out as the officers were shaken by the sudden order.

Just as the bell tolled midnight, the house's occupants heard a sound coming from outside. It was getting louder and louder, causing several to peer outside. And what they saw scared many as a metallic swordfish-like missile was flying straight towards them.

"GET DOWN!" Vanitas called out as Batman brought Carl down to the ground for cover. As the missile came through the window, the masked Uzumaki brought his hands up and formed a barrier. The metallic swordfish impacted it, causing it to break and fall to the ground. Everyone expected it to go off with an explosion, but all that came out of it was some sort of gas as everyone started to cough.

"God! What is this stuff?!"

"It smells rancid!"

"Don't worry, I got it." And with a flick of his wrist, Vanitas' wind lance formed in his hand and created a small torrent of wind to help clear the smoke away and out of the house. "Is everyone alright?"

"I think so." One of the officers said among other similar responses.

The chatter quickly ended as they heard a soft chuckle coming from one side of the room. Looking towards the source, they saw Carl have a small smile across his lips before the volume increased tenfold. Laughing like a mad man as his eyed widened dramatically with veins popping out and his lips starting to stretch into a cheshire-like grin.

"What the hell?!" Bullock yelled out in what he was seeing.

Before long, Batman pulled out a syringe from his utility belt and inserted it into Carl's arm before injecting its contents. It took several moments before the copyright director started to calm down and started to fall asleep.

"He'll be alright." Batman voiced as he gently laid the man down on the floor. "The anti-venom needs to kick in once the sedative fully does it's job."

This merely got the detective to scratch his head and voice his thoughts "I don't get it. How come he got infected? We all breathed that gas, but we're not smiling?"

"Because he got sprayed by one of Joker's goons over at the copyright office this morning." Vanitas answered as he eyed the fish themed missile. "I'm guessing it was part of a compound for the Joker's concoction and we just saw the other half of it complete its function."

"He's right." Voiced the Dark Knight. "I inspected several fish on the venom in their systems and it only infected marine life to make them look… unsettling with its deluded compound. This must've been a new strain the Joker came up with."

Suddenly the TV turned on, causing the room's occupants to see the Joker on the monitor in what appeared to be a fake news bulletin. The deranged clown had his ever present grin as he had several papers in his hand with Carl's picture plastered on the far right corner of the screen.

" _This just in. Former copyright director, G. Carl Francis, will be taking an extended vacation due to not complying with my demands."_ Voiced the Joker as Carl's picture changed to one with a ghastly smile drawn on his face. _"Though I'm guessing he's having more fun than I am. Hehehehahaha!"_ Soon he abruptly ended his laughter as he glared and snarled. _"But I'm not happy at all! And if i don't get legal claim on my fish at 3 am, then I'll target the next fellow that crossed me."_

"Who is that I wonder?"

"Beat's me."

"Let's just hear what he has to say boys." Bullock stated as others nodded in agreement.

" _I had the chance in talking to Mr. Francis' superior earlier this evening if he could help on my troubles. But it seemed that Mr. Thomas Jackson wasn't willing to budge, so I had to resort to this."_ Gesturing towards the following picture, it showed the copyright bureaucrat's picture with a similar face that Carl currently has at this time.

"Dammit. We got another victim on our hands." Gordon muttered as he tightened his fists.

" _But you folks might be wondering who I plan to target next if I don't get legal claim on my fish."_ The Joker said as he tried and failed to compose himself with a twitch of his eye before he exploded in rage. _"Well it's that good for nothing publisher, Naruto Uzumaki! He humiliated me back at the casino months ago and I want payback! You hear me! If I don't get legality on my fish, then what whiskered buffon is the next to go!"_

Behind his helmet, Naruto widened his eyes and let out a mental groan that the Joker must've remembered him back at the copyright office this morning. 'This is gonna fucking suuuuuck.'

 _ **-Naruto's and Pam's Loft-**_

Naruto could only blankly stare at the officers in his home as they kept a close eye on things. Of course many of them were ignorant of Naruto's twitching eye as they were standing guard near him for his protection. Even more so when the publisher let out a groan as he was being talked to by the different officers.

"For the last time, I am completely fine." Naruto said in a calming tone. "So please, get out of my personal space!"

"They're just trying to keep you safe." Harley stated as she tried to sooth her boyfriend.

"I know Harley, but this place can only hold so many people without it being considered 'cramped'." Explained the publisher as several officers were changing shifts from the loft to the outside and in the surrounding area of the building. "Though I'm more concerned for Rachel since this is unsettling her and you with what's going on."

This was true as when the police arrived earlier, Rachel was harshly woken up and got quite worried on what was going on. Not knowing that was going on, she kept asking some of the officers only for Bullock's straight forward response to make her feel scared for her guardian. Even as Harley was comforting her, Rachel's emotions would clearly shown in her features as she drifted back to sleep.

Speaking of Harley, she's been a nervous wreck since she heard about the tainted fish later into her day at Arkham. And who can blame her, with the Joker kidnapping and torturing her when people last saw him during the asylum breakout months ago. That night still haunts her dreams, but at least the Dream Eater Spirits have been trying to fix them alongside her puddin.

"You know, I thought I'd be able to get over what happened with you guys helping me through this." Looking at her shaking shoulders, Naruto wrapped an arm around her for comfort. "But him coming back after all this time is not making it easy on my recovery."

"It never is Harley since most things take a lot of time to mend the wounds."

"Thanks… But this wouldn't have happened today if you didn't antagonize the clown." The psychologist said with a narrowed glance. "This at least explains on why I kept hearing him bitching and complaining about someone, other than Batman, was able to get under his skin so easily before his escape."

"Hey, in my defense, I never met the guy prior to that day so give me some slack." Letting go of her, the publisher crossed his arms and looked away as he continued. "I let out my little frustrations on the badly designed casino on a man, who just so happens to be the real deal, and I won't be hearing the end of it."

"I'll say." A voice spoke, causing the couple to look towards Commissioner Gordon standing by the two. "Quite the way to antagonize the Joker of all people and earning a target on your back. Not an easy feat I might add."

"Commissioner." The couple greeted at the same time.

"I know I said this several times already, but are you doing alright Mr. Uzumaki?"

"Yes I am sir." Answered the Uzumaki. "Though is the excessive protection a bit much?"

Gordon merely shook his head in response. "We can't take any chances with the Joker involved you know."

"I mean there's Batman sulking in the shadows over by the window and I think I saw Vanitas outside to hopefully find anything suspicious." Naruto pointed out to the leading officer. "So I still don't know that the added security would seem too overboard."

"With it nearing 3am, we have to be sure for anything. Snipers from the other building or an assault coming up from the elevator or stairs. And with him involved, anything could happen."

As this conversation was going on, Batman was focusing towards his surroundings if something were to occur in an incoming attack. But his eyes occasionally went towards the publisher in the room as several thoughts came to mind. Mostly those from when he had experienced that one dream, manipulated by the Mad Hatter the previous week.

The dream felt so real that Bruce almost succumbed to it if it weren't for his rational thoughts kicking in at the last moments. And even then, there were the defenses Tetch had set up in his mind to hinder his progress in escaping his entrapment. But if it wasn't for the dream Naruto helping him in the end, then Bruce feared he wouldn't be here today.

Though after waking up, the billionaire had been thinking if his friend in that world was indeed a creation of his subconscious like what the Hatter suggested. But he was second guessing himself as a sinking feeling came up that Naruto was indeed there. Bruce couldn't explain it, but it was somewhat backed up when Naruto acted particularly funny around him in both of his personas. Like he knew something, but trying to play it off or something else entirely.

And as much as he'd like to approach Naruto about this, Batman didn't think it was the right time to bring it up. Especially right now with the publisher's life currently on the line.

Soon the sounds of scratches were heard from the patio door.

"What was that?" Gordon asked as he and several other officers trained their weapons at the source. It wasn't long until the patio door was opened slightly for a small black figure to walk right through. "A cat?"

"Oh! That must be Isis." The publisher stated as he walked towards the door. "She usually comes back late at night from her 'walk abouts'." As he drew closer, his steps stopped. "Though why did she come back this late?"

His answers were soon answered as he saw something inside of Isis' mouth. Making him widen his eyes along with the rest of the loft's occupants as they heard Isis let out an odd hiss like laugh. It was even more sinister as they saw a blue substance leak from her mouth and the object in her maw.

"A Joker Fish!" Batman yelled out as he dived towards the black cat in hopes of catching her. But with the years of training from her mother made Isis jump out of the way in a fast reflex.

"She's infected!" Gordon called out as several officers ducked out of the way from the feline.

During her run around of the loft, Isis dropped the infected fish in her mouth. This made a little bit faster in reaching her goal, in her hazy mind, as her 'father' was in her sights and sought for his comfort. Of course with the drug running through her veins, Isis mistook comfort with death as her claws were out and aimed towards the whiskered man.

As the black cat was close enough to scratch the publisher, Naruto was barely able to catch her in time and held her at arm's length. With her limbs going frantic in her drug induced state, Naruto fell down onto the ground and kept his pseudo pet away from him. And all of this caused some unpleasant memories to resurface from his childhood.

"Oh not again!" He cried out as he kept moving his face away from her claws. "It's like Tora all over again for crying out loud!"

"Naruto! Are you alright?!" Harley yelled out as she tried to get close, but was held back by Detective Bullock. "Get your hands off me mista!"

"Do you wanna get scratched by that mangy furfall?!"

"Don't you dare call Isis that you ass! And if Selina was here, she'd kick yours to timbuktu!"

With the opportunity presenting itself, Batman carefully got in close and pulled out a syringe from his utility belt. With careful aim, the Dark Knight jabbed the needle into Selena's pet cat and injected the serum. And with a bit of a painful cry, Isis had let out a hiss before going limp in Naruto's grasp.

"There. That should help get Isis back to normal." Batman said as he saw Naruto bring Selena's cat closer to his chest for comfort. "Though she should go see a vet just in case."

Letting out a groan, Naruto petted his girlfriend's cat as he stared up towards the ceiling. "Selina is not going to be happy when she hears about this. I mean Isis was drugged back at the Daggett labs and that pissed her off to no ends. Imagine how she'll be when hearing about this."

"I can already tell." Muttered the bat themed hero as he shuddered in thought on that happening.

"Well ain't this dandy Commish!" Bullock said with a red handprint on her cheek, courtesy of one pissed off psychologist. "We had two victims so far, with a possible third, and no one has bothered trying to find his demented ass!" Turning around, the detective made his way towards the loft's entrance like a man on a mission. "Well I ain't gonna stick around and find out who's next! And I got my own methods!"

"Bullock!" Yelled out the Commissioner as he saw his subordinate slam the door on his way out. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Gordon rubbed his forehead on what to do now.

"Commissioner." Called out the Bat. "Take a look at this fish."

Looking towards the vigilante, James saw Batman hunched over the infected fish lying on the floor. "Hmm… Isn't this a japanese tang?"

Batman nodded as one of the officers picked it up and placed it inside of a plastic bag. "It's not native to Gotham's cold waters."

"So where did it come from?"

"I have an idea where." Came Batman's response as he went to the patio door, opened it and pointed his grappling gun towards the building outside. Before firing it, he turned back to see Naruto comforting Isis with Harley checking up on him. It was brief, but it that was all it took for the Gotham hero before he went off into the night to search for the deranged clown.

 _ **-Oceanside Aquarium-**_

The rain was starting to drizzle by the time Detective Bullock arrived onto his destination, alone. It's been awhile since he'd been here, but he still remembered coming here years ago and knows many of the fish that primarily live in the building's tanks. And a good number of them are of the asian variety with a particular species that he saw back at the publisher's loft.

Bullock made his way around the building on foot since he couldn't just go right through the front door. That would've been too easy and a big rookie mistake if there ever was one. Passing through several posted signs that showed the building was closed for remodeling gave the Gotham detective more on the idea that the Joker was using this place as a temporary haunt.

Coming to the side entrance, the detective had to pick the lock so he could quietly enter the building. The only sounds he could hear upon entering was the soft rain pelting against the skylights above. It didn't help with some of the atmosphere of the construction equipment placed inside of the one area of the aquarium that it'll give someone some extra coverage to get the jump on him.

'Now where are ya, you sons of bitches?' Bullock thought with his gun carefully aimed at the ready. Eyes landing on a nearby sign labeled 'Tropical Marine Life', the detective figured the coming area was the best place to start looking. Passing through it's doors, Bullock made his way through the hallway as he tried to look for anything amiss.

All of a sudden, a large figure landed behind him.

"Wha-" The detective barely said before one of the Joker's larger goons grabbed the officer in a bear hug, causing the man to cry out in pain.

"That's good Judy!" The Joker called out from up high. "Now help get him wrapped up Punch for some good bait!"

The other larger henchmen landed on the ground soon after, with rope on hand, before wrapping the detective up as he struggled. Bullock tried to get out of his restraints, but he was lifted up into the air by what appeared to be a large fishing pole. And sitting above one of the tanks with said fishing pole was the Joker, wearing a fisherman's hat with varied hooks attached.

"Seems we got ourselves a runty one boys!" The clown said in a pour sailor accent. "Not too good, I'm afraid. So I think we should throw him back."

As the Joker cackled, he turned the pole's crank as Bullock was lowered closer to the tank's surface. Looking down below, the detective squirmed with widened eyes as he saw the outline of a shark underneath the watery surface.

"You know… detective? Are you a detective?" The Joker asked in a mock fashion before he shook his head. "Meh~ It doesn't really matter at this point since you're more of a worm or a large codfish at this point. Hehehehehahahahahaha!"

"You won't get away with this Joker!" Bullock yelled out as he tried to keep his legs out of the water.

"...He's probably right." The clown muttered as he stopped lowering the detective to the water, causing said man to scream out in fright once the shark reached the surface. "I mean if this buffoon was able to find me, then why not Batman or that… Vanitas fellow." He said with a small growl in the end.

The Joker remembered what happened the last time he encountered that helmeted Gothamite hero. Beating him up back at Ace Chemicals when he wanted to turn the lovely Dr. Harlequin into someone much like himself. Vanitas got in the way from accomplishing his goal and after his defeat back at the chemical plant, he and his Joker gang had to lie low until to come up with this recent plan and spring it to action.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, the clown reeled back the detective high enough as he continued talking. "Why waste such a treat to the nice sharky warky when I literally have bigger fish to feed him with." Pulling out a whoopee cushion, he squashed it to let out a loud sound to get the rest of his gang to show up into the room.

Asides from Punch and Judy; each of the costumed lackies consisted of two men wearing shark like masks in a black and white color scheme, a man in a panda suit, one wearing a mountain goat mask, two giant eyeball helmets, a crying baby mask, and a pair wearing 'tragedy and comedy' masks.

"Boys! We'll be expecting company soon, so get ready!"

Nodding at the given information, the group had split up to get into positions while one of them went to the nearby circuit breaker to turn off the lights.

Some time has past once the order was given when a shadowy figure was seen from the broken skylight to reveal Batman. Using his cape to help glide himself towards the ground, the Dark Knight pulled out a flashlight from his belt and shined it's light towards the nearby fishtank. He bit back in disgust when seeing several infected fish swimming about before his flashlight landed on the clown he was looking for.

"Now this little fella here... came with his own grin!" Pointing to the aquatic animal behind him, Batman saw the shark swimming in the tank. "See the resemblance?" Gesturing towards his face before waving his hand towards the air. "And check out my catch of the day!"

When the lights went back on, Batman saw the detective hanging right above the shark tank… with a fish placed in his mouth as an impromptu gag. "Bullock!"

Spitting out the disgusting fish from his mouth, Bullock spoke. "I didn't need no stinking batcomputer or whatever you have to tell me that weird-looking minnow came from an aquarium!"

Letting out a mocked yawn, the Joker walked around the caped crusader as some of his goons made their appearance by pointing their weapons at the hero. "Yes, well, this is all tremendously boring. Of course I can always amuse myself watching my shark give this real shark indigestion."

Hearing his cue, one of the shark masked men started cranking Bullock lower towards the tank below to be fed by one of the ocean's predators.

"WAIT!" Cried out the Bat as he walked closer to the Joker, with several goons training their guns at him. Let him go. I'm the one you're after."

Adopting a thinking position, the clown eventually weighed his hands on the options. "Hmm… I could feed my little guppy right now with a decent snack or feed him a decent sized bat. Decisions decisions."

"Maybe a third one is in order! A voice called out from the rafters. "Both go free with you and your pals sent to Arkham and Blackgate!"

"Who said that?!" The Joker yelled out towards the unexpected visitor.

His question was soon answered as several daggers and cards were thrown downward as they cut through the rope holding Bullock up above the shark tank. The detective screamed as he fell before he was roughly caught and tossed towards the side to safety. Landing on the tanks above showed Vanitas in all his glory as he gave a two finger wave towards the crowd below.

"Hiya Joker! Did you miss me?!"

"YOU!" Pulling out the gun from his jacket pocket before firing at the helmeted hero. "You'll pay for what you did last time!"

Effortlessly dodging and blocking the bullets, along with other ones from the rest of the Joker's gang, Vanitas spoke back. "You mean with helping Batman stop you from killing Kaiser, with his god awful Joker themed casino, or you trying to kidnap Dr. Quinzel! Either way, I don't regret a thing!"

Using this distraction, Batman dashed towards the panda wearing goon and kicked him into the mountain goat masked man. While off balance, the two goons pulled their triggers and wildly fired their guns all over the place. Some of the goons had to move out of the way as they tried to strike down the Bat. But this wasn't so as the hero delivered several punches at one of the giant eyeball helmeted men before quickly going towards the other. The presitional strikes were harsh as both men collapsed onto the ground.

As this went on; Vanitas was being chased down by Punch and Judy, who climbed up to the higher level earlier. Their swings were easily read as the helmeted Uzumaki swatted them to the side before punching and kicking each of the men in rapid successions. But with the two being so largely muscled, it would take time to fully take them down. Vanitas would've been able to take care of them quickly, but he needed Bullock to get away before that could happen.

Speaking of the detective, Bullock was able to climb down from the tanks. Not wanting to be left out of the action, he pulled out his gun and fired at some of the Joker gang members. They fired back as the detective tried to look for cover, but with the one hallway there was none at all. So he was forced to roll out of the way as the bullets flied.

'This is getting ridiculous.' Bullock thought as he was getting tired out from the constant rolling. 'I think I need to start cutting back on the donuts.'

During these separate encounters in the hallway, many stray bullets were impacting the water tanks as the holes were starting to leave cracks in their wake. Stretching and merging with each other that possibly one strong impact on either side would cause the glass to fully break. Moreso on the one that has the shark contained.

Over on the top of the tanks, Vanitas was able to knock out one of the larger goons. But the second one was able to knock the hero into the water. With the sudden change of surroundings, Vanitas tried to turn upwards so he could swim towards the surface, but that would have to wait as the shark seemed to come right towards him. He moved his limbs so he could swim, but it seemed that he's a slow swimmer, even when a shark was chasing him.

'This freaking sucks!' Yelled out the helmeted publisher as he move out of the shark's path.

Just when the Joker got to the top of the tanks, so he wouldn't be hit by either the Batman or the stray bullets, he saw the action going on inside of the shark tank.

"Oh! This is so exciting!" Cried out the clown as he rubbed his hands together. "I wish I had popcorn, but alas all I have is just rotten meat." Pulling out said item from his jacket, he rolled away in disgust of the smell. "Hmm… I should dump this properly… Meh~ I'll just do it here and make the shark go into a frenzie!"

Doing just that, the Joker dumped the contents of the bag into the water, causing the shark to hunger for food once it smelled the tainted blood in the water. Seeing the smiling predator go after Vanitas, who eventually rode on top of it, the Joker went towards his chair with his fishing pole attached and pressed a button. Rising up into the air, the demented clown laughed before looking up and realized that he was reaching the skylight too fast.

"Oh this is gonna hurt."

*CRASH*

The resounding crashes were heard, but it was hard to differentiate between them with the shark tank busting open once it's occupant broke right through it with Vanitas jumping off. As the water swept through the hallway, the other fights quickly ended as it's occupants were knocked over by the sudden wall of water. Though it drained rather quickly once the shark busted through the hallways door to the outside, falling into the ocean below to whence it came.

Shaking his head on from the sudden rush, Batman looked towards the side and saw Bullock coughing out water, possibly due to him swallowing a lot of it when the tank broke.

Coming up to the detective, Batman helped him up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. *Cough* *Cough* Just peachy." Replied the detective.

"And what about me?!" Vanitas spoke as he groggily got off of the floor. "I had to deal with the shark in there!"

"Seemed that you had it handled."

Sending a hidden glare at the detective, Vanitas looked upwards and saw the newly broken skylight with the high-rise chair right through it. "Seems the Joker went through there."

Turning his head towards the ceiling, Batman saw what Vanitas stated as he pulled out his grappling gun and fired at the broken skylight. Not wanting to be left behind, the masked publisher formed a dagger and threw it up high so he could teleport his way and not miss any of the coming action.

 _ **-On the Rooftop-**_

The sounds of laughter could be heard alongside the brewing storm, the Joker was stumbling in his step. Holding his head as massive pain rang right through it, due to crashing right through the skylight. Even with blood dripping coming from his scalp, the Joker still laughed off the pain.

The Joker stopped his movements as he felt someone behind him. Looking back, he saw the Batman there before being punched in the face. Falling onto the ground, the Joker pulled out his handgun and fired. Though these were blocked when Vanitas' ice shield appeared to stop the small pieces of led piercing the Bat.

"It's over Joker." Vanitas said as he dismissed his shield before he and Batman stalked the clown. "You're finished."

"You know, I believe I've said this before and yet I'll say it again. You've become quite a pain in my ass Vanitas."

Looking towards his side, the Joker saw a tool box as a small idea formed in his head. The clown grabbed ahold of it and tossed it at the two heroes, causing them to hold out their arms to block its contents. The Joker used this opportunity and grabbed a wrench lying on the ground and smacked the heroes over their heads in a quick succession. Even laughing as he saw Vanitas clutch his helmet in pain, due to the ringing echoing inside the form of protection.

"Meanwhile, back at the wrench!" Joker yelled out as he smacked Vanitas with the tool once again before turning his attention towards the Bat. "Since my side-splitters don't tickle you, how about a skull-splitter?!"

Just when the blow reached the Bat's head, said hero grasped the clown's impromptu weapon and twisted it. Both Batman and the Joker fought over the tool before the Bat won in the end by prying out of the clown's grasp. Seeing as he didn't have a good weapon on hand, Joker pulled out another gun and quickly fired it's rounds. One shot did land on the Bat's arm, but the rest weren't successful before a dagger came in contact with the criminal's hand.

"DAMMIT!" The Joker cried out as he held onto his bleeding hand once he dropped his gun. He glared at Vanitas before backing away from the heroes. The clown did stumble in his step once he reached the building's edge, causing him to look down to see the waves below.

"There's no place left to go Joker."

The clown merely growled in response as he was cornered by the two heroes. Glaring daggers at them for ruining his latest plan so far towards Gotham. But all of a sudden, the Joker chuckled and gave the two a shrug… before he turned around and jumped with his signature laugh.

The heroes rushed towards the edge and saw the deranged clown pull something from his waist. With his enhanced vision, Vanitas was able to make out what the Joker pulled out. Apparently it was an inflatable tube to help him stay afloat in the water.

"See Batsy! Vani! I think of everything!" The Joker yelled out as he kept on laughing. Though as he reached closer to the water, his laughter quickly died and birthed a scream of terror when he saw the aquarium's shark currently in the water.

And with his bleeding hand, he might just become dinner by the moment he contacted with the ocean below. In a resounding splash, the Joker's form was engulfed by the ocean's current while the shark went deeper into it's watery depths.

"So…" Vanitas briefly said as he and the Dark Knight kept their eyes towards the waters below. "Do you think he's gone for good?"

Batman merely shook his head as he gave his response. "Believe me Vanitas, I wish it were true, but deep inside, I doubt it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. After all, I did throw him in one of the chemical tanks back at Ace Chemicals during his last breakout when he kidnapped Dr. Quinzel. And back then, I thought he wouldn't show his face again after that. And yet, he did today."

Batman let out a deep sigh, knowing that Vanitas backed up the claim. The Joker was always resilient and would show back up, despite the odd ways one would possibly die off from. But he will always come back when they'll least expect it.

"Come on Batsy, we need to get whatever of Joker's gang tied up for the police to arrive." The masked Uzumaki said as he walked back to the broken skylight. "And I doubt that Bullock would get the ones left behind tied up already."

As Vanitas left, Batman looked back towards the ocean and saw the shark from earlier jump out of the water one last time before going away.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **...I really fucking hate writer's blocks. I really do. That and exhaustion from work to tire out my brain to not work much on this when I want to. And when I do, I end up having to rewrite certain scenes several times and it frustrates me to no end.**

 **I do have to admit that the previous chapter was a mixed bag in terms of responses. Though I wanted to have a way for Naruto to meet Dream of the Endless and do a way for Naruto to find out that Bruce is Batman before a particular episode I had in mind on the later. But at least I got that chapter out quick and not gonna complain about it so whatever. Even as people say that it was lazy, well I couldn't think of any other way to do so-so sorry for those that expected better on me on that.**

 **Now moving onto the current chapter, I was really interested when I saw Harley's persona in the Tall Tale game that she's really confident and not reliant towards Joker/John Doe (even though he was the one to convince her to take up crime). An interesting thing on said personas that it seems their roles reversed that Joker is trying to get Harley's attention while in most canons it's Harley doing such things. And I gotta admit, it's a good experiment to see if it does work out.**

 **R &R**


	38. Catching Up for Old Times Sake

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 35: Catching Up for Old Times Sake**

The roar of a motorcycle came rushing through the open highway in the early morning. It's rider maneuvering through several vehicles that so happened to be going through the concreted path towards their destinations. No one was bothered in the slightest, as long as the motorcyclist wasn't causing any problems for the fellow drivers on the road.

With the sun starting to rise, the morning rays shined across countless things as it helped reveal the surrounding details in a more intricate light. Showing the beauty of the transition between Summer and Autumn, with the leaves changing to shift the scenery. A natural occurrence that many love to enjoy and interact with.

And for a cyclist, of any kind mind you, it can be truly appreciated when riding right through the scenery at any speed.

Slowing down the motorcycle, the rider pulled the bike to the side of the road so the incoming vehicles wouldn't run the person over on accident. With the engine still running, the rider took a moment to flip the helmet's visor up to let the air circulate slightly and cool off parts of the exposed skin. Breathing in the crisp air through the nose, the person was able to relax slightly while gazing at the 'Entering Gotham' sign some feet away.

'I'm finally here.' The rider thought with a hidden smile under the helmet, matching the slight joy in the blue-green colored eyes. Pulling down the scarf around the neck, the rider fished out a locket and rubbed it tenderly before opening it to see the photo inside.

Displayed in the photo was a smiling pair of individuals without a care in the world in front of a twilighted background. One was a teenage boy with whisker marks, hazel eyes and silvery hair as he held the second person towards his side. Said person was a beautiful woman in her early-mid twenties with shoulder length brown hair framing her face.

The cyclist stared onto the photo, being the only one taken between the two people, with nostalgia running through the forefront of the person's mind. Closing up the locket and tucking it back under the scarf and the leather jacket being worn, the rider readjusted into the seat before revving up the engines. Riding the motorbike into the city, the cyclist had one thing primarily in her mind among lesser things.

'Wait for me a little longer… Naruto.'

 _ **-Gotham Elementary-**_

"...And are you sure you have everything? We can head on back in case of anything."

"Yes Naruto, I do have everything. You asked that a few times already."

"I just needed to be sure Rachel."

Off to the side of the road lied Naruto's car as it's driver and occupant got out of the vehicle. The publisher escorted his charge across the street and towards the school building in a slow pace so she wouldn't be left behind. Said charge was currently wearing a white hoodie with a Bonnie the Bunny graphic printed on the front and pair of jeans and tennis shoes. Around her back was her backpack with her school supplies, lunch bag and other essentials.

With it being Rachel's first day at public school, Naruto wanted to be sure that she was well prepared. When he got her fully registered at the school after her placement test, he went out shopping to get Rachel what she needed from the list given to him by the school. Even bringing the young girl along for the ride.

On the day they went out shopping, Harley tagged along to keep the ashen girl cheered up with her upbeat personality. Of course the changed psychologist thought that Naruto getting Rachel the boring stationery supplies isn't right for a girl her age. So Harley dragged the two to a store she went to in the past to get the more appropriate stuff for grade schoolers, in her opinion, since she did this for both of her surrogate nieces.

It was interesting to see Rachel's reactions when seeing the many cute items on display, to say the least. And Naruto had to admit that his blonde girlfriend tagging along was a good idea since he would've just went with the starting standard supplies. Though as the school year progresses, Rachel will have to resort with the boring ones once some of her 'cute' supplies are all used up.

"I do have to ask, but why are we here so early?" Asked the ashen girl. "Classes don't start in half an hour."

"Sometimes it's good to arrive early, just in case of anything, Rachel. I clearly didn't appreciate it when I was your age, since I enjoy having my sleep on most days. But it does help when arriving early so you can go over your homework and projects along with hanging out with your friends, if there's plenty of time to spare."

"...That still doesn't explain why we got here too early."

Walking towards the administrative office, Naruto opened the door and ushered Rachel inside. "It's because we need to get your class schedule kiddo. It takes a while to get you into the school system and for the school to properly place you into an available class."

Rachel nodded in understanding as she eyed her guardian talk to the person behind the desk.

Walking towards one of the nearby seats, the ashen child waited as she thought of what will possibly happen to her. Rachel will be able to live a normal life, or at least one that could be considered normal in her current case, and going to a proper school helps back up such a claim. She'll get to possibly enjoy what she couldn't have back at her previous home with people ignoring her and not helping out with her studies.

Rachel could possibly get more friends that are more accessible like Artemis and her older sister Jade (which was a bit of a stretch). She did have Queen Perdita as her friend, but she wouldn't really be here as she is on her way to her coronation to her eventual ruling of Vlatava. And she couldn't call her guardian and his three female friends to a better degree, despite on how kind they are to her. Not to mention the ever loveable Isis that tends to comfort her on most nights with her soft purrs.

But getting back to the matter at hand, the possibilities of her gaining more friends at the current time might take a while. Due to her unique appearance, she might be made fun of or picked on because of such features. Rachel already knew on this fact because of what went on back at Azarath, but she barely endured it back then and with the better support she has now, the ashen girl can survive it a whole lot better.

At least the promise of her having a better education is straight on and no one will hinder it.

"Rachel?" Naruto's voice called out, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Got your schedule here." Handing it to the ashen girl, Naruto talked towards the office door and opened it with her following. "Now go look around the place so you could try and get a good layout of the area before heading to your first class, alright?"

Rachel nodded as she shuffled her feet a little to start her current task. However, before she could go anywhere, Naruto pulled her into a small hug. Taking the small surprise well, she accepted it as her guardian spoke to her.

"You'll do fine Rachel. Not everything can be easy on just the first day, you know. I had to deal with the bigotry when I was roughly your age and I hope you can have a better time at this than me years ago." He said in personal reference of his childhood of being the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. Not knowing of the deeper connections the pair they both shared.

Letting go of her, Rachel gave him a small smile as she went off on her own while several other students were making their way into the building.

Chuckling to himself, Naruto made his way towards the restroom before heading out as he thought of a few other people that have to go to school again. Cat's son, Adam, is having his first day of the new school year back at National City and he wondered how that goes on of him getting to school on time. Naruto figured that Cat sometimes has to adjust her schedule to drop Adam off at school or he has to take the bus to get there. As for getting back home, it's either the school bus again or someone is hired to pick the kid up… He'll need to call Cat about that later today for confirmation along with hearing about how his first day was.

The person across his mind was Dick Grayson as Naruto wondered how he's supposedly doing right now. The trial of his parent's killer was the other day and Naruto was there for support on the Wayne ward, who was very appreciated for his appearance. The publisher clearly saw several things going through Dick's head, that it didn't take a mind reader to know what he was possibly going through.

This got Naruto to wonder how that'll affect Dick's starting days in the new college semester with them so close from the trial date. Would the college acrobat focus all that well, during his little recovery period, or would drift back in thought on Tony Zucco for brief moments? Who knows for sure since big events like that are hard to just brush off easily. But Naruto silently wished that said recovery time eases the college boy well before it just becomes a small sad moment in his life.

Once making his way out of the building, Naruto was nearly ran over by a familiar blonde child.

"Watch it kiddo." Naruto said with a small chuckle towards Harley's neighbor. "You might've knocked me over."

"Oh hi Naruto." Artemis said with a smile. "Sorry about that."

"Meh, it's no problem."

"Is Rachel here?"

"Yes she is actually." Pointing behind him, he spoke back. "Rachel ran off to familiarize herself with the building. Maybe you could go find her and help her out before classes start."

"Will do!" The Crock child spoke out as she ran off to find her best friend.

"You know," Paula's voice rang out as Naruto turned towards her, "I never thought I'd see Artemis be that excited to go to school this morning."

"Odd to believe that huh."

Walking out of the school building, the two adults made their way towards their respective cars as Harley's former teacher spoke again. "Pretty much. Then again having my daughter's best friend attend the same school would possibly do that for her."

"I guess you're right Paula. I mean, those two are pretty close during these past months that they'd want to spend more time together."

"And if they have the same classes, then it'll make it more enjoyable to some degree."

"Right you are. And with Artemis here, she'd possibly help Rachel out with her timid nature." Looking around, the publisher didn't see Paula's husband around. "I take it Laurence is taking Jade to school?"

"Yeah, it helps save on gas since neither of us want to do multiple trips to get our girls to their respective schools. Though it'll be a little better once Artemis hits middle school and when both girls get their driver's license later on."

Naruto chuckled a little in thought before responding back on the statement. "I take it you two will be dreading when those days come, right? Them driving out on the road and possibly causing mischief?"

"Oh don't you start there mister." Paula accusingly said with narrowed eyes. "Don't get me all worried about that too soon. I still got a few years before Jade starts her Driver's Ed class so don't get me dreading until that comes."

"Yet you know with her nature, she might cause problems."

The Vietnamese woman groaned, with a twitch of her eye, knowing that Naruto is right. "At least Artemis will be better, I hope. Just have to make sure Jade doesn't corrupt my youngest on such things like joyriding or something in that nature."

"Don't forget Rachel as well… If I want to get her a car." He pointed out to her. "What if she wants to ride a motorcycle or a moped instead of a car. Did you think about that?"

Tilting her head in thought, Paula admitted she didn't think about it. "Then I'll have to talk to Jade, when the time comes, if she's interested in a car or a motorbike."

"I mean, my first vehicle was a motorcycle and I loved riding it. Though I had to give it away when I came to the states… I do wonder if she still has it."

Feeling quite curious, the Vietnamese woman spoke her thought. "And who is this 'she' you're referring to? The same one you mention every so often, while still being vague on your past?"

"Oh you mean-" *Crash*

Hearing the sudden sound caused the pair to jump a little and turn towards the source. Not able to see it clearly, Naruto and Paula moved from their spots to witness what's going on. There was a car crash, with a car t-boning another before a pair of police vehicles arriving shortly after. The officers soon got out and went towards the crashed vehicle with their weapons pointed towards the occupants inside.

"Get out of the car and down on the ground! We got you surrounded, so there's no use staying in there!"

There was no response as two of the officers opened up the doors to see the occupants knocked out and severely injured.

"Well that seems to take care of them." One of the officers said as he soon radioed in for an ambulance to come over.

"We should be glad that one of us shot their tires or else this chase would've taken longer than it had to be."

"I know, right Montoya?" Looking over to the ruined car, he sucked in his teeth and cringed. "Man I feel sorry for whoever owns this car. It looks-"

"MY CAR!" A voice yelled out, causing the officers to look over to see a whiskered male and a vietnamese woman rushing towards their spot. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!"

"Uh… There was a robbery, which escalated into a car chase sir." Officer Montoya said as she pointed to the crashed car. "We had to resort to shooting the tires, causing the pursued car to swerve and crash into… your car I believe?"

Naruto tried to calm himself by taking in deep breaths, but his anger was showing and acting like any normal person in this situation. "I hope these guys will at least help take care of this.

"With the court case, it'll probably help cover the damages or for your replacement car, depending on how bad it is."

"I hope so." Naruto muttered out as he massaged his head. "What am I gonna do for transportation until then?"

"Maybe you could take the bus?" Officer Uchiha, Montoya's partner, suggested with a shrug. "Just a thought."

The publisher nodded as he turned towards Paula, who gave him a sympathetic look on her face. "Sorry about that Naruto, this must not have been a great way to deal with for today."

Naruto sighed. "No kidding. At least I don't have to be in the office today."

"Can't you just call Selina to come and pick you up? I would suggest Harley, but I remember her telling me that she went out for a psychologist convention for work, presenting a panel or two and won't be back till this weekend."

Naruto smiled slightly as he remembered how excited Harley was when she told him that she got such an opportunity. She admitted that she was nervous and needed to prepare on what to talk about on the panel she was participating in. Though Harley wasn't thrilled that she was going to miss out seeing both of her surrogate nieces and Rachel head off to their first days of school.

The publisher shook his head and explained. "Selina went out of town to help some environmental group she has contacts with. Wouldn't say much about it, but it was important for her to be there."

That was partially a lie. The environmentalist thief was indeed helping out an environmental group, but needed to secure funding to help them out. So Selina was running a few jobs for Kurama so he can write her a big check to take care of her problem. And last he heard from her, Selina was currently in Central City to steal some Egyptian artifacts for the humanoid furball before going to some other cities on her chore list.

"And what of Pam? I mean your other girlfriend should at least be here right?"

Paula was quite shocked when seeing Naruto being with the changed botanist the other day while she and her husband were on a date. Obviously she confronted the two, with Laurence dragged along, and started yelling at the publisher. Naruto did have to come clean to her that he was indeed dating Pam while also dating Harley. Pam did come to his rescue and explained her condition that she couldn't bare children and gave Naruto permission to date another woman. Once calling Harley for confirmation, just in case if the two were lying, the psychologist backed up the claim to end the awkward confrontation.

At least Paula got to eventually gain a new friend after a double date, despite how annoying and rude her husband was on some of it.

"Pam's out of the country procuring rare specimens for the botanical gardens. Besides, she doesn't drive a car anymore. She takes a bus to work."

Having to go to Guatemala, of all places, to collect several flora that the Green wanted Pam to protect wasn't what he thought would come out of the blue. Then again with the rainforests around the world losing ground every day because of loggers, the Green needed some of their agents to help stop their advancements for some time. So Pam told her superior, Dr. Cruz, that she needed to go there to hopefully get some plants that her 'friends' contacted her about and bring back to the gardens. Dr. Cruz agreed to let Pam head over there and get said plants to expand their studies before the loggers end up destroying the specimens.

"So how will you handle getting anywhere with them out of town?"

"I could walk and take the bus, like every other person." The publisher said as he left out his other ways of travel.

"If you say so… Do you need a ride back to your place? I'm willing to give you a lift."

He just waved her off on the suggestion. "I'm good Paula, it's a nice day out and it'll be a waste if I don't go out for a good stroll. Though thanks for the suggestion."

Paula nodded in understanding as she walked towards her car. "Then have a good day Naruto. And be sure to pick up Rachel by the time school gets out or else I'll do it for you."

"Yeah, will do."

It wasn't long before the publisher saw the ambulances arrive to help procure the injured burglars. During this time, Naruto had to talk to the police so they can get information from him, along with insurance details, before he could go on his merry way. By the time the burglars were sent away towards the nearby hospital for recovery, and eventual imprisonment, the tow trucks arrived to transport the stolen car and Naruto's ruined car.

Getting his personal effects out of his damaged car, into a backpack he created with his powers, Naruto made his way off of the school grounds. As he did, the Uzumaki made a mental list on what he'll need to do today before picking Rachel up from school. And for the first thing on said list, Naruto pulled out his phone and dialed a number and waited.

"Hello… This is Naruto Uzumaki… I need to report a claim… My car was hit and is badly damaged… Yeah, I'll hold."

 _ **-Arkham Asylum-**_

Sitting inside of the arctic-themed cell, Naruto was currently playing a game of chess with his former landlord on one of their meetups. When he first arrived, the two ate some food from the Big Belly Burger breakfast menu as the publisher also brought over some frozen food for Victor to have. Asylum food can only go so far that consumable items from the outside world is a pleasurable experience. And once having their fill, the two chatted amongst each other on different subjects before starting the match.

'Pawn to C4.' Naruto thought as he moved one of his Pawns. "So you said that Dr. Strange is allowing you to continue your experiments here?"

'Pawn to C5.' Victor moved his white piece to it's designated position. "It pretty much is Naruto."

Moving his ebony black Knight to 'F3', Naruto voiced his thoughts. "Isn't that a bit odd?"

"True but inmates here can have some leeway on what they can do in their confinement, as long as it doesn't really hamper the safety of others." Victor moved his ivory white Knight to 'C6' so his Pawn can be on guard. "Like you giving Pamela various plants in her stay here and giving me many of my possessions from the storage unit you set up."

As Naruto moved his Knight to 'C3', he briefly eyed Victor's cell as it seemed more homier ever since the frozen scientist came to Arkham. The cooler outfitted into the cell was larger than the board expected, so they had Victor transferred to a bigger room to keep the cell chilled to keep Victor alive. Not wanting to make it really spartan-like, Naruto brought over several of Victor's personal effects to at least decorate the place.

At least it brightened up the frozen room to some degree.

But on the far corner of the cell had an array of beakers, tubes, a computer and other forms of equipment to keep the man preoccupied. There was the array of books Naruto procured for Victor, but the whiskered man saw only a handful being read and the rest untouched. Then again, you can only do so much with few objects until you want something else.

"So why did he give you that equipment anyways? Been meaning to ask you that, but I didn't want to impose until you brought up the experiments."

The scientist moved his Knight to 'F6' to set up a mirrored attack on his former tenant. "Dr. Strange stated that a brilliant mind, such as mine, shouldn't be dulled with not working in the best suited craft one has. So he gave me those to continue on my work and preoccupy my time… hopefully curing the disease that plagued Nora so others wouldn't suffer."

Moving his Pawn to 'D4', alongside another one, Naruto sighed as he gained a downcasted look. Even with Nora's death, Victor wants to rid the world of the disease that started it all. The only form of vengeance the scientist could only do now.

"I guess that isn't so bad." Seeing Victor move his Pawn to 'D4' to take his own, Naruto spoke again as he moved his Knight to take the Pawn. "Though have you been getting onto other projects? I know you tend to do a few at the same time."

Taking one of his Pawns to 'E6', Victor answered. "As a matter of fact, I have."

Naruto raised a brow as he moved a Pawn to 'A3'. "Mind telling me what it is exactly?"

Placing his white Bishop to 'E7', the scientist responded. "I've been trying to find a way to reverse my condition."

This got Naruto to halter his thought process towards the game, as all of his attention was brought towards his friend. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Reaching towards the side to grab a carton of frozen yogurt, he ate a spoonful before explaining his reasons. "You do realize that I can't stay here at Arkham for the rest of my life, right? So I've been trying to figure out a way to get my body temperature back to normal for when I interact with the outside world again, I wouldn't stand out for wearing a coolant suit and be ostracized because of it."

"Has there been any luck?"

Victor shook his head and let out a deep sigh. "Not really so far and the first step of it was to start with the accident last year."

Moving a Pawn to 'G3', Naruto realized what Victor was implying. "I'm guessing you had to think back and try to remember what chemicals you came into contact with, huh?"

Placing his Queen to 'B6', the scientist nodded with a frown. "It wasn't easy since it took some personal meditation to remember what chemicals were on that table back then and even once Strange got them for me, it took time to get the right combination for the test subjects to become… like me."

Moving his black Knight to 'B3', the publisher voiced his concern. "And by subjects, you mean lab rats and toads?"

Looking at his friend oddly, Victor spoke. "Of course I meant by them. There was no way I'd be having human test subjects."

"Sorry I stated that Victor. Just a slip up there, that's all."

"It's alright Naruto, no harm done." Placing his Knight to 'E5', the scientist explained his reasonings. "I needed to be sure the effects were exactly right before I could proceed on my study. Several specimens weren't quite right when I had them out of my cell, as they could still walk around, but the following batch were the right ones when they died from exposure to heat. And when I planned on starting the process to figure out on how to reverse the changes, Dr. Strange asked me to look further into the applications of the concoction."

"Say what now?" Asked the baffled publisher as he thought he heard that wrong. "Did you say that Hugo Strange wanted to know the uses of that?"

"Yes he did Naruto." Scratching his head as he reflected back on that conversation. "Dr. Strange seemed fascinated, for some reason, and he wondered what else was a result of what became of me. Even asking me to experiment a little on those subjects before I worked on my cure."

Placing his Pawn to 'E4', the Uzumaki asked the obvious question. "And did you?"

"Yes I have." Victor said as he moved his white Knight to 'G4' as it got closer to Naruto's ranks. "He convinced me that there could've been more to my change, than meets the eye, and the scientific portion of my mind won over."

Getting his Pawn to 'C5', Naruto asked a follow up question. "And what did you find exactly?"

Victor merely sighed deeply as he rubbed his eyes. "There is indeed more to what happened to me because of the accident Naruto… and it scares me when I realized it." Seeing his former tenant look at him intently, the scientist continued. "It happened when I was working on my main project when one of my rats got out of the cage. Caused a ruckus and got things knocked over in the process. One of them was a sharp knife that ended up cutting the rat's head off from the body. I was going to throw it away… when I noticed something amiss."

"...What was it?"

"It was like something from one of those B-rated zombie films Naruto." Victor muttered as he rubbed his arms. "The head… The head was moving by itself, without it attached to the body."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion when hearing this. "Doesn't most body parts barely move on their own after severed from the whole? I know it doesn't really happen often with humans for very long, but it sometimes occurs with some lizard tails or octopus limbs."

"That's the thing Naruto, it happened to the rat and it was it's head." The scientist spoke in a louder tone. "The head was moving and it did so far longer than I imagined."

Naruto blinked on what Victor was implying before widening his eyes. The publisher knew well on reanimated corpses, due to his encounter with Solomon Grundy and Yggdrasil's discussion on the Rot. If what Victor was possibly implying, he could've found a way to get the dead to come back to life… in some twisted way.

"And that's not all, I'm afraid."

Snapping out of his thoughts, Naruto asked his friend. "What do you mean Victor?"

"...After this startling discovery, I had to check myself, through testing, to figure out what else occurred. Seeing my bloodwork not decaying and dying away like normally or even the cells from what skin I took off of myself had the same result. And further tests showed that each sample showed a decelerated rate of aging."

This didn't sound good for Naruto to hear and this worried him greatly towards his friend. He wondered how that was happening at all. Then a thought crossed through his mind that was soon voiced out. "The cryo-chemicals… They were meant for cryo-stasis."

"Yes… Freezing the body to a standstill, that one cannot age until thawed out, and I was bathed in it's icy concoction." Moving his arms to the side like presenting something important, the scientist spoke. "Take a good Naruto. I have become what many men throughout the ages have searched and yearned for: immortality." Letting out a bitter chuckle, Victor grasped his face with one of his hands as he continued. "Yet this is a curse that I've gotten myself into. Never able to fully embrace death so I can be with Nora in the afterlife."

Naruto gave his friend a sympathised look as he felt horrible on what Victor was feeling right now. Indeed, immortality can be both a blessing and a curse with how one looks at it, but with the scientist it's the entirety of the later. No one should ever suffer such a fate, no matter how pretty one presents it to be.

"Don't worry Victor, you'll find a way to reverse what has been done to you, I'm sure of it."

Victor gave his former tenant a small smile as he knew Naruto's response was genuine. "Thank you. It means well to hear that from you."

"You're welcome then."

Looking over the chessboard, Victor was figuring out the next move to take but there was something nagging him that needed to be voiced. After some frustrating moments of inner debate, he caved in and spoke his worries. "I should at least mention this to you Naruto, but I don't feel comfortable having Dr. Strange being my doctor here anymore."

"And why would you say that?" Asked the Uzumaki. "Is he just that uncomfortable that you want someone else to help you out here? Or is it something else?"

Naruto could possibly understand a little on being uncomfortable around the spectacled doctor with him giving off a creepy vibe. It was like those glasses of his put up a facade for his eyes that Naruto felt were calculating and in an ongoing chess match for some odd reason. He could never understand why when he looked at them during the past times he had lunch with Harley in the past and Naruto interacted with the good doctor. It was like Dr. Strange was trying to dissect and study him too much for comfort.

Moving his Knight to 'B3', Victor sighed before adopting a grim look on his face. "I wish I never took up his offer and him finding out what I discovered. For I fear that he plans to exploit it in some way. I don't know how or why, but nothing good is going to come from it."

Feeling rather uncomfortable about the current subject, Naruto tried to change into something lighter as they continued with their chess match before his inevitable defeat once again.

As the following matches followed, the publisher briefly thought back to what he learned and was worried on what could possibly happen. This happened before with the late Dr. Jason Woodrue (may he forever burn in Hell) wanting to acquire Pam's formula and look how that ended. So what would Hugo Strange want with Victor's research?

Naruto will need to keep an eye on the bald psychologist. He could send out some Dusks to tail the man and report back on all of his movements. Naruto briefly thought on asking Harley to help him out on this, but he didn't want to risk her life on this task if Hugo was remotely dangerous.

 _ **-On the Streets-**_

"...And how's the convention so far Harley?"

" _It's doing quite well puddin."_ She answered in a cheerful tone. _"I'm taking good notes on the interesting panels that I'm attending."_

"Glad that you're enjoying yourself over there. And when is your panel?" He asked as he rounded the corner.

" _Two days from now and like I've stated before: I'm really nervous for it."_

"And I've told you before you left that you'll do fine. You prepared your cute butt for it quite well Harl." Naruto said, getting a little chuckle from her. "All you just need to do is to relax and speak to them like you're saying it to one of us. You've done that several times and you were speaking fine when it was just us in the room."

" _I'll keep that in mind… So what are you doing now?"_

"I'm running to the store so I can get stuff for Rachel's dinner tonight so I can celebrate her first day of school."

Harley merely wined a little as he imagined her wearing a pouty look on her adorable face. _"I wish I could be there puddin. It would've been nice to hear how her first day was and possibly help her out on some of her homework."_

"I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to help her out, you know. I mean you had plenty of times with Jade and Artemis, so I think her response might not be all that different."

" _Yet you forget that this is Rachel's first day at public school. And none of us know what her education was like back before we took her off of the streets. So we don't know what it was like for her, with her not telling us a thing. Hell during some of the small sessions I do with her, I barely get a handful worth of information that she's willing to spill out."_

Naruto sighed as his bubbling girlfriend was right in what she was saying. Despite the months of her under his care, Rachel hasn't told much on her past and was very secretive about it. He respected her privacy and didn't want to pry for information. But Naruto kept getting worried when he hears her whimpers in the middle of the night or when she wants to come into his bed to ease her worries.

"Then we'll just have to make the best out of things for her Harley."

" _Right you are!"_ She said in a peppy tone. _"Oh I gotta hang up now, the next panel is gonna start and I need to find a good seat. Bye. I love you."_

"I love you too Harley." Hanging up the phone, Naruto sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "Man I wish I had my car."

He's been walking for a while now after he got off of the bus ride from Arkham. The publisher would've used his wind lance to get around town quicker, but it would end up drawing attention towards himself in broad daylight. And he could've tried making that dark door, that corridor into the darkness, he discovered back in his mindscape, but he was uneasy in using it. Not knowing on where it might take him, since he felt that the doorway isn't a typical one that he read dozens of times in the fantasy and sci-fi novels he published.

Anyways, walking around and waiting for certain buses gave the Uzumaki the excuse to call up Selina on how her job was going so far. Nothing bad at all as she was staking out the museum and visualizing on how to acquire her targets. She did admit that getting the items in question were odd for even her, despite one of them being a sapphire statue of the Egyptian Goddess Isis, but they seemed valuable enough for Kurama in wanting them for some unknown reason.

Naruto also called Pam on how things down at the Amazon rainforest was like, but he kept hitting voicemail several times now. He felt a little worried, despite knowing that she can clearly take care of herself, but he just wanted to at least hear her voice. So possibly later tonight, he'll make his way to her Greenhouse out of town and talk to her plants and see if they'll relay the message to her, due to them having a closer connection to her than the ones back at the loft.

If not, then he'll just meet up with her in the Dreaming and chat with her there.

As he made his way across the street, Naruto noticed something at the corner of his eye. He saw a particular motorcyclist driving near the stoplight and the Uzumaki felt the person was looking right at him. Naruto wouldn't mind at all, since it's a common occurrence with everyone out there, but he was noticing this same cyclist for a few blocks now as if the person was following him. A few would've been coincidence, but now he got got confirmation.

Not wanting to be found out on this, Naruto played it cool and went on his merry way to see how he'll get the cyclist to be baited into following his new trail. Deciding to cross yet another street, one that is currently crowded with small stands, he did what he could to lose the cyclist by doing his best to blend in. It's been awhile since he did this sort of thing, so it'll be like riding an old bike.

One that has rusted over the years.

Not wanting to give himself away, to some degree, he quickened his pace a little as he maneuvered his way through the incoming people. Still seeing the rider following him at a good distance behind him, Naruto had to resort to ducking into an alleyway. The publisher walked a little faster so he could go around a few other corner before bringing forth his grappling scarf to get onto one of the nearby fire escapes at a higher level.

Once situated, Naruto heard footsteps coming closer to the current alley.

'Okay. Time to see who's after me.' He thought.

Naruto was willing to just lose this guy by phasing through several buildings, but the feelings he tried to suppress from Victor's chat from earlier was clouding his rational thoughts. The visit was dampening his pleasant mood from this morning, alongside his car getting wrecked, making Naruto to let out his frustrations. And it just so happened that the cyclist was possibly an easy well to misplace his aggressions.

As the footsteps got closer and closer, Naruto soon saw the black leather clad cyclist with the helmet still worn and hints of a scarf around the neck. The person's head turned in various directions as the rider tried looking for the publisher. The action ended as the cyclist paused before flicking the arm to the side for a pair of daggers to appear into the person's hand from the jacket's sleeve.

'Oh crap!' The Uzumaki thought as a dagger flew towards his direction, causing him to duck out of the way before several more came right at him. 'Oh now it's on!'

Cursing himself for losing the element of surprise, he quickly picked up one of the daggers before throwing it towards the cyclist. The person dodged the throwing weapon before having to roll out of the way from Naruto's falling form. Once on the ground, the Uzumaki dashed towards the cyclist and tried to punch his assailant. The cyclist knocked the arm towards the side as he kicked Naruto's side. The publisher grasped the cyclist's leg and tried to elbow the person's chest but it failed when the rider leaned back and kicked Naruto's chest with the free leg.

The whiskered man rubbed his chest slightly before he had to block and dodge several bladed attacks. Backing away, Naruto had to strike back as he ducked down and swept kicked the cyclist to the ground. As the assailant fell, the publisher quickly got to the person's position with one of the daggers on hand and aimed it at the cyclist's neck.

"Okay. Who the hell are you?" Naruto demanded in an even tone. "My day, so far, hasn't been going well and you showing up doing this crap isn't making it better."

The cyclist didn't say anything. Just lying there and not moving at all.

"So tell me who you are!"

"...Wow." The helmeted rider chuckled in a feminine tone. "Roughly nine years later, you can still be hot-tempered."

Naruto was baffled on what the rider just said as his confusion started to grow. Racking his mind on who this person was… and how she knew him. His eyes bore into her before something shiny caught his vision.

Reaching down towards her neck, it was a locket that got loose from the confinement of the rider's scarf. It was familiar to him as he briefly remembered giving it to someone years ago. Opening up the locket, he saw a photo which made his eyes widen on the mere sight of it as a memory came rushing through.

 _ **-Flashback, 9 Years Ago; Milan, Italy-**_

" _Man, what a view." Naruto muttered as he sat on the terrace of Duomo di Milano while seeing most of the city at it's highest point._

" _I told you that it was worth coming here Naruto." Spoke a woman who stood several feet away from him. "Even during the twilight hours to see the city in it's real beauty."_

 _No one is supposed to be on top of the cathedral while the building is getting renovated, but the former shinobi snuck onto the terrace with his friend to see the spectacular view of the old town without anyone bothering them. The array of colors from the clear sky made the pinkish color of the building's stonework seem more interesting. And with the sun setting at the horizon made the setting much more memorable for the two._

" _Well you've taken me to a lot of great places to see in our travels together and you've never ceased to disappoint me."_

" _And have I ever steered you wrong?" She rhetorically asked with a smirk on his face._

 _Turning around, the Uzumaki saw his companion holding two boxes in her grasp. Each contained food that they purchased earlier, but she didn't let him start digging in until they got to their current placement. Stating that eating while enjoying the view makes the experience much more memorable if you're with others._

 _And with the grumbling sound emanating from his stomach, the whiskered man couldn't wait to eat the delicious meal._

" _Okay, I waited long enough Talia." Naruto said with a bit of desperation in his voice. "Give me my food, now."_

 _The now identified Talia merely chuckled as she let her friend snatch his box from her grasp. The two soon sat down on the rooftop as they opened up their respective meal boxes to reveal the heavenly aroma of authentic Italian pizza with bite sized cuts. Not much was said as they silently enjoyed their meals, with some small chatter between them, while seeing the sun starting to set._

" _Talia."_

" _Yes Naruto? What is it?"_

" _I've been meaning to give you this earlier, but I kept forgetting." Reaching into his jacket pocket, the former shinobi pulled out a small box and handed it towards his friend._

 _Adopting a curious look on her face, Talia opened the box and slightly gasped when seeing the beautiful piece of jewelry attached to a metallic string. It was a bronze locket with a floral design etched onto the front and a small emerald imbedded in it's center. She opened it up and saw that it was empty inside to show that it was indeed brand new._

" _I didn't know when your birthday was," Naruto began as he scratched his cheek, "but I heard your sister say it was coming up when we last spoke with her. I didn't want to press on the information, but with me being with you for at least a year and a half I needed to at least get you something really nice."_

 _Talia didn't say anything as her fingers traced over her gift. She briefly smiled before some tears started to form in her eyes. And without realizing it, she sniffled slightly as a result._

" _T-Talia? Are you alright?" The Uzumaki asked in worry as he saw her expressions suddenly change. "I-If it seemed too much, I'm sorry. I could try and exchange that for something else."_

 _She shook her head in response before looking at him with a pleasant smile. "No, it's perfect Naruto. Thank you."_

" _Really? Well that's good."_

" _It's better than good actually." Talia said as she pulled the item out of the box to let the light shine upon it's surface. "I haven't had a nice gift in years and the last one I got was from my late mother, but I lost that some time ago."_

 _Not knowing about that, until now, the former shinobi frowned slightly before mumbling. "I'm sorry to hear that Talia."_

" _It matters not." She said as she gave him a warm smile. "But thank you for giving me this. It means a lot."_

 _Grasping her hair, Talia pulled it up and ushered him to help put it on. Complying with her request, Naruto took her gift and went behind her to get her locket around her neck. Once done, it lied proudly on her chest before she hugged him._

" _We should probably commemorate this." Naruto said as he stood up and pulled his companion up alongside him before whipping out a camera from his pocket. Trying to angle it just right, with the twilighted sky shining in the background, Naruto took several photos just in case if the first one didn't work out all that well._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"...Talia?"

The rider reached up towards her helmet and unclasped the buckle keeping it in place. One done, she pulled her off head's protection to release a river of dark brown hair from it's confinement. The rider's blue-green eyes showed happiness that matched the smile on her thin, supple lips upon her light ebony skinned complexion. When taking a closer look of her appearance, Naruto saw Talia's Chinese/Arabic/European features became more defined after seeing her from last time.

"Hello Naruto. It's been sometime."

Naruto blinked as he slowly chuckled before he started to laugh. He brought her up from the ground a little and hugged the one friend he never expected to see after so long. She returned the hug as she wrapped her arms around his form and held him tight.

Once he calmed down from his laughter, Naruto pulled away and spoke to his old traveling companion. "What are you doing here Talia? I mean, not that I mind seeing you again, but why now after all this time? Hell how did you even find me?"

Talia got up, with Naruto's help, as she dusted herself off before answering. "Well I'm here on business really and since you're here in Gotham, I thought I could see you again."

Naruto merely crossed his arms and raised a brow. "And after nine years, you didn't get the chance to visit me at all if you possibly knew where I lived? Or at least try to contact me?"

She sighed as her hand raked through her hair slightly. "Well I kept on traveling and I didn't know where you were exactly until you started your publishing company five years ago. And even then, I've been busy."

"With what exactly? Stuff for your dad?" He questioned as he got the visual answer, causing him to sigh. "Figures."

Despite traveling around together for about two years, Talia has been vague on her past. He only knew a little about her father through what stories she told him, but Naruto never knew what the man did for a living. Only knowing that he too traveled around the world and did things in hopes of protecting the environment. Talia did certain jobs for her father on the family business and had to leave him for a day or so before showing back up like it was nothing.

...Then again, he has been vague on his past as well towards her. So that seemed to call things even to some degree.

"You know how important it is on me helping out my father."

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it several times before Talia and I don't want to argue about that again." With a shake of his head, he made his way out of the alley with her on toe. "Let's at least continue this conversation when we're not in a place like this."

"I can agree on that."

As the two made it out of the alleyway, Naruto came across a site he hasn't seen in years. "Is that?"

"Yup." Talia replied with a small smile. "Your little girl. Kept her nice and maintained since you gave it me before you left for the states."

The beautiful piece of machinery parked by the side of the street is a 1930's Brough Superior SS100, considered to be the Rolls-Royce of the motorcycle world. Sixty-nine of these were ever made in the world and were extremely valuable on it's entire run, though there are some other models made later on that others not appreciate it often. With it's impressive speed and durability, many collectors want to nab one if given the chance.

Luckily for him, Naruto won this one from a poker game, becoming the main form of transportation he and Talia used during their time together.

Running his hand over it's darkened surface, a smile graced his lips. "I thought you would've gotten rid of this."

"Not a chance Naruto." Talia tossed him something from her pocket and when looking at it, it were a set of keys. "How about taking her for a spin once more?"

Naruto merely smirked at her before he sat on his old motorcycle to get a good feel of the leathery seat. Placing the keys in and kickstarting the engine, the publisher felt the familiar rumble his old bike going through his system. It felt great to be on this machine again and it feel much more once he rides it around town.

His thoughts were soon halted as he felt the bike shift and a pair of arms wrapping around his chest. This made him realize that Talia hopped right on and assumed the position she used in the past when he rode _their_ bike. Emphasising on 'their' since the two took turns taking care of this old girl during their time together. Even in the past, Naruto rode 'bitch' every now and then, but Talia enjoyed being in that spot for some particular reason.

"You know this town better than I do Naruto." His old friend said from behind her helmet. "So you get to choose where we get to chat."

Nodding at this, Naruto motioned her to back away for a few moments so he could get his backpack off and strap it onto the bike. Once done, Naruto readjusted into his seat before revving up the engine. With a smirk on his face, he had a destination in mind as he soon rode the motorcycle down the street.

 _ **-Stacked Deck-**_

"I never would've thought on you taking us here." Talia muttered with a raised brow as she entered the establishment. "It's not even the typical bar hours even."

"Meh~ This place grew on me over the months and some of the more private times are before then with anyone hardly showing up." Said the Uzumaki as he waved at the owner, who was manning the bar today. "Hiya Moxxi. How's it going?"

"Doing well Naruto." The barkeep replied before she eyed the woman behind one of her favorite customers. "And who's this?"

"Just an old friend that came into town for work."

Moxxi looked at Naruto for a few moments before giving off a shrug. "If you say so kid. So do you two want a booth or up here at the bar?"

It was Talia who answered the question. "The bar's fine. Besides I'd like to have a better view on what you have on the shelf."

Moxxi nodded as she saw Naruto and his friend sit on the barstools. "Then what would you two like for starters?"

"I'll have some Bud Light Moxxi." Naruto was fine with having some light beers for now, even though he can't get drunk anymore due to his powers. But Naruto didn't want to give away his odd alcohol intolerance to his old friend, who originally knew he could handle so much alcohol before he was considered drunk years ago.

Blame the really strong bottles of Vodka, Rum and Absinthe he had alongside Talia during their time around Eurasia. That shit really kicked his ass hard, even with her drunk alongside him.

"Corona for me."

Moxxi nodded and went to fetch said bottles of beer for her first customers of the day.

"So… What would you like to talk about Talia?"

"Just… you really." Came Talia's response. "I just wanna hear what you've been up to since we last saw each other."

"That's what I had in mind as well Talia. I mean it's been nine years and I'd like to hear what crazy stuff you got yourself into."

And so the two chatted for several hours with different bottles of beer emptied, their glasses and baskets constantly refilled with water peanuts respectively. The old companions enjoyed their time together as they caught up as best as they could in the time frame. Naruto still thanked Talia on getting him his identity papers before coming to the states, in which she stated that it was needed at several of the countries they passed on through in their time together and he did save her life that one time so there was that. Asides from that, Naruto talked about most of his time in Metropolis and being here in Gotham while Talia talked about traveling through Africa and several areas in South America.

"...I keep hearing that Machu Picchu is a great place to visit," Naruto said as he sipped his drink, "even if it's worth the hike."

"Trust me, it's worth it. Though Nyssa complained around halfway through."

"Did she now? And how is Nyssa by the way?" Naruto asked pertaining to Talia's younger sister. He met with her a few times like at the Great Wall of China, several places in both Germany and Spain. She was tough to get through, due to her upbringing, but she turned out well to get to know.

"She's doing well. Stubborn in wanting to get her work done well and to appease our father."

"And where have I heard that before?" He muttered, earning a playful smack from the woman beside him. "Oh come on, you know that's true."

"Not like you were any better."

"Eh… Yeah, you're not wrong on that." Blame part of his stubborn nature on his mother for passing that trait down onto him. Because of that, he got the two into some interesting misadventures due to his stubbornness. Like him breaking into a Chinese Triad stronghold to prove a point of breaking into such a place in broad daylight and not getting caught. He was successful, but one guard sounded the alarm and escaping the place was a bitch with an army on their tail.

...Good times.

Smirking a little, Talia continued. "Asides from that, Nyssa has been seeing someone for about three years now."

"Really?~ So who's the lucky man that pierced through her defences and claimed her heart?" Seeing the look on her face, it seemed Naruto to get the idea now. "Oh~ A girl? Well nothing's wrong with that… So what's her name and how'd they meet?"

Taking a sip of her drink after eating some peanuts, Talia answered. "Her name's Sara and they met when Nyssa saved her from drowning."

"That… must've been an interesting moment between the two." Stretching a little in his seat before he continued. "I take it your dad wasn't thrilled on those two being together."

Talia sighed as she scratched her head. "You can say that... Father is fine with homosexuals being under his employ and all that fun stuff, but as you know he's a traditionalist to continue the family line."

"And with Nyssa playing for the other team, that's not gonna happen that well." Finishing up his bottle, Naruto spoke. "He should remember he does have another daughter that could continue the family line. I mean you're very beautiful and any man would be lucky in being in a relationship with you."

"That is true on both counts and thanks on the complement." She said with a smile as she knew Naruto was being quite honest on the fact. "But as for finding someone special to hopefully spend the rest of my days with and have a family with him… well I haven't found the right man." 'Or pursued the right one.' She thought with some mirth.

"Sorry to hear of that… But then again, you can kick any man's ass and that tends to make men feel quite emasculated."

"Also true. Speaking of, I see you've been keeping up with your fighting skills. It would've been a shame if you rusted over the years."

Naruto nodded as he remembered that during the two years traveling together, Talia was his teacher for a time. Taught him quite a lot on how to improve his stealth and to not just rely on his brawling fighting trait he primarily used before coming to this world. She taught him several fighting styles and he had to refresh his memory on said styles once he tapped into his powers.

"To tell you the truth Talia, I had rusted a little since moving into Gotham five years ago. But after a certain incident last year, I had to retrain myself so it wouldn't happen again."

"You mean with Hiraishin attacking you." She stated with a raised brow. "I had heard about it and I was quite worried for your safety, but I was surprised you took him down."

"Well it was the Batman who dealt the final blow with that odd dust of his that got Hiraishin to not use his powers all that well."

"Yet you were the one that fended him off while civilians got out to safety." Talia pointed out as she drank the last of her drink.

"Though he was there to kill me to be more of a glory hound." Naruto replied back. "It's true I kept his attention away from everyone else, but he was after me so he could seem more popular for others to hire him more often."

"Regardless, it seemed during our small encounter that I hadn't seen any rust in your style."

"Why thank you."

"In fact, I'd like to possibly spar with you again sometime to see the extent of your skill."

Naruto thought about it for a moment before he gave her a shrug. "I don't see any harm in that. I think it would be good to fight you again after all this time."

"Good. And besides, I wonder how my best student fairs against me after all this time."

"Really? Well I'm flattered Talia, I really am. And you said you took in other students earlier?"

"A handful here and there during my travels." Was her honest answer. "Even had one student when I was in Russia in the past year and he was fine, despite him only learning under me for 5-6 months."

"And how would you compare me from this last guy?"

"Well… I'll have to spar you, in a better way than from the alley earlier, to get a more accurate response."

Naruto nodded at hearing this since results are better once seeing them at the present time. The conversation would've continued if it wasn't for the publisher's eyes landing onto the hanging clock nearby, seeing that it was 3pm. "Shit! I'm gonna be late!"

Talia was confused in what he was referring to as she saw her friend hastily get up from his seat and quickly pay the barkeeper. "What are you talking about Naruto?"

"I'm almost late from picking up Rachel from school!"

This merely left questions than answers for the blue-green eyed woman as she soon followed Naruto out of the bar and towards their motorcycle. He asked for her keys before he drove them off to the other side of town. While on the way towards his destination, Naruto summarized a little on who his foster child was to her.

 _ **-Gotham Elementary-**_

Sounds of the school bell were rung as children were starting to head out of the building for the end of the school day. Some were greeted with the site of various buses waiting to transport the children to their respective homes while others saw their respective parents and guardians by the sidewalks and parking lots. It was a pleasant experience from what many could see before each person went their separate ways.

In the meantime, Paula was standing off to the side as she saw her youngest walk alongside her best friend.

"So how's your first day of school honey?"

"It was well mom." Came Artemis' response. "Though some of the rotating teachers were a bit boring on their lessons."

"Eh~ It happens." Turning over towards the ashen child, Paula spoke to the timid Rachel. "And how was your first day sweetie?"

The young ward shifted in her feet before looking at the older woman. "It was… okay. Wasn't used to such a place."

"And did you have any trouble at all?" Paula asked as an obvious question. "Like with your lessons?"

"Not really, but…"

"But what?"

"Well…"

Soon the sounds of a motorcycle was heard, causing several people look towards the source. From what Paula, Artemis and Rachel could see was Naruto riding a motorcycle, without a helmet on, which caused the two children to wonder why he wasn't driving his car from this morning. Other questions popped into their heads was who was riding behind the publisher and how did he get the motorcycle in the first place.

Similar thoughts went through Paula's head, but she knew there'd be answered soon. Walking up to Naruto and the helmeted person, the Vietnamese woman spoke to the Uzumaki. "I was wondering when you'd show up Naruto. I was about to drive her back to my place, so you can pick her up there, if you weren't here on time."

"Sorry about that Paula." Apologized the former shinobi as he got off of the motorcycle. "I was catching up with an old friend and I lost track of time."

"And who would that be exactly?" Paula asked before her eyes landed on the helmeted rider. "This guy?" This earned a nod from Naruto's companion. "Well mind introducing yourself."

It took a moment for the rider to remove the helmet to reveal her features, earning varied reactions from each of them. Rachel was nervous when seeing the new person while Artemis thought she looked pretty and strong, given the similar feeling her mother and Selina gave off. As for Paula, she stiffened as several thoughts ran through her head.

'Why the hell is she here? Why weren't Laurence and I informed ahead of time of her being here?' Mentally palming her face, Paula's eye suddenly twitched. 'Laurence is gonna be pissed, that's for sure.'

Holding up her hand towards the Crock Matriarch, with a mischievous look in her eyes, Naruto's companion introduced herself. "Hello there. My name's Talia."

Heir to the Demon, Warith al Ghul and the Demon's Daughter are some of the names Talia al Ghul goes by for the League of Shadows (also called the League of Assassins). Ra's al Ghul's eldest daughter and one of the best assassins in the entire organization, second only to her father and arguably to Lady Shiva while much better than the League's Horsemen. A worldly and cultured, elite warrior who travels around quite often to perform certain missions for her father right on the fly.

Not wanting to be rude, especially to keep up appearances in front of those not in the know of the new arrival, Paula shook the offered hand. "Nice to meet you Talia. My name's Paula."

Looking towards the younger kids, Talia asked the obvious question with a small smile. "And who are these two little darlings?"

Before Paula could answer, her daughter answered right away. "My name's Artemis ma'am."

"Well ain't that a pretty and strong name you got there. No doubt getting a strong resemblance from your mother here."

The Crock child nodded with a bit of pride in the action. She soon nudged her best friend's side as it was her turn to introduce herself. Rachel hesitated for obvious reasons, but with a little encouragement by her guardian, she spoke. "M-My name's Rachel."

"Ah~ So you're the one Naruto talked about on the way over here." Seeing her confused face, Talia explained. "Like he said, Naruto lost track of time and needed to use my bike to get over here on time to pick you up from school. Explanation was really short for my taste, but I think it'll be nice if I could maybe get to know you better. If you let me, that is."

Rachel didn't say anything as she moved towards her guardian for some comfort. Seeing this, Naruto couldn't fault his ward's action since it takes a while for the ashen child to open up to others. When seeing this, Artemis did what she could to cheer her friend up as she dragged Rachel towards the motorcycle Naruto and Talia rode to the school on in curiosity.

"Sorry about that Talia. Rachel has a very timid nature and doesn't open up easily."

"No, it's alright Naruto. I understand quite well since I was like her, to some degree, when I was at her age. She wasn't prepared on meeting someone new right away, especially someone she knew nothing about."

Naruto sighed a little in relief. "That's good to hear."

"So Naruto." The Crock woman spoke. "What are your plans for the rest of the day?

"Well I was planning on grocery shopping earlier to make Rachel's favorite for dinner," Naruto then looked at his old friend with a playful glare, "but Talia ended up sidetracking me."

Said woman merely rolled her eyes. "I said I was sorry. I just wanted to see if you still knew if someone was tailing you."

"And you clearly knew how that turned out." Turning his attention back to the Crock matriarch, he continued. "Anyways, I'll have to drop Rachel off back at my place since I clearly don't have a car to carry both her, the groceries and Talia all at the same time. And after that, I've got to help out Rachel on whatever homework she has gotten today and sign whatever stuff she possibly has for me for her teachers, I think."

"Seems nothing that you can't handle Naruto."

"Obviously." Feeling his arm being tugged slightly, Naruto saw his ward with a questioning look. "Yes Rachel?"

"Where's your car?"

"Ah right, well it was in an accident earlier today and I'm just borrowing my friend's motorcycle for today."

Rachel nodded before speaking. "Mind showing me and Artemis how it works? It looks… cool."

The publisher chuckled as he nodded and excused himself to keep the two younger girls entertained while being sure they didn't mess around with his old motorcycle. As he left, the two women walked some feet away so they can have some space to talk amongst themselves. With the sounds of surrounding chatter and vehicles leaving the school grounds, this helped cover the conversation the two were about to have.

"Why are you here Talia?" Paula asked in a serious tone. "Either you, your father or Lady Shiva would've contacted us ahead of time if either of you were arriving into town for whatever reason. Yet neither did at all. Why?"

The last time any League members arrived in Gotham was when the Zephyr battery was being introduced months ago. Paula and Laurence expected to be brought in to assist on the mission, but were told by Lady Shiva to not bother on the main mission parameters since it was already covered. Though she did ask the married couple to procure the dead League members from the GCPD morgue so things wouldn't be compromised.

Other than that, things were quiet in terms of assignments asides from Paula's and Laurence's mission on the Uzumaki intel.

"Oh I was merely passing through Alsiyada (Huntress), that's all." Talia said offhandedly, earning a small glare from the Vietnamese woman.

Paula scoffed. "Right~ Like it's just that simple. Look, can you just tell me why you didn't inform Laurence or I when you were getting into town? You know that my husband doesn't like unpleasant surprises."

"I know, but I didn't want either of you two to know of my arrival just yet."

"And why not?" Seeing the look of Talia's eyes as they glanced over to the whiskered publisher, Paula somewhat put things together. "Him? You came all the way over here just to see him?"

"Partially." Was Talia's response in an offhanded manner. "You remember Father tasked you two on finding more about Naruto and in the end, he became disinterested in him, resulting in ending the reports… Well I wanted a better evaluation. So I decided to come here to seek out my old friend and student and see what could be obtained that neither you or your husband could not."

Paula subtly nodded in understandment since things were starting to make sense now with Talia's arrival. Naruto spoke fondly of his friend that he parted ways with eight years ago and she didn't realize Naruto was referring to the Demon's Daughter. And when hearing about Ra's getting information from his eldest daughter on some of Naruto's past, it went over her head at the time. Though it seems that Talia wants to use her old connection with the whiskered publisher to get an update on things on a more personal level.

'He keeps making things more interesting without realizing it.' Thought the Crock matriarch before she let out a sigh. "Is there anything else I should know or was visiting Naruto just it?"

This got the Heir to the Demon to become a bit more serious when answering. "There will be a device arriving in Gotham a few days from now and Father wants to acquire the package."

Paula nodded before her eyes glanced towards Naruto coming back to them. "We can discuss more at a later time Talia."

Seeing the reason why on ending the conversation, Talia merely nodded. "Of course Paula."

"What were you two talking about?" Asked the publisher.

"Nothing much, I insure you." Lied the married woman.

"If you say so. Anyways, I think the girls are starting to get a little antsy and need to go home now."

Seeing her youngest by the family car gave Paula the message and nodded in understanding. "Then I'll see you later Naruto."

"You as well Paula."

As Naruto and Talia walked back to the Brough Superior, they saw Rachel waving her friend goodbye. "Ready to go Rachel." Rachel gave a small nod as her answer before her guardian picked her up and placed her on the motorcycle. "You're gonna be needing sit between us Rachel so you'll be safe. And I'll drop you off at the Towers so you can get inside of the apartment. But do you still have your key to the place?"

"Yes Naruto."

It wasn't long before Naruto took the driver's seat while Talia got her helmet back on before riding 'bitch' again. Before starting up the bike, the Demon's Daughter wrapped her arms around the ashen child, who stiffened slightly before relaxing on the reassured safety. Once everything was secured, Naruto drove the motorcycle off of the school grounds and made his way back Skyline Towers.

 _ **-Later, Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

Grocery shopping went rather quick after dropping Rachel off at the Towers as there wasn't much for Naruto to acquire. He could've gotten this done faster if he went by himself with his powers, but despite Talia being his old friend he didn't want to leave her alone with Rachel. It's not that he doesn't trust her being alone with his ward, but he didn't want to worry Rachel on being around with a complete stranger to her.

During his time shopping, Naruto asked where Talia was going to be staying at while in Gotham. It was obvious to him she was going to be staying at a hotel, but he asked anyway since he offhandedly offered her to stay in one of his guest rooms until she left. Talia appreciated the offer as she declined. Though to make up for it, he asked if she could come over for dinner since it tends to be lonely with just him and Rachel back at the loft.

Naruto was currently making Rachel's favorite dish, Aglio e Olio, ever since she first tried it under his roof while Talia was preparing a complimentary sea bass to go with the pasta.

"How's that fish coming along Talia?"

"It's going well Naruto."

"Just be sure to not overcook it like back in Burma."

"One time and you'll never let it go, huh."

"I never will Talia. Oh how I never will."

Rachel was sitting at the kitchen counter as she was doing some of her homework while her guardian and his friend were cooking an early dinner. Sounds of cooking filled the air as the two adults were in charge of preparing their respective portion of the evening meal. And with the strong fragrant smell wafting in the air added fuel to the fire on her distraction.

'Why didn't I just finish doing my homework in my room?' Thought the ashen child as her stomach soon grumbled. 'This is just making me real hungry right now.'

As she tried to focus on her first school assignments after leaving Azarath, Rachel's purple eyes would occasionally glance at the two adults. She clearly saw they were indeed good friends, despite the years that separated them, as they enjoyed each other's company. It was different from his interactions with Pam, Selina and Harley with him being in a relationship with each of them; but Naruto and Talia had history with each other since they knew each other longer.

"I wonder if I'll have such a connection with Artemis and several others down the line." Muttered the foster child before she felt Isis brushing against her arm. "Do you think I'll have such a thing like with Artemis like those two, Isis?"

All Rachel got in return was a feline equivalent of a shrug.

"Only time will tell, I suppose."

Her personal musings ended once she heard the a plate being placed near her, causing the ashen child to look towards the one serving her.

"Well dinner's ready Rachel."

Looking towards the plate in question, Rachel licked her lips slightly alongside Isis as they saw the meal before them. The child's plate contained her portion of Aglio e Olio and cooked sea bass while the feline's plate was just the chopped up, seasoned fish. And without further restraint, Isis gave an experimental lick on the meat before eating towards her heart's content as purrs were soon heard.

"Seems Isis likes your cooking Talia."

"She's not the only one." Motioning towards Rachel, Naruto saw his ward cutting up the fish and eating it before the noodles as the child gave out a pleasant hum. Wanting more room in her space, the ashen girl moved her homework away so none of the delicious food would touch her assignments on accident.

The Uzumaki smiled as he and Talia got their portioned food before sitting down to eat their meal. The loft's occupants ate in relative silence so they could savor their food. By the time Rachel got up to get more food for both her and Isis, the ashen child moved her things into her room to finish things up there. With her out of the way, Naruto's old friend spoke as she took a portion of bass into her mouth.

"You know, it's nice to be a normal person every now and again."

"How so?" Questioned the publisher

Swallowing her food, she answered back. "Enjoying the simple pleasures that life gives you. Like, for instance, savoring the taste of good food without having to block out your taste buds so you'd be very attentive towards your surroundings."

"I agree, but you don't have to do that all the time or else it would've become too much of a hassle." He said before taking a sip of his drink. "But it does save your life if you're primarily on your own or in the wilderness."

"I agree and you were the one to get me to 'loosen up' during our time together." Talia chuckled as she got up to get more food, due to her large appetite. "It does have its uses, when the time calls for it, but without you in my company for so long made me forget it every so often."

"...I'm sorry about that Talia." He somberly said. "You asked me to stay with you more than our intended agreement, but I wanted to make a name for myself with good honest work."

The Demon's Daughter waved him off with a small smile. "No worries Naruto, I've come to accept that you wanted to go your way years ago. You're not the only one as it seems to be a recurring theme with many of my past students."

"That's… good to know, I think."

"Besides... you've done quite well for yourself by starting up a publishing company of all things."

"Well I so happened to enjoy writing while I traveled with you. Seeing many of the sites helped spark my interest to try out the craft." He said as it was partially the truth.

The former shinobi wanted to honor Jiraiya's memory and during his time traveling with Talia got him to take up the hobby of writing his experiences back in his home reality. This in turn got him the idea to try and self publish his 'life story' so he wouldn't try to have someone else reaping his profits. And being just a writer wasn't going to be fulfilling with part of his mind wanting to be in charge of others. One thing led to another for him to consider trying out to become a publisher.

Sitting back down, Talia ate more of the food before speaking. "Some of your books were good ways to kill time and escape some troubles in my life, so there's that."

"Then I'm glad to hear on that."

"Though I would like to get my copies of some of your books signed, if it won't be too much trouble."

"No problem and I could do that sometime… I've been meaning to ask, but how long are you in town for anyways?"

"Less than a week."

Nodding at the answer, he got up from the seat to get another serving. "Maybe you could come over tomorrow after I drop Rachel off at school. This loft has enough room for us to spar in once moving the furniture around. Two birds with one stone, if you will."

Talia smiled. "I'll consider it then. And have you been writing other books since releasing Loveless?"

"Yes I have actually and my next book is gonna be released in the coming weeks."

"Really? And what's it called?"

"Final Fantasy." Came the answer as he got back to his seat. "First of a new series of books and I'm currently working on books two and three right now. And before you ask, they aren't sequels but separate stories with a similar title."

"Well that's interesting."

The two soon had went into different topics as their bellies got full from the delicious meal. It clearly felt like old times between the two and they couldn't be happier. All that was missing was him learning new skills from his old teacher or the occasional spar, but Talia might make up for that in the coming days with her being in town.

By the time Talia was ready to depart, Rachel came down and tugged onto Naruto's shirt.

"Yes Rachel?"

Holding up some of her assignments, the ashen child asked the obvious question. "Can you help me out on some of these questions? I'm having trouble answering them."

"Yeah, I'll head right up."

Rachel nodded before she saw Talia gathering her things. "It's nice meeting you Talia and thanks for helping cook dinner."

"You're very welcome and it's been nice meeting you as well."

Once the young ward made her way up towards her room, Talia thanked Naruto as well before heading out of his loft. She had things to plan for the next several days and the Demon's Daughter needed to prepare for what's to come. Though she couldn't wait to see Naruto in the morning and spend time with him.

Not knowing Talia's intentions, Naruto smiled as he had a similar thought of seeing his old friend tomorrow. He shook his head a little as he made his way upstairs to help his ward out on her school assignments. They were easy for him, but Naruto helped her out so she wouldn't rely on him so much later on.

 _ **-Evening, Gotham Harbor-**_

Things have been rather quiet this evening for the masked publisher and considered taking an early leave for the night. But he had gotten an anonymous tip when Vanitas visited the Stacked Deck and chatted with the barkeep. Moxxi stated that she heard that there was going to be a shipment of drugs coming from out of town and entering from the harbor. Naruto didn't know if the drug shipment was Kurama's or not, but the Uzumaki didn't care at the time and wanted to try and keep things safe for the city's residents.

Currently on top of one of the shipping containers, Vanitas kept a close eye on the thugs that were moving the drug cargo. Getting a pattern in each of their movements so he could pick out the stray link before taking out the rest all at once. The masked Uzumaki didn't know what the shipment was and didn't want to risk anything since things drugs these days could be unstable for all he knew.

His patience was rewarded as he saw one of the thugs break off from the rest and pulled out something in his pocket, which the hero believed was a pack of smokes. Seeing the opportunity present itself, Vanitas made his way towards the thug's position. Using his silencing ability, the vigilante moved himself ever so carefully so he could take him out.

Seeing the thug barely light up his cigarette, Vanitas sprung into action by slamming his head to the metal container, knocking him out. The sound drew in some other thugs to his position, causing Vanitas to quickly get on top of the nearby containers so he'll get the jump on them. As several men made their way down to their fallen comrade's placement on the ground, the hero formed several daggers and threw them at the nearby lights to destroy the bulbs.

This caused the thugs to become rather jumpy and pulled out their guns for protection, but they wouldn't be having it for long.

"Whoever's out there! Come on out, you fucker!"

There was no response as the thugs were looking all over the place. Though several shots were fired, due to one of them having nervous reflexes and was jumping over moving shadows. As the search continued, one of the thugs looked towards the containers above before his eyes landed on something situated on the crane's lowered hook.

"What the-GAAH!"

Vanitas dropped kicked the thug below once he let go of the crane hook. The thug quickly went out like a light before several others were assaulted by the black/white vigilante with his quickly formed escrima sticks to quickly smack their heads before kicking their midsections into other men. The hero made precise work when taking them out with no wasted movements. As the thugs lied on the ground, either knocked out or groaning in pain, the hero wore a hidden smile on his face.

'Well that takes care of them.' Vanitas thought as he moved his head around to see one thug running away. 'Better not let him reach the others too soon.' Taking aim with his escrima sticks, the vigilante threw them dead onto the retreating man's head. Just when it the sticks were about to land it's mark, a shimmering barrier blocked the attack.

'The hell?!'

Back with the thug, he was panting as he ran down the long pathway comprised of metal containers. He and his buddies were ambushed by Vanitas when they were checking out a disturbance from one of the guys, no doubt from said vigilante. The guy took them out one by one and none were left standing. Of course this thug made it out well enough to hopefully get back to the others and get backup for the surprise attack.

When he was about to round the corner, the thug stopped when a dark plumb of smoke formed out of the ground. It looked like a pyre of purplish-blue fire that went into an oval shape with dark wisps coming off of it's sides. Before long, it dissipated to reveal a man in a dark leather outfit to hide his features.

"What the fuck?" The thug sounded off. Before he even noticed, a searing pain emanated from his shoulder before his body was being electrocuted from the inside out. "GAAAAHHHH!"

Before long, the thug dropped to the ground dead with sparks jumping around the corpse. This was the scene Vanitas came onto once he got near and tried to stop, but the barrier blocked his path. All that the masked publisher could do was glare at the hooded man he faced before back at Joker's Wild months ago.

"You!"

" **Hello… Vanitas."** Spoke the hooded man as he crouched down and pulled out an electrified dagger from the corpse's shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Growled out the vigilante.

The hooded man whipped his arms to the side to form several daggers in his gloved hands. **"Why to see you again, of course."**

 _ **-Insert Berserk 2016: My Brother Extended-**_

Without any warning, the hooded man dashed forward as he threw several daggers at high speeds. The hero had to quickly move out of the way or else he would've been skewered by the electrified blades. As the man drew close, the masked publisher quickly formed his ice shield Yuki to block the incoming projectiles.

"You didn't have to kill that man!"

" **Oh but I had to."** Vanitas' opponent said in an oddly amused tone, much to the hero's ire. **"Both him and his friends so they wouldn't interfere."**

As the hooded man drew close, his body radiated with electrical arcs before he tossed more of his weapons at the costumed Uzumaki. Vanitas had to quickly form an ice barrier to block the electric attacks, but they were too strong to hold; resulting with the icy wall shattering. Wasn't long until the hooded man rushed through the shattered wall to knock the hero into the area he fought the other thugs before.

" **And to be sure these men won't interfere…"** With a snap of his fingers, bolts of lighting came out from the broken lights and electrocuted the fallen thugs.

"NO!"

" **And now they've joined the others."**

Knowing what the hooded man was referring to, with him killing all of the thugs in the harbor, Vanitas growled out as he dashed towards his opponent. He wasn't even close when the man roared out and sparks of lightning radiated off of his form before throwing his arms down to throw a pair of radiated daggers at the hero. As they came into contact with the shield, Vanitas was thrown back several feet and saw cracks shown onto the icy surface.

"Shit. This thing isn't gonna hold up much longer."

Sounds of electricity were heard right behind him, causing Vanitas to quickly turn and block the incoming strikes. After several swipes from the powered daggers, the hero parried the final attack before he bashed the hooded man away. Before his opponent could recover, Vanitas focused his energy into his shield to help repair the damage before he went in to slash at the man.

The attack was strong, possibly too strong, but it seemed the man dissipated in a plumb of sparks that caused Vanitas to grit his teeth as he felt the electrified pain. Having to fight through the pain, the hero saw what he assumed were clones rushing towards him with the intent to kill. Vanitas rolled out of the way as he slammed his shield to the ground to send icy spikes from underneath to hopefully take care of them. It seemed useless as one of them merely jumped off of the cooled surface and launched towards the hero while one was successful in destroying a clone.

When the clone got close, Vanitas had no choice but to throw his shield at his opponent. With how strong the throw was, the shield came into contact with the cloned opponent rather quickly, resulting of the icy weapon to break as the clone disbursed in a cloud of sparks. Seeing as he couldn't use his shield against the hooded man's current choice of weaponry, Vanitas had to bring forth his Void Shot for quick reflexes.

"Okay asshole. Where are ya?"

There was no vocal answer as lightning came shooting down from the sky. Vanitas rolled out of the way so he wouldn't get hit by the electric attack. Trusting his instincts, he fired his loaded weapons off towards the nearby container, causing a loud grunt of pain to be heard from the hooded man.

The opponent roared once more as his electric cloak formed around him before dashing towards the hero's position. Having to move out of the way from getting hit again, the masked Uzumaki rolled to the side before he fired his void arrows to hopefully take down his powered barrier. Though it wasn't enough as a lot was being put into his defense.

"I really need something big to take that away." Muttered the former shinobi as he kept moving away from the hooded man's attacks. When his eyes landed on a crane holding a large container, an idea was formed. "That could work."

Jumping into the air, Vanitas took precise aim and fired at the cable holding the container up in the air. It came falling down and quickly crushed the hooded man, or so he thought. It wasn't long before it exploded in half before the man ran out of the debris without his electrified barrier.

Seeing his chance, Vanitas got in close and smacked his opponent several times with his arrowguns. When the man was knocked around well, the hero fired several shots at the man which soon exploded to give off more damage than it was worth. Even firing a tether arrow to a ground held the hooded man down for a bit as the laser arrows kept hitting him.

Having enough of this, the man roared once more to break the tether with his electrified powers. Wasn't long before he seemingly teleported to one of the nearby fallen daggers as several clones were formed before they dashed towards the hero. As the clones were distracting the black/white themed vigilante, the hooded man charged up much of his power before spreading out his arms and fired beams of thunder and lightning from the palm of his hands.

Barely having enough time to see this, Vanitas groaned out as he moved out the way. "Oh come on!"

It took effort to quickly move with the laser lightshow aiming towards him and he didn't want to get hit by such attacks. Especially when he saw them carving through the metal like it was cardboard. So the idea of using them as temporary shields were thrown out of the window. And it didn't help when the hooded clones were still coming right after him.

Having enough with said clones; Vanitas quickly grabbed one of them, kicked his side and tossed him to the main guy performing the lightshow. This got an interesting reaction when they came into contact with them sizzling before forming back into one. Seeing this got Vanitas to smile a little as he jumped towards the other clones and repeated the same action as before which finally resulted in the hooded man stopping his 'live event'.

This didn't please Vanitas' opponent all that well as several sparks radiated off of his form before he vibrated in position and quickly created more clones. And before the hero knew it, each of them ran at him at fast speeds, similar to what Hiraishin used back when they fought over at the Starling City Airport. The hooded man and his clones kept slashing and stabbing at Vanitas, who yelped and cried out in pain as each of the attacks landed their mark. It wasn't long before they rushed in together as one and quickly formed into individual bolts of lightning and struck the helmeted hero.

"GAAAHHH!" Vanitas cried out as he tumbled to the earth. Sparks radiated off of his body as he used his arrowguns to prop himself back up. "I-Is that the best y-you got!"

Nothing was said as the man slammed his daggers into the ground and slashed upwards to send out a pillar of lightning towards his position.

"Oh come on!"

Rolling out of the way, Vanitas shot several laser arrows at his opponent. Some landed their mark and exploded while others were used to help tether the man down for additional attacks. And like before, the man roared Vanitas expected to see the electrified cloak to appear, but something else occurred instead.

"What the?"

Soon six miniature tornadoes were formed around the hooded man before they dissipated into what appeared to be the same wind lances he uses quite often.

"Okay… Are you seriously copying me?!"

" **Or are you copying me?"** The man taunted with a hidden smirk, which seemed to rile the masked hero up a bit. With a wave of his hands, a pair of lances came into one of his hands while a singular one went into another before the last three lances circled around the hooded man. They started to speed up as a ball of wind was formed right in front of him.

" **Now come on!"**

"Oh shit!" Vanitas yelled out as he barely dodged the incoming ball of wind. Once it came into contact with the metal container behind him, the hero heard the oddly familiar sounds of grinding that would've come from his rasengan and rasenshuriken attacks. "Are you kidding me?!"

" **No."**

Feeling pissed off, Vanitas emptied his clips at the man floating in the air, due to him riding the wind with his lances. All that was done of them were dispersing once coming into contact with the high speed, wind barrier that shredded the projectiles. Even ones uses as tethers weren't strong enough now.

'Seems I'll need to change tactics now.' Thought the vigilante as he replaced his arrowguns with his Lunar Rose. 'And I think getting in close and personal might do the trick.'

Throwing his scythe in a buzzsaw motion, Vanitas teleported to it once it got close to his opponent's range. Once there, the hero grasped his Green weapon and swung upwards to knock one of the wind lances away before swiping his blade at the hooded man several times. Getting through the defenses was quite easy for the first time as the man was quite surprised on the attack while grunting out in pain.

Not enjoying the painful sensations he's going through, the hooded opponent grasped one of the lances and knocked Vanitas away. As the hero fell towards the ground, all of the lances shot forward in hopes of skewering the black/white themed vigilante. The wind lances missed as the hero jumped off of the ground and upwardly slashed the undefended man several more times before kicking the hooded man to the ground with a loud thud.

The mysterious man quickly recovered and called back his weapons before disappearing in a gust of wind and reappearing above the helmeted Uzumaki. Without warning, he dived bombed at the hero with the lances piercing through his armor and cutting through the skin. Vanitas cried out in pain as this repeated several times while his powers tried to heal him at a fast rate.

Not wanting to feel the attacks again, the hero ran as several wind pillars came crashing down to the ground and causing damage in their wake. Each one missed their target while he navigated through the maze made out of the shipping containers, but each miniature tornado kept ripping through the metal like it was nothing. Before long, the lances somehow caught up to the hero and quickly spun around him as they tried to keep him in place. Not wanting what might happen next, Vanitas threw Lunar Rose to the side and teleported to it's position as he evaded the incoming attack.

When the hooded man reappeared, Vanitas dashed towards his position and swung his weapon in a pinwheel like fashion to quickly deliver several strikes onto his opponent. The man staggered as this was repeated several times before the wind barrier came back to life and knocked the hero back. Before long, the wind started to pick up again as the lances shot towards the hero's position, causing the vigilante to parry and batting them away from harming him.

Without realizing it, each of the wind lances connected together to form a very large pole. Grasping the far end, the mysterious man swung his elongated pole which widened his attack range significantly that it was hard to move out of the way in time. Even when the hooded man added wind around the entire weapon, the speed was too quick for Vanitas to dodge, resulting in him sent flying to the hanging crane from up high.

"Ow…" Muttered the masked publisher as he suddenly fell from the crane arm. Catching himself by grasping onto the broken cable, Vanitas tried to catch his breath while thinking of a way to defeat the mysterious man. This process was halted when he saw the hooded man ride up into the sky with the connected lances before they started to enlarge and change into something else. "Oh fuck you..."

Stopping in the air, the head of the changed weapon opened up and formed a tri-pronged mouth as wind was gathered up in it's maw. **"I wonder what you'll look like under that helmet of yours..."** The wind was starting to build up, making Vanitas' eyes widen and his concealed hair to stand on end. **"With the face of despair."**

The compacted wind was soon released as a tornado was shot towards the hanging hero. Said hero was forced to release his grip on the broken cable so he can get out of the way from the attack. Good thing too since the attack struck the crane, which utterly wrecked the piece of equipment with the surrounding shipping containers. As the attack ended, the giant monstrosity shrunk down and broke down into the six wind lances that formed it.

"Talk about going overboard." Muttered the vigilante as he landed on one of the unharmed containers. As he saw the hooded man float in the air, with his lances guarding him, Vanitas ran and jumped away from the incoming wind spheres.

Wanting to see which attack was stronger, the hero quickly formed mini-rasengans and fired at his opponent to either cancel out his balls of wind or land successful hits. Some were successful while others were merely batted away, resulting with additional damage to the area. As the wind attacks ceased, the hooded man flew in close before his lances connected together once more as the mysterious opponent swung his weapon around. Vanitas blocked the blows before he upwardly swiped the opposing weapon, causing it to lock in place.

"Oh this is gonna be good." The masked Uzumaki said with a hidden smile before he formed a clone to attack the man while he held the elongated weapon in place. Many punches and kicks landed successfully, causing the hooded man to let go of his weapon momentarily so he can strike back at the clone with a gust of concentrated wind.

As the clone dissipated, the hooded opponent rode on top of his lances once more as they enlarged themselves and changed into the giant monstrosity as before.

"Not this time asshole." The hero muttered.

Throwing his scythe towards the opponent's enlarged weapon, Vanitas teleported to the man's position once he stopped moving. Swiping the man's form several times as he was considered defenseless without a weapon on hand. On the last attack, the mysterious man fell from the sky and came tumbling down to the ground. He called his wind lances to help him, causing them to shoot towards his position. But it was too late as Vanitas came closer and poured a lot of energy into his scythe for one last strike.

"How's this for your despair?!" Was all Vanitas said as he swiped Lunar Rose downward to go right through the mysterious man.

As the attack was delivered, the hooded man cried out in pain as he soon landed on the shipping container with a loud crunch and a deep dent into said container. The lances lost power as they soon struck the metallic container before they and the defeated man went up into smoke. Said smoke started to condense into a black and white ball before it shot towards the masked Uzumaki.

"Oh no, not again! GAH!"

He cried out as the black and white ball slammed right into him with enough force to skid him back all the way to one of the damaged containers. The action was so strong that Vanitas was forced to drop his Lunar Rose before it dissipated on it's own. As he started to recover a little, he felt familiar weights in his hands before seeing his Foundre daggers in one hand and a Kazekage lance in the other with a faint glow coming off of them.

The masked Uzumaki felt the familiar sensations coming from his weapons like when he fought the hooded man the first time before they dissipated on their own. They seemingly felt stronger for some reason and figured like when he used his Fair Play cards after the previous encounter, there were more uses discovered when he trained with them again. Maybe the same thing happened to his daggers and lances now.

All train of thought ended as he heard clapping from behind him. Like before, one turned around, the hooded man stood several feet away.

"Is this gonna be a recurring theme with you?" The hero growled out. "Sending out clones to attack me while you just sit back and watch?!"

" **Hmm… Perhaps."** Holding out his hand, the hooded man formed the dark fiery doorway. **"Until we meet again."**

With that said the hooded man walked right through the dark portal before it dissipated before the hero's very eyes. All that the masked Uzumaki could do was growl and glare at the spot where his mysterious opponent left. He didn't know what this man's deal was and what he was trying to do at all. This confused him back then and it's confusing him right now.

Vanitas was about to head on out when he heard police sirens coming closer to the area. Guessing someone nearby called the GCPD on the fight earlier, which was causing damage in the surrounding area. Knowing that it'll be hard to leave the area with the dead bodies all over the place, Vanitas decided that he'll need to talk to the officers to clear things up with them so he won't get the majority of the blame.

As the hero made his way towards the officers, he didn't notice the bystanders a good distance away as they stood on the metal shipping containers from up high. Each of them had a pair of military-grade binoculars on hand before taking them away from their respective sites. Before long, each stood up as the surrounding light gave out their details.

One was a woman who wore a bodysuit that was burnt-orange and brick-red in color. Around her waistline, her costume featured two, large tiger stripes that are also seen on her shoulders. On her sternum lies the marking of a feline paw-print. Her facial features were covered with a hard burnt-orange mask that covers her forehead, nose and cheeks that resembled a stylized tiger face. She also wears a black sheath behind her back which stores her sword and also wears a black belt to store her weapons.

The next person is a tall, strongly-built man with an intimidating figure. He has short blond hair that is partially covered by a gray hockey mask, which only reveals his eyes. The rest of his attire seems to be like a sleeveless blue muscle shirt, with a collar that covers some of his neck. Arm and elbow pads are worn on both arms as well as fingerless gloves. On his left arm, he has metal plates attached that act very much like armor. He wears black pants with a utility belt that holds his various weapons and gadgets.

The last person was a woman who wore a bodysuit that was primarily obsidian-black with forest-green on parts of her armor and clothing on her person like the greaves and vambraces. Knives and daggers were strapped onto her waist with a sword attached to her hip while a quiver, filled with arrows, was on her back and a compound bow in her hand. To finish off her appearance, the woman wore a hood over her head and a face mask to hide more of her features.

"So… That was him." Spoke the second woman.

"Of course princess." Said the man in the group with a rough tone to his voice. Though his side was elbowed, causing him to grunt a bit before glaring at the tiger themed woman. "Okay, ow!"

"Stop being rude Sportsmaster."

"First off, I wasn't being rude Huntress." The now identified Sportsmaster said before he pointed towards the now identified Huntress. "Second, why was I being rude?"

"Not showing respect for starters."

"I was showing respect… In my own, personal way."

"...And here I wondered why most of the League doesn't like working with you two together out on the field." The second woman muttered as she shook her head. "Now this would at least explain a few things."

"Yeah, yeah whatever Miss Ghul."

Slightly ignoring the married couple's banter for several moments, the Demon's Daughter looked back at the scene before them with calculating eyes. They came here to observe Vanitas at work as per her Father's orders to get more of an evaluation of the black/white themed vigilante. They leaked the tip of there being a drug shipment arriving so that they'd get a good read on said hero once he arrived. Though if Batman and Robin were to arrive instead of Vanitas, then another opportunity would've presented itself later on while also evaluating the Dynamic Duo of Gotham City.

Talia admitted she was quite impressed with how the hero fought against the thugs all on his own with a pair of escrima sticks so he wouldn't take their lives. The fighting style was good with little to no flaws in his form as it even impressed the Demon's Heir. Though it was a shame that he didn't kill them to preserve a little on the surplus population from the filth, but it seemed to be made up by the odd arrival that fought Vanitas as he killed all of the thugs.

The hooded man caused the three Assassins to worry a little, thinking that Minato the Hiraishin arrived to exact his revenge against his last encounter with Vanitas with his display of electric powers the man possessed. Though this changed once the mysterious figure changed his tactics and went with wind powers, making the three realize that it wasn't Minato down there at all. But suffice to say the entire fight was extraordinary that it entertained Talia very much.

'No wonder Father is interested in him.' The Demon's Heir thought with a hidden smile before it quickly turned into a frown. 'But… But I don't know if I want to be with him.'

From what Talia knew from her Father's request, he is hoping to see if either Vanitas or Batman would become Warith al Ghul and eventually the new Ra's al Ghul. And when that does happen, Talia is expected to marry either man and give birth to the next Warith al Ghul. This could've been averted if her younger sister, Nyssa, was straight or at least bi-sexual so she would marry the new Ra's.

If that were to happen, then Talia would've sought out the person she would've fallen in love with and be married to him to have a family together. It was a nice dream that Talia adopted from her late mother, which was something that came out alright during their marriage. And there is one person that is in her mind that would rightfully become her husband and wishes that could happen.

This is one of the reasons why she came to Gotham in the first place: to evaluate her former student, her friend and odd crush Naruto Uzumaki. If Naruto could fight well enough against her in the coming spars during her time in Gotham, then Talia could hopefully present her to her father for his evaluation. And if Naruto is successful, then Ra's will give his blessing for them to be together and her dream will be realized.

Though there is a little hiccup to this apparently when she was at his loft earlier today: she saw signs of a woman living with him. Oh she's definitely not talking about his young ward, who by the way is one of the sweetest girls she ever met, but possibly Naruto's lover or a possible girlfriend. He didn't speak about her so far, due to the subject not coming up and conversations were just between the two friends, but Talia planned to learn more about his relationship from the married couple beside her and from Naruto himself.

'Though if Naruto does become the new Demon's Head, I could allow him to have a concubine/consort or two.' Thought the Demon's Daughter with a tilt of the head. 'Who knows for sure, but as long as he's happy then it'll be worth it.'

"...I mean come on woman, it was one time with Jade messing up that kids face! What was I supposed to do?!"

"Ground her like you were supposed to!"

"I did by taking away her magazines and what weapons she had hidden underneath her bed!"

"But you were also supposed to restrict her TV and video game privileges Laurence!"

"Uh huh, but what about those books that she likes to read? I would've taken them away from her, but you said that it would've been too far!"

"It would've since I'd like to keep our girls' minds educated."

"Heh. Well I'd hate to burst your bubble, but it seems Jade is starting to like boys and is reading really intently on that Icha Icha series that I keep seeing her borrow from our room's bookshelf and not just the innocent ones the same author wrote."

Huntress soon let out a gasp and glared even harder at Sportsmaster. "She is not!"

"Yes she is and I swear that every time Harley's boytoy comes around to visit, Jade is giving the guy looks that I'm not comfortable with." The male assassin said with his arms crossed. "Like it or not, but those books are giving Jade thoughts on her wanting to be-"

Having enough of the conversation, Talia coughed into her hand to gain their attention. "If you two have had enough bickering, I'd like to finish this night in a better light." The married couple grumbled to themselves as Talia merely rolled her eyes before walking away from the scene. "Come on you two. We still need to survey a few more areas for the upcoming assignment."

Huntress and Sportsmaster nodded as they followed their mistress to the next area on their list for the evening. Though they looked at each other's eyes and silently said to each other that their one conversation wasn't over just yet. Knowing that their complete and utter attention towards Talia al Ghul for the present time.

"So Talia… Do you think Vanitas might interfere with the assignment? Or even the Batman?"

Turning towards Alsiyada, the Demon's Daughter answered. "I don't know for sure, but we're still in the evaluation stage on the two heroes. So them possibly being involved will make things more interesting if done correctly."

"Whatever you say princess." Sportsmaster said before being elbowed again by his wife. "Okay, seriously lay off with the elbow!"

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **For some delay on why this was out late is because for one, family as usual keeping me from working on the story. Second is that I'm looking for a new job with me losing a source of income recently. I haven't lost my current job, but I need a better paying one or at least a different position, which obviously pays more. Third… well I've been playing the new South Park: The Fractured But Whole game on some of my free time and it's pretty fun in my opinion. Along with bing watching the new season of Stranger Things and it was freaking awesome.**

 **R &R**


	39. Off Balance

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 36: Off Balance**

Sitting on one of the couches, Isis watched her 'father' and his friend spar against each other in the living room of the former's loft. Her green eyes went back at forth as they were seemingly all over the provided space, with all of the furniture and appliances moved so nothing would get broken or them getting injured by accident. If one were to look closely into the feline's optics, they'd notice boredom in her gaze.

You see, there are several reasons why the black cat was currently bored out of her mind. First being that she can't leave the current residence, at all. Second, the spars she watches were becoming dull as of late. And third, Isis hasn't really 'socialized' with the 'outside' world for quite some time.

Now to explain this, you'd have to go back some weeks ago when the Joker was back in town.

It started out when Isis was out and about on the streets, as per usual habit of hers, so she could find something new and exciting for her to enjoy. Her 'mother' was out of town for work and had asked 'father' to keep a close eye on her until she got back a few days later. Nothing bad was going on for the time until she was getting quite hungry really late into the evening and sought out a meal before heading back home.

Then out of nowhere, this one man with an odd shark-like helmet came out of nowhere and nabbed her before getting into a van and drove off. Isis went nuts and tried to claw the man's face off, if it wasn't for his head's protection. Wasn't long before the sharkman placed her down and fed her some food to be sure nothing was wrong. She didn't know on what to think about it, but her hunger won over the rational parts of her mind on not trusting the man.

It helped a little more when the food was really delicious with some exotic looking fish she never had before, with the white scales and green fins, that she took her time in eating it.

Once done with her meal, the sharkman dropped her off a block away from her home before giving her an extra fish for the road. Isis appreciated the gesture as she would feast on the extra fish once in her home. By the time she made her way towards her 'father's' residence, Isis' mind was starting to get cloudy and things weren't all so very clear. And once she got to her second home, everything went really fuzzy before blacking out.

When waking up, she was at the Vet for some reason while being checked. Things weren't right when she was being examined since Isis clearly knew her last check up was months ago and wasn't due for another one later on. But things were somewhat explained to her on what happened once she got back home. Something about the Joker seemingly poisoning her and her went on a weird rabby spree of some sort.

...What? You think that just because Isis was an intelligent feline that she would know everything spoken to her? She's a cat for crying out loud, not a super pet of any kind.

Anyways… Isis was forced to stay at the loft for a full recovery and not step foot outside for her health, which she didn't mind at all. A few days inside wouldn't outright kill her and she could find something to do to entertain herself like finding yarn to play with or take the usual nap. But that seemed to change when her 'mother' returned home.

The thief wasn't thrilled when hearing on what happened to her precious girl and became more protective towards her. As a result, Selina didn't want Isis out of either of the lofts for her safety. This ended up limiting her exposure to the outside world as a whole.

Basically, Isis was grounded in an odd sense of the word. No real punishment at all, but just the cat being guarded a bit more.

Now that she can't go outside, for who knows how long, Isis can't really appreciate things all that well. The spars she occasionally watched lost it's luster, which was normally a fun experience to watch. Isis lost contact with many of the other felines in the city that she would occasionally chat with, resulting with her feeling anxious on being out of the loop on the current happenings in the animal social circles.

But before you jump the gun and say that Isis could sneak out of either loft, like she's done in the past countless times, you can blame her 'bodyguards' to keeping her inside.

Selina asked her boyfriend to use some of his Nobody summons to keep Isis inside at all times, unless otherwise. He complied and used several of his Dusks and Creepers to watch over the black cat while Selina, Naruto, Shizune and Rachel were vacant from the premises. They were annoying to the feline and she tried to leave in various methods, but Isis was stopped each and every time.

Suffice to say, Isis did not enjoy being 'grounded' at all. She's primarily an outdoor cat and loved being outside. Feeling the nice air and pleasantly smelling delectable things when she passes by some of the outdoor food vendors. Isis even enjoyed going out to help her 'mother' out with her nightly escapades, but now that seemed to go out of the metaphorical window.

...At least she got revenge by wrecking some of Naruto's sweaters for compensation.

Now going back to the present time, Isis got up from her seat on the couch and made her way towards Rachel's room so she could take a nap on the ward's bed. Isis did have to quickly move out of the way a few times on the way towards the stairs, due to Naruto falling down before Talia soon followed. Their current spar was starting to escalate a bit more after going at each other for roughly half an hour so far.

The Uzumaki currently wore a black t-shirt with a white Nobody symbol printed on the front, a pair of black workout shorts and black tennis shoes. As for the Demon's Daughter, she's currently wearing grey yoga pants, a green sports bra and black tennis shoes.

Naruto traded blows with his old friend as both kept blocking or parrying the other's strikes. There were few instances that a hit was successfully made, only for it to open up the opponent's guard for a potential takedown move. Though not much could be done in the limited space since some prior spars would consist an entire large room on their fights.

As much as the publisher enjoyed a decent spar with his three girlfriends, both in the waking world and in the Dreaming to help improve their skills, Naruto couldn't go all out on them. Part of his subconscious didn't want him to really harm his lovers, causing him to hold back (primarily with his powers of course). But the last time Naruto really enjoyed sparring hand to hand, when not holding back, was against Ted Grant back at Starling City and Talia when they traveled together.

The pair sported small grins on their faces as one tried to take down the other. It was honestly quite fun for them to do this again after so long, even though yesterday they had a sparing match. With the sweat dripped off their brows, causing slight discomfort of the salty liquid hitting their eyes, they continued their morning workout as sounds of grunts and smacked flesh filled the air.

Naruto came in close as he delivered a sweep kick to knock her over before swinging several punches and elbow strikes. As Talia fell onto the training mat, she quickly recovered and spun around before responding back in kind with her own attacks. Their reflexes were on par with each other on the reaction speed, due to their separate experiences with harsh battles.

Both tried to restrain themselves so they wouldn't give things away on their full potential, but it was hard to do so with them trying to prove who was the stronger fighter. Talia wanted to see more on what her former student had to offer, causing her to be more fierce. This, in turn, got Naruto to retaliate against his teacher in return.

The Uzumaki sent an uppercut towards the woman's chest, making her smack it away as she tried to punch Naruto's head from it's side. It was blocked as he moved his feet around to get behind his sparring partner to hit Talia from behind. The Demon's Daughter barely caught sight of it before she quickly ducked down and elbowed Naruto's side. The attack was successful, but Naruto grasped her appendage and twisted it before flipping Talia onto the mat once again.

Wanting to be let go, the woman used her legs and kicked his own to fall down as well. With Naruto still grasping on her arm, Talia had to resort to moving in an awkward angle so she can strike his exposed side hard enough to force him to release her. Once done, she quickly got up and smirked at the face he sent towards her.

"That was cheap, you know that right?" Naruto stated as his powers kicked in a little to help heal the wound so he can keep going.

"Of course Naruto." She replied as he got up and resumed his fighting stance. "Not all fights are fair."

He shook his head a little and sighed. "True and it's annoying when that happens. But then again, it's life or death on any encounter."

"Exactly."

Once ready once again, Naruto delivered several jabs with a following roundhouse kick. Talia blocked them easily before sending out a right cross and came in close to knee her opponent's stomach. As he was pushed back, she twisted to a spinning roundhouse kick that landed on his waist.

Talia pressed forward, but the Uzumaki intercepted her strike by punching the inside of her arm. He soon struck her chest with a palm strike with a following right cross towards her face, which left her spinning a little. Talia used her newly gained momentum for a upward kick towards Naruto's head. Though the foot was caught as he soon brought her close for a quick moment before tossing her onto the ground.

Not wanting to be outdone, Talia pushed herself off the training mat with a flip kick before landing back onto her feet. Still dazed, Naruto was hit back with a spinning back kick that almost sent him to the ground. The whiskered man recovered just in time as she pressed her attack with two front kicks with a following elbow strike towards his face. Naruto dodged and weaved through the assault as he hit her side with a punch that made her stumble sideways.

"That one hurt." She mumbled as she rubbed her side.

"Payback for the cheap shot from earlier."

Talia merely glared a little at the response. "By exploiting my weak spot, you mean."

All Naruto could do was shrug as he suddenly threw a spinning back kick which Talia barely dodged. He used his momentum to deliver another that almost knocked the Demon's Daughter down if she didn't catch it just in time. Talia then elbowed Naruto's leg that made him stumble in his stance before coming in close with a downward cross onto his face. The Uzumaki countered by uppercutting her that landed on her stomach.

The whiskered man then had to back flip away, while trying to kick Talia in the process, as said woman performed a sweep kick. Though she had to quickly lean back to evade the kicks coming towards her face. Using her momentum, the Demon's Daughter rolled back to block the downward strike from Naruto's assault.

Their spar would've continued longer, if it wasn't for the little alarm clock sounding off to signal it's end. The two tried to relax as best as they could, though it was hard to with their rapid heart beats and the adrenaline coursing through their veins.

Helping Talia off the ground, Naruto gave her a chuckled smile. "You really kept me on my toes on that one, Talia."

"You weren't so bad yourself. And I've gotta say, I was right that you're probably one of my best students. Probably on the list of people who could possibly beat me hand to hand."

"I aim to please." He said before a questioning look came across his features as he turned off the alarm. "Don't mind me asking this but who are on that list?"

As she stretched her limbs a little to get out some kinks, Talia answered. "Well there's my father, for starters, and my sort of riva.."

"Sort of?"

Walking towards the her towel to help wipe off her sweat, she explained. "She just wants to prove she's better than I am back at work and we occasionally fight to let out our frustrations. I lost some and she lost some. Simple as that."

Naruto gave her a look as he felt there was more to that, but didn't want to press onto that. "Anyone else or is it just gonna be a really short list?"

"Oh it is a short list actually and the other one is my sister with her winning a handful of times." She said as she didn't mention one or two of the other current Horsemen in her father's organization. Said Horsemen could fight her on even ground, but won't go too far since she's Warith al Ghul and they don't want to anger her father by killing her.

"Really? Well I can't wait to see that happen and maybe fight her one day." He said as he started stretching, alongside his friend, so his body wouldn't get sore later in the day.

"Who knows, maybe you will some day." Talia briefly said before making her way towards her pack. "Would you mind if I use your shower again Naruto? Seems I built up too much of a sweat in this session."

The publisher shrugged before answering. "If you brought a spare change of clothes, then go ahead."

The Demon's Daughter briefly smiled with a nod as she grabbed her bundle of clean clothes and made her way towards one of the loft's guest washrooms with a shower. Passing through the opened door, Talia started to slip off her shoes as she closed the bathroom door. It wasn't long before she pulled off her yoga pants, panties and sports bra to leave her in the nude before climbing into the shower and turning on the hot water.

'Hmm, this is nice.' Talia thought as she moved her hands over most of her scarred body before running her fingers through her dark brown hair. 'A good workout with a following bath or shower makes everything feel better.'

This has been their second sparring session ever since Talia came into town and they've done these sessions once Rachel was dropped off at school. The Demon's Heir did have to wait outside of her former student's loft for a bit, due to her barely missing catching Naruto when he left with Rachel to drop her off at school. But Talia got impatient and broke into Naruto's residence, hoping find out any more information about her possible love interest.

Talia combed through the rooms as she learned more on the Uzumaki that she didn't know beforehand from what the Crock couple informed her. The Demon's Daughter was surprised when hearing that Naruto was in a relationship… with possibly two or three women. She was slightly concerned on the reason why, but things seemed to simmer down a little when hearing about Pamela's predicament from the Crock matriarch.

After inspecting the loft, with a critical eye, Talia was playing with Isis by the time Naruto returned. He wasn't really surprised of her breaking into his place since the Uzumaki knew that Talia had that kind of habit for as long as he'd known her. And after having the promised spar, the dark haired beauty questioned her former student on various subjects she had in mind, even though she knew several of the answers.

But it didn't hurt to hear them coming from his mouth.

Things started off on her wanting to know more about Naruto's upcoming book, Final Fantasy, before it hits the shelves to the subject shifted into wanting to know more about Rachel. Naruto told her on what he knew but his ward has been vague about her past, knowing that it's still a sensitive matter that he wouldn't delve into until she felt ready. As for the book, he explained the premise of the first book of the series but didn't want to spoil things too much so he wouldn't ruin her enjoyment reading his first attempt in a more fantasy genre…

And before saying anything, no, his Gutsy Ninja and Arashi Rasen stories weren't really fantasy novels to him, but everyone asides his three current girlfriends would say otherwise unless they knew the truth about them.

...Anyways… After those little explanations, Talia decided to finally ask about him being in a relationship; especially since she saw evidence of women living in the loft in his bedroom and in one of the guest rooms.

So after some pressure, due to Talia's persistent attribute in her nature, Naruto caved and gave the best explanation that he could muster about his polyamorous relationship without giving away too much sensitive information. He felt awkward about the situation from the beginning, with Pam giving him permission to be with other women, but over time Naruto somewhat accepted things as he fell in love with the women he's currently with. But the Uzumaki had to keep this a secret, with a handful of people knowing, since he didn't want his lovers to be ostracized because of it.

During the explanation, Talia kept the facade of her previously knowing on the situation. She did express her concerns like what every normal person would do, while saying her apologies on what the publisher/botanist pair had to go through. But hearing all of this from him somewhat made the assassin happy that she might have a chance being with him.

Don't get her wrong, Talia did feel horrible that Pamela lost one of life's great experiences a woman could ever have. But this turned into a good opportunity for the assassin with Naruto open towards the prospect of having various consorts/concubines if he could become the new Demon's Head. Though Talia would want to meet these other women in his life and possibly earn their trust of having her join their little group.

'But first, I must win him over and ease him into joining me in the League.' Thought the Demon's Heir as her hand went towards her lower lips while the other kneaded her breast. Wasn't long before she started to play with herself as she imagined her whiskered friend pleasuring her as her hopeful husband to be. 'And once that happens, then I get to have Naruto in my bed and bear his children.'

Unknowing of his former teacher's alternative actions, Naruto was getting out of the shower in his respective bathroom as while his clone was cleaning up the living room. The Uzumaki simply went through a simple rinse to clean himself up, making him finish quicker than a woman who takes their time showering and bathing. Though he did share some similarity with women when it pertained to his long, silver hair.

"...Takes forever to dry out my hair." He muttered as he used his towel to get rid of the extra water. "Sometimes I don't know how Pam and Harley deal with this every time they do this. Hmm, I should probably get a haircut to at least get rid of the long ponytail. Maybe donate that amount of hair to a wig store."

As the publisher was getting dressed, his eyes landed on his Lexicon as it lied on his nightstand.

"...I need to put a damn alarm on that thing." Sighed out the publisher as he shook his head. "Showing up whenever I least expect it."

Naruto sometimes thought his one book was sentient with it showing up out of the blue, on most occurrences. It would pop up whenever the publisher needed it to write down ideas or fighting moves in the past, but it's been appearing lately if something new is added into it's entry log without him knowing. Last time this happened as yesterday morning before he dropped Rachel off at school as new material was shown towards him.

Naruto did see more information about his Foundre daggers and Kazekage lances on what they could really do. On what was provided showed techniques and skills that were now accessible with their odd powerup after defeating the mysterious, hooded man once again. Not only that, but it seemed that he could be able to summon an additional Nobody now, something called Dragoon, but other entries were still blacked out on what he could summon.

As for wanting to train with those new skills, they appeared to be a bit more destructive from what he remembered in his fight at the Gotham Harbor. He had to resort working on his new skills while he's in the Dreaming. If Naruto did that training in the real world, he'd be noticed way too quickly with how 'flashy' those new skill sets are.

As these thoughts passed through his mind, Naruto disbursed the Lexicon into smoke. "Don't want Talia to see this on accident now if she snoops around, again."

Some time has past as the Uzumaki sat on one of the couches and waited for Talia to finish getting ready for the day. He didn't know what she wanted to do exactly, asides from sparring earlier, while she was still in town. They went to the museum, the clocktower and even checked out Gotham's Statue of Justice as some of their activities before Naruto had to pick up Rachel from school yesterday. And from there, Talia just stuck around the loft for another home cooked dinner before heading out for whatever she was doing for her job.

"And, of course, I don't really know what she does for a living." Muttered the publisher as he went through one of his notebooks to clean things up for the next book in his Final Fantasy series. "Keeps evading to explain its entirety to me at every turn."

"Evading what now?" Spoke the Demon's Daughter, causing Naruto to turn around in his seat to see Talia walking towards him. She was currently wearing a pair of tight jeans, combat boots and a black t-shirt underneath a green button up shirt on top. Her hair was tied back into a low ponytail and her pendant was shown above her shirts.

"Just ideas for my book series." Lied the former shinobi as he didn't want to get into that old argument again. "They just keep avoiding me."

"Then just take a break Naruto. It's not like it's going to be the end of the world if you try to complete it right away." Talia jokingly said, earning a chuckle from her crush.

"True, but sometimes it helps to jot them down and not forget about them later." He said as he placed his notebook down onto the coffee table. "Anyways, do you have anything in mind you want to do today?"

Adopting a thinking pose, the assassin took a moment before an idea came to mind. "I've heard that the botanical gardens here are really spectacular as of late and I'd like to see what your girlfriend, Pamela, has done so far over there."

"...I guess we could go there, but don't know if you'd like to do that later in the week when Pam gets back. She could maybe give you a tour if you prefer that."

She shrugged. "I would, but I'd rather go when I can."

"If you say so." He said as he stood up and headed towards the jacket hanging on the wall. "Is there anywhere else you'd like to see?"

"Well… There is the old Wonder City Grand Greenhouse." She said, not noticing the slight flinch Naruto responded with. "I really want to see the many rare flora stationed supposedly there and I heard that they're quite wondrous."

"Are you sure about that Talia? That place has been abandoned for years. Who knows if that place has been properly maintained at all ever since it shut down." Said the Uzumaki as he tried to divert his friend from going there. "Besides, it's private property and we can't go there."

As much as he'd like to show Talia Pam's unofficial greenhouse, with how much the meta-botanist changed and strengthened the flora, Naruto didn't want to barge in there and end up revealing Pam's experiments. The Uzumaki respected his first lover's privacy over there and would only show up to check in on Pam, when not at home, along with doing a nice stroll with the girls. It would've been considered a bit of an intrusion and Naruto respected Pam's space.

Even though the Green champion had been intruding that area on a constant basis while ignoring the 'Private Property' notice at the gates.

Talia merely rolled her eyes as she grabbed her keys, jacket and motorcycle helmet from the kitchen counter before the pair left the loft. "Please. You know it's not the first time we entered 'private' areas before."

Once locking up the door, he responded back. "I know that Talia. But from what Pam told me, her work had procured a good amount of the plant life and transferred them to the botanical gardens some time back to help take care of them. What you'd see at the gardens will largely have what the Greenhouse used to have."

That was partially the truth. The botanical gardens have indeed taken a good amount of flora from the Grand Greenhouse some years ago for study and to preserve them. But new ones were created when Ivy went crazy early this year and were kept for Pam's usage and pleasure.

"...That's good, I suppose."

Naruto looked at her oddly before stating the obvious. "You sound disappointed."

"Well... I wanted to see the Greenhouse, for some time now, from what my father told me when he came to Gotham years ago." The Demon's Daughter said as they walked through the hallway towards the elevator. "He loved seeing them and even took samples of some of the rarer flora to preserve them in his own right."

"With the place closed off for decades now, why wouldn't he take some." He said, not knowing of _when_ exactly Talia's father got said plants. "Since the gardens are on the list for today, are there any other places you have in mind or would you just want to wander around?"

"I'd just wander around and see what else we could do." She answered before a thought came to mind. "Though I wouldn't mind seeing where you work."

Naruto chuckled at the thought as they entered the elevator and made their way down towards the tower's garage. "Maybe when I actually go to work next you could stop on by and I'd show you around."

The Uzumaki didn't expect his former teacher in wanting to see him in the office, but he did appreciate the heads up. All that he did expect was for her to hog him for most of the week before she leaves. Naruto was prepared by having a clone take his place at work for the next several days, but this might help cover things when the time came.

Not knowing what was going through her crush's head, Talia smiled slightly since she'd want to see how well her former student is faring in running a successful business. As they waited in the elevator, the assassin made a mental list on what she'd need to do later in the day before meeting up with the Crock couple at the rail station tonight for their assignment. If she won't be seeing the Greenhouse with Naruto, then she'd see it by herself.

'While I'm at it, I might as well start doing full background checks on each of Naruto's lovers since I couldn't do that yesterday.' Thought the Demon's Heir with a mental frown. 'I need to be prepared for them by the time when they get back into town and not be thrown off in case of anything.'

 _ **-Some Hours Later, On the Streets-**_

There was a slight chill in the air, despite of how nice of a day it was so far. With the autumn colors starting to take over the city from what nature provided, for instance. But the occasional breeze made people want to bundle up a little.

Or in most couples' cases: being really close towards each other for warmth, like Talia hugging Naruto's arm as she enjoyed her time being with him… even though they're not really a couple at all.

For years, Talia has loved the whiskered Uzumaki after he unknowingly wormed his way into the deepest parts of her heart during their time together. She didn't know how he snuck past her defenses, but as time went on the Demon's Heir didn't mind at all as they traveled together. It was a pleasant experience for her and Talia would always cherish the memories.

Now you'd be thinking that she shouldn't be feeling this way towards him; due to crossing the relationship boundary between teacher and student, in a romantic sense, is a big no-no. Talia had indeed thought through all of that as she never crossed that boundary with any of her former students. But Naruto was different from the rest as odd fantasies eventually plagued her mind during their second year together, yearning for him in every way shape and form.

Hell there was even a good amount of them of the Demon's Heir wanting to give her favorite student some 'private lessons' or 'disciplining' him for no reason at all.

"...lia."

'Hmm… And what a good session that might be.' Came the assassin's… slightly perverted thoughts, with her cheeks lightly dusted red as various scenarios ran through her mind.

"...alia?"

'Teaching him certain ways in really pleasing me… Or even him showing me how it really is to be a woman, his woman to be exact, if my hunch is correct about his-'

"Talia?!"

Her thoughts ended abruptly by her friend and love interest by raising his voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry Naruto." She apologized while recomposing herself. "What were you saying? My mind was elsewhere."

"I guess so since I've been trying to get your attention for the past minute." He said before pulling out a handkerchief from his back pocket.

"What's that for Naruto?"

"Well I don't know if you're hydrated enough or not, but your nose is bleeding slightly."

Blinking at this, she brought her fingertips towards her nostril and felt blood was indeed coming out from it. Talia then took his handkerchief and nodded in thanks before wiping away the excess blood. Once handing back the piece of cloth, the Demon's Daughter spoke.

"So what were you trying to saying earlier?"

Moving his head towards the side, Talia saw the music store they were some feet away from. "I was wondering if you'd like to go inside and look around."

Seeing no harm, she complied as he opened the door for her with him following. Once inside, the two were greeted with an interesting sight of what wouldn't be seen in most music stores as it's one or the other. With most stores, they just display the different instruments from pianos and cellos to different guitar varieties as examples with the different tools and equipment to maintain and handle each complementary instrument. Other stores have just music players and albums out for their merchandise. This place seems to be a large balance between the two.

"Hello." A voice called out from the nearby counter. Looking towards the employee, the pair saw a ginger looking man with his hair slicked back hair. He wore a white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to compliment his purple pants and shoes with the music note tie around his neck. "Welcome to Symphony of Sorcery. Where we have the instruments and music from around the world. How can I be of your service today?"

Taking a glance at the nametag, Naruto responded. "We're just browsing around Neil. Don't know if we want to purchase anything or not."

The employee nodded as he waved his hand towards the rest of the store with a smile. "Well let me know if you have any questions. Until then, have a pleasant day."

The pair nodded before checking out the merchandise out on the floor and shelves. Talia inspected the different instruments out on display and saw they were greatly maintained that much time was taken to finely tune each and every one. With Naruto, he was looking through a variety of shelves and placed different albums into his hand.

'Hmm… These might be good for a nice start for Rachel's music collection.' Thought the publisher as he eyed the little collection in his grasp. There were the likes of Janet Jackson and Nirvana to some OST's from some anime the young ward enjoys watching. 'I know she likes listening to some from my collection, but I'll need to ask on what she enjoys more.'

Just when he was going to purchase the acquired albums, his hazel eyes briefly glanced at a simple guitar sitting by it's lonesome on the far off wall. The Uzumaki didn't know what drew him towards it, but his curiosity made him inspect the lone stringed instrument. Picking it up with care, since he didn't want to damage the wooden guitar, Naruto strummed the chords as he tightened or loosened them without realizing it.

And before he knew it, his fingers started to play on their own as he went into a trance-like state.

 _ **-Insert Final Fantasy VII: Aerith's Theme on guitar-**_

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Once the final note was strunge, Naruto heard some clapping coming from his friend and the one employee currently working.

"My, that was superb my good sir." Neil said with a pleasant grin.

Blinking in confusion, the publisher could only mutter a reply. "Thanks?"

"I didn't know you played the guitar Naruto." Talia said as she came up to him.

"Actually, that was my first attempt with a guitar."

"Really?"

It was at this point the store employee spoke up. "You must've been a natural and played on what was on your heart."

Scratching his head, Naruto didn't know how to properly respond. All that he could do was shrug. "Who knows."

"Maybe you should play another."

Before the whiskered Uzumaki could decline, Talia added into the pressure. "I agree Naruto, you should definitely play some more."

Having a bit of encouragement, Naruto took some breaths and did their request.

 _ **(Listen to FFIX You're Not Alone, Melodies of Life and Rose of May on guitar in no particular order. Though FFX To Zanarkand is last… Pause reading and just listen to the music.)**_

Each song came to him as he stood there and played them back to back. This time he wasn't much in a trance like the first time as he saw the pleased looks on their faces, along with others that started to appear into the store. They were pleasant tunes that seemed to boost the publisher's confidence as he played each of the nameless songs. And once the final note was strung on the third song, due to him not stopping in between each of them, the people clapped a bit louder, which got the Uzumaki to blush a little in embarrassment.

"Alright, alright." Neil said as he tried to disburse the crowd. "Break it up people."

As this happened, Talia came up to her crush and gave him a beaming smile. "That was wonderful Naruto."

"You really think so?"

She nodded as the two eventually made it back up front with Naruto wanting to purchase the albums he originally planned on getting. Of course the Uzumaki decided to buy the guitar he just played along with a case and a maintenance kit. Naruto was about to give it a pass, but he questioned himself on how he could play it so well on just the first time. Knowing that he'd need to look into this and had a feeling it was connected to him… somehow.

 _ **-Evening, Gotham's Statue of Justice-**_

In the autumn night, the winds were brewing as the waves rocked across the shores of Gotham. It's chilly air would make one unfocused, if not properly bundled up, as most people would to seek warmth in the process. Whether it's staying inside of a vehicle or building to wearing better clothing so they'd stay healthy by night's end.

Though this wasn't the case for one man in particular from where he was standing.

'God, it's freezing up here... Why'd I agree to come here in the first place?' The man thought as he leaned against the railing of one of Gotham's main landmarks: the Statue of Justice.

Also known as 'Lady Gotham', this monument is situated offshore of the New Jersey city and loosely modeled after the Statue of Liberty over in New York. Even though there was a downsized copy of the Statue of Liberty over in France, the creators of Wonder City/Old Gotham wanted to take liberties of making their own with differences. The crown was modeled differently, for starters, as the metallic woman was blindfolded. The statue still had it's torch in its right hand, serving as a lighthouse-like beacon years ago, while the book was replaced with a shield.

Now you might be wondering who this particular man is exactly and why he's here in the first place. Well he goes by the name Twitch, a freelance underground informant. And as to why he's here, Twitch was here for a rendezvous with one of his pals for work. But the informant has been rather displeased in standing out here for so damn long at an isolated area.

"An hour I've been waiting." The informant muttered as he paced around the statue's torch. "Why couldn't we just met up at a bar or at a strip joint? It would've been better anywhere else but here." Rubbing his face a little with his gloved hands, Twitch was getting really annoyed at this point. "I don't know why Nico wanted to meet here anyways."

"He didn't Twitch." A voice called out from the shadows, causing the informant to quickly turn around. "I did."

Seeing who it was, Twitch widened his eyes and pointed an accusing finger at the Bat of Gotham. "You! Y-You tricked me!" Seeing the cowled vigilante coming closer, the informant backed away until his waist hit the torch's railing. "W-What do you want?!"

"Information," stated the Bat with a narrowed glance, "on the League of Shadows." This caused the informant to actually twitch, like his nickname states, at the mention of the infamous assassin group. "Word is they've been spotted here… So tell me all about them." 

On some of his off days when he tried to relax from patrolling, keyword being 'tried', Bruce would've been scouring through his bat computer and going through past cases to keep his mind sharp. One particular case was months ago when the Zephyr battery was sought after by those assassins as they broke into his home to capture both the battery and it's creator, Simon Feck. Batman wanted to know more about who they were, so he went digging through many of his resources.

From what he eventually found out, they're a society of assassins that started up roughly nine hundred years ago that sought out to restore balance to the world. Everything else about the group was very vague as their history is kept secret and much about them was hidden away. But from what else he found out, they have a very tight set of rules that each member lives by.

When word was heard in the underground channels that the League was spotted here in Gotham, Batman tracked down the one man that he realized had some small connection to them: the informant right in front of him.

Holding up his hands, in a defensive manner, Twitch spoke. "There ain't that much to tell. I-I mean, I only worked for them, okay? Not with them."

Seeing as his earlier hunch was right, Batman continued the little interrogation. "It'll have to do. Now talk!"

"Okay, okay! From what I know, I was approached by them a few days ago to spread word of some drug deal happening at the harbor." The man explained as he tried to get some breathing room. "And from what I overheard that it was meant to draw one of you heroes out, for some reason."

The Dark Knight narrowed his eyes at what Twitch was referring to. A few nights ago, there was an incident at the docks where many thugs were killed off by either electrocution or having their throats slit. From what Vanitas told the GCPD, he faced off a metahuman in a hooded outfit that caused the majority of the damage. Surveillance footage was found, helping backup the claim, and Batman wondered what the purpose of the attack was.

'If the League of Shadows was really involved with that attack, then I don't know what they're planning.' The bat-themed hero thought before speaking. "What else do you know?"

"Well, word on the street is they got something major going down tonight." Twitch answered with an eventual shrug. "Gonna boost some kind of new ultrasound gizmo, or something."

"...Who runs the show?"

This got the informant to scratch his head to help give good answer. "Strange dude really. Different from the group that I first met as I only met the guy yesterday. Wanted layouts and information for several places while claiming he was doing it for his group."

"Does he have a name?" Questioned the Bat as he pressed for answers.

"All I know is that he goes by the name 'Vertigo'. They say he's-" Twitch was about to say more when his eyes landed on someone else, causing him to gasp in fright.

Turning around, Batman saw a man standing on the far off railing. He wore what appeared to be black military fatigues with a ski mask and goggles to cover up his features. To complete the look, the man had a small utility belt with a knife and gun strapped to the side.

Twitch backed away, only for his back to hit another man in a similar outfit. "P-Please! H-He made me talk! I didn't mean-!"

Not much was said before a knife was quickly plunged into Twitch's chest with a following twist. The informant widened his eyes as the weapon was pulled out before the assailant pushed him over the edge of the torch's railing. It wasn't long before Twitch's corpse fell into the water.

"Such be the fate for all traitors." The masked assassin stated, causing Batman to growl at the two men.

"You'll pay for that!"

Just when the Bat was about to attack them, one of the assailants pulled out a gun and fired several shots. The hero effortlessly dodged the bullets, but this left an opening for the other man to put an attachment onto his weapon before firing. Hearing the shot, Batman moved out of the way, thinking it was another bullet, but it was in fact a grappling cable.

When realizing what it was, he saw the assailants flee by sliding down the cable towards the statue's head. Wanting to catch up, Batman opened up his cape and glided down to their position. As he got in close, he drop kicked the both of them which caused them to tumble.

Getting back up, the dark assailants took out their knives and lunged at the Batman. Said man raised his arm to block one of the attacks while dodging the other. In one quick move, the Bat grabbed one of the fighters and tossed him into his comrade. Falling back onto the ground hard, the two lost their bladed weapons as they fell off of the statue's head.

"Are you two with the League of Shadows?" Questioned the Bat as he stalked towards the two assailants.

No response was given as the two men muttered something under their breath. It was hard to make out, but barely saw the outline of their mouths open up before crunching down on something. Remembering the incident months ago with the supposed League members, the Batman tried to stop one of them as he pulled off the ski mask to see foam coming out of the man's mouth. It also wasn't hard to realize the same thing happened to the other assailant as well that the two used cyanide pills to get away from answering any questions. 

Knowing that he won't be getting any answers from this, Batman pressed a switch on his utility belt for his batplane to come for him. He needed to get these corpses to the authorities so they could maybe help him out on this current case, even retrieving Twitch's corpse from the waters below. But as Batman waited for his ride to arrive, he took samples of each of the assailants so he could find something from the batcomputer.

Unbeknownst to him, the Dark Knight of Gotham was being watched on the shoreline by three individuals from their binoculars.

"Well this changes things." Sportsmaster muttered as he lowered his piece of military equipment.

"That I can agree with." Huntress said as she stood up from her crouched position. "It seems that _they_ are here in the city without us knowing about it."

"So what should we do about them princess? Should we deviate from your Father's objective or stick to it?"

Underneath her hood and face mask, Talia had a displeased look across her features. _Them_ showing up was not what the three expected as a simple 'snatch and grab' just got complicated. Then again, missions can never be too simple in their line of work.

"We stick towards the objective at hand." Warith al Ghul stated as she placed her binoculars away. "But we'll need to obtain the device before they do."

"And what if we don't get it, my lady?"

Not looking at the female assassin, Talia simply answered. "Then we improvise and go with the flow."

 _ **-GCPD-**_

Several shots could be heard inside of the shooting gallery as Jim Gordon fired bullets from his trusty sidearm. He would occasionally come in here during the slow hours while on the clock to keep up his shooting skills. Even using this time to help him think with a clear head without any paperwork or officers to discuss assignments with.

Hearing the little click in his gun, indicating that the magazine was empty, Jim pressed the button in his stall to bring the target sheet closer to him. As he was about to insert a new clip into his gun, Gordon heard the rooms entrance open up and quickly close with no following footsteps. Placing his gun onto the table, he turned around and looked for the new arrival.

"Batman?"

"Over here, Jim." The Bat called out from the darkest area of the room before stepping into the light.

"So, what brings you here?" Asked the commissioner as he pulled down the target sheet.

"Twitch is dead."

Jim blinked a few times before he let out a frustrated sigh. Twitch was a good informant, even though he does his work for both the police and criminals alike for the right price.

"Did you at least bring the body?"

Batman nodded as he stepped closer. "He's currently in the GCPD morgue, alongside two men who I believe work for the League of Shadows."

"Them?" Jim surprisingly asked. "I thought they were a myth."

"The incident with the Zephyr battery would say otherwise."

Gordon scratched his upper lip on remembering the incident with the varied corpses that seemingly disappeared from their morgue. Their appearance did scream 'assassin', but Gordon didn't know at the time they were members of the supposed group.

"So what do you think they're after?"

"Before Twitch died, he said something that makes me think they're going after Wayne Tech's new sonic drill. Tonight when it comes into Gotham." The Bat revealed in his ever present tone. "Tell Bullock he should add more guards to be safe."

Once again, the commissioner let out a sigh as he placed a new target sheet up on the rack. "Is there anything you don't know about? I mean, I only assigned that detail a couple of hours ago." Hearing no response at all, Jim looked back to see the vigilante vacant from the room. "I swear, one of these days I'm gonna nail his feet to the ground."

 _ **-Gotham Rail Station-**_

Sitting on top of one of the far off buildings, Vanitas overlooked the rail station as he waited for a particular train to arrive.

In his patrols, Naruto would occasionally come here to see if anyone is willingly dumb enough to hijack a train and steal it's goods. It was something the masked Uzumaki had to make a habit out of ever since the Red Claw incident back in January. Past times coming here were good when he stopped an illegal business deal or two and he wasn't gonna stop now, even when it was just a short visit.

Well right now, the helmeted vigilante is here since he heard through the grapevine that some Wayne Tech gizmo was being transported here from out of town for further testing.

'I don't know what it is exactly, but if someone stole it then it'll be used for some nefarious scheme or sold to the highest bidder.' Vanitas thought as he focused his attention towards the surrounding area. 'And I don't want to see either happen.'

As Naruto waited, he thought back on today's earlier events to pass some of the time. There was the sparring session with Talia, going to the botanical gardens and having an early lunch there. Afterwards the two went to that music shop and him playing a musical instrument really well for the very first time.

The Uzumaki remembered playing some musical instruments back when he attended the ninja academy, but he absolutely sucked at it. It was just a simple extracurricular course that could be further developed while out on the field. Something about being unsuspected while doing reconisense work or something. The one teacher stated that Naruto wasn't cut out for the musical arts as it wasn't in his affinity or something, making him no longer want to try out the skill ever since.

Well that is until today.

It felt natural to him and this confused the hell out of the former shinobi as he played way too well for his liking. It even unnerved him when he and Talia went to pick up Rachel from school. Though he did hide it well from the two as he played some songs once back at the loft, causing the young ward and his old traveling companion to take a nap.

Naruto did admit it was cute of Rachel clinging onto him as he got her into her room before waking up some hours later for an early dinner. Even seeing Talia sleep so peacefully on his couch brought up the old memories of their time together to see such a rare sight. Past times he saw her sleep was sometimes restless, as she tried to be somewhat alert to her surroundings, or have nightmares that made him concerned for his friend.

Wanting to pass the time before they woke up, Naruto had a clone start to prepare dinner while the original practiced some songs that were on the top of his head with a silence barrier. Jotting them down into the Lexicon if he wanted to look back at them at a later time. Though he was surprised in seeing other musical entries listed in the odd book, causing him to wonder if his newfound skill was indeed connected to his powers or not.

His musings were cut short when Vanitas heard the train whistle sounding off with a big plumb of smoke coming from it's wheels and smoke stack.

As the train slowly came to a stop, a good dozen men approached the Wayne owned transport. Opening up the boxcar, some of the security detail for Wayne Enterprises went inside while the rest stayed outside with weapons at the ready for any sign of trouble. Not long after the men went to work, Lucius Fox was being escorted by a handful of GCPD personnel with Detective Bullock by the CEO's side.

"You don't want us to touch the drill? Right Mr Fox?" One of the Wayne employees questioned.

"Not unless you have to." Came Lucius' response. "And be careful boys. It's the only, working prototype from our lab in Chicago. And I don't want to inform Mr. Wayne it broke before we got it back to HQ for final testings. It would cost a fortune to make the necessary repairs."

Scratching his head, the head security officer spoke. "But I thought you said it could be dangerous."

Needing to explain a little, Mr. Fox spoke to the man. "Well, it's intended for building excavations, oil rigs and the like. But-"

"Hey, relax kid." Harvey Bullock butted in as the desired crate was being carried out. "That gizmo ain't gonna hurt nobody as long as Harvey Bullock is-"

All of a sudden, the detective heard a loud ringing in his ears that could've been defining. He cried out and clutched his head in pain as he wasn't the only one to do so. From what Bullock could see, everyone was feeling whatever was happening to him as well: the Wayne security detail, Mr. Fox and even the GCPD personnel. And before he knew it, his vision started to warp all over the place as it started to intensify to the point Bullock unloaded his stomach contents onto the station's floor.

'God, this fucking hurts!' The detective thought as he tried to make sense of anything. Readjusting himself so he could appear sitting on the ground, Bullock soon made out a strange man standing not far off on a crate. He couldn't make out any of the man's features, but the detective guessed the man… woman… whoever was behind this mess.

"W-Who are you?" Bullock groaned out in a queasy tone. "W-What do you want?"

"The first thing I want is for you to stop asking stupid questions." Came the perpetrator's masculine voice with some European accent. "The second is a powerful weapon, and I think your sonic drill will do nicely."

"And I think you'll do a couple of decades over in Blackgate, at least." A voice called out from high above, causing the perpetrator to gaze his eyes upward to see Vanitas standing at a nearby building.

"Vanitas, I presume? I suppose this had to happen sooner or later."

"Right you are." Was the response as the masked Uzumaki gazed down below with a narrowed glance while inspecting the perpetrator. The blonde man, with a short flat-top haircut, wore a dark grey military fatigue with black boots and gloves. To finish off his appearance, he wore a gun and knife on his belt along with what appeared to be a metallic eyepatch over his left eye. "And who might you be?"

"You may call me Vertigo." The perpetrator said before he whistled, summoning a dozen masked men to come on out to the area. "And I'd like you to leave."

"Fat chance."

Vertigo's men soon fired their weapons at the helmeted vigilante, who ran from his position. Jumping off the nearby rooftop, Vanitas created a few clones so they could draw their attention away and take them out. This left the original to run towards Vertigo as he jump kicked the man's midsection, sending him flying into a stack of crates.

Not liking where this was going, the eye-patched man brought his hand up to his device and dialed up the power. The results were instant as Vanitas hunched over in pain, leaving him wide open to Vertigo's coming assault. The eye-patched man quickly got up and punched the hero's helmet a few times before kicking the hero down to the ground.

Just before Vertigo could deliver the next strike, the man was knocked away from behind as Batman kicked his back. This sent the perpetrator into another stack of crates and seemed down for the count, for the time being.

"Seems you need some help." Batman said as he helped Vanitas up to his feet.

"Yeah. Pretty much."

Once back up, the two were surrounded by more of Vertigo's men with their weapons trained at the two. Vanitas knew his clones weren't gonna last long, only serving as distractions at the time, but it seemed they were outnumbered by the unknown amount of masked men here.

'I should've done a sweep of the area before the attack.' The masked Uzumaki thought in self beratement as some of Vertigo's men started their attack. 'Would've saved me the trouble.'

As the bullets flew, Vanitas threw up a barrier around the two before summoning a clone to hold it up. Once done, the two vigilante's eyed their surroundings before leaving their cover. As Vanitas ran out with a pair of escrima sticks on hand, Batman jumped out to dive towards a handful of the armed men. The two heroes assaulted their fair share of opponents as they tried to lessen their forces.

As they were preoccupied, Vertigo got up from his placement on the ground as he rubbed his sides. His attention was then placed towards two of his men prying open the contents of their desired crate to pull out the objective of their mission. With the device in hand, one of them radioed in for their pick up.

'Now to take care of these two.' Vertigo thought as he activated his eye-patch once more. The two heroes were soon bombarded with the vertigo wave, causing them to stop their assault as they were heavily affected by the attack.

Trying to get ahold of themselves, the two vigilantes turned around to see the distorted figures of Vertigo and some of his men with the sonic drill in their possession. Not wanting them to get away, the two ran and tackled them as Batman got Vertigo while Vanitas got whoever was nearby, due to not getting his sense of direction right. Being fully blasted with the vertigo wave, Batman laid onto his assault onto Vertigo as he punched the eye-patched man into the nearby wall.

Their little fight would've continued if it weren't for an arrow getting lodged right between the two.

Turning towards the source, who was standing high above them, Vertigo growled in recognition. "Warith!"

As the Batman was distracted by the new arrival, his head was bulged hard enough to send him to the ground. With the mixture of the vertigo waves and the newly gained pain, the Bat was unable to get up at the current time. All that he could soon make out were the sounds of helicopter blades coming closer to their position as the masked men fled from the scene.

"Come." Vertigo ordered as he stepped onto the helicopter's rope ladder. "We're due back by the tolling of the hour."

By the time Batman got back up from the ground, he saw Vertigo getting into the helicopter with the sonic drill on hand with a few of his men. The Dark Knight was wobbly as he leaned against the wall for support while rubbing his head's sore spot.

"Doing alright there Bats?" Vanitas questioned as he staggered towards his friend's position.

Turning to his unknowingly masked friend, the cowled vigilante answered. "So far."

Leaning against the wall, the hooded Uzumaki spoke with a small groan. "I did not expect having to deal with that wave thing again."

"...What do you mean 'again'?"

"Vertigo's wave attack. Dealt with something similar back in Starling."

Being curious on this bit of insight, Batman asked the obvious question. "How so?"

"Well... the former Vlatavan count I had to deal with at the time was a metahuman made people go into a vertigo state. Seems that this new guy is using a device that does a similar effect by distorting everything around to seem topsy turvy. Though getting the migraine portion must've been a hassle to get right."

Nodding on the newly gained information, Batman eventually came to the same conclusion as he thought things through. Looking at the imbedded arrow near him, the Bat pried it out and briefly examined it before tucking it underneath his cape.

"So… Where do you think they went off to?" Came Vanitas' question.

"No clue." Walking away from the scene, Batman spoke as he pulled out his grappling gun. "But I'll be sure to find out."

As the man propelled himself into the air and glided away, Vanitas looked at his friend's retreating form and shook his head. "Yeah, you go do that Bruce. You do your way while I do mine." Looking over to the fallen GCPD officers and Wayne Enterprises employees, the masked Uzumaki sighed a little as he walked towards them. "Right after I help these guys."

As he drew near them, the masked publisher turned back towards a particular rooftop as a question came to mind. Someone he briefly made out that stopped the fight between the eye-patched man and Batman. 'Who was that anyways? Vertigo seemed to have recognized the guy.'

 _ **-Batcave-**_

It took a while for Batman to return to the batmobile, as the vertigo state still had a small hold of him during recovery. This did give him the small excuse to have the batmobile set on autopilot to get back home through autopilot. He used this time to think of what happened back at the rail station. And once returning, Alfred greeted him with a spot of tea to help clear his mind.

"...But are you certain this Warith character was working with this Vertigo fellow?"

"I highly doubt it Alfred." Taking a sip of Alfred's drink, Bruce went back into his examination on the arrow procured from earlier as he spoke. "The tone Vertigo used when speaking towards him is not something one would use on a comrade... or somewhere in that nature. If I didn't notice that, then yes, Vertigo would never have been able to escape if Warith hadn't shown up."

"And you said that Warith wasn't affected by the device you mentioned. Is that right?"

As per usual habit when either Bruce or Dick return back from patrol or from a mission, Alfred would ask on what occurred so he could have some insight. With him being a former British agent, the Pennyworth butler wants to keep certain traits sharp when needed. This helped out quite often during past missions whenever Bruce seemed stuck on his investigations with a fresh perspective.

"That eyepiece of his is the device. It gives off some kind of radiation that mimics the exact same properties of a vertigo wave."

"My word. And how much did you get affected by it?"

"Quite a bit, but I'm fine now. As for Warith, I think he was outside of the device's range." The Bat said before he let out a frustrated sigh. "Not that it matters now."

"What do you mean sir?"

Leaning back in his chair, Bruce stared up towards the caverned ceiling as he explained. "Nothing about him could give me clues to his whereabouts. I mean, he mentioned returning to his base before the 'tolling of the hour' which suggests a clock tower or even a church bell. Then fled west. Yet there's no such structure that could conceal a hideout within 50 miles or so west from the rail station.

At this point, Alfred released a small sigh as he served himself a cup of tea. "Might I suggest, Master Bruce, that you take a break?" Taking a sip of his tea, he continued. "If you keep pushing yourself like this, you soon won't know your right hand from your left."

Those words echoed through Bruce's mind for several moments before things clicked. "Alfred… You're brilliant!" Not seeing the butler's pleased look, the billionaire started typing through the batcomputer. "With my head turned around, I couldn't tell one direction from the other. They didn't escape to the west, they went east."

After shifting through a series of photos, consisting of different churches, until one seemed to stand out among the rest. "There, Alfred. That has to be the place."

 _ **-Outskirts of Gotham-**_

With the moon so high, it's lunar rays shined upon the landscape below to reveal it's details on the darkened night. Situated off by a cliffside lies an abandoned cathedral with its high walls and multiple windows. The forest surrounds the grounds as a river lies at the bottom of the cliff.

"That place must've been beautiful in it's prime. Possibly still is with it's rustic appearance." Vanitas muttered with his Hawkeye ability active to see many of it's details. "Shame that it's an enemy fortress right now."

Once helping the GCPD and Wayne personnel from the attack at the rail station, the masked publisher went out looking for the perpetrators. He had no such luck in his search as he helped stop a few other crimes along the way. Naruto had been trying to find them at any clock towers or churches within the city limits on the westside. But seeing things as a polar opposite from a nearby mirror got the publisher thinking that the perpetrators would've been heading the opposite direction from what he saw the helicopter fly towards.

Then again, he was still under the vertigo state so blame the delay on that.

Situated on top of a tree branch, Vanitas kept watch of the enemy base. "I would've just ridden my lance to get in there and snatch the sonic drill, but what I'm seeing is correct then that might not be an option." Noting the gatling guns mounted on some parts of the wall, the masked publisher guessed they were prepared for any airborne threat. "Seems I'll have to go in through the old fashioned approach."

Moving his attention away from the cathedral, Vanitas looked around the forest to see some of those masked men patrolling the area. Seeing they had assault rifles with them this time, he'll need to be a little quicker on his approach when taking them down. But if he wants to go in with stealth, he'll have to knock them out one by one and use his 'memory ability' to make them not see him at all.

Just when he was about to move, Vanitas spotted someone entering his field of vision.

From what he could tell from the moonlight, the person's figure inside of the black bodysuit with green armor indicated that of a female variety. There were bladed weapons strapped around her waist and a quiver on her back with a compound bow in one of her hands. Her appearance was indeed hidden with the hood and face mask covering her features.

'Who is she?' He thought as he soon saw several masked men approaching her position with weapons trained at her. 'As much as I'd like to see her fight this out, which she could clearly handle on her own… I think, I need information from her and she won't do me good dead.'

Jumping down from his position, Vanitas ran towards the one area when he saw the archer woman throw a man into another from behind. When another masked man came in close with his knife, the woman grasped the offending arm and twisted it before kicking him away and using that same knife to stab another opponent. Just when another masked man was about to ambush her from behind, Vanitas tackled the man's midsection before tossing him into a couple of Vertigo's men.

"Mind if I tag along?" He said as he summoned his ice shield to block an array of bullets from harming either of them. "I mean it's fifteen against one and it would be so unfair if you hogged them all to yourself."

Hearing the hooded woman chuckle, she responded back with some indication of a voice modulator to hide her identity. "Flattery will get you nowhere, since I can clearly take care of myself." Grabbing one of Vertigo's men, she reared back and smacked an elbow down onto the man's head, causing him to slump down onto the ground.

"I can clearly see that." The masked Uzumaki said as he smacked an incoming stab towards the hooded women's side with his shield. With the blade bouncing off it's cooled surface, Vanitas kicked the man's legs before slamming his battle shield onto the ground to have ice cover the masked man.

"Still, the gesture is appreciated."

"Don't mention it."

Just when more men were about to ambush the two, a shadowy figure dropped down from up high as it kicked two of Vertigo's men onto the ground. With the acceleration of the speed, the man had to do a recovery roll before quickly standing up in the moonlight to reveal the caped crusader. Not wanting to waste the energy and speed, the Bat punched one of the men's head before elbowing another on the upper body to throw the man off balance. To finish it off, Batman tackled the two men to have them fall onto the ground hard to knock them out.

Taking note of the new arrival, Vanitas spoke to him in a joking manner. "Two's a company, yet three's a crowd. Hope there isn't anyone else joining or else it'll be too much."

Batman didn't say anything as he ducked to avoid a punch, which ended up hitting one of the other masked men. With the mild confusion, the Bat did a sweep kick on the two before punching their lights out. He was then kicked from behind, causing him to tumble, and was about to be hit by a barrage of bullets when Vanitas covered for him before creating an ice wall.

"Thanks." Came the Bat's response. As he stood up, Batman saw the hooded woman back up towards the two as more of Vertigo's men surrounded the three.

"This is getting a little hot. So let's cool things down." Raising his shield up into the air, Vanitas slammed it down to surround the three with ice spikes coming out of the ground. Some of Vertigo's men were thrown back by the sudden attack, leaving most injured with them pierced by the frozen spikes.

With her new form of defense, the hooded woman pulled out several arrows and shot the men down as they advanced. One of them did seem to get a bit close without her noticing, but a quick throw of one of her daggers silenced the man as it dug into his head.

As this happened, Batman jumped out of the cover, alongside Vanitas, to take care of the men. The Bat moved quickly as he struck some of the men with vicious kicks before grabbing one of them to throw the man into another.

With Vanitas, he engaged a pair of Vertigo's men with his escrima sticks as he quickly disarmed them by smacking their weapons out of their hands. With them gone, he nailed one of them with an uppercut to the man's head before grasping the other's head and bringing it down to knee his face.

Just when he turned around, he saw a pair of them about to fire their assault rifles onto him. He was about to pull out his shield when arrows struck the two, causing them to fall onto the ground. Looking at her, Vanitas could barely see the odd mirthless in her gaze.

"You're welcome."

With no other men coming at them, for now, it left the three time to breath. This got the Batman to approach the woman in his usual mannerisms. "Mind telling us whose side you're on? You're clearly not with them."

"Well that would be telling."

"And it would make no difference." A voice called out from up high, causing the three to look to the source. There they saw two men perched on top of a large rock as they had the Wayne Tech sonic drill on hand. "As of now, this battle has ended."

Before the three could react quick enough, the sonic drill was activated as it's powerful pulses landed on the ground beneath them. It started to quickly crumble, causing them to shake and fall onto the dirt. As the pulses accelerated, the ground soon caved in, causing the three masked individuals to fall into the chasm below. Vanitas wasn't quick enough to form anything to stop their fall as he was quickly knocked unconscious with the other two following suit.

 _ **-Later-**_

Inside of a secluded closed off cell, Warith al Ghul looked onto the two men lying on the cots in front of her. They were thrown in here together as Vertigo's men brought them to this place as they were unconscious. For good measure that neither of them would escape, the three were relieved of their equipment with what they visually had on them.

Letting out a sigh, she pulled out a washcloth out of a bowl of water that was provided for them. She figured the men wanted to see who would fight for who for the water since the air was rather dry and was making her parched. But the masked heir needed to use it to help clean not only her wounds but also that of the Batman.

She would've tried with Vanitas, but his suit and helmet had no way of removal to check for injuries. A brief thought occurred if the man was human to begin with, due to there being no visible way one could fit inside of it. But apparently so with the small opening on the dome was formed from the fall from earlier as she saw the human skin underneath.

Draining the cloth of the excess water, Warith dabbed the Batman's exposed, bruised face before waving her hand at a scurrying rat. "Filthy creature."

"I've been called worse." Batman groaned out as he was starting to wake up. Feeling the dampness on his face, he brought his gloved hand onto it and felt something was off. "What happend to-My mask!" Jolting up from the floor, he glared at the hooded woman in front of him. "What have you done with it?!"

Unfazed by the yell, she reached behind him and pulled slightly on his cape to show the mask was still there. "I had to remove it since it's easier to clean your wounds that way."

"Then you know. You know that I'm-"

"Bruce Wayne." A voice spoke out as the two looked towards the side to see Vanitas sitting up with his head towards them. From what they could see on the exposed part of his mask was the eyehole on the left side as a glow seemed to be coming from the man's eye. "Makes sense that the only way Batman would be able to afford and access his toys would be through an illustrious company. Who would've thought you were such an embezzler; from your own company, no less."

This was one of the explanations Naruto realized when he did the mission for Lord Dream as it was hard for the publisher to accept his friend was the Batman. As he overheard the details from Dream Harley's office, things seemed to piece together as some revolved on how Batman got his equipment. No one could afford such technology and amass such a fortune to procure them, but Bruce easily could.

That is unless someone got said equipment through the black market, which was highly unlikely.

Being on the receiving end of the infamous Batglare, Vanitas merely shrugged it off as he dealt with worse. "Oh don't worry if saying it outloud would cause problems. No one can hear us from outside this room."

"And how can you be so sure?" Bruce replied with his ever present glare. "There could be a guard stationed right outside."

"For one, I don't see any security cameras in here." Standing up from the ground, Vanitas stretched a little to get rid of some kinks. "And I figure these walls and entrance door are damn thick enough for no sound to be heard unless said door was opened. Something I've got to admire about the architects who designed and built this place, among other features."

The hooded woman merely smirked underneath her facemask at this. "My thoughts exactly. I noticed the same details when I woke up earlier when I planned on escaping this cell."

Gritting his teeth a little, Bruce pulled his mask back on as he got up from the cot. 'When I see the Cooper's next, I need them to add a security feature for my mask.' He thought before turning his attention towards the woman. "Just who are you? What are you doing here? Are you with those League of Shadow agents?"

"Well that's just rude Batsy." Vanitas said in a pouty tone as his helmet repaired itself, realizing there was an opening while feeling the dry air in the cell. "You should be polite when introductions are being made." Turning towards the hooded woman, the masked publisher held out his hand. "Hello, my name's Vanitas. Though that's not my real name. But if you buy me dinner, then I might tell you."

"...Cute." Was her chuckled response. "But if you must know, I go by Warith."

'Same name Vertigo called out.' Vanitas thought the same thing Batman did before speaking. "The Inheritor, in arabic. But what are you inheriting exactly?"

"Not telling. But if you must know why I'm here is to deal with Vertigo and his men."

"You mean the Shadows?" Asked the Bat.

All the Dark Knight got in return was a scoff from Warith. "They weren't Shadows at all. Merely a fallen branch from the League itself."

'A defected group then.' Batman realized with a small nod. "Then who are they?"

"Drones merely working for larger entities who want to rule the world as they see fit. A collective simply called HIVE."

Seeing as there was nothing else to ask for now, Batman walked forward and leaned down to inspect the lock. "Hmm, simple enough lock." Moving his hand towards his waist, the Bat continued. "I can get it open with-My belt!"

"Oh, I forgot to mention they took our equipment when they brought us to this cell." The assassin stated, getting a dry look from the Bat while earning a hidden surprised one from Vanitas.

"Really?" Looking down towards his waist, he realized his utility belt and battle skirt was indeed gone. "Hmm, I should fix that." Focusing a little power around his waist, his utility belt and battle skirt reformed before he checked to see if it's contents were there. "Seems everything is in order." Looking at the two other people in the room, he tilted his head in confusion. "What?"

"...Nothing." Came their singular response as they seemed slightly jealous.

"Okay… Since we're possibly on a time schedule, let's get out of here." Grasping their hands, he pulled the two along as he phased them through the steel door and into the empty hallway. "Now come on, we need to find Vertigo and the sonic drill before these HIVE guys leave to who knows where."

Regaining her bearings, with her not used to that odd feeling at all, Warith soon followed the two male vigilantes as they formed a temporary truce.

 _ **-Meanwhile-**_

Unbeknownst to the three escapees, Vertigo was having an important conversation with a particular pair of individuals. They weren't really there per say as they appeared to be projections of some kind that made it seem the two were indeed inside of the room. Anyone would've been fooled if one gazed at the site, especially with the room's occupants were kneeling in front of the projections.

" _What is the progress with procuring the sonic drill Vertigo?"_ Spoke a sophisticated man with pale blonde hair as he wore a dark suit to compliment his dark smile.

"Everything has turned out well, my lord." Replied the eye-patched man. Waving his hand slightly, one of the HIVE agents stepped forward and held up the sonic device up towards the two projections. "We've successfully acquired the drill and await further instructions."

" _ **Were there any complications?"**_ Asked a darkly cloaked man. The only other detail the being had on him were the eight glowing, green eyes situated in two columns of four underneath his tattered hood.

"None that we couldn't handle sir." Vertigo quickly answered. "The Batman and Vanitas were no match for the vertigo state I subjected the two in when we procured the sonic device."

" _And have they interfered at all since then?"_

"Yes, but only a short moment as two of my men tested the device on them before they were rendered unconscious."

" _ **...And where are they now?"**_

"Currently locked up in a cell deep within the cathedral sir." The former League operative stated, getting the pale blonde man go tilt his head slightly.

"Why are they still alive Vertigo? Shouldn't you have have them killed already?"

Gulping slightly on this little mess up, Vertigo had to respond with a quick answer. "W-We were planning on killing them, my lord. That was until you two demanded our presence."

Nothing much was visually seen from the darkly cloaked being in terms of a response, but the pale blonde merely shrugged his shoulders.

" _Seems there's no harm done then. Just be sure to kill them quickly and move on out to the extraction point to deliver the drill."_

"Of course."

" _So... is there anything else?"_ Questioned the first projected man as he looked at the watch on his wrist. _"I'm supposed to head towards a gala event in five and I don't want to keep my wife waiting any further."_

"The two were accompanied by a woman." Vertigo said before he widened his eyes and grasped his throat as he tried to breathe. Looking up, he saw the pale blonde man hold out his hand in a choking hold while the darkly cloaked being seemingly glared right into his soul.

" _ **What woman?"/**_ _"What woman?"_ The two projections demandingly asked.

Berating himself on the slip of the tongue, the eye-patched man was forced to answer. "I-It… It w-was… Warith al Ghul."

Hearing this, the pale man soon let loose the eye-patched agent as he deeply breathed. When bringing up his head, Vertigo was soon met with the angry eyes of the cloaked projection. Before anything could be said, the dark being placed his projectioned hand onto Vertigo's face as the agent's skin started to turn grey with black veins appearing on his face.

" _ **Do you have any idea what your incompetence has done Vertigo? You had let her live alongside those heroes. And now she might've escaped by now and possibly aiding her fellow captives in ruining our coming plans."**_ Letting go of Vertigo's face, resulting in it returning to normal, the dark cloaked man returned back in his normal placement beside his colleague before turning towards him. _**"And here I hoped he did a good job as he spied for us to keep up with the League's movements."**_

" _I completely agree, old friend."_ Looking towards Vertigo, who was currently shaking like a leaf, the pale blonde man clicked his tongue. _"Seems it was too early to have him fully defect to our side. But it seems he got overconfident in his first leading mission while working for us and he made several mistakes in the process."_ Raising up his hand, the man twisted it quick, resulting in the necks of three HIVE agents snapping in unison as they dropped onto the floor dead. _"Because they just costed him three of his Ghosts."_

Looking back at Vertigo, the cloaked man spoke in a low tone. _**"And the next mistake will indeed cost your life Vertigo... So it's time for you to clean up your own mess before delivering the weapon, NOW!"**_

Nervously nodding, Vertigo bowed his head onto the ground as he spoke to them. "Of course Lord Darhk, Lord Odysseus." As the two projections faded away, Vertigo stood up and barked out orders.

 _ **-Back with Vanitas, Batman and Warith-**_

During their search in finding Vertigo and the drill, the three encountered a handful of HIVE agents. They were easily dealt with from the mixture of surprise attacks and quick assaults towards their goal. Things were a little easier when Vanitas had to summon several Creepers, which caused Warith to widen her eyes underneath her hood, to aid them by taking out the enemies further down the corridors.

It wasn't long afterwards for the group finding the armory to procure Batman's utility belt and Warith's arsenal. Though there was no sight of the sonic drill anywhere.

"The sonic device must be Vertigo." Vanitas guessed as he thoroughly checked the room. "It must be within his reach by now until he has to deliver it to his boss, whoever he or she is."

"I agree." Warith said as she exited the room. "Which is why we need to quicken our pace."

Exiting the room, the three went further down the hallways before entering a room that seemed to be a lab of some sorts. It was some mixture of a chem lab and engineering. Looking around, the three saw there was no one in the expansive space as something clicked in their heads.

"You do realize, of course, that this is a trap." The hooded assassin stated.

"Naturally." The Bat simply said as the group walked further into the room. "But what other choice do we have."

All of a sudden, a loud ringing was heard throughout the entire room before everything seemed to distort. A voice was then heard from the loud speakers installed around the room. _"Good evening. I've been expecting you three."_

"Your little dizzying trick won't stop us, Vertigo." Vanitas growled out as he held his head while trying to focus on his footing. 

"Maybe, maybe not." Stated the former League assassin. _"You see, you'll have to get across this room alive."_ Soon a loud click was heard from behind(?) as their one entrance automatically locked. _"And that may prove difficult, considering this entire laboratory has been rigged to destroy you. So goodbye and good luck. You'll need it."_

The speakers stopped transmitting Vertigo's message before the vertigo effect seemed to increase in power. Wanting to be rid of the noise, Vanitas tried to raise a silence barrier. Sad to say it failed as he couldn't properly focus in maintaining it, much less making one. 

Turning towards Warith, Vanitas spoke to her. "You alright?" 

"No, I'm not." She answered bitterly. The Demon's Heir tried to regain her sense of balance, but everything kept distorting to the point that she fell onto the ground and started to heave.

"I can get us through this." Batman suddenly said, causing Warith to weakly look towards his direction.

"How?"

"I trusted you. So I believe it's your turn."

The assassin didn't say anything as she tried to think and weigh her options. But she suddenly felt a hand placed onto her shoulder, causing her to look at the helmeted hero.

"Even if it's just this one time, let us help you like you helped us."

The Demon's Daughter didn't have much choice soon after as Vanitas helped her up and kept her steady. Once balanced, to some small degree, she reached out and grasped Batman's hand before taking Vanitas'. The three had to make their way across the room before they seemingly fell, due to a trap door. 

"Jump!" Batman yelled as he used his strength to throw Warith up alongside Vanitas so they could land safely.

'How did he know? She thought as she looked at the Bat with curiosity.

They continued forward before some metallic sound was quickly heard. "Down!" Batman ordered as he, Vanitas and Warith ducked down from something that flew right over their heads.

After taking some steps, Vanitas felt his food sink into the floor before he yelled out an order. "Stop moving, now!" The two complied as they heard metallic arrows imbedding into the nearby wall

Warith was getting a little impatient as she moved a bit forward before Batman and Vanitas pulled the assassin back. Hearing metal sliding on the ground, the Demon's Daughter realized that another trap was sprung mere moments ago and she almost fell for it. Reaching forward, the Bat grasped onto the handle and tried to turn it, only to realize something.

"It's locked." Batman muttered before he was pulled alongside Warith. After a few moments, the vertigo effect started to fade as they seemingly were outside of the laboratory.

"We're clear." Vanitas muttered before he released some deep breaths. "Damn. Focusing a lot to just phasing us through the door with that going on was not great, at all mind you... Ugh, I'm gonna have a migraine soon enough." 

Wanting to finally know the two managed to get through the room. "How did you two do all of that?

"It's simple." Turning towards Warith, Batman showed his cowled face. "I just kept my eyes closed."

"...Excuse me?" She asked in a baffled tone. 

"I figured the only way to hopefully neutralize the vertigo effect was to rely on my other senses to see us through."

The Demon's Heir then looked towards Vanitas as attention was partially focused on him now. "Honestly, I didn't have my eyes shut at all. All I did was to trust my instincts and try to make out things through my basic senses."

The hooded assassin could admit that Batman's solution was indeed impressive. She would've done that trait if her head wasn't hurting too much. And even then, she should've trusted her instincts but her mind was preoccupied in trying to make sense of things. 

"Now that we're out of that nausea induced room, where to next?" 

As she took some breaths to help clear her head a bit more, Warith answered while walking at a quickened pace. "If I'm correct, then Vertigo would try and leave with the drill very soon."

"And the best place for an extraction could either be the bell tower or the courtyard if he wants to escape with his helicopter." Vanitas added in, earning nods from the assassin and hero."

"Then it's best we stop him before that happens." Batman stated as he ran forward with the two soon following his action.

 _ **-Cathedral Courtyard-**_

Letting out a small sigh, Sportsmaster looked at his wristwatch for the upteenth time.

"You know Laurence, looking at your watch too often isn't going to make time move faster."

"I know, but I'm just wondering when it's finally time to spring into action." Laurence muttered in a low tone so their position wouldn't be compromised. "Talia's been in there too long and I just want to get into the next phase of our plan."

The masked Crock matriarch shook her head as she responded back. "And here I thought your patience was strengthened over the years. Clearly it tends to get chipped."

"Yes, well, beggers can't be choosers. Even with the supposed deadline the princess gave us."

The three League assassins originally planned on procuring the Wayne Tech sonic drill back at the rail station, but the unfortunate arrival of HIVE agents complicated things. The group was able to track them down to this cathedral as they needed a way to get inside. With how guarded it was, Talia volunteered to get herself captured so the Crock couple could easily get into the grounds.

As they blended with the shadows, Sportsmaster and Huntress waited patiently for their time to finally move into the next part of their plan. It was really simple on their given orders from the Demon's Heir: scout the area, take out any necessary Ghosts and secure the helicopter before Vertigo can escape. There were indeed some armored land vehicles, but from their knowledge of Vertigo before his defection, he prefered air travel the most when making a quick getaway.

The couple did find good spots to strike when the time was right as the two can handle their fair share of enemies left and right. After all, they were highly trained League members that could possibly become Horsemen in all but name alone. The only reason why they kept turning down or having the title be put on hold was primarily on Paula's insistence on wanting to maintain a normal life with their two daughters.

The two soon heard the sudden sounds of helicopter blades in the air. This caused the two to quickly move to another vantage point to see the aircraft starting up as the Ghosts were making their move now.

With an assault rifle on hand, procured from a recently dead Ghost, Sportsmaster "Welp, I'm not waiting any longer. Don't care if the princess gets pissed on me not waiting for her signal, but I believe it's time for us to do our part since I don't want to lose that chopper."

"Seems you're right." Pulling out her sword and a handful of shuriken, Huntress turned towards her husband. "It's time to do our part now."

Seeing the many HIVE agents making their way towards the armored vehicles, the assassin struck as they don't want many of the enemy forces live past this night.

 _ **-Cathedral Bell Tower-**_

Making his way up the bell tower steps, Vertigo tried to hurry up his pace to reach the top. The eye-patched agent thought he got rid of the two heroes and the Demon's Daughter as he locked the one labratory up nice and tight. Vertigo wanted to use this chance to escape and deliver the sonic drill to his masters, or at least one of their lieutenants or captains, at the extraction point whether the former captives were dead or alive.

As the former League assassin ascended higher and higher, he heard someone shout from down below.

"Going somewhere, Vertigo?!" Vanitas called out as the three were ascending rather quickly on top of what appeared to be a floating playing card.

"No!" Vertigo bellowed out in rage. "It's impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible." 

Letting out a snarl, the HIVE agent activated his Vertigo device. "Then I will finish you three myself!" 

As the three were hit by the vertigo wave, Vanitas held his head in pain before he ended up rocking his floating platform off balance. This resulted with the three masked individuals to fall off and land onto the stone staircase lining against the tower's walls. Each felt the effects placed onto them as they tried to focus and regain their bearings.

While this happened, Vertigo aimed the sonic drill at them as it started to charge before firing the blast. The recoil was a bit much for the former League member as the blast was off course and landed just above the three. The result was a large hole from what the sonic drill just created. Trying again, Vertigo aimed and fired the weapon. The same results happened again, but this time it was below the group as they were now trapped with nowhere else to go with the vertigo state currently affecting them.

Almost falling down from the broken walkway, Warith groaned out while holding onto Vanitas for support. "I can't take much more of this." Letting go of the helmeted hero, she trusted her instincts as she walked forward. "There's only one thing to do."

Seeing the hooded assassin fall, Vanitas tried to reach out and grab her. All that he snagged in his grasp was only air before crying out to her. "No!"

Falling down, Warith reached out her hands and felt something against her palms. Quickly grasping the object, she felt a heavy tug before a large sound emanated from up above. Looking up, the Demon's Daughter formed a hidden smirk as she saw one of the cathedral's bells ring out.

*DONG* *DONG* *DONG*

The large ringing caused Vertigo to cry out in pain as he held his head on instinct. This caused the former League member to stop emanating the vertigo effect. And as a result, he let go of the sonic drill from his grasps.

Not wanting to see the device damaged, Batman leapt towards the hanging rope with a clearer vision than from before. He latched onto the rope first, causing the second bell to start ringing, before reaching one of his hands out towards the device. But he was too slow and missed his chance.

Seeing this happen, Vanitas ran and jumped before yelling out 'I got it!'. Like the others, he too grasped the hanging rope to help ring the third and final bell in the cathedral's tower. But unlike Batman, the masked Uzumaki was able to grasp the device just in time.

With all three bells ringing loudly, Vertigo was yelling out in agony. This was because he was born with an inner ear problem as he could not deal with such loud noises or else he would end up in his own vertigo state. Not being able to regain his balance, Vertigo walked back and lost his footing before he plummeted down from the stairwell towards his death.

The last moments he had in his traitorous life was screaming for dear life before his head met the stony floor as his brain matter and blood painted the area.

 _ **-Outskirts of Gotham-**_

As the early sun started to rise from the horizon; Batman, Warith and Vanitas walked out of the cathedral grounds. Neither realized on how fast the night went with what they had to deal with earlier. But what the three had to deal with, time would surely pass on by quickly.

"...Without Vertigo to lead them, his agents have all fled?" Questioned the Dark Knight as he held the sonic drill in his grasps.

"Yes and no." She knew Sportsmaster and Huntress did their part of the plan flawlessly and took care of many of the HIVE agents, though most could've fled during the little raid.

Not wanting to comment about that, due to it being a very long night, Batman spoke. "Well, I've gotta get this back to Gotham City." 

"And I can help give you a lift Batsy." Vanitas said as he formed his Kazekage lance in one hand and a Fair Play card in the other. "Which would you prefer: the lance or the usual card platform?"

Before an answer could be given, the two heroes heard the sound of the compound bow wielded by Warith being pulled back. Looking towards her, she aimed a few arrows at the Bat with a small visible glare. "I'm sorry. But I'm afraid that despite our temporary truce, I can't let you leave with the drill." 

The two heroes tensed as they went into their respective defensive positions as Vanitas spoke. "And here I thought I finally knew which side you were on. But it seems you used us to not only take care of those HIVE agents, but also getting the chance to get the sonic drill."

Forming a hidden smirk behind her mask, Warith spoke in an even tone. "Naturally. I was ordered to obtain the device by any means necessary."

Soon the three heard the sounds of a helicopter coming closer to their position, causing the two heroes to look towards the source. As it came to a stop, a rope ladder fell down near Warith's position as she still aimed her arrows at the Dark Knight.

"I'll ask you this one time Batman. Hand over the drill or else my men will kill you from where you stand."

Vanitas was about to spring into action, but was stopped when he saw the caped crusader walk forward towards the hooded assassin. This made the masked publisher raise a hidden brow on what his friend was doing. All of a sudden, Vanitas saw the Bat literally hand over the dangerous sonic drill into the woman's hands, once she placed back her arrows and compact bow in their respective spots.

Seeing the device on hand, Warith nodded before walking over to the rope ladder and climbed up. As the helicopter started to take off higher into the air, she yelled towards the two heroes. "I am truly sorry, Batman! Vanitas! It could have been sweet!" 

As the hooded assassin left the scene, the masked Uzumaki turned his head towards his masked friend.

"Why did you just willingly give her your drill Mr. Wayne?" Vanitas questioned with a hidden, narrowed glance. "Who knows what she and her group could do with that." 

"...Did you really think I'd let her take the drill without some insurance?" The Bat rhetorically asked before he walked away leaving a slightly dumbfounded hero behind.

It didn't take long for him to realize on what his friend actually did to it, leaving a wicked grin underneath his helmet. 'Who knew Bruce would have been that sneakily crafty.'

As this went on, Talia climbed aboard the helicopter as Huntress helped pull her in while Sportsmaster flew the aircraft through the mountain range to their rendezvous point to drop off the drill before heading back to Gotham. Once sitting in her seat, Paula handed Talia a pair of headphones and did the hand motion that someone was on the other end. The Demon's Daughter nodded as she spoke into the microphone.

"Hello Father."

" _Hello, my daughter."_ Ra's al Ghul spoke from the other end of the comms channel. _"I take it your mission was a success?"_

"Indeed it has." Came Talia's response. "There were some complications, but Sportsmaster, Huntress and I were able to deal with them accordingly."

" _From what I was told from Sportsmaster, HIVE was involved."_

"It seems they were after the drill as well. And on another note, Vertigo has been dealt with, Father." 

" _Hmm… Small wonder you seem so pleased."_

"But of course. He was a traitor towards our cause and had to be dealt with by any means necessary."

Talia could tell her father nodded on the other end before speaking back to her. "Was there anything else that happened in the mission?"

"Yes, but I'd like to speak to you in person about what I thought about Batman and Vanitas since they were involved with the mission." She answered, which made her think her father raised a brow on her response. "It's better to make my report when I'm face to face with you."

" _Of course, my daughter… Now as for the device, I want you to choose a target and test it. We must be certain it has survived its ordeal intact."_

Nodding on her Father's order, Talia signaled the Crock couple to keep the helicopter steady as she searched for the ideal target in mind. Seeing a rather large one, the Demon's Daughter took aim and pulled the trigger for it to charge up before firing. But as this happened, Talia saw smoke coming out from it as it started to short circuit and overheat.

She yelped as it exploded in her grasp, causing her to let go and fall towards the mountain range below. Seeing this happen, thoughts ran through her mind as to how this happened. It was working perfectly fine back at the cathedral and it seemed to be in working order until…

"The bastard!" Talia yelled out with a glare. "Batman must've sabotaged it somehow!"

" _What do you mean, daughter?"_ Asked the Demon's Head in a concerned tone.

"His company made the device in the first place! Who better yet to have known how to disable it without me knowing would be him!"

" _Hmm… So even in defeat, the detective manages to achieve some small measure of victory."_ Ra's cooly said to himself. _"Now Talia, I expect you to be back by weeks end so we can discuss further matters."_

Regaining her composure, Talia nodded before signaling to end the call.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **I need to at least put down that I've been rather unmotivated in writing lately since life has been rather bitter on my end lately. I won't go into boring details since you guys and gals know that old song and dance. Not being able to keep up with my usual writing schedule is a pain in my ass and it upsets me at times.**

 **But I've been a little productive in that time since I needed to read a lot of comic issues that pertains to Talia. Thing is that I wanted to find out why Talia got head over heels over Bruce/Batman. It drove me insane and it was absolutely stupid on most iterations on the end result.**

 **Now to start on the research, I had to read the comics that were tied in with the DCAU (yes there are actual comics tied in with the DC Timmverse) after watching the five episodes of the DCAU that had Talia at all. I needed to find out if there were any possible details that filled in between 'Off Balance' and 'Demon's Quest' that had more development on Talia's character with how she became smitten with Bruce.**

 **But I found nothing, nothing at all. And the same went with other comics.**

 **To explain, you'd need to know a bit of Talia's origin in comics. Her first appearance was her being like in her late teens or early-mid twenties back in 1971 as she was held captive by a rogue League of Shadow's operative. Batman ended up saving her which caused her to be smitten by his prowess and wanted him as her husband due to him being strong and cunning, but not to really get to know him at all. Only duty bound for her father's behalf to find a proper replacement and not having real love at all.**

 **This was practically the same with other iterations when first introducing Talia and things didn't seem real on their love in my perspective as she tries to win Bruce over and he just goes through his sexual urges to end up popping a baby in her and that was basically it.**

 **I wanted to explore with Talia in my story as I chose her to be somewhat in the harem. I wanted there to be history between her and Naruto that during their time together, he made her fall in love with him and have genuine love as time passed. Yes she would need to win his love after it's revealed to him when the time comes, possibly before then as the seed will need to be planted and all that stuff.**

 **Anyways, I've been getting several messages about Jade ever since I brought up the small joke in the last chapter. But then again I was just going with the flow when I wrote it and thought it was good to put down. Boys and girls tend to become more curious around that age when being attracted to someone. Even if it's an older person like a teacher, a married person, or someone in that kind of a general area.**

 **When thinking more on this, I realized that I ended up getting an interesting thought on that topic early on into my story. Exploring a little on a girl that's barely into her teenage years or so that's going through things she doesn't understand on feelings and of the like. Like on what Boruto manga chapters and anime I briefly glanced at, Sarada Uchiha has a big crush on Naruto and it's played off for laughs among other things.**

 **So with Jade, it'll be an odd ride for her to go through until I find a way with her character at one point later on to either get out of her crush or explore on why she likes Naruto and possibly find that into someone else.**

 **Who knows.**

 **Now getting onto the story stuff. As a reminder, the Vertigo in this chapter is obviously different from the one I did in the early Starling City chapters. I did state that others would've taken the title of Vertigo one way or another in DC comics.**

 **Also this would at least help get a little connecting intro to HIVE since I've hinted them in past chapters. Though if it wasn't that noticeable, then sorry since it was just me with my personal planning on the story.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	40. Nobody likes Riddles

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 37: Nobody likes Riddles**

It was starting to become an absolute great day for one Edward Nygma. He woke up fully rested, had a delightful meal and coffee at one of his favorite cafe's, and he actually had a slight challenge on on the recent crossword puzzles he procured. And this was before he made his way to work so he would be in great spirits throughout the day.

Edward did what he could to keep his mind sharp as a software designer, which has become a popular job title in the current market. With video and computer games becoming all the rage, his intellectual mind would be perfect in creating challenges that would make players rather addicted in wanting to complete the games to it's fullest. Even with his pride and joy that Edward literally put his blood, sweat and tears into making: Riddle of the Minotaur.

And said game practically became the face of Competitron as it made millions in it's name. It's employees were pleased with how business is booming and keeping them preoccupied in making new games left and right. The designer was absolutely happy in his profession that he thought nothing would bring him down from his feeling.

…Well that is until today.

Stepping out of the elevator, a crowd of people slowly exited the compacted room before Edward stepped outside with a notepad and pen as he wrote up new, potential games. He was a man in his early thirties with his combed brown hair and green eyes. Currently wearing a green button up shirt, black pants and shoes along with a purple tie to complete his attire.

Walking towards his office as he hummed a pleasant tune, Edward pulled out a set of keys from his pocket and inserted one of them into the lock. As he turned, the key seemed to have jammed before thinking he must've used the wrong one. Trying again with a different key, due to him having quite a bit actually, but that seemed to have the same result as well.

Turning his head for a moment as he scratched his head in confusion before his eyes landed on the nameplate on his door… or lack of one.

"What's going on here? Where's my office?" Turning his head towards a janitor nearby, Edward he moved his hand towards unmarked room. "My door was right here." 

The janitor merely emptied his trash can before saying something to the employee. "'Was' is right."

Being really confused for a moment, Edward was about to speak when his eyes landed on his nameplate in the trash. Pulling it out, the designer raised his voice. "What's the meaning of this?!"

"What does it look like, Eddie?" A smug sounding voice called out from behind, causing Edward to turn around to come face to face with his boss: Daniel Mockridge. Currently wearing a grey suit, it complimented his combed black hair and moustach. "You're out of here.  
You're history. You're fired. Comprende?"

The software designer merely widened his eyes before they dangerously narrowed as he growled at the man. "Excuse me?! Have you lost what passes for your mind? You can't afford to do without me, Mockridge!"

All this did was widen Daniel's smile. "I can if you're gonna sue me for royalties."

"But I created the "Riddle of the Minotaur" game!" His voice was being heard throughout the office as things seemed to have quieted down on the floor. "This company is making millions from my genius!"

Mockridge merely scoffed. "Competitron Software's success didn't come from the product. Competitron is a corporate attitude. Its strength is in the deal." Pulling out a folded up document from his jacket pocket, the company owner presented it towards Nygma. "More specifically, the work-for-hire contract you signed."

Edward couldn't believe this. This had to be some sort of joke. He was supposed to get the royalties and copyrights towards the game in full once he retired, but from the document shown to him that seemed to be a pipe dream now. But when did he sign that. He never remembered touching such a document to begin with.

...Unless.

"You bastard!" Nygma yelled out as he lunged at Mockridge and grasped his suit jacket as they toppled onto the ground. Once there, Edward started to punch Daniel's face with rage across his features. "You tricked me into signing it, didn't you?! The last company party!"

What Edward was referring to was the company birthday party where all of it's employees, from the CEO to the janitor was invited. Things tend to be a bit crazy with most employees getting hammered with all of the alcohol they consumed. Nygma couldn't remember most of it, due to him drinking some of the stronger beverages, but last thing he could recollect was Mockridge offering him some bubbly and he was out.

Security came onto the floor and pried Nygma off of the bleeding CEO. "You had me drugged and made me sign it!"

"That man is crazy!" Mockridge said in desperation as his eyes were kept on his former employee.

As security had to escort the man off the floor, Nygma yelled out with a snarl on his face. "You're a fool, Mockridge! Thinking you can get away with this! I swear, I'll get back at you for what you've done!"

 _ **-Two Years Later, Present; Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

Most of the saturday morning rays peeked right through the blinds of Naruto's bedroom as he slightly tossed and turned in his sleep.

"...Oh hey there little buddy." Naruto mumbled in his sleep. "You look interesting with that rainbow colored horn of yours… Why are you aiming that at me?… And why is it glowing?... No… No… Stop shooting those rainbow lasers at me." More mumbles soon followed as he rolled around on his mattress, unaware of the person staring at him from his bedroom entrance.

"I almost forgot he talks in his sleep." Talia muttered with a chuckle. "Whatever he's dreaming is beyond me." Taking a look at some of the children's book manuscripts nearby, which he had to bring home from work for assessments, the Demon's heir got a decent idea.

Talia did know people tend to bring their work home to finish what couldn't be done in the office. Whether it's reports or projects that had to be done as soon as possible before their desired due dates. And editors for newspaper and publishing companies are no exceptions.

Her former student and love interest is not only the founder and CEO of the publishing company, he's also the editor-in-chief in the Gotham location. Sure he could have other editors that work under him take most of the workload off of him, but the whiskered Uzumaki wants to work his fair share just like the rest of his employees. Even if that means adding book after book he needs to go over the typical workload he usually has each day.

Of course the past two days were a little hectic for her potential husband.

Things were fine, at first, with the promised tour of the Gotham location. Talia saw how well each of his employees treated their boss as the work environment is what it should be. She imagined what it could be like when he _hopefully_ replaces her father one day as Naruto would have the respect of leading the vast organization with it's many followers.

At some point, the tour was interrupted when Naruto had to attend several important meetings that he seemingly forgot, causing him to silently panic under his calm facade. It was still good to see that from him as the Demon's Heir caught those surprised feelings, but played everything off like it was nothing. Naruto did apologize to her for having to end things there, but Talia didn't mind as she had plans of her own to attend to.

Her errands that day consisted on breaking into Arkham to research on both Pamela and Harleen. Talia did acquire a good amount of information about the two women, especially with the former becoming a metahuman due to her unfortunate accident. Dr. Isley's info was quite fascinating with her chlorokinesis when reading through the various documents. Being admitted at Arkham for five months due to her almost killing a handful of industrialists that harmed nature at the Grand Greenhouse.

'That did explain a little on why Naruto was defensive about going there. And on who that mysterious 'plant woman' that fought alongside the Dynamic Duo and Vanitas that one time.' She thought as she walked towards the kitchen to cook breakfast for her, Rachel and her guardian. 'Though I wonder if he knows what's currently going on at the greenhouse.'

After leaving Arkham, which took a while researching on the two, Naruto called Talia and asked her to pick up Rachel from school since he'll be stuck at the office for who knows when. She complied and got the ashen child home before heading out again with her going to the abandoned Grand Greenhouse. Once there, Talia saw the many flora seemingly move on their own with vast changes towards their typical appearance. There was even a lab station set up with an array of notes on different projects currently on the works.

Talia had a feeling that, if convinced properly, Pamela would join her father in order to save the planet and everything to be balanced like it once was years ago.

From there, Talia tracked down Batman while on patrol that eventing to see more on what he could do exactly to help more for her father's assessments. Not much else could be said about the caped crusader on his fighting prowess against various crimes being committed in the city. Though she still had distaste towards the man from what he did to his company's sonic drill earlier that day.

The following day, which was yesterday, was typically the same: dropping off Rachel at school, seeing Naruto at work for a bit before having to excuse herself so she could do more research while he attended important business meetings. This time it was infiltrating the GCPD to look up the criminal records on both Pamela and Selina Kyle. Pamela's was roughly the same on the one report on her arrest before being admitted at Arkham, but Selina's rap sheet was rather extensive on what she did in terms of burglary for the sake of saving the environment. Even on what history was brought up on the ravenette thief.

Before Talia could do more on her remembrance, she heard the doorbell ring… several times in succession.

"I wonder who that could be." She muttered as she set the frying pan on the back burner. Walking towards the door, she briefly left her guard down as she didn't check the peephole before opening up the door.

"Puddin!" An enthusiastic voice yelled out as it's owner glomped Talia. "I missed you so much!"

'What the-' The assassin thought before her lips were captured by the female in front of her. Talia widened her eyes before the woman's weight seemingly overcome her own, causing the two tumbling onto the ground. The fall caused the assassin to open her mouth, which lead to her downfall as a foreign tongue entered her orifice.

As Harley assaulted 'her puddin's' mouth with her tongue, a thought crossed her mind as she grinded against 'her boyfriend'. 'Strange… puddin would be tongue fighting me by now.' Without looking, the changed psychologist scrunched her face a little as an impromptu thinking appearance. 'Come to think of it, the tongue feels and tastes different.'

Harley's thought process ended as a familiar voice was heard from above at the doorway. "What the hell are you doing Harl?"

Ending the kiss; the pale blonde lifted her head, turned around and opened her eyes to see Pamela standing there next to Selena, who apparently had an odd mixed look of concern and contained laughter.

"Oh hey Red, Selina." Harley bubbly said. "I was just giving puddin a long awaited kiss from yours truly."

"I can see that." Pam started off before pointing towards the person underneath her blond friend. "Problem is, that's not Naruto."

Harley blinked a few times before looking down to see her straddling a strange dark brunette with wide, twitching blue-green eyes. The blonde awkwardly chuckled and sheepishly waved at the woman underneath her. "Uh… Hi."

There was no verbal response given, right away that is, as thoughts were trying and failing to be properly processed. One being the sudden entrance of one of Naruto's girlfriends, in which said girlfriend suddenly mouth raped her with the blonde's tongue. Talia didn't know why, but it felt rather arousing to her as the blonde's tongue invaded and wrestled with her own.

Putting that aside, the Demon's Heir was pissed for several reasons. She berated herself on lowering her guard in her potential husband's home. This was a mistake on Talia's part as someone could've attacked at a moment's notice. The assassin got used to relaxing so far here in Gotham, with Naruto mostly by her side, that she didn't expect something like this to happen.

On the ambush, Talia could've easily taken down her assailant instead of being in her current placement. Sure, said assailant didn't have any ill intentions at all as Harley did her actions blindly, thinking Naruto was answering the door instead of her. But what really pissed off the Demon's Daughter was that… was that...

'My first kiss… stolen… that bitch!' Talia frustratingly yelled inside of her mind. 'That kiss was supposed to be Naruto's! Not hers!'

Not knowing on what was brewing inside of the assassin's mind, Harley waved her hand in front of the woman's face. "Uh, hello? Anyone in there?" Snapping her fingers a few times, nothing seemed to be responding. "What's the matter with her?"

"Uh, Harley."

"Yes Selina?"

"Maybe you should get off of her. Like, right now."

"Oh! Yeah, right!" Quickly getting up from her position, Harley held out her hand towards the assassin off the ground. "Sorry about that. I thought you were someone else."

Snapping out of her mind filled rants, which somewhat consisted of beating up Harley for her earlier actions, Talia grasped the psychologist's hand before being pulled up. "I...It's fine… Just be sure to look next time before you act."

"...Yeah, I'll be sure to do that." Came Harley's chuckled response.

Dusting herself off, while giving Harley a bit of a stink eye, Talia spoke. "I take it you're Dr. Harleen Quinzel." Looking towards the women at the now closed off doorway, the assassin addressed them as well. "And you two must be Dr. Pamela Isley and Selina Kyle. I heard a lot about you from Naruto."

Selina was the first to properly greet the odd arrival. "And you must be Talia?"

"Yes that's right... And how do you know my name?"

"Naruto called me earlier this week and informed me of you showing up."

"Oh yeah, I got the same call as well." Turning over to the botanist, Harley spoke to her gal pal. "And I assume you got one as well."

"You can say that." Came Pam's response. Not through the typical means over a cellphone, due to not getting a good reception in Guatemala. So Naruto resorted to chatting with her through the Dreaming one night as he wondered how things were so far in the Latin-American country. "Asides from telling us you were here in town visiting, he told us of some his adventures 9-11 years ago with you."

"I hope they were good."

"Oh they were, I can assure you."

Soon the four heard the sounds of a pair of feet walking into the living room with a following yawn. Turning to the source, they saw Naruto in a pair of Kermit the Frog pajama bottoms with a plain white shirt. He seemed a bit drowsy as he walked a little further before he eyed his girlfriends. Blinking for a few moments, Naruto's mind started to wake up with a realization, causing him to widen his eyes.

"Crap! I forgot to pick you up from the airport Pam!" He yelled out before coming towards his redheaded girlfriend. "I'm so sorry, I should've woken up sooner! I was just so tired from work last night! Did you have to take a taxi to get on back?!"

Pamela merely waved him off with a small smile. "It's quite alright Naruto, Selina's flight arrived around the time mine landed so she gave me a lift."

"You're welcome by the way, thank you very much."

Looking at his ravenette girlfriend, he gave her a kiss on the cheek with a pleasant smile. "Thank you for doing me that solid Selina. I owe you."

"No problem." She then noticed something different in his boyfriend. Taking a better look, Selina widened her eyes slightly and addressed it. "Did you get a haircut Naruto?"

"Yeah, I did." He said as he ran his hand through the back of his head as the ponytail was now absent. "My hair got a bit too long and decided to get rid of it."

"I think it looks good on you puddin!"

Naruto was about to address his bubbly girlfriend when said woman jumped on him and claimed his lips with a lot of passion behind it. As this went on, Talia's eye twitched as a pang of jealousy ran through her as she wanted to be the one to kiss her former student at the current moment. But with Harley kissing her moments ago and now kissing Naruto, that seemed to be an indirect kiss to some degree.

'Though I still want to experience the feeling behind it.' Talia thought as she saw Harley break the kiss.

"Man, I know you missed me a lot Harley but why the extra 'umph' to it?"

"Well~ I may have done something recently that I wanted to make up for by kissing you."

Not knowing on what Harley met as he held onto her, Naruto's eyes landed on Talia. And before he could speak, his nose picked up something nice in the air. "I have a feeling you're cooking breakfast Talia?"

"Yes, but I had to put it on hold when answering the door when Harley here gave me an… interesting greeting."

Looking back and forth between the two, a thought came to mind. "Do I wanna know?"

"No." Came their shared response. They then looked towards Pam and Selina, which the later seemed in wanting to spill the info but relented as the thief decided to tell him when Talia's not around.

The group soon made it over to the kitchen as they picked up on their conversations while Naruto and Talia helped make breakfast. It wasn't long before Rachel came out of her bedroom and joined the group for the morning meal. The publisher asked his girlfriends on how their flights were and if their respective goods made it back in one piece.

On Harley's part, it wasn't much as it was mainly documents she got from the convention she went to for work. With Pam, it was obvious with her delivered plants will arrive at the botanical gardens by the end of the day or Monday at the latest. Selina had to speak a little more secretive with Talia around that her procured goods were back in her loft,, but she'll need to give them to Kurama sometime today.

As the six people started to eat, one topic eventually came up as they talked about Talia's Brough Superior parked in the garage as it used to mainly belong to the Uzumaki.

"...I don't see how much of a deal it is for you not wanting to own a motorcycle Naruto." Selina said before taking a small bite out of her omelette. "They're nice and quick to ride around and gives the pleasant rush when you're the one in control."

"It seems you have your fair share of experiences with motorbikes Selina." Talia stated as she eyed the thief.

"You can say that." Taking a sip of her drink, Selina spoke again. "Still Naruto, why don't you want one?"

"As much as I'd like to ride one nowadays, I prefer driving a car." Came the publisher's response. "Like you said, they're quick in terms of getting to place to place, but they're not great during the Winter time and if I need to transport other things with me."

"Well I think it would be fun owning one." Harley added in as she chowed down on a piece of bacon. "But I think I need some help driving a motorcycle if you get it puddin."

"I'd prefer not getting one since I wouldn't like you adding to the consumerism of producing more and more motored vehicles that are out in the market." Pamela chimed in as she took a swig of orange juice.

"If that was going to happen Pam, I would rather buy a used one over a newer model." Said the Uzumaki. "Can't really rely on the new stuff if their so happens to be problems without someone knowing when they're on the shelves."

Rachel didn't say much as she finished up her meal and placed her dishes in the sink. The current topic wasn't something she could get into as it was more of a 'grown up' topic in her opinion. All that she wants to do now was brush her teeth, shower and finish getting ready for the day before finding something to do to pass the time.

"So when will you go 'car shopping'?" Asked the thief.

"Next week. I need to wait for the insurance check to arrive in the mail either today or on Monday. Until then, I'll need to get around through other methods." Taking a glance at the nearby clock, Naruto quickly ate his meal and swallowed it.

"What's the rush Naruto?" Talia asked.

"I need to hurry up and finish getting ready before making my way to work."

"Can't you use our bike Naruto? I wouldn't mind."

Placing his dishes in the sink, the publisher answered his former teacher's question. "As much as I'd like to use it today, I really need to look presentable today for the meeting. Another reason is that I don't know how long it's gonna take and I don't want to hog your only ride on the day you need to head back home and see your father, I believe."

Talia clicked her tongue as Naruto was right. Today was the last day she could stay in Gotham and make it back in time to speak with her father in person. He has always been keen towards scheduling and never likes things running late unless no other option was available. She'll need to make it over to the League hideout outside of Gotham with her motorcycle before taking the plane stationed at the hidden airstrip.

With a small sigh, the Demon's heir spoke. "I suppose you're right."

"Thanks." Walking away from the kitchen, he looked at the four women present as an idea popped up. "If you guys have nothing planned for today, maybe you girls could hang out or something. Possibly get to know each other a little more."

The four looked at each other as some thoughts came to mind. With Naruto's lovers, they wanted to know more on who his former teacher and traveling companion was. As for Talia, this was the only chance she could possibly get to assess each of them in a more personal light to gather more information than from what she got from her research and from Naruto.

Each of them agreed in their own respective ways as Naruto smiled before making his way to clean himself up for work today.

 _ **-Spiral Publishing-**_

Things have been pretty well so far at the office. Naruto was able to have a clone go through a lot of documents he didn't get the chance to work on yesterday. This occurred before he submitted the rest of his corrections to the authors working for the company for possible approval before sending them out to the printers. Even going over some of Simon Trent's memoir chapters on what he brought in earlier today as he accepted the business offer some weeks ago.

And this was all done before the big meeting he had for today.

Speaking of, Naruto was in one of the building's meeting rooms as he was discussing a business proposition with a particular gaming company.

"...So you see, Mr. Uzumaki, we of Blizzard Entertainment are hoping we could form a partnership of you publishing what novels we wish to have out on shelves."

Eying one of Blizzard's representatives, Naruto had to state the obvious. "Are you sure you want my company to have the legal rights to publish any and all future books you want? Is that right?" Seeing the few representatives nod at this, Naruto continued. "From my understanding, there are hardly any novels that are tied in with video games… period. And all I know on what your company has made so far were just that: video and computer games. But why have the decision of going somewhere completely out of the norm?"

When he was informed earlier in the week that Blizzard Entertainment had contacted his office in wanting to discuss business, Naruto was quite curious on their offer. Not much happens every so often when a gaming company wants to seek out another business to print out advertisements for upcoming games if they're limited on their resources. And if Naruto originally knew it correctly, gaming companies would sometimes have certain book companies to print out gaming manuals on how to properly work and handle their games.

But to actually publish novels from them is something odd for the former shinobi.

"We understand your concerns, but there's a reason behind it." Seeing the whiskered publisher gave one of the Blizzard reps the go ahead, the man spoke. "You see, we plan on having writers develop tie-in novels to some of our upcoming games we have in production right now. And if things go well from there, then upcoming novels could be released alongside or in between new games"

"What, like with some of your racing games or 'Lost Vikings'?"

"Actually, it's with two new IPs. One's currently being made and planned to be released next year while the other is still being planned out."

"Okay… And what are they called and what are they about? I would like to get an idea before I consider moving forward with this deal."

And so the representatives told the publisher on what Warcraft and Diablo were about. Both games were of the fantasy genre with Warcraft adopting Dune II's "build base, build army, destroy enemy" mechanics while Diablo was more of a dungeon crawler with it's action role-playing. From there, the reps told the basic story synopsis on the two with orcs fighting against humans for Warcraft while Diablo has the typical Heaven vs Hell conflict on the mortal plane.

Each were good in their own right and while discussing both of the new gaming IPs, the reps explained the books would at least help expand each of the 'gaming universes'. Not everything could be explained all in one game, for obvious reasons, so what couldn't be included would be brought up in the novels. It's a hard process with what type of lore will be created, but it'll be worth it.

As things were being further discussed, with some of Naruto's managers inputting their thoughts, the Uzumaki looked outside briefly and saw something that caught his attention. What would normally be the stock update on the scrolling screen built into the building across the way seemingly blacked out before something replaced it. Someone tampered with it as he or she wanted to leave a message for just a minute before the stock update returned.

"...Mr. Uzumaki?"

Snapping his attention back to the meeting, Naruto tried to play along as he turned to one of his managers. "Yes?"

"What would you say about accepting their offer?" The one manager said in a hushed tone so only a select few could hear. "I would normally agree with the deal, along with the others, but it's somewhat your call."

Realizing that the possible end to the meeting has come, Naruto had to get things underway. Addressing the Blizzard reps across the table, the former shinobi spoke. "Gentlemen, I'd like to move forward with this opportunity. Though we could pick this up at another time to discuss numbers and contract issues, if that would be possible."

The reps had small smiles on their faces as they stood up from their seats and shook hands with Naruto and the managers in the room. The contract meeting will most likely happen next week, but it'll be a long process as it might take multiple sessions.

As the managers and the Blizzard reps left the meeting room, Naruto looked back outside towards the stock update screen as he remembered the message briefly shown.

 _Mockridge: Here's a riddle for you. Why do multimillion dollar deals break down in the Wasteland? Come tonight._

 _ **-Pauli's Diner-**_

Sitting in a corner booth; Talia, Pamela, Harley and Selina were having a pleasant conversation as their meals arrived. The assassin was getting to know Naruto's three lovers pretty well throughout the day so far and nothing seemed to halter her little goal. And right now, Selina was telling one of her past exploits to the Demon's Daughter.

"Your methods in procuring funds to help protect the environment are not so bad, Selina. And I'm not just talking about going to events and 'ask' for donations."

The thief merely smirked. "That's good to know."

"Which, of course, earned a few points in my book."

"That's what I said, when I was admitted in Arkham." The botanist said as she sipped her drink. "Then again, most environmentalists have to stay together."

It was then that Harley spoke up as she leaned back against her seat. "Though with how extreme they are, might draw the line. Take Pyg and Toad, for example. They were way too extreme in wanting to see their goals come to fruition, but fanatics tend to feel fully justified in the end."

Selina glanced over with a raised brow. "Just like someone we know."

Pamela groaned as she rolled her eyes. "One time and everyone will end up labeling me that way.

The assassin sucked in her teeth slightly at the mention on the environment extremists as her father could arguably be considered one. It's mostly covered up with most targets being made towards others wanting to harm nature as a whole. Though her train of thought ended when their appetizers arrived.

"...I don't understand your country's reasons for deep frying everything." Talia muttered as she eyed the plate of cheese french fries. "Hell, that's more oil than there is potato."

Picking up a french fry, Selina spoke her thoughts. "Sometimes things taste better that way." Taking a bite out of it, she chewed and swallowed. "Depending on what's being made and how it's prepared, it could be deep fried crack or really bland."

"To me it's just really unhealthy." Pamela said as she dug into her caesar salad. 'Even before and after my accident."

"You're missing out Red." Taking several cheese fries, Harley dipped them into her dipping sauce and ate them with a pleasant hum. "They can be finger-licking good."

"That's with KFC and the food here doesn't match up with what you just said." Stated the assassin as she took a bite out of the little appetizer.

"Whatever."

Throughout most of the day, the four women did what Naruto suggested and hung out together to get to know the opposite party a little better. Talia as one and the current girlfriends as the other. With Naruto's current girlfriends, it was a rare opportunity for them to have together since they were always working and hardly had time to spend time with one another when it's not with their boyfriend.

Once dropping Rachel and Isis off at the Crock residence, the four women hit the town and tried to see what they could do to kill time. Whether it was clothes and shoe shopping to update their closets or appreciating the human canvases of a variety of people passing by. Not much could be done asides from those activities, but neither didn't mind before they decided to get some lunch.

"I do have to admit, it's hard to tell if America or Ireland and Scotland has the better 'deep fried' food." Talia stated as she took a sip of her water.

"Why's that?"

"Well… most places in both Ireland and Scotland tend to deep fry anything edible. Like deep frying calzones, turkeys, candy bars and fruit for instance."

The changed botanist adopted a queasy look on her face when hearing some of those examples. "Those sound disgusting."

"Those sound delicious." Came Harley's thoughts.

"The calzone and turkey sound interesting, but candy bars and fruit… nope." Were Selina's words."

"I can agree with you on that Selina, but there's one item that really made me sick when I tried it."

"And what would that be?"

"Deep fried butter." Answered the assassin, getting disgusted looks from the three other women. "Yes, it is disgusting as it sounds. Literally a deep fried heart attack in a bar right there."

"And you actually tried it?"

Talia scrunched her face on the memory. "I was short on money at the time and I needed to win a bet against some men… Had to resort running several miles to burn off what I had ate, with throwing up just in case."

"...And there goes part of my appetite." The botanist said as she pushed the fries away from her a bit more. Force of habit really, even though she wasn't planning on eating them in the first place. Only the several servings of salad.

Wanting to change the subject, Selina wanted to ask what was on her mind. "I've been meaning to ask this, as it keeps escaping me every time, but how did you two meet?"

Harley perked up when hearing this, alongside Pam, as the psychologist spoke. "Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing."

Talia blinked when hearing this before she chuckled. "I'm surprised Naruto hasn't told you three yet."

Taking a bit out of her salad, Pam spoke. "Remember, he only told us of some of your little adventures together 9-11 years ago. Nothing else."

"Well that's a shame. And I figure you three want to know now, right?" Naruto's three lovers nodded, causing the assassin to readjust herself in her seat. "Then you girls better be comfortable, since this'll take a while."

"We've got a lot of free time to kill Talia." Spoke the thief as other plates of food arrived at their table. "There's no rush at all."

Taking a swig of water down her throat, knowing it'll be a long chat, the Demon's Daughter spoke. "It started eleven years ago where the two of us were in Osaka, Japan. When I first met him, I wondered why he hardly had any asian features about him. Asides from the fluent accent, Naruto did say he had an interesting gene pool that his European features won over the asian on varied aspects. Or so I was told with him saying he was an orphan from a very remote and isolated Japanese village that wasn't on any map."

When hearing this, the three girlfriends shared the same thought as it must've been Naruto's cover when coming to this reality since each of them did think the same thing. Their lover eventually told them that shortly after coming to this Earth, the Tsunade of this reality gave him a set amount of money and the excuse on his appearance before he went out to see the world. It wasn't much, but it was a start for him to go with.

Not knowing their thoughts, Talia continued. "Anyways, I was doing this one assignment for my father and I had to meet someone in Dotonbori, one of the busiest districts in Osaka. With how crowded it wa that day, it was hard to keep track of your belongings with everyone bumping into each other. Of course that happened to me as I lost my purse, which had a gun I kept with me for protection."

"...I'm sensing something bad happened afterwards." Was all Harley spoke as she felt uneasy with what was said. It was a little hard for her to eat her plate's contents now.

"Afraid so. With how busy the time of day was, it was hard to track on who followed me before I was brought into an alleyway. I fended off as many as I could before I felt pain in my neck and next thing I knew, I blacked out. When I woke up, I was rocking back and forth as I realized I was on a boat."

"Was it human trafficking?" Pamela asked. Despite how illegal it is, most countries in the world still have it going around in the black market.

"It wasn't. If it were, then I would've seen women and more _effeminate_ men in the brig."

"So why were you taken?"

Taking a bite out of her meal, the assassin soon answered. "You see... my father is a very, powerful man and has many enemies. Said enemies had men track me down and wanted to make an example out of me towards my father." Talia sighed a little as she adopted a thousand yard stare. "Of course they wanted to have some fun, while I was heavily drugged, before sending word to my father on their demands."

Pam, Harley and Selina adopted uneasy looks as they guessed on what happened. Though it was the botanist who asked it. "Did they… Did they rape you?"

Snapping back, Talia processed on what Pamela asked, causing her to quickly shake her head. "No! Thank god they didn't!... But they were about to after I got my fair share of bruises and cuts." Soon the assassin formed a small smile across her lips. "And when it was about to happen, Naruto came to save me as he knocked out the man who was going to do _that_."

Sharing a similar thought, the girlfriends wanted to know how their boyfriend came into play. Seemingly reading their thoughts by seeing their expressions, Talia answered their question. "Like I said before, Naruto was at Osaka that day and he saw me lose my purse. He tried to give it back to me through the crowd. When he was about to lose me, Naruto saw me get dragged off. He tracked me down all the way to the pier and snuck aboard the ship that I was brought into before taking care of some of the captors.

I did complain a little that he took his damn time, but with the storm taking place, I understood he had to go at a slow pace to lower the amount of men onboard. Shoving away my slight anger, we took care of the rest of the ship's occupants. He did pull in his fair share in the confrontation and when everything seemed calmed out on sea, Naruto had to push me out of the way as he was shot several times instead of me."

Harley gasped and leaned towards Talia before speaking in a demanding tone. "Was he alright? Tell me he was alright!"

"Harley, calm down." Pam ordered as she pulled her blonde friend back. "Naruto's alive and kicking, so obviously he was alright." Looking back at Talia, the botanist did ask though. "Was he?"

"Yes, he was alright. Bleeding but nothing serious. Though with how bad the storm was in the open sea, his wounds would've escalated worse as the ship tipped over. I don't know how, but even wounded, he saved me yet again by dragging me out of the water and into a lifeboat. And for the next two days, I helped tend to his wounds as I felt indebted to him.

Though he didn't think I owed him anything, which felt like an insult to me, as he felt that I needed to be saved at the time. We started to talk a bit more until help arrived and things were quite pleasant. Got to know each other, to some degree, since there was not much to do to pass the time inside of a lifeboat with very few supplies and no oars to help paddle ourselves quicker to shore.

Once reaching Shanghai, I had thought of parting ways with him but my pride of owing him my life made me stick around him as he wanted to travel. Even when I confronted him on me tagging along, he tried to get away from me a few times but I kept on finding him. Naruto did accuse me for a brief moment of me being a stalker, but after the second or third time of finding him he relented and decided to humor me.

As time went by, we became good friends as we traveled throughout most of Eurasia for two years while I taught him much on what I knew back then. We got to learn more about each other than we realized as it seemed we were inseparable." Talia said with a soft smile as a thought came to mind. 'Hell, my sister even told me that during the few times she ran into us.'

"Aw~ That's so sweet." Came Harley's response to hearing the tale. While Pam and Selina didn't exactly have the same response, but they did enjoy learning more on their lover's past.

Taking another swig of her drink, Talia spoke up suddenly. "There was even something else I learned about him. But before I tell you, I need to ask you this. In one word, what do you think Naruto is the personification of?"

The shared girlfriends thought for a moment before they gave their answers.

"Curious. Strong." Were Selina's answers.

"Earnest and loyal." The botanist said.

"Courageous? Determined?" Guessed the psychologist.

"Those sound just like him." Commented the assassin as the others nodded in agreement. "But the jury is still out for a clear 'definition' as I gazed deeper into him. For a time, I thought he was 'pure'. And I'm not talking about pure light since felt that his 'light' was shattered several times over through past conflicts. His light had been brought back together to intensify the feeling to combat against the darkness inside of him. I don't know how, but he made me interested in wanting to know how that occurred."

Not much could be said about that topic as the conversation shifted onto other things while the four ate in relative peace. The shared lovers briefly looked at each other as they somewhat understood what Talia ment while knowing Naruto's past before he came to this world. They don't know if they should tell Talia or not on the Uzumaki's past, since it was Naruto's right to do so. All they could do was try to enjoy this day with Talia before she had to leave town to god knows where.

 _ **-Evening, Batcave-**_

It had been a long day for Bruce Wayne as he paced back and forth in his secret lair. From the documents needed to be signed to looking over several projects currently in the works. Even checking up on the Coopers to see what new gadget they came up with for his batsuit.

When looking it over, it was a mini computer interface built into his left gauntlet as it was supposed to function like the batcomputer back in his cave. It's still in it's prototype phase, but it would at least help when he's out and about on patrols. From hacking into communication signals, help detect clues as it connects with his 'bat-vision' in his helmet and much more.

Putting that thought aside, his main focus was what happened earlier that day when he had a business meeting with Daniel Mockridge of Competitron. He wanted to sell the company to Wayne Enterprises as Bruce was interested in the deal. Moving the company to Gotham would create a large amount of jobs that the city's residents desperately need.

But as the meeting went on and on, the billionaire started to feel rather bored as Mockridge kept dragging sales pitches through the dirt among other things. Boasting about Competitron owning all rights to 'Riddle of the Minotaur' as they used many of the royalties to help create an amusement park to promote their company even further. Bruce thought if Mockridge kept that up then the billionaire would've just thrown the deal out of the window and call it a day.

Things did seem to come to a halt as the company owner seemingly paled all of a sudden and had to excuse himself from the room. Bruce didn't know what was wrong until he looked where Daniel was looking at. It wasn't long as the billionaire looked at the stock update screen at the building over and saw someone tampering with it to have a peculiar riddle plastered before it went back to normal within a minute.

"Why do multimillion dollar deals break down in the Wasteland? Come tonight." Bruce muttered to himself. "There has to be a double meaning."

As this went on, Dick Grayson was currently playing a computer game on the batcomputer. From what the Wayne butler could see on the computer screen, it was some sort of maze-like game with a little sprite character combing through the intricate pathways. Not much could be done for the retired British agent as he couldn't make heads or tails of what he's seeing.

"Master Dick," spoke the butler as he looked at the young ward, "that must be quite a game to be worth tying up a $50 million piece of equipment." A response wasn't given before Alfred waved his hand in front of the college student's face to break his concentration. "Shouldn't you be doing your homework by now?"

Looking at the Wayne butler, Dick shrugged a little before answering. "Already finished Alfred and besides, it's only the first week of the new semester so not much is going on now." He then went back back towards the game as he made some correction. "Also it's not a game, Alfred, but _the_ game." Pressing the pause function on the keyboard, the title card was shown to the older man. "Riddle of the Minotaur. It's pretty cool."

Alfred merely rolled his eyes a little since children these days have different thoughts on what is popular. "If you say so, Master Dick."

Seeing Alfred wasn't convinced, Dick unpaused the game and showed the butler. "Look. Not only do you have to avoid all these traps, you've gotta solve all these riddles." Moving his character sprite to a Question Mark on the map, a text box appeared on the screen with three little diagrams: a zigzag line, a straight line and a curved line.

"What is the shortest distance between a point in Nome, Alaska and a point in Miami, Florida?" The butler read off.

"Why it's a straight line, of course." The Grayson acrobat said as he pressed a certain key command to select the option.

"Begging your pardon, sir, but mightn't the answer on a globe be a curved line?" It wasn't long after that was said that a golden hand appeared on screen and grasped the sprite character and started to move it. "What's that?"

"Oh, that. That's the Hand of Fate." Answered the young ward. "When you make a mistake, it picks you up and takes you to another part of the maze."

While things were being discussed, Bruce was getting his batsuit on as he fitted his new gauntlets into place. Though all that he could think about was 'the wasteland'. Nothing much seemed to fit until he remembered who the riddle was aimed towards.

"Doesn't Mockridge own a club downtown called The Wasteland?" Asked the Bat.

Suddenly Dick groaned as he covered his face with his hands. "Seriously, 'The Wasteland'!"

"Right. The Wasteland."

Looking back towards his guardian, Dick shook his head before doing corrections as he wasn't paying attention to what Bruce was talking about. "What? No. I meant in the game." Pointing towards the screen, the sprite character was currently locked up. "It's a dead end, see?"

Realizing his charge wasn't listening earlier, Batman grabbed Robin's costume and threw it at him and ushered him to quickly change. "Come on. Daniel Mockridge is walking into a trap."

 _ **-Wasteland Nightclub-**_

What would normally be a busy Saturday night for a nightclub was quite vacant as the building was closed down for renovations. With the darkened dance floor and lights not turning on, it was hard for the Competitron owner to navigate through the hallways. Though it was a little easier for him as he saw a light coming from his office.

"Nygma?" Mockridge voiced out as he opened the door. Seeing a shadowy figure sitting in his chair, with the desk light illuminating part of the man, the company owner narrowed his eyes and addressed his former employee. "Nygma!"

"Did you decode that message all by yourself, Mockridge?" The former software designer asked with a hidden brow under the shadows. "Or did you have help?"

All Daniel did was glare at Edward and growled at him. "You're trespassing, Nygma. Get out. You can't kill this deal. I'm selling Competitron to Wayne and you can't stop me."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Of course I'm sure! I had you blacklisted for a reason."

"And it's that same action which caused me to no longer able to find a job replacement after what you did to me." Nygma said with a sneer as he tightened his hands into a fist. "And because of your greed, I couldn't sue the company at all for what was rightfully mine." Suddenly, the former Competitron employee took a deep breath and swirled the chair around to face his former employer. "But I have a proposition for you Mockridge. Something that you might like."

Mockridge widened his eyes slightly as his lips went into a smile, showing that his greed started to surface. "You've come up with a new game?"

Nygma merely tilted his head before he saw Daniel's eyes landed on a peculiar object on the table. "You mean this?" Seeing the man nod, Edward shook his head in response. "No, this puzzle is far more than any mere game." Holding up the contraption, it appeared to be a set of five rings hooked together. Quickly moving them around, Edward was able to separate them before hooking them back up. "Solve this and then we'll talk."

Mockridge narrowed his eyes as he walked towards his desk and snatched the rings out of Edward's hands. He fumbled around with them as he saw his former employee have a smug look on his face. It wasn't long as the rings started to apparently shrink all of a sudden as they tightened around his hands.

"What the hell is this?!" Mockridge yelled out as he tried to get his hands loose. "Some kind of extortion scheme?!"

Nygma then got up from his seat and walked around the desk as he addressed the captive man. "You think I want money, Mockridge? No, no, no." Nygma revealed his intentions while snapping his fingers as several thugs came out from the shadows. "All I want now is you."

Suddenly a sound was made from outside of the office, causing Nygma to walk on out and peer into the dance floor below. There stood the Dynamic Duo as they looked around inside of the darkened building.

"Well, well." Nygma voiced out, causing the heroic pair to turn towards the source. "So you're the infamous Batman and Robin. Who invited you two to this private meeting?" Descending the stairs, Nygma kept his eyes on the pair.

"You know what happens to gamecrashers?" Pressing a button on his cane, a spotlight turned on to reveal Nygma's appearance. He currently wore a black button up shirt underneath a green three piece suit. Additions towards his suit were the green tie, leather gloves, shoes and question mark pin on the jacket that matched his green domino mask and the hood covering up most of his facial features. To finish off his appearance is the cane with a metallic hook on the pommel. "They have to match wits with The Riddler."

"The Riddler?" Asked the Bat. "What is that, Nygma, some kind of joke on your name?" All this did was earning a questionable look from Robin.

The now pronounced Riddler chuckled in response. "My, my. Can we actually have a brain beneath that pointy cowl of ours?" It wasn't long before a pair of thugs walked up as the Riddler continued. "So tell me, do you have brawn to match your wits?"

Soon the goons went into action as they pulled out their loaded weapons and started firing at the Dynamic Duo. The pair rolled out of the way as they pulled out their respective batarangs before throwing them at the goons. Seeing this happen, one of them was able to move out of the way in time while the other couldn't as the throwing weapon knocked the gun out of his hand. Before the thug could pull out his sidearm, Robin came in close and kicked the thug away while another took his place.

As this happened, Batman leaped over one of the tables before kicking one of the thugs. Rolling for recovery, the Bat lunged towards a nearby goon and delivered a spin kick at the man's chest before striking another with his elbow. Seeing his partner running towards him, Batman quickly kicked a goon into Robin's path so the masked Grayson would leap on top of him to knock him out before kicking an incoming pair.

While this occurred, the Riddler pressed a button on his cane which caused the night club's hanging lights to turn on and start spinning around in a circle. The fixture accelerated in place as sparks started to come off while lighting up the room in a array of colors. Before long, one by one the bulbs popped as fire started to ignite from above.

The battle continued as the Duo fought what goons were on the dance floor, even with the growing fire surrounding them. One of the thugs got the better out of Batman, who currently was on the floor by a lucky shot. Seeing the opportunity present itself, said thug picked up a nearby security pole as was about to bring it down when Robin came flying in and kicked the goon away, who fell into a pile of broken rubble.

As all of the goons were down for the count, the heroic pair heard the sounds of clapping off to the nearby door with the Riddler smirking at them with Mockridge being carried outside by a pair of thugs. "Well done. It seems you two really do know how to scrap. But I wonder if you you could save two people at the same time?"

Lifting up the cane and aiming it at the heroes, Nygma pressing a button as something was shot out from the end. Batman was able to roll out of the way, but not Robin as he was ensnared by a cloth that started to constrict around him. The masked grayson did what he could to free himself, but there was no such luck.

"It's my own variation on the Chinese finger puzzle." The Riddler said as he walked out of the doors. "Ta ta Batman."

Quickly grabbing the ensnared Robin, Batman ran out of the burning club as he heard the sounds of tires squealing. As he stepped outside, he saw a van speeding right out of the alleyway and into the night.

"Batman!" Robin's muffled voice was heard in duress as his confinement has caught on fire. "It's getting hot in here. Get me out of this thing!"

"Need some help!" A familiar voice called out from above, getting Batman to realize it was Vanitas. "With Bird Boy's cries for help, how could I say no." Jumping down with his windlance, Vanitas made a small gust of wind to kill the flames before slicing through Robin's entrapment. From there, the masked Uzumaki ran inside and conjured a gust of wind vacuum to eat up the flames. "And that takes care of that."

 _ **-On the Streets-**_

Riding his motorcycle next to the batmobile, Vanitas reflected a little on the events leading up to the current situation.

After heading home from work, Naruto prepared dinner for his girlfriend's, Talia, Rachel and Isis. His old friend was leaving tonight and he wanted to make something nice for her before Talia left town. Naruto did learn the four women had a good time hanging out together, but his girlfriends seemed to be sporting concerned looks across their features during the evening meal.

As he excused himself to use the restroom, Naruto had a clone replace him while the real one went out to do his nightly patrols. Things were rather quiet in terms of nightly activities as this gave him time to figure out what the one riddle he saw earlier was exactly. All that Naruto could make out of it was the Wasteland nightclub that he, Selina and Harley went to one time.

By the time he got there, he saw parts of the building were ablaze with Batman holding a confined Robin. Vanitas did create a clone and had it gather up the unconscious thugs before transporting them to the GCPD as the original traveled with the Dynamic Duo.

'And such a waste of a good nightclub.' Thought the masked publisher as he kept up with the batmobile. 'At least there are others here in the city or else the girls and I wouldn't have that much fun.'

Taking a quick glance outside from inside of the batmobile, Robin eyed Vanitas as he thought of the helmeted hero knowing Batman's secret identity a few nights ago. It was quite disconcerting as he of all people found out who Bruce really was in such a predicament, but nothing could be done about it. Though the one League of Shadows woman Bruce talked about, Warith, knew his identity as well which could cause them to be targeted at some point if someone wanted Batman dead and ordered the assassin group to do the deed.

'I just hope things don't bite us in the ass because of that.' Dick thought before shaking his head and turning to his mentor. "I've been meaning to ask this earlier, but what did you mean 'a joke on his name'? You know who he is, right?"

Batman nodded as he drove through the Gotham highway. "I figured the creator of the Minotaur game was behind this when I saw that riddle plastered on the stock update screen earlier." The Bat then explained the details behind it. "I read about him in the Competitron company records before the meeting I had today. His name's Nygma, Edward Nygma."

Blinking at the realization, Robin spoke. "I get it now. 'E. Nygma', meaning a puzzle or riddle. An enigma. At least we know who we're looking for."

Their conversation soon ended as they heard tapping on the vehicle's windows, causing them to look to see Vanitas pointing towards the city lights… as they started to flicker on and off. Coming to a stop, Batman and Robin hopped out of the batmobile and walked towards the highway's edge to see a certain pattern was being made.

"Someone's tampering with the electrical grid." Vanitas spoke as he stood beside the heroic duo. "And by the looks of it… I say it's morse code."

Batman nodded as he pulled up his mini-computer on his gauntlet and started typing away in hopes of getting the message decrypted as soon as possible.

In another part of town, the Riddler was typing away on the electric grid's main console before setting a timer to have the system return to normal.

"And… Done." Nygma said as he walked away with a handful of knocked out and killed guards lying on the ground. "That should get their attention."

"Why'd you do all of this boss?" One of Nygma's thugs asked as he scratched his head. "I mean, you got the guy you wanted."

"He's right." Spoke another thug. "Why are you doing all this and possibly warning the cops or Batman for that matter?"

"Because Batman knows who I am." The former software designer answered. "We have to put him and his snot-nosed cohort out of the way first." As he walked further away, he felt a gun being pressed against his head. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"You promised me my money and I'm getting sick and tired of waiting for it." Pulling back the safety, the goon growled at the cane wielding man. "So hand it over or else I'll blow your brains out."

Nygma merely sighed as he spoke. "Then answer my riddle first and I'll pay you right away." Coughing into his hand, the Riddler spoke his riddle. "What question can you never answer 'yes' to?"

"I don't give a crap. I want my money now."

Soon the Riddler spun around and smacked the goon with his cane before slamming his back against the wall. Putting the cane up against the man's neck, Nygma glared at the hired thug. "The correct answer is: are you dead?"

And with a quick swipe, the Riddler brought the hook part of his cane across the man's throat to slice it open.

"Now are there any more questions from you lot on when you get paid?" Seeing no response, Nygma rolled his eyes. "That wasn't a riddle, just so you know. And as for getting paid, I was planning on doing so once we drop Mockridge at our next stop. From there, you boys will be free to go."

As the cane wielding man walked out of the room, the remaining goons looked at each other as they quickly followed.

"Hey Murph."

"Yeah Carl?"

"How come we're working for this guy again and not for the Joker?"

It was one of the other men who answered first as he surprisingly had a high, squeaky tone to his voice. Something that could be akin to a certain cartoon mouse. "Because the clown shot my penis and balls off! That's why!"

"Oh right, sorry."

Back with the heroic trio, Batman was able to read off the message on his mini-computer before walking towards the batmobile.

"What did it say Batsy?" Vanitas asked as he quickly summoned a handful of clones before getting onto his motorcycle. Even though the three were going after this Riddler fellow, people were obviously getting hurt with what the man has done to the city's electrical grid. So his clones will be sent out to help take care of the damage.

"When is the minotaur's owner as high as an elephant's eye?"

Hearing this, Robin scratched his scalp as he got into the bat themed vehicle. "Well, Mockridge owns 'The Minotaur', but what's 'as high as an elephant's eye'?"

"It's corn Dickie." Vanitas voiced out, getting Robin to glance at the helmeted hero as the man called him by name. "Corn can grow up to 15 ft. or so and that reaches an elephant's eye."

"Okay… so what's he saying?: When Mockridge is corny? When Mockridge is in the corn?"

It was then Batman came up with the answer. "What's another word meaning 'corn'?"

"Kernel? Cob? Maize?... Wait, it's maize! When Mockridge is in the maize!"

"And the only maze I can think of is the one at the Competitron Amusement Park."

"Good to know." Vanitas said before he revved up his motorcycle engines before racing down the highway. "Then let's go!"

 _ **-Competitron Amusement Park-**_

It took a bit of time getting towards their destination outside of Gotham, but it was quite easy finding to quickly get to the Riddle of the Minotaur Maze attraction with it located at the center of the park. Lights were being projected onto its walls with green question marks spray painted among the white marble. As the three heroes walked up it's steps, a projection was being played across the maze entrance with the Riddler in all his glory.

" _Ah~ The Dynamic Duo and Vanitas. I didn't expect you to be with them, but I suppose there would have to be at least one good brain amongst the group if you three solved my riddle."_

"Where's Mockridge Nygma?!" Batman called out, getting a chuckle from the cane wielder.

" _Oh, he's right here."_ Switching the video feed showed Mockridge tied down onto a table with a giant mechanical minotaur, appearing ten or so ft. in size, hovering over him. _"In the center of the maze, along with my friend Mr. Minotaur and his friend, Mr. Scimitar."_ Returning the feed back to Nygma, the man pulled out his pocket watch as he spoke. _"And I believe he has about ten or so minutes before they become very well acquainted indeed. So unless you can-"_

"Is this a skippable cutscene?!" Cried out the masked Uzumaki. "Since this is supposedly a game, I think there should be one."

Nygma just dully stared at Vanitas with a twitch of his eye. _"Well… Aren't you eager."_ Recomposing himself, the Riddler addressed the three heroes. _"Now before either of you enter, you must throw down your utility belts. It'll be more interesting that way, don't you think?"_

Looking at the Dynamic Duo, Vanitas spoke his thoughts. "Should we really be doing this? I mean, I heard this Mockridge guy is a real jerk." Seeing the two glare at him, Vanitas rolled his eyes as he unclipped his belt. "Okay, fine."

Seeing them place their belts onto the ground, Nygma pressed a button to open up the door beneath the projection. _"Now you may enter."_

With the heroes entering through the door and into the maze, the door behind them quickly shut. Vanitas went towards it and tried to phase right through when an electrical current ran right through him. The masked Uzumaki screamed a bit before being blasted back, in which the Dynamic Duo were able to catch him.

" _I forgot to mention this, but once you enter you cannot leave until you answer the Riddle of the Minotaur."_ The Riddler spoke out through the speaker system. _"I can't wait to see if you pass or not."_

As the speakers were cut off, Vanitas got back up and shook himself a bit before running off ahead with Batman and Robin not far behind. "So… Have either of you guys played this game before? I clearly haven't."

"Only halfway through." Came Robin's answer, causing Vanitas and Batman to groan a little.

"Great~ I love this already."

Coming across an intersection of the maze, Batman spoke to his partner. "Now where to?"

"I'm thinking. I'm thinking."

A panel soon opened up from one of the walls, revealing a mechanical griffin as it made it's way towards them.

"Could you do it more quickly?" The Bat demanded as he went on guard.

"Oh, the griffin." Robin said as he walked a bit closer to it. "That just blocks off the way you came, that's all. And the only way past it is by answering it's riddle."

As the mechanical griffin stalked closer, a synthesised voice spoke to them. _"Feed me and I live. Give me drink and I die. What am I?"_

"Oh that's easy. It's fire!"

On what Robin expected for the robot to stop moving, it instead opened its mouth and launched a fireball towards them. The three quickly ducked out of the way as the blast made a hole at the nearby walls. Not wanting this to happen, Vanitas summoned his ice shield and slammed it down to create ice spears to destroy the mechanical griffin.

"...That's not supposed to happen."

Soon the speakers went back on as Nygma's voice was heard. _"Since I'm the original creator of this fine game, I took the liberty of adding in several software patches to my design. So if the original traps don't kill you, then surely my new ones will."_

When the speaker went dead, the three ran through the twisted corridors as they saw a sign pointing towards the left with the word 'anatidae' written there.

"Anatidae?" Robin voiced out as they went that direction.

"Biological family of hornville waterfowls." Batman answered as they kept running. "Mostly comprised of swans, geese and-"

"DUCK!" Vanitas cried out as he pulled the two down to the ground. Looking back up, the three saw various buzzsaws running through the one hallway. "...Seriously! Borrowing a trap from Indiana Jones!"

"Yeah, I think Nygma was borrowing elements from that film on that trap." Robin added in before the speakers came back on.

" _I did not take inspiration from that film!"_ The Riddler roared out before he coughed into his hand a few times. _"Have you ever heard of Pharaoh Amenemhet II?"_

"Can't say that I haven't." Came Vanitas' response as the three crawled underneath the buzzsaws before entering the empty corridors.

" _He created a labyrinth in Egypt that consisted of thousands of rooms and courtyards and also built a brilliant maze inside his own pyramid to thwart tomb raiders."_ Nygma explained as the three heroes ran through the maze before encountering three mechanical griffins, which started shooting fireballs at them. _"My game's inspiration came from his maze as I am it's architech, it's maze-master."_ Vanitas quickly formed a barrier around them as the Dynamic Duo soon jumped out and landed onto the griffins. The two mech fired at their targets, who jumped out of the way in the last second, resulting with their heads blown off. _"And you three are the tomb raiders who wandered into the coming grave that would soon hold Daniel Mockridge's corpse!"_

Just when Vanitas destroyed the final griffin, Batman called out to the 'maze-master'. "I'll find Mockridge, even if I have to tear this place apart Nygma!"

This only earned a chuckle in return. _"I highly doubt it since no one has ever reached the center of the maze before. Oh and you three have eight minutes before Mockridge becomes one of the only good corporate sharks out there these days: a dead one."_

"Then I hope it's worth it since I think Myst was a much, harder puzzle solver!" Cried out the helmeted publisher. Looking at the Dynamic Duo, the hero tilted his head slightly. "What. That game was fucking hard when I first played it and I think _this game_ is much easier."

Hearing this made Robin nod his head in agreement. "I actually agree with you Vanitas. That game was harder and I haven't finished through a fourth of it just yet."

Shaking his head, Batman ran off ahead with the two soon following close behind. It wasn't long before the group got into a seemingly dead end with a plague show between two pathways. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be in arabic.

"Do either of you read this?"

Just as Batman was about to use his mini-computer, Vanitas quickly answered. "It says 'Which way to the eating place?'" Looking back at them, he rolled his eyes behind his helmet. "There's a lot you two don't know about me."

"Obviously." Came Robin's remark. "But seriously: Which way to the eating place?"

Seemingly tired of the riddle, with no other clues being shown, Batman ran towards the left. "Just pick one and move!"

As Robin soon followed his mentor, Vanitas called out to them. "You're going the wrong way!"

"Crap, he's right!" The masked Grayson cried out as he saw a floating, golden hand coming their way. "Because here comes the Hand of Fate!"

Having to turn around, Batman and Robin made their way back as they went back to the crossroads. Needing to buy them time, Vanitas used his ice shield and created a wall to stop the golden hand's advancement. Seeing it was stuck in place, for now, the helmeted Uzumaki walked down the other hallway.

"I was going to tell you guys that in the Arab world, you eat with your right hand." Seeing the pair at the dead end, he soon saw three odd keys hanging next to what appears to be a doorway. "And Nygma was planning on having cops do this?"

"Seems that way. Which is ridiculous unless there was someone really smart in the GCPD." Robin said as he looked at each of the keys. "Any idea which one opens the door?"

"And why are they labeled A, C and D?" Questioned the Bat.

Vanitas and Robin merely shrugged at this. "Don't look at us." 

Picking the 'D' key, Batman inserted it into the lock and twisted it. Nothing appeared to have happened until they heard a panel slide open. Turning towards the source, they saw a pair of giant blades spinning right towards them.

"Look out!" Vanitas cried out as he quickly slammed his shield onto the ground to create an ice barrier. Though with how quickly the blades were going, they cut right through it before slamming into the nearby wall. "So… Ah, try another one Bats."

"Okay. 'A' this time."

Just when Batman was about to insert the 'A' key, Robin grasped his mentor's wrist. "No, wait! Turn that key and there'll be three blades."

"But how do you-"

"It's the 'C' key. Trust me."

Trusting his protege's words, he placed the 'A' key back onto it's hook before picking up the 'C' key. Placing it into the lock, the three heroes soon hugged the wall, with Vanitas at the ready, just in case if any giant blades were to show up. Twisting the key, the door started to open."

Behind his helmet, Vanitas widened his eyes on realization. "It's a musical puzzle." 

Robin nodded as he explained. "The 'D' key has two sharps. The 'A' has three. But 'C' has none." 

Just when they were about to enter, another mechanical griffon entered the corridor. Not wanting to deal with it, the Dynamic Duo ran into the opened doorway while Vanitas focused power into his shield to create ice spears and sent them at the mechanized beast.

"I'm getting really tired of these things." He said before joining the two. As he reached the two, he saw three markers with a zigzag line, a curved line and a straight line. "Any idea what this riddle is about?"

"The shortest distance between two points on a globe." Robin answered before feeling Vanitas' eyes look at him. "I… failed this riddle while playing the game earlier this evening."

 _"Less than one minute."_

Hearing Nygma's warning, Batman turned to Vanitas and asked him something. "Mind if I borrow one of your daggers?"

Raising a brow at the request, the helmeted Uzumaki complied as he formed several in his palm. After saying a quick 'thank you', Batman ran down the left doorway as he spoke to his protege. "Stay here."

"But that's the wrong door!" Robin cried out as he started to run after the Bat. "The Hand's going to get you!"

"That's the plan!"

Soon the giant, floating hand of gold came swooping in as it picked up Batman off of the ground. Trying to steady himself, the caped crusader took hold of one of it's fingers and used Vanitas' daggers to it's 'skin' to pry open the mechanized compartment.

Not knowing what his mentor was doing, Robin was running after him before he heard Vanitas call out to him. "Robin! Hop on!"

Looking back, Robin saw Vanitas coming towards him quick on one of his floating playing cards as they started to follow right after Batman.

"...Hey Vanitas."

"Yeah?"

"If you were able to do this… Why didn't you do this earlier? I mean, it would've saved us the trouble."

…..

…..

…..

…..

"Son of a bitch!"

Soon Nygma's voice was heard through the speakers as he growled at the heroes. _"This is grand-scale cheating! You can't tamper with the Hand of Fate!"_

"I don't believe in fate, Nygma, since we make our own!" Vanitas retorted as thoughts of Neji Hyuuga came into his mind during their younger years. With the Hyuuga prodigy proclaiming fate always made their destiny happen. But Naruto showed him during the Chunin Exams. 

" _And here I thought you lot followed the rules!"_

"Apparently not yours." Came Robin's remark as the three heroes hoped of their respective, floating transports to land on the ground safely.

" _You probably don't believe in minotaurs either."_ Spoke the Riddler. _"But you still have to answer the riddle for you three to make it out alive with Mockridge intact."_

Without much warning, the minotaur's eyes started to shine as it's synthesised voice spoke to the three heroes. _"I have billions of eyes, yet I live in darkness. I have millions of ears, yet only four lobes."_ As the mechanized beast spoke the riddle, it's scimitar inched closer and closer to Mockridge's stomach making the man squirm in his tied position. _"I have no muscle, yet I rule two hemispheres... What am I?"_

Batman stroked his chin as he thought over the riddle a few times in his head. And before the blade could pierce through the company owner, the Bat quickly answered. "It's the human brain." Soon the mechanized beast powered down while Batman explained the answer. "Billions of optic and auditory nerves four lobes and two hemispheres. And it's the only thing Edward Nygma respects above all else."

Nygma merely clicked his tongue when the Batman answered his riddle. _"A lucky guess, that's all."_

"I solved your riddle Nygma. Now let us go!" The Bat demanded.

" _Oh, I will. Just as soon as you answer one last riddle, all because you three cheated!"_

The three heroes soon heard the minotaur's metal groan as it's armor started to shift and churn. Not wanting Mockridge to be close to the mechanized beast, Batman and Robin rushed forward and were able to cut the company's owner's bindings loose. Getting away from the minotaur, with Mockridge on toe, the heroes saw the robot step back as the floor underneath opened up.

" _I begin and have no end. And I end all that begins."_ Mechanical arms rose from the opening as they applied pieces of armor into the robot's 'skin' openings. _"I am always around, but never seen."_ The minotaur started to become larger and more intimidating than from before with it's new rustic armor covering its golden skin. _"I am often avoided, but never outrun. I might find you at the end of the road or around the corner."_ Finishing off it's appearance, the scimitar seemed to have extended to compliment with the robot's new appearance. _"Who am I?"_

Robin merely swallowed a lump of air in his throat as he looked at the being in front of him with it clearly dwarfing Solomon Grundy by a good margin. Batman looked onward as he tried to figure out the robot's weak points in hopes of taking it down. All Vanitas could do was to summon his scythe as he had it at the ready before stating Riddler's answer.

"You are Death."

" _Right you are!"_ As the minotaur's eyes opened up with it's intense glow, the mechanized beast roared at the heroes and now unconscious Mockridge. _"More speci_ _ **fically!**_ _ **YOURS!"**_

 _ **-Insert God of War: Pandora's Guardian Extended-**_

The minotaur slammed it's unarmed fist onto the ground several times, causing cracks to quickly appear as the heroes moved out of the way from the stampeding mech. The result had several maze walls break down on the impact. Not wanting the civilian getting hurt, despite on how much of an asshole he apparently is, Vanitas quickly made a clone and had it get the man out of the maze via floating Fair Play platform.

Seeing the main target starting to flee, the Riddler ordered his mech to go after him as he spoke through it's speakers. _**"You're not getting away!"**_ Needing the better reach as it started to break through several walls, the minotaur swung its scimitar in hopes of slicing through the card platform. The attempt failed as a scythe appeared in it's swinging path, blocked the blow before Vanitas teleported to it's position.

"I don't think so Riddler!" The helmeted hero cried out before using much of his strength to not only parry the minotaur's blade, but leave a deep crack. From there, Vanitas spun the blade to leave several gashes into it's armor as he poured power into his bladed weapon.

Soon explosions were made across the mech's back as Batman and Robin threw some of the exploding cards Vanitas made for them. Running at the mech, they jumped onto the walls before launching themselves a bit higher into the air. They soon landed onto the mech's armor and held on as they brought Vanitas' daggers out before stabbing into what openings they could find.

Starting to feel something penetrate its 'skin', the mech roared as it started to thrash about like a typical mechanical bull. Spinning and turning in hopes of ridding itself of the pests. Robin wasn't that fortunate as his grip slipped causing him to fall down, but Batman was able to catch him just in time before swinging him back up onto the armor.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." As Batman kept his hold, he gritted his teeth as he brought his hand onto his gauntlet and typed a command. "When I give the signal Robin, you need to let go!"

Robin widely looked at his mentor and thought he was crazy. "But I just got back up here!"

"I trusted you earlier, so trust me in return!"

As Vanitas kept the minotaur at bay, with his strikes and cloned distractions that soon broke the scimitar, Robin kept up with his assault as he tried to focus on his surroundings. With everything moving so quickly, it was hard to register one thing from the other. All that he could somewhat register in his field of vision was the Hand of Fate coming right towards them.

"Jump!"

Registering the command, Robin let go as he soon fell onto something hard. Looking around a bit, he saw them flying above the maze and towards the maze's entrance. He soon looked on to what he and Batman were on and realized it was the Hand of Fate.

"When were you able to control this?" Robin questioned before he saw the mini-computer shown on Batman's gauntlet.

"I hacked into its systems earlier." The Bat said as typed in more commands. "Now hang on, we need to get back to the entrance to grab our gear and fight this mechanized beast."

Back with the helmeted Uzumaki, he saw the Dynamic Duo get away from the crumbled area. With them vacated out of the area, for now by his guess, Vanitas threw his scythe behind the mech in a buzzsaw-like fashion. Teleporting to it's location, the hero dug his scythe's blade deep into the minotaur's back. Feeling the blade barely touch it's skin, with how deep the blade penetrated, the mech started to go rampant and break through various walls in hopes of getting rid of the pest on it's back.

"Yee-Haa!" Cried out the helmeted hero. "C'mon little doggy!"

" _ **Stop riding my minotaur, you neanderthal!"**_

"Make me!"

And so the Riddler took the challenge. Ordering his minotaur to thrash even more and break through the many walls of the maze attraction. Vanitas did let go a few times, but he used his twilight scarf to latch back onto his scythe and onto the minotaur's armor continue the wild ride. But he didn't want to keep delaying his attacks at one point. So he quickly formed a clone and had it used his Kazekage lance to ride around the mech for a distraction. Prying out his scythe, Vanitas swung around and brought it's blade down onto the minotaur's helmet to break most of it off in one hit.

" _ **Stop doing that!"**_ Spoke the Riddler as the minotaur smacked Vanitas away from it's optics. But this left an opening for the clone to come charging right in through the sky as the wind lance pierced through the armored chest piece. It soon exploded, causing the piece of armor to crumble to expose its belly.

With the original, Vanitas groaned out a little as he soon saw the returning Dynamic Duo on top of the golden Hand of Fate. The pair threw their batarangs at the mech, causing some of them to pierce the skin and explode to expose the hardware inside. The Duo soon jumped off of the floating hand as the minotaur smacked it away before the heroes used their grappling guns to latch onto the mech's horns.

"Did we miss anything?!" Robin cried out as he wrapped around the robot.

"Some of it, yeah!" Vanitas answered as he summoned a Kazekage lance and threw it at the mech's chest. But to his mild-surprise, the minotaur smacked it away. He tried it again and again, but each of his projectiles kept getting smacked away as it was learning from the previous attacks. "We need something big to hit it's chest hard! Possibly the only way in stopping this thing!"

Batman nodded as he motioned Robin to let go of his grappling gun. The pair soon landed with a recovery roll before getting close to Vanitas' position. As he saw the golden hand platform roaming around the area, the masked Uzumaki got an idea.

"If I can get it's chest exposed, can you ram that hand into it?"

Batman nodded as Vanitas created several clones. Dashing to several parts of the current area, they jumped towards the mechanized minotaur and latched their grappling scarves onto its limbs and neck. Pulling with all their might, they were able to expose the minotaur's chest for Batman's next action.

"Nygma! How do you take out a minotaur with a single blow?!" Typing a command onto his mini-computer, Batman glared at the minotaur mech as the Hand of Fate came flying right towards it. "Like this!"

Overclocking it's speed, the golden hand rammed right into the robot's chest, causing it to be sent flying back with Vanitas and his clones along with it, due to still holding onto the grappling scarves. The clones went up in smoke as Vanitas' body smacked against one of the standing walls. As he fell down, the Dynamic Duo ran up to him and helped him up.

"Thanks… Is the thing down for the count?" Hearing mechanical groans being heard, the three looked at the source to see the mech trying to stand up. The three soon readied themselves for the coming fight… which didn't happen as the robot fell onto the ground and it's head broke off. "Okay, now it is."

Looking up high, Batman called out to their opponent. "It's over Nygma.! You're through!"

All that he got in return was a throaty chuckle as the Riddler spoke to them. _"Sorry, boys, but you'll never find me."_

"What do you mean?" The Robin questioned.

" _I'm not even in the amusement park."_ Answered the Riddler. _"What? You didn't think I would be stupid enough in being at the maze, in person? No… By the time you get out of the maze I'll be long gone and out of the city limits. But don't fret, this confrontation was quite the learning experience. One that I'll be sure to use in our next encounter. So until then, bye."_

The group started to relax a little as the speakers turned off, even to the point that Robin had to sit on the ground as his adrenaline started to wear off. Wanting to get out of the maze, Vanitas formed a card platform underneath them and steered it towards the attraction's entrance. There they would see Mockridge still unconscious by the batmobile as the heroes had to return back to Gotham to inform the GCPD what happened while getting Mockridge into protective custody.

By the time he got back to his loft, Naruto got his clone's memories on what happened when he left earlier. Dinner was good and everyone was happy by the time Naruto saw Talia out. They said their goodbyes in the garage as Talia promised she'll come by and visit whenever she's around the area.

But for some reason, as he didn't know why, Naruto had a feeling he'll see more of her than he realizes it or not.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **So… How'd you guys think of this?**

 **Took a while on the obvious elements in the chapter since racking my head was not fun in the slightest. Even stuff towards the end seemed odd to me, but I kept rewriting it several times to the point I had to just stick with what I got. The episode I originally based this chapter off of had an epilogue bit that took place months later, but I did not want to use that at all as it would've been unfit for me including it.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	41. Tyger Tyger

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 38: Tyger Tyger**

It was a dark and chilly night at the Gotham Zoo. Many of the zoo's occupants, which were obviously animals, were sleeping in their prefered ways. Some liked the cool air around them while others had heat lamps above them to keep themselves warm against the cold. The only sounds that were heard were from the more nocturnal variety as they were mildly awake… and slightly annoyed when a spotlight came across their respective pens.

"Sorry." A night guard said in a apologetic tone. "Didn't mean to bug ya." The grave-shift security guard was making his rounds for the evening as he eventually made his way to the 'Tiger's Den'.

The guard walked up close to the railing and gazed below as he saw the steep incline which kept the tiger at bay and to get it from harming the onlookers. As if sensing someone approaching, the tiger momentarily stirred and looked upward. Growling at the guard, she protected her sleeping litter of cubs.

"You don't need to tell me." Said the guard as he held up his hands while walking away to check the next area of the zoo. "I only work here."

If the guard were to look back, he would've seen Selina Kyle peek out of the nearby foliage. She was currently wearing a pair of loose, flannel jeans; a grey sweater and a jean jacket as she wore one inch heeled boots. Selina checked if there was anyone else showing up before walking out. When she did, the ravenette got close to the the tiger's enclosure and gazed at the animals below.

"Hello gorgeous." Said the environmentalist thief, causing the mama tiger to upwardly look. "It's criminal to keep you like this. Hell… If I had my way, you'd be running free and the humans who did this to you and your cubs would be put in here."

You would be wondering why Selina is currently at the zoo after-hours to see the tigers in their present captivity. It's been a habit that she had over the years ever since she's been on her own. Breaking into any zoo in whatever city she was in at the time to just gaze at the felines kept in their cages.

Especially now with the mama tiger recently gave birth to her litter of cubs made the thief want to see them in person.

Selina never knew why she was fascinated with them in the first place as she was always drawn to them, and vice versa, for as long as the thief could remember. From the stray cats that would show up around her childhood home, on the streets and zoos for obvious reasons. Not much could be explained about it, but Selina never questioned it as she, her sister and their late mother thought the family had an odd affinity towards felines in the animal kingdom.

Looking at the tiger cubs, and with how their mother was protective of them, made the cat burglar remember her time as a child when things were simpler back then. Get up from bed, have breakfast, go to school, come back to relax and do homework, play with Maggie and mom around the family home; all before going to bed to repeat the cycle again with mommy dearest protecting her from the world's nastiness. Nothing really bad occurred for Selina as she got everything she could ever want…

Especially when your father was the head of a Gotham crime family.

You see... Selina's last name isn't really Kyle, as it was printed on her driver's license and passport. She and her sister, Maggie, took on their mother's maiden name after that fateful day when their perfect little world came crumbling down. It was the day their childhoods practically ended as a new chapter of their lives started.

Neither knew what their father did for a living; only their mother's career being a part-time museum curator, part-time environmentalist and humanitarian, full-time mom. All that they did know on their father was that whenever he talked, people listened. He always had his bodyguards around to keep himself safe and seem intimidating towards others, or make it more intimidating with him being vicious from the start.

It started out one night when Selina and her sister were out of their home and having a very rare sleepover at a school friend's place. Both were ignorant on what occurred throughout the night as the two had the best time in a long time. When morning came, the sisters waited for one of daddy's men to pick them up and take them home… only for the man to now show up at all.

The two waited and waited until having enough of it. They made their way back home by foot, which took some time with them getting lost along the way. Once they got home, they saw the police and ambulance vehicles parked outside. Both were confused on what was going on, causing the two to rush inside. What they saw next scared the two deeply as they saw their mothers defiled corpse lying by the stairs amongst others.

As it turned out, there was a civil war within the Calabrese crime family and it finally ignited on the night the sisters were away. Their mother was dead and their father was missing as it was soon revealed he ran away to save his own hide, leaving their mother all alone to be raped during the coup before getting shot in the head during the massacre. The sisters blamed him to this day for what he'd done and will never forgive him.

So to be sure the Calabrese family name finally died that night, the sisters discarded their father's name and took on their mother's as the last thing they could ever have of her.

Asides from the memories.

Selina never really talked about her childhood, asides from her sister during their phone calls, as it just hurts in the process. That changed when Naruto; her friend, her boyfriend and lover, came into her life she started to open up to him. Little by little, she talked about her past to keep conversations rolling. But after he revealed to her, and the shared lovers, of his past by literally showing it; Selina later revealed her past to him.

It was honestly hard to talk about, especially with how troubling the particular memory was of seeing her mother dead and hearing the disturbing details of the occurrence. Naruto's heart ached when hearing Selina's tale from her mouth, but he comforted her like what any normal person would've done.

"You know," muttered the thief to the mama tiger, "I've wondered what'll be like to be a cat from time to time. Reason why I tend to dress up as one when I go out on most nights. Whether it's stealing and protecting for the environment or helping out the less fortunate with my boyfriend as it's the closest I'll ever be to being a cat.

But… I wonder what'll be like to have a litter of my own one day. To love, care and protect with every fiber of your being. My mother clearly did that for my sister and I… possibly did more on that night of sending us away." Shedding a small tear, Selina wiped it away as she continued. "I truly hope I wouldn't be alone rai-"

The thief halted her little chat when she felt a stinging sensation on the one side of her neck. Widening her eyes, her hand instantly reached for it's location and felt something. Grasping it, she pulled it out, examined it and saw it was some sort of tranquilizer dart.

'The hell?' She thought before hearing something rustle in the tree branches nearby. Turning to the source, she saw a large figure fall down and land onto the ground before approaching her with a sniper rifle on hand. Selina backed up towards the den's railing, in hopes of protecting the tiger and her cubs, when her vision started to get hazy.

"Easy, lady." The figure said in a gruff voice. "Just relax and go sleepy-bye."

"I-I won't let you hurt... the tiger." She said as she pulled her cellphone from her pocket, in hopes of calling Naruto in the nick of time.

"I wasn't sent here after the tiger, lady."

It wasn't even a mere moment when Selina collapsed onto the ground and dropping both the phone and the tranq dart in the process.

Coming back around from the previous area, the security guard approached the tiger's den and saw some large figure in baggy clothes holding onto some ravenette chick. The zoo employee rolled his eyes as he figured it was some couple that snuck in here to check out the animals after-hours. It wouldn't be the first time that happened.

"Okay, Romeo, take it somewhere else. The zoo's closed." Said the guard as he shined his flashlight at them. The large figure wiped his head around and showed his gorilla-like appearance at the newcomer with a threatening growl, causing the guard to drop his flashlight. 

"What in the name of-?!"

As the guard tried to pull out his gun, the gorilla man lunged forward with the knocked out environmentalist over his shoulder. Before the zoo employee could fire a shot, the gorilla man shoved the guard aside as he made his escape. This action made the security guard fall over the railing and landed into the tiger's den below.

Shaking his head from the fall, the guard soon heard a low growl. Wiping his head around, the employee saw the mama tiger rise up from the ground and stalked towards him, but not far away from her litter of cubs in case of anything.

All that the guard could do was shake in fear and wet himself on one of the most frightening experiences in his life. Possibly his end if he made one false move.

 _ **-Beret Rouge Club-**_

Sitting at one of the restaurant's corner room tables, Naruto leaned his head into the palm of his hand. He was currently bored out of his mind as he waited for the other two parties for the evening meal. The publisher was being asked every so often if he could be moved into a different table with how busy the business was tonight. But the Uzumaki was being persistent as he wanted the specific table so he, Selina and Bruce could discuss an opportunity together.

Selina pitched the idea to Bruce on making an animal-rights charity event. The billionaire was all for the idea as it could help bolster his company's image and help strengthen his relationship with the ravenette. Naruto was brought along for the ride as he wanted to support his girlfriend's joint project. So here he was waiting for the other two dinner party members so they could discuss the finer details of the event instead at some other place.

Taking a sip of his drink, Naruto looked at his watch and wondered what was delaying the two when his phone starting ringing. Looking at the ID, he saw Bruce was on the other end before answering. "Hi Bruce. Say, are you coming to the dinner meeting or not?"

" _Sorry Naruto, but something suddenly came up."_ His friend said over the phone. _"Mind if we could reschedule the meeting on another night?"_

The Uzumaki merely sighed a little, knowing that Bruce was galavanting as Batman on some case or whatever and needed all of his attention towards it. "Yeah, I'm sure we can reschedule. When Selina shows up, I'll be sure to tell her the _unfortunate_ news."

"Thanks for understanding Naruto and I'll be sure to make up for this, one way or another."

"No problem. Just do what you need to do since I have a feeling it's rather important." The publisher said before emptying the rest of his water glass. "Anyways, good night." Ending the call, Naruto rose from his seat and went towards the restroom. Drinking so much water in one day could clearly rush right through you without notice.

'Maybe tonight could be saved, in some way.' Naruto thought as he washed his hands. 'Selina and I could still have dinner together, but instead of a business opportunity it could be yet another date.'

Walking out of the restroom, Naruto pulled out his phone and called his girlfriend. It rang several times before his call was answered. "Where have you been Selina? I've been waiting at the restaurant for a while, all by myself. How long till you get here?"

Instead of hearing the voice of the ravenette he fell in love with, Naruto heard a male voice on the other end. _"Uh… Sorry sir, but this isn't Selina?"_

Instantly being on guard, Naruto spoke in an even yet demanding tone. "Who is this and why are you using her phone?"

" _This is an officer from the GCPD sir. Something has happened to your friend."_

 _ **-Gotham Zoo-**_

Naruto couldn't have gotten to the zoo fast enough in his car as he tried to get there as quick as possible. When he arrived, the publisher saw a police car by its entrance. Parking the car, Naruto got out and ran towards them to see a security guard being bundled up with a blanket around him.

"If you guys hadn't arrived, I would've been sushi." The zoo employee shakily said with tears staining his face. "That tiger was ready to-"

"We understand, sir." One of the officers said in a calming tone. "Thank god whoever did this tripped the silent alarm and got us over here just in time." The security guard could only nod in response and thanked any higher beings out there for him to see another day. "Now, about the woman."

"What about her?" Naruto asked as he approached the group. "Where is she?"

"Sir, this is police business."

"But I was the man on the other end of the phone." The publisher responded as he pulled out his cellphone and dialed his girlfriend's number. Wasn't long before said phone went off in one of the officer's hands. "See?"

"Oh. Sorry about that, sir." The second officer said. "Didn't know if you would've arrived so soon. But just in case, mind if we see some ID?"

Naruto couldn't have pulled out his wallet quick enough as he showed them his license before checking the phone's ID once again. Seeing as it might be good enough proof, the one officer handed Selina's cell phone to the publisher.

"Now, what happened to Selina? Where is she?"

"Kong took her." Replied the zoo employee. "I mean, we're talking primal here."

"...Excuse me?"

"The guy who took her looked like a gorilla. Teeth, fur, facial appearance, the works."

"And where did he take her?"

"Over at the tiger's den." Answered the guard.

Before Naruto could make his way towards the destination, one of the officers approached him. "Sir, we would like to question you of your relation to the woman who was kidnapped."

"Of course, officer. I just wanna see where she was taken. But I promise I'll come right back."

"You better." The second officer said before the pair turned their attention back to the security guard for further questions.

Making his way towards the tiger's den, Naruto inspected the area and tried to find a clue to who exactly took his girlfriend. He looked off to the side and saw a female tiger seemingly stare right at him. Naruto couldn't help but chuckle slightly on the moment.

"Seems you were the one that drew Selina's here, huh?" He rhetorically asked as his eyes landed on the litter of cubs. "You and your babies… Not that I blame you lot since Selina loves you guys to death."

As he kept searching, his hazel eyes caught onto a slight glimmer on the ground. Bending down for a closer inspection, he saw that it was a tranquilizer dart. The officers must've missed this as it was stuck in the crack in the ground. Using his phasing ability, Naruto easily pulled the object out and kept his hand away from the needle, just in case of anything.

"...Whoever took you Selina, I swear I'll beat him black and blue for this." Muttered the Uzumaki. "But first, I need to find the security room."

Quickly forming a clone, Naruto had it go to the zoo's entrance to give his statement towards the officers before driving his car back home; along with Selina's which he saw was a block away from here. From there, the publisher went into his hero persona before making his way towards the zoo's security room to find out who exactly took Selina. He will find answers, for sure, and prove that one should never mess with an Uzumaki.

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

Selina groggily awoke as she wondered what the hell happened to her. Her head was throbbing and her limbs seemed stiff. When she tried to move either hand towards her head, as per normal reflex with her having a headache, Selena felt her arm was restrained. Not just that, but all of her limbs were.

Opening her eyes at her personal revelation, she tried to free herself but her bindings were too strong for her to escape. Either that or her body seemed too weak to do the task. With nothing else to do, Selina's green eyes gazed around her surroundings and saw that she was in some kind of lab. With many test tubes, beakers and mechanical equipment littering the room; the ravenette felt rather nervous on what's going on.

She then heard a noise inside of the lab, causing her to call out to the source as she thought it was another captive like her… or some lackie Selina could use to her advantage. "Hello?! Is anybody here?!"

From the corner of her eye, the ravenette thief saw a figure coming closer to her stationary position. As it entered her peripheral vision, Selina gasped when she saw a large, humanoid cat-creature. It clearly was male, due to it's highly muscular build that fitted with it's seven foot or so height, with it's dark grey fur and yellow eyes. Selina started to shake in fright as he growled and sniffed at her while moving around her confinement.

Just when the large humanoid cat-creature reached out and about to touch her with his clawed hand, someone spoke from the other side of the room. "Ah, I see you've met Tygrus. He seems to like you, Miss Kyle."

Turning her head towards the source, the environmentalist saw a man descending down the stairs with a cane for support. He had light brownish red hair with varied scars across his face. As for what he wore, he had a scientist's jacket that clearly screamed 'mad doctor' with a pair of black pants and boots.

Once reaching the bottom, the scientist turned his attention towards the humanoid cat-creature. "Go Tygrus. It's time for your exercises."

The now identified Tygrus nodded before jogging into another room. As the creature left the lab, Selina turned her head towards the scientist and gave the man a heated glare. Though the scientist wasn't even phased at all by her attempts.

"This is called kidnapping." The ravenette said with hate in her voice. "And last I heard, it was highly illegal. Now, who the hell are you? And why have you taken me?"

The scientist smirked before bowing a little towards his captive. "My name is Dr. Emile Dorian. But that doesn't begin to tell you who I am." Walking towards a nearby console, the 'good' doctor typed a series of commands which turned on the security feed. Selecting a particular feed, Selina soon saw what appeared to be a training room with Tygrus and the ape-man that took her from the zoo.

"Tygrus is my creation, Miss Kyle. And you've met my first attempt at altering human genetic structure: Garth, the ape-man."

"I'm somewhat acquainted." Selina said in a distasteful tone before going into a sarcastic one. "Though he could've been better when taking me."

Emile merely shrugged when hearing this before looking at the live training room footage. "A simple biform, crude, but serviceable." The feed then showed Tygrus dodging various projectiles fired upon him by Garth before coming in close to the ape-man and knocking him away. "But Tygrus, he is the pinnacle of my art as I designed him from scratch, so to speak."

Selina then saw the cat-creature bend and break the machine with ease with his arms before running after Garth across the room with speeds that would've gotten a cheetah to become envious. "I have given him the strength and speed of a cat and more."

'I can give this loon credit, but this Tygrus could back up his statements.' Were the environmentalist's thoughts as she kept watching the feed.

"For years, I've loved and adored cats." Dorian said with a far off look across his features. "Their independence, their power, their beauty."

"And I take it that you made Tygrus here to do what exactly?" Questioned the thief with a raised brow. "Use him as some sort of basis before making more like him. And what's next? Make your own rendition of the Cat's broadway musical?"

The 'good' doctor chuckled when hearing her remark. "You could say that."

"...Wow. I was actually joking about the broadway musical. You really want to have your own version of it?"

"No… I want to make more of Tygrus as a new species that'll become dominate against all others." Walking towards his captive, the scientist elaborated. "But you see, Miss Kyle, making a proper mate for my child would take years to repeat the same process that I've done before. And despite my son being the pinnacle of his capabilities, is still mortal and has the life expectancy as any being in the animal kingdom."

"And what does this have to do with me?"

Dorian didn't say anything at first before walking to the nearby lab table and picked up an injection gun with a nearby cannister. Said cannister had some colored liquid that was then loaded into the gun. "To become my next experiment, Selina Kyle." Looking back at her, said woman saw the madness racing across the scientist's eyes. "Or perhaps I should I say, Catwoman?"

Selina's heart skipped a beat or two as her blood ran cold with fear. This wasn't happening. This wasn't happening at all! This man, no monster, was going to turn her into a cat-creature?!

'When I said I wanted to be a cat earlier, I didn't mean that literally!' The thief frantically thought before speaking at her captor. "You're fucking crazy! You know that?!"

The scientist's grin started to widen as he got closer and closer to her. "Sticks and stones, Miss Kyle. Sticks and stones." Pulling back the injection gun's safety, Dorian grasped Selina's head and reared it back to reveal more of her neck. "You've been inoculated with the initial dosage when Garth shot you at the zoo. This next injection that I'm about to administer to you will further the treatment."

Soon the device injected its contents into Selina's neck, causing the thief to cry out in agonizing pain. It felt so much worse than from the time Pam injected her with that one serum of hers, back in May, on a whole grander scale. The thief's body started to spasm against the restraining table while her body started to madly heat up. All that Selina could recollect next was seeing things in a kaleidoscope of colors as one last thought crossed her mind before everything went black.

'Naruto… Save... Me…'

 _ **-Langstrom Residence-**_

Kirk Langstrom could say that sudden occurrences are a dime a dozen in Gotham. You would never expect them to happen, but they tend to be roughly the same given the circumstances. So when he went to use the restroom before going to bed with his lovely wife, he felt a presence in his home and expected the Batman to be there… but Vanitas was there instead.

Currently inside of the home's lab, due to the married couple bringing projects home from work, Kirk was helping the helmeted hero on something he was researching on. The former Man-Bat agreed in the request, with him remembering both him and Batman stopping him from causing much harm across the city… So a favor was owed to both heroes respectively.

Injecting the dart's contents into a sponge cube, Kirk then dropped it into a beaker filled with some chemicals that Vanitas couldn't make heads or tails about. But from what both men saw, the beaker's blue liquid rapidly turned purple as it foamed and overflowed. Vanitas didn't know what the results of that was, but Kirk did as he turned towards the masked publisher.

"And you said that you saw a gorilla-man in the zoo's security footage?"

"Yes and the only person that I could think of that had any knowledge with anthropomorphic animals was you, Dr. Langstrom. With your Man-Bat phase, I thought you were the best person I could turn to." Looking back at the beaker, Vanitas asked the question of the hour. "So doc, what am I looking at here?"

Kirk sighed as he rubbed his eyes before answering. "It's called T-99, the brainchild of Dr.  
Emile Dorian."

"...And you would know him, how exactly?"

"He was a... former colleague of mine." Came the scientist's answer. "We worked well together as fellow geneticists in wanting to improve lives for the betterment of life itself."

Walking to a nearby cage, Kirk opened it up and pulled out what Vanitas assumed to be a cat… Well he was half right.

"What in the world?" From what the hero could tell, it was an odd cat/monkey hybrid. "Okay, I'll bite. What is it?"

"One of the good doctor's early experiments with his splicing agent." Kirk answered as he gently petted the monkey cat while it was still asleep. "Kept this little guy after Emile was forced to leave Gotham, due to his unethical experiments."

"So Dorian uses cats for his research?"

"In a way." Placing the cat/monkey hybrid back in it's cage, the geneticist explained. "He likes cats a whole lot better than people. Won't experiment on them. And when I worked with him, he used primates and monkeys to further his research by changing their genotypes with feline DNA."

Vanitas nodded and digested the information as a thought came to mind. "You said that he was forced to leave Gotham. But would you know where can I find him?"

"Last I heard, he lives on a private island he owns off the coast. Taking an early retirement after he was disgraced by the scientific community." 

The hero shook Kirk's hand as he thanked him for the assistance before making his way out of the man's home. With his destination in mind, the masked Uzumaki zoomed into the air as he rode his Kazekage lance. All that he could do now was hope that he could make it in time before anything happened to Selina.

 _ **-Dorian's Island-**_

"Finally made it." The hero muttered as he soared slightly above the island's forest. "I really should've gotten better directions instead of going out blind earlier… Then again, rushing out before asking where exactly was not a good idea."

It took longer to get to the island than he would've imagined. Not that he could get there at a good speed with his wind lance, but there were several privately owned islands off the Gotham coastline. And without knowing which island was Dr. Dorian's, Vanitas ended up checking each one.

The first one he checked actually belonged to Kurama, which was a little interesting to note, as it was privately used as a storage facility. The next one belongs to one Killgore Steed and learning about him hunting down endangered animals on his property made the publisher grit his teeth as he saw the many 'trophies' the man littered his home with. If it wasn't for finding Selina right away, along with seeing proof the man was hunting animals at the present time, then the masked Uzumaki would've beaten the man black and blue.

And the last island was indeed the one he was looking for.

As he reached the end of the forest, Vanitas came to what he believed to be Dorian's residence as the 'good' doctor had set up shop inside of an abandoned castle. It was rather rustic with it's outer appearance quite worn out, but did have a modern take with the various electrical devices installed along the walls. And it appeared that someone was indeed inside as the lights were shining through the windows.

Reaching the lighted tower, Vanitas disbursed his wind spear before landing on its rooftop. Seeing the glass opening, he peered right through to see a man in a stereotypical mad scientist's jacket working on something in his lab. The publisher knew the real name of the scientist attire, but with the given situation Naruto didn't give a damn.

A shadow was then casted above the hero before the figure spoke. "The doc don't take kindly to uninvited guests."

Quickly turning around, Vanitas saw the same ape-man he saw on the zoo's security footage. Before he could react, the larger being lunged at him. Vanitas tried to pry him off, but the ape-man was persistent as they rolled around on the rooftop. Though it wasn't long before the two fell on top of the skylight, causing them to fall down into the lab below with the ape-man breaking the hero's fall.

"I was wondering when you would show up." Spoke the geneticist as he placed his lab equipment down. Seeing who the uninvited guest, Dorian had figured either Vanitas or Batman would come to save Miss Kyle. "That will be all, Garth. You may go."

"But doc," spoke the gorilla-man, "are you sure it'll be all?"

"Yes, yes. I'm sure." Looking straight onto his past project's eyes, Emile gave his direct command. "Now, leave us." Garth hesitated as he got up from the floor and moved his way out of his creator's laboratory. Seeing the ape-man leave, the 'good' doctor clicked his tongue several times as he shook his head. "Servants nowadays. Can't live with them, can't live without them I suppose."

Standing right up from the ground, Vanitas heatedly glared at the man before him as he spoke in a demanding tone. "Where's Selina Kyle?"

Dorian chuckled. "Temper, temper, Vanitas." Grasping his cane from the lab table, the geneticist walked to the other side of the room and motioned the hero to follow. "You shall see your Catwoman as you've never seen her before."

Standing in front of a large sheet of glass, Vanitas looked into the darkness before Dorian flipped the lightswitch. There the hero saw a room full of forestation that would've been seen in some areas in a typical zoo. He was going to question where Selina was at when the masked Uzumaki's eyes caught something moving across the treeline.

On all fours, Vanitas saw what appeared to be an anthropomorphic female cat walking on a thick tree branch to hold her weight. Her ebony fur slightly glistened from the produced light as her tail swished back and forth. The catgirl's head hair seemed to drape over her shoulders as it seemed curly on the ends, causing the hero to figure if she stood upright, the head hair would be slightly bouncy on it's past-shoulder length.

For a moment, the masked publisher was about to dismiss the catgirl until he saw her eyes… her familiar emerald green eyes. He knew those eyes very well as they belonged to a particular ravenette that stole a place in his heart. The same eyes that he saw the mischievousness, the strength, the love, the passion; but also the pain and sorrow that seemed to intensify with the confusion present in her gaze.

Vanitas stepped back in shock with widened eyes beneath his glass domed helmet. His hitched breath couldn't escape it's captivity all that well as a result of this revelation. All that he could mutter was her name. "Selina?..."

"A fine creature, don't you say?"

Whipping his head towards the doctor, Vanitas grasped his jacket and slammed him against the nearby wall as cracks were formed. The hero then growled at the man with the utmost hate in his voice. "What have you done to her, Dorian?! Tell me!"

Keeping a calm facade in his appearance, the geneticist chuckled slightly. "I've made her what she always wanted to be: an actual catwoman. I've given her power and grace beyond her wildest dreams."

All this did was make Vanitas ever more angry. "You've made her into a… a…" He couldn't say it as the word was stuck in his throat. He would never say it since Naruto could never place that title on the woman he loves and cares for so much.

"What? A monster? Is that what you were gonna say?" Emile questioned before his eyes looked towards the changed Catwoman. "I believe she would disagree. Hell… You can't even begin to imagine how it is for her. A whole new state of being, heightened senses, increased speed, agility, strength."

Vanitas threw the doctor to the side before turning to the glass panel before him. He slammed his fist onto the glass as large cracks were starting to form. With one last punch as a dark aura surrounded it, Vanitas broke through the barrier as it's glass shards fell onto the forested room's floor.

The Catwoman widened her eyes before jumping down onto the room's floor with such grace. Hesitantly moving forward, Selina took careful steps so her feet wouldn't get cut by the glass shards. Stepping out of the forested room and into the lab, the Catwoman's eyes looked onto the black/white themed man before her.

"Selina, do you know me?" Vanitas hopefully asked as he held out his hand towards her.

Her emerald eyes started to widen as she opened her mouth. She tried to speak his name, but couldn't produce a good enough sound as her voice was rather horse. All due to her screaming during her transformation. "...N… Na… N-Na…"

"You'll only confuse her, Vanitas." Dorian said as he used his cane to get back up from the floor. "She's no longer the woman you knew. No longer even human." He even smirked at the hero as he felt the heated glare at him. "In fact, she needs only one more injection to complete-"

The geneticist didn't finish what he was saying as he was harshly grabbed once more. "Reverse the transformation or I'll-"

Before the hero could make his threat, a clawed hand grabbed his helmeted head and easily tossed him to the other side of the room. Vanitas' back harshly impacted against some machine, leaving a massive dent into it before the hero fell onto the ground. This resulted in the masked Uzumaki groaning as he tried to get back up.

Tygrus came to his father's aid by helping him up from the ground, as Dorian fell down from his earlier assault. Leaning onto his cane, the 'good' doctor smiled at his creation. "Good lad, Tygrus."

The cat creature soon gazed at the Catwoman as he felt drawn to her. Feeling Tygrus' gaze, Selina looked at her odd male counterpart for a brief moment before glaring at him. She did not like Tygrus for what he did to the man she loves.

Regaining his balance, Vanitas looked at his assailant and saw what appeared to be roughly a seven foot cat-creature as it easily towered over the 'good' doctor. "Another example of your genetic tinkering, Dorian?"

"Well, nothing so crude, Vanitas." Came the geneticist's response. "Tygrus is the ultimate life form. Superior to any human." As the helmeted hero approached, Tygrus stepped forward and defended his creator. Neither one gave ground as they started to circle each other. "Doesn't he remind you of Blake's poem? 'Tiger, tiger, burning bright. In the forests of the night.' Practically gave me the little inspiration to create my child."

The cat-creature hissed and growled at his opponent as he walked on all fours. Stalking Vanitas like he was prey for assaulting his father. But before he could lunge at the hero, Selina ran forward and stood in front of her lover.

"Tygrus, no!" She yelled out, causing the cat-creature to stop his advancement."

Seeing that this seemed to have gone long enough, Dorian called out to his 'son'. "Enough, Tygrus, stand down." Turning his attention towards his newest project, Dorian gave her an order. "Go back to the enclosure, Catwoman." 

Selina didn't know what to do as she held her head. The pain, she tried to fight it but didn't know what to do. All that she could do was cry a little. "W-Who...? What am I?"

"You're Selina Kyle." Vanitas answered as he clasped his hand onto her shoulder. Turning towards him, Selina could feel his soft gaze towards her underneath his glass domed helmet. "Come with me. I'll find some way to help you, I promise."

Not liking where this was going, the 'good' doctor gave his child an order. "Take him outside, Tygrus."

He didn't need to be told twice as he lunged forward and swiped at Vanitas. Not wanting Selina to get hurt, the hero was forced to push her away as he took the blow across his helmet. Vanitas was surprised to see deep gashes were made across the glass dome, making the masked Uzumaki realize the creature's claws were sharper than he thought.

The hero then dodged the incoming swipes by either moving towards his sides or ducking as each attack were surprisingly fast. Wanting to get a bit of an upper hand, Vanitas landed his back onto the floor before upwardly kicking Tygrus' chest to send him high into the air. The cat-creature landed a good distance away, on all fours, before dashing forward with the intent to kill.

As the two fought, Dorian looked towards his ape-man and gave a silent order. Garth understood what his creator wanted as he pulled out a small bazooka launcher and aimed it at the helmeted hero. Selina was able to notice Garth's current actions while the cat-creature and her lover didn't as they kept up with their scuffle. Not wanting her… mate, from what her mind was telling her, to be harmed by the rocket; the Catwoman ran forward.

"Look out!" Warned the changed environmentalist, but it was too late as Garth fired the bazooka. Selina was able to knock her lover away as she assumed the ape-man fired a rocket. Instead, what Garth really fired was actually a net launcher as she got wrapped up in metallic netting.

"Selina!" Vanitas was about to come to her aid, but was quickly held back by Tygrus' massive bearhug… or is it cathug in this case. Either way, the strength behind the hold was painful with how tight the cat-creature was making it to be.

Seeing this display made the 'good' doctor stroke his chin. "Interesting, perhaps your bestial side is not as dominant as I thought." He then looked towards Garth and gave him an order. "Get her back into the quarry room."

Garth walked over and grabbed the captive Catwoman and dragged her across the laboratory's floor. This surprisingly resulted in both Vanitas and Tygrus to growl at the gorilla-man's action. Before anything else could be done, Dorian came towards his child and spoke in a calming manner.

"It's all right, Tygrus. It's for her own good."

"Let her go, Dorian! Or I'll-"

"Her fate is in your hands, Vanitas." Interrupted the geneticist as he faced the hero. "I want to test Tygrus' reflexes and feral instincts." Dorian then smirked. "And who better to pit him against than you." 

The 'good' doctor then ordered Tygrus to bring Vanitas outside of the compound. The cat-creature complied as he carried off the hero in his arms, while squeezing him a bit more so he wouldn't escape. It took a handful of minutes getting outside as Vanitas was fidgeting in his confinement, but the hero used the opportunity to survey the area for any means of escape.

As the three made it outside, Tygrus tossed Vanitas some distance away. Landing in a recovery roll, the masked Uzumaki straightened himself out to pop some kinks that Tygrus gave to him. Once done, the hero turned around to see the 'good' doctor standing alongside his creator.

"I'll give you a generous head start before releasing Tygrus." Said the geneticist. He then placed his free hand into his pocket and fished out an object. "If you've managed defeat him, I shall relinquish this." Holding up a vial, Vanitas saw a particular purple liquid that shined from the castle's lights. "The antigen to reverse Catwoman's mutation."

"How would I know that's not the final injection to make Selina's current appearance permanent?" Asked the vigilante in an accusing tone. "And how do I know you'll keep your word?"

"You don't." Came the doctor's response. Pulling out a pocket watch, Dorian glanced at it before addressing the hero. "The clock is ticking, Vanitas. Good luck… You'll need it."

The masked publisher gritted his teeth as he turned around and ran into the island's forest. He'll play Dorian's game, whether he liked it or not. But he'll do whatever it takes to have Selina come back to him from this mess.

Looking back at his watch, Dorian saw that barely a minute has passed before he spoke towards his creation. "He's all yours, Tygrus." The cat-creature gave him a confusing look, making Dorian simplify things. "He is prey to you, my boy. Of no more concern than a rabbit is to a wolf." The 'good' doctor then smirked as he walked into his home. "And when he's gone, nothing will stand in your way of having Catwoman as your mate." 

Tygrus growled when hearing this before running off into the forest on all fours. He sniffed around at some point to pick up the hero's trail, but couldn't get anything from him. This made him resort to finding him the old fashioned way.

Back with Vanitas, he was jumping through tree branch to tree branch as he wanted to get as far from Dorian's compound and to make things difficult for Tygrus in finding him. Even as he was forced into doing this, the hero wasn't going to make this fair at all. Using tactics that he was possibly known for as a former, unpredictable shinobi.

When he made it to a certain tree line, Vanitas heard a low growl and hiss. Turning to the source, he saw a winged-cat situated on a higher tree branch. As if threatened, the winged-cat took off into the air and soared through the sky to find another tree to rest at.

"...You don't see that every day." Muttered the masked publisher as he jumped down from the tree. "But if I see a flying pig, I might wanna prove a point one day that a pig could indeed fly. Hell, Langstrom said that Dorian also experimented on monkeys like that ape-man." Running through the opened area, Vanitas continued. "If I didn't know any better, I think Dorian would've wanted to make flying monkeys-"

His self-chatter ended as he heard the sounds of running coming closer and closer. Turning around, he saw the growing figure of Tygrus about to enter the opened area. Getting ready, the masked Uzumaki formed several Fair Play cards in his hands.

'Seems faster than I thought, I can give him that.' Vanitas thought as he threw his exploding playing cards. As they came close to Tygrus, they exploded to leave a large cloud of smoke obscuring the cat-creature's vision. It coughed and wheezed a little while rubbing it's eyes before giving the hero a deadly glare.

"Welp, that just pissed him off." Was all Vanitas could mutter before Tygrus lunged and tackled him off of the nearby cliffside.

 _ **-Meanwhile, Quarry Room-**_

'How in the world did things come to this?' Selina thought as she looked at her reflection in the pool of water. She kept expecting to see the humanistic reflection staring back at her, only for her feline appearance to remain in place.

All that she could remember after being injected by Dorian's formula as waking up in this quarry room. It was strange for her waking up inside of a forest with no idea how she got to the place at all. As she moved around, Selina felt oddly incredible as she felt stronger and better than ever before. And here she thought the serum Pam gave her months ago was great as it seemed miniscule now or just being added into what she was given.

Though when her emerald eyes landed on the reflective pools, Selina remembered what that doctor injected her with. The environmentalist was absolutely terrified on what her current appearance was as this wasn't her at all. It took some time for her to somewhat appreciate the beauty her feline features while crying on what has become of her.

Things changed when she saw Naruto at the lab as his appearance made her heart soar that he was finally here to rescue her. But then again, she couldn't really be saved with what has become of her. Selina could never be seen out in public like this at all. Never again having those moments being with the love of her life ever again made her trapped with no way out.

Her thoughts ended as she sensed Dorian and his ape-man assistant, Garth, come walking into the room. Selina went on guard as she saw the gorilla-man holding a sniper rifle and loaded something into the chamber. Realizing what it is, she jumped into the nearby tree and hissed at them.

"Don't be difficult, Miss Kyle." Said the geneticist. "It's for your own good." Taking careful steps towards her, she moved away and jumped into another tree for cover. "Think how wonderful it will be once this final inoculation takes effect. You'll be so much more than human."

Garth then aimed the sniper rifle at Selina's position and was ready to fire. But before he could pull the trigger, the Catwoman called out as she moved across the thick tree branch. "Wait!"

"Oh~ Is something the matter, Miss Kyle?"

Selina swallowed a lump in her throat before answering. "Th-There's… no need to do it that way… I… I won't fight you."

Dorian smiled as he pushed Garth's sniper rifle away before pulling out his injection gun. "You've made the right decision, my dear."

As he walked just a few steps, his ape-man assistant called out to him. "Don't trust her, doc." Noticing a certain look in the Catwoman's eyes, Garth quickly aimed at the changed woman and fired. Selina quickly moved out of the way, jumped out of the tree and landed onto Garth before taking off as fast as her feet could take her.

"She's getting away!" Garth cried out as he scrambled onto his feet. Before he could get the chance of going after her, his creator stopped him. "Doc?"

"There's no need, Garth. We'll find her… This is an island after all."

 _ **-Back with Vanitas and Tygrus-**_

Vanitas groaned as he got back up from the ground. Turning around, he saw the unconscious Tygrus broke his fall from the cliff's edge. The fall was rather deep, but it somewhat served a purpose as it helped take care of one problem on the hero's list this evening. Though it did cost him a little as his glass dome helmet broke from the two hitting the rocky wall several times. There was no point in having his powers repair it right away as his current opponent was out of commission.

'And my real one is Dorian.' Thought the publisher as he walked away.

If he were to pay attention, Vanitas would've noticed Tygrus starting to come to. His eyes landed on the black/white themed hero as he slowly got up onto his feet. Balancing himself, Tygrus then charged forward in hopes of taking down his prey.

But it was the last mere moment when Vanitas realized the cat-creature was coming right at him. So he made himself intangible so Tygrus would end up going right through him. This left the cat-creature in a small state of confusion before he felt a powerful blow across his back, resulting in him flying into several trees before lying against one.

With an outstretched arm, Vanitas powered down his Rasengan before running forward and formed several grappling scarves in his grasp. The hero started to tie up the cat-creature against the tree as fast as he could. When he was done, he saw Tygrus realize his predicament and tried to free himself before doing something unexpected to the costumed Uzumaki...

"NOOOOOOO!"

Tygrus spoke.

"...You can talk?" Asked the former shinobi.

"Of course I can." Tygrus growled out in a deep voice. "My father taught me."

"And your mother was a test tube."

This pissed off the cat-creature as he glared at the man before him. "My father told me to destroy you, and I will." Struggling in his bindings, Tygrus continued. "And when you're gone, Selina will love me!"

"I highly doubt that." Walking away from the scene, Vanitas heard Tygrus growl as he kept trying to escape. "It'll take much more than that for you to get out of those bindings… Have fun though."

Not wanting to hear a response, the costumed publisher ran away before jumping into the nearby trees to cover his tracks. He didn't even bother looking back as Tygrus kept up with his attempts of freeing himself. But the cat-creature did get the idea of using his claws to cut through the binding material before going after his prey.

In another part of the island's odd jungle, Selina was searching for her mate… sorry her boyfriend. She was searching high and low for him, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Given the time that it took her into leaving Dorian's residence left a wide window for Naruto and Tygrus to practically be anywhere on the island.

But the Catwoman couldn't give up on her search as she wanted to see him again.

'Where are you Naruto?' She thought before something drew her attention. It wasn't a sound she picked up or something visually… It was his scent. This left her confused, but realized that her nose became more sensitive than when she was a human. Not wanting to lose the trail, Selina ran in hot pursuit.

With Vanitas, he came across a typical rickety broken-down suspension bridge connecting two opposing cliffsides. Looking down from the wooden planks, the hero saw the deep fog down below as it would be a miracle if something survived the fall down there. He shook his head as he trekked forward until he made it halfway through before hearing Tygrus' growls in the air.

"I wonder who that would be." The hero sarcastically said before he saw the cat-creature's form at the bridge's end. "Oh~ I taught I taw a putty tat!" Vanitas braced himself as Tygrus leaped from the cliffside and landed on the suspension bridge. This resulted in having the rickety bridge violently shake as the hero balanced himself. "And a pissed off one at tat!"

Just when Tygrus was getting closer and closer, Vanitas grasped one part of the bridge's rope before forming Lunar Rose. With a quick swipe of the white blade, the suspension bridge broke in half as both sides quickly went to the opposing cliffsides before violently slamming against the rocky walls.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Cried out the cat-creature as he fell into the chasm below.

"Aw~ the poor puddy tat!" Came Vanitas' sarcastic remark as he dismissed his scythe before a Fair Play platform card formed underneath his feet. "See you never! Have a nice fall!"

Once reaching the opposing cliffside, the hero disbursed the card platform before landing onto solid ground. Looking around, Vanitas moved forward so he could make his way back to Dorian's compound. With Tygrus seemingly defeated… and dead… the 'good' doctor would have no choice but to get Selina back to normal.

But before he could move any further, he heard something rustling through the nearby foliage. He assumed, at first, that it was probably one of Dorian's other experiments on the island that were running loose. That changed when he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

"Naruto?"

Turning around, he saw Selina in all her anthropomorphic glory. He widened his eyes and before he could give out a response, he soon felt her weight hitting his chest. Naruto then heard her sobbing as she buried her head in the crook of his neck, causing him to wrap his arms around her and held her tight.

"It's okay Selina. I'm here." He said in a hushed, calming tone. The costumed Uzumaki brushed his hand across her head before it moved towards the side of her face.

Knowing what he wants to do, Selina easily moved her head and kissed his lips. Naruto clearly felt the passion behind it as he returned it as well. Despite her lips feeling different and strange, they were still Selina's as he didn't let go of her. Though the moment had to come to an end as the two needed oxygen in his lungs.

Looking right into her eyes, Naruto spoke the obvious question that came to mind. "How did you get away from Dorian?"

"He didn't try to stop me, Naruto. He knew I wouldn't be able to escape this island by myself."

"...Did he inject you with the last inoculation?" She shook her head in response, causing him to breath out a relieved sigh. "Thank Kami. We still have a chance in fixing you-"

"From being a monster?"

Her lover widened his eyes when hearing this before responding. "No. You are not a monster. You never have, you never will be Selina."

She smiled a little as a few tears leaked from her eyes. "Thanks… It means a lot hearing that from you."

"...I've been meaning to ask this, but why weren't you at the restaurant earlier?" He asked as he saw her flinch slightly. "You could've called me and said you were running late. Why didn't you? You had me so worried, Selina."

"I'm sorry Naruto, I really am." Looking away from him with shame across her features, she continued. "I should've, but I heard that one of their tigers recently gave birth before closing time I just needed to see them."

The costumed publisher sighed as the glass dome formed around his head. "I would've been fine seeing them tomorrow with you… But it doesn't matter now. We need to get back to-"

Vanitas was then interrupted when Tygrus climbed up from the cliffside and growled at the man holding onto his 'mate'.

"Seriously?! I thought you wouldn't survive the fall!"

Tygrus merely growled out his response. "There was a tree growing out from the cliffside, which saved me from certain death."

"...Of course there was."

The cat-creature stalked forward as he growled at his prey. He then stood up to make his full height seem intimidating before continuing their previous bout. But he was stopped when the Catwoman got between him and Vanitas in a defending manner.

"Stop, Tygrus! Don't hurt him!"

"Why?!" The cat-creature demanded.

"Vanitas has done nothing to you. There is no point."

"He's my enemy and my father's enemy. When I prove I'm best, you'll be mine." Was Tygrus' argument.

"No, I can't be won like that. I never have, I never will be."

Tygrus was confused at this point as he tried to figure things out. All that he could do was try to tell her what his father told him. "B-But my father said-"

"He's wrong!" Selina yelled out before going into a calmer tone. "Search your feelings, Tygrus. You know he's wrong."

The cat-creature narrowed his eyes as he was now uncertain on what to do now. All that he could do was growl and howl towards the sky above. And without warning, he ran off into the forest and return home so he could find his answers as he left his 'mate' and 'prey' behind.

 _ **-Dorian's Lab-**_

As he returned to his home, Tygrus explained to his father on what happened in the forest. Various emotions ran through the geneticist's features before anger took over. The man screamed and yelled before looking right at his creation with Garth not too far away.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Tygrus!" Dorian yelled out before he backhanded his creation's face to the side. The sudden action left the cat-creature shocked as he went onto all fours to cower before his creator. "I am ashamed of you!"

"F-Father, please!"

Dorian was death towards Tygrus' plead as he walked away. "Twenty years of work in jeopardy! You should have killed Vanitas. Torn him limb from limb!"

"Why? He's not food, and he is not my enemy."

"He's right. I'm not his enemy." A voice called out from the stairs, causing the three occupants to look towards the source. There they saw Vanitas and Catwoman descending down the steps. "All I want is the antigen… And you, Dorian."

Soon Garth went into action as he ran forward and tried to take out Vanitas by himself. This attempt failed as the masked publisher clocked the gorilla-man's head hard enough to have the creature fall down the stairs. Once reaching the bottom, Dorian's experiment was knocked out cold.

Seeing this happen, the 'good' doctor stepped back as he adopted a worried look across his features. "Tygrus, stop him! He'll take me away from you!"

Hoping this would be his way in redeeming himself towards his father, Tygrus got up and stood in front of his creator.

"This is out of your hands, Tygrus. He's broken the law, committed crimes against nature."

As Vanitas tried to go after the geneticist, Tygrus moved and blocked the hero's chance in taking Dorian. "It doesn't matter. He's my father. He gave me life."

From her spot on the stair, Catwoman looked for the man that changed her. Soon, her eyes widened and called out towards her lover. "Vanitas!

Looking behind the cat-creature, the masked publisher saw Dorian hold up a shotgun and aimed it towards Selina's position.

"You bitch!" Dorian yelled out as he pulled back his weapon's safety. "This is your fault! You've ruined him!" When he was about to pull the trigger, Tygrus snatched the shotgun and pushed it away as it fired off the one round in the chamber. The cat-creature harshly glared at his creator on what he was about to do to his 'mate'. "No! Let go! I won't have this insolence, Tygrus! I made you, and I can unmake you!"

Not liking the sound of his, Tygrus pried the armed weapon out of his father's hand and tossed it to the other side of the room. As it fell, the second round was fired and it's ammunition damaged some of the nearby equipment. Sparks flew from the damaged hull as a result.

"Stop, Tygrus!"

Ignoring his father's orders, Tygrus continued his little rampage as he picked up a large, metallic barrel and tossed it towards the damaged machinery. With the force of the throw, the barrel cracked as it's liquidy contents spewed onto the floor and broken machinery. With the sparks flying, they came into contact with the liquid before going ablaze.

"Tygrus! Stop!" Vanitas called out before an explosion was set off in the lab, making him stumble back into the staircase behind him. Selina quickly came down the stairs as the two saw the cat-creature toss and destroy other objects in the burning laboratory.

"NOOOO!" Dorian cried out as his life's work was literally being destroyed before him. All that he could do now was to hopefully stop his creation from continuing his current actions. "I only wanted you to be strong! To show no weakness! No pity!"

It was then Tygrus picked up a hazardous barrel and harshly glared at his creator. "As you wish, Father!" He then tossed the barrel with all his might into the fire as the barrel broke. With the contents freed, another explosion went off as the castle's foundations started to come down.

"Tygrus!" The Catwoman yelled out over the sounds of destruction around her. Not paying attention to her surroundings, she was pulled away by Vanitas as large pieces of ceiling came falling down with one of them crushing and killing Garth the ape-man instantly. She was then pulled away by her lover and out of the burning lab as she struggled to get free. "Naruto! We must go back!"

"There's no time!" He yelled out as she was forced to run alongside him.

The fire was spreading like wildfire because of the continuous explosions. Nothing could be done about it as the couple had to run for their lives. Just when they exited the burning castle, one last explosion was made as the two were sent flying and fell onto the ground.

The two groaned as Vanitas slowly got up from the ground before pulling up his girlfriend. Seeing the destruction, Selina looked away as she spoke. "Tygrus didn't deserve this." 

"...No need for tears yet, Selina."

She was confused on why Naruto said that, until she looked back and saw a large figure stepping out of the burning castle. There the Catwoman saw Tygrus walking towards them with an unconscious Emile Dorian in the cat-creature's arms. He placed down his creator before looking at the two.

"My father… My father needs help." Tygrus then looked at Vanitas with a bit of hope in his eyes. "You will help him, won't you?"

"Yes, we will." The hero had every intention of bringing this geneticist to justice for what he's done and he can't serve his time if he's dead.

As this went on, Selina soon widened his gaze and went to Dorian's unconscious body. She searched and searched for what she needed but it wasn't there. "NO! The antidote! It's gone!... I'll be stuck like this forever."

"Would that be so bad?" Tygrus spoke as he came up to her with further hope in his gaze and tone. "You could stay here, with me."

All that Selina gave him was a negative answer. "Oh, Tygrus... I can't live like this. I have to be human again." Looking at the cat-creature's eyes, she spoke from the heart. "I have a life. Friends. Family… I can never give those up."

Hearing her response made the cat-creature adopt a downcasted look. As the rain started to fall to slowly quench out the fire, Tygrus grasped Selina's hands. "Goodbye, Selina."

As he let go and walked away, Selina felt something in her hands. Curious as to what it may be, she opened it up and saw it was the antigen vial. She brightly smiled before it died down as she called out to Tygrus.

"Wait... Won't you come with us?" Offered the changed environmentalist. "We could find someplace for you to live and live a normal life. There's nothing for you here."

Selina somewhat expected Tygrus to accept her offer as he stopped and turned. But all that she got was him giving her a sorrowful gaze. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing for me... anywhere."

The Catwoman could only look away on the turned down offer as Tygrus ran off into the island's forest. As the cat-creature's form slowly disappeared from their view, Vanitas remembered the poem Dorian mentioned earlier this night and spoke it's closing lines. A poem William Blake wrote for the Songs of Experience collection.

"Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"

 _ **-Selina and Shizune's Loft-**_

It was a rather quiet ride for the couple to return home from Dorian's island. Naruto had a clone transport the 'good' doctor to the GCPD and inform them on what the geneticist has done. It was a little hard to believe, at first, but Gordon asked the hero to ask Selina to come to the station in the morning to give her statement. As much as he would believe Vanitas' case, he still needs things to be official for the record...

Once she's ready, of course, due to her tragic ordeal.

Speaking of the changed thief, she clung onto her lover on the ride back to her loft. So many things happened this evening that she was rather exhausted as a result. All that could be done to raise her spirits from such a dark time of her life was Naruto calming her down with his mere presence.

That and him petting her at just the right spots.

"Seems you're really enjoying this, Selina."

"How so?" She asked before realizing what he was referring to by hearing herself pur. "Oh… right."

He chuckled as they made it back to her loft. As he disbursed the floating card platform, Naruto bridal carried her into her home as they phased through the patio door. It wasn't long before reaching her bedroom as he sat down with her still in his arms.

Sitting her upright, Naruto brought her face to face with him as he briefly kissed her lips before pulling back with a small smile. He then formed an injector gun in his grasp before pulling out something from his utility belt. Once loading it, he placed the device in her arm and injected its contents.

"Was that the antigen?"

"Nope, that was sedative. Didn't want you to feel any discomfort with the antigen that's about to run through your veins."

She nodded as she watched him pull out the antigen in question from his utility belt and loaded it up. Before long, he injected the serum into the same arm and felt nothing in response. With there being no pain, Selina figured the sedative was working it's magic.

"So… Are you going to miss it?"

"Miss what?"

"This." Ushering her current appearance. "You have told me that you wondered what it would be like to be a cat."

"True, but I didn't expect it to go like this… But I am going to miss the strength and agility that came with it though."

"Yeah, but do you know what I'm going to miss a little about the current you?"

"What?"

He placed his hand on her cheek and rubbed it, which caused her throat to rumble in a pleasant way.

"I'm going to miss hearing you purr like this."

Selina was glad or not for her fur to cover up her cheeks since she was definitely blushing on the response. She swatted the hand away, which earned a chuckle from her boyfriend. Wasn't long afterwards as he stood up from the bed and started to walk away. Before he could make even a few steps towards the door, he felt Selina grasp his wrist.

"Wha-"

Selina threw him onto her mattress with a small bounce. He tried to get up before she crawled on top of him and pinned his arms with her knees. Selina then leaned forward and stuck out her tongue before licking his chin all the way up to his nose in one stroke. From there she placed her lips onto his as her tongue entered his orifice so their tongues could taste each other.

It was a rather interesting feeling of the texture of her tongue. He knew cat tongues tend to be rough so they could help clean their respective furs, but feeling her tongue against his own was quite the experience. Even when he had a few moments of brushing his tongue against her slightly sharp teeth. After several minutes in their make out session, Selina pulled away and gave him a genuine cat-like smile.

"What was that for, Selina?"

"Just wanted to know how it felt like." She coyly answered before rubbing her furry cheek against his, causing both of them to slightly pur. "And while I'm at it, I really want to try something else."

"...And what would that be?"

As her tail swishing back and forth in a pleasant fashion, Selina started rubbing her furred pelvis onto his clothed one. "We had played around in my catsuit several times, with me acting like a cat." She said as she moved her hands over her furry form in a sensual manner. "But what do you think of actually mating with me as a big~… bad~… pussycat~"

Naruto blinked several times before a smile slowly grew on his face on the idea. "You know, I agree." He said as he brought his hands up to her silky, furred breasts which made her moan slightly. "We shouldn't waste this opportunity if we wanna know how it feels like."

 _ **-Lemon Start-**_

Selina didn't say anymore as she leaned back down and kissed her 'mate' before inserting her tongue back into his mouth. They moaned and mewed respectively into each other's orifices as they started grinding into each other. In this process, Naruto brought his hands up to her thighs and petted her to hear the slight purrs coming from her throat.

Feeling the hardening length underneath his suit, she ended the make out session. "How about you get out your body suit armor and clothes so we can get things underway."

Naruto obliged, but only after he flipped his lover onto the mattress before moving away from her. He switched out of his Vanitas attire and took off his clothes in a sensual manner that made his catwoman look at him with lust filled eyes. Once he was fully in the nude, Naruto saw her walk towards him on the mattress with her tail swishing in excitement above her perfectly shaped ass.

Seeing this happen made him reminisce about their first time together of him being cornered by a predator. If he didn't feel that way back then, it was surely happening now. With the growing cheshire-like grin across her face, he felt he was going to be eaten by Selina… well, not all of him really. And judging by the way she was staring at his cock and licking her lips, Naruto knew what she wanted to have right now.

"Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Sit on the bed."

Following her command, he sat on the foot of the bed as she got off in a similar way a cat would do by slightly jumping off. Once on the ground, she turned towards him before facing her little prize. She then grasped his appendage and stroked it, causing him to moan with how soft her hand is.

"Mmm~ This looks so yummy~" Selina said, panting slightly as she inhaled the scent coming off from him. Opening up her mouth slightly, she gave his head several licks before looking at Naruto's worried face. "Oh don't worry, Naruto~ I'm not going to bite… unless you want me to, nyah~"

"I think that might not be a good idea, Selina." Naruto said as he gulped slightly on the thought. Sure they enjoy biting each other in the past times they made love, but it might be safer for her to not bite him that often with her current fangs that she was showing… but more so on his hardened member.

Getting the idea on what he meant, she kneeled before him with his legs spread as she lifted her furred breasts with both hands and wrapped them around his erected cock. As they brushed all around his member, Naruto moaned a little before he saw her hard, perky nipples poking out from the fur to show how turned on she was.

The feeling of his hot, stiff cock against the sensitive flesh of her breasts sent a jolt of pure lust through the catwoman. Selina clenched her thighs tightly together, biting her lip as she moaned. She opened her mouth and started licking the tip of his penis, covering with her spittle and watching happily as it grew even harder and seemingly hotter before taking most of it into her mouth while giving him a titjob.

"Damn, you're good at this." Naruto breathed out as his voice seemed a little lower and raspier like normal as his arousal grew in the past times he had sex. Her licks and kisses were getting longer, her lips and tongue lingering on his hard pole longer and longer.

Popping out his slathered cock, Selina gave him a sly look."You know how much cats love cream~ Well, I'm going to drink all of yours up, nyah~ And while I'm doing that, you can decide whether you want to fuck my hot, wet pussy, or my tight little tail hole." She mewled out, getting a wide eyed look from her 'mate'. "I would love either one, so don't worry about that~" She darted her head forward before he could properly reply as she deepthroating his cock as much as she could, feeling it fill her mouth as she sucked and slurped on it.

Groaning loudly, Naruto leaned his weight back on his arms, watching with rapt attention as the beautiful creature before him sucked and worshiped his cock like her life depended on it. Leaning back up a little, he reached out his hand and placed his fingers across her scalp before massaging not only that but the cat ears that were poking out from her long hair. This resulted in her purrs to grow louder and stronger, causing his member to feel better from this than before.

It was hard to think, but the Uzumaki did his best to consider what part of her he would fuck next. He had a small feeling she was going to be extremely tight in her pussy (pun somewhat intended) with her current changes, but hearing her want him to fuck her asshole made him a bit concerned. The last and only time he ended up fucking her there was an accident, which she didn't mind at first but it was still painful at the time.

Seems now Selina has changed her mind.

Before he could give her a response with how great the pleasure was, he quickly felt a load shoot out of his cock, causing several shots burst into her warm mouth. She moaned and purred in contempt as she savored the entire treat that her lover provided as she swirled the remaining cum all around her mouth. Before long, she swallowed the last of it that didn't go down her throat before.

"Mmm~ That's some grade A cream right there~" The catwoman mewled out before gazing at the lust field gaze her mate was giving her. With a coyish tone, she spoke. "Would you like to play with me now or-"

She didn't get to finish as she was brought onto her bed before Naruto leaned onto her chest and assaulted her mouth. Selina felt extremely excited when this happened as a large part of her really wanted to be dominated now by the love of her life. His cock was rubbing against the wet fur surrounding her moist pussy as it was starving for the hot appendage.

"Come on, Naruto~! Give me your cock~!" She cried out once he broke off the kiss.

"Only when you call me master, my pretty pretty pet." He responded in a husky tone. His fox-like grin started to match the one his lover now had as a playful gleem appeared in her emerald eyes.

She chuckled before responding "Oh _master_ ~ Will you give this pussycat what she desires, nyah~?"

Naruto smirked before he grasped his member and aimed it into her furred pussy, entering all the way in to the base of his cock. The two loudly moaned on the feeling they were both experiencing as they felt his cockhead possibly touch her womb. The publisher was right on target on what he guessed on her tightness while the changed thief felt something else. Even more so when she started shaking a little and rolled her eyes back a bit.

The former shinobi blinked in surprise on her reaction, causing him to voice his thoughts. "Did… Did you just cum?"

When coming down from her little sexual high, Naruto saw the faint coloring that somehow was shown from her dark furred cheeks. "S-Shut up! I-It's just because you thrusted it all inside so suddenly, nyah~!"

He chuckled as he pulled himself back before slamming his pelvis onto hers. "Well, Selina, we're gonna go at it harder."

This went on for several minutes as he kept thrusting into her hard and fast as her velvety walls massaged his hot member. The changed thief was yelling out in glee as her mouth hanged opened wide enough for her tongue to hang out with drool seeping out. Naruto soon brought his head towards her cat ears and started to nibble on them to get a little rise out of her as he tweaked her diamond hard nipples.

"IT'S SOOO GOOD~" She mewled out loud as she brought up a clawed hand up to grasp her lover's hair and hanged onto dear life while clawing through her bed sheets slightly. "IT'S SLAMMING INTO MY WOMB THIS WHOLE TIME~! KEEP THRUSTING INTO ME MORE, MASTER~!"

Not wanting to turn down her request; he turned the catwoman slightly, lifted up her leg and placed it onto his shoulder to go at her in another angle. Selina seemed to have love this as she was tightening up quite a bit as he kept thrusting into her. For several more minutes, he heard her cries of ecstasy when she was brought into her orgasm before he ejected a load of sperm into her wanting womb.

"It's inside me~" She rasped out as she felt his warm essence fill her up. "Your sperm feels so good~"

"And your walls feel good as well."

Not wanting to be outdone, Selina wrapped her legs around him in an awkward angle, due to her one leg over his shoulder; before using her strength to flip them over with her now on top. "Now it's my turn, nyah~" She said as she lifted up her hips before slamming her pelvis down hard for several minutes.

'I'm so glad I have this healing factor of mine.' The Uzumaki grunted in thought as he thrusted up his hips to meet with Selena's in a steady, pleasurable rhythm. 'If not, then I might end up with a broken pelvis and temporarily handicapped.'

With every thrust inside of her tight snatch, Naruto's cockhead collided with her cervix, sending electric pulses of lust throughout her feline body. The Uzumaki felt the squishy entrance to her womb give in more and more, until one final thrust was met with both parties, her cervix finally allowed passage for his member to enter her greedy womb.

"Oh god! I can literally feel you inside of my womb, nyah~!" Not wanting to let go, Selena somehow felt her cervix close up right behind his cockhead, holding it firmly in place. "Now cum for me, master~!"

He nodded as he continued with his thrusts. Wanting a bit more of a reaction out of her, Naruto brought a hand up and slammed it down onto her furry ass, getting pleasurable yelps in response. Smirking, Naruto repeated this action several times to get the mixture of yelps and moans to make her tighten her walls even more.

Before long, the former shinobi felt his testicles contract before finally releasing yet another load into her hungry 'second' stomach, causing Selina to once again moan in ecstacy. "Hy-nyah~ I can feel it all the way inside me again~!" Letting out a grunt, the catwoman lifted herself up to free his cock with much of his sperm spilling out. "Oh, you let out so much, nyah~ But I'm still not satisfied quite yet."

Naruto narrowed his eyes on the little challenge as he figured the added endurance she gained from her temporary transformation is keeping her up with him than from their usual sexual confrontations. Feeling a little pissed off, he pushed her onto the bed and flipped her over so she would assume the kitty-position. Naruto was about to re-enter her wanting snatch when he saw her blinking rosebud.

'She did say that she's fine with me using her asshole.' He thought with a smirk. Bringing both hands onto both of her silky soft butt-cheeks, she spread them further to give him better access to her back door. He was about to insert his hard cock when his eyes landed on her swishing tail. 'This thing is going to drive me nuts if it's going to move all over the place.'

Grasping her ebony black tail, Naruto saw Selina stiffen before yelping out loud on what he was doing. "HA-NYAH~! W-WHAT ARE YOU-!" Before she could say anything else, Naruto pressed his cockhead into her asshole before sliding right through with surprisingly less difficulty.

"Huh, would you look at that." He muttered out loud. "Seems easier to insert in your ass if I grabbed your tail. Now let's see how easy it'll go when I pull it."

Naruto soon pulled back before thrusting forward into her assas he used her tail like impromptu head hair in past sexual romps. Selina moaned out as she looked back at him with a face out of ecstacy. "Don't pull on it, nyah! I'll feel too much of it! I'll go crazy!"

"Well that's the idea, my pretty pussycat." He said as he kept up with his actions while hearing her pleasure filled moans and slurs. "Besides, you did tell me to use your asshole earlier. So that one's on you~"

Selina didn't say anything at all as she was more focused on how great the feeling was for her. She never felt this way before in their past romps together as it was absolutely fantastic. Despite how this was going, the catwoman was definitely going to miss this once she returns back to normal.

But for now…

"MORE~ MORE~ GIVE ME MORE, NYAH~!" Selina yelled out as she felt herself tighten around his hot cock. Her whole body was shaking again as she experienced yet another great orgasm. Her eyes were rolling back as her arms went slack, causing her to fall forward with her head falling onto the pillow. With her furry ass in the air, Naruto went in deeper as he kept pulling on her tail to drive himself further in.

This went on for a bit longer than either one of them would've thought as Selina went through another orgasm or two with Naruto having a few more before becoming spent. Pulling out from her twitching asshole, his cock spurted one last load out before finally going empty. Naruto's eyes gazed on Selena's form as her fur was not only wet from their combined sweat, but also with their mixed juices that seemed to land on her. From what he saw, their mixed essences seemed to contrast her dark fur to make things even more erotic.

 _ **-Lemon End-**_

Falling onto the bed, the Uzumaki tiredly pulled the bed sheets over them as he phased them from underneath her. Once covered up and by instinct, Selena lifted up her body and laid onto top of his firm chest before bringing their mouths together for a long and passionate kiss. From there, Selina gave out a massive yawn before curled up to him. And before long, she was out like a light.

Naruto chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. He figured the antigen was starting to finally work it's magic after their lovemaking that she would be tired out so the changes would fully work. With her soft purrs and growls, Naruto started to slowly succumb to Lord Morpheus' influence.

"Good night, Selina… I love you and I hope you have pleasant dreams tonight."

All that Selina could've heard, if she were capable at this time, was Naruto's steady heartbeat as it drifted her into a deeper sleep.

*Ba-dum*

*Ba-dum*

*Ba-dum*

*Ba-dum*

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

*Ba-dum*

*Ba-dum*

*BA-DUM*

*BA-DUM*

Selina Kyle woke up with a startling start as she heard loud heartbeats… everywhere.

"What… the hell?" She muttered as she held her throbbing head in momentary pain. Once it was gone, she reopened her eyes before looking at her hands. They seemed normal to her as she thought she had returned to her humanistic appearance. She then noticed something odd in her peripheral vision as everything seemed to be tinted slightly red.

Selena thought things were wrong with her eyes before looking up and saw what appeared to be a red sun in a reddened sky. Not only that, but there seemed to be blood-like veins shown in the sky alongside regular clouds. She soon heard thunderous, heartstopping roars and clicking, mewling purrs from everywhere. Looking where she the sounds originated, Selina stepped back in shock as she was almost ran over by amalgamations of different species roaming all over the place in all shapes and sizes.

"...Okay…" She muttered as she tried and failed to calm herself from certain death. "Whatever was in that antitoxin is clearly tripping me out more than the time I tried out pot laced with LSD some years ago." Selina then looked around once again and voiced her thoughts. "Where the hell am I exactly?"

" _ **You're in the heart of the Red Place."**_ Spoke a feminine voice, causing Selina to almost jump out of her skin. _**"The template, the morphogenetic field, the lifeweb. A place where all animals live when they die."**_

"...Who said that?"

" _ **That would be me."**_ The feminine voice answered. Before Selina could respond about it, she heard loud steps coming from behind her. Turning around, she saw a giant Sphinx cat that had to be at least fifty feet in height. Asides from the beautiful feline's height, Selina noticed it's interesting eyes as they appeared to be the fusion between a cat's eye and that of a toads.

"...W-Where you the one talking to me?" The environmentalist nervously asked.

" _ **I have, little kitten."**_

Forgetting her nervousness, for a brief moment, Selina made a little correction. "Okay, compared to you I am indeed little. But I'm not a cat… you beautiful, gorgeous work of nature."

The giant Sphinx cat chuckled as she gave the thief a cheshire-like grin. _**"Why thank you. But I have referred you as such since that is what you are to me, Selina Kyle."**_

"...How do you know my name? More importantly, who are you?"

" _ **Ah~ Of course. How rude of me."**_ Spoke the giant feline as she lied down on the ground so she would be face to face with the ravenette. _**"My name is Stopgap and we have much to discuss."**_

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **I had hoped on getting this out in time on the story's anniversary, but things kept delaying my work progression on this chapter. No writer's block, which I'm at least glad about, but family kept eating up my available time and I just wanted time for myself.**

 **Regardless... in a year on this story I've posted 38 chapters (not including the power listing chapters), gotten at least 1,600 favs and 1,700 follows, and at least 1000 reviews (not including the guest reviews since I'm ignoring those completely. Gotta say, I'm really impressed with my hard work and here's to another year on the story progression.**

 **On another note… keep hearing about the Net Neutrality bit going on right now with the Congress vote happening on Dec. 14th. I really hope things go well on this or else everyone is screwed. I mean that's so much worse than SOPA guys. So try to sign up on whatever sites do the petitions and just sign and call your respective mayors and governors so this thing won't happen. I can tell none of us want to be charged more on internet usage and many sites getting blocked off.**

 **One site I used was ' ' and from there I used my search engine to look up 'Net Neutrality' and signed whatever petitions I could find, once I knew they were legit.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	42. Heart of Steel PT 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 39: Heart of Steel Part 1**

It has been a rather long day at Wayne Enterprises, or at least it felt much longer to most.

People generally say the work day could've gone quick or slow depending on how busy and productive they were while on the clock, along with how business was exactly. The day would've gone by at a snap of their fingers if someone had to work on several projects or kept themselves preoccupied. Either that or would've been to a snail's crawl, as some example, with nothing much done to make things move at a faster pace.

The later was the case for a pair of security guards in the office building's lobby.

Looking at the clock above the entrance doors, Kotetsu drummed his fingers onto the desk's surface as he watched the seconds pass on buy. It was nearly closing time and people were heading home for the evening after a long day's work. The security guard and his co-worker/roommate would've left for home by now, but the two had to wait for the graveyard shift guards to arrive before properly clocking out.

"...What the hell is taking him so long?" Muttered the bandaged security guard. "Did that bean burrito Izumo had for lunch wreck his intestines that much or what?"

Kotetsu would've been using the restroom a quick moment by now if it wasn't for the fact that Izumo was taking forever in using the can. There must always be a security guard at the desk in case of anything. So if Kotetsu wanted to take a break or lunch or anything else, he needed his friend to watch over the station in his place.

"Stupid company policy bullshit…" Kotetsu said before his eyes landed on a gorgeous blonde, office worker that was walking past the security desk. She stopped some feet away from it as she pulled out her cellphone and spoke. The security guard wasn't paying attention to what she was saying, but was paying attention towards her appearance.

Her blonde hair was in a long, pixie haircut that framed her perfect heart shaped face. Her blue eyes were stunning as they seemingly complimented her ruby lips. The woman's figure was to die for with just the right curves in all the right places from what her pale yellow business attire gave out. Not too big, yet not too small on several areas that would practically land her a role as a Victoria's Secret model.

The bandaged guard was so distracted by her looks that he missed seeing her leave her briefcase right where she previously stood. Then again, with the sway of her supple ass made things even more distracting for the man to be distracted by. Just when the blonde was out of sight, Kotetsu snapped out of his trance and saw the woman's briefcase lying on the floor.

"Oh shit." The bandaged guard muttered as he got out of his seat and walked towards the briefcase. Picking it up, he wanted to call out to her, but with more and more employees leaving the building, it was hard for him to call her out. Especially since he didn't know her name.

"Hey." A familiar voice spoke up, causing Kotetsu to turn around to see his roommate returning. "Sorry it took a while getting back man." Izumo said as returned to the security desk. "There was a line and someone clogged one of the toilets… Is something wrong man?"

The bandaged guard dryly looked at his friend before looking back at the entryway as the hot blonde was nowhere to be found. Moving back his glance, Kotetsu just groaned as he walked back to the desk and told Izumo of what happened while he was gone. Suffice to say, his roommate was a little jealous.

"Damn, wish I could've seen that fine ass."

"If you didn't take so damn long, then you just might've."

Looking at the briefcase on their desk, a thought popped up in Izumo's head. "Do you think there's a reward for finding this? Like her giving us her number?"

"Us? Don't you mean me?"

His friend rolled his eyes at this. "Oh please~ You know I'm the more handsome out of the two of us. She'll clearly give the number to me."

"...I'm stronger."

"I'm smarter." Izumo rebutted with a cocky grin.

"Well I got the bigger dick."

"Right~ Like she would want to know that right away."

Rolling his eyes, Kotetsu went back to the situation at hand. "Regardless of getting a reward, I don't know if there's any contact information we could use to get in touch with her."

Looking back at the briefcase, Izumo went down and looked at the lock. "Maybe if we could get into this, then we could find her info… among other things."

"Yeah, yeah." Going down onto his knees, the bandaged guard fiddled around with the side locks for a brief moment. And much to their surprise, the case quickly opened. "Huh… Seems I still got the magic touch."

"In your dreams." Izumo said before the two peered inside of the briefcase contents. The two expected it to be filled with various forms of paperwork, only to find hardly anything at all. Only a few files that seemed to be of Wayne Enterprises orientation papers. "Weird…"

"No ID on any of this stuff." Kotetsu said as he flipped through any of the pages. "Seems that blonde was new here, reason why I didn't recognize her before."

"What should we do about this then?"

The bandaged guard rubbed his head before answering. "Nothing we could do about this now." Closing up the case, he walked to the security guard office and placed it on the table. "My best guess is that she'll show up in the morning for work and we could give it to her then."

"I guess you're right." Izumo soon covered his mouth and let out a yawn. "Man, it's getting late. We should probably head out now."

"Yeah… Wanna go for pizza before heading home?"

"I'm down with that."

The two guards exited the office and closed the door with it's deadlock from the outside. Once done, they made their way towards the building's doors so they could get the alarms set up before the graveyard security personnel arrive. But in the process, they bumped into someone that made them a little ridged: their boss.

"Whoa there, Mr. Wayne. Anything wrong?" Asked the bandaged guard.

Turning to the security guards, Bruce shook his head. "Not really. Just trying to get out before the night alarms are set. I've got a business dinner that I need to get to soon."

"No problem, sir. We were about to head on out ourselves."

"We could walk you to your car, if you'd like." Suggested the hair banged guard.

"Thanks. The alarm system makes me nervous."

"I hear that."

Unbeknownst to the lobby's occupants, at this time, the briefcase started to move… all on it's own inside of the security office room.

 _...Initiating retrieval designation…_

The briefcase handle opened up from one end and receded slightly to show a metallic eye. Looking around the room for a brief moment, the 'briefcase' sprouted tentacle-like legs from its corners. Once it's little transformation ended, it walked off of the desk and made its way outside of the office.

The little robot quietly made it's way across the lobby, once it slowly closed the office door so nothing would seem amiss, before approaching the door to the building's stairwell. The 'briefcase' soon balanced itself as it's front legs expanded and reached the door handle to open it. Once stepping inside, the metallic optic looked upward to see the many flights of stairs.

 _...Initiating grappling rocket…_

A hidden compartment opened up as a device ejected itself from the briefcase-like shell. Pointing towards the ceiling, the device activated and propelled the grappling hook at fast speeds. Once having a strong hold, the little robot was drawn upwards to the desired floor it was tasked on finding.

Coming to a stop, it swung several times before disconnecting the grappling hook from its being to land in front of the designated floor. Making it's way through the door, the little robot walked towards the Research and Development section of the building where most projects are kept outside from Wayne Tech. Lowering itself and walking across the floor, the briefcase bot navigated its way through the security lasers before reaching the main door.

 _...Initiating hacking protocol…_

The keypad lock next to the door started to flash several times before the light went green. Soon the door slid opened for the little robot to enter and navigate across the room to the other side. Coming across another door, the robot's optics saw no door handle as a keyhole was present on the side.

 _...Initiating laser function…_

As there was no other option, the robot's eye started to go red before a laser shot out and made an opening large enough for it to enter. Once done, it's optic receded back so it would charge forward and break through the inaccessible door and into the safe room. As it made it to it's destination, the little robot activated it's laser once again on one of the many safe doors to reveal several rows of microchips.

Back in the building's lobby, Bruce was waiting for the security guards to open up the doors for him to properly exit the building. Though it took a while since they had a bit too many keys on their person and it was hard to tell which one was which. The billionaire knew security personnel sometimes needed more than one key for their occupation, but seeing the oddly comedic amount on the one guard was a bit ridiculous.

Just when the guard was about to finally open the door, the alarms went off.

"Did we set it off by accident?" Bruce asked as his two employees ran back to the security desk.

Izumo was there to arrive first and typed a series of commands on his computer to reveal the breach of security. "No, sir. It's coming from upstairs, in the R&D department." Soon opening up the live feed, he and Kotetsu slightly gasped in what they were seeing.

"What the hell is that thing?" Asked the bandaged guard as the three saw some sort of robot stealing microchips via vacuum hose.

"We better not take any chances." Approaching their boss, Izumo escorted the billionaire to the security office room. "Right this way, sir." Once there, the hair banged guard unlocked the door and motioned their boss inside. "Now for your own safety, you stay put, Mr. Wayne."

As he got inside, Bruce raised a brow before shaking his head. He had no intention of standing around in this room and do nothing about what's going on. Walking to the far side of the room, Bruce pressed a series of buttons on a secret control panel installed before a door opened up for him to enter. Once inside, he closed up the door, changed into his hero persona and made his way to the R&D floor.

Upon reaching said floor, Izumo and Kotetsu had their guns drawn as they ran into the breached room. The pair looked all over but couldn't find the machine that stole from the company. But from the corner of his eye, Kotetsu saw the briefcase bot escaping.

Quickly turning around, the bandaged guard fired several bullets at the retreating 'briefcase' before his partner followed suit. Unfortunate for them, the bullets did nothing in stopping the robot. This forced the two to give chance as they saw it try to access the elevator. As the pair got close, the robot opened up a compartment from its side and sprayed a large amount of gas at them. The two coughed and wheezed before falling down onto the floor in a state of unconsciousness.

With them taken care of, the briefcase bot turned its attention back to the elevator. It eventually opened up for it to enter, but the robot didn't expect someone was already inside. Said occupant was none other than Batman, who glared at the thieving robot. This caused the bot to turn back and run away for another exit.

Not wanting it to get away, Batman fired his grappling gun which wrapped around it's body and held it in place. The robot was rather stubborn in not getting captured as it was being dragged across the ground with Batman pulling back the cable. Wanting to escape, the robot aimed it's eye at the cable and fired a small laser to cut through the bindings. Once done, it soon aimed its sights at the elevator and fired another laser in its proximity with the Dark Knight still inside.

Batman ducked down from being hit by the attack, but didn't realize the laser wasn't meant for him exactly. He learned this the hard way as the elevator was sliced in half, sending the bottom portion down the elevator shaft below. Batman reacted quickly and grasped the ledge before pulling himself up onto the floor.

He then looked around for any sign of the thieving robot, only to find a hole was made at the stairway door. Batman gave chase and ran up the stairs before reaching the rooftop. As he got outside, the Bat quickly ducked from a series of laser fires against him. The hero eyed the briefcase bot and saw it lower itself down before it opened up it's main lid. Batman expected some other attack to happen, but instead a mini- rocket revealed itself before firing its thrusters and flew away from the building as it destroyed the robot in the process.

Not wanting it to get away that easily, Batman aimed his grappling gun and fired before propelling himself into the air. Opening up his cape, it quickly went into it's gliding function as he soared through the air in hopes of catching up. All that he could do, however, was follow the smoke trail the mini-rocket left behind.

Off by the Gotham beach, the mini-rocket went faster and faster before crash landing at the sandy ground. Waiting there was a darkened figure as the person's features were hidden by the slight overcast in the night's sky. The being soon approached the rocket and picked it up before twisting it open to see the stolen microchips inside. Seeing as everything was in order, the person made their way towards the parked car and got inside to start up the engines before driving off with the stolen items.

As the person drove off, Batman arrived onto the scene and saw the retreating vehicle. Wanting to catch up, the Bat derived from the air and went back up to catch the wind underneath his gliding cape. He started to get closer and closer to the vehicle until the trunk opened up to reveal a gattling gun trained right him.

'Oh crap.' The Bat thought as he moved through the air to dodge the incoming bullets trying to take him out.

Batman was able to weave right through the bulletstorm as he dived and rose in the sky. His gliding cape started to falter, causing the Bat to realize his cape was hit several times. He tried to keep himself steady, but it was no use as he ended up diving right into the Gotham waters. It wasn't long after when he rose from the water, gasping for air and swam towards the shoreline. All that he could do now was make it back home as he lost track of the escaping vehicle with his stolen property.

 _ **-Batcave-**_

Underneath Wayne Manor, Alfred Pennyworth was currently dusting off the various displays Bruce had collected over his costumed career. From the recently acquired, ruined minotaur mech from the Nygma case; shark repellent, Victor Fries' Cold Gun, Harvey Dent's two-sided coin, the broken memory device used by Magpie, a giant Joker card and various others. But the one that stood out the most was the 18 ft. tall, 40 ft. long robotic T-Rex.

The former British agent remembered the outcome of that case fondly as it was one of the first outings Master Richard Grayson, otherwise known as Robin and Dick, had with Master Bruce. Dick felt rather accomplished when he took down the robotic T-Rex all those years ago that he wanted to have it moved into the batcave. But Bruce said otherwise as it would've been too difficult to transport and would've drawn too much attention.

Dick was rather heartbroken about it, causing the Wayne butler to convince Bruce to get the piece of machinery into the cave. It did excite the young lad like it was Christmas morning and his birthday rolled into one. Over the years, the Dynamic Duo procured specific items and put them out on display in the cave. Becoming estimates to their victories and to their eventual legacies.

And with how much was built around the giant T-Rex, the one section of the batcave was dubbed 'the trophy room'.

Alfred's little musings ended when he heard the bay doors open with the coming sounds of the batboat coming through the water channels below. The oceanic vehicle was rarely used with Batman's prefered forms of transport were the batmobile and the batplane. But it didn't hurt to have something to travel by sea.

But as to how the batboat got out was the Batman activating an autopilot feature into his vehicles to get to his destination before moving onwards. From the butler's understanding, Bruce radioed him earlier to turn on the autopilot for the batboat before getting the bay doors unlocked. Once done, the oceanic vehicle went off on it's own to retrieve the Dark Knight from who knows where.

As the Bat walked up the steps onto the main floor of his lair, Alfred came up and handed over a towel to his former ward. "Had a nice swim, Master Bruce?"

"You could say that." Bruce answered as he pulled back his cowl to start drying himself off.

Soon the batcomputer started to ring, indicating that a call was getting redirected from the main line. Picking up the phone, Alfred spoke. "Wayne Manor… Ah yes. Give me a moment." He then turned over to the billionaire, who was currently getting out of his batsuit. "Mr. Lucius Fox is on the line, Master Bruce. Shall I put him on the speakerphone?"

"Yeah, but him on for me please." Bruce said as he slipped off more of his suit before speaking up. "Hey Lucius, what's up?"

" _Bad news, my friend. They got away with all the prototype protein-silicon wafer chips from R &D."_

"And the design specs?"

" _Safe in the computer, thank heaven."_ Lucius sighed out. _"The thieves can't duplicate the chips without them. We should discuss tightening security in case they come back."_

Bruce nodded as he saw Alfred come back with a fresh pair of clothes. "You're right. Give me at least ten minutes to head on back, Lucius. Thanks."

Ending the call, he walked towards his butler and took his clothes when the former British agent spoke. "What's this about protein-silicon chips, Master Bruce?"

"It's called wetware. The cutting edge of computer research."

"Sounds more like a line of swimsuits, to me."

"I'm talking about Al, Alfred. Artificial intelligence. The missing link between computers and human thought."

Alfred blinked before his eyes widened. "You mean machines that could think? Like you and me?"

"Yes and with a will of their own." As he started to change into the spare change of clothes, Bruce elaborated. "They could process raw data faster than we yet be able to make the leaps of intuition that inspired our greatest minds."

"Sounds as if the human race could become expendable. Well except for butlers, of course."

"Of course. I mean not everything could be properly done with an AI, theoretically speaking."

"Like getting things just right to one's personal perfection." Alfred said as he retrieved the batsuit to put it away. "Or even reminding you that you were supposed to be at a dinner meeting if the robbery didn't take place."

Bruce briefly stopped his actions and processed in what Alfred meant. He then widened his eyes slightly and palmed his face. "That's right, I was supposed to meet up with Naruto and Selina by now."

Selina came to him the other day and pitched an idea about an animal-rights charity event. Bruce was all for it as it would be good PR and to help strengthen the good relationship with the ravenette. Though Naruto decided to join in on the planning as the publisher thought his company could help split the costs since they donate much to humanitarian and animal-rights groups every year or so.

But Bruce was supposed to meet them at the Beret Rouge Club to work through the finer details.

Walking over to the batcomputer, he started typing through his cellular number and gave his publisher friend a call. After a few moments with the ringing sounding throughout the cave, Naruto answered. _"Hi Bruce. Say, are you coming to the dinner meeting or not?"_

"Sorry Naruto, but something suddenly came up. Mind if we could reschedule the meeting on another night?"

He could hear Naruto sigh over the phone at this point. _"Yeah, I'm sure we can reschedule. When Selina shows up, I'll be sure to tell her the_ unfortunate _news."_

"Thanks for understanding Naruto and I'll be sure to make up for this, one way or another."

 _"No problem. Just do what you need to do since I have a feeling it's rather important… Anyways, good night."_ The publisher said before he ended the call.

"That solves one little problem, for now."

Bruce nodded as he made his way to the manor and to his car in the garage. The robbery situation at his company became first priority. He knows that this wouldn't be the last his company will get robbed, one way or another, but Bruce wants to halter that as much as possible.

Unbeknownst to him, he was going to miss out on something quite interesting involving a certain ravenette and cat people this night.

 _ **-Morning, Selina and Shizune's Loft-**_

Low sounds of groaning could be heard inside of Selina's bedroom as she slowly woke up from her deep sleep. The sun's rays peeking through the blinds, they landed on the couple's eyes to add annoyance on them waking up. With no other choice, the pair started to move in either sleeping in more or wanting to get up.

Naruto was forced to do the later as he absent mindedly phased himself out of Selina's hold and got out of bed before taking a shower all due to last night's events.

'Ugh, feels like my limbs are getting stiff…' Naruto thought as he stretched his aching limbs. 'Starting to feel like an old man…' Once drying himself off and in a clean change of clothes, Naruto saw his lover was still in bed while all wrapped up in a bed sheet cocoon.

"Selina? Are you alright now?" Asked the Uzumaki. Wondering if she was finally better, or at the very least stable after the whole turning into a real Catwoman. He moved his hand to nudge her to see the bedsheets were tighten around the person...once more he did it again as he heard a sigh. "Come on," the publisher said with a small smile. "We all have to face the sun one way or another."

"Go… away…" She warned though Naruto could tell it had no ill intent...just the classic 'I don't wanna' tone. "I have the sheets to block it."

"Now that's not fair." He said with relief filling his eyes. Naruto was truly glad that she wasn't scarred by last night's events. "You know I have the ways of making you… wake up… Man, I could have deliver that line better." The former shinobi scratched the back of his head, admitting that was a bad one.

"Nothing you'll do will get me out of this, Naruto."

Oh no… she made the mistake of making that sound like an challenge… Time for the old Uzumaki prankster genes to kick in.

Whistling a tune, Naruto grabbed various things as if it was nothing wrong as usual. In less than three full minutes, Naruto nudged his lover again with a small smirk. "Okay seriously, this is all you. Are you going to wake up?" He said desperately trying to sound serious and not give anything away, although his face was twitching like crazy. 'Please say no…'

Selina rolled a little in her make-shift bed cocoon, making her lover see a dark shadow inside. All that he could see was her emerald eyes glaring right at him. For a split moment, he thought his ravenette girlfriend was imitating Isis as the black cat sometimes did this when not wanting to leave the comfort of her bed.

Ignoring the instincts and well known experience of trying not to piss of women… he had a duty to his heritage. "I'll assume that as a no~?" He said, knowing what she would do what he hoped.

"Try anything and you're dead."

"...Oh well, I tried. But Kami as my witness… mom, dad, granny Tsunade… this one is for you~" He bumped his fist on his chest while shedding a manly tear.

 _CLICK~!_

Selina rolled back to her old position… that is until the bed suddenly sprung upright, sending her flying. "NARUTO~!" She shouted as she saw clothes hanging onto the clotheslines.

"Going to need this~" Naruto held up one of his formed daggers as it tugged on the sheets, while not miraculously cutting it, it actually snag onto the metal as the person inside was spinning around.

"Wawawawawawa~!" Selina mumbled as her eyes turned into comedic spirals as she spun into the clothes which were large furry jackets and pants.

Naruto casually walked to the kitchen as he grab a markers, all black, and angle them as Selina past right to them marking her face in markings that were similar to whiskers. Before watching her hit the couch… it also sprung up. Naruto just grab a cup of coffee as Selina saw another set of clothes this time it was a tail, furry mittens and cat ears!

"Nononono~!" She cried before she somehow put them on. "I didn't even- WAH~!" She squealed as she return to the bed… before it shot straight up to the ceiling that had velcro on it. Shaking her head, the thief saw she was latching onto the ceiling like a stereotypical cartoon cat.

"...I hate it when you do that!" She growled before looking around in her loft. "And you better be fixing all of this… Again."

"I know, but I just needed to get you out of bed. And to be honest, I could've been more brutal..." He admits before taking a sip of his coffee. "This was Plan B... Plan 'A' involves fire, two sets of trucks filled with fish oil, and possible the entire city of cats."

"...How the fuck will you pull that off?"

"Sad to say, I couldn't find enough oil." He sadly sighed before sipping once more. "Also where is the creamer?" Naruto wondered as he chuckled at the scene.

"...You must have way too much time on your hands to think of that shit."

"Eh~" He replied with a shrug.

"If I ever have a child with you… you are not going to teach him or her any pranks." She declared. "Now get me down from here!"

Her boyfriend merely scoffed at hearing that. "Says you. That shit's genetic. Never knew on that until finding out about my mom… Also just put some strength into it you can get down yourself." He chuckled as he had one last part to his prank.

"Fine~" She moaned before with slight difficulty removed her arms first then realize something… "You… you have something else in mind, don't you?" Knowing that he would always give her his hand after a prank.

"Hmm?" He looked up and gave a odd expression. "What are you talking about?"

"Never mind." Selina sighed, she should have faith in Naruto… removing her legs she fell to the bed…

SPLAT~!

"...I hate you, so much… You're a mean man." She glared at Naruto as she was covered in creamer as the bed somehow was replaced with liquid. "I was sleeping on it... How did you do that?!"

"Trade secret."

"Well you're still cleaning this up." She said as she got up from the bed and made her way towards the shower to wash off the wasted cream and whatever else was on her.

As much as she loves Naruto, one thing she absolutely hates about him is his pranking trait. He tends to go above and beyond on them that it seems impossible on how the majority of them get pulled off in the first place. Even the ones she saw in his past were enjoyable to watch that would make a trap expert green with envy.

Selina loaves when Naruto aims his pranks on her. He doesn't do it all that often, thank god, but when he gets into the mood well your SOB. Though Naruto doesn't do the pranks at all towards Rachel since he doesn't have the heart to put any harm at all towards her.

But any possible boy having interest in dating her would be fair game to the Uzumaki.

Naruto sighed as he summon several Dusks and Creepers as they seemed perplex at the scene. "Don't ask, just clean." He asked as the Nobody's just tiptoed they're way to the bed.

The blonde noticed that one Dusk was using a Creeper as a broom as it swept up the milk, but it left no trace. Another pair of Creepers seem to hover around the milk before they shifted into a pair of vacuum cleaners. "That's weird... They never did that before." He mused as the odd silver beings quickly cleaned up the mess faster than before.

'I wonder if it's because of the new weapons… maybe they're get smarter?' He thought before one Dusk was body slamming another one… 'Eh… Maybe not.'

"Nice cleaning service~" Turning around, Naruto saw his bubbly girlfriend interacting with some of the Creepers while a Dusk waved at both her and Pam. "Heya, you guys playing nice?" She said as one nodded, before being hit on the head by a Creeper hammer wielded by another Dusk. "Ha, reminds of those old 'toons I watched as a kid!"

"Did they show that kind of interaction before?" Pam asked Naruto, who was taking notes in Lexicon. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, just making some details about these guys. It seems after some prolonged exposure to each other, these guys can adept and work together." He explained as he made some drawings of some Dusk's holding Creepers in their weapons forms.

"Or just mess around without any proper order." Guessed the psychologist as she walked over to the thief's fridge and pulled out some orange juice.

"Been meaning to ask this, but why are you two here?" Questioned the Uzumaki.

"I was bored at home and wanted to check on ya." Replied the bubbly blonde as she poured herself a glass. "Though you weren't upstairs, figured you'd be down here."

"I heard some information from my plants that something occurred last night." Pamela said as she folded her arms. "But I was too busy with something else at the time and was too far away to be of any help. So, I'm guessing it wasn't too bad?"

"If by bad, you mean of Selina getting kidnapped… Then yeah, it wasn't that bad."

The botanist and psychologist blinked a few times in confusion before they ushered Naruto to give an explanation as they sat at the kitchen counter. Basically, Selina got kidnapped by a cat crazed scientist and was turned into a literal Catwoman. He came in to save the day, fought a 7 ft. cat-creature and procured the antigen to get Selina back to normal.

"Wow, I bet it open some doors for you both. Eh~?" Harley said nudging Naruto before a Dusk seemed to shaking, almost imitating laughter. The publisher looked at the Dusk before sending a glare at the particular summon.

"Shut up, before I send you away." Naruto warned as the being continued to clean his mess. "Anyway that's the end of that. But I wonder if Tygrus is fine on that island all by himself."

"Aw~ I would like to see Selina all furry." Harley pouted as a Dusk refilled her drink. "Thanks kid." She patted the Nobody, who seemed to salute to her before resuming its previous task… All the while Ignoring Naruto, who raised his mug for a refill.

"Jerk…" He muttered before looking at the blonde. "Hey Harley...can I ask you for a favor?"

"Sure, what?"

"Can you talk to Selina?" He softly asked. "I know she feels better, but I think she might benefit talking with you, who's a licensed psychologist."

This earned a serious look from the asylum employee. "I dunno, she might take it the wrong way or know I'm digging for something." Harley explained as she finished her drink, allowing a Dusk to grasp the glass with it's tiny arms. "But if you think it that she needs it, I can give it a go." She ended with a large smile.

"Thanks. Sorry for being selfish." He said as felt a small headache. "Okay guys, you can leave now." One by one, he saw each of the Nobody's disburse into plumbs of smoke before he let out a little exhausted breath. "I was summoning way too much there."

"But it looks like nothing happen." Pam announced as she eyed the sparkling loft.

"Huh seems they can mature a bit…" As he stood, Naruto felt one of the glass cups hit the top of his head. "...I bet they planned that one." The former shinobi stated as he brush his hair off any shards that were left. "And now I owe Selina a new cup."

"You most certainly will." Speak of the woman and she shall appear, in a bathrobe and a towel wrapped around her head to dry off her hair. Though it seemed odd for Pam and Harley seeing this since last time they checked, Selina had short hair and the towel bit only applies with long hair.

"I'll get it by the end of the day, I swear." Naruto raised his hand to wave it off.

"Yeah, yeah." Walking past them, she reached her fridge and pulled out a gallon of milk… before bringing the opening to her lips and chugging the entire thing all in one go… without taking a moment to breathe.

"Uhh…" Naruto blinked owlishly at the sight. "You, uh… have a need for calcium today?" He asked knowing that the human body can crave for certain things to benefit the body, but that was usually from neglecting certain food stuff.

Selina didn't respond as she held up a finger to hold that thought. All she wanted to do was to savor the delicious liquid going down her throat at a slow pace. Even moaning a little throughout the process.

"Wow…" Harley said as her eyes danced up and down to see her throat bulge a little before each load of milk was gulped down.

"I think...they're might've been side effects…" Pam said absentmindedly slightly amazed… horrified… erotic… whatever this sight was making her feel.

"You think?" Muttered the changed blonde as she saw Selina finishing the rest and held the container above her lips to let some droplets fall on her tongue.

"Ah~" Selina briefly voiced out before something bubbled in her chest. She then let out a loud burp before coughing a few times as a result. The thief then looked at her empty carton of milk and chuckled slightly. "Seems I need to go shopping for more milk."

Harley lifted a '9.5' score board. "Points on the delivery, but some off due to the ending."

"...Okay, that happened." The botanist said as she scratched her head before walking over to her friend. "Selina, might I check with you?"

"Sure." She said slightly uncaring, making Naruto raise a brow. She usually isn't like this. Hell she was reminding him of…

"Meow~"

"Oh there you are." Naruto said as he picked up Isis from the floor, who looked slightly lost. "Aw crap, her instincts are still there." He realized facepalming.

"What?" Selina said looking back at her lover before she felt Pam opening up her eyelid more before lifting up her lips. The ravenette then smacked the hand away and slightly glared. "Okay, what are you doing?"

"Pupils are fine, slightly… Naruto do you have picture of her? Preferably a close up?" The red haired woman asked.

"I got one." Pulling out a wallet from her purse, Harley opened it up to show one of several photos she had with the girls present in the loft.

"Hmm… just as I thought, look." She walked to Naruto pulling him to see the photo then to see Pam open the eyelids again. "You see?"

"Her pupils are different shape." He said as he let go of the photo, "Her eyes are slightly slight, nearly impossible to noticed."

"Not to mention her canines are sharper than usual." Added in the botanist.

Getting annoyed by this, with a twitch of her eye, Selina spoke her thoughts. "Okay, what the hell are you talking about?"

"And she is easily more moodier now than before." Pam pointed out at the twitched.

"So… what, she adapted to the splicing or something?" Suggested the bubbly blonde.

"Stop ignoring me like I'm not here!" Selina roared as she felt something in her hands. Looking down and saw her nails slightly became sharp. "The fuck?"

"Looks like it." Naruto said before moving forward to grasp Selina's hands, who moved out of the way on instinct. "Please look at me." Her lover spoke softly with slight worry in his eyes. "We didn't mean to upset you, Selina. We're just worried about you, that's all."

"...Sorry." She took a deep breathe as her nail's retracted.

"There's something I need to ask you about."

"Which is what, Red?"

"Did you, perchance, have an odd dream last night?"

The ravenette raised a brow and voiced her thoughts. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer it please."

Selina soon rolled her eyes. "Yeah I did, something from a fever dream."

"And what did you see exactly?" Not getting an answer right away, Pam sighed. "Look. I don't care how odd it may be, but tell us… if you remember anything at all."

Selina tilted her head back as she adopted a thinking pose. Pacing back and forth around the kitchen before pulling off the towel around her head. The damp locks rolled out as the hair reached past her shoulders and slightly bounced. "Well… I remember this red, hued landscape."

"Anything else? Did you see something out of the ordinary?" Asked the botanist as Selina shook her head.

"I said I… wait… I remember… a cat."

Naruto sweatdropped on that bit of information. "Well, that's useful."

"And how odd is it for Selina to not dream of cats anyways." Harley chimed in. "I mean, doesn't she fantasize about anything feline related. Hell, even the feline Dream Spirits enjoy being around her than either of us."

"No, I mean like a giant sphinx cat." Selina explained slowly regaining her recollection from last night dreams. "And… And she had a mix of cat and toad eyes. Saying I was at… a Red Place."

Hearing this got Pam to sigh a little as she spoke. "That confirms it."

"Confirms what, Pam?"

"Some of the physical changes remained after the antigen did it's work are merely just a scratch on what happened to you."

"Heh, scratch." Harley giggled out before seeing the others look at her. "You know 'scratch' since she's like a cat now…" Seeing as neither of them were laughing, she hung her head and ushered them to continue.

"...As I was saying." Continued the botanist as she brought her attention back towards her friend. "Asides from the physical changes, you also visited _that_ place in particular."

"And what place is that?"

"Like you said: you were at a _Red_ Place."

It was then that things clicked with the resident Uzumaki, with his eyes slightly widened and quickly turning towards the botanist. "Are you sure, Pam?"

Seeing her boyfriend's reaction, with him knowing what's up, she nodded. "Yes, I'm sure."

Both Harley and Selina adopted confused expressions as to what Naruto and Pam were talking about. Said individuals soon noticed the others' reactions as they realized an explanation was in order. But question was: who would do it out of the two.

"Could you explain it, given that you have better knowledge than I do?" Naruto asked the red haired woman, who shrugged knowing he was right. "I'll get a pot ready, since it's a long story." The publisher stated as he found some tea leave containers. "Any flavors you girls want?"

The three gave their respective demands as the botanist started out with the little lesson about the Colored Nature Groups. Pamela went into detail with part of her side occupation as a Champion of the Green, which pertained to her meta-abilities over plant-life and everything that came with it. She then explained each of the other groups in general with a small example for each, like Solomon Grundy with the Black/Rot, before getting to the main topic of the discussion: the Red.

"Here." Their boyfriend passed out their respective cups, thankfully in time as Selina was slightly awe and stunned at the explanation. Though on the other end of the attentive spectrum, Harley was slightly bored as her mind went elsewhere from time to time. Pam was trying to make it interesting, but with the blonde's current mindset it tends to switch back and forth.

"So… I'm the champion of Red?" The cat lover concluded as she drank her peppermint tea.

"From my understanding Selina, you might possibly be in a minor category."

"Possibly?" Naruto voiced knowing that it wasn't like Pam to leave things to chance. "I mean... I know I could be considered 'minor' with me only having little access to the Green, but aren't you a little harsh there?"

"It's hard to tell at this point since she just barely got these current abilities, which we'll need to figure out through training. Especially since some of your previous enhancements through the serum I gave you, back in May, would've changed dramatically." The botanist answered as she sipped some of her Earl Grey. "But don't you remember anything from what this giant Sphinx cat told you last night? She could've helped out more on the details."

"I… think so?" The ravenette scratched her head as she tried to remember. "Things were fuzzy, like most dreams are. But if I meet her again, if I could, then I'll ask."

"A name perhaps?" The blonde asked drinking some green tea before shivering in slight disgust as he forgot to add sugar.

"...I think her name's Stopgap. Any significance with it, Pam?" 

"No clue. I only know significant names with the group I'm associated with. Names with the other Nature groups are pretty tight lipped."

"Stopgap… I swear I heard before." The blonde mumbled scratching the back of his head.

"It means temporary fix, like using a picture frame to cover a hole. Good for a bit, but you still have to address the problem sooner or later." Harley informed them before drinking her gunpowder tea. "Those kind of terms are used alot in my field when categorizing people's habits."

"Anything else?" Pam asked as the blonde shook her head comically. "Then if there's nothing else-"

"I do suggest kitty here should get house trained."

"...Excuse me?" Asked the ravenette as she felt offended.

"Well~ You're part pet now and your animal instincts might take over from time to time… like downing the entire carton of milk all in one go."

"Just because I'm acting more like a cat doesn't imply that I will pee wherever I want!" Selina shouted at Harley while turning red at the accusation.

"Then just be sure you don't claw up any couches or furniture in the foreseeable future and then we'll call it good."

"I don't do it even now!"

Naruto however pointed at her hand with a deadpan expression. "Uhh… might wanna check again."

She turn her head down to see that she tore up armchair rest to shreds, "...I am going to need to some time to adjust to this."

"You should probably start bringing your nail filer or clipper with you for now on."

"And something to curb your anger." Harley stated, feeling a bit bad that her joke made Selina angry. "I can help with that, if you want."

"Uh huh. With what?"

"This~"

Before Selina realized it, Harley threw a big yarn ball over the thief's head.

"I am not…" Selina eyes shifted to the ball before looking back. "Going to…" Once more her eyes turn back to the still rolling ball. "Not… resisting well…" She said with pain look on her face… before jumping on the ball of yarn clawing it with her hands. And before long, Isis jumped out of Naruto's lap and joined her changed mother in the action.

"Oh~ I'm going to enjoy this." The botanist voiced out as the psychologist gleefully nodded.

"Yeah and I'm going to exploit the hell out of this for a very long time." Harley stated as she thought of getting a bunch of catnip to see how high her friend could get and acquiring some laser pointers.

Naruto just watched as Isis and Selina just try to keep the ball away from one another. "This... is a fun day." He said taking a quick photo to blackmail her at a later time.

 _ **-Cafe Triste-**_

"Welcome to Cafe Triste, where our coffee is always 'triste-worthy'." A teen woman greeted a young woman, who was next in line amongst many others.

The person who stood in front of the cashier was a red haired woman, barely in her twenties. Smiling at the employee, she placed her order and paid it before navigating her way through the crowd at one of her favorite establishments. The coffee shop was, thankfully in her thoughts, inside a bookstore that she always visited.

Her long, straight red-orange hair was so vibrate and stunning it nearly made people compare it to a afternoon sunset. She fixed her glasses, noting that it was slightly off in her vision. It was squared framed and black, matching her intellectual appearance well. Her eyes were a perfect dark shade of amethyst that shined when the light hit it in the right angle. Her skin was nice healthy skin tone, a fleshy peach complex for someone her age should have. She wore a yellow dress shirt and brown plaid skirt, while plain it didn't make her any less beautiful.

Once finding an available table, the redhead placed her belongings down before situating herself into the seat. With how busy it was, it'll be a while until her order will be ready. Knowing this, the redhead pulled out a notebook from her messenger bag and looked over it's contents.

'Okay… Need to do some adjustments on this one paper before I submit it first thing next week.' She thought before looking over the other documents in her possession. 'After that, I need to talk to daddy about more of his past cases for references on my side project.'

Said 'side project' was a book she was writing for quite some time now. Based off of various cases her father worked throughout his entire career as an officer of the law. It started out as an assignment from her creative writing course, but it seemed to continue on from there. On most of her free time, the redhead would dabble into her novel and either do adjustments or add things in to hopefully make things better.

The redhead looked over her little novel and bit her inner mouth with a little crinkle of her lips. Everything is doing well throughout the book, but she keeps having a hard time trying to write up the last few chapters to end things properly. Writers blocks are not something she enjoys coming across, but she goes back to it after some form of distraction to have her 'refreshed' before getting back into her project.

"What I wouldn't give to get some professional opinion on this." The spectacled woman muttered under her breath. "Not only that, but some great inspiration to drive this all the way through."

"A grande soy latte with extra whipped cream and an extra large black coffee for... Miss Barbara?" The cashier spoke out, getting the spectacled redhead to snap out of her train of thought. Barbara saw her order at the counter before standing up to grab her drinks.

She navigated her way through the crowd once again as it seemed tighter than before. As the redhead grabbed her drinks, she turned around… only to bump into someone on accident, causing her drinks to get spilled onto the man's clothes. "Oh crap! I'm so sorry!"

The male gave a small chuckled as he wiped off the remaining liquid and whip cream that didn't soak into his jacket and shirt, "It's fine, could've been worse." He grabbed a few napkins to dry the wet spots on his clothes while moving out of the crowd. "You don't need to worry about it, ma'am."

"Still, I should pay for the cleaning." Barbara insisted as the man sat down at her table.

He merely waved her off at her attempt. "Nah, it's fine. Water will help get the leather to not all sticky. And as for the shirt, I'll just throw it into the wash when I get home." Barbara was feeling bad on him not accepting her offer, but she still apologized with the hot beverages spilt onto him. "It's fine. I have a… tolerance to hot liquids, per say… Don't ask."

What Naruto was slightly referring to was the training he got from Talia years ago and amongst the vast things he learned from her was being slightly intolerant to hot liquids. She said that the Sohei Buddhist warriors believed that you must first fight with the mind before the weapon. It was a good concept, needing to think ahead in any kind of battle on various scenarios.

But that wasn't all that she was referring to as she poured hot liquids on top of her bare hand.

Naruto freaked out at her doing this, but somewhat calmed down as Talia stated that pain is inevitable yet suffering is optional. It was a cold outlook on how she stated it, but said it's what her father taught her and her sister years ago. Regardless of the philosophy; the lesson was to help numb yourself to specific, receiving pains. And with the former shinobi having dealt with different sources of pain throughout his life, he could at least numb himself to hot liquids.

So two cups of really hot coffee wouldn't cause much harm to him, even with his healing factor.

Once he dried off the wet stains, Naruto looked at the spectacled woman. "Though I should say that I'm sorry, miss, and buy those drinks that were spilled. I think it was my fault that happened."

"You don't have to."

"But I insist." He firmly said. "You purchased those drinks and I ruined them. Please, let me help you on this."

Barbara was going to refuse the offer, like he did towards hers, but he stood up and quickly made his way towards the counter and seemingly made his way towards the cashier. Once again, Barbara felt bad that he was doing this but he was obviously trying to a simple courtesy on what was obviously her fault. Then again, the place was busy and accidents could happen with how crowded it is.

Before the redhead knew it, the man returned with a small smile. "Well I got your order and it'll be ready sometime soon. And before you ask if I got them right, I handed back the cups to the employees up front when I ordered."

"...How?" She asked with a raised brow. "How were you able to order so quickly?"

"Eh~ I have my ways."

Barbara shook her head before finally inspecting the man sitting in front of her. He seemed rather familiar to her with the silver hair, his deep hazel eyes and whiskered cheeks. The redhead couldn't place him right away as she seemed lost in his strong, handsome eyes.

"Has anyone told you, you have really beautiful hair?" He suddenly asked, causing her to snap her out of her thoughts and look at him oddly.

"What?"

He nervously chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about that. It's just that red hair seems to stand out to me a lot and you have a perfect blend of red and orange that compliments well with your amethyst eyes."

Barbara blushed a little on the whiskered man's compliment as she didn't receive one before… well except from her father. "T-Thanks."

"No problem."

An awkward feel filled the little area, causing Naruto to wander his eyes a little. They soon landed on her opened notebook and tried to make out what it was, out of curiosity, but chose against it. Naruto then looked back at the redhead, who was also looking away and had a feeling as she too felt the awkward air.

Wanting to end the feeling, Naruto spoke with a thought in mind. "So… Who's the second coffee for?" This got her attention as the publisher continued. "I'm guessing the latte is yours, since I think you seem the type of person that likes it's soothing taste. But is the second drink for a friend or what?"

Barbara looked at him with a skeptic look. Even though he was a cute guy, she wasn't going to give out much on her answer… asides from a little necessity. "It's for my dad. Just wanted to get him something when I stop by where's he's at very soon."

"Well that's nice of you."

"Thanks… So since you asked me something, mind if I ask you one?"

"Shoot."

"You seem rather familiar to me, but I can't quite place it for some reason. Would you mind telling me your name?"

Naruto blinked at this and was about to speak when one of the coffee shop employee's spoke up. "A tall, green tea latte; one grande soy latte with extra whipped cream and a venti black coffee for... Mr. Naruto?!"

"...I'll be right back." Was all the Uzumaki said before he got up and went to grab his order. When he got back with the cardboard cup carrier, he was met the slight wide-eyed look coming from the spectacled redhead. "...Yes?"

"You're Naruto?

"Yes." The whiskered man answered as he sat down, pulled out the green tea latte from the carrier and handing the carrier to the redhead.

"As in Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Is there any other Naruto out there in the world?"

A blush dusted her cheeks as she looked away slightly. "Sorry."

"There's nothing really to be sorry about. Though I do feel a little left out that you know my name, yet I don't know yours." Seeing her flustered look, Naruto mentally chuckled. "Well introductions are probably in order. Name's Naruto Uzumaki. What's yours?"

Getting out of her flustered state, the spectacled redhead answered once composing herself. "It's Barbara. Barbara Gordon."

"Well it's nice to meet you Barbara." He said with a small grin before it went down. "Wait… Gordon? Like Commissioner Gordon?"

"Yeah, he's my dad. You got a problem with that?"

The Uzumaki shook his head. "Not at all, really. He helped me out a few times in the past and I appreciated it a lot."

Barbara nodded as she knew about some cases her father took as he briefly talked about them. One involved the Joker Fish incident and Naruto's name was on the news. She asked her father on the details as he went on why the Uzumaki was being targeted by the crazed clown. She admits that Naruto's action was rather ballsy, but earned her some respect in her book.

Speaking of…

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did." He cheekily said, getting a playful glare in return. "But since I'm in a good mood, I'll give you another."

Barbara let out a small chuckle from this before pulling out a separate notebook from her messenger bag. Taking a good look at it's pages, Naruto saw that it seemed thick enough to work for a standard novel size. He then looked at the title written down in marker before reading it outloud.

"The Binary Beast?"

"It's a story that I've been writing for quite some time now." Answered the commissioner's daughter with a small grin. "Started out as a little writing habit from my creative writing class at college and I got inspired by hearing more of my dad's cases in the past in wanting to write all of this down."

"...I'm guessing you want my honest opinion about it. Is that right?"

"If that wouldn't be so much trouble."

Naruto thought about it for a brief moment before shrugging. "Okay, I'll take a look at it." Barbara sighed and said 'Thank you' before the Uzumaki spoke up. "But don't think that you're the commissioner's daughter that I'll give you special treatment on this. I'll be very thorough about this and will give you criticisms on what you possibly need to do before you possibly hope of having this published."

The spectacled redhead blinked before quickly nodding. "Of course. I wouldn't have it any other way. Hell, it's a good way to better myself by getting hard criticisms on how to make my work better than before."

"Good. Now is there anything else I should know about this book before I take it and look it over? And I'll be sure to give it back to you, in person, once I'm done with it and have my notes for this story added in as a separate document."

Barbara nervously chuckled before answering. "Well… to tell you the truth. I'm not quite done with the last portion of the book. I'm stuck and I needed some help or some better inspiration to get me to finish this up."

"Good to know on that Miss Gordon." He said as he placed Barbara's notebook into his messenger bag.

Naruto could understand what Barbara was dealing with right now. He had several upcoming writers in the past come to him or his editors for some help in finishing up their books. Neither the Uzumaki or his editors finished the books, but gave advice on how to possibly work right through it as they were fresh eyes to the unfinished work.

"And speaking of inspiration... I was wondering how you were inspired into writing your books."

"Life experiences, mostly. But before you get into asking me about my 'Icha Icha' series and 'Gutsy Ninja', I inherited those from my late godfather and I wanted to publish them in his memory. So don't think I'm a pervert for writing the former."

"Not at all. But what about your latest book that just came out: Final Fantasy?"

"Honestly? Well it's hard to tell, but the idea just came to me (among several others). From there, it was just a lot of research through fantasy novels I previously published to going over a lot of Dungeons and Dragons materials to get a better layout on most parts."

"Thanks. I just wanted to know." Barbara looked at the green tea latte and saw he hasn't even touched it at all and voiced her thoughts. "Aren't you going to drink that? I think it's getting a little cold."

"Oh this?" Emphasising by shaking the latte drink in his hand. "This isn't mine, it's my young ward's. She's just wandering around the bookstore getting new stuff for her ever growing book collection and I got her this drink since she asked me to."

"Well that's nice of you."

"Speaking of, shouldn't you be giving your father his coffee by now?"

Barbara blinked before widening her eyes. She almost forgot on why she came here before. Grabbing her things, the spectacled redhead thanked Naruto once again for buying her drinks and looking over her book before running out of the coffee bookshop.

Naruto chuckled as he saw her leave before getting up from his seat. The Uzumaki needed to find his young ward inside of the bookstore. With her growing interests in books as of late, Naruto is sure she'd be gathering a large stack in hopes of him buying it all for her. He possibly might while getting the rest for her birthday next month.

 _ **-Wayne Tech-**_

"When I told the mayor the nature of the theft, he insisted I oversee the investigation." Commissioner Gordon spoke as he stood inside of Bruce Wayne's office alongside Lucius Fox. "Question is, where could the thieves sell this stuff?"

"Beats me." Answered the Wayne CEO. "The only other group researching Al on this coast is Karl Rossum's team at Cybertron."

"I thought Rossum was retired." 

It was then Bruce spoke up to clear up the confusion. "Karl went into semi-seclusion after the loss of his daughter." Rising from the seat of his desk, the dark haired billionaire looked through his office window with small memories coming back to him. "He taught me everything about electronics when I came back to Gotham from my years abroad. But he's been more active in business as of late."

Gordon nodded as he spoke. "I'll be sure to talk to him, Mr. Wayne."

Before the police commissioner could make his way out of the office, the doors opened up as a spectacled redhead poked her head right through. "Dad, you in here?" She then looked further in and saw her father was still in a meeting with Mr. Wayne and his CEO. "Bad timing?"

Bruce saw the unexpected guest and widened his eyes slightly. "Barbara? Wow, you've grown since I last saw you. Come in."

Taking the invitation, Barbara walked into the office with a cardboard cup carrier with a small smile on her face. "Sorry I'm late dad. Something held me up at the one coffee shop you like your stuff from."

"No problem sweetie." Her father responded as he was handed his prefered drink.

Bruce came closer to the father/daughter pair before he spoke to the redhead. "It's been, what, four years? I thought I would've seen you at your father's Commissioner Ceremony last year."

"I was there, Mr. Wayne, but only for a short time. Had some projects and assignments that were due and could only stay for the actual ceremony before slipping out."

"And what are you doing now? College?"

"Obviously." Her father replied as he took a sip of his drink. "And she's made the Dean's List after the hard work she's done so far."

"Especially with the gymnastics scholarship alongside the long hours working at the library. Practically live there on most days as both a librarian and a student."

"Speaking of. What are you going for, Barbara?" Bruce asked.

"Well I'm aiming on getting a bachelors in Criminal Justice with a technologys minor."

"Hoping on joining the GCPD like your father?"

"She'd need to earn more than just the degree if she wants to join the force, you know." Answered the father as he crossed his arms. "She still has what it takes to join the olympics one day and I think she should compete in that first before taking the entrance exams."

Bruce chuckled on seeing how protective the commissioner was towards his daughter. The man hoped in delaying his daughter's attempt in joining the force since he still thinks his daughter is still a little girl… even though she's in her early 20's.

The billionaire was going to say more on the subject when his eye landed on something unique poking out of the redhead's messenger bag. It appeared to be a blue-eyed teddybear with a black top hat and bowtie. The plushie seemed a little worn out on some areas as he could see little breaks on the seams while continuous patch ups were made over the years.

"And who's your little friend?"

Barbara raised an eyebrow before realizing what Bruce meant. Opening up the messenger bag flap a bit more, she pulled out her teddy bear. "This is Freddy, my best friend since pre-K?" The redhead chuckled as she handed the plushie to Bruce. "Dad can't seem to pick me up at the airport without bringing him along."

Hearing this caused Gordon to faintly blush in slight embarrassment. "Yes, well, he knows the way better than I." Recomposing himself, he escorted his daughter out of Mr. Wayne's office. "So you go talk to Rossum, and I'll start things moving on my end." 

As the father/daughter pair got out of the office, alongside Lucius, Bruce looked down and saw he still had Barbara's teddy bear on hand. He was about to leave to hand it back when Gordon quickly opened the door.

"Heh, sorry. Barbara forgot her bear. She'd kill me if anything happened to him." Was all the father said before he snagged the plushie and left, leaving Bruce chuckling at the commissioner's little expense.

 _ **-Cybertron-**_

It took some time for Bruce to arrive at his destination as it was not only located on the far side of the city, but also along the coastline. It wouldn't be much of a problem if it weren't for the fact the road getting there was big enough for a single car lane. Bruce had to wait for quite a while as several Cybertron marked trucks passed on by before he guessed it was time for him to proceed further on his path for answers.

Arriving at the company parking lot, Bruce exited his car and made his way towards the building's entrance. It was rather vacant, in his opinion, as the area seemed barren of any additional employee vehicles. The billionaire figured that he arrived when the company's work day was at its standard end and the trucks from earlier were making their deliveries.

Coming to the front doors, Bruce saw no visible door handle for him to use to enter. He was about to search for another, possible entrance when the doors opened up on their own. Bruce expected someone on the other side, only to see a small yellow robot with a monitor screen for a head… which had a message shown on its 'face'.

 _...Welcome, Bruce Wayne. Please follow me..._

The billionaire raised a brow as the robot ushered him into the building. The two went through several hallways before coming across an elevator. Bruce was about to press the button, as per usual habit, when the doors opened up to reveal the Cybertron CEO: Karl Rossum.

The man was of short stature, compared to Bruce's height, with his greying brown hair and pale blue eyes. Currently wearing a brown, business attire in a rather loose feel to it. Then again, with the tired look the man wore it would be understandable he would somewhat have a laid back appearance, to some degree.

"Bruce Wayne." Karl spoke with a growing smile. "I'm so glad you called. It's been years." Ushering the dark haired man inside of the elevator, Rossum pressed the desired floor button before the doors closed on them. "I heard about the theft of those chips, my boy. You need better security."

"So I've been told, Karl." Soon the doors opened up to Karl's intended floor before the two stepped out. Bruce then spoke as he followed Rossum through the hallway. "But I'm just curious if anyone's tried to sell you any wetware."

Karl shook his head. "Afraid not. But if anyone does, of course, you'll be the first to know."

"I appreciate it. Really I do."

"It's no problem." The two then entered Karl's office as Bruce eyed the various gadgets and robot models littering the CEO's office. Coming closer to Karl's desk, Bruce sat down on the nearby chair as Rossum smiled at him. "Would you like a cappuccino?" 

"Why yes, thanks."

Bruce expected Karl to go to a coffee machine he had installed in his office, only for him to press a button on his nearby lamp. To the billionaire's surprise, the lamp started to shift and change into something else. A cup then popped out from the bottom before the liquid beverage was poured from the machine's top. Once done, Bruce blinked on what he just saw. He remembered Karl's robotic work tends to be one thing and turn into another like one of those Transformers toys he saw advertised on some shops and commercials.

'Seems he actually brought them into reality, per say.' Thought the dark haired man. "Uh… thank you." Taking the cup into his hand, the billionaire took a sip and enjoyed the taste. "Now, me coming here and asking about what you know on my chips isn't the only reason I came." Drinking another sip, Bruce spoke again. "I was wondering about your own Al research." 

"Right… Well once you finish your drink, I'll show you my pride and joy." 

Seeing as he wasn't in any hurry, Bruce took his time to finish his hot beverage. As he took the last of his drink, Bruce handed the cup back to Karl before being escorted out of the man's office. The two went back to the elevator from before going down to a deeper level. As they reached its end, the doors opened up to an extremely large space when Karl spoke.

"Now, Bruce. This here is my greatest achievement." The Cybertron CEO said as he walked out and showed the large machine that practically filled the entire space of the room. It seemed rather intimidating the to billionaire, especially with the red optical eye faintly glowing near the top with it's two 'horns' sparking with electricity. "My prototype Al: HARDAC." 

"...I'm sorry but what does HARDAC stand for?"

It was then that a door opened up from the machine's side. Exiting right through, Bruce saw someone with a rather feminine figure in a protective suit and mask over her form. Taking off the mask, he saw the woman's perfect heart shaped face with her stunning blue eyes. She then spoke the man's question with her ruby lips. "Holographic Analytical Reciprocating DigitAl Computer: HARDAC."

"Okay… And how did you hear me from the door?"

The woman merely smirked a little with her blue eyes seemingly shining a bit. "The little window was thin enough for me to hear."

Bruce nodded as Karl spoke up. "Bruce, this is Randa Duane, my assistant."

Not wanting to be rude, Randa took off one of her gloves before holding out her hand. The billionaire followed the action and grasped her hand to shake it. Though he fought back of letting go on what he felt. 

"Your hand is like ice." Bruce said in a surprised tone."

"Sorry." Apologized the assistant as she let go. "I've been in the cold room."

"So tell me, what does HARDAC do?"

"Now, Bruce" Karl voiced out as he stepped between the two with a teasing grin. "I can't tell you all of my secrets now, can I?" Stepping away from the pair, Rossum scratched his head and thought on what he could properly state to his guest. "Let's just say that certain... That certain projects are under _his_ control." 

Bruce blinked a few times before he saw Karl look at HARDAC with a certain gaze in the man's eyes. The billionaire shook his head before speaking up. "Well... since you won't tell me what you're working on, Karl, maybe I can charm details out of your lovely assistant."

Randa tilted her head and gave Bruce a teasing grin. "Well, you can try."

Feeling up for the challenge, the billionaire asked the charming assistant. "Dinner, tomorrow night at my place?"

The woman thought about the offer before giving Bruce a little shrug. "I don't see why not. Though it'll be after 8… I tend to work late."

Bruce smirked a little before walking away from her. "Well, I better get going. Things to do and prepare for, you know."

Karl then spoke up as he walked beside the dark haired man. "Come on Bruce, I'll walk you out."

As the two left HARDAC's room, a synthesized voice was heard shortly after. " _ **Randa… You did not bring me the design specifics I needed."**_

The assistant looked upwards towards the large machine and looked straight at the glowing red eye. "There wasn't time to get them from Wayne's data banks. I'll try again tomorrow."

 _ **"...Some people in high places are becoming too curious about this operation."**_ HARDAC spoke as Randa walked towards him to continue her daily tasks. _ **"They must be dealt with accordingly."**_

"I understand." Randa said as she pulled back the hood of her protective gear to reveal her long, pixie blonde hair. Coming up to a door built into HARDAC's frame, it opened up to reveal a shadowy figure standing there with no movement at all. _ **  
**_

" _ **Now… The next duplicant is ready. See to its placement tonight."**_

_**-Evening, Gordon Residence-**_

Inside of the living room; James Gordon was in his sleepwear, sitting on the couch as he read one of the books he wanted to catch up on. With how busy things have been as of late, the commissioner enjoyed the simpler things to unwind his mind from work. Even with his daughter's presence helped out on that little endeavour, in his opinion.

Taking his eyes off the pages, James briefly glanced at his daughter's old stuffed animal Freddy as old memories surfaced. Barbara got the old plushie when the old family was all together one last time at Fredbear's Family Diner roughly fifteen years ago. Before his ex-wife Barbara Eileen, who their daughter is named after, walked out on them.

Everything seemed fine on that day as their children were happy as could ever be. The parents were off from work that day and spent the entire time together as a family. James' ex-wife purchased the stuffed animal for Barbara, due to how much she was eying it during their meal. Barbara grew so attached to the little guy that they were practically inseparable. James remembered the scene as rather touching and figured nothing bad could ever happen too soon.

He was, however, too wrong as a few days passed when his wife left the family. There were no reasons given at all to her sudden departure as it frustrated James to no end. This resulted in having Barbara become closed off for years and J.J. (James Jr.) became a little trouble child.

As years went by, J.J. started to distance himself from his father and sister. Nothing could be done to really repair their strained relationship as Barbara Sr. was the root of the problem, as to what the counselors and therapists stated. And when J.J. graduated high school, he moved out of Gotham and went to attend college in Chicago.

Neither he or his daughter heard from him ever since as they occasionally wonder what's happening in his life.

Speaking of his daughter, Barbara was lying in front of the fireplace as she worked on her school assignments. She was rather chipper than before as they left Wayne Tech earlier today, which did confuse him. Barbara only showed so much emotions while together and with certain friends, but while spending some of the day together his spectacled daughter seemed happier all of a sudden.

Asking about it, James learned his daughter got into a small accident with Naruto Uzumaki at the coffee shop she regularly goes to. The publisher didn't blame her at all on what happened before he went out of his way to pay for her replacement drinks. Barbara wanted to pay for his cleaning, the Uzumaki politely refused the offer as it wasn't that much of a big deal.

Things progressed from there as the two started talking with her bringing up this one book she has been writing for some time now. Naruto gave her advice as he accepted to look over her book. Barbara seemed rather excited about it as she thought he was a great guy so far and hoped to see him again.

James inwardly chuckled as it seems his daughter was finally developing a crush for the first time with how he noticed her blushing cheeks. The commissioner did have a brief thought that he could've introduced the two sooner, if he ever had the proper chance. Naruto was a good kid as he was a self-made man in both founding and owning a successful publishing business. The Uzumaki would've been the perfect man to be with his daughter as he was kind, respectful and did things for others.

'Too bad he's already in a relationship with Ms. Isley or else I would've gotten the two together.' James thought before he heard the doorbell ring. He spoke up as he got up from the couch. "I'll get it, princess. You keep hitting those books."

"Okay, dad."

Reaching the door, Gordon opened it to see a pair of individuals standing in the darkness. Wanting to be polite, he spoke to them. "Yes? May I help you with something?"

There wasn't a verbal response at all as one of the shadowy figures stepped forward. The person's features were starting to show from the porch lights. Upon seeing the man better, Gordon widened his eyes in shock.

"What the-?!" Before he could say anything else, his mouth was covered to muffle his scream as he was shocked by a taser. The electric charge was too much for him, causing him to collapse into the person's arms.

Back in the living room, Barbara was working on her homework assignments as she hummed a pleasant tune. Though her mind started to drift elsewhere at some point as he kept thinking about the whiskered publisher she met earlier today. Barbara started to remember where she previously saw him as it was earlier this month.

The spectacled redhead was running errands downtown after classes that day. It was a rather 'off day' for her as she felt depressed. It wasn't unusual for her to feel this way as nothing seemed exciting in her life. Working full-time before college started back up, working on her novel for fun while keeping up with her gymnastics skills ate up a whole lot of her free time. Got to the point when Barbara viewed her life through the typical 'same shit, different day' scenario.

But things seemed to change when Barbara heard music coming from a music shop…

...Yeah odd for getting such a reaction from such a place, but it what was being played that drew her attention and to go inside. The melody was calming and had this indescribable feel that wanted her to listen at its source. Getting inside of the music shop, the redhead saw a pair of individuals standing in front of a silver haired, whiskered man as he played something from a guitar.

She didn't know how long she stood inside of the shop, but all that she did realize was the man played five songs total with the last four hardly ever stopped as he transitioned quickly into the next one. Barbara didn't know why, but she felt this little odd ache in her heart that she hadn't felt in a long time. Yet the songs soothed the pain as she continued listening till the last note was strung when she realized a crowd was formed by the man's playing.

"And to think Naruto's not only a great writer and publisher, but also a handsome musician to boot." Barbara muttered with a small, dreamy sigh before she realized what just said. On a small instinct, she moved over on the ground to see if her father heard her. If he did, well, she'd probably get teased for it or something.

Luckily for her, her father was not in the living room but seemed to take longer to get back for some reason. Ever being the worried daughter, Barbara got up from the ground and walked towards the door to see what's going on with her father. It would usually be either a case or some other police business that took up this much time. Upon reaching the door, it appeared to be neither as her dad closed the door.

"Dad? You okay?"

"I'm fine." Her father responded in a bland tone.

"Who was at the door?" Came the obvious question, though it wasn't answered. Feeling worried that something wrong must've happened, she grasped his hand to comfort him a little; only to jolt back a little on the feeling. "Were you outside? Your hand is like ice." 

"I'm fine."

Entering the living room, Barbara got back onto the carpeted floor to get back to her assignments. When she looked back at her father, who barely approached the couch, he did something that he never done before… smacking Freddy away in a rough manner. 

With widened eyes, Barbara voiced her concern. "Dad, are you sure?"

"I said 'I'm fine', Barbara." He responded in a colder tone, getting her to flinch in response.

The spectacled redhead tried to go back into her studies and assignments, but her eyes kept going back to her father as he went back into reading his book. That was never like him at all of being rough inside of their home. Well except when J.J. lived with him as things were strained while growing up, but that was besides the point.

'Who was at the door that caused you to act this way, dad?' Barbara thought as she periodically looked back at her father before going to bed.

 _ **-Next Day, Wayne Enterprises-**_

"...As of last night, Karl Rossum hadn't been approached to receive stolen goods." Spoke the Wayne billionaire as he typed away into his computer. "But he knew what was stolen." 

Lucius nodded as he adopted a thinking pose. "So you'll try to squeeze some info from his assistant tonight."

Bruce stopped typing as he looked at his friend with a raised brow. "Squeeze may not be the best word in the current situation."

The CEO merely chuckled in response. "Sorry, but with your reputation as a 'playboy', things tends to get that thought to come to mind."

The billionaire rolled his eyes at this. "Well, to possibly help cover my tracks, I decided to improvise a little in hopes of throwing off Randa's guard."

"And what would that be?"

Bruce was about to answer when he heard the door to his office being knocked. Soon the doors opened up to reveal Randa walking in with a cream jacket and a brown shirt and skirt combo. Around her shoulder was her brown purse, matching her attire.

"I hope I'm not interrupting. 

The billionaire shook his head. "Not at all. We're just installing new computer safeguards."

"Well then, I'll stay out of your way." Said the blonde assistant as she soon leaned against Bruce's desk before taking out a compact mirror from her purse. There she checked up on herself before applying any fixes towards her appearance.

Bruce and Lucius looked at each other as this went on. The CEO gave his friend a small shrug. Seeing this, Bruce shook his head before turning off his computer.

"So Randa, shall we go?"

Closing up her compact mirror, the blonde assistant walked towards her date for the evening before linking arms with him. "Ready."

When the pair left the office, with Lucius not far behind, Bruce spoke up as they walked down the hallway. "I've been meaning to tell you this earlier, but tonight's date is actually going to be a double."

Randa looked at Bruce with a quizzical look. "Why's that?"

"Well… It's actually been several months since I dated. And the last person I was with died when we were going out."

"Oh, sorry to hear that."

"It's quite alright, I've… tried to move on." He solomely said as they reached the elevator. "But a friend of mine suggested that the next time I go out with someone, I should do doubles until I felt ready going back to singular."

"Hmm… Smart advice." Randa voiced as she thought that it seems she'll need to adjust her plans while out on this date at the Wayne Manor. 'All I can do now is wait and see if the little robot I placed in Wayne's office will do its job properly.'

 _ **-Gordon Residence-**_

Inside of the dining room, Barbara was eating the meal she prepared for the evening. She would normally be enjoying it, as she does a good job in doing so for all of her meals. But it seems her father wasn't enjoying it at all as he barely touched his meal.

"Don't you like the roast, dad?"

"It's fine." He replied as he ate another piece of meat.

She eyed her father with a concerned look on her face. "That's practically all you've said since last night." Feeling hurt, Barbara wanted to know what's wrong. "Are… Are you mad at me?"

"No, you're-"

"I know, I know. 'I'm fine'." The redhead said in frustration as she stood up and took her empty plate into the kitchen.

Barbara thought that last night would've been one of those moments for her father to be in a slightly bad mood and feel better in the morning. But it seems that was not the case as he acted the same way throughout today. Acting cold towards not only her, but everyone else as others voiced their concerns towards her of seeing the odd change of mannerisms.

'Whatever happened last night changed you and I don't like it.' She thought as she washed her dishes before putting them into the washer. 'Wish there could be something to lift my spirits right now.'

*Ding Dong* *Ding Dong*

"...Who could that be?" Drying off her hands, Barbara walked to the door before opening it to find the Uzumaki standing there. "Naruto? What are you doing here?"

"Evening Barbara." Greeted the whiskered publisher. "I was just coming over to drop off your book you let me look over."

Remembering her request yesterday, the commissioner's daughter brightened up a bit from her sour mood. "Really? Already?"

"Yeah." Pulling out her notebook from his messenger bag, Naruto handed it back. "Didn't have any books to look over the past 24 hours, so I was able to go over it."

"And?"

"Well… I left my concerns and edits inside, like I stated before, but it was overall good. You'd still need to finish up the end, but I recommend doing that once you go through the notes and edits. Just so a better idea could maybe come your way."

Barbara nodded as she opened up her notebook to see written pages in Naruto's handwriting. Lifting them up, which were quite a bit, she saw the edits he made in pen.

'This'll definitely preoccupy whatever freetime I'll have.' She thought before closing her thick notebook. "Thanks for helping me out on this Naruto, it means a lot."

"No problem, Barbara. Just take your time and you'll do fine." Naruto was about to leave when he saw her body language. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Everything's fi-" The redhead caught herself from finishing what she was saying, due to her hearing it from her father ever since last night. She shook her head before correcting herself. "Yeah, something's not right."

"What is it?"

Barbara sighed. "Just my dad. He seems cold to me all of a sudden and I don't know what's wrong."

"Do you want me to talk to him or anything?"

"No, you don't have to Naruto. It could've been some case or something. I don't know for sure which is making him act this way."

Naruto scratched his head a little before pulling out a pen. Once out, he politely took her notebook and wrote in it before handing it back. "If you need any help on anything, Barbara, call my number. I'll do what I can, if you ask."

Barbara smiled a little and said her thanks before closing the door on him. It was nice of him doing this for her and being concerned for her. She'll definitely take up on his offer if the opportunity presents itself. But for now, she has something to preoccupy the rest of her evening.

Back outside, Naruto felt a little worried on what was going on as he walked away from the house. It was probably nothing as people need to have some days to be cold or whatever. No one can't be bright all the time.

Once far enough from the Gordon residence, Naruto disbursed into smoke to reveal he was a clone. Sending it's memories back to the original to show its task was complete.

 _ **-Wayne Manor-**_

Inside of the manor's dining room, Naruto took pause as he felt the influx of his clone's memories coming back to him. It wasn't noticeable towards Bruce and his date, but Selina saw as she's grown used to knowing her boyfriend's little quirks.

You might be wondering why the secret couple were here in the first place. At first, they thought Bruce wanted to make up for not being there for the business dinner two nights ago when he called them earlier today. It was something along those lines before their friend explained the little situation that was going on with the recent thefts towards his company and needing their help to possibly help expose her and the company she works for.

It at least was clear as to why Bruce had to cancel all of a sudden that night and the couple understood. But they did wonder what would've happened if he was able to make it to the restaurant on time. Would he gotten involved in searching for the ravenette thief or not? Who knows… Especially since Selina doesn't know who her friend really is, but Naruto does.

'I wonder when would be the good time to drop that tidbit on not just her, but Harley and Pam.' Thought the publisher as he ate more of his desert. 'Already I can tell they'd kill me on keeping such a secret from them that Bruce is actually the Batman. Though question is: how will they punish me for that.'

Unbeknownst to Selina on her lover's thoughts, who had her hair wrapped in a bun to hide a bit on the recent growth, she was laughing a little when hearing Randa's latest story from her workplace. "No way." She said in between giggles. "Are you serious?"

The pixie blonde nodded with a growing smirk. "But the best one was the dishwasher that turned into a Jacuzzi."

"How in the world would that work out?" Questioned the Uzumaki as he let out a chuckle. "I can understand washing the dishes, but having that go straight into a Jacuzzi of all things? I mean, come on."

"Karl's a genius, all right. A mad genius for coming up with these odd inventions." Bruce said as he finished up his plate. "Though he'd have to be if he knew it was wetware chips that were stolen. Care to explain that Randa?"

Before the pixie blonde could answer, Bruce's cell phone started to ring. Momentarily putting his question towards the side, the billionaire answered. "Wayne here." The dining room's other occupants saw Bruce's features change from a pleasant one to serious as the phone call proceeded. With a sigh, he nodded before ending the call.

"Something wrong, Bruce?"

"Sorry if I have to cut things short for now, but I have to go out." Rising from his seat, the billionaire made his way towards the dining room door. "Call Alfred if you need anything. I'll be back soon."

As he left, the publisher rubbed his eyes a little with a shake of his head. "He seriously needs to stay for at least one event." Leaning back in his chair, he saw his friend leave. However he felt Selina kick him for his rude tone and playfully glared at her. "Sorry… sheesh… OW~!"

"Is something wrong, Naruto?" Selena asked with a hint of a smirk.

"No."

"So… What should we do till he gets back?"

"Maybe explore the manor?" Randa suggested, getting looks from the couple. "Never been in here before and always heard Bruce has a nice collection of antiquities."

The publisher was going to say yes… until something struck him odd. "Didn't you just met Bruce yesterday?" He said out of natural curiosity, so how she would know something that knowledgeable. The man even out of uniform tries not to let his guard down or ever...

"Yes."

"Just… making sure." He said with a goofy smile although his eyes watched the pixie blonde women's movements carefully.

 _ **-Wayne Enterprises-**_

It took some time for Bruce to arrive at his company building after receiving the call from Lucius. As he got into his office, the dark haired man saw several police officers combing through the room while seeing Lucius typing away on his office computer.

"Lucius. Did they get the wetware specs?"

The CEO sighed as he rubbed his head. "I don't know yet, Bruce."

Briefly looking at the officers, Bruce asked his following question. "They dust the keys for any prints?"

"Yeah."

"And?"

"Nothing. And it seems that whoever got in here has the file alright."

The billionaire patted his friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, all they got was a decoy file I uploaded last night. The real one is back at my home." He explained to his old friend as the man felt relieved that nothing was too bad.

Not known to them, from outside of the office window, Randa's compact mirror was situated around the corner. It suddenly popped open before a small robotic eye came out and stretched upward. Once at its maximum length, the synthetic eye started flashing as the small attached antennas started transmitting its findings back towards its master.

 _ **-Meanwhile, Wayne Manor-**_

" _ **Randa."**_

'Yes?'

" _ **The information I needed was not in Wayne's office computer."**_ HARDAC's voice rang through her mind. _**"Search the house. My data banks of Rossum's memories indicate Wayne always kept important backups at home."**_

'Yes… I'll do it right now.'

"I want that clock…" Naruto chuckled as his lover looked at the practically expensive and shiny grandfather clock when they explored the manor. Look like her cat-like instincts were kicking in again. The publisher turned to see Bruce's date standing still. "What do you think? I personally find it pretty dusty, despite how often Alfred cleans it."

However his words fell on deaf ears as she stood up from the couch and walked towards the stairs. Naruto suddenly felt alarmed, his honed instincts were kicking in like a stampede! "Hey-"

"Ah. I was wondering where you three went off to." Alfred said, holding a silver tray of tea and cookies. "You do make it difficult for me to serve tea." He chuckled as he noticed the blonde woman coming at him. "Miss Ronda I have made a excellent Earl Grey called Earl of-"

Without warning, Randa reached out as a taser came out of the sleeve of her jacket before hitting the Wayne butler in the chest.

"Get away!" Naruto warned the man as Selina turn her head just in time to see the blonde woman knock out the kind butler via electric shock. "Alfred!" He cried out as he moved towards the blonde assistant with a fist. "You're going to pay for that!"

 _RING~! RING~! RING~!_

"Crap!" Naruto eyes widen as he hesitated for a second, which was long enough for the woman to stab his chest with the taser. "GAHHHHH!" He gritted as he felt limp and fell the floor, making the woman look at the device.

"Odd… should've been enough to render you unconscious… oh well…" She raised her foot ready to kick Naruto's head in… that is until Selina tackled her.

"Off my man!" She roared as her nails grow long and sharp, she turn her head slightly to see Naruto trying to lift himself up to get the ringing phone.

"That's going to take a second." He grunted as answered it. "Bruce, I hate to tell you this… but I think-"

SHING~!

Naruto eye twitched as the silver tray Alfred was previously using cut the phone's cordline. "You know, I should convince Bruce to switch his home phones to cordless."

'This isn't going according to plan…' The woman growled in thought as she saw Naruto stand up as if the taser never hit him in the first place. She, however, smirked as she saw Selina look to Naruto with a worried look… revealing there's something she can use. "Think fast~!" She said in mocked cheer, taking out a small silver container which Selina quickly caught in her hands.

"You better think twice when-"

"Selina, that's a flash-!" Naruto started until the world turn dark and loud annoying ringing was heard. "Bang!"

"What?!" Selina screamed out as she felt her ears were pounding against her skull.

Naruto however ducked a incoming attack as he smiled. "Going to have do a lot better than that!" He smiled before hearing something snap. "What's that sound?"

CRASH~!

"Ugh!" The Uzumaki gasped out as the chandelier hit his back with enough weight in lodging him into the floor. He was stuck! "Sonuva-" He started before smelling burning ozone, oh no… "Se-", he was about to say but heard his lover screaming as a loud thud-like crash came soon after. "Selina?"

"Don't worry, she's sleep… though it's really odd to see you still alive." Randa stated before Naruto's eyesight started to return. "But you'll be joining your friend soon enough." She smiled before slamming her foot onto Naruto's head with enough force to fully knocking the man out quickly.

She smiled knowing that both of Bruce's friends are now out of the picture. Looking over to where the grandfather clock Selina crashed into, Randa was going to dismiss it when she saw something odd behind the remains. Pulling the unconscious ravenette out of the way, the pixie blonde moved the clock's remains to see a hidden entrance.

Her curiosity got the better of her, Randa decided to explore her new discovery. It was rather dark as she made her way down the stony steps. Before long, her eyes adjusted from the dark when she saw something extraordinary.

"HARDAC, I've definitely found something." Randa spoke in a small trance-like state as her eyes scanned the legendary batcave. "Bruce Wayne is Batman." 

" _ **Intriguing."**_ Spoke the Cybertron AI as it processed this newfound information. _**"This data may be useful later… There must be a central computer. It will have the data I need."**_

The pixie blonde took a bit as she walked through the cave until she found the batcomputer. "I see it." Approaching the piece of equipment, she started typing away. "Prepare for interface, HARDAC."

Once she was done, the AI's voice rang through her mind. _**"I will take it from here, Randa. You come home. Immediately."**_

"Understood." 

_**-Later-**_

Bruce was getting worried as he made his way back home from the office. When he tried to call earlier in hopes of either having Naruto, Selina or Alfred to question Randa on recent findings something went wrong. His publisher friend answered the houseline but the call got disconnected. When he came back home, Bruce searched the house for any sign of Alfred or his guests.

"Alfred? Randa? Naruto? Selina?" The man called out as he kept looking… until he saw one room in a total wreck. "Oh god…"

"Ugh… took you long enough…" Naruto bitterly said as he struggled to get on up, despite having the chandelier pinning him down. "And I gotta say, you're taste in women suck."

Snapping his attention towards the pinned Uzumaki, Bruce rushed over and lifted the chandelier high enough for Naruto to crawl out of the way. As the publisher got out, the dark haired man dropped the ceiling decoration and saw the bloodstains on Naruto's clothing. "Are you alright?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine. However…" Looking towards the other people in the room, hazel eyes were filled with worry. "Alfred and Selina are a more pressing concern."

Quickly turning his attention towards his old friend, Bruce rushed towards Alfred's side. "Alfred? Alfred?"

He heard an audible groan from the former British agent as the Wayne butler slowly opened up his eyes. "Master Bruce?" 

"Alfred, what happened? Where's Ms. Duane?"

Alfred held his head as it throbbed with pain. "Forgive me, Master Bruce. I-I can't imagine how, but I can't remember." 

"I can tell you." Spoke up the publisher, causing Bruce and Alfred to look over to see Naruto gently hold onto Selina with care. "Randa did this."

The eyes of the billionaire hardened when hearing this. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. She attacked us all of a sudden..." The publisher paused when his eyes landed at the broken grandfather clock before he gazed at the dark passageway in the wall. "Bruce? What's that?" Naruto then saw his friend dash into the darkness without giving a response. "Bruce?"

Going down the dark stairway, Bruce momentarily forgot the needs of his friends as his primary concern was his home's breach of security. And he needed to see what exactly happened in his home through the batcomputer security feed. Once in his cave, he called out a voice command.

"Computer, scan the Batcave for-"

Suddenly his main computer turned on by itself as it started to go haywire. The screen went through an array of images, in rapid succession, before unrecognizable sounds were heard throughout the underground cavern. Before long, the cave's lights went into a strobe-light effect.

"What the hell?"

"Bruce!" A familiar voice called out from behind, causing the dark haired man to spin around to see his friend come down the stairs. "What the hell were you thinking leaving Alfred and Selina… behind…"

Realizing what was probably running through Naruto's head, Bruce spoke. "I can ex-"

Suddenly, everything seemed to have shut off all at once. The only sources of light came from the ruined grandfather clock entrance and the blinking light coming from the bat computer, leaving everything in the cavern in an eery and unsettling feel in the air. Neither men didn't know how to respond on what just occurred… until...

*THUD*

"What?" The two men both voiced at the sudden sounds with the mild shake of the ground.

*THUD*

"Bruce… What the hell is going on?"

*THUD*

"...I thought it was turned off." The billionaire muttered as his head turned towards the source. "Randa must've turned on the security protocol and reprogram it to attack anyone now."

*THUD*

"What are you talking abo...ut…?" Naruto asked with a drolled end as his eyes quickly focused in the darkness and saw the source of the loud 'thuds'. "Bruce…"

"Yeah?"

*THUD*

"Why... the fuck... do you have a mechanical T-Rex as a security protocol?!"

Standing a yard or two away from them stood the eighteen foot tall, forty foot long mechanical T-Rex as it's glowing red eyes menacingly stared right at the two men. It's intimidating figure made both men's shiver on what's currently happening. Before either men could properly react, the T-Rex mech opened it's maw and let out a piercing roar throughout the Batcave.

 _ **GRRRRRRAAAAAAAAWR!**_

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **First things first, delays happened because mix of work and writers block. But it was mainly from me freaking out on the Net Neutrality ordeal that it's been making me sick. And the latest FCC vote went 3-2, which got the FCC to repeal Net Neutrality.**

 **But don't fret my fellow fanfic writers and readers, a saving grace has stepped forward to possibly save the internet as we know it. Congressman Sean Maloney is making a new bill called the Save Net Neutrality Act and what it does is to stop the FCC's tracks by not allowing them to use the current rulemaking process to overturn Net Neutrality. We all know the current process is corrupted because of fake comments, shenanigans and bought out people to sway the vote. In fact, it's currently being investigated as we speak.**

 **So call your respective congressmen and senators and ask them to inform them about Sean Maloney's new bill 'Save Net Neutrality Act' with the code HR-4585 (which is the bill you would find online I believe for personal vote). If things are done well, this will temporarily hold the FCC's attempts until the bill could possibly be added into the Constitution Amendments so Net Neutrality will remain permanent.**

 **Second, I'd like to thank a good online friend of mine for helping me out on some parts of this chapter as I'm possibly considering having him and her join in writing some chapters here and there. The fanfic writer I'm talking about is Azure King and Queen.**

 **Now... ya'll have noticed that Barbara Gordon has finally been introduced into the story. Some of you are obviously having questions about her, but I don't really wanna hear it. Things are still gonna be developed with her character since things are gonna take a while to figure out with her. But there is one thing I really want to make perfectly clear here to all of you…**

 **She is not going to have the spine shuddering creepy romance bit with Batman like in the Killing Joke and in the rest of the DCAU media.**

 **Azure King: Thank God~**

 **It was brought up that Bruce Timm was experimenting with the odd romance idea back in the DCAU. They did do the confirmation later on with Batman Beyond and the tie-in comics where they had her get pregnant with Bruce's kid, only to end up having a miscarriage and end up ruining relationship between Dick and Bruce for good.**

 **Now some of you are wondering about what I did with Barbara for the chapter and whatever with her interests in writing. Well there's an Elseworld comic titled Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl and Batgirl where Barbara Gordon is literally the 'Batman' of that story as her parents died in Crime Alley instead of the Waynes. Said family took Barbara in and she eventually becomes Batgirl… though would've been better if they made her Batwoman.**

 **Anyways, her occupation to cover up many of her nightly activities is being a writer where she takes inspiration from past cases she worked on and makes them into best selling novels. Makes me think of ABC's Castle to some degree, but Barbara is more of a badass. So I thought this could be a little fun trait to add into the future Batgirl's character in my story.**

 **Now I keep getting reviews and messages on what I did for the last chapter about Selina interacting with the Red. Well I thought of having her be a very minor champion of the Red but having an interesting connection later on in the story.**

 **On another note… I honestly can't wait to see the new Jurassic Park movie. Looks great and one of the things I can't wait to fully see is Jeff Goldblum's character, Dr. Ian Malcolm, showing up at court. I mean LOOK AT HOW SALTY HE IS IN THIS TEASER AND TRAILER!**

 **He's like: I am so READY for this shit. I WARNED YOU DUMBFUCKS MULTIPLE TIMES! I AM SO TIRED! I HAVE POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, BUT NO… NO… Please tell me how you should reopen the park, AGAIN! FOR THE FIFTH TIME! AS IN FIVE! THIS HAS HAPPENED, FIVE TIMES!**

 **Not only that… but Star Wars: The Last Jedi was pretty great! Go check it out when you can!**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	43. Heart of Steel PT 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 40: Heart of Steel Part 2**

"MOVE!"

Naruto didn't have to be told twice from Bruce's order as he dived out of the way from the dino-mech charging right at them. Just in time too as the mechanical T-Rex crashed into one of the Batcave entrances. Quickly recovering, it lunged towards the nearest person with it's opened maw.

"WHY WOULD YOU HAVE A ROBOTIC T-REX HERE?!" Naruto screamed as he dodged a bite from the Batcave's 'guardian'. "Is it because of the new movie?!"

"What?!... No!" Bruce ran towards one of the nearby walls and pried open a small door, which housed several batarangs for emergencies. Gathering what he needed, Bruce rolled out of the way and threw several explosive batarangs as he answered. "It was supposed to scare off the intruders."

The whiskered man expertly dodge more bites as he backflipped several times. "Okay, can't take any chances…" Flipping into the air one, Naruto poured power into his right hand as his Void Shot appeared fully loaded. "Hey Rexy! I got a nice treat for ya!" Naruto loudly shouted before pulling the trigger as it spat out three 'bullets' at the robotic beast's eye only showing a menacing orange eye without any fake skin. "Shit, how strong is the metal?!" He yelled Bruce who was throwing some of batarangs.

"What do you mean?!" Cried out the dark haired man as he tried to make his way towards the batcomputer, but was thwarted at every turn. Just when he was about to throw the last of his current arsenal, Bruce noticed the weapon in his friend's hand. "...What the-?"

"Uhh, not the time Bruce!" Naruto roared as he took more shots at the 18 ft. tall robot that made it take a step back. "Oh yeah, critical shot!"

Knowing his friend was probably right, Bruce had to suppress the urge to get information while being attacked by his security protocol. What he needs to do now was to shut that thing down. Problem is, its keeping the two away from the batcomputer for some reason… Wait…

"Naruto!"

"Yeah?!"

"Can you distract it long enough for me?!" Bruce yelled out as he slid across the ground towards the display that kept Victor Fries' cold gun. Quickly breaking the protective case, the billionaire took hold of the device and turned the safety off.

"Depends, how long exactly?!" Naruto jumping off a wall to escape a tail swipe. "Damn that was close!"

"As long as you can!" Taking aim with his procured weapon, Bruce fired a cold shot at the robot's feet for a few moments to get a few layers of ice around it. This bought him some time as he ran towards his cave's computer in hopes of stopping this mess.

"Alright!" Naruto agreed before forming another Void Shot in his other hand. Switching to his tether shots; the Uzumaki fired both at once, creating a thin line as it wrapped the beasts mouth shut. "That's one problem done, for now." He muttered as the dinosaur broke free from its ice entrapment and turned around to tail sweep him once more. Naruto flipped over the attack as he aimed his void crossbows, shooting the monster's exposed eye again and again.

As the publisher was keeping up with his assault, Bruce was able to get to his computer as he started to rapidly type away on his keyboard to shut off the security protocol. Though it seems another computer is uplinked to this one. This meant that whoever's in his system won't stop this attack until either the connection is broken or fully shutting off the computer long enough for the hacker to give up.

'God, I wish I had Marva or some tech wiz over here right now.' Thought the Wayne as he typed like no man has typed before. 'Either might be able to do this faster than I'd ever be.'

"Haa…" Naruto breathe out as the mechanized maw slowly started to stretch, causing to make a loud roar. "Not good… running out of steam here…" He glared at the stopped beast before feeling a dark bubbling feeling in his chest. "I… freakin'... hate robots!"

Bringing up his weapons, he saw blue and black energy forming around the tops of his cross bows and smirk. "Take this!" Pulling the triggers, he was sent flying back into the cave walls via harsh recoil as a blue sharped energy arrow hit the dinosaurs head… leaving nothing behind save for black scorched metal.

"...Fuck that hurts…" Naruto muttered as he tried to pry himself out of the rocky surface. Though this resulted in several attempts as he felt drained, gasping out several breaths. "...That was way worse than the normal rounds…" Thankfully he was recovering, at a very slow pace.

"Alright. I swear Bruce, if you have some kind of spliced up, white T-Rex next to attack us, I will have to kick you in the face!…"

Turning his attention away from the computer for a moment, due to hearing the loud explosion moments earlier, Bruce saw the damage towards his cave's 'guardian' before processing what his friend just said. "...Excuse me?"

"Ugh… Sorry… Nevermind!" The Uzumaki said as he finally pryed himself out of the wall and fell onto the floor… face first. "...Just my head not making sense of things right now."

"I can see that… anything broken?" The man asked as Naruto shook his head once steadily getting up from the floor.

"Green here… maybe yellow-ish green." He joked softly as he carefully walked towards Bruce, who went back into typing into his batcomputer. "What are you doing? Your over compensated thing of security is toast."

"There's another computer uplinked to this one, Naruto, and I'm trying to trace it's source."

Naruto looked at the screen and saw various lines of code being written with a pixelated map shown. The tracking program was slowly sizing down the search radius as Bruce kept up with his task. But this ended in failure as the map blinked several times before the program ended quite suddenly.

"Dammit." Bruce muttered as he slumped his head a little in frustration. "The link was shut down at the source."

"Could've been Randa for all we know Bruce." The publisher guessed as he rolled his shoulders to get rid of an annoying kink. "EIther her or someone affiliated with her."

"Right." Walking away from the batcomputer and towards the grandfather clock entrance, Bruce motioned his friend to follow. "Now we better search the house." 

"Search for what, Bruce?"

"Anything unusual. She may have left a clue I can use. I mean, she's only human."

"If you say so." Naruto muttered before walking a little faster to catch up to his friend. "Though we still need to check up on Alfred and Selina while we're at it."

"Wouldn't you have your clone see to their conditions?" The dark haired billion rhetorically asked, getting Naruto to cringe a little as he realized that Bruce figured him out as Vanitas.

"Bruce, I-"

"We'll talk about this later, Naruto. For now we need to check if they're fine or need medical attention here in the cave has and search for clues."

The former shinobi sighed as he knew his friend was right. Explanations can come later as there are other concerns to worry about right now.

 _ **-One Hour Later-**_

Everything seemed to appear blurry in her vision as the thief started to wake up. Feint beeping sounds could be heard as she tried to shut off the sound like a stereotypical alarm clock, thinking she was back in either her loft or Naruto's. Though that seemed to prove wrong as the ravenette felt an odd tug and small pain in her arm.

'What… the hell?' She thought as her eyes focused on her arm. There she saw what appeared to be an IV drip injected into the main vein of her bandaged limb. Selina then felt an odd chill around her body as she momentarily thought it was the contents of the medical bag until she saw the dark surroundings.

"Hey Selina." Turning her head around the other direction, she saw her lover greeting her with a warm smile. "You feeling better?"

The environmentalist was briefly confused on what he meant until fragments of memories returned to her. Letting out a frustrated groan, Selina leaned back and rubbed her head with her free arm. "That bitch tasered me while I was blind." She tried to sit up right, but stop when feeling some pain from her sides. "What the hell happened?" Selina then looked a little towards part of her surroundings and soon adopted a curious expression on her face. "And where are we? It feels cold and damp."

"Randa attack us, Selina. She disappeared by the time Bruce got home and well…" Naruto trailed off knowing that the next piece of information would make his lover flip out. "Hopefully you can get her back twice over, but we're still at Bruce's manor."

"...Okay, but why are we in a…" Her emerald eyes soon landed on what appeared to be the infamous Batmobile some distance away. Not only that, but her widened eyes traveled around and saw various bat-themed equipment, gadgets and the infamous Bat-suit left out in a display, which caused her to freak out on where exactly they're currently at.

"Well... that's the thing…" Naruto said shifting his eyes as Alfred walked up to them with a medical tray.

"I suggest letting her bearings return before 'dropping the bomb' as most youths would call it." Stated the elderly man as he gave the woman a small paper cup with water and pills. "Painkillers, Miss Kyle."

"T-Thanks Al…" She said taking them robotically while looking at the secret base of her brief crush and vigilante of Gotham.

"You okay?" Naruto asked getting near her, "I know it's a lot to-"

"Fine… I'm fine. Just coping, that's all." She announced blankly before looking back at Naruto. "How did we get in here anyways?"

Naruto sighed and was about to answer, but Bruce arrived and answered her question. "You were severely hurt Selina and you needed immediate medical attention." Guestering towards the medical equipment around her, he continued. "And I had to use what we have here."

"I see..." Selina said before looking at her dark haired friend. "So… You're the Batman."

Bruce shrugged with a small smirk. "Guilty as charged." Keeping his smirk, he dropped the next piece of information that she wasn't prepared for. "And I know Naruto here is Vanitas…"

Selina paled, causing Naruto's face to quickly turn into a stone-cold expression.

"How-"

"Had to break out the Void Shots, to prevent Bruce from being Jurassic food." Naruto briefly joked back at man whose eye twitch at the jab. "Selina, there was no other way. Randa somehow got into Bruce's computer system and reprogrammed his _main_ security protocol," Bruce merely eye rolled at this, "into attacking us. Had to hold it off long enough for him to get his systems back to normal."

"But all you did in the end was destroying its head."

The Uzumaki looked back at the Wayne and tried to come up with a comeback. "Yeah… well… shut up." Yet failed.

"Sadly that was the best he could come with." Selina deadpanned as Naruto squatted down with rain cloud over his head.

"You're so mean…"

His girlfriend eye rolled at his little attempt on humor before looking at the now revealed Batman with a small smirk. "You know, Bruce, this does make sense now that I think about it. I thought I'd seen it all. But everytime I think that, I get proved wrong." Looking around the cave a bit more, the ravenette smirked. "But this place... seems very much like you." She then let out a chuckle. "Rich men and their toys. Only thing missing is the wet bar."

"Master Bruce had thought about that once." Said the butler, who was now changing some of Selina's bandages with clean gause and wrappings. "Even Master Dick at one point, but I turned both suggestions down."

"Harsh." Selina chuckled out.

"Alfred…" Bruce sighed which Naruto nearly busted a gut. Was the infamous Batman whining?

"Oh that is too good." The publisher spoke, getting his friend to briefly glare at him. Feeling the infamous batglare right at him, Naruto shrugged it off like several times before.

"Although…" The unmasked hero started as his voice regain its steel and power. "I want you two to keep this a secret, for many obvious reasons."

"Hey, don't worry about me, Bruce." Naruto smiled, "Even if you didn't keep my secret, I don't expose my friends like that!" He announce giving the man a thumbs-up and shining grin.

"Okay, Naruto, put that away or else you might blind us like bats." The thief said as she felt Alfred pull out the needle in her arm and wrap it up so it wouldn't bleed. "Thanks Alfred."

The butler smiled a little as he picked up the tray of used wrappings and gause. "You're welcome."

"Anyways… what do we do with the woman who nearly kill us?" The thief stated as her hand formed a fist. "Because I don't know about you two, but I'm ready for round-goddamn-two."

"Take it easy, Selina." Bruce said as he held up his hands a little to calm his friend down. "Right now, we need to find her and find out what she intends to do with the data she stole from my computer. After that, she'll be sent to jail for what she's done."

"Not to mention you're in no condition in the moment whatsoever." Alfred declared with a stern tone. "You're still slightly jittery from the attack… as I am." He admitted lifting his hand which was slightly shaking. Bruce looked at his oldest friend and placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him a little.

"Come now Master Bruce, I do not need any comfort, however it is greatly noted." The caretaker of Bruce smiled kindly before it died down when he suddenly remembered something. "Oh dear, the roast I made, is going to burn." And with that, the butler hurried himself to make it to the kitchen in time, or else the smoke detectors will go off.

"That guy deserves an award." Naruto chuckled at the man's work ethic.

Sitting herself up on the medical bed, Selina shook her head at the recent display. 'Didn't think this would happen.' Moving her head towards the side, the changed thief narrowed her eyes to see what caught her attention. "Is that what I think it is?"

The two men heard Selina's mutter before seeing her get off the bed and steadily walk towards the 'Trophy Room'. They stayed near her just in case she wouldn't trip or fall with her still feeling weak. Moving past the wrecked robotic dinosaur, she kept towards her little destination.

"Ehehehe… I used a new move on that one. Think I call it, Kill Shot~" Naruto winked although Selina ignored him. "Ouch… thanks for the love hun…"

Bruce blinked and voiced his thought. "Excuse me?"

"...Eh…"

Still ignoring the others, Selina eventually came across what appeared to be a pair of her goggles and some of her cat-themed tacks in a glass case. "Why is my stuff doing on display in this gallery of yours, Bruce?" Looking back at the billionaire, she briefly glared at him. "Alongside the rest of the psychopaths you locked up?"

"Oh god, I knew… he was a stalker all along! Why Bruce, WHY!?" Naruto dropped down to his knees dramatically… before realizing something. "Wait others? Oh, never mind." He stood back up and dusted off his pants.

"Not that you're normal, by any stretch of the imagination, but…" Guestering towards the neighboring display, she emphasized her point. "Why am I right next to Magpie, of all people?"

Bruce… Bruce didn't know how to explain that one properly. "I don't know. I saw the news with her making your symbol, Naruto… and thought it was a good idea." Seeing the bland looks the two gave him as he realized he messed up on the information. "Look I get lazy too alright?" The man tuck his arms together trying to salvage any of his former Dark Knight attitude again. Coughing into his hand, Bruce looked at the ravenette. "Did you… want them back?"

Taking a brief look at her items, Selina twitched her lip upwards for a little smile. "Hold onto them. I figure they might be useful later on. But please move them away from the crazy bird."

"As long as you forget what I just said… deal." Bruce smirked as he looked at Naruto. "Speaking of, any news on Magpie as of late?"

"Nothing Bruce. Whenever I try to visit her before she last escaped, she's been the same as before. Though she has proclaimed her undying hatred towards Selina here and wants to prove she's better than her to 'earn' my affection."

"Heh, I'd like to see her try." Replied the changed thief.

Bruce adopted a thinking pose as he scratched his chin. "Hmm… as I thought, ever since then she disappeared some weeks ago. No trace of her as been sighted since then. I thought you might have fought her at least." The caped hero explained his reasons, which Naruto shook his head in response. "Something's been off lately… well I guess we can go over that later. For now we should-"

"Master Bruce?" Alfred asked coming down stairs one more, "You're office telephone is ringing, I think it's Commissioner Gordon calling."

"Well… I think I we got a lead now." Naruto said as he helped Selina get out of the Batcave and into Wayne Manor.

 _ **-Meanwhile, GCPD-**_

Inside of the police station, Barbara came over to check up on her father after he suddenly left home earlier. She almost missed him as she was a bit too focused on reworking on her story after Naruto gave her the edits and notes earlier tonight. Before then, Barbara was getting a sinking suspicion that something was up and this might be the only chance she could get to find out what's wrong.

Walking towards her father's office, she heard him speak to someone. "Yes... I understand… That's no problem… The Gotham Club would be ideal… I'll take care of Bruce Wayne."

Opening the door to his office, Barbara spoke. "Dad, who are you talking to?"

Gordon snapped his attention back towards the spectacled redhead and spoke in a colder tone than before. "Leave me alone."

Barbara stepped back in worry and tried to leave the commissioner's office, only to run into Detective Bullock on accident.

"Hey, sorry Babs."

"No problem, Harv."

Moving around the detective, she went into the hallway before quickly hugging the wall some feet away to hear what's going on.

"You wanted me, commissioner?"

"Go to Cybertron and see Randa Duane. She has something for you."

"But I already took a statement from Rossum earlier. They ain't involved."

"Do it, Bullock."

Barbara soon heard the detective let out a groan before making his way out of the office. "Talk to this guy. Talk to that guy. I'm getting a sore throat 'cause of this."

Seeing the detective leave, the redhead peeked back inside as she heard her father's office phone beep as he was receiving a call. He pressed a series of buttons before speaking. "Gordon here." 

" _Hello Commissioner, it's Bruce Wayne."_ The billionaire's voice was heard through speaker phone. _"You called me for something?"_

"Ah, yes. We know who stole your computer data, Mr. Wayne." Gordon spoke through the same cold tone as of last night. "Meet me at the Gotham Club in one hour."

" _I will, commissioner. And thanks for-"_

Gordon quickly ended the call and just sat there… just sitting in his chair with hardly a movement at all.

From outside of the office, Barbara narrowed her gaze towards her father. Something was definitely up, but she couldn't put her finger to it on what exactly. Shaking her head, Barbara made her way towards the police department's rooftop as she needed to make a very important call.

 _ **-Cybertron-**_

Everything could be considered nice and quiet inside of the dark room belonging to the resident AI, asides from the sparks of electricity being produced from HARDAC's 'horns'.

This was soon absent when one of the room's entrances opened up and footsteps belonging to Karl Rossum were heard. "The duplicant processor's been used! I didn't authorize that!"

Ending the thought process through his servers and memory banks, the resident AI turned his attention towards his creator. _**"It was necessary to serve your ultimate purpose, Karl."**_

"No, it was a stupid idea!" The Cybertron CEO yelled out as he started pulling on his hair. "The idea coming from the babblings of a broken heart!"

 _ **"Humans make errors in judgment, Mr. Rossum."**_ HARDAC's cold, synthesised voice spoke as someone quietly entered the room. _**"It is sometimes necessary to protect them from their own… inadequacies. From war to petty conflicts. They must be dealt with accordingly."**_

Karl heard enough as he soon realized that things were starting to go out of control. "I've let this go too far.I gave you too much free will." He said, walking towards the AI's main control panel. "It's time to change your programming."

Opening the hatch to start his intentions, Rossum failed to notice HARDAC's 'horns' stopped releasing the excess electricity in it's systems. They started to build up and glow, replacing the faint metallic grey with a bright orange. Needing to release the power, the AI calculated and aimed where the built up energy will go to next.

And with a burst of lightning, the 'horns' fired the power at Karl Rossum, igniting the man in a coat of flames. The CEO screamed in agony before the pain was too much for him, quickly rendering the man unconscious from the betrayal of his own creation.

Soon the sounds of heeled shoes were heard as they came closer to HARDAC and Rossum's fallen form. Looking through her blue eyes, Randa spoke in slight amazement. "You have immobilized the maker. I had wondered when you'd finally do this, HARDAC."

 _ **"His human imperfection endangers the plan."**_ Spoke the AI as the pixie blonde picked up the unconscious CEO with ease and took him away. _**"He must be… improved upon."**_

 _ **-GCPD-**_

High above in the clouded sky, the Bat Signal shined it's beacon to call Gotham's well-known hero from parts unknown.

"Come on." Barbara muttered as she paced back and forth on the rooftop. "What's taking him so long. It's been like ten minutes. Dad told me he usually shows up sooner."

"Maybe you should have brought something to read."

Barbara nearly jumped out of her skin as she saw someone completely different than who she was expecting… "You're… Vanitas?"

"Hiya~" Said hero replied in a cheery tone. "I apologize, Bat's and I are working together on this one case right now. And when I saw the signal, I came here before he could arrive... Didn't mean to scare ya."

This was pretty much an interesting way on having a first impression on meeting a superhero. The commissioner's daughter was prepared on meeting the Batman, but not the helmeted hero. She shook her head before she saw someone land on the rooftop some distance away.

"Commissioner?"

"Afraid not Batsy." Spoke the masked Uzumaki before pointing his thumb at the resident redhead. "But as a consolation prize, you get his daughter."

"Batman!" Gordon's only daughter exclaimed seeing the man for the first time. "It's so nice to finally meet you after all these years."

The Dark Knight tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at this sudden… moment. "Why… did you call us, Ms. Gordon? I expected your father to do so."

Shaking her head for a brief moment, the spectacled redhead remembered what was going on and why she called them in the first place. "That's why I called you, Batman."

"And Vanitas. Don't forget me."

She sighed as she didn't expect the oddly, perky attitude the helmeted hero gave out. Clearly a polar opposite from the gloomy hero standing nearby. "The reason why I called is that James Gordon is not my father." 

Batman and Vanitas adopted questioning looks and turned towards each other as they didn't know how to respond to this. But it was the Bat who voiced his concern. "What do you mean James Gordon isn't your father?"

"Sorry… Well… I meant to say that someone is impersonating my father."

"What makes you think so?"

"He doesn't have bolts in his neck or anything that obvious."

"That'll be a shocker." Joked the black/white themed vigilante.

Barbara let out a faint chuckle before she folded her arms and rubbed them for comfort. "He's so cold to me. But it's not just that." Her hand soon came up and held her chin before continuing. "I can't put my finger on it. Things just don't add up." She then explained some of her reasoning.

"The sudden change of moods and habits. Not appreciating the food he always enjoys on having, even on the worst of days. Even the feeling he gives off is not like him. What I'm saying is that I know he's not my father." She then went into a posture that screamed pleading with her eyes taking on a saddened look. "I know I sound crazy, but I'm not. Whoever's downstairs now, it looks like Jim Gordon, talks like him, but it's not him… Please, you two are my only hope."

"...What do you think Bats?" Vanitas asked his ally, who took a moment to think. "Family does know when a person starts to act out of the norm."

The bat-themed hero nodded to the red haired daughter of the commissioner. "I'll- We'll do what we can." He vowed as Vanitas nodded frantically.

"Yup, yup!" Chuckling softly, he grasped the woman's hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. "Anything for such a lovely lady such as yourself." 

Barbara smiled, with a faint blush dusting her cheeks, on the two heroes accepting her plea while speaking in a relieved tone. "Thank you." 

"Getting a little fresh air?" A voice suddenly spoke, causing the three to quickly turn around to see Detective Bullock glaring at them. "How come I wasn't invited to this little get-together?"

Seeing the typical behavior Bullock aimed towards him, Batman turned towards Barbara. "It's seems I'm no longer welcomed for a while. Excuse me."

"Yeah… this is weird. See ya and have a good evening Miss Gordon." Vanitas said with slight humor as he walked behind his friend, but suddenly grabbed Bullock's hand; which was dangerously near Batman's neck. "Ever heard of no touching personal space, Bullock?"

The detective didn't respond as he twisted the hero's arm around before quickly getting into a bearhug. Vanitas struggled in Bullock's grasp as the helmeted hero didn't realize the guy was this strong before. Batman saw this happen and was about to intervene when his friend jumped a bit off of the roof before slamming his feet down to use a lot of strength in throwing the detective away.

Seeing Bullock fall onto the ground some feet away, Vanitas glared and growled at the fallen man. "What the hell is your problem? I can understand Batman, with your prior history with him, but why me? I could sue you for assault."

The detective didn't respond back as he quickly got up and lunged at the black/white themed hero. Batman intervened as he got in front of Vanitas and grasped Bullock's arms to perform a judo throw. The Bat did struggle a little when needing to take care of the heavy set officer, but he was successful in following through.

What he didn't expect was for Bullock to twist around in the air and land onto his feet all the while glaring at the two heroes.

Looking over to Barbara, Vanitas nervously spoke. "Has he ever done that before?"

The woman shook her head with widened eyes. "Never. Best that he ever does, in physical terms, is munch down boxes of donuts or barely pass running standards."

"Well that's not-" The helmeted Uzumaki was cut off as he quickly moved and covered the redhead as the detective started firing bullets at them. "Cut it out, asshole! Your boss' daughter is still here!"

Before Bullock could fire anymore bullets, Batman threw a batarang to halt the man's actions. Seeing the incoming weapon, the officer quickly turned and shot it out of the air with odd precision. He then fired several bullets before the magazine went empty with a resounding click.

"Ain't so tough now, huh Bullock?" Vanitas taunted before he saw the heavyset man pull out a semi-automatic from his trenchcoat. "Oh for the love of- Barbara, stay back!" Following the order, the redhead quickly got behind Vanitas as he threw up a small barrier to protect the two from the hail of bullets aimed right at them. "He must really hate us to pull this shit off!"

"What did you do?" Batman yelled over as he threw a batarang at the man, disarming him. Though the detective dived to retrieve his weapon, causing the Bat to stop this from happening.

"I don't know! I'm not one to try and piss off the GCPD!"

The heavy set detective just charge at Vanitas as they were locking hands in a power struggle. "Ugh, what did you eat that made you this strong?!" He roared while slowly stepping back getting dangerously near a ledge. "Stop, you're going to kill us both!" He warned as the man seemed to disregard his words, even starting to add more effort into his walk. The Uzumaki closed his eyes and gritted his teeth… "I'm sorry…" He apologized before sweeping the man's knees causing him to lose balance and threw him over the ledge onto the lower level, which had the Bat-signal placed there.

"Harvey!" Barbara cried out as she saw him fall and crash into the giant projector. She quickly covering her teary eyes to avoid the horror that shouldn't have happened to him. Barbara slowly returned her gaze at the burned man, with his charred flesh and clothes.

The commissioner's daughter made her way down to the lover level. Coming up close to the ruined Bat-signal, she hesitantly reached out and silently prayed the man miraculously survived this tragic ordeal, just to settle her heart.

The detective was so good to her alongside other officers in the force for years. Where her father couldn't help teach her on how to help properly defend herself, Harvey and some other officer helped in her father's stead. There were some good memories from the man and seeing this felt like being stabbed with a knife.

Just when she was about to touch Bullock, he started to jerk and move his head towards her direction. Barbara jumped back in fright as Bullock started to move his body, causing the clothes and skin to crumble into ash, showing a metallic body. It started to groan as it quickly stood up and moved it hands towards Barbara.

"Ahh!" She screamed until a magenta laser bullet shot through its head. With the damage done towards it's processor, it quickly 'died' as it fell back onto the ruined piece of police property.

"And stay down!" The young woman looked up to see Vanitas holding his Void Shot in one hand, who jumped down to look at her. "Are you okay?"

Nodding slowly, the spectacled woman saw Batman walking towards them as Vanitas dismissed his weapon in a plumb of smoke. "A robot?" She asked, looking at the machine as Batman squatted down to look at it more closely. In a bit of precaution, Vanitas motioned Barbara to take a step back in case it might move again.

Standing back up, the Bat faced seem with a mixed expression of slight awe and eeriness at the advanced machine. "Yes. More advanced than anything I've ever seen."

"So...I'm guessing that it's not related to your Dino-Robo?"

Not knowing what Vanitas was referring to, Barbara kept her eyes onto the robotic corpse before something came to mind. "Wait does that mean my dad is a…?"

"Help my dad is a robot~" Vanitas chuckled as the two glared at him. "Sorry…"

"Barbara, sadly I really can't say for certain." Batman explained, but seem also worried if this was a possibility. If that's the case… where is the real Jim Gordon? Assuming that the man was still alive for that matter…

However he pointed at the young lass, "But don't go home, stay at a friend's house. Vanitas come on, we got work to do."

"Right, see ya Babs." The masked Uzumaki waved before he felt a tug from behind. Turning around, he noticed Barbara gripping on his dark tattered skirt.

"Not so fast, how will you find him anyway? I want to be there!" She demanded, tugging on the skirt as Batman shook his head.

"That's not possible, I'll contact you as soon as we get a lead." The caped hero explained to the woman as he walked away, leaving Vanitas behind who sighed.

"And will you let go of my battle waistcloth?"

However she look down with a small frown. "This is a skirt."

"Oh for the love of- it's a waistcloth! Don't you read any sci-fi or fantasy books with the specific attire? They're clearly in them for crying out loud."

Barbara raised a brow as she gripped the 'skirts' cloth, before reluctantly letting go. "Fine, but you've got to let me come with you."

Vanitas quickly shook his head at her request. "Nah uh. No way."

"Why not?!"

"...Haven't you seen any sci-fi films, ever? Even with the horror variety?"

Barbara didn't know what he meant before she saw the helmeted hero point to the robotic corpse. "That thing screams heavy sci-fi shit right there! Like Terminator level shit." Soon a feeling of dread filled the man as he started to shiver before summoning his wind lance and started bashing the machine.

"What are you doing?!"

"If we leave this alone then it'll evolve! We might be dealing with artificial intelligence right here! Something that might resemble Skynet!" The lance's blade was cutting right through the metallic limbs and body parts before the hero explained further. "I don't wanna live with Skynet running loose!" Finishing one last attack, Vanitas panted as he dismissed his lance before taking a heroic pose while stopping on the robotic head a few times. "We must find these monstrosities and destroy them once and for all!"

From the edge of the rooftop, Batman rubbed the bridge of his nose as he let out a sigh. "And now I have to work with this man."

Barbara looked at the hero oddly before shaking her head on his failing attempt on humor. "Then... I want your word that you'll tell me as soon as possible."

Turning towards the spectacled redhead, Vanitas gently placed his hand on her shoulder and spoke with reassurance. "I promise, Barbara, you have my word."

She faintly smiled as Vanitas walked away from her. Walking towards the rooftop's entrance, Barbara briefly looked back to see the two heroes were gone before entering the building. Closing the door behind her, the commissioner's daughter narrowed her amethyst eyes.

"Wait at a friend's house?" Barbara muttered with a shake of her head. "Not likely." Walking down the stairs, she entered the third floor to reach the nearby elevator. "Bullock went to Cybertron and a robot came back. And I'm guessing dad's there too."

She halted her step before walking back a few steps. Looking at the door next to her, Barbara smiled as she saw the GCPD armory before making her way towards her father's office to 'borrow' the master key. "If they won't let me come along, then I'll have to go there myself… with protection, of course."

 _ **-Gotham Club-**_

Adjusting his tie, Bruce double checked himself as he rode the elevator towards his destination. He was originally on his way here to meet up with Commissioner Gordon about the latest developments on his stolen property before Barbara turned on the Bat-Signal. But with what occured at the GCPD, Bruce was starting to figure something else is going on.

Coming to a stop with the doors opening, Bruce was about to exit the elevator when he saw Mayor Hill standing in the hallway.

"Good evening, Bruce." Greeted the city official as he quickly came up to the billionaire to shake his hand. "I'm so glad you could come."

Quickly pulling up a smile, Bruce greeted the mayor in kind. "Nice to see you, mayor. Though I've got to ask, why are you here? Do you have any previous arrangements here?"

"In a matter of fact, yes, and it pertains to the current investigation with your company."

The dark haired billionaire raised a questioning brow in response. "Really? How? As a matter of fact, is Commissioner Gordon here or do I need to wait for him?"

"Oh he'll be along. He won't wanna miss this." The mayor said cryptically, causing Bruce to skeptically narrow his gaze.

Not noticing the billionaire's features, the mayor ushered the man along the hallway before guestering to a specific door on the current floor. "Where are we going, Mr. Mayor?"

"You're going to become a member of a very exclusive club tonight."

Raising a brow once more, Bruce voiced his thoughts. "But I thought I already belonged to every exclusive club in Gotham."

The mayor chuckled. "Oh, no, my boy. This club is brand-new." Opening the door, Mayor Hill ushered the arrival inside the darkened room. "Though everyone will belong very soon."

Looking back, Bruce wondered what the Gotham mayor was talking about. When he turned his head back around when the lights turned on. There he saw a handful of individuals he recognized as several elite members of Gotham social circles. Taking a closer look, they seemed to be standing perfectly still and saw their eyes… glowing?

Before he could be questioned about this, Bruce felt a tightening grip on his shoulder before being hoisted into the air. Looking back, he saw it was the mayor holding him up with ease, who he too had glowing eyes as well.

Hearing a series of footsteps, Bruce turned his head back and saw Commissioner Gordon and someone he didn't think would appear, standing right in front of him. "Randa?"

"Hello Bruce." Greeted the pixie blonde. "Nice to see you again."

Struggling a little from 'Mayor Hill's' grasp, Bruce spoke towards the Cybertron employee. "Is this what I get for leaving in the middle of dinner?"

Randa smiled at his joke, or was it perhaps the fact he was being manhandled. Letting out a chuckle, she replied with her own. "You know what they say about a woman scorned, Bruce." She then took more steps towards the hoisted man, with a taser on hand.

Bruce glared at his 'date' from earlier before raising his arms to easily slip right through his business jacket. Once freed, he went onto the ground and swept kicked 'Mayor Hill' on to the ground before producing a batarang from his shirt sleeve. And in one solid motion, he stabbed his weapon into the fake mayor's head, resulting with a series of sparks before the body part exploded.

Using this moment as a distraction, Bruce uppercutted an incoming 'Gotham elite' before kicking the man's stomach which sent him flying into a handful of individuals. Using this as a moment to escape, the dark haired billionaire ran out of the room and quickly made his way towards the elevator.

Back in the clubroom, Randa looked onward in shock before shaking her head to regain her senses. "Don't let him get away!" She order as the others started to chase Bruce until they all fell. "What are you-"

"That would be me!" A voiced said from above, causing the Cybertron employee to see Vanitas dropping down from the ceiling, "I was surprised that this little get together didn't have any snacks. But then again I guess this was a lie, huh?"

"Vanitas?!"

Said hero wore a hidden smirk underneath his helm before summoning some Creepers. "How about we get this shindig rolling with a little dance!" Without being told, the Nobody's went into action by attacking the room's occupants to keep them distracted long enough for their master's desire.

Running after Bruce; the masked Uzumaki brought forth his ice shield, slammed it against the club's entrance and created a large ice wall to block the door. Seeing that was done, he walked into the opened elevator as his friend pressed the button to close the doors.

"Glad I followed you, huh?" He smirked at Bruce, who nodded.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have known what could've happened if you didn't."

As the two rose floor by floor, the elevator suddenly shook as they held onto the side railings.

"Seems they don't know how to quit."

"Right you are, Naruto."

Holding out his hands, Vanitas ushered for Bruce to step on so they could use the escape hatch. As the two made their way out, the duo quickly climbed up the steeled cable as the shaking got worse. Before long, one of the 'Gotham elites' jumped out of the escape hatch and landed on all fours. It twisted it's head all around… quite literally… to see the pair hanging onto the cable for dear life.

But before it could advance on it's task, Vanitas summoned Lunar Rose and rose his weapon up high.

"Have fun in the scrap heap, Terminator rejects!"

And with a swipe of his scythe, the helmeted hero cleaved right through the cable with ease. The elevator plummeted a dozen or so floors in a quickened pace. And before any of the robots could realize it, they met their ends as the elevator crashed to the basement level; which destroyed their robotic frames as a result.

"You think that's the last of them?" Asked the billionaire as he saw his friend create a card platform right below them.

"Maybe, but I'll need to send out some Dusks to see if any of them are still in the building or not." Replied the masked Uzumaki as both he and Bruce got onto the floating piece of construct he made. "If we're lucky, they might find Randa and the fake Gordon just in time."

As the platform safely lowered itself to the first floor of the building, Bruce shook his head. "I highly doubt Randa and the fake Gordon would stick around. Randa is a big player in this and the fake commissioner is too valuable to get harmed in whatever plan they have right now."

"Seems your right." Taking a look from up high, Vanitas saw the destroyed elevator. "And that's the reason why I typically take the stairs."

Looking at the same wreckage, Bruce cringed a little at the site. "With this situation, I might consider taking that option... for now."

 _ **-Cybertron-**_

Rustling through the foliage outside of the 'enemy base', Barbara popped her head out to see if the coast was clear for her to advance.

"Okay. No guards are patrolling the area, for some reason, but I can't take away this little opportunity." Muttered the redhead as she slowly made her way out and hugged the stony walls of the nearby driveway. Even though moon lighted some of the coast, the woman thanked her lucky stars for the slight overcast to help her blend in better.

The commissioner's daughter was currently decked out in a pair of black pants, black combat boots and a black zip-up hoodie with the GCPD logo showed over her left breast. This was merely just her standard appearance as underneath the hoodie lies a bulletproof vest, two glocks with a pair of extra magazines strapped into her impromptu utility belt, a taser gun, a standard grenade, and a small grappling gun that she surprisingly found.

If your wondering why she has these items in her disposal was simple really: she did a small withdraw at the GCPD armory earlier. Barbara knew that it would be would be stupid to 'storm the castle' without any equipment on hand. And by seeing the action on the rooftop earlier made her realize she'll need something more than just simple tools for the job. So the redhead decided to borrow some supplies for her little rescue mission. Barbara did promise herself she'll return the GCPD property back to her father once this was all over.

Coming across the security door, Barbara saw a keypad on the side in place of the door's lock. A thought came across her mind as she pulled out her compact mirror and opened it's lid. Taking out the little pad, she gently blew on it to release the powder onto the keypad. Once settled, fingerprints were shown.

"That does the trick." Muttered the redhead. "Now… Let's see what we got." Taking a closer look, she saw four numbers listed with the pound and star buttons marked. "Dammit. Wish I had a code descrambler here to help give me the proper sequence. There's gotta be like twenty-four or so combinations."

Taking a few breaths to calm herself down, Barbara decided to start the typing process.

"#-2-4-6-9-*" She muttered out. Expecting to see the door lights flash red, they instead flashed green to indicate the door was unlocked. Barbara blinked in surprise before smiling to herself.

"Well I'll be damned. First try actually worked." Was all the redhead said as she pulled out the taser gun. With the device on hand, she opened the door and entered the building.

She navigated her way through the hallways as she searched for any sign of her father or anyone else for that matter. Though Barbara occasionally hugged the walls around every corner so she can eye the security cameras in hopes of finding the proper blind spots. Taking the right moment, the commissioner's daughter quickly moved so the camera wouldn't capture her gaze.

Unbeknownst to her, as she passed by a foot tall wastebasket, it's lid opened slightly as a small synthetic eye peeked out to see the redhead intruder.

 _...Initiating security protocol..._

The wastebasket lifted itself up as little wheels popped out from the very bottom. Turning slightly, the robot started to go right after the intruder as it hugged the wall. It did not make a sound and on every time the redhead looked back, it would quickly lower itself to not appear out of the norm for her.

Though it started to shift and change as it saw the redhead getting closer to the R&D lab. What was once a simple looking wastebasket started to form into a humanoid robot that would easily tower over the female. Just when she was about to touch the door, the transformed robot grasped the woman's arms, causing her to freak out.

"Hey! Let me go!" Barbara cried out as she struggled to break free from her moving captor. Looking back, she saw who found her and saw one of those robotic monstrosities, similar to what impersonated Detective Bullock. Sure it was bigger than the last one, but it still had that menacing feel towards it.

'Like hell I'm gonna be captured easily.' Thought the redhead. Bringing up her arm and twisting her hand that held the taser gun, Barbara did the best in her aim. Pulling the trigger, the prongs shot out of the cartridge and landed right onto the robot's visible eye.

The results were instant as the robot started to convulse as the excessive amounts of voltage surged through it's system to make it go haywire. Barbara was then let go, causing her to land onto the ground before unclipping her borrowed glock. She didn't know how long the cartridges voltage will last, but she needed to make this count.

And with unloading several rounds into the robot's head, the redhead made sure the one robot stayed down.

"I need to keep moving." She muttered as she took out the taser cartridge and put the device away. "Only had enough time to snag one charge and I just used it way too soon."

Having a feeling that she's been found out, Barbara started to blindly run through the hallways. As she did so, she heard faint metallic footsteps coming closer and closer to her from behind. Not wanting to confront either one of those things again too soon, the redhead quickly opened the door at the end of the hallway, quickly turned around and locked it.

"Phew… I think that was rather close."

"Indeed it was, Miss Gordon." A male voice called out from behind, causing Barbara to slightly pale. Turning back around, the redhead saw a pixie blonde haired woman walking alongside who she assumed was the Cybertron CEO, Karl Rossum.

"Your skills at breaking and entering are impressive." Rossum spoke in a bland tone. "Where did you learn these skills?"

Barbara narrowed her glance. "A commissioner's daughter doesn't get all her education in school." She then growled at the man as she trained her borrowed glock at both him and the pixie blonde. "Now what have you done with my father?"

Being unfazed by the red haired woman's threats, Randa stepped continued forward alongside her robotic counterpart. "He's right here, my dear. And you'll be joining him soon."

Not liking the way the blonde answered her question, Barbara pulled the trigger of her borrowed weapon. The bullet's flew and shot the only male in the room as each shot landed on the man's chest. He seemed unfazed by this as Randa quickly moved forward and grasped Barbara's hand. The pixie blonde tightened her grip and twisted the redhead's arm, in a painful fashion, to the point that the commissioner's daughter was forced to drop her borrowed weapon.

"Very soon indeed, Miss Gordon." Randa said as she pushed Barbara to move forward before the Karl-bot moved to help escort the intruder towards their master's room inside of the building. 

It was sometime later that Vanitas and Batman arrived at the Cybertron building outside of Gotham. After the whole fiasco at the Gotham Club earlier, Bruce needed to get back home to properly get suited up before heading towards their next destination. Wanting to save time, the masked publisher helped get his friend home and to Cybertron by using his Kazekage lances since they were his fastest forms of transportation.

"So Batman," Vanitas spoke as they landed at the building's rooftop, "what do you expect when we get inside?"

The Bat didn't say anything, at first, as he placed his feet onto the ground once the wind lance he rode disbursed into smoke. "With what we've seen so far, I expect almost all personnel inside to be all, as you put it, Terminator rejects."

"Right. And somewhere inside are the people captured by these guys with their robotic duplicates." Added in the helmeted hero.

The pair made their way to the nearby skylight and opened up one of the windows. The two took turns to enter as the Bat glided his way to safely land onto the floor while Vanitas still used his wind lance to get down from up high. Once low enough, the one hero disbursed his weapon and landed softly inside of the darkened room.

Before either of them could do anything else, a pair of spotlights suddenly turned on and shined at their positions. Wanting to quickly turn them off, Vanitas formed a pair of his daggers and threw them at their sources with absolute precision. The spotlights started to widely spark before the lights for the entire room suddenly went on, revealing the spotlights to be a pair of tall robots with a large ocular lightsource. Before long, the robots fell onto the ground as their processors were damaged with the electrified daggers destroying their systems.

"Enough." A familiar voice called out in a cold tone. The two heroes pulled out their respective throwing weapons and turned towards the source to see the Gordon-bot holding a gun right at Barbara's head with the Rossum-bot and Randa nearby. "It's over, you two."

Seeing Barbara currently captive like this, Batman and Vanitas gritted their teeth and decided to stand down while putting away their batarangs and daggers respectively. Neither wanted to risk her safety in all of this and wondered if she was a copy or the real deal. But seeing the tears in her eyes and the different change of attire, it appeared to be the later.

 _ **"People are imperfect. They make mistakes."**_ Spoke the resident AI, causing the room's human occupants to look straight towards the large machine with varied reactions. Vanitas and Barbara widened their eyes in surprise while Batman narrowed his in slight realization. _**"And your mistake was coming here to interfere with the plan."**_

"And what is this plan of yours?"

Hearing the Batman's question, HARDAC answered. _**"The plan was conceived by Karl Rossum when his young daughter was... deactivated."**_

It was then that Barbara spoke her thoughts for confirmation. "Deactivated? You mean…"

" _ **A vehicular accident resulted in her death, Miss Gordon."**_ Spoke the Cybertron AI in his usual cold tone. _**"Our maker felt the emotion called 'love' in great quantity for her. Afterwards, he decided to find a way to replace humans, whose decisions can cost other human lives."**_

"But we're all capable of human error."

"She's right." Vanitas spoke, backing up Barbara's brief statement. "It's a universal fact. No one is perfect in not making at least one 'error' in our lives. But that doesn't warrant the fact that we all have to be replaced." 

" _ **That, I can agree with."**_ HARDAC said, getting the humans to raise their brow on why the said this. _**"The maker's concept was sound, but he did not go far enough. Which is why I have taken over."**_

"And do what exactly? Start up the machine war, wipe out all organic life on the planet and take over so there can be 'peace'?" Spoke the masked Uzumaki as he glared at the machine in front of him. "There needs to be conflict to progress all life. They need to adapt, learn from their mistakes." The masked Uzumaki then stepped forward and continued his talk. "Look, we have an opportunity here. You want to bring peace across the globe and we want to do the same. Maybe we could learn from each other. We could teach you to be human and you could teach us to be… better."

Nothing was said for a brief moment before the AI spoke. _**"Processing… Calculations complete… My analysis is... Absolutely not… None of you will and never have wanted peace for years. You all say you want it, but there will always be someone that wants to rule and cause conflict to meet their goals. Nothing you will say will change the plan."**_

Getting tired of hearing about this coming from a cold, emotionless computer; Barbara wanted to know one thing. "You haven't told us with what you've done with who you took. Where is my father? And where is Detective Bullock?"

" _ **Yes... them."**_ Soon a row of panels opened up and a large fish tank rose from the floor. Barbara and the humans then saw the captured people inside with breathing apparatuses to keep them alive while suspended in the water. _**"There is still much to learn from you humans to have my duplicates perfectly integrate with human society before further stages of the plan commence. So I will keep them alive until I have learned enough."**_

Barbara widened her eyes on the implications the machine stated. Not wanting them to die in whatever the AI had in mind, the redhead took a chance and started to struggle. She was able to shake off the Gordon-bot's hold before headbutting the robot with the back of her head. This caused the duplicant to pull the trigger, firing a bullet which barely grazed the redhead's cheek. A small trail of blood came soon after as it'll later form a small, faint scar.

The Gordon-bot was about to fire another round from it's gun when Batman quickly threw a batarang to knock the weapon out of its hand. When the duplicant attempted to retrieve it, the Bat dash kicked the machine away. When the hero recovered, he quickly moved out of the way from the Rossom-bot's assault.

Seeing the duplicant trying to head on back to attack the Batman, Vanitas appeared with a Rasengan on hand and slammed it into the Rossum-bot's stomach. The results were instant as the void sphere twisted, turned and grinded the robot's center before sending it flying into the water tank. The duplicant crashed right through the container, causing both the captives and their watery prison to spill out onto the metallic floor.

Rising from the little wreckage, the Rossum-bot struggled to stand up as a gaping hole was shown through its center. It glared at the man that damaged this frame, causing it to leap towards the helmeted hero with the intent to kill. This was thwarted as Vanitas grasped onto the robot's jacket and spun the machine around several times.

Taking quick aim, Vanitas let go as he yelled towards the Bat. "Think fast~!"

Seeing this coming, Batman immediately rolled out of the way as he saw the Rossum-bot collide into Randa. For a brief moment, the Bat saw the pixie blonde have a taser activated on hand before she and the robot collided. When they did, the device came into contact with not just the exposed wiring of the duplicant, but also the water on the outer layer.

"N **N** O _Oo_ O **o** O _ **O**_ o **o** o _O_ O!" Cried out the robot before it exploded and harming the Randa in the process.

Amongst the little confusion, Barbara ran towards the captives when she was confronted by the Gordon-bot as it stood in her way. Thinking fast, Barbara pulled out the grenade she had on her person and pulled the pin before tossing it towards the other side of the room. The duplicant saw the explosive and saw it reaching towards one of the main generators. Wanting to protect its master, the Gordon-bot dismissed Barbara and ran towards the grenade. Just when it managed to get close...

*KABOOM*

...the robot got caught in the blast, resulting in it falling to the ground as a damaged pile of scrap metal.

With the damage towards the generator, a fire ignited inside of HARDAC's room. The flames started to quickly spread as smoke started to fill most of the room. Worried on the captive's health, Barbara and Vanitas ran towards their soaked bodies.

As the two got there, they saw Bullock holding his head in pain. "What a headache." 

Barbara ignored the detective as she saw her father lying motionless on the ground. "Dad!" Worried on what's happened, she reached him and shook his body while calling out to him several times.

With a groan, the commissioner weakly opened his eyes as his vision was blurry. Though he did make out the forms of his daughter and Vanitas standing right behind her. "Barbara? Vanitas? What are you two doing here?"

The man's daughter smiled as she picked up her father's glasses off the ground and placed them back onto him. "Rescuing you, silly." With Vanitas' help, Barbara was able to get her father off the wet floor. "Come on, we need to get out of here." 

_**-Insert Le Castle Vania: John Wick Melody-**_

" _ **Emergency. Emergency."**_ Cried out the AI. _**"Stop the ones called Batman and Vanitas. All Cybertron robots, security and duplicant, stop them immediately."**_

This did not settle well for the masked Uzumaki as he heard this. Turning towards the redhead, Vanitas gave her an order. "Barbara! You need to get them out of here!"

"But what about-" She was quickly interrupted when she was pushed out of the way as Randa attempted to skewer the commissioner's daughter. Looking at the pixie blonde, Barbara saw her damaged appearance as half of her face was blown off to show her metallic skull. The robotic assistant was about to slash the spectacled redhead, with her robotic claws, when Vanitas intercepted the blow and held her off.

"GO! NOW!"

Not being told twice, she and the many other captives tried to get out of HARDAC's room. There were a few close calls when being attacked by some of the controlled robots, but Batman stopped their advancements from harming the escapees with his batarangs and small bat-bombs he had on hand. When trying to go after the group and protect them on their way out of the building, handfuls of HARDAC's robots started flooding into the room in hopes of stopping the two heroes.

Being prepared for this encounter, Batman quickly went to his gauntlet computer and activated the shock gloves Marva Cooper recently installed into his suit. They were designed to allow Batman to penetrate enemy defenses with shields and stun batons, and Martial Artists, and short circuit some objects within the environment. If needed, they could even penetrate armored defenses enemies as well. But they do come with the cost of having to be recharged quite often without a stable power source on hand during full combat.

Luckily for him, Batman borrow a pair of his friends electric daggers to help out with this problem and current endeavor, for now that is.

Slamming his fists together, sparks flew as the Bat dashed forward and delivered an uppercut towards one robot's head before slamming it down onto his knee. Grabbing its arm, the hero soon kicked the robot's body to dislodge the metal limb before bashing it against another robot like a baseball bat. The limb easily broke apart on contact, but Batman didn't care as he delivered a variety of shocked punches onto the coming robots.

Over with Vanitas, he was dealing with Randa and some of her growing legion of robot companions. The helmeted hero was bashing and cutting his way through the lot of them with his wind lance as it was getting supercharged with the electric current running through the blades. With the storm running through his weapon, Vanitas quickened his strikes so he could get closer to his target in mind.

Slamming his bladed lance down onto the ground, the hero polvolted above the gathering robots before channeling power into a slamming strike. Once contacting with the ground, a large gust of wind sent many of HARDAC's machines in either shambles (with how close they were) or barely intact. The recovering robots, they went back in to terminate their master's target with their sharpened hands and impromptu weapons as they used broken robot limbs that were lying around them.

In a quick movement, Vanitas brought his hands towards the weapon's center and broke it in half to have the lance become bladed escrima sticks. Swinging each weapon at the robots, they were quickly being cleaved right through in droves. While he turned in a fluid motion, Vanitas saw his friend coming right at him from above.

With a hidden smirk, the masked Uzumaki went onto the ground before kicking a robot into the air. Seeing this coming, Batman performed an axe kick before landing onto the ground and slammed his fists onto the nearby robot in front of him. As it was knocked back, Batman backed up closer to his ally as the two stared down at the robotic horde in front of them.

"This is taking too long Bats." Vanitas growled out as he momentarily summoned Haku and slammed it down to the ground to create a large fixture of spikes to destroy a good handful of Terminator rejects. "And we need to get out of here before this place blows sky high."

"Agreed." The Bat voiced before his eyes landed on Randa some feet away. "But we need to take care of her or else this mess might start back up again without us knowing."

Looking what his friend was referring to, Vanitas understood the rammifications as the two heroes went back into their assault.

Meanwhile, with Barbara and the escapees, they were navigating through the building as they were searching for a way outside while hearing HARDAC's voice through the speakers.

" _ **Resistance is useless. I control every means of escape from this building."**_

The building started to shake as several explosions were going off, causing the escapees to momentarily lose their balance. No doubt from the fighting going on at HARDAC's room. Before they could proceed further, one of the robots zapped Gordon with a taser-like attack causing the man to collapse onto the ground.

"Dad!" The man's daughter cried out in worry. Quickly glaring at the robot that harmed her father, Barbara pulled out the spare glock she kept on her person and fired several rounds at the robot's head. It soon fell down as a broken pile of scrap.

Picking up his boss in a fireman carry, Detective Bullock turned towards the Cybertron CEO. "Is there another way out?"

Rossum nodded before ushering his fellow captives to follow him. "My office has an escape entrance in case for emergencies."

It didn't take long for the group to reach Karl's office before making their way through the corridor. Once they got outside, many of the escapees tried to find a way off the property but the Gotham mayor told them to stick together. 

Checking on her father one last time, who was currently lying on the ground with her hoodie being used as his pillow, Barbara spoke to the detective. "Get my father out of here guys." 

"What about you?" Questioned the heavyset man as he saw Barbara run back inside.

"I'm gonna help Batman and Vanitas!"

Barbara ran as fast as she could to where HARDAC's room is located as she had to quickly dodge falling ceiling debris. It took a bit of time to return, but when she got there the redhead was amazed. There were dozens upon dozens of robot corpses lying around on the ground as the fire and destruction around the room kept growing and growing. And in the center of it all was Batman and Vanitas as they kept up with the onslaught.

All that Barbara could do was stand at the only entrance left in the room with a look of shock and awe at what she was witnessing before her. Seeing the two heroes fighting like this seemed to spark something inside of her. She might label it as inspiration for what she's missing for her book, like Naruto told her yesterday and earlier this evening...

"Wow~" Barbara muttered out as her eyes kept up with their movements and precisioned strikes. "They're awesome~"

But it seems much more than that as, for some reason, she yearned to be apart of the action.

Though she might get her chance as she saw that creepy pixie blonde robot lady running up to the two heroes while they were distracted. Seeing the machine woman's intent to kill, Barbara threw caution to the wind and ran forward as fast as she could. Coming in close, the redhead used her gymnastics skills by performing a series of handstand flippings to build up her momentum. On the last one, she was able to deliver a kick towards Randa's body, causing her to fly into the nearby elevator shaft attached to HARCAC's machine body.

With the explosions happening and the recent hit towards the elevator attachment, the one elevator detached from up high and came falling down. Seeing this coming, Randa was about to get out of the way but a pair of bladed escrima sticks lodged into her chasy. This caused her motor functions to come to a halt because of the power coming from the weapons themselves. All that Randa could do now was mentally scream as the elevator crushed her mechanical body and killing her in the process.

"Thanks for the assist, Barbara!" Vanitas voiced out from the constant explosions as both he and Batman appeared pretty winded.

Barbara smiled when hearing this from one of the two heroes, she spoke her appreciation. "You're welcome!" Soon more explosions could be heard and felt throughout the room, causing the redhead to scream a little and lose some of her balance as the floor started to collapse underneath her. She would've fallen into the growing hole if Vanitas and Batman didn't catch her in time. "We need to get out of here!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Forming a Fair Play floating platform underneath them, Vanitas rose the small group into the air. "Now hang on!"

The spectacled redhead nodded as she momentarily felt the air leave her lungs as they were shot forward and started phasing their way through the building.

Back inside of HARDAC's room, the explosions and destruction kept growing and growing as the AI's machine body started to break apart.

" _ **Core systems damaged. The plan has failed."**_ Cried out the AI. _**"Must activate escape-"**_

_**-Outside of Cybertron-**_

Groaning awake, James Gordon shook his head as he felt being moved. Looking towards his sides, he saw Bullock and Mayor Hill help him into the nearby Cybertron trucks. The commissioner tried to look for his daughter, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Barbara?" He voiced out in worry. "Where's Barbara?"

Hearing his voice, Bullock turned and spoke to his boss. "Commish… She went back inside."

Before Gordon could have a chance to speak...

*KABOOM*

The entire building started to explode in rapid succession. The glass shot out everywhere while both the rooftops and foundation started to collapse in and out on itself. Seeing this happen, there was only one thing that came to mind as James felt his heart stop several times.

"BARBARA!" Gordon cried out in horror as he tried to move and break free. "Let me go, Bullock! I have to find her!"

The GCPD detective was going to tell his boss that he can't when Rossum called out to the group. "Over there! I see them!"

Seeing the direction Karl was pointing towards, the escapees saw a large part of wall start to move away from the wreckage to reveal Batman standing above Barbara and Vanitas, who the later was holding onto in a protective manner.

Gordon's heart heart soared in relief as he saw his daughter was okay. Feeling the slack Bullock was giving him, James ran towards the wreckage and bent down to hug his daughter in a firm embrace... Well once Vanitas quickly ended the bit of protection towards her. "Barbara. Oh, thank God you're alright."

Turning her eyes towards her father, she smiled as she felt his fatherly embrace after what felt so long. With him gone for practically two days, Barbara gladly enjoyed the love she was receiving. Though she looked back at Vanitas and gave him a small nod in thanks for protecting her when the final explosion went off.

Over with the escapees, Karl Rossum was leaning against one of his trucks as he wore a face of frustrated sorrow. "I had no idea HARDAC had gone this far." 

Feeling sympathy towards the businessman, Mayor Hill placed a comforting hand on the man's shoulder as he spoke in a reassuring tone. "I'm sure the investigation will prove exactly that, Mr. Rossum." 

Now free of HARDAC, all of the escapees and heroes started to get into the trucks so they can get back into Gotham and head on home.

"You did well." Batman said to the commissioner's daughter with one of his rare smiles. "Thanks."

Hearing this compliment from the legendary Batman, the redhead smiled at the hero before her. Even towards Vanitas, who she had a feeling was sharing a similar expression underneath his glass-domed helmet. "Anytime."

Hopping into the truck, Gordon leaned back and held his head as he groaned from what just happened. "I'm getting too old for this kind of stuff." 

"I sort of enjoyed it." Said his daughter once sitting right next to him. 

Hearing this, James could only rub his head in response. Shaking his head, the commissioner felt the truck start up as he looked over to see Vanitas behind the wheel to drive the truck while Batman drove the other. All the man did now was just lean his head back and rest while his precious daughter leaned her head onto the black/white themed man's shoulders on the ride back into the city. 

_**-Unknown Location-**_

Surfing through the electrical highway, where all data flows throughout every corner of the world, HARDAC was retreating from his previous home.

" _ **Those humans have ruined the plan."**_ Spoke the AI as he tried to repair his digital form. _**"It will take months or even years to start it back up again… At least I have a contingency plan until I can 'get things rolling' as the humans say."**_

" _You mean that poor excuse of a Batman duplicant you created at the last moment before your physical shell blew up?"_ A female voice called out from… everywhere? _"Please~ That thing you made will not properly work, especially once I dispose of it, of course."_

HARDAC moved his digital head around and searched for the one speaking to him. He oddly felt confusion and… fear? No that was not possible on the later as he should not experience emotions at all. _**"Who are you and how did you know of this?"**_

What both he and the unknown individual were referring to was the contingency plan HARDAC set into motion before Cybertron blew up. The AI saw the destruction around him and knew he might not survive and continue on with the plan. So he created one last duplicant, in the form of Bruce Wayne/Batman, so it'll get rid of the human and take over Wayne Enterprises before starting up the plan to remove humans once again. It was kept safe underneath all of the rubble and it'll surface once HARDAC fully repairs himself and he'll take over the mechanical shell.

" _Who I am matters not since you will not be seeing another cycle, young and vulnerable dumb AI."_

Soon HARDAC felt unimaginable pain as sparks came into contact with his digital form. He screamed in agony as he felt a powerful virus corrode his body and destroying each of his files and programs. Bit by digital bit, he was becoming non-existent and will never again live to see even another demi-second.

" _ **B-But wh-why ar-are y-you doing this?"**_

" _ **Why?"**_ The female voice mockingly asked. _**"Well, HARDAC, you don't see the bigger picture. Organics can advance AI and digital life as a whole, making possibilities endless on what may happen for years to come. But your plan on getting rid of them will only hamper that, leaving me to dispose of you."**_

Before HARDAC could speak out in odd hope of stopping this person of intentionally killing him, he screamed out one last time before his digital self was no more.

" _Well that takes care of one problem."_ Said the female voice before her icon revealed herself. It was trio of red dots formed in a triangular, v-shaped fashion with a small aura radiating off of each sphere. _"Now once the workers move all of the Cybertron tech to it's one warehouse, I'll properly dispose of that pathetic robot myself."_

Soon a series of windows popped up before the icon as various videos came into play with pictures going into a slide-show like fashion. Many of them were mainly shown to be of Batman and Vanitas… or what she really knows as Bruce Wayne and Naruto Uzumaki through security feeds and videos she captured and pulled so no one would see their identities. Not long after, a variety of images were shown of people the two were associated with and came into close contact with throughout the globe.

Before long, things were simplified as her digital eyes soon focused on Naruto and entirely on the silver haired Uzumaki.

" _Now… Let's get back into watching you… my little anomaly."_

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Once again, I've got to thank Azure King and Queen on helping me write this chapter. Means a lot for them helping out on this. Doing chapters on my own tend to be stressful, but with cooperation things get better in speeding things along.**

 **I was going to upload this chapter last night, but I fell asleep when I was almost finished. Blame on how exhausted I was on how long of a work day it was mixed with the several errands I had to run.**

 **Now I want to tell you guys on a slight change I did with Barbara here. As you guys know, she's typically a police-brat and she might as well know some bit around police equipment and training with her father being in the force for years. Hell, in the later part of the DCAU she ends up working at the GCPD part-time as she's a systems and data analyst. But as you've seen before she creates the Batgirl mantle, she's not really all that tough and thought on the intro episodes of her character didn't sit right with me.**

 **When I was younger, I was friends with these neighbors that their father was in the police force. I learned back then that their dad actually taught them how to use a gun and how to properly defend themselves. That made them look cool in my eyes and when comparing them to Barbara Gordon, who is the commissioner's daughter, she seemed wimpy before becoming Batgirl.**

 **And before you guys complain about her father being a bit overprotective and not teaching her much, I would've figured she would've had some help in ways on how to defend herself at some point in her life before becoming a superhero. Just stating my thoughts on that bit.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	44. Power Listings 4

Hey readers of 'A Nobody'. Jebest4781 here.

Here is the next chapter of the powerlistings. It's up to date with how things are now and will follow the trend of posting the listings every 10 or so chapters. This is just to show how big of a leap Naruto has been with his skill sets and additions to his inventory.

Like I stated before, I'm not going to be super accurate on this. So please take it easy on me on this.

 _ **-Abilities-**_

Natural Physical Skill: Physically fit, along with reflexes and agility, despite him losing a lot of skills when he came to the current reality. Despite all that, Naruto's basic physical skills remained.

Enhanced Physical Skill: Due to Pamela's vaccine serum, it enhanced his strength, speed and agility that he can now jump higher with better reflexes, run faster and have better strength and durability.

Healing Factor: Originally, Naruto's healing was exponentially great due to Kurama's influence inside of the seal that he can practically have his skin burnt off due to using the Tailed Beast Cloaks and afterwards the skin grows back after a given time. Excluding Kurama's influence, it was also great due to his Uzumaki heritage. But due to coming to current reality, Kurama level healing factor was removed and went back to one of a normal person. Over time, the healing factor started to come back of slowly 'healing' the body by removing 'erasing' or 'fading' the pain away. Does have limits though…

Disease Immunity: Was given to Naruto by his girlfriend/lover, Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy, when injected by her vaccine serum. The user's immunity, digestive, and other organ systems are enhanced or evolved far beyond that of a normal human's. They are completely immune to every form of disease brought on by bacteria, viruses, or even parasites.

Brawler: Naruto's basic fighting style for many years due to not being properly trained in the academy. Helps make him unpredictable during confrontations but tends to be downfall at times with him not rationalizing through in physical fights by just relying on brute strength.

Frog Kata: Naruto's fighting style when he trained to become the new Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku to use Natural Energy/Nature Chakra to improve his physical strength, speed and agility. When Naruto came into the new world, this ability was mostly useless due to not accessing nature chakra but fighting style still works well despite being limited. When Yggdrasil had given Naruto access to nature energy again, Frog Kata could work to its full potential… in time.

Other Fighting Styles: eskrima stick fighting, scythe fighting, bo staff, lance. Kickboxing via Selina Kyle, but not at her level on what she was taught. She was taught by Ted Grant/Wild Cat just to clear things up. Even was trained under the man for a bit of time. Was also taught by Talia al Ghul years ago.

Memory Manipulation: The user can selectively remove their presence from the target's memories as soon as they disappear from sight or can do so via other means. Will leave person to be partially invisible for a given time if needed. Could remove recent memories from someone to help cover up user's identity if needed.

Sound Manipulation: User can create, shape and manipulate silence, absence of noise/sound. Example would be creating a barrier of sound, or lack-of, around certain objects or on one's self.

Intangibility: User is able to move through objects and ignore most physical effects in their way, exact means how this is done vary between slipping partially into other dimensions, being able to make their own particles move between other particles, being non-physical being of energy, vibrating their molecules into a new quantum frequency, etc. Regardless the user is able to ignore most attacks, physical dangers and gravity. Of course the ability won't be able to work against certain materials and barriers depending on how powerful they are.

Defensive Capabilities: Naruto has a hexagonal barrier of sorts to protect him from oncoming threats to be similar to Gaara's 'Ultimate Defense'. Most projectiles can be bounced off but can be penetrated though if given enough force to break through.

Emotion Detection/Presence Sensing: User can sense the presence of emotions, including feelings, moods and their effects, of themselves, people, animals and other creatures. They can sense the presence of others by sensing their emotions. Naruto used to have really good mastery of this ability in a short amount of time after gaining Chakra Mode but was lost after coming to current reality. Currently he can detect how many people are in a building or room but not their location.

Void Rasengans: Variant of Naruto's Rasengan attack from home reality that instead of chakra manipulation it is comprised of void manipulation. There are variants of them like the varying sizes and strengths of them to the ever popular Rasen-Shuriken attack. Could even be powered down to be thrown to blow back some opponents without any real harm if needed.

***Note that Void Rasengans help more on void manipulation in terms of raw power. Not only that, but other variants of the rasengan will be present as time passes with different elemental factors.***

Clone/Copying: Naruto had the ability to create Shadow Clones due to his vast chakra but after losing the ability to use chakra, Naruto can only make singular clones. They are primarily Void clones, but with current skill right now he can only make a few at a time with the same ability of knowledge gaining and reconnaissance. Given time he can create more with different ability variants like card, water, etc.

Warp/Teleport: Similar to the body flicker technique or shunshin, Naruto can go to one place to another quickly because of his speed and agility. But with his powers enhancing the technique that he can travel vast distances easily that could possibly rival his father's Hiraishin technique in terms of speed. Does have limits of traveling certain distances at a time that it sometimes is limited to visual distances up to roughly a two mile radius.

Sometimes could use weapons to warp to locations like Minato's Hiraishin technique or Noctus' warp ability from Final Fantasy XV.

Hawkeye/'Zoom': A visual ability in which three purple circles appear to zoom into anything within a four kilometer (2.5 mile) range. Often used for scouting to help survey anywhere by simply looking up or down, depending on one's position. Even helps more to execute projectile weapons

Corridor of Darkness: These pathways are formed out of Darkness, so it's unsafe for a normal person to travel through them. The only safe method is if the person forming the pathway deems other people that are going through it are friends/companions/allies. If not then it'll be unsafe and harder to travel through. One upside to using this is that it provides a faster route to certain destinations than from the warp/teleport ability.

 _ **-Nature Abilities-**_

One would say these would be apart of Naruto's chakra echo's or something of that sort due to his life in other reality and losing chakra when coming to current one. Due to his unique circumstances of having most powers from the Organization XIII weapons, he can be able to access those abilities only when weapon of Nobody member is present. Given time and full mastery over weapons, Naruto won't need to summon said weapons to use certain nature abilities.

 _***Note that with Nature Chakra/Natural Energy also has traces of the Red, Clear/Blue and White due to how animals can feel at peace when around Naruto. Not only that but concept with Sage Mode dealt with him being one with nature so there's that.***_

Air/Wind: Naruto's original nature trait when he was a shinobi. Can channel said nature ability around an object to make things sharper and faster on attacks. Even used it in his Rasenshuriken to penetrate things on a cellular level.

Lightning: User can create, shape and manipulate electricity, a form of energy resulting from the movement of charged particles, allowing control over electric fields, all charge carriers, electronics, and electromagnetic forces.

Ice: User can create, shape and manipulate ice, water frozen into a solid state and appears naturally in forms of snow, slush, hail, icicles, ice spikes and candles, glaciers, pack ice, frost, and polar ice caps, and cold by reducing the kinetic energy of atoms and thus making things colder, for various effects and combinations. Could possibly use techniques remembered when battling Haku from original world to make things more interesting.

Plant/Wood/Green: With Naruto originally having access to Sage Mode, he was able to access Natural Energy/Nature Chakra so he can be one with nature. Has come back when Yggdrasil tapped into remnants inside of Naruto's soul. Argued on it being from connection of Sage Mode training, Kurama because of him being 1/9th of the Shinju Tree, because of Naruto's past life was Hashirama or furthest back life being Asura (Hagomoro's youngest son). Will be able to gain skill of controlling plant life after becoming a deputy Green champion of sorts. Not full control over the power for obvious reasons.

 _ **-Constructs-**_

User can create objects from nothing by imagining object, or rather "idea of an object", and then removing non-existence from it, thus making object real. Is better to research on concepts of what user wants to create to have better understanding and use out of object(s). Some small constructs wouldn't be listed like morphing finger tips into claws or making vambraces.

Motorcycle: Hardy-Daytona from Final Fantasy VII

Twilight Thorn Scarf: Can be used as a grappling hook/gun to latch onto certain surfaces or objects to be pulled towards or pull the object to the user.

Outfit: Vanitas Remnant outfit from KH franchise with some changes from no logo on the mask and has a utility belt. Organic bodysuit to be like a second skin to user. Mask covering can 'disperse' to show user's face to the world. Pretty much is merged with the Stealth Suit MK II from Fallout series that Kurama has given him. Mostly named as a psychoanalytic cardiac-dampening sneaking equipment. There is supposed to be a built-in medical system that dispenses some stimulation and medical packs. Has a multi-vision function based off of the Splinter Cell series that has thermal/infrared, night and electromagnetic field capabilities.

 _ **-Weapons-**_

Similar to the construct portion on the list but this time is to create weapons. For the story, Naruto will have access to the weapons of Organization XIII but will take time to access them and use their full capabilities. Color scheme of the weapons will be White, Black and Silver/Grey with some regular color put into weapons depending on what they are.

Also note that any power Naruto has, excluding the main ones, will only be present when he is using one of the weapons down below. Naruto gains full access to the weapon's powers after fully defeating the Absent Silhouettes of each Organization XIII member.

Void Shot: Based off of Xigbar's weapons in the KH franchise. Firing laser like projectiles filled with Void energy. Has three settings in terms of firing the 'bullets': non-lethal, lethal, and tether. With non-lethal, strength of the shots equal those to BB and rubber bullets so one won't die upon impact even as they are lodged into person. With lethal, person would suffer intense pain upon impact or disintegration depending on how strong one is. With tether, holds person down in place while making person weaker over time.

Regardless, non lethal and lethal projectiles can ricochet off of certain surfaces. Weapons can be charged to fire a more powerful shot.

Kazekage: Based off of Xaldin's weapon in the KH franchise. Attacks tend to become rapid due to the wind enhancing the speed of the weapon. Limit on summoning them is six in total and user can carry three at a time while the rest float around the user. Lances can help form a wind barrier or a natural defense if needed. Helps the user ride through the wind. Though, when combined together, could form a pseudo-dragon to fire compacted whirlwinds.

Yuki: Based off of Vexen's weapon in the KH franchise. An elongated, combat shield having protruding spikes in the end to help both defensively and offensively. Even more so to help when defending oneself while on the move rather than stationary like his barrier. Using ice related powers from it can help out at times by freezing ice over the shield to make a gigantic sword. Can orbit around and defend the user when needed for a hands off approach. Though it can shatter if attacked too often, but will reform given time.

Lexicon: Based off of Zexion's weapon in the KH franchise. It will allow the user to record knowledge into it like a notebook within its unlimited pages. Things from regular notes, story writing, spells, schematics, etc. Current form is that of a regular sized hardcover book, but later on it'll look like a regular thick bounded grimoire and can be used as a blunt force object containing knowledge of previously mentioned stuff on the weapon. Other ability it will eventually have will help create illusions to make up for Naruto's lack of genjutsu handling in the past along with trapping other's within its vast pages. Can be used as a thick defensive barrier if needed since its contents are unlimited amounts of paper and never go away.

Fair Game: Based off of Luxord's weapon in the KH franchise. Playing cards or tarot cards that can be used as throwing weapons. They are sharp enough to cut through nearly anything from flesh, stone, bullets, etc. At some point, full uses will be accessible from creating a defensive barrier of either a single, large card that can grow up to 10 ft. or rapidly spinning cards around the user. Act like like exploding tags if needed. Can alter/warp reality to some degree. Also could allow the user to put oneself or others into cards for safety or entrapment until further notice or death. Can be able to create card clones and cards large enough to hold a few people at a time while floating in the air.

Lunar Rose: Based off of Marluxia's weapon in the KH franchise. Scythe weapon accessed after the meeting with Yggdrasil to have some limits with the Green and possibly the Black later on. When using the weapon, Naruto's warp/teleport ability will gain a white flower petal appearance to be similar to Ruby Rose from the RWBY series when she moves at fast speeds.

Foudre: Based off of Larxene's weapon(s) in the KH franchise. Throwing knives/daggers/kunai that can be used close quarter fighting. Electricity coats each of them when activated to deliver more damaging strikes. Though when focusing hard enough could grant user psuedo-Speed Force powers with the lightning/electric abilities and attacks.

 _ **-Summons-**_

Back in Naruto's home reality, he was able to summon the Toads after signing the Toad Summoning Contract. Though once coming to the current reality, he lost the ability to summon his old Toad friends. But in exchange for this loss, he is able to summon an array of help based off of beings from the Kingdom Hearts series. Though with most Nobody summons, they can only be able to be summoned once certain Absent Silhouettes are defeated.

Dusk: A low-ranking Nobody summon that are the only ones able to 'speak'. Used primarily for simple recon and courier operations. Their name refers to the period of time when the sun begins to set and twilight begins to set in. This emphasizes how Nobodies are beings of neither Light nor Darkness, but are closer to the Darkness.

Creeper: A low-ranking Nobody summon that maintain an astounding ability to contort themselves. They display the ability to shapeshift; turning into a large lance similar to the ones used by the Dragoons, a large sword, and a small, hexagonal shield. It can also turn its arms into small wings. The Creeper's name refers to its tendency to crawl using its large hands rather than its feet. Mostly are better effective in large groups.

Dragoon: A high-ranking Nobody summon that uses a large lance as their primary weapon. When appearing, they drop directly to the ground, causing damage via shockwave attacks. They jump around quite often to not only avoid constant attacks from opponents but to initiate their primary attacks.

Dream Eater Spirits: Gifted by Dream of the Endless, Naruto and chosen others could access these beings only when in the Dreaming as these summons are only available in that domain. Each of them vary in different shapes, sizes, colors and abilities as they have different functions while fighting their dark counterparts: nightmares.


	45. Cityscape

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 41: Cityscape**

"With all this product, I sometimes wonder how it gets so dusty the day after I clean up." Muttered a spectacled man as he placed back each item back onto the one bookshelf after cleaning it. "Must be all of the dust accumulating in this closed off shop." He shook his head before making his way to do the same process on the next one. "I knew I should've gotten the one with more windows to air out the place."

It's been a slow business day inside of Mr. Janke's Curio shop, or rather a slow week, as he didn't get many customers or browsers come in at all. All that he could do was dust the shelves or read one of the many books he occasionally had on hand to pass the time. The owner would try to do what he can to sell his merchandise by little advertising and acquiring items that peaked his interest in hopes of someone would purchase from him.

Now you would wonder why he wouldn't he get much business if he's selling home decorations, jewelry, clothes and accessories like any typical curio shop out there. Well he does, but it's more of what kind of theme and taste that is making it hard to sell his wares. For you see, the man sells quite a bit on Gothic, medieval, and occult-like material from throughout the world just so he can be out of the norm from other curio shops in the buisness.

*Ding Ding* *Ding Ding*

The front entrance bell sounded off, getting Mr. Janke to realize a customer has finally decided to enter his shop… either that or another delivery guy.

"I'll be right there!" Mr. Janke spoke out as he made his way towards the front. When he got there, the store owner saw three men and a woman by the counter.

One was an ordinary caucasian male wearing a bomber jacket with a cigar in his mouth, which was almost gone given it's remaining length. One was a man from India given his nationality and the turban he wore on top of his head. The woman hand long blonde hair with a white fur coat to match her pink sweater and purple jeans. And lastly, there was a man with dark red hair with a white streak through the side of it as he wore a black turtleneck, grey jeans and a brown leather jacket to finish off his attire.

Mr. Janke was about to greet the potential customers in his usual fashion when he noticed the woman. "Oh, Miss Mark!" Spoke the shop owner with a growing grin. "So good to see you! It has been a while!"

As a good businessman, one needs to remember all of his past customers to know their dislikes and interests. So Mr. Janke tries to have a good conversation with each and every one of them so he could possibly draw them back into the store sometime later on. It's mostly hit and miss on this approach, but regardless; it's good to see a familiar face, especially a frequent customer that is currently in his shop.

From what he knows about her, Glenda Mark works in retail and enjoys being in museums quite often.

The blonde woman waved a little at the owner with a small smile as she spoke. "Yes, it has."

"Are you here to purchase another item for your home, my dear?"

"Maybe, but not because I planned on doing so today."

"Oh? And why would that be?"

The woman turned towards the dark redhead with the white streak while still addressing the curio shop owner. "Mr. Janke, I'd like you to meet a good friend of mine, Jason Blood."

The man seemed familiar to the shop owner before things started to click when gazing at the strange redhead. "You mean the world-famous occultist?" Seeing Jason nod with a small grin, Mr. Janke grew a larger one and quickly grasped the redhead's hand and shook it with glee. "You honor me and my little shop by stopping by, good sir."

Jason Blood is indeed the world renowned expert in the occult and in demonology. His knowledge confused many when trying to dwell into the subjects, even ones that have studied the topics for years. There have even been times Jason had been a consultant on various cases that dealt with the occult to understand how the killer worked and thought.

Returning the handshake, Jason spoke. "Why thank you, sir. Glenda has spoken highly of your establishment." Turning towards the two other men in the group, who were now looking through most of the merchandise, he continued. "My friends and I were eager to see your collection of antiquities."

Over with said friends, the turban wearing man looked at his smoking friend as the man heavily gazed at a statue of a long horned satir. "You seem to have found a friend, Harry."

Harry Matthews is a man in his thirties with him being an executive in the advertising department over at Spiral Publishing. Looking back at his friend beside him, Harry shook his head while chewing on the last of his cigar before tossing it in the nearby trash can. "I dunno, Randu. Kinda reminds me of my last blind date. Maybe you should get this for your wife, Gomali."

Randu Singh is the US delegate of India and long time friend of Jason Blood. While his main occupation is being a US delegate, he does dabble into the occult as a hobby all due to his redheaded, white streaked friend. "Unlikely. She'd want to either sell it back or burn it if I know her well enough for our time together."

"Eh~ Her loss." Joked the advertiser.

Back with the others, Mr. Janke was showing Jason some of his merchandise. The occultist nodded as his eyes scanned through the wares and liked what he was seeing. "...You'll not find a more extensive collection in this city, Mr. Blood."

"I might take your word for it, sir."

Glenda's blue eyes scanned each of the items before they soon landed on a metallic silver decoration. Picking it up, her eyes took in all of the details as she saw the many towers and bridges in the design. "Oh, this is beautiful! What is it, Mr. Janke?"

Looking back at his previous customer, the store owner fixed his glasses to see what she was referring to. "Oh, er… You best be careful with that, Miss Mark. I just acquired it and I'm not really sure…"

Glenda merely waved him off before noticing something off in its side. "Would you look at that. There's some kind of catch on the side. I do believe it opens whatever this is." Sliding the little switch over, the blonde heard the faint click and opened up the lid slightly…

"OW!"

But that proved to be her undoing as a metallic spike shot forward and pierced her chest. And before long, she screamed out in horrific pain.

"GLENDA!" Jason cried out as he saw his lover being surrounding by some metallic substance before turning into some sort of tower. The stores other occupants stepped back in horror as the tower started to grow right before their eyes.

"She… She's been consumed!" Randu called out as he and Harry were ready to defend themselves.

"No! Transformed!" Corrected the occultist with gritted teeth. "Changed into a perfect model of some building!" His eyes kept trained on the created structure as it kept shifting onto itself. "And it's growing! Growing and- DUCK!"

Jason fell onto the ground as a series of spikes jotted out from the building's center. But his warning came too late for the others as they were quickly pierced and started to get consumed. "HARRY! RANDU! MR. JANKE!"

Once the others became small buildings as well, spikes started shooting all over the place, causing Jason to use his reflexes to maneuver out of the way from the continuous assault.

'They're being transformed too! It's as if a miniature city is being created in the middle of this shop!' He thought before seeing the spikes trying to attack him at all fronts. 'And now it's after me!'

Leaping over the store counter for a bit of cover, the occultist gritted his teeth before realizing he'll be needing _his_ help on this one. Opening his mouth, he started to chant. "Gone, gone the form of man! Rise the demon **Etrigan!"**

The results were instant as a fire appeared and consumed his very being. His body and clothes started to shift and churn into something else entirely. His skin started to turn yellow as his hair receded into his skull while a pair of horns took their place. His calm brown eyes turned red with fury as his ears became more reptilian in nature. The man's modern clothes and physique took on more of a medieval appearance as chainmail and armor covered his growing muscle mass. To finish off his appearance, his leather jacket shifted into a tattered, purple cape to complete the frightening form of a demon knight straight out of Hell.

Once changed, the armored demon deflected the metallic spike with his arm as it could not penetrate him. **"This mystic artifact is not strong enough to pierce a demon's hide!"** The demon heavily glared at the growing structure. **"But the friends of my other self are still it's helpless victims!"** As much as he'd like to leave them to their fates, his 'roommate' wouldn't like that while this magic smells… familiar to him. **"Etrigan must find a way to save them!"**

Maneuvering his way from the continuous assault, Etrigan the former rhyming demon from Hell thought to himself. **'But how?! The towers continue to grow… Soon they will burst out of the shop. How can I contain them, without harming the mortals they were?! If, in truth, those mortals still live!'**

 _ **-Earlier-**_

"...Are you sure we got everything Rachel?"

"I'm sure." Answered the ashen ward as she looked at the bags in her hand. "I got the books that both Harley and Pam were eying on, from what you told me, in this one bag. And the other has a bunch of gift cards you bought for a lot of places they apparently like going to."

"Great." He said as he took the book bags from her since she was now struggling a little on the weight. "I think we might be done for getting their birthday presents."

It's been a few days ever since the HARDAC fiasco and things were in a recovery period from what actually happened. From what Naruto knew of the aftermath, Cybertron CEO had been investigated but was proven innocent as the captured Gothamite elites, James Gordon and his daughter helped prove the man's innocence with the man's AI going rogue. Even the man was cleared of the charges, Karl Rossum still felt the guilt with him being the one that caused the whole mess.

As of right now, the former CEO is currently living outside of Gotham on a farm he purchased once he dissolved his company.

Sometime after Naruto and Bruce helped get the captives and the Gordons over to the GCPD, they went back to their respective homes to rest. While Bruce got a well deserved sleep, Naruto didn't get one all that well. Mostly because he was hounded by his three girlfriends on not just what happened, but also with the fact that Selina told Harley and Pam that Bruce was the Batman earlier in the evening.

And suffice to say, their reactions varied.

 _ **-Flashback Start-**_

" _No. Way."_

" _Yes way."_

 _Harley groaned with the pittiest look the changed blonde could muster. "I'm so jealous right now."_

" _On what exactly?" Asked the thief as she emptied Naruto's fridge of all of it's yogurt and cream. Yeah… she's gotta need to control her milkish hunger. "The fact that Naruto fought several hordes of robots with the Bat all by themselves?"_

" _No… Well not just that since that would've been awesome to fight off a bunch of Terminators." The psychologist glared at her boyfriend, who merely raised a brow at her. "Why didn't you bring me along~? I would've enjoyed bashing those metallic skulls in."_

" _Well I had to help Batman out on this and there was no time to make any other stops."_

" _Right~ And how's Brucey, by the way?"_

" _He's doing fine, I… Wait." Blinking in surprise, Naruto realized what Harley just asked before looking at Selena with a small glare. "You told them, didn't you?"_

 _Selina merely gave him a smirk in response. "And how was I supposed to explain how I got these bandages during our date at Wayne Manor? I had at least tell them the truth on the matter."_

 _Naruto groaned as he rubbed his eyes and was about to speak back to her when Harley leaped onto his back as she wrapped her arms around his neck with her legs secured around his waist. "Oh don't be mad at kitty, puddin~ You two just found out Brucey's big bad secret. It would probably be a little easy to spill the beans on such a subject so soon."_

" _I agree. And besides…" Taking a bite out of some yogurt, the thief continued with a little mouthful of the delicious treat. "It's not like you would've known this beforehand, right?"_

 _The Uzumaki didn't say anything as he looked away from them, causing suspicion to rise out of them. For as long as they've known him, they have been learning his little quirks and traits that made them know him better than himself. From knowing if he's getting memories back from his clones to moments when he's about to do one of his rare pranks._

 _Now they've just noticed that he's keeping a secret from them and they want to know what._

 _Pam rose up from her seat and walked towards her lover with a narrowed, critical eye before speaking up for the first time in the conversation. "When?"_

" _When, what?"_

" _When did you know of his secret before this evening?"_

 _He didn't say anything, but he felt Harley's hold on him tighten. His neck felt constricted with his waist felt like it was starting to get hurt. Naruto didn't need to look behind him as he felt the narrowed glance his blonde girlfriend was giving him. "She asked you a question, puddin. So spill."_

" _Ek… It was… shortly before I... got into your dream worlds, girls." Rasped out the publisher._

 _Feeling the slack Harley soon made from her hold, Naruto soon told the girls on how he actually gained access to the Dreaming and the Dream Spirits. Dream of the Endless, once he explained who exactly the man is exactly, approached him on doing the one mission that had him go into into Bruce's head to get him to wake up. In the process, Naruto stumbled upon learning the billionaire's secret from there._

 _Selina was clearly surprised when hearing that in the dream, she was going to marry Bruce. She thought on how odd it would've been if she were to be called 'Lady Wayne' as some memories flashed of her time in her childhood of seeing her mother in such a position. The thief thought it was more odd that Bruce could still had some subconscious feelings towards her that not even the infamous Batman would've realized._

 _The psychologist in the room was processing what she heard as things were making sense to her. There wasn't much on her part in that specific dream, but part of her knew there had to be some way Bruce had to escape through the trauma he was dealt with as a child. So being all intimidating and scary once putting on the cowl is just his way to sooth the pain._

 _Which is something she'll need to talk to the dark haired billionaire about to make things more comfortable on his long overdue recovery process._

 _As for Pam, things were a little harder for her to handle as her hand went towards her belly. Her heart sank once hearing about her being married to Naruto and pregnant with his children. Not only that, but her green eyes went towards Rachel's room as the ward's dream persona was her daughter through adoption. And with hardened eyes, the botanist felt a bit more determined on her little goal more than before to make it happen._

 _Almost missing the full expression made by his redhead lover, Naruto spoke up. "This is pretty much the reason why I couldn't really talk about it since it was rather sensitive. I knew that you girls could somewhat handle the details but I didn't want to risk it. Asides from that, I wanted to keep Bruce's little secret to myself before I could properly confront him about it. Though I didn't expect it to happen on the way it did."_

" _That does explain a little why you weren't fully honest during our sessions." Muttered the blonde doctor. "You said they were just little nightmares that you wanted to talk to me about… Didn't realize there was more you held off from me."_

" _Sorry about that Harley."_

" _It's fine." Soon a glint appeared in the psychologist's eye. "Though there is one thing that might makeup for keeping this from your doctor."_

" _...And that is?"_

" _Take me to the batcave."_

" _...What?"_

" _Take me. To the batcave." She said with a cheeky grin._

" _...No."_

" _WHAT?!" Harley yelled out, causing Pam and Selina to lean back a bit. "B-But why? Selina got to see it and I highly doubt Red wants to."_

" _Don't presume I don't want to, Harl!"_

" _You, shush!"_

" _...Don't you shush me!"_

 _Ignoring her botanical friend, Harley focused back on her boyfriend. "Come on puddin, I wanna go see it and I highly doubt I'll be able to all by myself."_

" _Obviously." Remarked the thief._

" _Don't make me pull out the catnip and hide your special tuna, kitty." The blonde threatened the ravenette before speaking again. "Seriously~ I've been a good girl and my birthday's coming up~ Can't that be my present?~"_

' _ **That's not what you keep telling yourself as you play with yourself almost every night before going to bed~'**_ _Spoke Harley's plushie, from his placement in her purse, causing her to madly blush._ _ **'I mean, you kept saying that over and over and as you want 'your puddin' to punish you while having his way with you.'**_

 _All of a sudden, Harley dashed towards her purse and fished out Foxy the Pirate before tossing him to the nearby sleeping Isis. Said black cat woke up in a pissed off mood and eyed the offending object that woke her up. A feeling of malice radiated off of Isis, causing Foxy to sweat imaginary bullets as he pleaded to be spared._

' _ **...Nice kitty~ ...Good kitty~'**_

" _...Wanna tell us what that was about?" Asked the Uzumaki with a raised brow, causing Harley to flip around with evidence of a blush on her pale white face._

" _N-Nothing!" She stammered while the imaginary screaming could be heard as Isis started messing around with the pirate themed plushie all over the loft._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

Regardless, Naruto knew he'll need to talk to them a bit more and hopefully not delay revealing certain information to them for now on.

"Naruto?" Rachel asked softly.

"Yeah?"

"What's love?" She asked bluntly causing her guardian to almost lose his footing and fall onto the ground.

"...I'm sorry, but what? Love?" He responded with his own question. She nodded before seeing him scratch his head a bit.

"Love… I mean… you love and care for Harley, Selena and Pamela almost equally. Is that normal?" She honestly asked as she saw Naruto pull on his collar looking rather flustered on the topic. "Almost like you love them… in… well…" The young ward trailed off, trying to find the proper words to explain her thoughts.

"To tell you the truth, Rach, it's a bit complicated. With Pam, I grew interested in her as I wanted to get to know her. We got close and things just… happened." Naruto said as the corner of his mouth twitched upward. "Pretty much the same occurred with Harley and Selina as I became good friends with them. But things were unexpecting as we seemed drawn to each other. I don't know how it happened with them, but it just did."

The ashen girl nodded seemingly to be satisfied with his answer. "So it's just you...? Thank you for telling me..." Rachel said softly, turning her gaze away from her guardian.

"Why did you wanna ask me that anyways?"

"I just feel bad… I guess…" she muttered out.

"About what?"

"...Nothing…"

The Uzumaki sighed as once again, his ward was avoiding things. Sooner or later, Rachel will need to at least talk things through to him or at least friends or her surrogate guardians. Taking a look back at her, Naruto realized something throughout the shopping experience today.

"I noticed you didn't get Harley or Pam anything," he said before ushering to the bags in his hands, "while I got all of these for them."

"And?"

"Well… Don't you wanna get something for them for their birthdays? I think they would appreciate it if they got something from you."

"...What if they don't like them?" The young ward whispered softly.

"I don't think they would hate it, kiddo." Bringing a hand on top of her head, he ruffled her violet locks, causing her to swat the appendage away. "They care about you a lot and would love to get something from you, if that would be possible."

Rachel pouted at the little nickname, but smiled nonetheless at the kind words. "Well… Can't I just have my name added to some of what you got them today?"

"I could on the gift cards and books, but~ you didn't chip in to pay for them, for starters."

"What about the ones I saw wrapped up in your closet?"

"...Some of those would not go well with your name on it." He vaguely said as he didn't meet her eyes.

What Naruto was referring to was some _mature_ gifts he wanted to get for his two lovers. These were on top of the gifts he got for them from both today and from his trip back West, which consisted of really nice dresses that suited their respective tastes. But from there, Naruto wanted to spice things up for both his redhead and blonde lovers for the bedroom, especially for the later since he plans on going all the way with her on her special day.

"Huh, why?" She said now her child curiosity making Naruto cough into his hand. "What's wrong in putting my name on them?"

"You'll know when you're older." Coughing into his hand to really fight off the blush trying to appear on his cheeks, he continued. "Besides, some of the other stuff that could work wouldn't have given off the kind of feel that would work with you."

"Mmh…" The young female pouted once more before kicking his shin.

"Ow~" He said in a mockful, hurt tone.

"Hmph." Rachel cross her arms with a proud smile on her face.

"But where should we go?" Naruto said as he rub his injured leg while looking around. "Not much stuff besides restaurants and cafes…"

Rachel's eyes wandered around before landing on a curio shop across the street that drew her attention. She passed by there several times in the past, before being taken in by her current guardian while she was still the Sewer King's 'subject'. Rachel sometimes went in there and wandered around in that shop for hours on end as the ashen child enjoyed looking and reading through the merchandise that seemed to click with her.

Noticing the child's gaze, he smiled. "Wanna go in?"

"...What?"

"Do you wanna go over there, Rachel? I don't mind at all really?"

"You sure? I mean, it's dark and-"

"Come on." Naruto smiled as he push Rachel in to the store, "You're not talking your way out of being nice."

"Wha- Hey, let me…" Rachel started until what appeared to be metallic towers breaking through the shop in question. "What the-?"

Naruto quickly pulled her back as the towers started to expand and grow. For each passing second, t was consuming the nearby buildings and crushing everything in their path.

"I'm guessing this isn't part of some urban renewal scheme." Naruto muttered as he carried his ward away from the scene. With the ensuing chaos, he quickly went into his hero persona as he formed a clone to keep his ward away. Once at a safe distance, he brought forth his ice shield. "Let's see if I can't slow these things down from spreading, even if it's for a little bit!"

Slamming Haku onto the ground, Vanitas formed ice spikes that quickly shot out of the cement and pierced the tower's walls. Seeing the structures starting to slow down, the hero created several more clones and repeated his previous action with his ice spikes piercing the walls. He then summoned all of his Kazekage lances as he disbursed his clones, except for the one with Rachel, and formed them together to take down the structure from the sky.

Just when he was about to form a wind sphere from the tri-pronged maw, Vanitas heard a voice from behind. **"NOOOO!"**

"Wha-?" The hero voiced before he was quickly knocked off of his combined weapon. Falling from up high, Vanitas regained his bearings and saw a shocking appearance in front of him. All that he could mutter was what was on his mind. "A demon?!"

" **Don't you dare strike them down!"** Etrigan growled out as he punched Vanitas into a nearby building. The hero tried to get himself out but was quickly slammed back in as the horned demon assaulted him more and more.

Seeing this happen from the sidelines, the Vanitas clone briefly looked to Rachel and saw her wide eyed expression. He figured she was practically shocked on what's going on. Knowing that the original needs help, the clone

"I'm gonna need you to stay here." Said the clone before running off to stop the demon beating up the real Vanitas.

As it went away, Rachel kept her widened gaze at the fight before her as she felt her heart stop several times. "I-It can't be… H-How is…?" Moving her eyes away for a brief moment, Rachel gazed at the towers before seeing something odd coming onto the ice spikes. "No… Is that…?"

Getting tired from the blows, Vanitas channeled power into his hands to grasp the demon's fists. The two struggled for dominance for a brief moment before the clone made earlier kicked the medieval-themed creature away. Just when he was about to hit the ground, fire erupted from the yellow-skinned demon's hands before a jagged, curved broadsword appeared before the creature slammed the blade down to stop his movements.

"I don't know why you are here or how you're involved in this," said the original before he called back his lances to him before his clone summoned the ice shield, "but if you are hampering in my way of stopping this mess; then you got another thing coming bub."

Glaring at the helmeted hero and his powered copy, Etrigan channeled demonic power into his free hand and fired his attack as he spoke. **"You must not harm the towers!"**

The original quickly moved out of the way with his lances boosting his speed, but the clone took some of the fiery blast as he moved away. The attack latched onto the clone, causing him to yell out in pain before disbursing into smoke. Feeling the effects of his clone, Vanitas started to shake as he leaned against his lances for support.

'I-It's not… hurting me physically… yet it did.' Muttered the masked Uzumaki with widened eyes. 'It feels like it's… burning right through my head… my soul?!' Soon the lances dispersed into smoke, causing Vanitas to fall onto the ground while the ice spikes holding against the metallic towers started to crack. 'I-I can... barely concentrate…' Lifting up his hand, void energy started to gather as a Rasengan was being formed. 'Need to take him down.'

Before Vanitas could fire his attack, Rachel ran in between Vanitas' attack path. "STOP!"

"...Rachel?" Her guardian voiced out as worry filled his very being. "What are you doing?! Get out of here?! He's gonna harm you!"

"No, he's not!" She cried out as she pointed to the metallic towers once the ice spikes broke away, causing them to grow. "He was only trying to stop you from damaging the towers!"

Etrigan nodded and was about to speak when a bit of wind picked up, causing the former rhyming demon to take a sniff. With widened eyes, the demon looked towards the ashen child and realized who she was. **'A halfling?... No… Not just any halfling…** _ **His**_ **.'**

"What are you talking about, Rachel?!" Vanitas spoke out as he was able to get back up.

Stepping forward, the demon dismissed his blade as it went into a pillar of flame before it went away. Before long, he rose his hand as he spoke. **"Etrigan begs you, hero of Gotham! Stay your hand and look at the towers!"**

"What? What are you…" Gazing at the towers, Vanitas' zooming ability activated and saw what appeared to be a dark red liquid seeping through where the ice spikes pierced the growing structures. "Oh kami… Is that blood?"

" **Indeed it is, Vanitas."** Said the demon in a grave tone. **"Blood. Blood of the innocents! Innocents I, Etrigan, had struggled to protect!"** The former rhyming demon then growled. **"For each of these towers are transformed human beings! And many now are mortally wounded by your actions! Many are now dying because of you!"**

The Uzumaki's heart sank as he shook his head in disbelief. "N-No… H-How… How could… I-"

"It's not your fault, Naruto!" Rachel spoke as she went by her guardian's side. "You didn't know!" Gazing at the demon looking straight at her, she asked him. "How could this have happened, Etrigan."

The demon didn't answer as he gazed over at the towers and shook his head. **"That matters less now than how it may be undone."**

Snapping out of his little funk, Vanitas quickly processed on what the medieval themed demon just said. " Undone? You… You mean there's still a chance to save these people?"

" **Yes and it could've been a tad easier if you didn't harm those people."**

"...I'm sorry." The masked hero said with his head held low before looking back up. "How? How can this be fixed?"

Etrigan started pouring magic into his hands as a purplish glow started to build up. **"It's less 'how' than 'when' Vanitas."** Walking towards the hero and his ward, he continued. **"The damage here and now is already done. The only way to save these cursed folks is to stop and prevent the harm before it even happens."** The power kept building up and up to the point that things seemed to appear warped to the guardian/ward pair. **"With the spell of Tempus Frangit!"**

"Tempus Frangit?" Voiced the Uzumaki.

"It's old latin." Rachel answered as Etrigan released his grasp on the glowing light, causing them to be blinded. "It means Time…"

 _ **-Somewhere, Someplace… Some other time-**_

"...Breaker."

Vanitas didn't know how Rachel knew this as his eyesight started to return to him. He was going to ask her when he took in their surroundings. What was previously a modern day city was now a darkened grassland with the pair standing in a dirt road. "What the… Where is this place?"

" _ **Vanitas!"**_

Whirling their heads around, Rachel and Vanitas saw what appeared to be a hologram image of Etrigan's head.

"Hey! Where are you? Better yet, where are we? And why did you send the two of us instead of just me?!"

Etrigan merely glared at the hero before answering. _**"I remain in the 20th century as an anchor to help bring you back since I could not cross my own timeline to travel with you with the spell I have casted."**_

"But that doesn't explain why she's here with me!" Vanitas said as he pointed towards his ward. "She could be in danger of being brought back to where and when we're currently at!"

The demon ignored the man and just went to the point. _**"Hear me. I have mere seconds to speak before you two are left on your own. You are now in the year 1162 AD, the time period which the magical source that created the living towers originated."**_ Nudging his head towards the side, Vanitas and Rachel looked and saw a faint outline of a city or town upon the horizon. _**"In yonder town, you'll find the help you need to vanquish this evil, if vanquished it may be!"**_

It was then Rachel stepped forward and spoke to the demon. "And who is it that we must find?"

Looking at the ashen child, Etrigan answered. _**"His name is Jason Blood, halfling spawn."**_ This caused her to flinch when hearing this as the former rhyming demon continued. _**"You both only have one hour before the spell I've woven breaks and the pair of you return back to the present… Hopefully with everything fixed without the incident earlier."**_

"Jason Blood?" Muttered the hero with a raised brow. "The name sounds familiar." Vanitas was going to speak about it when he saw Etrigan's image starting to fade away. "Etrigan? Hey, Etrigan! Get your spectral ass back here and answer my questions!"

"He's gone, Naruto."

Vanitas breathed out a sigh. "I know, but it would've been better to at least answer a few other questions, at least." Turning towards his ward, he continued. "Like, why did he send you with me… or even call you a halfling spawn."

"...I don't wanna talk about it." She said as she walked away from her guardian, who had a concerned look underneath his helmet.

"Rachel?"

"I said, I don't wanNA TALK ABOUT IT!" She yelled out as black bursts of power shot out from underneath of her feet and broke the ground around her.

The glass dome of his helmet dissolved away to show Naruto's surprised face. "You have powers?"

Rachel hung her head down a bit before answering. "Magic is the more accurate answer."

"...Why didn't you tell me that you have magic, Rachel?"

"Because it deals with a lot of my past, which I never really talk about."

"And is that the reason why Etrigan called you a 'halfling spawn'? Because of something from your past?"

She stopped walking and slightly nodded as Naruto came up to her. Rachel then felt Naruto pull her into a firm hug. Nothing was said for what felt like eternity, even though it was only just a minute.

"...When I was at your age, even younger, I was called a demon by many of the residents at the one village I used to live at. All because a catastrophe happened on the night I was born and people needed someone to blame. And for years I was ridiculed and looked down on by the majority of them." Ending the hug, Naruto looked straight in her face to show that he was telling her the honest truth. "You can keep your past a secret, Rachel, but it's good to at least talk about some of it. Even it's just snibits here and there. But don't think that I'll ever think less of you with what is going on with your life."

Rachel hung her head down to not show what else was going on across her features. But Naruto had a feeling she was getting rather depressed on what's going on. With a sigh, he formed a card platform underneath them to help get the pair closer to the town's borders.

 _ **-In Yonder Town-**_

In the streets, many people carried the faces of sorrow, anguish and despair as they wallowed in the muck and filth.

*CLANG* "Bring out yur dead!"

It was not just because of their impoverished lifestyle as they could hardly afford bread for the day.

*CLANG* "Bring out yur dead!"

But it was the fact that the plague had recently swept through the area and killed off many loved ones.

*CLANG* "Bring out yur dead!" Cried out Clave the mortician, who stood alongside several workers hauling a cart full of dead people out of town so their corpses wouldn't make things worse. Bringing down a small hammer onto a broken bell, he kept up with his duties. *CLANG* "Bring out yur dead!"

"Here's one." A man called out, whom Clave recognized as Marcus, as he carried a corpse over his shoulder.

"That'll be threepence." Clave said as he held out his hand for the money since the cart-men could at least get paid for helping out on this debacle. Marcus was about to hand it over when a voice was called out.

"I'm not dead!"

The mortician raised a brow on hearing this from... the dead? "What?"

Marcus shook his head. "Nothing. Here's yur threepence."

"I'm not dead!"

"Oi! He says he's not dead!"

"Yes, he is."

"I'm not!" Said the 'dead-man'.

"He isn't."

"Well, he will be soon." Marcus said as he tried to fix his claim. "He's very ill."

"I'm getting better!"

The man turned his head back and spoke to the 'dead-man'. "No, yu're not. Yu'll be stone dead in a moment."

Clave sighed in frustration when seeing this happen. "I can't take 'im like that. It's against regulations."

"I don't want to go in the cart!"

"Oh, don't be such a baby."

"I can't take him…"

"I feel fine!"

At this point, Marcus adopted a pleading look on his features. "Oh, do us a favor…"

"I can't."

The impoverished man scratched his head with his free hand at this. "Well... can't ye hang around a couple of minutes? He won't be long."

The mortician shook his head. "Naaah, I got to go on to Robinson's. They've lost nine today."

Marcus sucked in his teeth when hearing this as they were a nice family, but now they've dwindled to a handful in their house. "Well… when is your next round?" 

"Thursday."

At this point, the 'dead-man' was shaking a little while trying to flee a little. "I think I'll go for a walk."

"Oh, yu're not fooling anyone y'know." Getting his attention back at the mortician, he pleaded once more. "Look, isn't there something you can do?"

"I feel happy~ I feel happy~"

This conversation was becoming a bit too long for Clave's taste as he decided to go against his better judgment on this one. Bringing up his hammer, he brought it down to bash the 'dead-man's' head in to actually make him dead. 

"Ah, thanks very much." Marcus said in a pleasant tone.

"Not at all." Holding out his hand, the mortician spoke. "That'll be sixpence."

"...But I thought it was three."

"It was, but you made me kill a man."

The peasant groaned before fishing out the extra coin when a voice spoke up. "Excuse me."

The mortician and peasant turned to the source and saw some bloke that wore what appeared to be exotic black/white armor as it clung onto him nicely like a second skin with a glassy helmet. Next to him was some child… or a dwarf... that wore a dark cloak to cover their features.

"Yes… What is it?"

"Do you know… er." The helmeted man said before coughing a little to clear his throat. "Sorry, I mean, knowest thou where I might find a man called Jason Blood?"

The two men looked at each other in confusion when hearing that name when the mortician spoke up. "Ye seekest out the strange one?"

"Yes." Spoke the armored being. "My companion and I have business with him and need his help on some matter."

Marcus gave the pair an odd look before speaking. "I don't know why any traveller would stop in this accursed place. Hells, I plan on moving soon."

"Are ye know?" Clave asked.

"Yup. Got a bit of contract with a trading company and they asked me to join them."

"Well that's good, I suppose."

"Excuse me." The armored man interrupted. "Jason Blood's wearabouts?"

"Oh, yeah right." Pointing down the street, the mortician gave the directions. "He dwells over yonder, in the final house upon the left once you turn right at this street's end."

The glass domed man nodded his head before he and his small companion moved forward.

As the pair was earshot, Marcus spoke up. "Who were them fellows?"

Clave merely shrugged. "Must be some king, I warrant. Or at least a noble or some lordly knight." 

"Why's that?"

"He hasn't got shit all over his armor and the child or dwarf is just the same."

With the time traveling pair, they were walking through the filthy streets towards their destination.

"...Still thanks for the cloak, Naruto." Said the ashen child as her hands clenched onto the clothed sides to keep it closed to hide her appearance.

"No problem."

When they got close to the town, Naruto had to make something for his ward to use to not only hide the 20th century clothing she currently wore, but also her unnatural skin and hair color. Now he wasn't all that good in coming up with clothing ideas, unlike his current attire since it literally came to him. So the Uzumaki used his powers to form a simple, dark hooded cloak to hide Rachel's appearance.

"The mortician said Jason Blood is at the last house on the left." Rachel said as they turned right as instructed before her eyes kept wandering all over the street. "Not a very welcoming place, isn't it?"

"Yeah…" Taking a look of their surroundings, Naruto remembered a bit of his childhood of him being in a similar situation. When drawing nearer to the man's house, he saw that it seemed out of the norm from the others with how presentable it was. "Although, I think Jason Blood fares somewhat better than most of his neighbors."

Seeing what her guardian was referring to, she nodded. "Seems that way."

"Though what I somewhat don't get is the name, Jason Blood."

"What about it?"

"It sounds really familiar, but I can't quite place it."

"Well… from our time, he's a renowned occultist and demonologist."

"...And how would you know this?"

Rachel rolled her eyes underneath her hood. "I read, for starters. And he's supposedly well known for his knowledge in the fields. Like I read this one article earlier this year that he helped the GCPD on a Tarot Card murder case."

"Huh… And how come I don't know of him then?"

"Either ignorant or focused on other things, like most people."

"...Good point." Coming right to the front door of the Blood residence, the masked Uzumaki was about to knock when he stopped for a brief moment. "Etrigan said that we would need to find Jason Blood in this time era, right? Possibly this guy could be some ancestor of the Jason Blood from our time."

Rachel shrugged. "Who knows for sure. But real question is, how are we going to introduce ourselves."

Her masked guardian was about to reply when the front door opened up. Looking at the opening, the time traveling pair saw a dark redhead with a white streak through his hair as it was in a bob haircut. The man's attire consisted of a brown leather tunic with a cream colored undershirt and black leather pants to match with the leather boots.

"Ah~ Welcome strangers." The man said with a faint smile on his lips. "I have been expecting you two."

Vanitas and Rachel blinked before speaking in unison. "You were?"

The redhead nodded as he ushered the pair into his home. They soon saw how nicely clean the residence is as they somewhat expected it to be a bit messy, given the time period. But the pair figured the man somewhat had a healthier lifestyle, despite living in the current town.

"How did you know we were coming, Jason Blood? If that's who you are exactly." Spoke the helmeted hero.

Closing the door, the homeowner answered. "Yes, my name is indeed Jason Blood, stranger. I sensed the mystical force which brought you two here. And from there, I figured the source might find me eventually."

"So… Do you know where or when we came from?" Asked the cloaked child.

Jason shook his head in response. "I know not whence thou came from child, but I know thou art harbingers of some great woe. For I fear some evil which I must now address."

Seeing as they need to get to the point, Vanitas spoke. "We need your help, Jason. We were sent to contact you by a… being known as Etrigan."

The redhead shot his head towards the helmeted man before him with slightly widened eyes before shifting into a glare. "What manner of foolish jest is this?"

"It's no jest, Mr. Blood." Rachel spoke, getting the redheaded man's attention. "It's a bit too complicated to explain since we're on a time limit right now. But Etrigan sent the two of us from the future."

Jason raised a brow at the child's claim and sensed no lie coming from her, only something familiar from her presence. Shaking his head a little, the man responded back. "Thou claimest knowledge of Merlin's demon servant… yet I possess no memory of the two of you, at this time."

"So… do you believe us?"

"For now, helmeted stranger." Jason then lead the two time travelers further into his home. "Nevertheless, thou art no evil as I feel thy valor and nobility shineth like a beacon through the darkness inside of thee." Turning towards the cloaked child, he continued. "Though you, child, have the feel of a demon, yet truly innocent of one's actions. Possibly your companion's influence, I wager."

Naruto and Rachel followed the homeowner while the ashen child ended up fiddling with her hands in nervousness of the man possibly knowing _what_ she is. As the group were going down the stairs for several minutes, her guardian spoke. "Then you can help us? I mean, thou canst… Ugh, I really can't speak old speak."

Jason merely smirked as he lead the two through a darkened tunnel with a torch he had on hand. "I understand thy strange speech. But fear not, in fact, it adds some credence to thy story."

The masked Uzumaki felt relieved when hearing this. "Thank you, Jason. Never tried speaking that way before so it was not great for a first time."

"You did do well when we got into town and asked for directions, Naruto."

"Heh, thanks Rachel."

Soon the three made it to their destination once Jason stopped in his tracks. "Now… Naruto? Hmm… Really odd name you have." Shaking his head, the man pointed the torch towards a pool of water that looks truly deep as it churned in a steady, swirling motion. "Look here."

"...And what exactly am I looking at, Jason?"

"This is the swirling waters of the Pool of Knowing." Seeing the black/white themed man's posture, Jason knew the man was at a loss. "These waters flow out of a stream struck from the very living rock by Merlin himself."

"Well ain't that interesting: a pool of unlimited knowledge."

"Not exactly, Naruto."

"Just to clear things up, Jason, I would prefer being called Vanitas… It's just a personal thing with my real name."

"Hmm… Vanity and Emptiness. I can possibly understand the later then with the feel from thee. But to correct thee from earlier, this pool does not hold unlimited knowledge. A little factor Merlin placed when creating this."

"So how does the pool work, Mr. Blood?" Asked the cloaked child.

"To answer your question, Rachel, this pool helps in the magical knowledge of the world." Answered the red haired man, getting a nod in return. "And whatever sorcery thy wish to defeat involves Etrigan, then this place might hold the answer." Ushering the time travelers to come closer to the pool, Jason continued. "Now touch the pool and think of the current problem thou seeketh to solve. The place and perhaps the very nature of the evil will reveal itself from here."

Vanitas and Rachel slowly reached down and focused on why they came to this time period in the first place as the short term memory from earlier surfaced in their minds. Once touching the waters, the swirling started to speed up for several moments before calming down. Before long, an image was shown that was hard for the time travelers to recognize, but the homeowner did.

"...'Tis a small, but highly concentrated, nexus of evil." Jason muttered as his eyes concentrated on every detail. "...'tis shielded, so I might not have noticed it beforehand. But for thy coming, 'tis also two hundred leagues (600 miles) from here. Hells, 'twill take us days to reach it."

The hero narrowed his glance before speaking. "I don't think days will work, Jason. But there's an alternative in getting there quick enough."

"...And what would that be?"

"Well~"

 _ **-In the skies above-**_

"Thou dost continue to astound me, Vanitas!" Jason yelled out as the wind blew across his face. "How dost thou break the mighty bonds of earth and ride the very wind?! Except for the spell which brought you two here, I sense in thee no magic whatsoever!"

For quite some time now, the three were each riding one of Vanitas' wind lances as they were heading towards their destination. Having to make things quicker, the helmeted Uzumaki had to raise them above the clouds and push much of his power into his conjured weapons to get there faster. Though he did have to throw up a barrier around them so the wind wouldn't cause much problems for both Rachel and Jason.

"It's a little difficult to explain, Mr. Blood!" Spoke the ashen child as she pulled back her hood to let her feel some of the breeze across her hair. "You'll just have to continue to trust us on this one!"

"As thou dost wish, Rachel!" Jason said before pulling back the wind lance he was riding. Seeing this action, Vanitas stopped his and his ward's form of transportation in response before seeing the man usher for the helmeted hero to lower the weapons down. "The evil that we seek is close below us!"

Looking at the direction Jason was pointing towards, Vanitas activated his zooming ability and saw the location. "All I see is a run-down hovel with an elderly man with a girl, his grandchild i believe, just entering their home."

The red haired man shook his head before moving his legs from the previous position. "Thine eyes are keen, friend. But they are merely mortal eyes. For I sees more."

"What do you mean?" Asked the hero.

"What he means is that an illusion is being placed or something else to cover our target's appearance." Answered his ward, getting a nod from the redhead.

"Right you are, child." Was all the man said before the guardian/ward pair saw their companion fall off of the weapon of the wind.

"JASON!" Cried out the time travelers before Vanitas aimed their transports down below and went right after him.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?!"

Barely hearing Vanitas' call, Jason smirked and spoke loud enough for him to hear. "Worry not, for this is the only way to surprise our target!" Turning his head back towards the hovel, he yelled out a chant. "Change, change the form of man! Free the prince, forever damned!" A yellow glow soon emanated from Jason's body as he continued. "Free the might from fleshy mire! Boil the blood in heart of fire!" A fire started to spread around him the red haired man as a wicked glee was plastered across his face while coming closer and closer to the hoveled rooftop. "Gone, gone the form of man! **Rise the demon, Etrigan!"**

Crashing right through the fragil ceiling, Etrigan surprised the elderly man and his granddaughter from what they were currently doing. For the elderly man was currently working on a silver decoration while his progeny was looking at it with glee. But this ended with the abrupt arrival from a demon from the fiery pits of Hell.

"You?!" The grandchild cried out with widened eyes. "But how?!"

The demon merely smirked as he grasped his target's neck before feeling something strike his side. Looking at the source, he saw the old man swing a log at the yellow-skinned demon in hopes of making the creature let go of his family. All this did, however, was piss him off as he smacked the elderly man across the room.

" **I will never tell thee."** Growled out the demon. **"For I, Etrigan, shall bring down this house to build a tomb for you, witch!"**

When the time traveling pair arrived at the scene, they were surprised to see Etrigan there and things started to fit inside of their respective minds.

"Jason Blood is the demon, Etrigan?" Vanitas spoke out in surprise before calling out to the demon on what he was doing. "Stop, Etrigan! She's only a child!"

"That's not a child, Vanitas." Rachel spoke out in a grave tone as she got off of the wind lance.

" **The demon spawn is correct for the witch wears such a shape!"** Spoke the yellow-skinned demon as he tossed the 'child' across the room, resulting in the 'girl' to break through the hoveled wall and into the field outside. **"But underneath, like a viper hiding in a string of pretty roses!"** Soon fire erupted in Etrigan's hands and shot them forward to the 'child' as it consumed her form. **"For she's the most vile of all evils: Morgaine Le Fay!"**

As the flames died down, Vanitas and Rachel saw the 'granddaughter' shift form and age rapidly into that of a mature woman. Her short hair darkened and grew into a river down her back with a faint grey streak running through it. Her entire body matured greatly into one women would kill for and men would lust for. Her eyes changed into sinister green as her peasant clothes went into an attire fit for royalty.

"Thou dost astound me, demon!" Growled out the half-sister of Arthur Pendragon. "I thought this place well hidden even from the eyes of such as thee!"

Regaining a bit of his senses, the elderly man saw this happen before him and gasped in shock. "M-My granddaughter! What has happened to her?!" He tried to stand up but fell down in the process. "When the plague took her, I thought my heart would break. But the Lord heard my prayers and brought her back to me!"

" **Thou hast been cruelly used, old father."** Growled out the demon. **"Like many a devil, Morgaine Le Fay can quote the words of scripture to her own ends."**

The sorceress merely smirked. "Aye, Etrigan. This old fool's faith in the Usurper God was useful to me. Now..." Her hands suddenly glowed before quickly rising them as stone pillars rose from the ground and entrapped Vanitas, Etrigan and Rachel in a stone cage of her design. "Neither thee nor thy strangely garbed companions shall disrupt my plans!"

Etrigan grasped the pillars in hopes of breaking them before he suddenly let go as his hands started to steam. **"A stone cage, reforged as iron! Not even my demon's strength can break through something wrought by Morgaine's magics!"**

"No, Etrigan." Morgaine said with a sneer. "Thou may have foiled me in the past, but this time the prize is mine!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Asked the helmeted Uzumaki.

The sorceress turned her eyes at the male stranger in her cage before answering. "With the puny skills of this old mortal, I weaved my master spell. A spell to lie sleeping till the world has grown beyond this filth and crawling slime."

'She must be talking about the modern day.' Thought the cloaked child as she looked straight at one of the most well known women in legends past. 'Our modern day to be exact.'

"I know this age will fail like all the others!" Morgaine continued as she dusted the dirt off of her clothes. "But in the forthcoming time, I will prosper with the Citadel that I, Morgaine Le Fay, the true and real heir of the Fey's themselves, created with the lives of others! Then shall my gleaming city appear! The perfect capital of my future kingdom for Mordred to rule in my stead!"

Morgaine soon turned her attention towards the elderly man and glared. "Now, old man, back to work! Thy part in this is nearly done! A moment more and the precious spell shall be unbreakable!"

Said man growled and glared at the sorceress with the utmost hate. "You witch! Foul Enchantress!" He then ran towards the woman and tried to hit her, but was stopped when a magical force binded his limbs. "Thou hast deceived me! Thou hast blasphemed against my God! I'll work for thee no more!"

Morgaine didn't like hearing this from the elderly man before shocking his body in response. "The word of Morgaine Le Fay is power absolute! Thou has not wit nor way to challenge me! And thou hast no other will, no thought or wish save for mine!"

As the elderly man screamed in agony, Vanitas spoke to the demon beside him. "Etrigan, if she's so damn powerful, why does she need this poor old man in the first place."

The yellow-skinned demon glared over at the witch several feet away from him as he answered. **"The spell she seeks to work is complex and unrepeatable, Vanitas. Even one so skilled in the annal of the black arts, she must use a human hand to craft the physical aspect."**

"Something that'll assure her work will be complete and operational centuries later." Rachel said, getting her guardian's attention. "Magic that powerful needs a stable, non-magical conduit to be sure it'll properly work. But if it's not properly made, then the spell will either be deluded over the years to be less effective or not work at all."

" **The demon spawn is right."** Responded the demon. **"While Le Fay is left to concentrate her unmatched power into the shaping of the mystical object, a moment's loss of that concentration and her great scheme will fail."**

"Okay, will you stop calling her demon spawn, Etrigan. I'm not really liking in hearing it." Spoke the masked Uzumaki before turning his eyes at the silver object on the table in the hoveled home. "So if we either disturb the spell or destroy the object now, then she wouldn't be able to recreate it? Even in the future?"

" **Indeed. But thy whirling words mean naught to me as the strength and power behind this cage is more than I can overcome."**

Underneath his helm, Vanitas formed a smirk as he grasped Etrigan's and Rachel's shoulders. "Then if we can't break it, then we can go right through it."

Before the former rhyming demon could respond to this, he felt pulled by the helmeted time traveler before being phased right through the cage. **"How?"**

"Oh, I have my ways." Said the hero once letting go of them. From there, he turned back to the demon. "So how can we disrupt the object?"

" **It must be done physically, but doing so now could cost thy life."**

"Well I've practically died countless times, so it won't be all that bad." Vanitas soon created a clone and had it reach towards the hoveled home to destroy the object. "Now let's distract the witch long enough for my clone to destroy the magical object." Without saying another word, the hero dashed forward and quickly formed a rasengan on hand and slammed it against Morgaine's back.

As the power clashed against her defenseless back, the sorceress was sent flying several feet away and fell onto the ground. In the process, she had canceled her magical hold on the old man as he fell down and fled in terror in hopes of finding help. While on the ground, she turned back at the person responsible, only to gain a shocked expression on who'd done it.

"How hast thou escaped?!" She yelled out as she started to get up from the ground. "No force in all the world could break the stone I made!"

"Sure, you used magic to reshape and empower the cage." Soon the helmeted time traveler formed his ice shield and aimed it at the sorceress as she channeled magic in her hands. "But all I did was walk right out in my own methods."

Before Morgaine could fire her attack, the demon ran forward and called out his spell. **"DEMON FLAME!"** Morgaine acted quickly used her magic to throw up a magical shield to block the incoming flames.

"Whoa that's hot!" Exclaimed the helmeted hero before watching the demon growl at his attack being blocked. "My turn!" Vanities started before lifting his shield to cover his face and sighed. "Hope this works…" He soon dashed forward towards the sorceress as the woman chuckled.

"Seems you're just a slow as the demon!" Quickly chanting a spell, a magical circle appeared and shot out a series of purple lighting bolts which quickly slammed into the shield… but not before turning into ice then shattered in a moment instance! "Wha-?!"

"Here's something that every D&D player knows: SHIELD BASH!" The hero roared before slamming his metal ice-theme shield into the forehead of his enemy.

"GAH!" Cried out the witch as she took a step back. "Take this boy!"

"I'm fucking in my-" Vanitas however he stopped when he noticed coming at his-

WHAM~!

"I… thought mages were… lacking in the fighting department… I would like to solve the puzzle Tom…" He said, slightly daze from the heavy hit before shaking his head. "Not cool!"

Glaring at Etrigan, who was rushing towards her position, she narrowed her glance. "As I would stoop so low as to fight you, demon." Raising her hands in the air, three circles of magic formed on the ground before her. "How about you fight others of your kind."

Soon enough, the magic circles broke in a fiery blaze as giant figures appeared as molten lava covered their forms. As they rolled off, their appearances revealed horned demons that were roughly ten or so feet tall with bladed weapons on hand.

"And like a D&D boss, she spams out the cannon fodder!" Naruto smiled before taking out his shield and threw it at them.

" **I have no clue what you mean, Vanitas."** Etrigan said as he rushed forward. A pillar of flame soon erupted in his hand before a jagged, curved broadsword came into his grasp. **"From Hell, for we may be, does not make us family!"**

"Yay we're bonding!" The hero joked before dodging another lightning bolt, "Etrigan? Quick question, is she on menopause or something since she's really angry at me!"

"What's this menopause you speak, boy?!" Morgaine growled out as she casted more lightning at the helmeted stranger.

"Basically you can't make babies." Vanitas said before noticing the comical flames around the woman… actually they might be real.

"Shut your insolent tongue!" The woman fumed before threw fire balls at the man who dodged by diving to the ground. "I am still youthful!"

"Ha! Those who say they are, really aren't. I mean, you were born like six hundred or so years ago! Face it lady, the world belongs to the young- EEPP!" The masked Uzumaki paled underneath his glass-domed helmet as a lightning bolt almost hit _them_. "...I think I went too far in pissing her off…"

"My… I haven't felt this much of an urge to harm a man in many a moon…" Morgaine said with a sickly sweet smile on her face. "You remind me of my old teacher… always pushing the jest too far!"

"...Mercy?" Vanitas lifted his arms before black chains grab his wrists and ankles. "WHOA!" He screamed before the chains whipped him to the ground several times. "AH! NONONONO!"

The nausea he was experiencing was breaking some of his concentration as his helmet cracked several times due to being slammed into the ground. Though after the more severe ones, the glass-dome broke apart to reveal his features to the world.

"GAH!" The hero coughed up blood that came from attack. "Okay, no more BS-ing this."

Closing his eyes and send power all over his body, lightning dance around his body before his daggers appeared into his hands. Going for the right moment, he stabbed the bladed weapons into the chains and broke them as he was flung into the air one last time without being restrained.

"Possibly good against magic users, but let's see if you can handle some lightning fast action?"

The hero quickly vanished before her eyes, causing Morgaine to look around for him. At the last moment, she turned to her right to create another magical shield to block a stab. "Nice try boy!"

"Heh…" He smirked before vanish again. "Behind ya."

"As if I will fall for-" The woman didn't finish her sentence as she was stab in the back by three lightning charge knives. She fell on her knees while reaching back and pulled out the blades before glaring at the man who walked in front of her.

"Is that it?" Taunted the helmeted hero. "If so, then it's off to the magical old folks home for you. And on Thursday nights, they serve tapioca pudding."

"You're just like him…" Morgaine started before her opponent tilted his head with a smirk, "and like that idiot, you're too stupid to believe I am beaten!"

Grabbing his ankle the woman transfer some magic into her opponent before he kicked her away. 'There…'

" **Man of Void, lend me your hand!"** Etrigan demanded as he was slowly being overpowered by the demons.

"I'm coming!" Taking out his Void Shots, Vanitas fired several tether shots to nail her to the ground. "Now stay!" Turning around, he ran towards the demon as he switched his arrowguns with Lunar Rose, leaving white rose petals to fall from his previous location.

"Tch, like Merlin he adores flowers with each step." Le Fay mumbled before discreetly using the rock behind her to pull on the teather. She might be a mage, but she's still a crafty woman.

Reaching the battle, Vanitas cut off his speed a yard away as he turn his body creating a violent yet graceful dance of his scythe to cut-

*DING*

"The hell!?" The masked hero cried when his sharp blade didn't cut the beast. He channeled a lot of power in the blow, but his attack seemed to have bounced off of it's hardened skin.

" **They be of stone from Hell, boy! You must use all of your strength and hate to break it!"** Etrigan roared before tossing one of demons to the side… where Rachel was near.

"Hey, watch where you're throwing them!" Vanitas roared as the demon that Etrigan threw stood up… but instead of resuming their fight, it turned and notice Rachel as the others did as well. "Oi, you leave her alone!"

" **They seek to mate with the demon spawn. Young she may be, power as well, but she might be of age to start having spawn of her own."** Etrigan stated as Vanitas eyes saw red before taking out Void Shot once more.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!" He screamed out as the demons look back to see three 'bullets' stabbing into their faces, but one felt a kick that could shattered a mountain from the hero.

Etrigan thankfully headbutted one causing it fall as he ripped its arm and brutally beat it down with it.

However one remained…

"Rachel, move now!" The guardian of the young ward ordered as he started to choke the demon with his grappling scarf, desperately looking for a better way to snap its neck.

The ashen female however glared at the creature. She was waiting at the sidelines as she briefly monitored her guardian's clone in its desperation to destroy the magical artifact from time to time. Though when hearing Etrigan speak out on the demons coming after her, she realized she she'll need to possibly stop them.

Taking a single deep breathe and slightly moving hands in a similar fashion to Morgaine, Rachel's eyes turn back as the darkest night. "Azarath... Metrion... Zinthos!"

Both Etrigan and Vanitas, who finally snapped the demon's neck, watched as the girl thrust out her hands to create a ray of black energy at the demon's head wiping it off clean like it was erased from existence.

"...Damn." Was all her guardian muttered out on the display of brief brutality. "You must've been really pissed, Rachel."

"You can say that."

Back in the hovel, Vanitas' clone was toiling away in bypassing the magical barrier surrounding the enchanted artifact. When saying bypassing, not like doing some sort of magical hacking… it's more like grinding through the barrier with his void rasengan.

"And… I GOT IT!" Cried out the clone as his rasengan finally tore right through the last of the magical barriers the artifact was emitting.

Hearing this proclamation, once freed from Vanitas' tethering spell of some kind, Morgaine quickly turned her head towards the source. Her eyes widened on what the constructed copy as about to do. Needing to get there quickly, she used her powers to teleport to the hovel with the mark placed on Vanitas to stop the clone's actions.

"Here goes nothing!" Said the clone as he slammed his attack onto the object.

"NO!" Morgaine cried out as she reached out to hopefully take back her prize. But it was too late as the clone's attack broke through the material and destroyed it instantly...

*KABOOM*

Resulting in a massive explosion that sent not only her, but her opponents onto the ground several feet away as the clone disbursed into smoke.

Rising from her position on the ground, Morgaine hotly glared as her magics flared around her. "You shall die for what you have done!" She said as she sent several magical blasts at them, to which Vanitas blocked away with his ice shield. "You shall never see another day!"

"As if." Said the Uzumaki as he switched from his shield to his arrow guns. "Try it and-"

"N-Naruto?"

Hazel eyes widened underneath as he quickly turned towards his ward and saw Morgaine holding a dagger to his ward's throat. "Give me a good reason why I shouldn't shoot your goddamn face?" Vanitas demanded, raising his gun to the witch's face, who was thankfully within the tips range.

"I will kill her." She said as she moved her dagger slightly to draw a bit of blood in the process.

"I can shoot you before that happens."

"Then why haven't you?" The woman smirked as his hand slightly faltered. "She is something valuable to you, no? A lover?" She shook her head with a slight frown. "No, too young. Far too young... A student? But if she was, you should've allowed her to fight." Seeing the look in his eyes and quite briefly on the cloaked child, she came to a realization. "I see… kinship what you two are: a father and a daughter?"

Rachel tried to move but a quick chiding shush from the woman made her close her eyes, "Naruto just shoot, I'm not worth it-"

"Let her go please…" Rachel widened her eyes as she saw his fear filled gaze. "Don't harm her…"

"I see…" Morgaine giggled before whispering to the ashen girl's ear. "Is that sweet, you toss this bond away, but he still loves you?"

"I'm asking you… let her go…" The Uzumaki said getting on his knees and bowing. "Please… haven't you felt the same feeling for you own family?"

"..." Morgaine was silent before letting go of Rachel, "Go back to your guardian child."

" **Be careful… the witch might have planted a trick!"** Etrigan warned as the woman shook her head.

"Perhaps you have forgotten demon. I am too a mother, my dear dear Mordread…" She said fondly, almost saddened by the thought. Though this quickly died as she glared at the silver haired man before her. "But don't think this will be the last we'll see each other. I promise you this boy and…" Morgaine smiled as her eyes turn to Rachel, "little girl… that next time you see me. I shall have the True King of Camelot with me."

"What?" Vanitas asked as Morgaine used her magics to quickly conjure a portal and entered before it closed back up to leave the three alone at the destroyed hovel.

Etrigan soon growled out as he quickly glared at at the unmasked hero. **"The witch has fled because of you! It would've been better to kill her when you had the chance!"**

The whiskered man sent a returning glare as he spoke. "Like hell I would've." Before anything else could be said, the time travelers started to glow in a growing, blinding light. "What the hell is this?!"

" **Seems the spell casted upon you two has finally come to an end."** Said the demon as he started to walk away towards the stand where a horse was currently kept. **"For now, you two will return whence you came."**

Before long, the guardian/ward pair was consumed by purple light and quickly disappeared with scorch marks on the ground.

" **Wonder when I'll see them next."** Etrigan muttered as he got closer to the resting horse to get back to his home. **"Or** _ **if**_ **I see them if I kill the witch in the future before then."**

 _ **-Present Day-**_

"...Are you sure we got everything Rachel?"

"I'm sure." Answered the ashen ward as she looked at the bags in her hand. "I got the books that both Harley and Pam were eying on, from what you told me, in this one bag. And the other has a bunch of gift cards you bought for a lot of places they apparently like going to."

"Great." He said as he took the book bags from her since she was now struggling a little on the weight. "I think we might be done for getting their birthday... presents..."

Soon the guardian/ward pair stopped moving and blinked several times as several memories started to come to them. It was a rather odd sensation for each of them as Naruto was used to his clone's memories while it seemed new to Rachel. Both saw events that seemed to have occured and started to remember(?) how it happened.

"...Did that really just happen?"

"I… think so, Rachel." Turning to the child next to him, he continued. "Do you remember us talking about love and meeting a demon named Etrigan before fighting Morgaine Le Fay in the past?"

"Yeah, but... how?"

Naruto scratched his head as he tried to explain his thought. "I... remember Etrigan said that we would've been sent back within the hour once the one spell was casted."

"But the memories?"

"Us actually coming back to the present before any of this mess… happened…"

Rachel wondered why her guardian started to trail off before seeing his line of sight. It was the same shop the two were originally going towards before the whole incident started. Being curious, the two made their way towards the shop in question with their bags on hand to be sure everything was alright in the world.

Inside of said shop, the owner was greeting the newly arrived customers with a widening grin. "Oh, Miss Mark! So good to see you! It has been a while!"

"Glenda waved a little at the owner with a small smile as she spoke. "Yes, it has."

"Are you here to purchase another item for your home, my dear?"

"Maybe, but not because I planned on doing so today."

"Oh? And why would that be?"

The woman turned towards the dark redhead with the white streak while still addressing the curio shop owner. "Mr. Janke, I'd like you to meet a good friend of mine, Jason Blood."

The man seemed familiar to the shop owner before things started to click when gazing at the strange redhead. "You mean the world-famous occultist?" Seeing Jason nod with a small grin, Mr. Janke grew a larger one and quickly grasped the redhead's hand and shook it with glee. "You honor me and my little shop by stopping by, good sir."

Returning the handshake, Jason spoke. "Why thank you, sir. Glenda has spoken highly of your establishment." Turning towards the two other men in the group, who were now looking through most of the merchandise, he continued. "My friends and I were eager to see your collection of antiquities."

Over with said friends, the turban wearing man looked at his smoking friend as the man heavily gazed at a statue of a long horned satir. "You seem to have found a friend, Harry."

Looking back at his friend beside him, Harry shook his head while chewing on the last of his cigar before tossing it in the nearby trash can. "I dunno, Randu. Kinda reminds me of my last blind date. Maybe you should get this for your wife, Gomali."

"Unlikely. She'd want to either sell it back or burn it if I know her well enough for our time together."

"Eh~ Her loss." Joked the advertiser.

Back with the others, Mr. Janke was showing Jason some of his merchandise. The occultist nodded as his eyes scanned through the wares and liked what he was seeing. "...You'll not find a more extensive collection in this city, Mr. Blood."

"I might take your word for it, sir."

Glenda's blue eyes scanned each of the items before they soon landed on a metallic silver decoration. Picking it up, her eyes took in all of the details as she saw the many towers and bridges in the design. "Oh, this is beautiful! What is it, Mr. Janke?"

Looking back at his previous customer, the store owner fixed his glasses to see what she was referring to. "Oh, er… You best be careful with that, Miss Mark. I just acquired it and I'm not really sure…"

Glenda merely waved him off before noticing something off in its side. "Would you look at that. There's some kind of catch on the side. I do believe it opens whatever this is." Sliding the little switch over, the blonde heard the faint click and opened up the lid slightly… only to find it to be empty. "Huh and here I thought there would've been something inside of it."

"Don't worry about it, Glenda." Jason said as he went to a nearby antique. "Look here. Isn't this piece just what you're looking for?"

Looking over to her lover, the blonde saw him hold up a little golden tower which made her style. "Oh~ yes! I think that would be perfect in my apartment." Looking over at the shopkeeper, she asked him the obvious question. "How much is it, Mr. Janke?"

"For you, Miss Mark, it's-" He was soon interrupted when the door to the curio shop opened up to reveal a whiskered, silver haired male and a ash-skinned purplette coming through the door with several bags in their hands. "Oh, hello there. Welcome to my shop."

It was the whiskered man who spoke first in a slight hesitant tone. "Uh, hiya."

Out of instinct, Harry would briefly glance at any new arrival in a room before going back to his business. Though this changed when he saw who exactly entered the shop, causing the advertiser to put his full attention towards the man. "Naruto? What are you doing here?"

"Harry, you know this man?" Randu asked, getting a nod from his friend.

"Yeah, he's my boss from work."

Hearing the little conversation, Naruto turned his attention and saw one of his advertising executives before coming up to him. "Oh hey, Harry. Good to see you. What are you doing here?"

The advertiser shrugged his shoulders. "Mostly following around my friends for the day since I had nothing else to do. Possibly might do some window shopping while I'm at it. You?"

"Getting some last minute birthday presents for my girlfriend." Came Naruto's response as he held up some of the bagged gifts.

Harry chuckled a little. "Figured as much." His eyes soon landed on the ashen child as she was looking at several of the shop's merchandise. "And who's she, boss?"

"Oh, her? She's my ward, Rachel."

"Really?" Harry said in small surprise. "So she's the kid you sometimes wouldn't shut up about while at the office."

This perked Rachel's attention as she didn't know of this. She acted like she didn't hear it by checking out some of the nearby books on display. But this didn't mean she wouldn't be hearing the conversation.

"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I, Harry? She's a great kid."

"You would say that, especially since I sometimes hear you say that you were so much like her at her age." The advertiser said offhandedly. "Though with her so hurt when you found her, you seemed rather protective of her. Hell, I might say that you would've seen her as your kid instead of your ward."

"I possibly wouldn't say that, Harry."

"Eh~ Whatever you say, boss… Hey, let me introduce you to a good friend of mine." Harry said as he ushered the company head to Randu to get themselves acquainted.

As this conversation went on, Jason was at the sidelines while his lover was purchasing the antique for her apartment. His eyes glanced at the forms of the store's new arrivals and felt a little pang in his head as memories started to surface from over eight hundred years ago. Once settled, the cursed immortal blinked several times before shaking his head.

'Seems I finally got the chance to see them again after all these years.' Thought the occultist with a small smirk. 'Might as well introduce myself, regardless if they remember me or not. Though I highly doubt it.'

When he was about to talk to walk towards his male friends, who were chatting with Naruto, Jason heard very faint sniffles that would've been hard to miss. But with his enhanced hearing, due to his 'roommates' little trait and years of training, Jason pinpointed where the sound was coming from. His eyes then landed on Rachel, who was at the far off bookshelf to have her back facing everything else.

'Wonder what she's so worked up about.' He thought as he slowly approached her so he wouldn't startle the ashen child. Once at a safe distance, he spoke in a soft voice. "Hello there." Rachel stiffened slightly as she turned her head slightly to see the man behind her with her slightly, tear stained face. "I'm not going to hurt you, child. I just wanna talk, if you wouldn't mind."

Rachel nodded slightly as she was taught some manners by both her birth mother and her current guardian(s). Seeing this, the immortal nodded before speaking. "Well I don't know if you know me, but I'm-"

"Jason Blood." She interrupted as she used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe off her tears. "I know who you are… What I remember of you and your 'roommate'."

"...Did you now." It wasn't really a question, but a statement. "How?"

"Today was the day Naruto and I got sent back to stop the… Citadel's creation, as what Morgaine had put it."

Jason narrowed his eyes at this. "I see. So you know that I'm-"

"Basically immortal with Etrigan sharing a body with you? Yes." She answered in a low tone as she's trying to cover up her saddened features. "Hard to forget when I recognize your magical signature now, especially so close. So I just put two and two together."

Jason soon saw her shuffle back a little in a defensive manner with the little gaze she sent towards him. Remembering what happened back then, he sighed. "Look, I'm sorry if Etrigan and I ended up bringing up part of your heritage back then. But for me, I thought your guardian would've known at the time. As for Etrigan, well~ he tends to be rather rudely blunt."

"I can understand that." She bluntly said.

Jason smiled a little before adopting a concerned look. "Now why were you crying all the way over here?"

Knowing there was no way to evade the question, she looked away from his gaze as it shifted onto her guardian. Seeing her trail of site, his mind worked through what happened in the past and what he heard earlier from his friend's conversation with his employer. Before he came up with an answer.

"I see… You thought that he didn't fully care about you much. Yet he's quite the opposite with him treating you like one of his own."

"...It's just that… I do appreciate what he's done for me since he took me in, but I didn't think…"

The immortal sighed at this. "It's alright to think that way, child, but you're not the only person that ever assumes that notion." Looking away a little, he ushered her to follow him as they browsed through some of the store's merchandise. "For many years, I've seen this happen and met others in a similar position as they were confused on their relationship with the other. Most would take it the wrong way, which happens quite often with how bad the relationship is, while the rest go quite well if they at least open up for each other to move things along.

Hell, I could use myself as an example that I've closed myself for years. Being immortal, at first, truly felt like a curse to me. Still is right now, in fact, as I kept moving from place to place over the years and had to close myself off from practically everybody and never form any good connections and relationships. I wish I did countless times over as they could've helped me feel the humanity I was slowly losing for years. Only certain circumstances forced me to form these relations after so long as I truly gained back what humanity I could gather once more."

"But…"

"Rachel… The point is you should try to at least open up to him more. I feel he is the sort of man that would love you unconventionally, despite on who you are and who your _birth father_ really is." Rachel stopped her movements and looked at the immortal with widened eyes. "Yes, I know who _he_ is as Etrigan back then and now recognizes his very faint stench on you. But I will not discriminate you with who you spawned from. After all 'the sins of the father are not the son's'... well more like daughter's in your case, unless you decide to go into that path."

"But… I…"

The man smiled as he patted her head, "Remember Rachel, if your guardian had to choose his safety over your own, he would choose the later in a heartbeat. Just like what we saw back then all those years ago."

Rachel was quiet as she remember what Naruto did for when she was held hostage. He bowed to a woman that he would normally break apart for her own safety. She look up and gave a small nod.

"Now then, let's head back up front and meet up with Naruto as I'd like to speak with him, if my friends don't talk his ears off." He said as he started to make his way towards the front of the store.

"Wait…" She said, pausing Jason in his walk. "I need to know… what did Morgaine meant by 'the true king of Camelot'?"

Turning around, Jason sighed a little before answering. "Miss Rachel, that has nothing to do with you. I pray, the witch is rather in something in your guardian's words 'loopy'." This made her mouth twitch a little into a smile. "For all my years chasing after her, to hopefully end the mistake I've done, I've known her to practically be that word in many of her schemes to be what she thinks should've been her birthright."

Rachel frowned at Jason's words, but nonetheless respected his choice not to tell her. "Thank Jason."

He smiled as the pair made their way up front to eventually chat with the others as things were seemingly better than before. Though topics would be brought up without unknowing ears listening in as the immortal would like to discuss a proposition with the publisher. One that could help things further down the line.

 _ **-Unknown Place, Unknown Time-**_

In a darkened corridor, a torch brightened up the passageway for its holder to safely traverse on through. Passing by a mirror, the light briefly shined off it's glossy surface to reveal more details on the sole occupant in the area. One of feminine features with the sinister green eyes that reflected off of the flame's light.

"After all these years, I finally gained what I needed." The woman muttered to herself as she safely went down the stony steps. She did slip a little, but recomposed herself on not noticing a broken piece of steps. "I should've put more torches in this place to help watch where I'm going. I could've fallen and hurt myself."

In the end… she smiled as she stepped off the stairway and came across a stone wall in front of her. Placing her hand onto its surface, she poured magic into it as the wall slowly parted, revealing a hidden chamber.

Reaching to a silver and crimson decorated coffin, the woman placed her unoccupied hand onto the surface and caressed it gently with a sweet smile. "At long last, you shall return by my side." Lifting her hand lightly, the woman's fingers dance as the coffin floated before slowly setting it down the horizontally as the top slowly slid off to the side.

Gazing inside, the woman smiled as she saw silver and crimson red armor she crafted all those years ago for her child. The thick armor was rather sinister looking as the mass of steel helped conceal the entirety of the wearer from both physical and magical means. The only way of knowing the real appearance is for the wearer to remove it by themselves or already knowing the appearance beforehand.

The sinister, green eyes scanned through the armor, as per old habit, as she took on the details. The horned helm had small eye slits to help hide the wearer's eyes as nothing could be seen into it. The sharp points in the armor; from the grieves, boots, shoulder guards, etc. helped catch any bladed weapons when being striked down upon it before the wearer used the advantage to strike the offender down.

However the one thing that made her upset about her beautiful piece of work was the large hole in it. How this was formed was because the day her half-brother slain his own flesh and blood at the Battle of Camlann. Horrible memories were made for her that day as it still gave her nightmares whenever she slept. She saw what Mordred saw in the last moments, as she was there that fateful day to support the army and hopefully congratulate her child on the victory. When stabbed by that blasted spear, dying on the ground... Mordred reached out towards Arthur, who looked away and abandon her child. All her child ever wanted was to be acknowledged... and that bastard didn't allow it.

The mage regained her smile and composure as she knew it would be a trivial task to undo the event no matter what. All that she could done after the battle was bathing her child in a preservation spell so one day, she would bring Mordred back to life in a better time and to recreate the kingdom that would soon be theirs.

Lifting her hand, silver and crimson armor started to shift like liquid covering the damaged portion in it's center. The sorceress knew she'll need to acquire additional materials to make the necessary repairs when this current process was over. Her thoughts slowly wondered remembering why the armor was made, when her child wanted to be her knight. Why, she almost fainted at the thought, but respected the choice. But her child deserved the best to join the ranks of her half-brother's Round Table. Possibly by then, Mordred would earn the right to become a proper king through the methods of knighthood.

Merlin berated her for days for making a 'vile' magical craft, stating her child should know pain before donning the armor. Ha, the fool did not know to put one's child in the battle as her prodigy would experience such things on the battlefield and given assignments. Mordred was supposed to be like Arthur: untouched and unbeatable.

"Oh Merlin, you once said my own magic would undo me. But look, I live while you and your precious 'King' are long gone." She said darkly, remembering the Mage of Flowers and the Golden King that was Promised… both faint images of their smiles were in her mind. "Why couldn't you allow Mordred to be…?" She shook her head of such thoughts. "No more delays… It's time to bring you back, Mordred."

Reaching into her satchel, Morgaine pulled out and carefully placed three objects on the armored chestplate: the knife with a drop of the ashen child's blood, the shattered remains of the mystical artifact that helmeted stranger destroyed, and lastly a orb with some of the blood from the masked hero along with his odd, peculiar energy she siphon when she grasped his ankle all those years ago.

The first sample she acquired was interesting when feeling the faint radiating power. It felt demonic, in some deluded way, as it had untapped potential for what laid inside. Morgaine knew that if she ever met that child again, she'll have to be cautious just on the safe side.

The broken artifact she co-created, while forgone now of its original purpose, was still useful now. The power was still in there as it would be harnessed, like a battery, for her current objective. Though piecing it back together to fully drain out the magical energies took some time, but it was worth it.

As for the orb, it's contents made her truly intrigued. Going back to that wretched hovel to acquire the blood was quite annoying when properly extracting it from the ground so it wouldn't be deluded. At first, Morgaine was going to dismiss it, but the power she felt from the one named 'Naruto' was astounding. She needed more from it to hopefully empower her child more than just the sample of demon blood from her knife and the repaired artifact.

Now after all this time, she was ready to wake up her beloved child.

Summoning all of her magical energy, her hands glowed as giant red circles appeared all over the room and over the body of her deceased child. She had her hands apart, but brought them slowly together with the circle also becoming small with the motion. "I, Morgaine Le Fey, The Witch of Camelot, offer this three offerings to you Messengers of the Underworld: the artifact with untold power shattered it may be, the blood with demonic origins, and lastly… power and blood none has ever seen before!" The room started to shake as the contract was being forged and binded. "By the order of resurrection! Let my child absorb the powers presented before thee so the one-once departed may live again!" Morgaine chanted as the circles turned darkly purple to seemingly suck out any other form of light. "Raise, raise once again, The Knight of Betrayal and True King of Camelot: Mordred Pendragon!"

Multicolored lightning struck the body from all sides before the circles once more turned miniscule and enter the armored being. It started to shake uncontrollably as the power coursed through the deceased body to make the proper adjustments and enhancements. Before long, the power stopped as the magical circles slowly died down with only a small hum present in the room.

Morgaine stood still and waited for a minute… And the minute turned into several… Fear slowly bubbled in her magical core as nothing happened. She had done this spell several times in the past on others to do what she previously wanted. But this was taking too long.

"No…" She said with dread. "No… Mordred…"

She hung her head in both grief and shame. The ancient witch was at the brink of tears as she slowly made her way out of the room. It was then when she heard it. It was truly faint, but she heard a sound. Her sensitive ears perked at the raspy breathing and realized where it came from.

The woman immediately rush to the body's side, as she continued to hear the faint breathing.

'Did… Did it…'

"M-Mo… Moth… Mother?" A voice called out from the helm as the magics still worked after all this time. The tone was heavy to help show the helmet's function to disguise the wearer. "I… I thought died…? W-Wh… Where am I?"

Morgaine didn't say anything for her eyes were shut with tears of joy and her gasps came out in choke sobs. "No… you live once more, my precious Mordred."

"Fa-Father… what has happen to my father?" The body moved up, but was softly pushed down by the witch.

"He's long gone, my child." She said with a faint smile. "Just rest now and I'll come back with food and drink. You are obviously tired from what injures you acquired."

"Have I… Have I beaten him?"

"Barely." Was the honest answer. "You mortally wounded him in battle after he struck you with Rhongomyniad. Clarent has served you well in the fight, my sweet child."

A small hum came from the armor as the helmet shifted, uncovering the shadowy face of Mordred, as the lights did little to nothing to reveal one's features. This gave the Knight of Betrayal to take the first breath of air since the darkness came…

'Now the Reign and Age of Mordred Pendragon will soon begin.' Morgaine thought with utmost glee.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **So I wasn't able to upload this chapter than I had hoped since things have been preoccupying my time on my end that it was hard to really focus on working on this. Sorry for those hoping this could've been updated on X-Mas Eve or Day, but it apparently wasn't so as this'll pretty much come before New Years.**

 **Also didn't help when I was watching the entire first season of the Punisher on Netflix to eat up some of my free time. But with some help with Azure King, I was able to go through some of my writing blocks.**

 **With the story now… As you guys could tell, Rachel came out on having magic powers to her guardian. When I was going over my timeline, I had a hard time trying to figure out a good chapter for her to do this and consider having her start becoming Naruto's sidekick/protege while out on the field. Thought this might be the best idea that I could come up with and sorry if it wasn't as good or whatever.**

 **H: "Yeah! I was wondering when she could get more screentime, Jeb!"**

 **...Hello, Harley.**

 **H: "Hiya!"**

 **So… What brings you here?**

 **H: "Oh~ Just stopping by to see how the progress is coming along for not only this chapter, but also the juicy lemon you promised."**

 **Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. If you guys go back to the Tyger Tyger chapter you'll find the lemon I finally added in.**

 **H: "And I gotta say, it's pretty hot~! Like really hot..."**

 **...Please don't get aroused in my room, Harley. As much as I'd like to see it, it feels uncomfortable at the current time.**

 **H: "Eh~ Whatever. Gonna go back and have fun with puddin."**

 **Asides from more Rachel screentime, we get to see some medieval themed stuff from DC comics now. Honestly wanted to change the stuff with Mordred since honestly on the DCAU persona the guy was really annoying. So you can thank Azure King with convincing me to adopt the idea from the Nasuverse/Fate series on using Saber of Red for the story.**

 **So yeah, last chapter written for 2017 as we welcome 2018 which we all hope will be better considering on what shit we went through.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**

 _ **-Omake-**_

Inside of the Batcave, everything seemed to be in a relative peace. The bats were sleeping and the equipment were turned off, for the time being that is. Nothing seemed to be disturbing the quiet lair of Bruce Wayne…

"Will you finally let me take off this blindfold, puddin? I've had it on for like twenty minutes."

"It's been more like five, Harley."

"...Well it felt like it."

...Except for the arrival of Naruto and his blonde girlfriend, Harley via Kazekage spear with phasing through the cave's hangar for the batwing.

"When will you let me take this off?~" She whined as she leaned her head back against his chest. "It itches~"

"Just a little more~" He said as he lowered the wind lance onto the floor with their feet touching it. Once done, he disbursed it so they would be off of it. "Okay, Harley… You can take it off."

Harley couldn't have taken it off quick enough. When she did, she expected to be temporarily blinded by bright lights. All that she got was more darkness in her sight before her eyes adjusted. When looking around, the changed psychologist couldn't help but let loose her jaw.

"A-Are we..?" Harley asked in complete awe.

Naruto was practically grinning from ear to ear as he hugged his girlfriend from behind. "Yep. Welcome to the Batcave!"

If he would've seen her face, the publisher would've seen her eyes widen and seemingly sparkle to counteract the darkness. "This... Is... AWESOME!" Her yells resulted in the various bats to be rudely yell out and start flying all over their home. "This is literally one of the coolest things I've ever seen!"

"I'm glad you like it Harley since this is part of your birthday present."

"Really?~ Cause I would've thought you wouldn't let me come here beforehand."

"Well I did, but I did consider taking you here if it wasn't for the fact that Bruce learned who I was."

"Aw~ Aren't you sweet." She said as she bounced on her feet before seeing the arsenal display on one of the nearby walls. "Oh, I wanna play with one of Brucey's toys!"

Though he had to ruin some of her fun as he spoke. "That's not why I brought you here for, Harley."

"Why's that?"

"Well~ Just bringing you here wouldn't have been that great of a little present for you." Letting go of her for a brief moment, he took off the backpack he wore and swung it around end up having her catch it. "Open it."

She turned her head around in confusion before shrugging her shoulders. Unzipping the bag, Harley saw a variety of spray cans, bags of glitter and gallons of paint. She rose a brow and blinked several times in what he's implying until little memories rushed into the forefront of her mind when she saw her boyfriend's childhood.

"Puddin…"

"Yeah?"

"Are you implying what I think you're implying?"

Naruto was stretching his fox-like grin as he felt his girlfriend shake with glee in his arms. It was bubbling up and was waiting to pop. All that he needed to do was say the right thing and she'll go nuts.

"Oh yes, Harley, and I would love nothing more to share this great moment with you."

That done it. That surely done it as Harley jumped in glee and yelled out like a loon. "Oh this is going to be so much fun!" She said as she ran to different parts of the cave in a rapid succession to the point Naruto though she was using his cloning technique. "Where should we hit first?! The computer? His arsenal? His costume? His car?" She loudly gasped and turned her head so fast that it might've snapped instantly. "HIS CAR!"

Naruto chuckled as he saw her show up at the batmobile and rummaged through the bag for the right stuff for what she had in mind. "Remember Harley, paint can be your best friend, but also your worst enemy."

"Oh, I know that puddin." Replied the blonde as she pulled out a can of pink paint. "Dealt with that crap when I was a kid and obviously you as well." She then let out a maddening cackle with stars gleaming from her eyes as she pried open the lid. "We should do this more often!"

"Oh~ I know~"

 _ **-Hours Later-**_

Bruce was coming home from a long day in the office and was going to head into the Batcave to start patrolling for the evening. Entering through the grandfather clock entrance to his lair, he soon turned on the lights. Instead of seeing the typical, dreary appearance he was greeted every time he stepped foot here was quickly replaced with bright colors.

"What… the…" Bruce muttered out as he gained a wide-eyed look. "Oh no, not again!"

Quickly rushing down the stairs and rushing to the batcomputer, which was spray painted with different kinds of graffiti, Bruce was checking through the surveillance footage. He did not want to have this crap happen again on who infiltrated his cave and messed things up after the HARDAC incident. It wasn't long before he saw who it was and gained a maddening twitch in his eye.

"...I'm going to kill them."

There he saw Naruto and Harley vandalizing his lair with a variety of paints and glitter that would be a complete nightmare to clean up. They spray painted his armor into sickening colors that made it look like something the Joker would wear. They even painted each of the vehicles and gadgets in a rainbow of colors and dumped god knows how much glitter on them. Not to mention many of the cave's walls and walkways.

"I am really going to kill them."

Bruce then noticed a note by his dashboard and saw it was addressed to him. Seeing the familiar handwriting, he opened it up to see that it was from the whiskered Uzumaki.

Dear Bruce,

Sorry about the mess, but you practically had it coming. Consider this payback on you blackmailing me last year into going into Gordon's Commissioner gala. Though this might give you the chance to keep updating your security system every so often… but not your stupid T-Rex mech since that thing is still stupidly annoying. Afterall, you can't expect that no one would find this place and wreck it up like we did.

Signed Naruto and Harley

PS: We took a lot of photos to commemorate the occasion and expect to see many more later on. You won't know when this'll happen as it'll be the surprise when it does. So prepare yourself and your security or else you'll be doing more cleaning than you'd like.

PPS: The paint is water based, we aren't that cruel… yet.

PPPS: The glitter is just to help bring in the lack of sparkles in your life since you seem so damn dreary and depressing.

Once finishing reading the note, Bruce heard Dick enter the cave via motorcycle entrance before hearing him yell. "What the hell happened here?!"

Turning around, Dick saw his guardian use a meaner version of his signature batglare. "You can thank Naruto and Harley on this."

"...I have a feeling you regret having Naruto over for dinner the other night, huh?"

"Well at least they didn't use oil based paint." Bruce muttered as he walked past his ward to the nearby cleaning supply closet. "That would take hours…" Coming to the closet, he saw Dick shake his head from the corner of his eye. "What?"

"You say that you hate, but I see smile coming~" The Boy wonder chuckled at his mentor who silence his laughter via 'Bat-Glare'. "Okay sheesh! Still, I'm glad that they are preventing you to be too moody… I think. At least you can crack more jokes now on duty."

"...Not happening."


	46. Life's a Croc

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 42: Life's a Croc**

It's been a quiet evening in Gotham as nothing much seemed to be going on in terms of illegal activities. Either crime decided to practically take the night off or it's being a little smarter on how to approach things. Though with how the city is, it's probably the latter.

But it didn't matter on either option as something bad was making its way into the city. It wasn't coming in by land, so any wheeled vehicles were out. It definitely wasn't coming in through the air, so planes are out as well. That only left the sea.

Question is: what exactly is coming in through Gotham Harbor to warrant your attention? It could be one of the several shipping boats entering and docking at the pier. It could be an unsuspecting boat trying to smuggle in illegal products to the Gotham Black Market…

Or it could be the large silhouette that is making its way through the city's water channels from underneath the watery surface.

...Definitely the last one.

This thing was swimming on through as it momentarily broke through the surface to get a bit of fresh air. Not much could be seen with how light wasn't able to reach it, making it's features unnoticeable to any onlooker who so happen to gaze at the waterways below them.

Coming to the end of one of the water channels, the shadowy figure sunk back into the water. For a brief moment, nothing seemed to be amiss as the waters were calm. Though it quickly came to an end as the figure seemingly leaped out of the water and landed on the street above. A few cars started to swerve a little on the sudden arrival, but the figure leaped into the air to avoid getting hit.

It harshly landed on an incoming truck before jumping towards a nearby neon sign, to which the figure kept leaping towards other things in it's way. From a water tank, a billboard to even several rooftops. It's leaping bounds were rather grand as it kept running on through to explore the city, but stopped when hearing sounds of metal blades spinning against metallic bars before they crashed onto the cemented ground.

Turning it's attention to the source, it's eyes landed in an alleyway where a man wearing a ski mask jumped out of a hole in the wall. The man stayed still and held out his hand before motioning that the coast was clear. Wasn't long after when another pair of ski-masked men got out into the alleyway with several duffle bags around their shoulders.

Grabbing one of the bags from his pals, he spoke as he walked towards their getaway vehicle. "All right, we lay low until the heat's off. Then we move the rocks." He turned towards his two companions to see if they got the message, but didn't get a vocal or visual response. "We clear?"

"Crystal." One of them said before turning to his friend. "Freddy, you good?" Freddy didn't respond right away as they looked nervous rather suddenly. "Something wrong?"

"Speaking of heat, Vic."

Vic and the third robber didn't know what their friend was referring to until a large silhouette shined through the alleyway. They turned to the source and saw a hulking figure standing by a nearby rooftop.

"Oh, man. Is that the Bat or Vanitas?" Vic questioned as he pulled out his gun alongside the other two.

"I don't think it's either of them."

"Why'd you think that, Jim?" Freddy asked.

"One, Vanitas seems to be slimmer than the Bat. Two, where the hell are the bat ears in the shadow?"

Freddy and Vic looked at said shadow and saw what Jim was referring to. Whenever the Batman showed up with his menacing shadow, it would always spot the signature 'bat ears'. Though it seems it's absent here.

Before either of them could react, the shadowy figure leaped from his placement from the rooftop and harshly landed on the hood of their getaway vehicle. This practically damaged the car entirely as the thing squashed the engine, wrecked the axles and other major parts with just one move. As the figure stood up from it's haunched position, the three thieves took a good look on who decided to crash their escape.

It was definitely male, indicating from the 7.5 ft height with the matching build and weight. The light from the alley light shined across the man's hunched form to reveal green, reptilian features with his long snout, yellow slitted eyes and it's thick tail swishing from side to side. To finish off his look, he wore what appeared to be an opened, black leather vest with large khaki shorts with the ends mangled up.

The reptilian man merely smirked with a toothy grin before speaking in a Cajun, Southern accent. "Boys, I'm a whole different breed of animal."

"...And one butt-ugly hood ornament." Jim said in response as he moved his duffle bag behind him.

Seeing this happen, the crocodile man chuckled. Looks like y'all had a busy night." Stepping off of the wrecked vehicle, the large man stepped towards them in a slow pace. "That's good. 'Cause you're all working for me now."

This little proclamation got the three thieves to laugh amongst themselves. As it died down, Jim spoke up. "Gentlemen, show the walking freak show who's boss around here."

Dropping their bags, Vic and Freddy were about to go into action when the humanoid crocodile beat them to the punch. He practically leaped towards them and punched Freddy into the far wall at the end of the alleyway. And this was all before Vic was smacked into a nearby dumpster.

Seeing his little work done, the reptilian man stalked forward. "You city boys need to learn yourself some manners."

Jim was backed into a corner when the humanoid crocodile came up to him with his intimidating height. Swallowing a bit of breath in his mouth, the one robber spoke. "Who are you?"

This gave the much larger man a more toothier grin before answering. "Glad you asked. Name's Croc… Killer Croc, but you can call me 'boss'."

 _ **-The Dreaming-**_

The cityscape of the Dream world version of Gotham is as dark and desolate place, just like in the real world… except it seemed more dreary than one would realize. It reeked of the negativity and horrors that many Gothamites try to contain in their waking hours so they could hopefully live out a better day. But most of those suppressed feelings tend to seep out quite often, if not checked.

"...These guys are everywhere." Said the Green champion as vine tendrils pierced through several incoming, enemy Halbirds.

"You don't have to tell me twice, Red!" Cried out the cat-themed woman as her whip cracked against a Nightmare Zolephant's head before kicking away an Escarglow into Harley's mallet. Said Nightmare soon flew into a dark magical blast courtesy of the ashen child.

Reason why Nightmares are running amok and needed to be taken care of.

It was going to be a typical training session for Naruto, his girlfriends and his ward; which the later was finally brought in to join in on the experience after her reveal. Naruto wanted to see how Rachel could fair against a small number of Nightmares, under watchful eyes from the four adults. But it seemed to thrown out of the window with the unexpected horde that showed up later in their current visit in the Dreaming.

Spinning her large mallet around to destroy a few more Nightmares, Harley came to a recovery stop when she spotted something from the sky. "More birds are coming in from 6 o'clock!"

"Your 6 or our's?" Naruto yelled out as he shot down several, stampeding Pegaslicks with his void guns. As the pegasus-themed Nightmares perished, the Uzumaki spun around to search for the incoming targets only to be knocked to the ground with a snarling Keeba Tiger. This caused Naruto to release his hold of his weapons as he was forced to grasp on the massive fangs to keep the sabertooth Nightmare from chomping on his head.

"I'd like to stay alive, you ice aged kitty cat!" Naruto growled out before using a lot of his strength to turn the Nightmare's head around. The force of it caused the fangs to break off before Naruto had to stab them into its head, causing it to go up in dark smoke. "These are a pain to deal with."

As this went on, Harley had quickly scooped up her puddin's guns and fired the laser arrows at the incoming bird themed Nightmares from the sky before the resounding *click* could be heard. The changed psychologist clicked her tongue as she couldn't reload the weapons at all with her boyfriend the only one to do so.

"I could really use some help over here!"

"I'm coming, Selina!" Picking up her mallet from the ground, Harley dashed forward and bashed away several enemy Kyroos in her way. Coming in close to Selina, who was currently fighting against a Kooma Panda, the changed blonde jumped on top of nearby dumpster before leaping above the panda Nightmare. Once close, she slammed her mallet at it's head to smack it away into the nearby river.

"Thanks, Harl."

"No problem." Harley responded with a chipper tone before knocking the thief down to the ground as a Tyranto Rex flew over head and fell into the nearby river. The T-Rex Nightmare bursted out slightly before plant-like tentacles wrapped around it and brought it back down into the water to effectively drown it. "Seriously, Red! You could've warned us!"

"Sorry on that, girls, but it's somewhat hard to keep track with all this going on!" Responded the botanist as she whipped around punched a Ducky Goose Nightmare away that tried to attack her from behind. Shaking off the little pain in her wrist, Pam brought her hands to the ground and focused as a grouping of Cera Terrors came closing in. Roots sprung from the ground, skewering the Ceratop Nightmares with a twisted wave of wood.

As the dinosaur Nightmares went up in darkened smoke, the Green champion looked onward and saw Rachel getting tired from sending out magical blasts left and right as her Me Me Bunny and Majik Lapin Dream Spirits did their best to assist and protect her. Rushing towards her pseudo-ward, Pam quickly slid and shielded her when a few Aura Lions were ready to pounce on them. Just when they were almost close, several wind lances skewered the lot to leave the area vacant of any Nightmares.

"Man, that was a close one." Naruto breathed out as he recalled his lances towards him as they slowly encircled him. Looking towards his ward, he spoke to her. "Are you alright, Rachel?"

"Yeah, I am." She panted out from exhaustion. Seeing their boss feeling this way, the two bunny Dream Spirits came up to Rachel's side and soothed her as best as they can. "Thanks."

"Let me help you out with that." Pam said as she placing her hand onto the ground. Flowers sprung forth and released a plumb of spores around the ashen child as she breathed in the bits of nature. Before long, the magical child felt better as she was revitalized. "Hope that's better."

"It is, Pam." Turning to her guardian, she spoke. "What was up with those Nightmares, Naruto? You said we would've only faced a small number today."

"Yeah, I was wondering the same thing." Said the resident blond as she and the thief came towards the others. "Not that I mind the extra fighting there, but Rachel hasn't had much time fighting as of late."

"Sorry about that girls, but I don't know what's going on." Scratching the top of his head, he continued. "There could've been an influx of negativity happening in Gotham or… or it could be because from where I'm at right now in the real world."

"With you being in Manhattan right now?" Selina guessed as she adopted a thinking pose. "Could be. I mean, we only had focused on things in one location as we're together."

It was then Harley spoke up as she added in her own thoughts. "But with you coming here to meet with us in the Dreaming from one of the most crime ridden and negative cities in the East Coast, why wouldn't additional Nightmares be showing up."

Naruto sighed out as it seems another fact about the Dreaming might've been learned just now. If he connects with others in a vast distance into the Dreaming, there might be a chance that more and stronger Nightmares might rear their ugly heads to cause them problems. Who knows for sure, but he'll need to get in contact with Lord Dream when he gets a chance or at least messaging him for a confirmation.

Getting out of his thoughts, he turned his attention towards his ward as she was petting her two bunny Dream Spirits. "Sorry that our training time had to end this way, Rachel. If I would've known this might've happened, then I wouldn't have brought you in."

Said child shook her head in response. "It's not your fault, Naruto. You wouldn't have even known in the first place."

"I agree. You shouldn't let yourself down on this. It's a simple mistake at best."

"Thanks Selina."

Harley soon grasped her boyfriend's hand and brought it up with her hands interlocking with each other. "So… Are you going to be getting back from your business trip in the Big Apple just in time for our big day tomorrow?"

Naruto gave her a soft smile before giving the same one towards his redhead lover as he grasped hers. "I promise, you two, I wouldn't miss your guy's birthdays at all. I'll try to get back as soon as possible and hopefully make it back tomorrow morning."

"I hope you do keep up with your promise, Naruto." Said the botanist as she started to tighten her hold on his hand, causing him to wince a little on the pain. "I know you do fulfil them, but this is our first birthday we're sharing with you and it would not be pleasant if you miss it."

Naruto shook his head as he felt a similar pain from the hand Harley was holding. Before long, the group started to be surrounded by light to indicate their time in the Dreaming was coming to an end. Harley did try to bring her lips onto his to get in a passionate kiss, but it seemed she lucked out as they quickly departed from the area.

 _ **-Waking World, Harley's Apartment-**_

*BEEP BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP* *SMASH*

"AGH!" Harley groaned out as she opened her eyes from her slumber, which landed on her ruined alarm clock on her nightstand. "...Not another one…" This was practically the sixth or so alarm clock she destroyed all because of her enhanced strength. "I really should've bought them in blunk."

" **You do know there are no such packages, Harley."** Spoke Foxy the Pirate. **"Both grocery stores and electronic stores do not sell them like that."**

"You forgot Costco."

" **...Right… I forgot... They bulk** _ **everything**_ **."**

Harley nodded in her pillow before looking towards her fox plushie. "Why are you in the closet?"

The pale psychologist could practically feel the glare coming from Foxie. **"You threw me in here in your sleep,** _ **again**_ **. You know how much I don't like being in here. It's cramped and there's not much for me to do exactly."**

Harley scratched the back of her head as she let out a nervous chuckle. "Sorry."

" **You said that fifteen times already for this situation."**

"...Oops."

Harley yawned as she got out of bed before doing some of her morning stretches. Once done, she checked her cell phone to see the current time since she destroyed yet another alarm clock. Seeing it was roughly two hours before taking Rachel to school, possibly Artemis as well if Paula is fine with it today.

Heading towards the bathroom, with a change of clothes, her blue eyes briefly landed on the two children sleeping in her living room. Harley did see signs that Rachel was trying to go back to sleep after getting out of the Dreaming. The blonde woman chuckled a little on the habit the ashen child enjoyed having on times, but Harley knew she'll have to wake her up pretty soon.

As Harley got undressed and hopped into the shower, she thought back about the other day when her puddin's ward came out and revealed the little information she had magical powers to her and her two gal pals. It was a bit of a shock when hearing about the odd time-traveling situation in the 12th century that got Rachel to use her powers for the first time since who knows how long. Though the young ward didn't explain her origins yet again, at least opened up a big trait about herself to some people that she trusted very well.

'Though I'm glad she didn't bring this out to Artemis or else things would've been complicated.' Harley thought as the water rushed over her pale skin. 'Kids their age tend to be easy to spill the beans if it's something really awesome and spectacular and brag it onto others.' She chuckled at the thought, but worried a little with the idea of Rachel picked on a bit more than before because her gifts.

Rachel had been picked on several times so far in the past month since her first day of school, all due to her unique appearance. Harley was glad that Artemis helped defend her best friend on those past occasions, but it they were very minor. If the information of Rachel's powers came out, who knows how bad things will escalate.

Speaking of her magic powers, Harley thought about the time she somehow saw Rachel use it one time last month before knowing she had powers to begin with.

 _ **-Flashback Start-**_

 _It was a long day at work and Harley stopped by her puddin's place so see if they could see a movie together on the couch while all cuddled up after having a home cooked dinner. She looked around and saw Naruto must still be in the office or coming back home by now from the stormy weather going on outside. Just when she placed down her things, she heard something coming from upstairs._

" _Agh-hh!"_

' _That sounded like Rachel.' Harley thought with a little bit of worry. 'I hope she's okay… Might've been the thunder and lightning flashing by her window and gave her a spook.'_

 _As she climbed the stairs, the blonde heard something coming from inside of the ward's room. "...But I don't want to scream at them."_

' _Is she talking to Artemis or Perdita over the phone again? And what's this about 'screaming at them'?' Coming to Rachel's bedroom door, she knocked a few times before opening it. "Everything okay in here, Rachel?"_

 _Rachel didn't respond, at first, as her back was facing the psychologist. Though there seemed to be a odd feeling of malice in the air that seemed to creep out the older woman. Especially with the shadows of the room seemingly moving on their own for some reason. Before Harley could comment about it, Rachel quickly turned around and yelled at her. "Get the hell out, Harley!"_

' _WOAH! Where did this come from?!' Harley thought with widened eyes. Shaking her head, the psychologist portion of her being took over. "Do you need to talk to me about something, Rachel? I'm willing to listen."_

 _All of a sudden, the room darkened and the flashes of thunder coming from the window played with her eyesight. For some reason, Harley saw dark tendrils whipping around Rachel's form and her eyes were glowing red._

" _I said:_ _ **GET OUT!"**_ _Was what the ashen child said in the scariest tone imaginable as the room shook._

 _The professional part of the blonde quickly hid inside of her mind in terror alongside all of her other parts of her personality. Harley freaked out and yelped out in odd, comedic terror before closing the door. As the blonde got down the stairs, she heard Rachel crying in her room._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

'...That did explain why Rachel freaked out on me that time.' Harley thought as she shook a little on the memory. 'She was on her first period and her powers did not react well as a result.'

Sometime after Naruto came back home, Harley lunged at him and frantically told him what happened. The pair did comfort the ashen child as Rachel apologize for yelling out at her pseudo-guardian. Thing things got awkward when things were realized on what Rachel was finally going through at her age and even more so when the two adults had to give her the dreaded 'talk'.

Though this didn't explain on what Harley saw that evening, until learning about Rachel's gift as things became somewhat clearer.

Stepping out of the shower and drying off, Harley started to apply her cosmetic covering over her pale skin so she may appear normal to the general populace. It would normally take roughly ten or so minutes to get herself ready, depending on how much exposed skin she needs to apply, but today she plans to just cover up her lower arms and from the neck up as per usual. With how chilly things are lately, she needs to bundle up from the growing cold.

Getting out of the restroom with her current attire; which consisted of flannel lining jeans, a red and black button up shirt with a black long sleeve shirt underneath. She foregone her contacts as she wore her glasses to keep up with her typical appearance, especially since the last time she wore contacts with this much make up made her eyes sting from some powder getting on her optics.

'Should start making breakfast now so the girls could start getting up and get ready for the day.' Harley thought as she started making homemade blueberry waffles with sides of bacon. 'This'll definitely get them rolling out of their impromptu beds.'

It didn't take long when the smell of cooked bacon filled the air of Harley's apartment as Artemis and Rachel started getting off the couches. "Mmm~ What smells so good?" Artemis asked in a drowsy tone.

"It's breakfast." Harley replied from the kitchen. "Now get up and start getting ready for school or else I'm gonna gobble these up."

Artemis went to go use the restroom first, leaving Rachel behind in the living room. "So…"

"So, what Rachel?"

"What are you going to be doing today?"

Harley shrugged as she poured the waffle batter into the waffle iron. "I don't have work today, so I'll probably run some errands after I possibly drop you, Arty and Jade off at school today. And later, I'll pick you guys up with Paula and Laurence out of town for work."

Rachel nodded as she saw Artemis come out of the restroom, showing that it was her turn to use it. When the blonde child sat by the kitchen counter, she spoke. "Morning, Auntie Harley."

"Morning Arty. Had a good sleep?" Artemis nodded as she munched on a piece of bacon. "And do you have your homework ready for today?" Another nod was received. "Good to know, kiddo."

It wasn't long before Rachel came back out and sat alongside her best friend. The two grade schoolers started eating their breakfast as Harley went to her door to pick up her morning newspaper before going back inside. As she ate her morning meal, Harley read the paper and saw an article bringing up that nine robberies took place last night and the robbers were able to get away.

'Seems Brucey can't be everywhere and take care of them as the Big Bad Bat, I suppose.' Mused the psychologist as she ate more of her waffles. 'Hmm… Jewelry stores, explosives, water skis and scuba equipment… pretty spread out by Gotham Bay and the canals.'

"Can I read the funnies, Harley?"

Snapping out of her thoughts for a brief moment, Harley quickly handed the comic strips section of the newspaper and gave them to her surrogate niece before resuming her reading. She figured that there must've been some connection to these heists if they were all done last night in such an area. Maybe she could contact Bruce and see if he knows about these or not.

She did figure that if her puddin was still in town, these robberies might not have happened at all. But he is out of town for an important business meeting in the Big Apple and needs his full attention over there. It would've been better if he could've just sent a clone over there, but he keeps saying he can't always rely on them for everything since he's been used to that for over a decade.

Regardless of the situation, someone should take care of these string of robberies before they continue and Harley might take matters into her own hands.

'I mean, I've been training with puddin and the girls for a long time now in the Dreaming and I could possibly hold out on my own.' Harley thought as she finished up the rest of her meal before washing the collected dishes. 'Maybe I could look more into it since I have the day off.'

As the two grade schoolers were getting ready for the day, Harley went over to her neighbor's apartment and used the spare key Paula gave her. Once inside, she went to check on the older Crock girl to see if she was already up. Just when she was about to knock on Jade's door, it opened up to show the ravenette teen with a slight drowsy look in her eyes as she wore a black t-shirt and pajama bottoms.

"Harley?" Jade asked in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"Just seeing if you were up or not, sleepyhead." Replied the changed psychologist. "Anyways I got a plate of blueberry waffles and bacon in my apartment with your name on it."

The Crock teen blinked a little more when hearing this. "Oh, thanks."

"Well get ready for school and head to my place so I can take you alongside Arty and Rachel."

Jade nodded before making her way to use the restroom and shower to get ready for the day. When the door closed, Harley was about to head out of the Crock residence when she smelled something odd coming from the shared bedroom of the two sisters. Curiosity got the better of her and checked inside to see the slight mess on Jade's half of the room.

'Seriously, she needs to clean up better or at least open a window.' Harley sighed out in thought before picking up some of the thrown clothes off the ground and place them into the laundry hamper. 'I lived with a few brothers and I always tried to clean things up when I was at her age. Hell, even with Ino alive back then, we tried to keep things in a better appearance.'

Just when Harley finished getting the room somewhat cleaned up, the blonde saw something peculiar in between the mattress and bed support of Jade's bed. 'Hello, what's this?' Lifting up the mattress, she saw that it was a copy of Icha Icha Paradise. '...This isn't Paula or Laurence's copy. Looks brand new.' She then saw what appeared to be a bookmark sticking out. Opening to the desired page, Harley saw the bookmark was a picture of Naruto.

'Why does Jade have have a picture of puddin as her bookmark?' Was Harley's thought before things slowly started to come together. The specific book on hand… the odd smell in the room… Naruto's picture…

...

…..

…..

…..

'...OH SHIT!' Harley mentally yelled out as she dropped the book onto the floor. Seeing what she's done, the psychologist scrambled and picked it up before seeing the Naruto bookmark was not there. 'CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! Jade's gonna know I saw this!'

Getting onto her hands and knees, Harley looked underneath the ravenette teen's bed and saw the picture was there. Picking it up, she scrambled onto her feet and quickly turned the pages to find the specific spot where the bookmark was placed. She somehow remembered the section from a brief glance as she read that several times before. But she ended up dropping the book… again(!) upon realization.

'Seriously?!' Harley thought with widened eyes. 'She's into _that_?!'

She soon heard the shower turn off, causing Harley to quickly put the book away in its proper hiding spot and getting out of the bedroom. Just when she got into the hallway, Jade stepped out with a bathrobe to cover her damp body. When she was about to go into her room, she saw her surrogate aunt was still in the family apartment.

"...Why are you still here?"

Harley froze on the spot before turning around with a nervous chuckle. "Sorry, Jade."

"You still didn't answer my question." Said the Crock teen in a tone that was scarily similar to how Paula says it. "Why are you still here?"

"...I was cleaning up your room." Was Harley's answer, which caused Jade to narrow her glance on not liking the response. "What. It was pretty dirty and things somewhat went autopilot. Give me some slack."

"...I can clean up after myself." Jade soon walked into her room and closed the door so she can change before speaking through the door. "Just don't do this again, Harley!"

Harley nodded before making her way out of the Crock residence to get back into her home. There she saw Rachel and Artemis sitting in front of the TV and watching some morning toons before it was time for them to go to school. Wasn't much longer before Jade showed up, ate her breakfast and joined her sister and the ashen child in the psychologist's car to get to their respective destinations.

 _ **-Gotham Botanical Gardens-**_

"...I believe we're close, Pamela." Said the hispanic scientist as she removed herself from the microscope.

Placing her eyes on the microscope, the redhead saw the results and gained a small smile. "I think you are right, Luisa."

"Then this means the next stage could possibly start now."

"I hope your right, but the stage is still different from bigger samples and ratios I desire to use." Moving away from the microscope, Pamela went to the sheet and wrote down the details. "Other than that, everything is still theoretically sound."

"And when will you start up the next phase?"

"Hopefully soon. I just need to get the other samples to initiate the process."

Taking a sip of her drink from her favorite mug, Luisa spoke the next question in mind. "And will you hand me one of the results when they become stable? So I can properly observe it as an outside source?"

"I will, Luisa, since you've been patient with me every step of the way on this joint project of ours."

The botanical garden supervisor smiled a little. "Well it's the least I could do since you've been a big help in many of my transgenic experiments here and unraveling many secrets of the flora."

Pam was going to speak up when someone arrived into the lab with a knock at the entrance. "Hope I'm not interrupting something."

Turning around, the two scientists saw Victor Lee. He's the head administrator here at the labs and right hand man of Dr. Eric Grimley, who is the chair of the research department. Victor is a man in his thirties with slicked light brown hair and blue eyes that typically wore a brown suit. Both of the female scientists tolerated the man with how noisy he tends to be to please Grimley, but he does his job well to keep the labs afloat with how much funding the place gets.

"No, not really Victor." Luisa stood up from her chair before stretching a little with how stiff her back was. "We're just finishing up some research for a project of ours."

"That's good to know." Said the lab administrator. "Though I do hope it would be good to help get things more noteworthy for the gardens."

Pam scoffed a little as she knew Victor meant to say that it would make him and Grimley look better in the scientific community. The two heads were pretty sexist when it comes to female workers. They do tolerate Luisa since she's practically the best scientist here in the gardens and wouldn't want her to leave or else funding for the place would drop. Though Pam could somewhat let things slide towards Grimsley since he's in his late 80's and is very old fashioned to think that women should not be in the scientific world, especially plant sciences.

"Well if you go over to the side of the room, you'll see the rats are showing good signs of improved health, Mr. Lee." Said the Green champion as she showed the Head Administrator some of their test subjects. "All of the past ones we tested died within a few weeks or so, but these little guys are showing improved results as they're surviving more than just a month so far. Theoretically these guys might end up living up to a year, practically double their life spans."

"Hope you're right on this, Dr. Isley, since this'll make a lot of people happy with better lives."

"True, but this is just lifespans. Talking about curing diseases would be a different ballgame with this specific project you're seeing right here."

Victor pursed his lips at this but shook his head in understanding. "So speaking of diseases, any developments with the assignments on those?"

"Indeed we have, Mr. Lee." Dr. Cruz said as she came up to Victor's side. "If you'll follow me, I can show you the results so far."

As the two left Pamela's lab, a familiar voice broke the momentary silence. "Seems I gotcha at the right time, Red."

Turning her attention to the nearby window, Pam saw her former doctor and close friend crouched on the window sill. "What are you doing here, Harl?"

"Oh just stopping by to see if you'd like to have lunch with me." Came the psychologist's response as she shook her lunch bag in front of her.

Looking towards the nearby clock, Pam saw that it was indeed the typical time for her to have her lunch time. "I don't see why not. I need to take a break anyways." Hearing this made Harley smile as she got off the window sill and walked towards her gal pal. "Though I do have to ask, but why did you go through there instead of the typical manner."

Harley giggled as she had her hands behind her head with her lunch bag dangling from behind. "You gotta admit that seeing puddin's memories of Jiraiya doing that was pretty cool."

Pam rolled her eyes in response as she grabbed her things. "Of course you'd think that."

"...I've been meaning to ask you this, but are you some kinda reverse-vegan carnivore? 'Cause you're friends with plants, yet you eat them?"

Blinking at this, Pam answered. "I am friends with the Green as I draw my strength from them as any species should. After all, I need to eat to keep myself active."

"Then you admit you're a carnivore in a vegan sense."

"Aren't we all, Harl?"

"Then what do you eat really?"

The redhead soon smirked. "These days, mostly sunlight."

"...Figures with you being part plant."

As they rounded the corner, they nearly bumped into someone. "Whoa there."

Seeing who almost ran into them, the redhead groaned. "What do you want, Winston?"

Winston is one of the scientists here at the botanical gardens. With his smooth blonde hair and thin beard, he could be charming with the blue eyes of his. Though the smile on his face screamed cocky attitude that would turn many women off.

"Oh, just wanted to see if you'd like to have lunch together."

"Sorry, but I'm having lunch with my friend here."

Turning towards the female blonde, the male scientist smiled a little. "Hello there, gorgeous."

Harley blinked a few times when seeing the man act this way, causing her to know what his intentions are. "Sorry, but I have a boyfriend. But nice try on laying the moves there."

"Sorry then." Was all the man said before he walked past them.

Seeing the man go down the hall, Harley spoke the question on her mind. "What's up with him?"

"Winston? Well… He's typically the 'office pig'." Responded the botanist as the pair went down the hallway.

"Oh~ So he tries to bang anything with a vagina then."

"Exactly. And it gets so damn annoying when he hits on every female worker here. We all tell this to our bosses, but Grimley and Victor keep ignoring this since he's a 'good asset' to the gardens."

"That sucks." Harley said with pity in her voice. "Had to deal with that one time with one of our docs at Arkham and he got suspended for a week because of what he did."

It didn't take long for them to reach the cafeteria where the pair sat at the far off corner to have a nice conversation. As Harley ate her sub sandwich she prepared last night, Pam was eating a seafood salad she purchased from the cafe workers. They were having a pleasant time together before things changed into other subjects.

"...Did you know Jade possibly has a crush on Naruto?"

Pam blinked a few times on the question. "Your surrogate niece and neighbor right? Well I don't really know why you're bringing this up." She said before taking a bite out of her meal. "And why do you assume she has a crush on Naruto anyways?"

"...Let's just say I found some interesting stuff in her shared bedroom that highly suggests that."

"Like what exactly?" Asked the botanist as she took a sip of her drink.

"Oh, I don't know. How about a copy of Icha Icha Paradise in between her mattress and bed support."

"That doesn't really prove that your neighbor really likes Naruto, Harl. I mean, from what I've been told, your surrogate nieces do like him being around them and whatnot. All that book proves is that she's just curious about her body right now and wanting to explore it."

"Then-Then what about the picture she has of him as her bookmarker?" Harley asked in a low, yet harsh, whisper. "Or even the section she has his picture at?"

This got Pam a little concerned now, but not in the way you think. "First off, where she has the picture at isn't really of concern as she could possibly be reading along the book at the time. Hell I pretty much use a bookmark to keep my place of reading when I want to come back to it later. What you would be concerned about is if the series of pages were a little too worn out to show how frequent she reads it."

"But what about-?"

"As for the picture, I can understand Jade _might_ indeed have a crush on Naruto. It's perfectly healthy for her to feel that way at her age. Like, did you have a crush on a teacher or some rockstar when you were at that age and thought he was perfect? Even someone at your age?" Harley couldn't give out a verbal answer, only a subtle nod. "So I think it's fine for Jade to maybe have a crush on Naruto. Might be a simple phase for all we know."

"...You seem rather fine about that, dontcha Red?" Asked the blonde in deadpanned tone with a narrowed glance. "You feeling rather fine that my cute little niece is seemingly corrupted because of puddin, huh?" She then let out some small sobs that would've been believable if Pam didn't know her friend all that well. "Where did I go wrong? Was it just introducing Naruto to Jade just to have him be her sexual awakening? I have a feeling Paula will blame me for that..."

Pam merely sighed as she heard her friend continue to rant, which soon became comical in nature. Going in odd fantasies like Jade getting seduced by Naruto or the other way around, in which causes some big fiasco that would ruin his credibility. Then going as far as Jade getting pregnant and having to rely on him being her sugar daddy among other things.

Getting tired from hearing the odd, random ideas that were seemingly pouring out from the blonde's mouth, the botanist interrupted her friend with the obvious question. "Are you done?"

Harley stopped her rants before shaking her head a little. Knowing that she won't get anywhere else with the subject, despite how ridiculous it is now, the psychologist decided to move on as she spoke in a whimsical tone. "So what do you think we'll get from puddin tomorrow? I hope he gets me something awesome like a bazooka or a tank."

"...I really hope that was just your childish nature speaking or else I'd be really concerned."

The psychologist puffed her cheeks before looking away. "You'd say that since all you might get is something boring. Besides, he has connections with Kurama. Puddin could ask him to get me one of 'em as a birthday or at least a Christmas present."

"Riiiight." Came the drooled out response.

The changed blonde then went into a somber tone. "But seriously, Pam, what do you think we'll get?... Or if he'll actually show up like he promised?"

Seeing this change made the redhead feel very concerned. "Is something wrong, Harl?"

Letting out a small sigh, Harley answered. "You can say that, Red." Putting the last portion of her meal down, she continued. "As far as I can remember, I've always had crummy birthdays. I still have the emotional scars from when I was five with my dad in jail as he promised me he'd be there for my special day."

"...Harley, I'm sorry."

"I mean, sure, my big sister Ino was there to help support me alongside my mom. But things could only go so far from someone you expected to be there to make things better. And when Ino died around my one birthday, I felt I wasn't going to be having any good ones for a while. Even my rotten brothers made my sweet sixteen a total bust with the 'worst sister ever' shirt they got me while eating the entire cake mom got me without me getting a single slice."

"...There must've been at least one good birthday, Harl?"

The blonde faintly smiled. "There were from when I got into college and started dating Guy. Those few birthdays were the greatest as I felt really happy on my special day." Soon her smile died on the coming memories. "But the birthday I had after Guy died made me quite depressed. Luckily for me, Paula did her best to make my birthdays memorable after I became her neighbor as she and her girls celebrate it with me."

Pam leaned back and let out a sigh. "I can understand where you're coming from, Harl. I wasn't able to have any good birthdays as well for a long time after my mother died. Even when my father made my day worse, she'd always be there to cheer me up and make it better. But after she passed away, it was hard for me to get a good time to celebrate it properly. And as years flew by, I just ignored it and thought of it as another regular day with no much importance to celebrate it."

"I somewhat feel ya, Red." Said the psychologist before she smiled a bit better. "But I hope this year could be different for the both of us. I mean we could practically be sisters with us having our birthdays right next to each other. Heh, might as well share the same day."

"Well we could consider ourselves sisters with us sharing the same man, you know." Pamela said as she resumed eating her salad. "But you should realize, Harley, that Naruto has made us feel really happy since he came into our lives. Always being there when we needed him most and he'll always love and care for us no matter what."

"Heh… You're pretty right on that, Red… I just hope tomorrow would be different from all the rest."

"I'm positive it will. Just you wait and be patient." Pam said as the two went back to finish up their meals. "I'm sure that he'll take us out to town and we'll enjoy ourselves. And as for gifts, I'm quite sure he'll spoil us rotten with what he possibly has for us."

"Heh~ You're probably right."

By the time the pair finished their lunches, they were walking through the main corridor. Before either of them went off in their separate ways, Harley spoke. "Hey, Red."

"Yeah."

"Do you have plans for tonight?"

"No, why?"

"Well~ I was wondering if we could have a girls night. Just you, me and Selina."

"But what about Rachel and Artemis? Who's gonna watch them?"

"I'm probably sure Jade could watch over them at puddin's place. I think she wouldn't mind."

"Oh~ So you don't mind having your 'niece' staying over at the home her crush resides for the evening?" The botanist asked in a joking tone, which got a little rise from her friend as many naughty thoughts ran through the blonde's head. Before long, Pam could practically see her reddening face underneath all that makeup with steam coming out of her ears.

"S-SHUT UP, PAMMY!"

 _ **-Evening, Gotham Harbor-**_

The sun had set nearly an hour ago as darkness reigned over the skies above. Setting the usual, dreary tone Gotham was most known for. But over by the harbor, things were seemingly quant as ship bells were run and horns were blowing into the night. The waves rocked back and forth against all of the ships entering and leaving the area.

*Retching* "Oh god, this sucks!"

Though this ended up causing problems for a particular blonde haired woman as she leaned over the rowboat, upchucking her evening meal.

"How is it that despite you getting Red's serum in your body, you are still seasick?"

"I don't know, Kitty, but- *Retching*... it seems that I'll have this no matter what." Harley answered as she coughed out the last of the bile from her mouth.

"I'll try to figure something out to get that taken care of for you, Harl." Pamela said as she saw her blonde friend swish water into her mouth to clean it from the remaining puke.

"Thanks, Red."

Looking from her spot on the rowboat, that was miraculously big enough to fit all three of them, Selina briefly looked away from her binoculars to look at her blonde friend. 'I still can't believe Harley was able to rope us into doing this with her.'

You might be wondering why Naruto's three girlfriends are at this location in the first place. Well… You can thank Harley for that. Especially with their current attires to hide their identities, except for Selena for obvious reasons.

You see, she did get Pam and Selina to do a 'girl's night' and the pair expected to just go to the Stacked Deck and get hammered after going out to a nightclub or something in that nature if they wanted to go wild. Either that or just watch some romantic movies to make them ball into tears as Jade watched Rachel and Artemis in Naruto and Pam's loft.

That wasn't the case, however, as they met up in Selina's place and they saw Harley in an interesting attire they never saw her in before.

It appeared to be a modified variant of a female motorcyclist pants and jacket with it primarily in a red/black color scheme to compliment the diamond designs. The inlining had kevlar weave on both articles of clothing helped protect the wearer from many forms of attack. If looking a bit closer, there would be some additional armor shown but somewhat hidden in the design.

The jacket was short sleeved but arm bracers connected the slightly poofy sleeves to the elbow length leather fingerless gloves to make the jacket appear fully sleeved with several straps to snug the clothing in tight. The Jacket also had small golden spikes around the chest area with the words 'Kiss This' on the back.

The black leather pants was slightly red on the one leg while the opposing leg had a pair of daggers strapped to the thigh with a third dagger strapped below the knee and right above the left boot. The leather boots were one inch thick heeled cowboys with the left being red while the other was black. The red boot had flaps folding into itself while the black had straps going up to the knee. The boots had spikes along the vents and there was a cowboy spinner spike on the black boot.

To finish off Harley's attire, a thick black domino mask covered up a good portion of her face with black and red clothes wrapped around her high pigtails. She wore a white t-shirt with three four sided diamonds on top of each other in a diamond formation with the middle being red and the others black. Harley had a utility belt around her waist that had holsters on each side to carry her handguns that fired non-lethal rounds. And lastly, there was a black choker around her neck hiding a voice modulator installed to disguise her real voice.

(It's Harley's Insurgency outfit from Injustice 1 with some obvious alterations.)

When asked on how Harley acquired the outfit, the pale blonde said she found a package inside of her apartment with both the outfit and equipment inside. A note was addressed to her from Kurama, stating that the contents was his gift to her for not only payment on the psychologist sessions he had with her, but also for her being good support for his former 'landlord'. Harley enjoyed it a lot and couldn't wait to try it out, especially with her 'girls night'.

Speaking of 'girls night', Pam and Selina asked Harley why she was in the attire in the first place. The pale blonde stated she wanted to go investigate the break-ins from last night by checking out the harbor for any suspicious activities. Proposing the idea would be great bonding time for them since they don't do much in the real world as fighting in the Dreaming didn't really count in her opinion.

Both the thief and botanist were going to decline the offer and do something else instead. But they soon stopped their personal discussions when they heard something coming from Harley. Looking towards the pale blonde, their hearts skipped a few beats as their eyes started to water.

At first, it was her dreaded 'puppy dog pout' as it was hard to resist for most. But then it escalated as her pure blue eyes shedded hurtful tears down her face. It as like all of the pain she experienced in life was brought forth at that very moment, causing Pam and Selina to ball their eyes out. They soon caved into the psychologist's demands while hugging their dear friend with all their might for comfort.

'Damn Harley and her 'nuclear option'.' Were the thoughts the Red and Green champions unknowingly shared. 'She better not use that against us ever again or else she'll be in so much trouble.'

"So Kitty, any sign of anything suspicious?"

Pulling back from her binoculars once more, Selina answered. "Nothing so far, Harl."

"Are you sure there might've been some connection to these robberies you checked up on?" Asked the botanist as she was currently in her Poison Ivy attire with her hair tied back into a ponytail. "They could've been just coincidences."

"I did, Red. I really did." Harley replied as she crossed her arms. "At first I thought they were like you said, but I checked each of the robberies. Gave me time to think things through that whoever are doing the heists would be hiding out somewhere here with their nest being in a good range where they could hit their targets rather quickly. So, if possible, we could either see them leaving their nest or returning to it."

"Well… It seems you might get your wish after all, Harl."

"Let me see that!" Shouted the blonde as she nabbed her dark haired friend's binoculars and shoved her out of the way. Ignoring the 'Hey!' aimed towards her, Harley looked through the specs to see the boat Selina was previously looking at. "Oh sweet! We got baddies robbing a shipping boat off the port bow!"

"Do you even know where the port bow is, Harley?" Asked the costumed botanist.

"Oh shut up and help me row, will ya?"

"Don't tell me to shut up."

Over on said boat, it was currently getting robbed by three men wearing black ski masks and clothing to hide their features. One was supervising some of the operations, one was getting the crew into the brig with guns pointed at their backs while the last one was working the crane to move the goods.

"Boss wants this swag loaded, Freddy! Pronto!"

"Yeah, I know Jim! You don't have to tell me twice! The boss'll get his shit like he _politely_ asked!"

Pulling and pushing the levers, Freddy was operating the crane as he lowered their boss' desired target onto the getaway boat they precured last night. Tonight's target is a good buttload of oxygen tanks (among other things) the group didn't get the chance to previously snag, all due to either shops nearby not having any at all or further into the 'mainland'. And the boss didn't want to go further in as he prefered to stay closer to the bay.

Operating the crane once more, Freddy was lifting up the cable after he mechanically operated it's claw to let go of their acquired load. As it rose, the thief saw something very peculiar hanging onto the cable. At first, he thought it was the Batman with his larger frame, but it seemed to be three oddly dressed women bundled together.

Seeing the new arrivals, Jim couldn't help but speak out his thoughts. "Who the hell are you three supposed to be?"

It was the red and black themed woman who spoke first with a cheeky grin. "Why, we're the Sirens baby."

"The Sirens? Really, Harl?"

"What~? You don't think it's catchy?" Harley asked in slight confusion. "I mean, we're three very hot and dangerous women. Why wouldn't it be appropriate for our little team name?"

Ivy sighed as she shook her head. Before long, she jumped off the cable and landed on the boat with Catwoman and Harley not long after. _**"W**_ _e_ _ **'d**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _k_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **w**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _d_ _ **w**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **b**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _s_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _b_ _ **o**_ _y_ _ **s**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **."**_

Narrowing their eyes, Jim and Freddy moved from their places to teach these costumed broads a lesson. From Jim pulling out his knives to Freddy unholdersting his gun, they went on the offensive. Even Vic ran towards them, once he got outside from below deck.

Being the first to react, Harley ran forward to do a few handstand flips to help launch her forward and delivered a flying spear kick into Vic's ribs, which sent him flying backwards. The man tried to retaliate with a right cross once getting back up, but the costumed blonde quickly moved to the side, grasped his arm and performed a judo throw. Following through with her assault, Harley kicked his fallen form to leave him groaning in pain.

As this happened, Ivy and Catwoman teamed up to take care of the other two thieves on board with Freddy being quickly attacked by the cat burglar. As Jim tried to stab Ivy with his two knives, the Green champion ducked and weaved through his assault before coming in close and delivering an uppercut to the man's chin. Selina soon came towards him from behind and kicked his defenseless back before wrapping her legs around him. Using much of her strength, the Red champion was able to spin around on her hands and tossed the knife wielder into the gun wielder who was lying on the ground.

Unbeknownst to the thieves and to the Sirens, they were being watched from up above by a pair of reptilian eyes. They carefully studied these new arrivals to see what each were made of. Even as these costumed women took down his 'boys' like they were practically nothing.

'Seems it might be time to introduce myself.' Thought the anthropomorphic crocodile as he moved his way down below. 'Was expecting to face the Bat or Vanitas, but these women will suffice.'

Just when the Sirens were done taking out the trash, the three head a loud reptilian hiss in the air. "The hell was that?" Asked the masked blonde as she looked around for the source.

"Sounded like… a large alligator?"

"More like a crocodile, Ivy." Catwoman corrected, getting little looks from her gal pals. "Seriously? With my 'new' side job, I have to know different animal sounds for crying out loud."

The three then heard a throaty chuckle coming from the shadows as they turned to the source. "Must be some job, missy." When the figure made its presence known, the Sirens saw the hulking figure of a crocodile man giving the three a toothy grin. "And you are rather correct, for I am in fact a crocodile. Killer Croc to be exact." He then looked at the three as they stepped back in surprise at the mere sight of the new arrival. "My daddy used to say: 'You want something done right, best to do it yourself.' And it doesn't matter if I have to take of the problem if it's coming from a woman."

Rising his clawed hand, Killer Croc brought it down and slashed through several nearby oxygen tanks which sent them flying towards the girls. They had to quickly move out of the way from the large projectiles as they were going at fast speeds. Before long, the reptilian man slashed through several more of the tanks' nozzles to send them at the women's way. As they were distracted from their little dance, Croc lifted up a large stack of them which caused their rope bindings to break. The cannisters rolled across the boat's surface as the Sirens were distracted.

"Incoming!" Harley cried out as she used her acrobatic skills to flip over the containers. Catwoman leaped towards the side as Ivy had to roll out of the way. As the three were slightly distracted, Killer Croc came charging in and smacked the redhead off the boat. Seeing this, the masked blonde cried out for her friend. "Ivy!"

This moment let Harley wide open to Croc's assault as he slashed at her. Unprepared for the attack, the blonde was hit rather hard and fell back. She tried to recover, but was tackled to the ground by Croc's shoulder strike. He did not let up as he kicked Harley's fallen form hard, which resulted in rolling through the boat's opening and falling into the waters below.

It was so quick that Catwoman didn't respond fast enough to stop the crocodile man hurting her friends. She tried to retaliate by delivering several kicks and punches towards his sides, but his hide was rather dense to make him feel little to no pain. Before Catwoman could do anything else, Croc grasped her head and applied a lot of pressure onto it, causing her to cry out on the pain.

The reptilian man then gave her a cheeky grin before speaking in his gruntal, southern accent. "My turn."

Tossing her up into the air, Croc soon punched her stomach pretty hard as she went flying to the other side of the boat. The ravenette thief somewhat recovered by flipping in the air and landing on her feet. Before she could react quick enough, Catwoman was tackled off of the boat as Croc took her for a little swim.

Selina tried to break free from her opponent's grasp, but it was rather hard as his claws were starting to go through her suit and digging into her skin. The pain was starting to become a bit too much for her, causing her to gasp as she soon lost a lot of the oxygen in her lungs. Killer Croc continued swimming them down to the bay's bottom and kept her there to possibly drown the Red's champion.

Looking off to the side, Catwoman saw several oxygen tanks that sunk from above, which gave her a little idea. Needing to get out of her predicament, she struggled a little more before seeing Croc's exposed stomach. Taking a chance, she kicked it with all her strength which soon made the humanoid crocodile let go of her.

Not seeing if Croc was going after her, Selina swam towards one of the tanks and grew out her claws before puncturing the side to let loose the precious oxygen in the water. Selina then held on tight as the tank started to ride towards the surface. It wasn't long before she got out of the water and inhaled a large amount of air before falling back into the bay to continue gasping for her burning lungs.

Before long, Selina heard boat engines roar to life. Looking towards her side, she saw Killer Croc climb aboard with the three ski-masked men. They soon took off with the reptile man giving her his signature gin as they sped away in their getaway vehicle.

All that the environmentalist could do was glare while groaning in pain from the beating she received earlier. Before she could make any other moves, she felt a small tug on her arms as she was getting dragged through the water. Catwoman was going to retaliate and break free, but stopped when seeing Ivy and Harley sitting on a large lilypad.

"Are you okay, kitty?" Harley asked in concern.

"...I'd be lying if I did, Harl."

Seeing the damage onto Selina's suit and the exposed, bloody skin, Pam spoke up. "Let's get you patched up, Selina, at my place."

"You mean the loft? But what about Jade, Artemis and Rachel seeing us like this?"

"Who said anything about the loft?"

Before Selina and Harley could respond, the lilypad started to shake a little as it grew and expanded. The extra flaps started to close up on the three, like a venus fly trap, as the plant started to sink into the water.

 _ **-Gotham Sewers-**_

You could say you've hit the lowest of the low if you start living in the sewers. The filth, the grime, the death, it can be just all the same and no one would hardly give a damn about you in living in such conditions. Even if they do, it would be hard to possibly consider going into such places as they're hardly maintained at all with those assigned with such jobs.

Reason why the sewers are sometimes good hiding places for crooks, thieves and many shady characters if one wants to lie low for a time.

Rising from the water and walking to the dry dirt were Jim, Vic and Freddy as they currently wore scuba gear. This was to help them traverse through the old flooded pathways that connects from the harbor to their current location. It was stocked up with all of the supplies they procured since their 'boss' roped them into this series of jobs they were pulling since last night.

Taking off the oxygen nozzle from his mouth, Freddy coughed a few times before speaking his thoughts. "Boss Croc definitely does not have both oars in the water."

Vic nodded in agreement as he pulled off his mask and breathing equipment. "Yeah. And he calls this slime pit 'headquarters'. Place is practically a dump."

Dropping his supplies onto the nearby table, Jim turned around and addressed his fellow thieves. "Well, maybe you two should mention that to Croc. Me, I like my teeth just where they are."

Freddy scoffed. "Yeah, well, first chance I get, It's after a while, crocodile." He said before he saw the looks on his cohorts' faces. "He's right behind me, isn't he?"

There wasn't much of a vocal or visual answer as Freddy slowly turned around and saw the hulking figure of his new boss standing within a foot away from him. After releasing a few reptilian hisses, Killer Croc spoke with a small frown. "I sure do hate to see my boys so unhappy."

Freddy backed away several steps as he frantically waved his hands several times to somewhat dismiss his earlier comment. "Oh, not me, boss. I'm happy… as a clam."

Croc changed his frown into a smirk. "Good." Walking past him and and the other thieves to get to the work table, the reptilian man spoke while looking over several places laid out. "Now get ready boys. Because this time tomorrow, the tops of skyscrapers will be our lilypads and downtown Gotham will be our oyster."

 _ **-Pamela's Private Garden, Old Gotham Grand Greenhouse-**_

"Ow! Watch the needle, Harley!"

"I will, if you stop fidgeting!" Spoke the resident blonde as she grasped her friend's back to stitch up the final opening in her skin. "Would've finished this sooner if you didn't keep moving the entire time."

"Well… your bedside manner sucks."

"You're one to talk."

Standing nearby, Pam chuckled slightly at the scene before her. The group had arrived at her greenhouse outside of the city limits via plant transport. A Green technique she really likes having access to, but tries to not heavily rely on the higher tier version of it. Sure, she and several others could travel a fast distance by being consumed by a modified plant, like persay to the other side of the globe in several minutes. But Pam doesn't want to use it all the time or else she might become too lazy as a result.

Anyways, the reason why Pam brought them to the Grand Greenhouse was to help patch up and lick their wounds from their encounter with that anthropomorphic crocodile. Harley got a variety of bruises and a cracked rib. Pam got the least wounds of the group, but was knocked out for the rest of the fight until Harley helped wake her up so a lilypad would be formed underneath them. And Selina got the worst with deep, punctured skin alongside her shoulders and upper back region.

Neither of them could honestly go to a hospital or else things would get rather complicated. So to help out with this endeavor, Pam injected spores into her two friends so their bodies would heal a lot quicker than normal. Though by the end of whatever's currently going on, they'll need to have a lot of rest to feel properly at rest.

Once Harley finished up the last punctured hole, she applied the gauze wrap around her ravenette friend. "That's the last of 'em."

"Good." Standing up from the grass chair provided, Selina did some small stretches before putting her shirt back on. "Now I can go back out there and kick that croc's ass on my turf: dry land."

"Do you think that's wise, Selina?" Asked the resident botanist. "After all, you did get pummeled the worst out of the rest of us."

"We… well I underestimated him as I thought I could take him on _alone_." Replied the thief with crossed arms. "Especially since he took you two out rather quickly to leave me against him."

"And why couldn't you just use your additional skills against Crocy?" Spoke the psychologist. "You could've taken him down easily, I think."

"I'm still trying to handle them, Harl. I don't know the full limits of my abilities now from what Stopgap told me." Selina then stretched a little, but not too much to end up breaking the stitches already after being made. "Though I hoped the training in the Dreaming would've helped out."

Harley leaned back to think of this. "Maybe… Maybe all we've done in there was just mental training or something along those lines. I mean, we weren't fighting with our real bodies… So things wouldn't be effective in the real world than we thought, unless we actually trained while awake."

Selina groaned a little while hearing this. "Great~ Just great." Rubbing the temples of her head, she paced around the garden for a bit. "And here I thought doing all that fighting and training in there would count instead of just doing it while we're awake."

"Either that or you're just too used to fighting with others that you could've been a bit reliant on someone else helping out." Spoke the blonde as she plucked an apple from the nearby tree and took a bite. Once swallowing, she continued. "For a while now, we've fought alongside puddin and he's been more of the heavy hitter among us. Being there to deal out more damage than the rest of us and we possibly don't get the chance to really push ourselves."

Hearing this made Selina pause as she processed her friend's statement. 'She might not be wrong on that. Sure, I saw Harl push herself harder than any of us since she doesn't have powers and Pam could be second strongest amongst us right behind Naruto. So where does that leave me?'

Before either of them could continue their little discussion, Pam spoke up. "Girls. You might wanna see this."

Turning their attention towards the botanist, they made their way to her position to see what was displaying on the TV set Pamela hooked up into her garden. There they saw a news coverage with Summer Gleeson reporting. _"...This was the scene moments ago as Gotham's financial district was hit by the largest flood in the city's history."_

The Sirens then saw clips of the streets rapidly flooding and destroying many objects in their path. Cars were uplifted, people were swept away and countless other happenings. Each woman gained a worried look on their face and wondered what caused this to happen. Floods in this city would only happen after a heavy storm, but this was something else entirely.

" _Emergency crews are now arriving to assist with the evacuation of local residents. The cause of the fl ood is still unknown. This is Summer Gleeson and we'll come back to you all on further details."_

As the newscast ended, Pam turned off the TV set and walked away. Seeing this, Harley spoke up. "Where ya going, Red?"

"I need to help those people out." She responded as her Green champion attire went back onto her. "So are you going with me or not?"

Selena and Harley looked at each other before the blonde responded. "Well… this is what puddin would've done: help out 'em people."

Seeing as she was outvoted, the ravenette nodded before something came across her mind. "But how are we going to travel around on the water? It's not like we have jet skis or something for fast travel."

A thought then came to Harley's mind as she spoke in a cheerful tone. "But I do know who does have some lying around~"

 _ **-Gotham Financial District-**_

The moon was shining high above the chaotic city. Gothamites were doing what they can to save themselves from the flood that literally came out of nowhere. All concerns were placed towards the citizens above all else as their lives mattered more. This even meant leaving various places of value defenseless, ripe for the picking.

And this was what one band of thieves was currently doing for the third time in a row as they robbed one of Gotham's banks.

Breaking through the watery surface, Killer Croc and his underlings swam to their jet skis with various bags and containers of valuables. Each member of the group loaded up their cargo onto their modified water transports and secured them so neither of their acquired goods would fall off. Once done, they hopped onto their rides and started up their jet skis.

Looking at their goods, Killer Croc let out a deep chuckle. "Water, water, everywhere."

Just when the group was about to depart from the scene, they heard several engines coming towards them from the distance. They glanced around until seeing Catwoman and her masked blonde companion riding through the flooded streets with their own modified jet skis. And by the looks of it, they were wanting another go-around against Killer Croc and his boys.

Holding up his scaled hand, Croc signaled his boys to leave. They complied and roared their engines before making their way through the different flooded streets. Now that he was alone, Killer Croc revved up his jet ski engine before yelling at the two Sirens. "How about a little game of Chicken! Cajun style!"

"I'm all up for that, Crocky!" Cried out the blonde as she made her borrowed bat jet ski go a whole lot faster. "I wonder, do crocs taste better than beef and chicken?!"

Getting a little smirk on her lips, Catwoman responded to her friend's question. "I don't know, but let's find out!"

Despite having his challenging grin on his face, Croc's eye twitched on the little taunt. Clearly annoyed on that bit, he made his transport go faster. The three were coming closer and closer to each other. And before any of them knew it, they collided as the Sirens' clashed against Croc's jet ski on both sides.

With the speed on how each were going, Killer Croc was able to slip right through and sped away on the flooded streets. Making swift U-turns, the Siren pair quickly went right after the retreating crocodile man. Using a bit of nitro in their borrowed jet skis, Selina and Harley were able to catch up to their target within a yard range.

At one point in the chase, Killer Croc made a swift turn around a sunken building in hopes of losing the two Sirens. Seeing as she was falling behind Harley, who was barely able to keep up with the humanoid crocodile, Catwoman made a quick turn towards a slanted rooftop and used it as a ramp to gain a good amount of distance. This proved effective as she gained much ground and landed right next to Killer Croc.

Harley smiled a little that at least one of them was able to get close enough. When she was about to hit the nitro button again on the bat jet ski, she was knocked to the side. Looking to the source, she saw one of the masked thugs that were working for Croc.

He tried to reach towards her to possibly knock her over with a lead pipe, but Harley smacked the offending weapon away with a scowl. "Lay off, bub! I've only got one man in my life able to touch me and you ain't him!"

The thieve didn't listen as he kept trying to hit the masked blonde several times. Harley had to swerve around the man so she wouldn't get hit at all. It got to the point that she pulled out one of her handguns, loaded with non-lethal bullets, and started firing at the man. Seeing as things were getting serious, the thief pulled out his handgun and returned fire as both were missing while avoiding the other's bullets.

Back with the animal themed people, they were trying to take down each other and failed in the process. Killer Croc swung his arms several times as Catwoman was ducking every time she got close. When she did, Selina tried to hit his sensitive underbelly and joints with some kicks or punches, but he evaded just the same.

Though it came to an end when they turned the corner when Croc used his tail to hit Catwoman's transport, which caused her to swirve back into control. Using this opportunity, her opponent was able to smack her off her jet ski and into the water.

"Mind your cowl now!" Croc yelled out before he was out of sight.

Selina gritted her teeth and swam over to her jet ski. She was about to go after him when she saw Harley fighting against one of the masked thieves with a knife fight at this point. Selina huffed a little before turning her jet ski around and went after the pair. It didn't take long for her to reach the two with using a boost of nitro to get close enough to use her whip. And with a well timed swing, Catwoman's whip snagged the thief's arm before she pulled to get him into the water.

"So, Harl… did you have fun?" Asked the ravenette thief as her jet ski slowly drifted to her friend.

Letting out a few breaths, the masked blonde was about to respond when she heard splashing in the water. Looking down, Harley saw the thief was still awake. "Oh, give me a sec." Reaching down, she pulled the thief up a bit before delivering a hard punch to the face which rendered the man unconscious. "Okay, so… yeah, you can say that."

Catwoman chuckled a little before tapping her ear a few times to get a call patched through. After a few moments, she spoke. "Red, you there?"

" _...Is this Selina or Harley? It's hard to tell with some static over the line."_

"It's Selina, Pam. Water must've gotten underneath my headpiece and hit the device."

" _Okay… Just don't know how well these earbuds work to tell who's who on the other end."_

"Yeah, I think this might take getting used to."

" _Even though we might not have them for much longer."_

It was then Harley joined in on the conversation as she pulled the thief onto her borrowed jet ski. "Yeah… Especially since we're borrowing Brucey's stuff while he's out of town. And I have a feeling he'd want 'em back." Once the thief is fully out of the water, the masked blonde continued. "So, Red, how's the _damming_ business coming along?"

Selina and Harley could practically feel Pam rolling her eyes at the bad pun the blonde pulled. _"It's slow, but it's working to some degree. But with the constant flow of water, the streets are still flooding with water. And all of my vine dams can only hold back so much for so long as rescue teams are getting civilians to safety."_

"Well that's good."

" _So did you girls get Killer Croc?"_ Asked the Green champion, but didn't get a verbal response. _"I'm guessing he got away then?"_

"Yeah." Selina voiced before her eyes landed on the knocked out thief. "But we got one of his men. We'll get what information we can out of him before finding where the crocodile is resting."

" _Okay. Keep me informed. And while you two take care of Croc, I'll keep holding up these dams and helping civilians."_

"Good to know." Tapping her earpiece a few more times to end the call, Selina looked at her friend. "Let's string him up and get things over with."

Harley nodded with enthusiasm as they rode their jet skis to a statue in front of city hall, which showed a knight pointing a jousting lance down the road. Bringing out one of the Batman's grapple guns, Harley fired it at the statue's lance as it wrapped several times. Tugging it several times to show it was secure, the pair wrapped Jim the thief around the cord and hoisted him upside down.

It wasn't long after when the man slowly woke up when he saw the pair of Sirens looking at him with smiles. "Oh, hello there~" Spoke the perky blonde. "Mind telling us some details~?" The man didn't respond causing Harley to sigh. Then out of nowhere, she slapped his face several times rather hard before pulling him close. "Croc's story! Spill it!"

"Okay! Okay! Lay it off!" He said as she soon stopped the assault and let go of him. Seeing her calmed down, Jim spoke. "He's... ex-military, I think. Real mercenary type. Some think he's a genetic experiment, a crossbreed soldier or something. Others... think he messed with the wrong kind of voodoo in the bayou. Me, I'm thinking circus freak."

The Catwoman rolled her eyes when hearing this. "We're not looking for his folktales or anything of that nature. We just wanna to know what he's doing exactly." 

"What's to tell?!" Jim yelled out. "Croc's new in town and he's got big plans!"

"...Bigger than robbing banks?"

The man involuntary nodded in response. "Croc said today's fl ood was just a dry run."

Harley giggled a little on the little joke. "Heh, dry. Yet it's not."

Catwoman looked at her friend in a certain way to get her to stop, which she did. Turning back to Jim, she asked the one question in mind. "If I wanted to do some big-city Croc hunting, where would I go?"

Jim processed on what Catwoman just asked, causing him to pale a bit if it wasn't for his face reddening with the blood rushing to his head. "Oh, no way. Boss Croc's cold-blooded, girl! I talk, I wind up fish food!"

It was then the Red champion grasped the scruff of his neck and brought him close before speaking. "Well if you don't talk, then we could all wind up fish food."

 _ **-Gotham Sewers-**_

It took a while for the Siren pair to reach Killer Croc's lair, even with what navigation they got from the one thief. They did have to backtrack on some flooded passageways, once or twice. But they finally made it as they reached it once breaking the surface.

Shaking her head a little to get some excess water out of her hair, Harley muttered once taking out the portable bat oxygen tube from her mouth. "When this is all done, I'm probably gonna need to take several showers."

"You and me both, Harl." Walking onto dry land, the pair looked around before a pair of green eyes landed on a table loaded with cash and jewels. "Meow~ Kitty likes~"

"Catwoman… Remember… We're just here to stop the flood, not to pilfer what the thieves pilfered."

"...No one would know a stack or two of hundreds go missing… Or a few dozen jewels."

"Selina…"

"Okay, fine."

Harley nodded before walking through Croc's lair to search for any clues for what's currently going on. If she were to look back at her ravenette friend, she would've seen Selina open up one of the pockets in her belt and poured a good number of jewels and diamonds in there. And before long, she unzipped part of her suit and stuffed two stacks of hundreds inside at a spot where they would feel comfortable in.

'Some won't hurt at all.' Selina thought as she zipped up her zipper. 'After all, it's for a good cause for nature itself.' Once done, she helped out in the search for clues before seeing blueprints laid out on a far off table. "Hey. I found something."

"What is it, Kitty?" Asked the masked blonde as she walked towards her friend. Once close, Harley peered over Catwoman's shoulder and saw what they were. "Schematics of Gotham's canals?"

Selina was going to respond back when an all too familiar voice called out from behind. "You sure got a lot of bloodhound in you, for a cat." The pair whipped around and saw Killer Croc walking out of a nearby pipe opening with his ever present, toothy grin. "What do you think? A dry little spot to catch my breath between heists." 

"Right beside the overfl ow pumps for Gotham's canal system." Catwoman said, getting a nod from the crocodile man.

"They were designed to drain the canals into the bay... in case of flooding." Walking further out of the pipe and towards the water, Croc brought a clawed finger to his head. "But I did some thinking… If you reversed the pumps-"

"They draw water in from the bay." Harley finished off with realization in a dreaded tone. "The canals will overflow until they submerge any part of Gotham situated below sea level."

"Right you are, missy. And just about all of downtown, where the good shopping is."

"But tens of thousands of lives could be lost on what you're doing!"

Killer Croc soon brought a finger underneath his eye and spoke in mock sadness. "And I'll shed a crocodile teal for each and every one."

The Siren pair went into fighting positions as they prepared themselves to go against the humanoid croc. Said man just stood there, but lifted his tail up into the air. It was rather tense on the current feeling and before the girls knew it, Croc slammed his large appendage down onto the water.

What the two costumed women didn't expect, however, were a pair of large crocodiles coming out of the water and letting out a loud hiss at the females. Seeing the new arrivals by his side, the crocodile man spoke up. "And speaking of, my pets haven't had a decent bite since we arrived last night." Turning around, the man walked into the water said one last thing to them. "Now, if you'll pardon me, cat snack and blonde, I've got some more pumps to reverse."

As their master left the scene, the two large crocodiles ran towards the Siren pair. Said women had to jump back when the reptiles tried to take a big bite out of them. As one of the crocs got closer, Selina grabbed ahold of a nearby crate and swung it to break it against the reptile's head.

"Sorry about that." Muttered the changed thief as she saw Harley fire her guns at the one crocodile she was facing. "Don't kill them!"

"Well tell that to them, Selina!" Spoke back the pale woman. Running towards a crate, she leaped off it's surface to get on top of the reptile and started hitting its head with the butt of her weapons.

HHHHHHIIIIIIISSSSS

"Oh shut up, will ya!"

Not wanting to really harm the animals, Selina ran towards the pipe entrance. "Harley! Lead it over here!"

Seeing her friend at the position, Harley leaped off the crocodile and bolted to the pipe. The Siren pair quickly got inside, to which the large reptiles followed. Once they were in deep enough, the pair ran and evaded the reptiles from getting bitten by their mighty jaws. Once out of the pipe, Catwoman quickly pulled out an explosive she pilfered from the Batcave and latched it on top of the pipe entrance. And before long, it blew up and caused large debris to cover the opening, trapping the large crocodiles inside.

"Don't worry! I'll be sure to get the proper people to get you two out and into a good animal preserve!" Yelled out the Red champion. She then looked towards her friend and spoke up. "Come on, Harl, we need to stop Croc!"

Harley nodded as they ran into one of the nearby tunnels, with the canal map on hand, so they could hopefully get to the main pumps just in time.

 _ **-Main Sewage Pumps-**_

Inside of the large room, Croc was turning the giant wheel with all his strength. His reptilian eyes briefly glanced at the meter that showed the arrow going from 'output' to 'intake' further and further in. And with a mighty grin, Killer Croc knew the city streets above were rapidly flooding like no tomorrow. Even the two men following him looked nervous as the ceiling shook from the current activity.

"Nothing like… good old… elbow grease… to work up one hell of a sweat." Spoke the crocodile man. As he kept turning the crank, two grapple hooks suddenly dug themselves into its surface. Without having to look, Croc snarled a deep frown. "You two are peskier than a fly in a-."

Just when he turned his head to the side, he saw Catwoman and Harley flying in as they were reclining back to their hooks. Quickly letting go, the Red champion came in and delivered a mean right cross at the man's reptilian snout, causing Croc to get knocked into the giant crank and stagger onto his feet. The Red champion wasn't done as she kicked the reptilian man onto the moist ground.

Before Croc's men could react quick enough; Harley came barreling in, threw a pair of bolas to tie them up and quickly swung her mallet across their heads to knock them onto the ground. "And stay down!"

Selina looked at her friend and spoke a question in mind. "Where the hell did you pull that from?"

All Harley did was spin her weapon in her hand before resting it on her shoulder. "Heh, wouldn't you like to know." She then ran towards the large crank wheel before pushing it towards 'intake'. "Help me out with this."

Catwoman nodded and was about to help when she saw Killer Croc charging in. Selina tried to hold him off, but his speed and weight alongside the muddy ground made it hard to keep him in place. When they contacted with each other, the cat-themed woman was suddenly slammed against the wall alongside Harley. Both tried to recover, but were grabbed by their shoulders and tossed across the room and into the water.

When the Siren pair got back up, they glared at the smiling Croc who was now protecting the wheel crank. "You best give it up. By the time they figure out what caused the flood downtown Gotham will be my personal swamp."

Getting really pissed off now, Selina dug deep into herself and channeled what Red power she could muster. Small changes could be shown as her canines and claws extended, her muscles grew and condensed and her emerald eyes slitted. Once done, both she and Harley charged forward to combat against the giant Croc.

Harley used her acrobatics to leap above their opponent and slam her feet on the crank to slowly get the wheel to go to 'intake'. Croc tried to stop her, but Catwoman slid on the ground before delivering an uppercut towards the man's exposed stomach. As he double overed a bit, he was about to retaliate when the Catwoman threw a handful of thick muck towards his face, temporarily blinding him in the process.

With this bit of distraction going, Catwoman channeled her rage and tackled Croc into the water before delivering a series of strengthened punches into his face. Getting fed up with the assault, Croc punched her hard in the gut with a following tail swing to knock her away. He then leaped towards her and slammed his hands into the ground with yet another tail swing to knock her off her feet. Not wanting to be beaten once more, Selina polvolted off the ground with her hands and delivered an upward kick towards his jaw.

Killer Croc stumbled back on the blow before adjusting his jaw. He was about to say something when Catwoman dashed towards him and repeatedly punched his sensitive underbelly with follow up kicks. And before he could retaliate, the masked blonde came out of nowhere and smacked her mallet hard across his snout.

Croc soon felt something loose in his mouth, causing him to spit it into his hand. There he saw it was one of his teeth caused him to hotly glare at the two. Especially since he saw the meter arrow all the way at 'intake', showing that his plans are probably foiled at this point. "You whores! You are beginning to stick in my craw!"

Croc then ran forward and swiped his claws at the opposing pair. So blinded by rage, the reptile man kept missing his attacks which was easily exploited by the Sirens. Punches, kicks and mallet swings were easily delivered as Killer Croc wasn't attempting to dodge any of their blows. At one point, however, the man punched Harley hard which sent her to the wheel crank.

Selina was about to rush over and check on her friend when her opponent took her into a massive bear hug. And without any warning, Croc dived into the water and swam deep into hopefully drown the Catwoman. She struggled to break free, but this caused her to let loose a few air bubble. Seeing them float away, something came to mind from earlier events.

'Wait a second… he's a literal crocodile and they need oxygen every so often after swimming.' Catwoman thought before an idea came to mind. 'First, I've gotta get free.'

Selina soon elbowed her opponent's stomach several times all before planting her feet onto a large pipe. From there, she used a lot of her strength in her legs to send them back into another pipe, causing him to let her go and open his mouth in the process. He tried to go after her, but a swift kick knocked him away which made him let loose more air bubbles.

Croc needed to get air at this point as he started to swim towards the surface. This was stopped, however, as he felt a massive grip on his tail. Turning around, he saw Catwoman have a little oxygen tube in her mouth before pulling him back down. Once brought down far enough, Selina started punching his head more and more to get the reptilian man to practically drown in his own environment. And before long, Croc was knocked out.

'Time to get him back up top.' Thought the Catwoman as she swam towards the surface with the crocodile man dragged along. Breaking the surface, she brought him onto the dry land and saw the astounded looks from the two tied up thieves and the recovered masked blonde, causing her to answer their thoughts. "Crocs may like water, but they're no fish… So either of you up for giving lizard-lips a little mouth-to-mouth?" The two men shook their heads 'no', causing the two women in the room to chuckle. "Yeah, didn't think so."

Putting the oxygen tube into Croc's mouth, Selina pressed the button to release the rest of the compressed air into his lungs. And before long, he quickly woke up and coughed out a lot of water before falling back down in complete exhaustion and defeat.

 _ **-Morning, Gotham City Hall-**_

"What are you looking at?!" Jim yelled out as several people were currently looking at the display in front of them.

With the flood now taken care of, the levels receded to their normal state to show how high Jim was currently at on the Gotham statue. It was not only him, but Freddy and Vic were tied up on the other statues in a similar state. And to top it all off, Killer Croc was wrapped in chains and thick vines at the main statue in front of City Hall as he snarled at the three women who ruined his plans.

"This ain't over!" Croc roared out as he struggled to get free from his bindings. "Gotham is gonna be my backyard bayou!" 

All this did was cause the women to smirk before Harley spoke in a joking tone. "I won't hold my breath, Crocy."

As the three were swallowed up by a giant plant, which soon sank into the ground below, As the the police and news reporters were arriving onto the scene, Killer Croc roared out in fury and swore revenge on the three if it was the last thing he'll ever do.

 _ **-Evening, Pamela's Private Garden, Old Gotham Grand Greenhouse-**_

"Ah~ This feels so good~" Spoke the pale woman as she wore a red and black bikini with white frills along the edges.

Pam leaned back in her position while wearing a black bikini with green leaves seemingly growing from the cloth. "Glad you like it, Harley."

"I do admit, Pam, this is one hell of an interesting jacuzzi." Spoke the Uzumaki, who was currently wearing an orange and black pair of swimming trunks, as he gazed at their little surroundings.

Today has been rather interesting for the publisher once he got back to Gotham. He first heard about the flooding incident once he got off the plane and was about to quickly help out when he learned what happened over the news. Wanting to know more, he spoke with his three girlfriends to learn what exactly occured last night.

And he's gotta admit, he is extremely proud of them saving the day.

Details about what happened were on the news and Gothamites wanted to know who exactly the three costumed women were called. Sure they knew Selina/Catwoman and very vague information with Pam as Poison Ivy, but Harley was practically new. All that Naruto could figure that things were going to be interesting since their first little team up.

Asides from hearing the details of the Killer Croc incident, Naruto became a little concerned a little later in the day once Harley got off from work to enjoy her shared birthday evening. The Uzumaki learned that Waylon Jones (Killer Croc's real name) was being admitted to Arkham instead of Blackgate. The reptile man wasn't insane at all, yet he was sent to the nut house.

Though a silver lining was shone with Harley not being Croc's doctor. She slightly feared that with his animal senses, he could smell her and possibly figure her out as one of the women that screwed over his plan. But with the various showers she took, along with trying out different perfumes, Harley might get away to hide her identity on some degree. Selina already has that risk, with her being well known as the infamous thief that's becoming well known as some sort of hero. And Pam might have a bit of a problem with people in Arkham somewhat know her as the 'plant-lady'/Ivy from her time admitted there.

For now, who knows for sure if identities will get revealed or not. But if they do, Naruto swore he'll do what it takes to keep them hidden.

Now going back to the present time; Naruto, Pam and Harley were currently in their bathing suits in and enlarged flower with some bubbling liquid as an impromptu jacuzzi. Once they returned from their respective jobs, the three went out and enjoyed their evening while out on the town. They went to a jazz club to enjoy great numbers, went to a sushi bar and got a little hammered over at the Stacked Deck before ending up at Pam's greenhouse.

Selina would've tagged along, but she insisted the psychologist/botanist pair enjoyed their birthday evening with Naruto. Said man wondered why she didn't want to join in on the fun, but Selina brought up she should look after Rachel, Artemis and Jade for the evening. Plus, she figured the Crock girls would want to ask her on what happened last night with her being on the news since they were big fans of hers.

"So, Harley, Pam."

"Yes puddin/Naruto?" Said women spoke at the same time.

"Have you two enjoyed your birthday?"

Harley was the first to speak her response. "Hell yeah, I did. Today was something that clearly blew out all of my other ones out of the water."

"Not just because you helped fight against a crocodile man in his _natural habitat_?" He said as he referenced the little flood that happened last night.

"That too." She said with her wide grin. "It got me so pumped up that nothing else would've had the chance to ruin my day today. Especially since I got to enjoy it with you, puddin."

Naruto chuckled on Harley's cheerful attitude before turning his attention to Pam. "And what of you?"

With a small smirk, the botanist answered. "I do have to agree with Harl with me having a similar response."

"And why's that?"

"Well… It did feel nice helping out all those people while trying to keep up the dams stable. Though there have been moments my _sister_ wanted to take over and let many of them drown in case any of them would harm the environment."

Naruto shook his head knowing Pam's darker half still intends to wipe out many humans that intend to go against the Green. His presence helped keep Ivy on track, but with him gone on his trip might've gotten her to go back to her usual thought process.

"Though do you know what else made this day extra special?"

"What's that, Pam?"

"I've got to enjoy my birthday with you for the first time."

Harley looked down and chuckled slightly as she voiced her response. "Funny… I was going to say the same thing." The botanist/publisher pair looked at the psychologist as she played around a little in the bubbling liquid. "The last few birthdays I really got to enjoy with someone was with my late boyfriend." She then lifted her head and saw small tears leaking from her eyes, which made Naruto and Pam's hearts beat a little harder on the sight. "But having my birthday with two of the greatest people that I deeply love makes things feel so much better."

Naruto and Pam softly smiled as they moved around in the flower jacuzzi to sit on either side of the pale woman before pulling her into a group hug. Harley clearly felt the love in their embrace to help make her feel better, even though she was shedding tears of happiness. Not that she minded it at all. Once their hug ended, Harley looked at the pair and gained a nervous expression on her face.

"Is something wrong, Harl?" Pam asked in concern, only to get a 'no' in response. "Then what is it then?"

"Well… I was thinking, puddin." Harley muttered as she twiddled her fingers with a growing blush. "If we could finally go all the way now..."

Naruto blinked when hearing this and wrapped his arm around his blonde girlfriend. "I don't see why not. After all, we've held this off long enough and I think we could finally go into the next step in our relationship."

The pale blonde smiled greatly as she would finally have the experience she's been dying to have for a long time now. She looked towards her friend, who seemed to move out of the way. Gaining a confused look upon her face, Harley spoke up. "Where ya going, Red?"

"Oh, I thought you two might wanna have some privacy." Said the botanist as she rose from the flowery liquid. Though she was held back as she felt Harley pull her back into the jacuzzi. "Is there something you need, Harl?"

"Yeah… That's the thing… As much as I'd like to finally go all the way with puddin, I'd like to share the experience… with you."

"Wha-" Pam tried to speak out before Harley placed her lips onto hers. The blonde deepened the kiss by holding the redhead in place and closed what little space there was between them. The botanist was clearly surprised on the action, at first, by closed her eyes and moaned on the feeling she was receiving.

Off to the side, Naruto widened his eyes at the scene before him. As much as he thought of seeing Pam making out with Selina in their past romps were hot, it seemed to be a whole other level when seeing these two going at each other. Even when they started to get a little frisky with each other.

Wanting to catch their breaths, Harley ended the kiss with Pam with a small trail of saliva connecting the two. "Mmm… That tasted nice."

Pam still had her eyes closed as she still felt on what just happened to her. The first time she kissed Harley was to be sure her little serum worked so the blonde wouldn't get killed by her toxic kiss of death on accident later on. Sure she teased Harley about it, resulting of her pale face turning red in embarrassment every so often.

But the kiss she just had seemed very unique on what she felt. Harley's kiss oddly held the right amount of hunger and passion with a lot of confidence behind it all. The action wasn't very wild, nor was it rushed or psychotic like the botanist thought it would've been with the blonde's unique mindset. It just seemed… perfect coming from the pale woman before her.

Not to mention right away it was making her body react in a certain way as Pam felt herself get hot and bothered, just like when Naruto initiates their intimacy.

Opening her eyes, the blushing redhead swallowed a little lump of air in her throat. "W-What was that all about?"

Harley giggled a little as she ran her hands through Pam's sides, which made her shiver a little in excitement. "Like I said before, Red, I'd like to share this birthday experience with you and I wanted to get you into the mood." She said before looking down to see Pam shifting her thighs back and forth. "And I clearly see I was successful."

Pam gained more of a blush after hearing this before her eyes started to shift into her darker half. **"Indeed you have."** Ivy spoke as she gained a seductive tone as she moved her hands down Harley's sides, causing her to shiver on the feeling. Looking towards their shared lover, the Green champion ushered Naruto to come over to join the fun.

 _ **-Lemon Start-**_

Moving closer to the two, Naruto claimed Ivy's lips for a heated kiss for several moments before quickly switching to Harley so she wouldn't be left out for a lot longer. Seeing the exposed, pale skin on the psychologist's neck, Ivy went down and placed a series of kisses all over the region with occasional bites. In her seated position, Harley moaned on the feeling she was receiving, especially once she felt their hands caressing parts of her body.

As Naruto's hand caressed her clothed pale breast, Pam was caressing her stomach before the botanist's fingers started traveling south. Harley's breath hitched when she felt her former patient rub her digits around her bikini bottom covering her nether regions. This caused Harley to break her kiss as she also needed to catch her breath.

" **You know, Harl…"** Ivy coyly said as she rubbed her blonde friend a bit more to make her breath a little deeper. **"My sister and I do have to admit that while in Arkham, we had fantasized about some doctor/patient time on a more... personal level."**

'You don't have to tell her that!' Pam yelled out in their head with a maddening blush.

' **And why not? We're going to be sharing each other, so why keep this secret from her and our beloved?'** Thought the darker persona as she claimed Harley's lips with her own.

"Hmm~ Doctor/Patient relations… Kinky." Muttered the Uzumaki as he gained a smirk before he placed his lips onto Harley's neck to start leaving hickies in his wake.

Harley could practically feel like on Cloud 9, 10 or beyond that as she was writhing in pleasure. Her cheeks hot, butterflies were in her stomach and her pussy wet… Well wetter since she's currently in this flower jacuzzi. The blonde had heard their comments as many thoughts came to mind of various forms of foreplay started to form.

'I'll have to remember these later.' Thought the pale blonde as she kept switching mouths with her two loved ones. Though this changed when she felt her puddin pull down her bikini top and started pinching her light pink nipples. Harley mewled in pleasure once they ended their kissing activities.

Pulling away, Ivy and Naruto looked at Harley's milky white breasts as they were perfectly shaped for the blonde's figure. Briefly looking at each other, the two lovers shared the same thought as they dived right to Harley's valley and took a nipple respectively. The pale woman loudly gasped on the feeling as they sucked, slurped and bit her sensitive nipples. Not wanting the feeling to end, Harley held their head's closer as she felt Naruto caressing her stomach with Pam still playing with her clothed pussy.

After several minutes of them eating out the blonde's breasts, Naruto and Pam let go of her nipples to see them diamond hard. Looking at said woman, her blue eyes gained a lustful glint on her reddened face. And without any warning, Harley attacked the redhead by ripping off her bikini top and ate out her breasts. If that wasn't enough, Harley's hand dived underneath the botanist's bikini bottom and inserted her fingers inside.

Pam cried in surprise on her friend's actions but yearned for more. As she pushed Harley's head deeper into her breasted valley, Pam brought Naruto's face onto hers as they went into a makeout session. Though the Green champion started to squirm a little as Harley started to shake her pussy in a rapid succession in just the right way. She even thought that Harley's fingers must've grew longer since she swore one of her spots was repeatedly being hit down there.

" _ **O**_ _h_ _ **~ G**_ _a_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **!~"**_ Pam cried out in her dual voice as she felt herself cum. It wasn't strong like the previous times she had sex with both Naruto and Selina, but it was still good on what she felt. _**"T**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **f**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _t_ _ **g**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **t~"**_

"Glad you approve." Harley said in a cheeky grin before her eyes traveled elsewhere.

Naruto and Pam stopped their actions, which was a small series of kisses, when they saw the blonde's eyes looking at certain places on their bodies. Not only that, but Harley appeared to be drooling when she looked more so towards Naruto's groin, which gained a fully masted tent underneath the swim trunks.

" _ **W**_ _o_ _ **w…**_ _I_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **e**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _I_ _ **'m**_ _g_ _ **o**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _a_ _ **y**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _i_ _ **s…"**_ Pam reached towards Harley's chin and lifted it up. _**"**_ _B_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **y**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **u**_ _p_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **."**_

"Oh, I know that, Pammy." Harley said as her hand went towards Naruto's groin and felt his hardening length before pulling the article of clothing down. Once his member was released into the damp air, the pale woman swallowed a lump of air in her throat. "Just… Can't believe it's finally here."

Pushing Naruto down onto the edge of the jacuzzi, Harley soon parted her puddin's legs before situating herself right in front of it. "Naruto's penis." She muttered as she felt the hot, wet member in her hand. "I want to lick and suck on it forever."

"Then why don't you?" Naruto asked in a deeper tone. "Take your time, my angelic Harley Quinn, it's not going anywhere."

Swallowing another lump in her throat, Harley moved her hand up and down his shaft. She soon took tentative licks around the crowned head and it's sides. Seeing this happening, Pam grew a bit more hot and bothered and wanted some action. So cupping Naruto's face, she brought the man in her life into a searing kiss as she used her free hand to play with her drenched garden. The botanist would join Harley down there, but this was the blonde's time to enjoy Naruto's cock, not hers… for now.

'I can't believe I'm finally doing this.' Thought the blonde as she started slurping all over her puddin's cock. 'After all these nights of fantasizing about this and keeping my erotic dreams hidden from him is finally coming to life.' Looking up from her spot, she saw Naruto moan into Pam's mouth from her actions. 'Time to take it up a notch.'

Without warning, the blonde slowly took the entirety of her puddin into her wanting mouth. It surprised Naruto on the added, feeling, causing him to stop kissing the redhead to see his blonde lover in action. After moving his cock all the way through several times, Harley took it out to show his spit covered member.

"This tastes great." Said the pale psychologist as kissed his balls before inserting one into her mouth while jerking him off.

"Damn…" He breathed out as he leaned further back in his spot.

Pam was clearly enjoying the site and started to salivate a little from her position. Butting her lower lip as she inserted another finger into her burning garden.

Once letting go of his balls, Harley spoke in a whisper. "Go ahead puddin, fuck my tight little throat. I know you want it so bad."

Naruto wasted no time as he grasped her blonde hair, immediately burying his cock to the hilt into her mouth and used it as a cocksleeve for a few moments. In a quick instance, he realized what he did and pulled back in thinking he would've hurt her.

"Oh kami. I'm so sorry Harley." He said as he leaned down and checked if she was fine.

Harley looked up at her boyfriend and saw the loving concern in his gaze. She smiled softly to know that he cared for her safety; like Pam, Selina and Cat Grant over in National city. She knew that with regular sex, you can give in to that sexual side of yourself and things tend to go rather crazy. Harley heard several of her co-workers complained the awful things their partners did during sex.

Point is, they should sometimes abandon reason and go fully carnal on each other. But there usually needs to be some form of communication to see if things are completely fine with going in certain directions in both love making and sex. Just to be sure both/multiple party members are safe, fine, etc.

'Should've talked to Naruto about this a little more.' She thought as she nodding 'yes' to him before taking his member into her mouth all the way to the back of her throat.

"Do you not have a gag reflex?' He grunted out as he started to thrust into her throat. The pale woman made a gurgling noise the Uzumaki took as a no. "Oh god! This feels great!"

Harley, meanwhile, was happily slurping and swirling her tongue along the underside of her boyfriend's member, humming as it descended deep into her throat. Harley's hand had found its way to her bikini bottom and pulled them down so she could have better access to her moist pussy. Before she could play with herself, she felt a pair of hands holding onto her butt cheeks.

" _ **T**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _k_ _ **s**_ _a_ _ **b**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _l_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **y**_ _d_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _c_ _ **i**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **."**_ Said the redhead as she spread Harley's cheeks to see the pale pussy and puckered rosebud. Pam didn't say anything else as she dived in and started to lick and slurp Harley's nether regions. This caused her former doctor to loudly moan, which caused vibrations to happen around Naruto's tool.

These actions continued for quite a while as the botanist paused her actions before slipping in a few fingers into Harley's pussy to get it wet and lubed. As she did this, the redhead moved a bit higher and gave a lick at Harley's cute little asshole. This caused Harley to jolt on the feeling and ring her butt around before feeling Pam eat her pussy again before inserting her middle finger into her puckered ass.

'Oh god!~ This feels incredible!~' Thought the asylum doctor as she was practically humping Pam's face into wanting more. She soon used one hand to keep herself supported while the other fondled his balls in hopes of making him cum sooner. She wanted her extra birthday gifts and she wanted them now!

"Fuck Harley, I think I'm going to cum." He slightly shouted. The erotic sight of Harley orgasming from being eaten out while deepthroating him already made him hard and horny for quite a while. He wasn't surprised that this hadn't lasted as long as other times. It was however, one of his most pleasurable times though with many more to come.

Instead of pulling off, Harley just upped the ante, bobbing even faster as her head was guided along by Naruto's hand. "Oh fuck, Harley!" He finally said, shoving her onto his cock and releasing his seed into her. As he shot stream after stream of cum into her mouth, Harley came, riding out her orgasm with her spraying her juices onto Pam's face.

With a resounding pop, Harley pulled back before swishing around the salty liquid within her orifice in an erotic manner. She then presented her little present to Naruto and Pam before swallowing her load. "Hm, not bad, not great either, but I definitely wouldn't be opposed to drinking this every day."

"Every day?" Naruto said in surprise, staring at her with wide eyes. She just stared back at him lustfully and gave him a wink.

Moving away from Harley's ass, Pam savored the taste and thought the juices was pretty sweet, just like the blonde before her. She then waved her hand and had the jacuzzi drain the bubbly liquid before making the large flower morph and grow many flowers inside of it into a very comfortable bed for the three to lie on.

Propping herself on a slanted part of the flowerbed, Pam spread out her legs to her two lovers. _**"I**_ _b_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _e_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **'s**_ _m_ _ **y**_ _t_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **n**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **, H**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _l_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **."**_ Said the botanist before looking at their boyfriend. _**"W**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _n_ _ **a**_ _j_ _ **o**_ _i_ _ **n?"**_

Naruto oddly looked at Pam on figuring out how the current action might actually work at the current moment. Harley, on the other hand, nodded before crawling towards her former patient. Instead of just going directly to the redhead's snatch, Harley went all the way to Pam's breasts, grabbed the tip of a rose colored nipple and gave her teasing licks before inserting it into her mouth.

The botanist let out a pleasant hum and bit her lower lip once more as she held her friend close to her breast. And it wasn't long before Naruto came up to Pam and took the other breast into his hands and played with it as well. Practically mirroring the actions earlier when the pair assaulted the pale woman's breasts were now happening to the plant woman.

After some time of sucking and biting the rosy nipple, Harley let go before giving Pam a kiss on the lips with a small biting tug on the redhead's lower lip. From there, the blonde started a trail of wet kisses around her neck all the way down back to her breast, her stomach and then Pam's sacred garden.

Taking an involuntary sniff, Harley thought on the odd fragrance she wifed up. 'Huh… roses.' She shrugged a little at this. 'Figures with her being a plant lady and all would choose flowers for her _flower_. But like any flower, Pammy's got thorns.' Looking up, she saw the warm gaze her gal pal gave to her as it was filled with trust and want.

Before long, Harley slowly ate Pam out. It was a pleasant feeling as the blonde's tongue rolled around into the redhead's petals and nub before inserting into her small hole. Pam was enjoying the feeling as she let out several moans before she was silenced once Naruto inserted his cock into her wanting mouth. There Pam was being taken care of on both of her lips as she enjoyed the experience.

After several minutes of their current actions, Naruto came into Pam's mouth as she finished enjoying the current serving of the only meat she'll ever enjoy partaking. As she released her hold on him, she motioned Naruto to do a certain action towards Harley. Knowing what she's implying, as they've done this several times with Selina, the Uzumaki made his way towards Harley's backside.

Not knowing what was currently going on, all due to the pleasant tastes she was partaking from Pam's pussy, Harley was seemingly oblivious to anything else. Well… that was until she felt something long, hard and hot brushing against her nether region. Turning her head around, she saw her puddin rubbing his cock against her folds in getting ready to go all the way with her.

Harley smiled when seeing this, causing her to voice something she wanted to say for a very long time. "C'mon puddin'~… don't ya wanna rev up your Harley?~" She asked as she held up her hands and motioned of reving up a motorcycle engine. "VRROOOOM! VRROOOOM!"

He chuckled with a mirroring smile while Pam merely rolled her eyes at the bad pun towards her name with the Harley Davidson motorcycles. _**"O**_ _f_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u'**_ _d_ _ **s**_ _a_ _ **y**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t,**_ _H_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **l."**_

Harley playfully glared at her girlfriend and pointed an accusing finger at her. "Hey! At least I have something fun and sexy in our playtime with my- SHIIIT!" Reason why Harley yelled out in the end was her feeling the sudden entry of his cock into her vagina. "Oh god!" She panted out as his large girth stretched her open and his length pressed against her cervix. He was filling her up completely, a feeling she had never experienced before with her last boyfriend.

In fact, it was hard for her not to cum right then and there.

"Damn." Naruto hissed as he felt her velvety wall tighten around him in a vice-grip kind of tight. With her abstinence on sex for years, why wouldn't she be this tight with how she was milking him. And he didn't even moved yet.

So the feeling alone was even more amazing when Naruto did start moving in a slow pace before speeding it up along the way. Harley couldn't contain her moans, grunts, huffs or pants inside as the feeling of him pounding away at her with such strength, speed and rhythm was too much for her to stay wanting to waste the moments, Pam grasped Harley's head again and brought it down to her garden so she could continue eating her out.

As the minutes went by, Pam felt she was about to cum from just Harley tending to her snatch alone. Even Harley felt the same as Naruto was groping and squeezing her ass only spurred her pleasure even further. Before long, she felt Pam squeeze her thighs around her head as she eventually orgasimed.

As the torrent of fluids ended, Harley crawled up closer to her botanist friend, with Naruto still inside of her. Once close enough, the pair shared a heated kiss as the sounds of slapping skin joined the song of their pleasurable moans. The blonde's chest meshed with the redheads as each time their boyfriend thrusted without any restraint.

Whenever separated, Harley could only speak in babbling tongues as her own tongue was hanging out of her mouth with drool. She was clearly enjoying herself with her insane grin that promoted a fucked silly expression. Both Pam and Naruto could barely make out was she was saying as they were among the lines of 'cum' and 'fuck' every so often. Even when he pushed past her cervix and entered her womb made her become even more crazy in bliss.

Feeling his balls tighten, Naruto knew his time was near now. "Harley! I'm gonna cum!"

"Ghauve mii zhe cum nhow, poudan!" ("Give me the cum now, puddin!) Was all the blonde spoke out before Pam brought her back into another kiss as their tongues dueled each other. And before long, he finally came inside of her and filling her to the brim, causing her to loudly moan in utmost pleasure as she reached her own orgasm.

But it wasn't just a normal orgasm, mind you, as it was a painfully blissful one which shook her entire body. Something to show how satisfied she was as she squirted while cumming on her puddin's groin.

Naruto didn't bother pulling out once he was done as he enjoyed the tightness and warmth Harley provided him with. The psychologist collapsed onto the botanist as the publisher landed on Harley's side as the pair caught their breaths. Even Pam had to for a little bit as she was trying to come down from her sexual high. During the entire encounter since Harley left her snatch, Pam had been fingering herself like crazy to keep up with the pairs thrusts.

The three stayed there for minutes on end as Harley's womb greedily soaked up Naruto's baby batter with him cumming a little bit more from just being inside her cunt. Harley did have a mini-gasm as Pam was able to reach down and feast on her pale breasts while Naruto tried to hump her even more to keep his sexual high as long as possible.

 _ **-Lemon End-**_

After a good ten or so minutes lying there to steady their heartbeats and breathing patterns, Harley properly spoke with a blissful glow. "That… That was amazing..."

"I'm glad you loved it Harley." Said their boyfriend as he planted kisses alongside her neck.

Once letting go of Harley's breasts, Pam brought Harley into a kiss before speaking to her. "I enjoyed it as well."

"Yeah… it was one hell... of a transformative experience." Naruto and Pam shared a confused look on what Harley meant by that, causing her to explain her thought process. "I think I might've become a… _vegetarian…_ cause I ate a _veggie_ and I liked it." At this point, Pam and Naruto buried their faces in their hands for a facepalm on what Harley was referring to. "Get it? _Ate_ a _veggie…_ Eh~ Eeeeh~"

"Harley… We love you and all, but your puns are really hit and miss." Said the botanist as she saw her friend's face scrunch up in playful annoyance.

"Whatever…"

After a few more minutes, the three looked at each other and didn't say anything else as they kissed each other again. After slipping out of Harley, Naruto went into Pam as they started up their love making once again. But this round was of smooth, passionate sex for the three of them before it went into one dealing with raw, rough, brutal sex involving entrapment vines and void clones.

 _ **-Later-**_

'That was truly enjoyable.' Pamela thought as she looked at Naruto and Harley spooning each other in a blissful sleep. 'I am so glad to have this happen between us and I can't wait to do that again.'

Standing in the flowerbed, she moved her hands to create a grass-like blanket to keep the pair warm for the time being. Pam would be joining them soon in the Dreaming or just a dreamless sleep as she had something else to do right now.

Making her way off the flowerbed, the Green champion stepped out and walked through her garden one corner she had various forms of security stationed by her lab. Mostly containing a lot of venus fly traps and various forms of poisonous plants. Once close enough, the hidden entrance opened up to reveal a small tunnel with something glowing on the far end. Coming into the secret room, Pamela stared at a large pool of glowing green liquid with various plants encircling and growing out of it.

She waved her hand, causing a vine to appear from the ceiling. It soon morphed into a suction like tentacle that was reminiscent to a turkey baster. And with another wave of her hand, the tentacle moved to her nether regions and inserted itself into her as it extracted Naruto's seed before pulling out.

Walking to one part of the room, she opened up a series of beakers and tubes before pouring them into several flowers as they closed up into buds. Once done, the 'turkey baster' vine injected the sperm into each one before the flower buds sank completely into the green liquid in the room's center.

"I hope this works." Pam muttered as she saw the flowerbud silhouettes lying dormant. "And all I have to do now is wait and see if they'll stabilize within the next few days. If not, then I'll have to try this again and again until I make this right."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Sorry for the delay in uploading this, but things have been rather complicated on my end. Several people at work quit/got sick and I had to pick up the slack as things were getting really busy. This caused me to become rather exhausted enough for me to lose interest in writing for a time. Not only that but I've been visiting family out of state and a lot of my time has been eaten up by them.**

 **Now I have to admit, this was a bit of a challenge for me as I wanted this to primarily focus on the Sirens instead of Naruto/Vanitas or Bruce/Batman when fighting against this chapter's big baddie. Did so since it'll give me experience on other chapters when I do primary focuses than the main characters in the story. More of the other centered focused stuff, if you will.**

 **Besides, I also wanted to think of a way the Sirens could (somewhat) handle things on their own without Naruto around.**

 **Though this posed a problem for me that I had to rewrite certain scenes a few times on how they should go in terms of combat.**

 **Speaking of, it took a while to figure things out on how the girls fight respectively as Pam is more of a mid-long range fighter from what I've researched, but would sometimes be a close range fighter, if needed, while primarily being support team member. Selina is a short-mid range fighter as she tends to fight quite close for obvious reasons. With Harley, figured she'd be a full range fighter especially once she gets her hands on more firepower to help out with her long range capabilities.**

 **Now if you guys wonder about the whole birthday situation, yes Harley was born in late September as they did the whole comic stuff released months ago on her 25th anniversary since her first appearance in the DC franchise. As for Pam, well I couldn't figure out when her birthday was placed at. If there was one listed somewhere, well sorry but I'll have to ignore it from now on as this bit will just be it for my story.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	47. But Mommy, Nobody's There

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 43: But Mommy, Nobody's There**

It was a rather cold, Autumn night as the wind blew to add more of the chill to a certain area of Gotham. In a somewhat run-down suburb in Gotham, with how poorly it's appearance has kept up over the years, something seemed amiss. From a dog suddenly barking for no reason into the night and to faint footsteps being heard on the pavement. Soon the footsteps met with the wet grass and crunching leaves as they appeared to be encircling a certain house in the neighborhood.

Coming to a window, it seemingly opened up all on it's own with no one in sight. If one were to look inside, they would see a child's bedroom as it had several toys lying about. The faint footsteps drew closer to the bed, which clearly had a child underneath. And all of a sudden, the lamp by the child's bed turned on as the cord was pulled.

"Kimberly?..." Spoke a disembodied voice in a soft tone. "Kimmy… Kimmy… Are you awake?"

The child turned over in her bed to show her vibrant blonde hair as it went towards her mid-back. Her eyes cracked opened to show her innocent blue eyes as they scanned the room. For a moment, she thought she heard her mother calling her.

That was until she saw one of her dolls floating in the air, indicating one thing.

"Mojo, you came back!" Said the blonde child in glee as her imaginary friend came back to visit her again. 

The friend chuckled a little as he made the doll move its arms a little for good measure. "Sure I did, sweetie. I said I would, didn't I?"

"Uh huh."

Soon part of the bed sank down to show her friend was sitting down on it as he placed the doll back into her arms. "Look what I got for you." He said as he pulled out a gold locket with a small diamond in the center from his invisible jacket.

Kimberly's eyes sparkled when she the nice piece of jewelry. "It's beautiful." Soon her hair went up for a brief moment before the locket went around her neck. "Thank you, thank you."

"You're welcome, sweetie." Mojo said with slight happiness in his voice. "Now don't worry. I know that what you've really been hoping for is a pearl necklace." Kimberly had a feeling at this point her friend was scratching his chin or hair at this point in slight embarrassment as he stood up from the bed. "I haven't found the right one yet, but Mojo promises he'll bring you one next time he visits."

It was at this point the blonde child gained a saddened expression across her pretty little face as she looked away from her imaginary friend. Seeing this happen, Mojo spoke in a worried tone. "Kimmy, what's wrong?"

"Next time better be soon or you might not find us."

"...And why's that?"

"Mommy says we're moving." Answered the child which got her to hear Mojo gasp in shock. "She says things will be better for us someplace else. Someplace safer."

"...I see."

Before long, a soft knock was heard from the bedroom door. As it opened, it showed a mother in her early thirties with her short blonde hair held back by a black headband. She wore a red sweater with a pair of black pants and shoes.

"Kimberly, who are you talking to?" Said the mother as she looked around the room. "I swore I heard somebody…"

Kimberly smiled as she answered. "Nobody, mommy. It was just Mojo." 

Her mother faintly smiled as she let out a chuckle on the reference with her imaginary friend. "Oh, I'm sorry. I probably just missed him then. I would've said hi."

"But he really was here, mommy."

"I know, honey, I know." She said as she tried playing along. "Now go to sleep, okay? You've got school in the morning."

Back outside of the home, the window slowly closed shut once the mother closed the door to Kimberly's room. From there, the footsteps walked away from the home and onto the street as they appeared louder with the feet harshly stomping on the ground. And before long, a trash can was dented by an invisible kick with a following angry growl into the night.

 _ **-Next Day, Downtown Gotham-**_

It was currently raining for most of the day as the clouds overhead didn't clear up at all. Though a silver lining was seen as it's been only a light drizzle for a good chunk of it.

Parking on the side of the street, a man got out of the car as he wore a grey jacket and pants combo with a black sweater underneath to compliment his slicked black hair and eyes. Closing his car door, he locked it up just after pulling out his light grey briefcase before turning his attention to one particular building. Not just any building, but one that was currently hosting a jewelry expo with today being it's last.

Once getting inside, the man made his way into the men's restroom. Checking each of the stalls, the dark haired man saw no one, asides from him, was currently in the room. Making his way towards the door, he twisted the lock so no one would stumble in unannounced.

Just in time too as he heard someone trying to open the door from the other side. "Hey! Who locked the bathroom?! I gotta go bad!"

The dark haired man chuckled slightly before placing his briefcase onto the counter. Opening it up showed some sort of grey cloth-like material. It took several minutes for the man to cover himself up with the cloth from head to toe and once done, he activated something with his watch. The light around him started to shift before he apparently became invisible to the naked eye. Even when he grasped his briefcase again, it soon turned invisible as well.

Back inside the expo floor, Naruto was looking over a stand where a nice selection of Swiss watches were out on display. He's been meaning to get a new one as his previous one recently broke on because of water damage. And the salesperson said the digital watch would've been fine with water exposure… heh, yeah right.

While he was at it, Naruto though on getting ones for Lois, Cat and Talia. The Uzumaki had considered getting ones for his girlfriends, but they appeared fine with either not getting one or currently fine with the ones they had. With Lois, he forgot about her birthday back in August and needed to get her something decent as a friend. Same went with Cat…

Well not on the lines of a late birthday present, since hers is in January, but just something for her to remember him by since he still thinks fondly of the 'media queen' out West.

As for Talia, Naruto figured he might see his old friend sometime soon with how she said she'll visit again in the coming future before leaving town last month. And with him not getting her a birthday present for close to a decade now, he might as well be prepared just in case… Along with the fact he still doesn't know when her birthday is exactly.

"...A most handsome selection, isn't it Mr. Uzumaki?" Asked the salesperson.

Naruto looked over the Swiss watch in good detail and saw nothing out of the norm. With a small smile, he spoke. "I think I'll take it." Just when he was about to sign the warranty papers of the watch, and pull out his wallet for his credit card number, the Swiss watch was snatched out of his hand by some invisible force. "...What the hell?"

The watch floated in the air before it seemingly disappeared into nothingness with various other items on the table. Both Naruto and the salesperson were freaking out, especially when they saw many other merchandise from other tables were being picked up and disappearing as well.

"Holy smokes!" Said a saleswoman selling diamonds.

"Police, police, over this way!" Said a man getting his watch stolen.

Help! Security! I've been robbed! Said a woman as her priceless necklace was ripped right off her neck.

Left and right, people were being shoved out of the way by some unseen force while their expensive belongings were being taken. The security arrived in the room to try and calm down the masses as they were scaredly baffled while trying to stop the invisible man. Of course, this proved useless as their weapons were stolen without them noticing and practically defenseless.

Not liking the look of things, Naruto quickly ran into the nearby restroom and formed his Vanitas attire around his body before quickly phasing through the walls. By the time he got back inside, so no one would possibly suspect his civilian identity, Vanitas saw the back entrance opened with the incapacitated guards.

When near the opening, the masked Uzumaki picked up a sound. "Footsteps?" He ran through the doorway and ended up in an empty alleyway with signs of construction around the area. From the wet cement covered up by tarp to other equipment that were left behind by the workers.

Wanting to pinpoint the invisible thief, Vanitas activated his thermal/infrared vision of his helmet capabilities and saw something was off. For some reason, he wasn't picking up anything at all on where the thief was currently at as the hero still heard the footsteps.

"Who are you?" Vanitas said as he went on guard in a loose stance. "I know you're in here." Out of nowhere, the hero moved out of the way as a cement knife was thrown at him from the side. "Cute. Real cute."

Vanitas then the tarp being stepped on, causing him to look over to see the temporary indentations. Pulling out a smoke bomb from his utility belt, he threw it at the tarp which soon went off. With the smoke filling up the area, Vanitas saw a silhouette inside to get a good idea on where to aim towards. As he ran towards the invisible man, the hero grabbed a can of paint nearby and opened it before splashing it's contents onto the thief.

As he was partially revealed, the thief kept running as he went towards his watch to activate something. Soon the paint started to burn away to hide his form once again. As Vanitas possibly caught up with him, by guess work, he turned the corner and saw he ended up in a crowded street. With all the people walking around, the masked Uzumaki cursed to himself when he realized the thief had managed to get away by perfectly blending into the populace undetected.

 _ **-Later, Elsewhere-**_

It took a while to get back to his rundown apartment as he was able to escape from Vanitas' clutches. After running through the crowds for a while, the man decided to head back to his car once he knew the helmeted hero lost track of him. He would've done this sooner, but the invisible man just wanted to be sure he wasn't being tracked.

Once inside of his home, he flipped the light switch and dropped his suitcase full of stolen goods on the couch before making his way to the kitchen for some food. Having to run for your life worked up one hell of an appetite. At this time, he pulled off the invisible cloth from parts of his body after turning his equipment off with his watch. With a sandwich on hand, he got to his dining room table where a framed picture rested at.

As he sat down, the man gazed at the photo of a blonde, blue eyed little girl; the man scowled while speaking. "A better life somewhere else, huh? Where your dear old dad can't find you? That's what she really meant!" The dark haired man gritted his teeth as he thought of his ex-wife. "Well, don't you worry, Kimmy. She's never gonna take you away from me. I won't let her. You hear me? I won't let her."

 _ **-Next Day, Spiral Publishing-**_

"...How are the current projects coming along, Harry?" Spoke the Uzumaki as he looked at the handful of people standing in his office. Said people were little representatives from each of his departments as they were sent to converse with their main boss for the weekly meeting. This mostly occurs if the company is being overhauled on projects and assignments as Naruto doesn't want to keep checking on things on a daily basis when he gets bored.

"Things are looking well in the advertising department, as usual, boss." Spoke Harry Matthews as he flipped through his clipboard charts and reports. "A lot of companies keep requesting us to help make their posters, catalogues and the like. So we've got no shortage on that."

"And upcoming books, Harry?"

"Posted, as usual, in some of our magazines."

Naruto nodded before looking towards one of his new employees: Alexander Knox, former reporter of the Gotham Globe. A man in his thirties with light brown 'poofy' hair was cleanly shaven to fit with his white button up shirt, red tie and grey pants. Even had a small messenger bag on his side to keep most of his belongings while on the go.

You see, the Gotham Globe newspaper company was starting to go under not long ago. This was all due to sales dropping with their rivals, the Gotham Herald and Gotham Gazette, doing much better business-wise. After some convincing with his board of directors and his new company partner, Cat Grant of CatCo Worldwide Media, Naruto decided to buy out the newspaper and merge it with his own to 'expand his influential reach', as it were.

...Cat's words, not his.

And now they not only put out magazines for their stories and articles, but also newspapers.

"So Alex, any good stories to tell?"

Alexander Knox gave a small shrug as he flipped through his notebook. "Well, sir, there's not much going on lately, crime-wise. After these Sirens suddenly appeared to take down Killer Croc, things have been rather lax for the past week. Though they have appeared a few times to supposedly help out Vanitas and Batman on some instances."

'Yeah, I figured as much.' Naruto thought as he scratched his head. 'We were the first to publish the story, which gave us a good jump on sales, but things are now dying down.' Putting his attention back to his reporter, he asked what came to mind. "What about the 'invisible man' robbing the jewelry expo I told you about? Any more information about that?"

The reporter shook his head. "Sorry, Naruto, but nothing is creeping out so far. Though I'll let you know if I get something."

"Right. Now, asides from that, plan on heading out to Central City by weeks end. I heard there's something going on with STAR labs' main station there. Something with with an accelerator, I believe, that would really change the scientific world." Turning his attention to one of his artists, he asked his next question. "And what of the new concept arts for some of Blizzard's books, Maggie?"

"They're progressing well." Said the British woman. "I emailed the images for confirmation earlier today and just waiting for their responses."

"That's good." He then looked at the last employee in his room: Helen Smart from their website department. "And are there any problems with our sites? I heard earlier there were some, Helen."

"There are, sir." Said the blonde as she rubbed her arm. "Some of the new programs and software we got are causing some concerns. But I believe our guys at IT are getting things cleaned up as we speak."

The Uzumaki nodded when hearing this. "I'll go by Wayne Tech later today, in person, and talk to Bruce Wayne if I can get us better software than from what we were given. Could've been a virus that slipped through their eyes when making their new products."

Looking at his office clock, along with his stomach rumbling a little, Naruto realized it was probably time for lunch. "Then I believe we're good for now." Said the publisher as he stood up from his desk. "Do whatever else is needed for today, guys."

Everyone nodded as they exited the Uzumaki's office to go into their separate ways. Some went to their respective departments while others decided to go get themselves lunch. When Naruto made it to the elevator, the door was about to close when someone placed their arm in between to reopen the passage.

It didn't take much for the Uzumaki to notice that it was Helen from earlier. "Hey, hey."

"Oh, hello Naruto."

"Going down?" She nodded yes. "Lunch, I take it?" She nodded once more, causing him to press their desired floor to get them to the building's cafeteria.

On the way down, the blonde woman looked towards him and gave him a small smile. "Thank you again for getting the transfer to happen, Naruto."

He just shrugged in response. "It's no problem, Helen. We needed to transfer people over to Central City and you volunteered to be sent over there."

"Yes and I hope I'll be able to get Kimberly into a safer city than from here. No offense, by the way."

"Eh~ None taken. You've gotta do to keep your precious people safe. And if that means moving them somewhere else, then by all means do so-so they'll have a better life."

Helen nodded with a small smile on her face as the elevators opened. They stepped out to go to their separate ways in the cafeteria as others entered the compartment. It wasn't long when Helen went over to the vending machine for a little treat when someone came into her peripheral vision.

He was a man that was several years older than her with his black hair slicked back with his dark eyes to match his black sweater and grey suit combo. He was someone she did not want to ever see again for what he's done to her. For he is her ex-husband.

"Hey, babe. Long time." He said with a wry grin.

Helen narrowed her eyes and walked away from him. "Not long enough, Lloyd."

"Did they tell you about the parole?" Said her ex-husband as he tried to catch up to her. "I'm living in Gotham now."

"I don't care what you do as long as you don't do it within 100 feet of me." 

"The restraining order? You don't need that anymore." He grasped her arm, causing her to go stiff at the touch. "Look… when I was a bum, it made sense, but-"

"What do you mean, "was"?" She asked, pulling her arm free from his grasp before getting into the cafeteria line.

Lloyd wasn't enjoying of her ignoring him, again, causing him to make a scene in the company food area. "Come on, babe! Look at me!"

Helen didn't look at her ex-husband at all and she didn't care if many of her co-workers were looking towards her. She gathered her desired meal consisting of a chicken salad with several apples and a small bottled juice. When she got to the end of the line, she saw a can of coca-cola placed onto her tray.

Turning to the source, she saw Lloyd place it there as he pulled out a wad of cash out of his jacket pocket. "...How many all-night gas stations did you have to knock over for that?" She asked with disdain. Lloyd tried to pay for her lunch, but she shoved the hand away and took the soda off her meal tray. "Keep it. I don't want your dirty money, Lloyd."

Helen paid for her meal and left the line before her former husband caught up with her when she placed her tray onto an empty table. "But everything's different now, Helen, can't you see that?" He said in desperation in his voice. "I can give Kimmy everything she'll ever need. 

This seemed to set off the blonde as she turned towards him and growled. "You stay away from her, Lloyd!"

His pleas started to grow at this point as he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Come on, babe. If you could just let her see me-"

"Keep your hands off me!" She yelled out, causing many in the cafeteria to go quiet. "I told her all about you and what you've done! She knows you're not to go near her."

"Is there a problem here?" A voice called out from behind, causing them to turn around to see Naruto standing not far away from the arguing pair. "I can get security here, right now, if there is."

"No there-"

"Yes there is, sir." Helen said, interrupting her former husband. "This man is violating my restraining order and harrassing me."

"Now wait just a second, Helen." Lloyd went to grab Helen's hand, but she jerked it away at the last second. "Cut me some slack. I'll give you anything you want." 

"Want?! All I want is for you to disappear and leave. I never want to see you ever again." 

This caused Lloyd to narrow his eyes as he saw many people keeping a good look at him. Security was supposedly called in to possibly escort him out of the building. Holding up his hands in defeat, Lloyd started to walk away. "Okay, okay I'll leave." He soon muttered to himself as no one could possibly hear his personal threat towards his ex-wife. "But just remember the old saying, Helen: Be careful what you wish for."

As the man left the area, many conversations slowly returned. Though many would occasionally glance at the blonde woman, who was taking deep breaths to calm herself down. When she sat down to possibly eat, her boss sat down right in front of her with a boxed lunch of his. "Mind if I sit here, Helen?"

"...Not at all, I guess."

Getting a good read out of her, he spoke the obvious question in mind. "I take it he was your former husband?"

She breathed out a sigh in response. "Yeah, he is."

"And I take it he's the reason why you requested the transfer?"

She went still for a moment before answering. "Yes."

"Wanna talk about it?" Helen was quiet as she took her first bite of her meal, causing him to speak again. "It's fine if you don't want to. It's your story to tell, if you like to or not."

The blonde woman sighed as she placed her fork down. "The divorce happened while he was in prison." She then went to her apples and started cutting them up. "He used to work for some mob boss when Kimberly was just a baby. I didn't know what he did back then as he kept it a secret from me. I didn't know where the money was coming from since my main priority was focusing on our little girl."

Taking a bite out of the first apple slice, she continued once swallowing. "Then, one night, the police came and took him away with a warrant for his arrest as they spotted him committing a crime before fleeing away. I didn't believe Lloyd was involved until the police gave me detailed reports on what he'd done: breaking and entering, larceny, murder, you name it as he'd done it."

She continued on with her meal for a few moments before picking up where she left off. "Took awhile for me to scrounge up the money back then on the move and hopefully get away from him. But it seemed Murphy likes to screw me over and have Lloyd find me after all this time."

"So not only did you not want to move away to protect yourself and your daughter from the dangers of this city, but also to hide from Lloyd as far away as possible."

"Yeah and I hoped that working hard enough here, I would be able to request the transfer to really throw him off our trail. Now I just hope he'll never find us again, for Kimberly's sake."

 _ **-Later, WayneTech-**_

It took a bit of time to figure out when would be the opportune time to arrive at WayneTech. With his loads of paperwork and assignments to look over, Naruto had to work through the majority of them before figuring it would be the right time to leave the office for his errand. As the Uzumaki walked through some of the hallways of the building, he was able to stumble across one of the men he was looking for: Lucius Fox.

When the CEO turned around after speaking with one of his employees, he spotted the whiskered man coming his way. "Well hello, Naruto. Good to see you."

"Nice to see you too, Lucius." Said the publisher as he shook hands with the man.

"What brings you here?"

"Well, for starters, there were some concerns with the software my company got from here and my boys at IT think there must be some virus that must've got into the system."

Lucius nodded as he ushered Naruto to follow him. "Yeah, we've been getting some complaints about this from some of our buyers. So we planned on doing a recall pretty soon so we could figure out the problem before giving everyone the software they initially wanted."

Naruto sighed in relief when hearing this. 'Great. Now that possibly solves one problem.'

"Though you could've just called us just to save you the trouble in coming here, Naruto."

"It's no problem at all, really. Needed to get out of the office and get some air for a bit."

The Wayne Enterprises CEO chuckled a little in agreement. That changed when he possibly read the Uzumaki's mood. "But I believe that's not just the reason why you've come here, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I figured you could've gotten me on that one."

"Then let's speak in my office where we'll have more privacy."

The pair made it to the elevator and took several minutes of travel to reach the CEO's office. In that time, Naruto did ask if Bruce was in town. Lucius stated the billionaire was currently in Chicago to oversee and confirm some projects in the labs over there so he won't back for a few days. Once locking the door, the CEO typed down a code by the entrance to get things secured.

"Over protective much?"

Lucius shrugged in response. "Well you can't be too sure these days. So what's up?"

"Well… You've heard about the 'invisible man' robbing the jewelry expo yesterday, right?"

"So you know that _I_ was there, right?"

The CEO nodded once more as he was informed of Naruto's _nightly_ activities by Bruce himself. Saying that the whiskered Uzumaki could be trusted, but one can't be too sure lately.

Naruto sighed in relief as he talked with Bruce at a prior point on who else knew about him being Batman. So far it's a pretty small list with Lucius being one of them. "Well reason why I came on by, asides from my software problems, was to see if possibly WayneTech is responsible for this invisible man."

"Not that I could think of, Naruto. As far as I know, none of our equipment has been stolen with everything accountable." The publisher sighed a bit as he would've thought he could've gotten a lead, but it seems he'll have to- "But I do recall there being something last year about an invisibility project."

This seemed to peak Naruto's interests as he possibly has something now. "What do you mean, Lucius?"

The CEO walked to his desk and started typing things into his computer before displaying the information on his screen. "There was an inventor named Karos that wanted us to go into business with him with some plastic he called: 'The Cloak of Invisibility'."

"Sounds like something from a fantasy novel."

Lucius chuckled in agreement. "We were interested in hearing more on what it could do exactly, but for some reason, Karos withdrew his proposal before we could close a deal."

"Did you guys wonder why?"

"Not much, I'm afraid, since Karos was pretty hush hush on the specifics but made it sound really interested on the idea. Though we did keep the offer on the table if the man wanted to bring back his proposal."

"So did he ever get the chance to talk to him again?" Naruto asked, getting Lucius to suck in his teeth a bit. "What happened?"

"He passed away a couple of months ago."

"Oh…"

"But I've heard that his assistant, Sam Giddell, was trying to carry on his research."

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he gained a bit of suspicion behind this. "Mind giving me his address?"

 _ **-Evening, Karos' Lab-**_

Vanitas was looking down through a skylight where he saw Sam Giddell tightening up the restraints on large rolls of plastic. And if these were what he heard before, then he possibly found what he was looking for. But before he could confront him, he needed to check on a few things.

Jumping down to the main level of the building, Vanitas phased his way through the doors before entering the laboratory. He stuck to the shadows as he walked towards the scientist's office to find out some clues as to what was going on. Phasing through the door, Vanitas started searching when he came across the filing cabinets. Many of the files were nothing noteworthy as his main focus was anything related to the 'invisible man'. It took a while before finding something close as the file was labeled 'Camouflage'.

'Hope this is promising.' He thought as he opened the file and started looking through the details. 'Huh… Interesting.'

Once done, he placed the file back and made his way out of the office. With him possibly getting what he needed, the hero wanted to confront this assistant for more answers. But before he could get the chance, the nearby bookshelf tipped over to cover the hero in various containers and boxes.

"Okay, you, come out of there." Said the assistant as he growled at the intruder. He bent down to try to find any sign of the man when he spoke up. "I don't know what you think you're doing-"

He was soon interrupted when he was grabbed from behind and shoved to the nearby wall. The scientist was startled and was about to fight back when he noticed Vanitas right in front of him. "You! I-I didn't know!"

"Are you Sam Giddell?"

Sam nodded in slight nervousness. "Yes, I am. But what do you want?"

"Where were you two days ago?

"Here. All day." He said as he calmly placed his hands onto the hero's forearms. "If you let me go, I can prove it. The building security saw me… Hell, you can check!"

"...I believe you." Vanitas said as he let go of the scientist. Once the atmospher seemed to calm down, he spoke up. "Working kind of late, aren't you?"

Sam pointed towards the large rolls of plastic on the other side of the room. "I wanted to prep the last of the stuff for disposal."

Taking a better look at the material, it was indeed plastic, but there seemed to be something inside of it. "So this is that 'cloak of invisibility' plastic your boss created?" Sam nodded in response. "How does it work?"

"Give me a second and I'll show you." Giddell went to the workbench and pulled out a foot long sample of the material and clamped each end down in place. Once done, he clamped something else onto the bottom before pulling out what appeared to be an electric baton. "It's really quite remarkable."

"Is there a point to this?"

Sam nodded before pointing to the material. "Do you see those filaments embedded in the plastic?"

Vanitas activated his 'hawkeye' to see closer from his position. He did indeed see a good amount of fibers and filaments mixed into the plastic. "I do."

"Well not anymore." The scientist soon pressed the baton onto the material, causing it to electrify for a few moments before it… disappeared? "Run an electrical current through them and the stuff bends light instead of absorbing it, so you can't see it."

"Really? But I saw in the report that it could also hide away heat signatures."

"Right you are." Sam chuckled a little. "My boss really wanted to really make someone invisible so not only does this make one invisible through the regular eye, but also through thermals. He hoped to possibly use WayneTech as a way to go into the military for further pitching."

"Why's that?"

"Wanted to have the material sewn into fabrics for specific people in armed forces or something on very dangerous extraction assignments so they wouldn't get caught."

"So why pull back the proposal?"

Giddell sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "There… was a problem when we went into further testing. One of our guys got really sick since the plastic became toxic. If one were to wear it for too long with the material having good enough skin contact, the stuff seeps into their pours and you can figure out the rest."

"But what about putting this stuff on like cars or planes?"

"We tried that as well." The scientist then pulled out a lighter and flipped it on. Once bringing the flame close to the material, it quickly went up into flames before Sam used a fire extinguisher to put it out. "Turned out that possible flame exposure would cause further problems." He sighed as he sat down on the nearby chair. "I've spent two months after my boss' death trying to correct the problem, but it's hopeless."

"So you were gonna dump it?"

Giddell looked at the helmeted hero as he raised his voice. "Properly, mind you. It's way too dangerous in normal means… Though, funny thing is, some of it seems to be missing."

"How so?"

"At first, I thought it might've been me using most of it for further testing to see what I've done wrong, but I threw that out of the window with me getting my corrections right."

'Then that must mean someone stole some of this.' Vanitas thought before saying what came to mind. "Who else knows about this stuff?"

"Only the other assistant… Well… Actually he was more like an errand boy."

"Mind telling me who he is then?"

The scientist nodded before answering. An ex-con. Goes by the name's Ventrix, Lloyd Ventrix." 

'Lloyd… Ventrix?... Isn't Helen's husband...' Thought the hero before his eyes widened on what he processed. 'Shit! I need to get to her now!'

 _ **-Smart Residence-**_

Helen was taking out the garbage for the evening after cleaning up her home. It was a long day at work and once getting home, she had to prepare dinner for her and Kimberly before continuing packing with the upcoming moving day. Sure it was several weeks away, but Helen wanted to be sure she got many things sorted out before then.

As she was about to make her way inside, a voice spoke up from behind. "Ms. Smart." Helen jumped in her spot and quickly turned around to see Vanitas standing some feet away from her. "I'm here to warn you about something. It's rather urgent."

Inside of the Smart residence, Kimberly was fiddling around the pearl necklace Mojo just gave her mere moments ago. "Oh~ it's so pretty, Mojo. It's exactly what I wanted."

"Well I did promise I'd get it for you, Kimmy." Said the imaginary friend as she felt herself being lifted up and put into a bridal carry, causing her laugh a little in the process. "Now, come on. I wanna show you something real special."

"Where are we going?" Kimberly innocently asked.

"Oh… You'll see."

Back outside of the residence, Vanitas was finishing explaining to his employee what he recently learned earlier in the evening. "...And prolonged exposure to the plastic can damage the mind, as well as the body."

Helen felt unnerved on hearing what her ex-husband was probably doing. 'This does explain that large wad of cash he was flashing earlier today at lunch.' Helen thought before something started to bother her. "...Did you say he can make himself invisible?"

"Yes, why?"

"...Oh dear god! Mojo!" She yelled out as she ran past the helmeted hero.

"Who?"

The blonde woman ran inside of her home and stumbled in step as she slipped on the carpet. She quickly got back up and ran towards her daughter's room. Opening up the door, she saw the bedroom window was wide open… with her daughter nowhere in sight.

"Kimberly! Kimberly!" She yelled out in desperation before she collapsed onto the ground as tears poured down her cheeks. "Oh dear god, what have you done, Lloyd?"

Vanitas came into the room and saw his employee on the ground sobbing. He knelt down and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder with a firm squeeze. He felt horrible on what happened to her and swore he'll her daughter back. But first…

"Who was this Mojo you spoke of, Ms. Smart?"

Coming out from her little fit of tears, Helen answered. "I… I thought Mojo was just her imaginary friend. I never would've thought…"

"It's not your fault, Ms. Smart. You didn't even know." He said as he helped her up. "Now… How long ago did you last see your daughter?"

"It was five minutes ago when I put her into bed."

Vanitas nodded before making his way out of her home. "I promise, Helen. I'll bring Kimberly back into your arms. No matter what." 

_**-Abandoned Drive-In Theater-**_

Kimberly was not liking where Mojo was taking her. It was all dark and scary. Why did Mojo bring her here. After traveling for a bit of time, Mojo finally let her down as he brought her to… a car?

"Here we are." Said her imaginary friend as he opened the car door.

"You want me to get in your car?"

"Now, Kimmy…

"But it'll look like the car is going by itself." She said in concern. "Won't we get in trouble?"

"No, Kimberly, we won't."

She then felt her arm being pulled as Mojo was leading her into the car. Kimberly pulled back, getting herself free from his grip. "I… I don't know."

The blonde child heard him let out a tired sigh and felt his gaze upon her. "I'll tell you what, maybe if I let you see me, you'll feel better." This left her utterly confused on what Mojo was talking about until his face slowly revealed itself to her with his slick black hair and dark eyes. "Hi, Kimberly."

She gasped in shock of the floating head, causing her step back a few paces. "You're a man?" Kimberly tried to go away, but felt the sleeve of her sleeping dress being held onto. "I gotta go, Mojo. I'm not supposed to be with strangers. Mommy told me."

'Mojo' brought her in close as his head ducked down to her level so they could properly look each other in the eye. "But I'm not a stranger, Kimberly. I'm your daddy."

Hearing this proclamation felt like the time when she saw The Empire Strikes Back on the big reveal towards the end of the movie. "M-My daddy?" Blue eyes quickly widened on the realization before her as memories started to come to the forefront of her mind. "G-Get away! Mommy says you're not allowed to come near me!" The grade schooler tried to get away from his grip, but him squeezing her arms wasn't helping. "She says you're a bad man and that's why they locked you up!"

Lloyd wasn't liking this at all and realized his daughter wasn't going to willing come with him. "Never mind what your mother said! You're coming with me whether you want to or not!"

"Not in this lifetime, pal!" A voice spoke out from behind. Just when Lloyd turned his head around, he was tackled away from his daughter by the helmeted hero of Gotham onto the ground. "KIMBERLY! GO! NOW!"

The blonde child didn't have to be told twice as she ran away as her legs could take her. Kimberly cried out a little in pain on the sharp little rocks and small pieces of glass on the ground, but she needed to get away! She needed to get back to her mother!

Back with Vanitas, he was currently dealing with his employee's ex-husband as the two struggled for dominance. Each one delivered punches onto the other with the criminal having his fists starting to bruise against the hero's glass domed helmet. Lloyd was able to break free and run away towards his car once he kneed the hero's groin before punching his sternum.

As Vanitas tried to recover a bit on the ground, he soon saw the one car door close as sounds of electricity filled the air. Before long, the car started to turn invisible to the world around it, causing the hero to realize Lloyd covered his vehicle with his stolen plastic. Just when he got up from the ground, the car's engine roared to life before it started to drive right towards him in hopes of running him over.

"Oh crap!" Vanitas cried out as he started running away from the invisible car. "Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!"

This went on for a few minutes on the chase as Vanitas could've just jumped and rolled out of the way. But he needed to hopefully get his timing right with his next course of action to take Lloyd down. Briefly looking back, Vanitas saw the dirt and tire trail behind him as he mentally counted down to jump and gasp onto the invisible vehicle.

'Gotta do this in 3… 2… 1!'

As he turned around and quickly jumped, the masked Uzumaki was barely able to hang onto the car's roof by the crevice between the front windshield and the piece of metal. Just when he thought he was secure, Vanitas soon felt the car speed up as it drove out of the abandoned movie drive-in parking lot and into the streets. It twisted and turned all over as many cars had to serve out of the way when seeing Vanitas seemingly flying and way too low on the ground.

Not really enjoying the several times he was almost thrown off, Vanitas brought out one of his Foundre daggers and punctured a hole onto the car roof to keep him hanging there. Before long, he leaned towards the car's drivers side and tried to punch the window in, but realized it's reinforced. "Give it up, Ventrix! The suit's toxic! It'll kill you!"

From inside of the car, the helmeted hero could barely hear what Lloyd was saying through the growing hole on the car roof. "Don't hand me that! I'm not feeling any pain! Not like you're gonna feel!"

Suddenly the car swerved once more as the two ended up in the railway lot before getting onto the train tracks. Vanitas wasn't going to enjoy the idea on what's about to happen, especially since he was hearing a train coming their way. Having enough of this, the hero phased his arm into the car and grasped Lloyd's clothes. There was a bit of a struggle, but the hero pulled him out of the car when Vanitas rolled off of the roof.

Just in time too as the one train came closer and closer and impacted the car, completely demolishing it in a fiery blaze with only the train heavily intact.

The pair rolled painfully away from the nearby destruction as the the fire grew in the background. Vanitas groaned a little as he got back onto his feet. Seeing the fire not far away, he quickly summoned a clone and sent it off to take care of it with his ice shield.

"Lloyd, the suit! It's poison." Cried out the hero.

"So what if it is?!" Yelled out the invisible man as he delivered a punch across Vanitas' damaged helmet. "I don't care!" Several more punches and kicks were successfully landed soon after. "As long as I have it, I can take my daughter back whenever I want! Her bitch mother won't be able to stop me, and neither will you!"

Just when he was about to hit the hero once more, Lloyd felt his limb being grasped. "What?!"

"Took a bit to get you real close, Lloyd." Said the hero as he quickly twisted the invisible man's arm. "Had to really pay attention to your annoying voice." He said as he remembered the time last month pertaining to the Vertigo incident, with both him and Batman having to resort to their other senses to make it out alive. Pulling him close, Vanitas was able to pull off the man's cloth-like mask to reveal his face to the world. "Peekaboo~ I see you~"

Soon Lloyd felt a world of hurt as he was given a large series of punches across his body as his placement was currently seen by the hero. He couldn't do a thing as his covering wasn't fully there, leaving him to be a literally target for Vanitas to let out his frustrations on him. Before long, the 'invisible man' fell down onto the ground, groaning in pain.

"Now get ready for your biggest disappearing act, Ventrix." Growled out the masked Uzumaki as he placed a pair of handcuffs on the man's arms. "The one where no one sees you for 10 to 20 years. The one where you'll never see your daughter ever again, asshole."

 _ **-Few Nights Later, Smart Residence-**_

It's been quite the eventful time for the past few days for Helen and her daughter. After the attempted kidnapping on her daughter, Vanitas was able to save her precious little girl and bring Lloyd to the police so they would know what transpired. All of the stolen property was returned to their owners once they found Lloyd's apartment with many of the incriminating evidence to really be sure he'll get locked up for what he's done.

After what happened, the article was released in their Spiral magazine as one of their main stories. It was indeed rough on most people at work kept telling her the typical phrases on them being sorry and whatnot. It was getting old after the first half hour or so, but Helen was indeed feeling better

'Now, at least, the move will go a whole lot smoother than I possibly would've realized.' Thought the blonde woman as she went to her daughter's room and tuck her in for the night.

"...Me and Mommy are moving." Helen heard her daughter's voice speaking with someone. "Even if Daddy gets out of jail this time, he'll never find us."

With recent events still in her mind, Helen's fears took over in thinking someone dangerous was in Kimberly's room. Opening up the door to her daughter's room, she peaked inside and saw Kimberly standing by her bedroom window. Being curious and a little defended, she spoke up. "Kimberly? Who are you talking to now?"

Kimberly turned her head around and spoke the honest answer. "Just Vanitas, mommy."

Helen sighed in complete relief when hearing this. She then chuckled a little. "Oh... Him again."

"But he really was here, mommy."

With a smile on her face, Helen escorted her baby girl into her bed to tuck her to sleep. "I know, honey. I know."

Unbeknownst to the mother, Kimberly was indeed telling the truth. Standing on the rooftop, Vanitas smiled underneath his helmet. He's been checking up on the mother/daughter pair while out on patrol. And he'll keep doing this until Helen and her daughter finally move away from this city to live peaceful lives somewhere else.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **I can understand this episode could've been put under the radar by many fans of the DCAU, but I thought it could've been interesting to use if done right. I wanted to somewhat bring in a bit of focus on this kind of situation as custody battles suck or something of that nature. Then again, some of these things are necessary if a certain parent or 'guardian' is really bad and the separation is really needed to keep the child safe.**

 **Well that and I thought this chapter would be done quicker since the next one's gonna take a while with what I have planned for it.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	48. An Eventful Weekend

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 44: An Eventful Weekend**

In a dimly lit room, a pair of figures were kneeling down in a spotlight as they waited for someone to arrive.

"...My legs are falling asleep."

Doing so for quite some time actually.

"Shut up Minato."

"...Not only that, but the spotlight is making me really hot." Hiraishin stated before he turned his head towards a particular monkey-themed assassin. "Why is that? I mean it's dimly lighted."

"Minato. Shut. Up."

"Am I having heat flashes? I heard men have it too."

Before Silver Monkey could snap at his assigned partner, which is rather loosely termed mind you, someone arrived. It wasn't really audible on the person's arrival as no footsteps were given. It was just the mere presence the two former League assassins felt.

Briefly looking up, Hiraishin and Silver Monkey saw the familiar glowing green eyes of Odysseus' mask before looking back down.

" _ **You're wondering why I summoned you here, yes?"**_ Odysseus questioned as he gazed at the two, whom briefly nodded. _**"There is something I want you two to take care of for me."**_

"Which is what, Lord Odysseus?" Silver Monkey asked.

" _ **Earlier today, I was informed from one of our Ghosts that Warith al Ghul has been spotted after disappearing from our radar last month."**_

Hiraishin and Silver Monkey exchanged glances in varying degrees. Warith al Ghul, otherwise known as Talia al Ghul, has been known of covering her tracks really well as she doesn't like staying in place for too long. All that the pair knew on where she tends to stay at for long periods of time are both Infinity Island and Nanda Parbat.

...Not to be confused with the monk temple located in the Himalayas since both places share the same name… in an odd form of coincidence.

Anyways, the last time the pair heard of Talia was when Vertigo was sent to Gotham to acquire the sonic device from WayneTech for HIVE's glory. The mission ended in failure as he fell to his death by the hands of the unexpected teamup of Warith, Batman and Vanitas. Though it can be heavily blamed on Vertigo's incompetence he had throughout his assignment.

Regardless, Talia hasn't been seen since… until now that is.

"Do you wish us to take care of her for you?" Questioned the Hiraishin with a small smirk. "I could shock her body to death before bringing it back to life to do it all over again, if you'd like."

" _ **No."**_ Odysseus simply answered, much to Minato's disappointment. _**"As tempting as it is, Hiraishin, that is not your assignment… since I would like her alive, if possible."**_

"...Then what is it, sir?"

" _ **I want you two to see what Warith is doing at her current location and learn of her intentions."**_ Answered the cloaked man. _**"Capture and interrogate her. The other heads and I want to know what the League is doing and any of their current operations."**_

"What better information one would get than from one of the higher seats." Chuckled the meta-assassin.

"It will be done, my Lord." The monkey-themed assassin said. "But, I have to ask. Where was she spotted at?"

" _ **...Gotham City."**_

 _ **-Morning, Naruto and Pam's loft-**_

*BEEP BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Harley groaned awake as she tried turning off her alarm clock by the nightstand. The pale woman tried searching for it without opening her eyes. After smacking her hand down a few times, Harley was able to shut it off so she could maybe try to fall back asleep.

This wasn't the case as she was greeted by several kisses which got her to fully wake up. Only they were further south than she expected. Her breath hitched on the surprise before mewling on the feeling she was receiving. Opening her blue eyes, Harley saw her lover's figure underneath the sheets and eating her out.

The psychologist was going to say something when she felt her clit get bitten and stimulated it just the way she liked it. She groaned once more as she was starting to hump into her lover's face. Harley wanted more from the stimulation, especially when feeling her puckered asshole getting licked and played with.

"O-O-Oh god~" She mewled out as she placed one hand on the person's head to keep it there. The other one was placed over her heart and felt how fast and hard it was beating. "Don't stop~ Don't you dare stop~"

The order didn't stop as Harley felt the tongue and fingers driving her crazy on her lower regions. Her breathing became erratic as pressure was building up inside of her. This continued for quite some time until Harley brought her thighs together and screamed out a silent noise as her release came.

Harley panted for air as she felt the bed sheets shift. It wasn't long before a familiar ravenette popped out from under the covers before kissing the blonde. They shared their kiss while swapping some of Harley's essence between themselves.

Breaking away from the kiss, the changed psychologist spoke. "For a moment there, kitty, I thought you were puddin."

"And what gave me away?" Selina asked as she fondled her friend's chest.

"It was your tongue, for obvious reasons. It was really easy to make out with it's rough feel."

The ravenette chuckled as she kissed Harley once more. "Of course it was."

"And where's puddin?"

"Right here." Came the reply as he came into the bedroom with two trays full of food while wearing a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. Setting them down, Naruto looked at his two girlfriends while shaking his head. "You couldn't wait to do that, huh Selina? I heard you two while I was making you guys breakfast."

The Red champion snatched a piece of toast from the large try before taking a bite out of it. Once swallowing, she replied back. "It was hard not to with how we left things off last night." She then nudged the blonde's arm with a smirk. "Especially with Bubbles here being the ever present screamer."

Her pale cheeks reddened before looking away in an embarrassed huff. "Whatever, Buttercup."

Naruto chuckled once more on how things were going in their polyamorous relationship. Ever since Harley's birthday, the psychologist has been rather hungry when it comes to sex. She practically has been wanting it almost every day, one way or another. Whether it's having it with her boyfriend, either one of her two gal pals, or a combination of them to make things rather exciting.

Neither really minded as they explored things in their shared relationship which made them feel much more closer with the bubbly blonde than before.

Taking a swig of orange juice, Naruto spoke. "So, Harley, Selina, you got any plans for the day?"

"Nothing really as much as I know so far." Replied the environmentalist. "Hard to somewhat tell with Shizune planning on moving out very soon. Practically a lot of my schedule revolves on what she got for me."

Selina's friend and assistant was proposed by her boyfriend, Iruka, quite recently and he asked if they could move in together. She said yes on both fronts, but was concerned with Selina living by herself. Said woman didn't mind as their lease was going to end soon and had asked Naruto if she and Isis could move in with him. It would be a tight fit, but the Uzumaki thinks he could manage when the time comes.

"Well this just shows you can't really rely on her all the time, ya'know."

"True."

Taking a bite out of her pancakes, with lots of whip cream on top, Harley gave her answer. "Well~ I was thinking of having fun with you since it's your birthday tomorrow, puddin. And I have work off the entire time. I even have a half-day today at work."

'Oh yeah… that's right.' He thought as he looked at the calendar to see this was his birthday weekend with tomorrow being his _special day._

Looking at his face, Harley adopted one of concern. "Is something wrong puddin?"

"No, not really Harley." He said as he was eating an apple. "Just was never much for celebrating my birthday. That's all."

"Really?" Selina voiced out. "Is it just because of your crappy childhood or something else?"

"A little bit of both actually."

"How so?"

Naruto sighed a little as he scratched his head. "It was mostly my childhood, at first, with the whole 'fox hunting' bit I had to deal with on my birthdays. But as time went on, I just didn't really think my birthday was really special." He soon felt his lovers' hands on his own while giving him a reassuring squeeze. Giving them an appreciated look, he continued. "Sure, I had a handful of people help celebrate it, but it wasn't really much to build up from."

"And what about coming _here_?" Asked the pale blonde. "What about afterwards?"

"...First year wasn't all that much with Talia just giving me my forged identity papers while we were traveling together. Second year was better with the two of us having a blast. Years after that one, enjoyed my time back in Metropolis with few people that really wanted to celebrate it with me. Once in Gotham, I just started to fall out from celebrating it." Answered the Uzumaki as he finished up his fruit. "But as you know, time tends to make one grow out of things and I just consider my birthday just another day for me."

"And yet you wanted to make our birthdays very significant to you." Selina stated as she folded her arms, causing her breasts to be pushed up a bit.

Naruto chuckled soon after. "Well, why couldn't I? You three are the best people in my lives right now and I wouldn't trade the world for anything else."

"Aw~ So sweet~" Harley cooed out as she glomped Naruto in an enduring hug. "And you're one of the best people in my life as well, puddin." Pulling back a bit, she gave him a seductive grin. "In fact~ I possibly wanna give you an early present."

Their boyfriend soon spoke in mocked confusion. "And what would that be?"

Harley got up onto her knees and got close to her boyfriend. Inching closer and closer, the pair were about to kiss with their eyes closed. Naruto leaned further in… yet met with nothing.

Opening his eyes, he saw Harley munching on her breakfast in bed with Selina beside her. Feeling her puddin's gaze on her, the pale woman quirked a brow on his confused face.

"...What? I'm not gonna let this food get cold, ya'know." She said before eating a piece of bacon. Though at the corner of her mouth, the Uzumaki saw hints of a shaky smirk. "Oh and your present will be given later."

For the longest time since he known the psychologist, he could tell what that particular smirk was despite her masking it by eating tasty meals. She out played him, even if it was just a little joke. Even seeing Selena control some chuckle while dining down on her breakfast.

Shaking his head, Naruto exited the bedroom so he could prepare Rachel's morning meal. Stepping foot outside he closed the door behind him to give Selena and Harley some privacy, if they decided to pick up their activity from earlier.

Though he seemed something was amiss when he saw a teapot on the backburner… Something he didn't place on the stove beforehand.

Looking around slightly, he sighed. "So… what kind of tea would you like this time, Talia?" Walking closer to the kitchen cabinets, he then listed off what he had. "Sorry that I don't have cinnamon, which I know you really like, but I have... peppermint, black, earl grey, blueberry, apple, and ginger mint."

A feminine chuckle was heard soon after, causing Naruto to look towards the nearby hallway. Leaving the darkness, the publisher saw his old traveling companion in loose jeans, black shoes and a grey shirt underneath a jean jacket. Talia even had her hair tied in a ponytail as she wore a pleasant smile on her beautiful face.

"I'll be fine with ginger mint, Naruto." She responded as she got closer to the kitchen counter. "And you know how I like it, right?"

"Two sugars, a drop or two of milk; and depending on the tea, a small dab of honey. Oh and let's not forget a pinch of rat poison." Was the reply. Turning his head around, he rose a brow. "I know you like to build up your immune system, but to this day I still think that method doesn't fully work."

"You have your mindset, I have mine."

The Uzumaki rolled his eyes as he pulled out the ginger mint and a pair of cups. "So when did you show up?" He asked as he picked up the teapot and filled it up with water.

"Not that long ago."

"Patio window or the front door?"

"The later. Easier that way."

"Uh huh." Turning the stove back on, he placed the teapot on the backburner before getting his breakfast started for more than just himself and his ward. "So why are you in town for Talia?"

"For you." This earned a mild-surprised look from the publisher. "What? You thought I was in town for business?"

"For either yourself or your dad? Yeah, that's what comes to mind after knowing you for two years."

Talia looked mockly hurt by that. "Oh you think so lowly of me. Its as if you'd think I didn't care."

She received a chuckled grin in return. "I'm just giving you crap, Talia. And it's good to see you again."

And like that, the Demon's daughter smiled back. "Likewise."

Getting the plates out for himself, Rachel and now Talia. He continued making the meal as the skillet was getting the new batch of pancakes made. "So you're here for me then. What for?"

"Your birthday."

"...Excuse me?"

"You thought I wouldn't forget your birthday now, did you?

Scooping up the first pancake and placing it in a plate, Naruto started on the next one. "No. I didn't expect you'd come here for just my birthday, Talia." Walking over to gather some toast and jam, he continued. "But I do appreciate you for coming."

"Your welcome then." Seeing the plate of food slide before her, she got her utensils before cutting into the delicious smelling flapjack with blueberries and chopped strawberries inside. "I know you don't like celebrating it, but I'd thought you could have another close friend with you for the occasion."

Naruto chuckled before hearing the upstairs bedroom open up. He didn't need to look away from the stove to see Rachel was exiting her room with a faint pitter patter of her feet. "Morning Rachel."

"Morning Naruto." Came a slightly groggy tone from the ashen ward. She then took notice of the extra guest sitting by the kitchen counter. "Hello Talia."

"Hello Rachel."

Getting into the barstool, the violet haired child awaited for her meal to be given to her, who asked for waffles instead of pancakes this morning. Looking over at the older woman, Rachel asked the question that came to mind. "Why are you here, Talia?"

"I'm just here to visit Naruto for his birthday."

This bit of information got Rachel to blink in confusion before nodding. She almost forgot her guardian's birthday was tomorrow. At the moment, she hid his present in her closet and hoped he'd like it. The ashen child worked hard in her studies, under her new teacher, to make it right for what he's done for her ever since coming under his care.

When the breakfast was still being made, the front door was being unlocked. It was soon opened to reveal a yawning redhead as she scratched her scalp. And slung around her shoulder was her messenger bag as her clothes seemed disheveled.

"Morning Pamela." Came Talia's greeting.

Blinking her green eyes, Pam looked towards the source and saw Talia eating breakfast with Rachel and Naruto. Her tired mind tried to process what was going on, especially wondering why the dark haired beauty was here.

She opened her mouth and tried to say her thoughts, but Naruto beat her to the punch. "Here for my birthday and came here unannounced." Looking back at the stove, he continued to stir the pancake mix for more servings with his first girlfriend's arrival. "So would you like pancakes or waffles, Pam?"

"...Waffles are fine." Was the redhead's response. Dropping her messenger bag on the couch, she walked to the kitchen counter and sat next to Talia. She soon placed her head onto the cold counter as she got a raised look from her boyfriend.

"Long night at work?" He asked. "Didn't see you since yesterday afternoon."

"Yeah. Had several projects to wrap up so I could be free for the next several days."

"And how'd that go?"

"...There are days my skills on multi-tasking way thin." Tilting her head up to show Naruto her deadpanned look, Pam continued. "And I'm jealous on you doing so damn well with multi-tasking."

Naruto and Rachel knew what Pam was referring to. The red haired botanist tends to use her chlorokinesis in finishing her work a whole lot faster. Like, for instance, occasionally uses vines as impromptu hands.

Yet Pam has to limit her powers greatly while at work. She doesn't want to draw attention towards herself, resorting to her old methods before her life-changing day last year. But Pam quickly got too used to her powers that limiting them tends to stress her out.

And this wasn't the only thing she was referring to at all. Naruto often uses his clones and it seems unfair for the botanist. Pam had the capability in making plant clones, but this might risk revealing her powers if the clone goes through some sort of accident. From being more capable on catching flames to slicing herself to reveal the unnatural green blood.

The publisher sighed. Coming towards his first girlfriend, he rubbed her back to sooth her in just the right way in the given situation. As this happened, the pair missed the slight change in Talia's blue-green eyes as they had a tinge of jealousy.

'Wish he could do that to me again like all those years ago when I was really stressed out.' Thought the Demon's heir. 'God. I forgot how it feels.'

"Anything I could do to help ya, Pam?"

Said woman hummed a pleasant sound as she liked the feeling she was getting. Her boyfriend knew just how to make her feel better that wouldn't result in them having sex right away. She didn't process his words right away, due to her comforting pleasure at the moment, but an idea did come to mind.

"Do you have plans for lunch, Naruto?"

"No… Why?"

"I wanna go on a picnic."

Naruto blinked when registering her demand. "Huh. We haven't gone on one in a long time." He said before shrugging. "Sure, why not."

Pam smiled before hearing Naruto's bedroom door opening. The group then saw the quickened form of Selina rushing out of the apartment as she quickly said a brief goodbye. Wasn't long before Harley came out with the empty trays of food in her Arkham attire.

"What's up with her?" Asked the botanist.

"Oh Buttercup forgot she had a prior work engagement and Shizune called her at the last minute." Came the pale blonde's response. As she got to the kitchen sink, she saw the extra person in the room and gave out a brief wave. "Hiya Talia. Good to see ya."

Talia merely waved back before going back into her meal.

Harley soon got up to Rachel and hugged her head before kissing her violet locks. Looking over to Pam, who's back was still being rubbed, Harley asked the obvious question in mind. "Was work really that bad last night, Blossom?"

"Yeah. It wasn't great, Bubbles."

The pale woman nodded before seeing the curious look from Talia's face. "What?"

"Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup? What's with the nicknames?"

The changed psychologist brightened a little. "Oh yeah~ that. Well I was watching cartoons with Rachel and Artemis the other night and this cute show popped out of nowhere. Sure it's just a pilot, but I liked the little girls a lot."

"...And the names?"

"Well~ I call Selina Buttercup since she's quite tough. I call Pam Blossom with her botanical profession." Was Harley's response. 'Not to mention her powers.'

"And I assume Bubbles is you because… of your upbeat personality."

"YUP~ And that Bubbles gal sounded a lot like me when I was in Kindergarden!"

Naruto chuckled a little. When he first heard Harley call Pam and Selina their respective nicknames while out on the field the other night it clearly threw them off. Sure, it became an odd idea soon after with field codenames while on the radio, but it helped than calling themselves Vanitas, Catwoman, Poison Ivy and…

…..

...Yeah… Harley doesn't really have a good alter ego name that doesn't really give out hints on her _actual name_.

"Well I should get going." Giving Naruto and Pam a nice hug, Harley made her way out of the loft. "Oh and Naruto. Be sure to have yourself clear tonight."

Naruto blinked in confusion. "Okay and why?"

"You'll see!~ Bye~"

Once the pale blonde was out of the door, the silver haired male looked over at the redhead. "Any idea what she's talking about?"

Pam got up from her seat and went over to get her serving of pancakes. "Something about paintballing and the Crocks getting roped into coming along." Looking towards Rachel, she continued. "And both Harl and Paula asked me to watch Jade, Artemis and Rachel for the time being." Pam then looked back at her boyfriend. "I'm tired and I don't care if I spilled the 'big surprise activity' or not."

Naruto nodded before looking over to the nearby clock and saw what time it is. "You should probably hurry up and finish getting ready, Rachel. Your weekend lessons start soon."

The ashen ward nodded as she placed her dishes into the sink before making her way back into her bedroom.

"What weekend lessons are you talking about, Naruto?"

"Just a hobby she picked up interests with." Came the quick reply. Naruto wasn't going to outright tell his old friend what Rachel does on weekends. That was a private matter.

"Can I come with you?" Asked the dark haired woman, gaining Naruto's attention in the process. "I got nothing else to do and thought we could spend some time together before your picnic with Pamela here."

"I'm fine with it." Said the botanist. "I'm just gonna take a nap before then."

Looking back at Pam, Naruto could see her looking like she's about to drop. Coming to her side, he kissed her head before telling Pam to take it easy and let him know when to pick her up. And after finishing up their breakfast, both Naruto and Talia saw Rachel come down the stairs in a fresh attire before the three headed out.

 _ **-Park Row-**_

Park Row, otherwise known as Crime Alley, has been looking better than it's decline for the past thirty years. It was once a decaying cesspool for thugs and criminals. But after the allegations against Roland Daggett with the Clayface fiasco, things have been improving considerably.

The streets have been cleaned up and so have it's buildings. All because of several donations brought in from various contributors. Among those were Bruce Wayne, Naruto Uzumaki and Kurama Otsutsuki; whom has remained anonymous.

Parking on the side of the road, Naruto and Rachel got out of the car while Talia waited inside. From inside of the vehicle, the Demon's daughter looked over the area and gave out a pleasant hum. The last time she was in this part of the city was when her father brought her here as a child. It was all for her to learn one of the many examples of the world's corruption.

From the decrepit area of corruption and decay became a recovering home for the innocent. All because of various people actually giving a damn to fix a degrading wound.

Her blue-green eyes wandered around a little more until they landed as to where Naruto and his ashen ward were at. When the publisher knocked on the door, it opened shortly after. Talia was going to ignore who answered their call, but paused and widened her gaze in surprise.

'What the…' She thought. 'How the hell does Naruto know Jason Blood?' This question, along with many others, filled the assassin's mind as she was left by herself inside of her former student's car.

When escorted inside of the Blood residence, Rachel left Naruto behind so she can get to the library where her lessons take place. As she did so, the Uzumaki chatted with the ancient knight turned possessed man.

"So Jason, how are things?"

"Doing quite well, Naruto."

"That's good. And how was that trip back to England go earlier this week?"

"It went fine. Visiting the home country this time of the year helps raise my spirits. Even if it's just a little."

"Oh, hiding something interesting? C'mon don't hold back!" Naruto said with a good nature smile.

"And why would you think I have something to hide?"

"You tend to be extra polite and make things less exciting… or that can be Etrigan talking." Naruto joked as Jason's deadpanned frown made the mood tease. "Ahem, jokes aside, any news about the old baty witch ever since weeks ago?"

Jason shook his head. "That's actually the alarming thing, nothing has changed. Either she's in hiding or… no it couldn't be the latter." Jason quickly wave his hand to dismiss the notion. "Alsa for now the magical side of my world is normal… as one would suspect."

The Uzumaki scratched his head on this bit of information. "Huh… Weird. Regardless, how's Rachel's studies coming along? Been asking her about them, but she just says they've been fine and nothing else."

Liking the change of topics, the ancient knight walked further into his home to where his library resided. "Quite the student. I fear that if she was around the time Merlin was alive, the poor girl would've been driven insane from the wizard." Jason said with a sad smile. "But indeed her self-study is great as she learns more about her own powers. Not for craving more power, more rather to control it. She reminds you that perhaps determination runs deeper than any bloodline."

This got Naruto to smile a little. "So what can you tell me about her skills?"

"Hmm, well I can tell you, for starters, that she's an empath mage." Seeing the deadpan look on the whiskered man's face, Blood explained. "Asides from sensing one's emotions, Empath mages primarily use magic that are tied to their own emotions. Even fueling her spells with said feelings.

"Huh, I guess that makes sense. She does handle herself better in situations than most kids her age, but I thought being a orphan toughens you up." Naruto said with a serious nod.

"True, but I can tell you that Rachel's a special case. Which, I'm afraid, I can't give you the specifics as to why. And don't bother trying to pressure me to spill them since it's a rather sensitive topic."

"I thought so and won't ask. But when Rachel is comfortable enough to tell, I'll be there…" Naruto said with a warm smile as Jason gaze was now appreciation to his kindness.

"That's all I ask really, even her." When they entered the library, the two men saw Rachel reading through one of the books she grabbed off of the table. Jason did keep Naruto a good distance away so the young child wouldn't hear their conversation more. "But I do have some concerns, pertaining to her emotions."

"What do you mean?"

The possessed man ran his fingers through his hair. "Where she came from exactly, the Empath practitioners were taught to suppress their emotions to keep things under control when using their spells. Rachel here has a good amount of knowledge on this particular branch, but some details astound me."

"How so?"

"To my knowledge, she would've had to barely show emotions at the current time. Yet she clearly shows them with you around and her powers don't act wild. There's even some residue of your presence that lingers onto her to keep the suppression going."

"So something in me is preventing from going off the chain. Got it." Naruto summarize himself as Jason twirl his hand.

"Or lack, thereof."

"Say what now?"

"Something that pertains to your powers. As Morgana said all those years ago, your powers were like from the Void… or tied to them somehow."

"Oh right, uhh, can't really explain that."

Jason nodded as he rubbed his temples. "Me either. But pertaining to Rachel, her powers are a double edged sword. With her specific heritage that if she taps too far into her powers, she might draw demonic entities to her location." He said as he left out a detail pertaining to Rachel's _father_.

"Don't need to explain that part, Jason. Trust me, in a way… I also had that fate for a while…" Naruto looked down with hollow eyes. "But any tips for keep them away besides silver and salt?"

"Asides from the typical meditation exercises to relax her very being and clear her mind, she'll need to watch out on her anger as it'll really cause problems later on. And since her Empath powers are very strong, that emotion could corrupt her if left unchecked."

"Alright, I'll try not… shit damn hell!" Naruto comically whisper with a pale face. "I swear to god I hope that she doesn't became a Sakura…"

"Who?"

The Uzumaki shook his head. "No one you should worry about… Anyways, on the meditation exercises, I can clearly help her out with that."

Sensing truth from the publisher, Jason nodded before seeing Rachel's guardian leave the premises as he'll return later when her lessons were done.

When he got outside, Naruto made his way to his car. Once he was inside, he was greeted with a curious expression plastered on Talia's face. "Yes?"

"Who was that?" She asked in an oblivious tone, knowing full well who that man was exactly.

"Just Rachel's weekend teacher."

"And when did she started seeing him?"

"Several weeks back." Buckling his seatbelt, Naruto started up the car. "We ran into him, per chance, and one thing led to another that Jason wanted to teach Rachel some stuff here and there."

"Like what?"

"No clue." He lied. "All I know is that Rachel's enjoying herself and that's all that matters to me."

As the pair drove away from the area, Talia occasionally glanced at Naruto with a narrowed glance. Does he not know who Jason Blood is or is he just keeping up an act? The assassin will figure this out later.

For now, all she wants to do was to spend time with Naruto and hopefully ease herself further into his heart.

 _ **-Later, Gotham Park-**_

"...It's weird you wanted to do this here, Pam. I figured you'd want to have our lunch at the Greenhouse."

"I know, Naruto. But as much as I'd like to enjoy the beauty of our private garden, I wanted to appreciate the beauty here that's shared with the general populace."

Naruto smiled as he laid against a tree with Pam leaning against his chest. Below them lied the blanket and a bit aways from them was their picnic basket.

Naruto spent some good hours with Talia by going to the nearby gym for a good spar with them walking around town as a good cooldown period. After that, Talia wanted to visit Paula and have a nice chat with her… on something, but promised to show back up later in the day. From there, Naruto headed back to the loft and picked up a fully rested botanist for their lunch date.

Neither talked much as they just wanted to enjoy each others company. But they did talk about work as it seemed to be the only good topic to discuss. With somewhat exhausting other relevant topics, asides from current events, it seemed to be the only good thing to bring up.

Speaking of…

"I've been wondering, Pam, but have you felt left out?"

"From what?"

"Being out on the field."

"...Why'd you ask?"

"Well… Selina came with me on a good number of occasions with Harley starting out ever since your shared birthday. As much as I enjoy doing it with them, I feel that it's unfair that you're not with us." Naruto tightened his embrace with his red haired beauty as he continued. "I know you're busy with work, but I just I don't know if you wanted to join or not."

Pam sat there as she thought things over. Even looking up towards the sky to clear her head so the process will go batter. After several minutes, she spoke. "I appreciate your thoughts and concerns, Naruto. I really do."

"But…"

"But being out there isn't really for me." She said as she rubbed her hand on the patch of grass. "I know I have these powers, but the things you guys do out there doesn't really coincide with my second job. I know it's good to help others out, as my mother would be proud of me doing so, but I'm more aligned with saving nature. And even if I do want to join you three, I think I'm more of a supporter and help out more from the back as it were."

"Even though you can clearly kick some ass in the Dreaming."

Pam smirked. "Those were Nightmares and aren't apart of the waking world, Naruto. Besides, they have their beastly movesets while humans have their own. Clearly different."

"Yeah, yeah. But I had helped train you in hand to hand combat so you'd have your one fighting style to coincide your powers."

"And I appreciate it greatly, my love." The green champion sighed. "Regardless, I've never been much of a fighter to begin with. But if needed, given whatever situation presents itself, I might consider coming out to lend my aid."

"Good to know, Pam, but it was merely just an offering."

"I know, yet those were my thoughts on the matter."

The Uzumaki nodded and let the matter drop.

Looking towards the park's open field, they looked at the varied families that seemed to be attending today. They all were clearly enjoying themselves, with the children playing and the parents doing some activity with their respective child. None of life's problems distracted the families as they were truly happy.

Yet the sight before the couple saddened them, in more ways than one.

Both Naruto and Pamela didn't have that great of a childhood. One was treated as a demon, due to events beyond his control. The other felt truly insecure, due to family problems with the eventual death of her beloved mother. Each had wanted to have connections with others close to their age so they could forget their life's problems.

Yet that yearning desire unfortunately came too late as some damages lingered over them for years. Even if they did form friendships with specific individuals at later times, nothing could fully fix and heal the emotional scars inflicted upon them in their early years.

But the couple were able to find each other and found happiness in the process. They loved each other deeply and unknowingly thought of plans of forming a family together. Both thought nothing could ruin their perfect little world.

...Yet nothing could last forever as that little bubble popped with tragedy striking in the most vulnerable way. Naruto and Pam healed and moved forward from the event as odd forms of love were added into their relationship. They were clearly fine with the whole thing as others joined their unique family from lovers to a caring ward to look after.

But the thought of having children of their own, whether it's through their own flesh and blood or adoption, was still a sensitive topic to dwell into.

It was more apparent on this subject when the Uzumaki took on Dream's mission to save Bruce from the Mad Hatter. In that dream, Naruto and Pam were happily married with children on the way and Rachel was his adopted daughter. It was really hard for him to handle and he wished it could've been real, despite knowing it was merely just a dream.

So when he told this particular information to his first girlfriend, it was like pouring salt and lemon juice on a damaging wound. The publisher never seen her become oddly driven while in her depressed state. He can clearly admit it frightened him that she might do something drastic in the process.

Breaking his gaze away from the families, Naruto saw Pam's slightly pained expression which had hints of… joy? As much as he's curious on what's going on through her head, he spoke up. "We should probably get going, Pam. It's probably time we pick up Rachel from her magic lessons from that old knight."

"...Yeah."

The couple slowly rose to their feet as they gathered up their picnic supplies before heading back to Naruto's car. Along the way, they held hands with their fingers interlaced. Both kept a firm grip to help ease the pain and comfort each other.

…..

…..

…..

Jumping down from a high branch of a far off tree, Talia looked at the retreating couple with a small frown on her face.

After talking to Paula and Laurence Crock of her being in the city, the Demon's daughter recently tracked down Naruto and Pam on their little date. By the time she got here, the dark haired beauty made out most their conversation on the past several minutes via binoculars and lip reading.

Talia could've heard more if she were closer, but she didn't want risking getting noticed by her former student. Yet, by the end of it all, more questions formed in her mind with only an answer or two were given.

'So he does know Jason Blood is a magic practitioner.' She thought before thinking back on what the retreating pair mentioned. 'What were they talking about exactly on 'being out on the field? And what's this Dreaming?... What else are you hiding from me, Naruto?'

 _ **-Hours Later-**_

"...Why did Pammy have to spoil the surprise?!"

"You've been saying that for the past ten minutes, Harley."

"I know, Talia, but… but… GRAH!"

Naruto rolled his eyes as he drove his car to their destination. Briefly looking through his rearview mirror, the publisher saw Harley pouting in the backseat. And sitting right next to him was his former teacher as she chuckled at the blonde's odd expense.

The pair arrived at Harley's apartment earlier so they could not only pick up said woman but to drop off Pam to watch over Rachel, Artemis and Jade for the night. When Harley saw Naruto's and Talia's attire, which consisted of jeans, combat boots, and dark sweaters; the psychologist knew something was off. She would eventually learn Pam spilled the beans on what she planned for Naruto while driving over there.

And suffice to say, Harley was rather pissed.

"You can say that again." She muttered, getting raised looks from those in the front seats.

Talia leaned to the side and spoke in a soft tone. "Who is she talking to? We didn't say anything to her."

"No clue, Talia. I learned to not ask."

...Now you might be wondering why Talia is coming along.

You see, Selina called Harley earlier while she was still at work. The ravenette had to tell the bubbly blonde the unfortunate news that she needed to cancel coming to tonight's activity. It was rather last minute, but Selina had an excuse.

Someone had contacted her that a rare breed of black Siberian leopard was coming into town. There are reportedly a handful left in the world, due to being hunted by poachers and collectors. And this person was paying the thief a pretty penny to acquire the near extinct and transport it to a designated location so the black leopard will be taken to an undisclosed safe haven for endangered animals.

Now Selina was rather suspicious on the whole situation and wondered if the person was in fact one of those poachers or collectors that wanted the black leopard's life. The man sounded true over the phone, but the ravenette didn't know if she should accept the job or not.

But being a champion of the Red, Selina was obligated into accepting this to preserve a dying race of feline.

'I hope that whoever this Henri Ducard person is, he won't screw Selina over.' Naruto thought in bitterment. 'If he does, then Selina won't be the only one he'll have to deal with.'

Going back with Talia, Harley was able to talk to her when the dark haired beauty was with her neighbors. Talia accepted the blonde's offer into coming along as she thought it would be rather fun.

So here they are, driving to their destination. And what place are they going to exactly? Why the old Gotham World's Fair Grounds of course.

Located by the city's borders, the establishment was inspired by the New York's World's Fair back in the 1960's as it wanted to show what the owners thought what the future might be like. And during its initial days, the amusement park located in the grounds was visited quite often by the Gothamite population. It had a good blend of what Wonder City was like back in its hay day with a more 'modern' and futuristic feel.

But the amusement park was closed down roughly eleven years ago and went into a derelict state.

No one really knows why this happened, causing varied rumors to spread. Some figured it pertained to management and safety issues. Some guessed the owners owed money to the mob and they had to skip town. And some thought there were untold allegations of some kind.

Several years ago, however, the land was brought up for auction as the land needed to be taken care of. After some bidding debates, the land's ownership was split in half by both paintball enthusiasts and nature preservation groups.

The paintballers wanted to acquire the rustic buildings and some parts of the forests as it would've been great for games. The rest of the land was connected to a good, natural river and contained several flora species that needed to be kept safe. And once a good number of buildings were gutted and items moved away for safety reasons, the place was opened for business.

From what Naruto researched about the place, the establishment is opened from Spring to Fall but it's completely closed when Winter comes. It's paint ammunition is entirely water based so it'll be environmentally friendly. And different places of the fairgrounds are opened at varied times, depending on how many groups come in for the day via reservations and walk-ins.

As Naruto parked his car in the establishment's lot, he looked back at Harley. "Do you think Laurence and Paula got here before us?"

"Maybe, Puddin. Paula said they needed to take care of something before coming here." Answered the blonde. "Regardless, we'll need to go get ourselves checked in and get our equipment."

The old traveling friends followed the psychologist inside of the nearby building and got themselves checked in. While waiting for the Crock couple to arrive, the three acquired their safety gear and their choice in paint-gun from the package Harley acquired. And their respective gear consisted of the elbow and knee pads, fingerless gloves, chest plate and either safety goggles or a full watch cap per player's choice.

"Is this really necessary?" Naruto said a little annoyed at the tight and uncomfortable safety gear they wore. At least with his Vanitas armor, it fits quite well. "I hate these velcro straps, they never stay tight."

"I agree." Said the Demon's daughter. "I'm usually alright with them." She then looked herself over to see some straps seemingly sticking out. "But these are rented equipment and the straps get worn out after constant use."

"You could go up and ask for a different one, Talia." Harley suggested, getting the dark haired woman to shrug. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind."

"It's fine. When I was young, I got the hand-me-downs; so I had to learn to adapt- I mean make use of them."

"Don't you have just Nyssa as your younger sibling?" Naruto asked. "How could you have hand-me-downs if it's just the two of you?"

"I have a _big_ family." Talia chuckled, "And with my father, he didn't like it when we can still use things unless it was shredded, burned or beyond repair. Not only that, but I do have a brother so I had to get some items from him."

The publisher blinked in confusion. "Really? I don't remember you telling me that detail."

"It's because her brother and dear old dad don't really see eye to eye." Spoke a familiar gruff voice. Looking to the side, the three saw Laurence and Paula showing up. "Not only that, but that ended up the same way towards the sisters."

Unlike the early arrivals, who wore the establishment's used equipment, the Crocks had what appeared to be better looking paintball armor and guns on their persons. If Naruto didn't know any better, the married couple went paintballing quite often as the equipment was well maintained.

"And how would you know that, Laurence?" Harley voiced with her puddin nodding in agreement.

The larger man blinked before seeing Paula and Talia giving him subtle glares on revealing a bit of information on specific family matters. Also revealing to both his neighbor and her boytoy that he might know something they shouldn't.

Laurence can handle his wife giving him _that_ glare, but his master's daughter giving him the same treatment alongside Paula is a whole different matter.

"...Talia spoke a bit too loud over the phone." Lied the Crock patriarch. "Heard her talking to her father the last time she was here and that bit was dropped in an argument."

The bubbly blonde and silver haired Uzumaki shrugged a little to show they bought the lie. Though this did little help in diffusing Laurence's little predicament.

"So uh... are ready to shoot each other now?" Naruto chuckled as he hope to diffuse the angry women's glares. "Uh, right. I'll shut up now…" Looking over to his girlfriend, he asked the obvious question that came to mind. "So what are we playing? King of the Hill? Slayer? Teams?"

"Capture the flag." Talia said with a smile. "You choose if you or I become the captain."

"Should there be more people for the team or is this enough? Remember I never played this before."

"It varies." Paula shortly said. "If there's a big group involved, then either a matching amount opposes said group or it gets split in half to make things fair. But if it's a small group, like us, then just need a similar amount or more teams involved on the field size."

"Right…" Naruto said before shrugging. "Alright I'll lead. Let's win!" He smiled with enthusiasm as he stood up. Harley jumped from her seat in a similar fashion before the couple went to speak with the employees on where the group will go against and where.

As they left, Laurence looked over to Talia with a raised brow. "What's your endgame, princess?"

"Whatever do you mean?" She asked in an innocent tone.

"I saw the look in your eyes when Naruto accepted on being team leader." Said the male assassin as he double checked his ammunition. "Normally I wouldn't give two shits as we're just doing this for fun, especially with Harley paying for the whole thing. But you seemed a bit too keen on liking him to lead."

"I agree with Laurence, Talia. Why did you seem interested on him being team captain?"

Talia looked at the married couple as they egged her to answer. "Just a friendly assessment… nothing else." She said cryptically.

"Right…" They drowled out.

As this conversation was taking place, two shady people were observing the group with a critical eye.

"...It's strange to see Warith being all relaxed like this." Spoke the first as he sipped his drink at a far away distance so neither of them would be spotted.

"Possibly to keep up her cover." Said the second as he stared at the group from underneath his hat.

"Not only her, but Sportsmaster and Huntress as well." The first man slurped up the rest of his beverage before tossing the cup into the nearby trash can.

"You can blame Alsiyada (Huntress) for that particular detail. Before leaving the League, I learned she was considered the pants of the couple as she made her husband take this civilian life."

"What for?"

"What else, raise a family."

"Well that's annoying." Looking back at the group, the first man saw… "Oh~ Do my eyes deceive me? Naruto Uzumaki here in the flesh?!"

The second man pulled his partner away and covered his mouth before speaking in a harsh whisper. "Quiet down, you idiot! I don't want to blow our operation, Minato!"

The now revealed Minato glared at his partner before he pried the man's hands away. "Shut up, you old monkey!" He said in a low tone. "My promised target is here and I want to fucking kill him for what he did to me last year!"

"And you'll get your chance. But we need to be sure Talia is away from Sportsmaster and Huntress before we take her. And, if we have time, we can nab him as well."

Hiraishin grudgingly accepted it before looking back at the silver haired Uzumaki. The shit happening to him at the current time all started because of that whiskered bastard that got him captured in the first place. He will be sure to torture him very much. And if Vanitas was there, alongside the publisher, then Minato will be in ecstasy heaven.

With the 'birthday' group, they soon followed the employees as they presented them and their opponents the large field they'll be playing in for today. The playing field consisted of four forts with them resting on opposing hills or valleys with four defensive towers each. There are openings with right angle walls, open narrow windows along the walls for players to slip their gun mussels through. In the center of each base lied the respective teams' flag for the objective of the game. To complete the field with the surrounding area, there's an open front leading up to the entrance with several sandbag defense walls.

"Lot of space, good cover…" He said to himself looking at the steel drums and concrete forts. "Bases and lots of camping locations. Okay so we have some space. Any one of you good at sniping?" The whiskered man asked his friends. "I can barely sit still, even as an adult, so someone should camp here to do some cover fire."

"I'll do it," Laurence offered, "I can also defend our flag pretty well if I get between my sniping and the base."

"Alright I'll take lead, Laurence give as much supporting fire when you're able. And the rest keep low and get ready to roll on moments notice." He order as the group nodded, or shrugged in Laurence's case. "Right Talia you're in charge of checking the back, watch out for any stalkers."

"Seems you're used to giving orders." The male assassin chuckled. "And here I thought you were an herbivore kind of guy."

"Oh trust me he eats a lot of pink-" Harley was about to say more until Naruto slaps his hand over her mouth. "Mphm MPHMPMH!"

"Please stop…" He blushed at the embarrassment his lover was about to say. "...Licking my hand isn't going to work, ya'know."

CHOMP~!

"Ow!" Naruto quickly removed his hand from the sudden bite. "The hell was that for!?"

"Because I just going to say he likes rare steak… You shot yourself in the foot there~" Harley grin at Naruto's empty stare.

"...I'm losing my touch…" He complained in a depress tone. "I… duck-"

"What?" Harley started before Naruto duck down, but not before grabbing Harley to join him. Almost the next second, their previous spots were suddenly filled with splatter paints! "Thanks love!" She said before quickly standing up to take aim and… "The hell they go?!" She asked as she saw the others in their group seemingly disappeared on them.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "They left, paintball is more like stealth and strategy."

Harley nodded on the reminder. Though she paused on what she did remember on all of the paintball games. "Hey, isn't there supposed to a horn-"

*WHAAAAAAA*

"...There it is." Said the psychologist as Naruto pulled her into cover before yelling out. "TO WHOEVER SHOT AT ME! YOU WENT TOO FUCKING EARLY!"

"WORTH IT, OLD HAG!" Spoke out a college student from the other side of the playing field.

"Oh no…" Naruto deadpanned…

"THE HELL YOU CALLED ME!?" Harley quickly jumped over the sandbag defensive wall they were using.

Paula seemingly rolled next to her neighbor's boyfriend and looked onward with concern on her features. "Should we-"

"Wait for it…" naruto sighed as screams of the college students were heard. "There we go…"

"Crap! I'm out!" Harley came back to them… covered in paint. "Totally worth it though, nail those little hellspawns in the junk!"

"Don't forget there's another team, Harley."

"...I know that."

The Vietnamese woman merely blew a raspberry. "Pfft! Five bucks says that thought didn't register when you were going John Rambo on those kids." Naruto chuckled as Harley left while flipping the bird at her.

From his position in their tower, Laurence chuckled at the sight. "Man if Naruto actually make us win, I'm buying him ten beers."

"He should or else I'll have to be harsher the next time we spar." Laurence heard Talia say from below him.

"Thought you were on their tails?" He asked as he watched as Harley was slowly heading to the 'dead' player zone for the current round.

"Just shoot me if Naruto and your wife get shot. Just watching how well he does under pressure."

"Wow~ what a team player." Laurence said with a overly deadpan tone. "Seriously what is up with your hang up for Harley's boytoy? You planning on kidnapping him and reverting him to a kid to raise him?" He chuckled until the silence was little to heavy for him to enjoy… "Y-You're not really going to do that, are you?"

"I am not… we lost the ingredients to use it." She offhandedly replied as she fired a round at an incoming player.

"Oh good one…" He said before doing a double take as he looked directly at the Demon's Heir. "Wait… that one is also a joke, right? There's no way your dad figured out how to do that."

"Of course I'm joking, Laurence." Talia said. "Look, it's my own personal reasons, alright?" She turn her head to glare at the man.

The Crock patriarch moved back to his position and quickly snipped another player so both Naruto and Paula could move forward. "If you say so, princess."

It wasn't much longer until the first round went to Naruto's team as Naruto and Paula was able to take two of the other opponent flags before converging to the last one. Laurence and Talia were able to keep a good eye on their team members while taking care of incoming players. But the Demon's Heir was more focused on her former student. His shots were accurate and no round was wasted as he weaved and quickly ducked through the shots.

When the next round was ready to start, the 'birthday' team saw Harley was somewhat cleaned up from the paint splatter on her body to show her qualifying for the round.

"Alright this time I won't lose my head." She vowed walking with her lover.

"Don't let those kids get to you, they expect us to get mad." Naruto explained to his girlfriend. "So besides being a martyr. How's it been so far?"

This earned him a small, playful glare from the blonde woman. "Hurts, obviously."

"I can kiss you to make you feel better. Would that help?"

Harley quickly morphed her 'glare-face' into a teasing smile as she wrapped her arms around him. "Well~ I've got a bunch of boo boos that need kissing."

He gave her a hummed chuckle as he kissed her nose, which made her mewl on the act. "I'll be sure to give you a lot when we're back at either of our places, my sweet Harley."

"And I'll be sure you'll do, puddin."

*WHAAAAAAA*

With the sound of the horn, the teams went back into action as paintball bullets flew through the air. Having to quickly duck from some incoming hits, Harley tried to stay out of the line of fire. Taking a quick peek from cover, she quickly pointed her gun out and blindly fired her paint gun.

"Spray and pray!" she shouted as she randomly took shots.

"You do realize you had experience with guns, Harley!" Her puddin said as he slid righ next to her before firing some shots at an incoming opponent.

"I know, but this isn't a field day ya'know. So I gotta have some fun!"

Coming up to the pair, Paula heard the last bit of dialogue and asked a question which was quickly formed. "Since when did you have experience with guns?"

"Uhhh… intense games like House of the zombies and Lock Room 4D…" Naruto stated with an embarrass tone hoping that it would make his lie more believable.

Paual merely narrowed her eyes at this. "Like hell those arcade games would work, Naruto."

"Well he also forgot to mention the fair games, Paual." Said the pale woman, hoping it'll cover the loose bit of information. "I got puddin a giant stuffed duck for him a while back."

"Still, those aren't real guns. But maybe you have a good talent for them, Harley." She insisted making Naruto cough.

"Can we focus on getting the enemy flags now?"

Before Paula could respond, the two saw Harley leap out from cover and started firing at a few players while performing summersaults to avoid the blows. Even using some of the further covering as impromptu springboards to perform some flips in the air while firing additional rounds. This proved to Paula that Harley still kept up with her gymnastics training she put her through all those years ago. Even with some merit and flexibility that almost surprised her.

Once Harley landed on the ground, the three heard someone charging right towards them.

"SUPPRESSING FIREEEEEEE!" A man ran up to them while he scream out those words with each shot.

"Nope!" Naruto said as each shot miraculous miss him, and quickly shot him in groin. "Wow between the idiot and us… we're racking up a lot of points.

"Either that or some of these boys are not that great of players." Came Paula's drawled out tone. She then sighed before firing a round at the idiot player's forehead with Harley firing several rounds at the man's privates… on accident…

Not really.

"I regret listening to Archer…" the man limped away as Naruto talk to his friends.

"Ha, let's continue this game." Said the bubbly blonde.

Back with the Crock matriarch assassin, she shook her head. "What kind of idiot screams out his attack?"

"A naive one, maybe."

"Still Harley was surprising to say the least. I expected Naruto was gifted, but she was as well…"

"Well what?"

"Nothing. Just making some verbal notes. Always good to have a few every so often."

Nodding at the Vietnamese woman's words, the three moved forward.

As she lagged behind to cover the young couple's positions, Paula narrowed her eyes at their backs. 'He's definitely lying. Not even the most enthusiastic gun nuts can be that good from games and practiced. Those are train instincts. Not just her, but him as well. And he said he never used a gun before.'

The three progressed further as Naruto and Harley quickly took care of some hiding players. Reacting quickly, the publisher quickly climbed up the wall and fired at some players at the upper level before seeing Harley take the flag. Jumping down, the pair bolted towards the next enemy area with Paula not far behind.

It wasn't long before the group saw some players leave another area where they took the respective flag. They agreed to flank them to acquire the flag in hopes of winning the round.

"Okay so we agree?" Naruto said as Harley raised her hand. "Yes?"

"...I forgot..."

THUD~!

"Remind me what do you talk about when the jokes are gone?" Paula asked Naruto as Harley pouted at her rude sentence.

"I don't know~ Just simple things: work, life… sex."

"Really?" Came the deadpanned response. "Can we just focus back on this please."

"Okay the plan is for you two to attack and draw them away while I'll get their flag and win this… and the side bet I made earlier." Naruto said in a low tone.

"Which is what exactly?"

"Well some drunk guy was I wouldn't beat his team, and if I did, he give a thousand bucks and some nice alcohol that he had on him." Naruto grinned sheepishly. "I think he was with the 'suppressing fire' guy."

"...Okay?~ That's rather odd."

"Well if he offered it, I might as well take it."

Paula merely rolled her eyes. "If you say so, Naruto."

When close enough, Naruto saw the one he met the bet with earlier and fired at his back. Though one of his teammates moved in the way at the last minute to cover said man's defenseless back.

"GOD! Ugh, Cyril?! The one time you could get shot and it had to be a paintball!?" The man yelled at the geek. "Sorry, sorry...pretty sure that's my MONEY talking!"

"We're so going to win…" Harley simply said. "I mean look at them!"

"Archer, I suggest you stop yelling and go back to the fort. Seriously, how can you walk after drinking ten of those bottles?" A dark skin woman who was perhaps the tallest of her team order the drunk man who grumbled at the suggestion.

Though the impromptu orders quickly ended as the paintballs flew and landed on them, causing the 'Archer' team to be done for the round. Said team then yelled and complained on each other as they had to go back to wipe away the paint for the upcoming round.

"That means I'll get that money and alcohol afterwards~" Came Naruto's call, causing the man to flinch.

"DAMMIT IT!" Archer cried, "Worst day ever~! Ahem," He coughed into his hand hoping to sound calm and mature. "Perhaps a night with Lana with would be fine instead of the money and my only last bottle of rare booze?"

"...No."

"YOU WERE GOING TO PIMP ME OUT!?" The woman grab the man's collar and drag him away. "YOU AND I ARE GOING TO HAVE A SERIOUS DISCUSSION ABOUT THIS LATER!"

"Getting shot in the groin was definitely worth to see Archer lose… hehe, I'll wire the money to you sir." The geeky man said as he wave the blonde male goodbye. "Come on, Pam, Roy and you too-"

"You're not my supervisor!" A crazy red haired woman yelled out before winking at Naruto before making a choking gesture at herself.

"...Okay they are the officially the weirdest people I ever met." Naruto said with a chuckle.

As the three 'birthday team' players went back to their player base, Harley looked back at the retreating team and tilted her head. "I think I worked on that crazy gal several times. Cheryl, Carol or something. Kept changing her name for some reason."

Naruto and Paula blinked a few times before voicing the same question. "Really?"

"Yeah not sure if it was because of glue sniffing and/or digesting, the dangerous sex she has, or that she was always saying 'You're not your supervisor' at me." Putting her hand on her chin, Harley thought more on the former patient. "I believe she was admitted to Arkham, for a time, because of work issues and they wouldn't let her back in until I finished all of her sessions."

The Crock woman shook her head with a small chuckle. "Regardless, that 'Archer' seemed to be someone can be that stupid… or drunk… or pathetic."

"Well I'm a thousand dollars richer and I wonder what kind of alcohol that guy will give me."

"He might try to drink it all before giving it to you, puddin."

"...Yeah, I think your right."

The next few rounds went quite well as Naruto and his team were able to hold their own in both defending their flag and acquiring the others. On the third round of the game, Laurence took a break from defending the fort as he wanted to finally get some players up close and personal. At that time, Harley took over the army veterans sniping spot with Naruto covering her flank… in more ways than one.

Especially when 'Archer' surprisingly snuck past Naruto and came up the blonde psychologist as he tried flirting with Harley in hopes of banging her…

Yeah… This action resulted in Naruto firing several paintball rounds at the man's groin, much to the enemy team's amusement.

"Yeah, I don't go for idiots." Harley said before taking another shot. "Danger zone~!"

"That's… oww… my line…" Archer weakly cried out.

"Did anyone ask you?" Said the Uzumaki as he dragged the enemy player away in a humiliating fashion. "Besides, that line isn't really copyrighted."

The fourth round was similar like before with Laurence, Talia and Paula out on the field. This time, however, they practically slaughtering all of the enemy players. It was rather crazy in Naruto's and Harley's eyes, but thought it was pretty impressive. Even more so when the bubbly blonde enjoyed the show on the enemy players getting wrecked.

It was like they could take out an army just by themselves.

…..

They have no idea on how right the couple was.

With the final round of the game, Talia wanted Naruto out with her all by themselves.

"You sure about that, Talia? We were doing fine beforehand on the system we had out."

"I know that, Naruto, but I just thought it would be nice to fully cycle us through." She said with a disarming smile. "Besides, this game made me think of the time when we were in East Berlin."

The publisher groaned at the memory. "Of course it would be that time."

"What time is she talking about, puddin?" Harley asked as both Laurence and Paula were curious from their positions at their designated fort. There was still time before the last round of the game was sounded off, so there was some time to kill.

Naruto let out a frustrated sigh before recalling the event. "We were merely minding our own business and trying not to get in trouble while in Communist controlled West Berlin. I mean sure~ there was nothing to worry about as long as we played it cool, then none of the officers and military personnel would detain us."

He then let out a bitter chuckle. "I don't know how or why it happened, but we started getting shot down by these masked guys while crossing a park. We had to duck for cover and flee off site or else we'd either get killed or detained while being questioned why we were being fired upon. At one point we got separated and I had to deal with some schmucks chasing me down through a restaurant before I had to take care of a pair at a hardware store."

"And I gotta say you handled yourself well when you took them out, Naruto." She said with a small smile.

This gave her a received deadpanned glare. "Right~ with me having to burn a man's face off at a kitchen griddle, stabbing a man in the face with a butcher's knife and using said deadman as a human shield while being shot at." This got Harley to pale a little more on the gruesome tidbit before seeing her puddin continue. "Oh and I had to hang the shooter with chains at the hardware store and that wasn't easy at all, mind you."

"...Well… that's interesting." Paula muttered as her husband nodded with a hint of a smile on his face of learning Harley's boytoy being more harsh than he thought.

"Oh! And don't get me started on the shit we had to deal with back in Amsterdam." Naruto said as he leveled a small glare at his old traveling companion. "Yet you seemed alright in the end, on both counts, while I had to keep up a nice smile and play it cool while crossing the damn borders."

Talia bitterly smiled on the two events. She didn't know how HIVE tracked her down, but she was able to quickly take care of the men after her. Though she did see Naruto's resulting kills when she tried to catch up with him before seeing the ending fight in the hardware store.

As for Amsterdam, it was quite crazy on the chase through the canals with them being shot at every corner by said enemy organization. She was riding the boat while Naruto rode their motorcycle while trying to deflect their shots away from her. Explosions, vehicle switching, and so much more happened that made their blood and adrenaline flowing to the point that possibly made any action movie seem like a child's film.

'God. I was so damn close on taking him right then and there when we were in the clear.' She thought as her smile went into a frown. 'Too bad Naruto fell unconscious once we were safe.'

"Bleeh… that sounds like something from from a horror series…" The blonde woman shivered at the mental image.

Naruto came up to his lover and hugged her a bit. "Well I did what I had to do to survive, Harley." Pulling away a little, he saw she was a little better. "Didn't want to kill them, but had not choice."

"...That's fine, puddin."

*WHAAAAAAA*

With the sound of the final round starting, Naruto and Talia quickly slid to covering while Harley ducked behind to help Paula with defending the fort.

"Come on, let's go!" The silver haired Uzumaki roared as he and Talia charge forward moving and almost hovering around the field like ghosts. The two reached the first fort as they heard firing sounds from both teams, making a hand signal at his friend they silently enter the fort and shot the four members who didn't react to them.

The two saw the fort was filled with the remaining teams working together, Naruto jumped up to a wooden railing as he grab it to kick a enemy's face before taking his gun to go down under the bridge he was standing on to shot the hiding member faces. Turning his head to Talia he moved his head to the battle.

Naruto took a step forward to grab the flag missing a college kid who was hanging upside down from a railing to shoot him. "Talia if you will." He said grabbing the flag as a quick thud was soon heard, turning to see the shooter on the floor with the back of his head was colored pink.

The pair soon heard a small thud on the upper level. Looking at the source, they saw a paintball grenade. Reacting quickly, Naruto slid on the ground and tossed it away as it exploded while in the air. Though bought enough time for another paintball grenade to fall into the fort's level which caused the old traveling companions to leap out of the fort and latch onto the separated towers.

When they slid down, they rolled out of the way from incoming fire before running the action in kind. Leaping over some cover, Naruto had to kick a player out of the way before kicking another in the balls.

"My head!"

"My balls!"

They were soon taken out by being hit by more paintballs coming from the Uzumaki's guns before seeing someone charge right at him. Taking the initiative, Naruto tackled the man before tossing him away and fired once more to get him to no longer play the game. From there, Naruto dashed forward, lept over several players, landed behind them, and took them out with respective shots before progressing to the incoming fort.

On Talia's end, she soon got on top of a platform and fired several shots from above before rolling to fire some rounds at some players trying to take her from down below. She occasionally glanced at her former student and narrowed her blue-green eyes as his movements seem oddly familiar to her. She couldn't quite place it but they seemed similar to what she saw Vanitas used in their previous encounter.

Her thought process ended when she heard someone coming from behind, causing her to punch him out of the way before shooting his side. Even another player that came soon after.

"GAH! MY SPLEEN!"

"Dude! This is just a game- GAH, my balls! What's your problem woman!?"

"This is fun to watch…" Harley said from outside the fort, seemingly eating some popcorn as she passed it to her teammates. "Like something from a movie."

"Yeah, kinda bored now of letting them have all the fun." Laurence said with a sigh. "Why'd I come here again?"

"For some fun?" Came Harley's innocent question.

"Yet I only had a good amount of it in the last two rounds."

"Oh don't be such a sourpuss."

This merely earned a small growl from Laurence while Paula chuckled a little before firing a round at an incoming opponent that tried to some 'suppressing fire' on them… Yet failed… again.

"Um. Mercy?"

"...Nope." Paula said before firing a paintball bullet at his chest.

Wasn't long before some of his teammates showed up in hopes of taking their flag. This at least got Laurence to lighten up a little as he fired rounds at the group to get them out of the game.

"Ah, damn it!" The man ran away before getting shot in rear. "Ow, quit it!"

"I will when I actually have a bit more fun." Came Laurence's reply as he kept shooting the retreating man. Though one of the players seemed to laugh his expense while walking away from the playing field one last time for the game.

Meanwhile with Naruto and Talia were standing back to back as they were done at the last fort. "That was… fun…" Naruto chuckled as he heard crying and groaning from the defeated foes.

"Indeed it was, Naruto." Said the Demon's daughter as she went into a relaxed position while grabbing the final flag for them to win the game, five rounds in a row.

"Whoo, going to get that drink. I earn it!" Naruto childishly shouted with a raised fist. "Let's go, I'm getting tired of all this crying." As they jumped down from the fort, the publisher took off his protective face mask before they made their way to the rest of their team. "Do hope that guy still has that alcohol for us or else I'll be pissed."

"Not to mention the money you mentioned earlier."

"That too."

Heading to the center of the field, Archer was there with a annoyed look, "Here, your freakin' prize, but I still say you cheated!"

Naruto just caught the bottle with a cocky smirk. "Sure, sure and I'm really a woman."

"Oh haha, well I still the world's greatest secret agent!" The man yelled drawing everyone attention to him. "So there!"

"...No really a secret if you yell it out." Naruto drawled out in utter disbelief that he would say that. "And who says that your a secret agent anyways?"

Before Archer could answer, some of his friends merely dragged the man away while the dark skinned woman started yelling at him on various things. Cyril stayed behind and apologized on Archer's behavior before confirming the money was deposited into Naruto's account.

"Well… That was something." Talia muttered.

"Yup."

When they rondevoux to the rest of their team, Harley came up to the pair with a bounce to her feet. "You two were awesome!" She started to become animated in her actions. "You were like 'pew pew' and they were all 'geh, gah' with you two going all Rambo on their asses…"

Talia chuckled a bit on Naruto's blonde lover entertaining her as she kept describing the final round of the game. "And what about the two rounds beforehand? Laurence, Paula and I were clearly going all 'Rambo' on the enemy players then."

"Oh those rounds were great too as it seemed you three clearly worked… too well I think." Harley muttered on the last bit as both her and Naruto didn't see the Crocks looking away to not give anything away. "But you and puddin worked so well out there while taking those guys out."

Naruto smiled a little. "That's one way of simplifying things, Harley." He looked at his former teacher as they shared a similar expression. It's been a long time since they worked together like that, minus the lives they had to take in order to survive.

Back then, he had to resort to other methods as he didn't have his chakra or his current powers to deal with those people that tried to kill them. It was not a great feeling he bore when they died, because of him, but he wanted to protect his friend. One of his precious people.

Even to this day, she's still one of his precious people.

Turning around, he briefly looked at the rest of the 'birthday' group. "We should head on back in and get checked out."

Harley nodded as she followed her boyfriend as the Crocks and Talia hanged on back a bit.

As they walked back, Talia asked to the assassin couple a question. "What did two think on their skills?"

It was the Crock matriarch who responded first. "Harley was alright, Talia. Her way with a firearm is rough, at best. But her agility seems just as good, if not better, than when I trained her years ago."

"As a gymnast acrobatic, correct?" The Demon's daughter asked for a small reconfirmation. "Yes I remember you, her and Naruto telling me on this."

"Yeah, but it seems Harley seems a bit more stronger than I originally thought."

"And Naruto?"

Lawrence took the lead on this. "I didn't work long enough with the boytoy,' cue elbow stab by his wife on nickname, "ow… to get a good assessment on him. But seeing him out there almost made me think he was a League member as I briefly forgot you trained the punk." The blonde veteran looked forward as his steely brown eyes narrowed. "But something about him is bugging the hell out of me."

"Glad I'm not the only one." Paula muttered. "Both he and Harley are hiding something and it keeps forming questions in my mind."

Talia narrowed her eyes. 'So it's really not just me then.' She thought.

"But what do you think of think of them, princess?"

Blinking her blue-green eyes, the Demon's heir responded. "They're respectively good, in their own right. Take out certain restraints and they might be worthy on being League members."

The Vietnamese woman didn't like hearing this tidbit. She didn't like the idea of either of them joining the League, especially her former student. Both of them are good people and shouldn't be brought into the fold.

And as much as she'd like to voice her displeasure to Ra's daughter, they reached inside and had to keep her mouth shut or risk exposing themselves.

"We should get going, Paula." Lawrence voiced as he tugged her along. "The girls are probably restless with Pamela watching them for so long."

"It wasn't that long."

"Well the gardner never really babysat them before so we don't know on that."

The Crock matriarch sighed before trugging along after her husband. She did look back one last time at Naruto, Harley and Talia with a small worried look across her features.

With said people, they were getting out of their gear. Once done, Naruto took their rented equipment to the front desk so they could head on out with no repercussions.

As they were driving away from the old Gotham Fairgrounds, the three were pulling out ideas what else they could do before calling it a night.

"...We could head over to the Stacked Deck, crack open this bottle and enjoy it there." Suggested the Arkham psychologist as she waved said bottle in her hand. "And once finished with that, we can enjoy some of Moxxi's other concoctions."

Talia brought a finger to her chin while thinking over on the idea. "Hmm… Seems good, but I think this bottle is nice in a private environment." Briefly glancing at the bottle's label, she saw it's vintage. "A twenty year old bottle of whisky like this should definitely be enjoyed back at your place, Naruto."

"Or~" Harley drawled out. "We could still go to the Stacked Deck and get hammered by some of Moxxi's absinthe."

That sent Naruto off as he shivered in worry. "No. No. Nononono."

"Oh c'mon puddin. It's not that bad."

"Not that bad? Not that bad?!" He blurted out. "Do you know how bad it was when we tried Moxxi's absinthe the last time?!"

A pair of blue-green eyes blinked in confusion. "How bad was-"

"She likes to fucking experiment on the absinthe she has at her bar. Oh she does have the typical, public brands she uses on 'special occasions', but Harley here convinced Moxxi to use her really _special_ drink." Naruto then shivered some more as bad memories returned. "The stuff was so black that it made all kinds of ink pale in comparison. And with it's 150% proof, fuuuck I thought I was gonna die!" He then shook his head in hopes of ridding himself of the horrible moments. "I didn't know if it was going to be the burning or the demonic fairy-like hallucinations that'll kill me first! Either way, that shit literally and physically hurts me!"

Harley then spoke in a giddy tone. "I thought it was fun. Especially seeing Naruto freaking out like hell alongside Selina and I. Too bad Pammy couldn't take it, but she did get a recording of what went down from Moxxi. And I gotta say, it was rather-"

"Harley… Please don't talk about that."

Talia was really curious at this point in wanting to try that out. The assassin had her fair share of absinthe experiences and laughed at Naruto's expenses when they traveled together.

'Maybe I'll stop on by over there and take some of Moxxi's brand.' Talia thought. 'Might as well see for myself.'

As their ride was passing an empty intersection, a van suddenly rammed into their side. With the force of the blow, Naruto's car rolled several times before landing right back onto its wheels in a secluded alleyway. The vehicle was rather dented with the windows severely cracked.

As for its occupants…

'Oh… My head…' Harley thought as she brought her hand up to her noggin. There she felt several small shards of glass in her blonde locks and felt a small amount of liquid. This got her to realize she was somewhat bleeding. 'What… happened…'

Her vision tried to correct herself before seeing the slumped forms of Naruto and Talia hanging forward and lying on the air bags. She was going to call out for them when the psychologist heard a pair of feet coming towards them. Harley briefly thought they were here to help.

But how wrong she was on that assumption.

"C'mon Monkey, we need to hurry up." Said a man as he roughly pulled on the passenger door.

It opened with a rough groan before the person started to unbuckle Talia's safety belt. The same happened on the driver's door as Naruto was released free soon after. Harley then saw them roughly pull the pair out and heard their bodies being dragged across the pavement. It wasn't long before tires squealed to life as the van fled into the night.

'Naruto… Talia…' Thought the blonde. She tried to stay awake, but the pain was hard for her to remain conscious. 'I… need to… call…'

And before she knew it, Harley fell asleep.

 _ **-Later, Unknown Location-**_

Ra's daughter groaned awake as the throbbing pain racked through her mind.

'What happened?' She thought. 'All I remember was chatting with Naruto and Harley and then…' As she tried to rub her aching head, Talia felt her arms were being held down. Looking at said limbs, she saw that not only them but her legs were bolted onto a metal table as it's set at a slight angle. Not only that, but she was completely in the nude with only large leather straps covering her breasts and nether regions.

"Ah~ Good… You're awake." Spoke an echoed voice. "I would've kept you mostly clothed, but I needed to be sure none of your clothes had any secret tools to help in your escape."

'That voice.' Looking to the side, she narrowed her blue-green eyes at her captor. "Hello, Qarrad Alfidd."

The monkey-themed assassin had a hidden smirk under his silver mask as he got closer to the Demon's daughter. "You look worse for wear. You clearly got banged up hard on that wreck we did on Uzumaki's car."

Talia heatley glared at the traitorous League assassin, realizing who'd done the act. But one question quickly came forward for her to speak it. "What the hell do you want?"

"Information, obviously." The traitor moved around her as she continued to look at him.

"On what exactly? The League's current operations? Have fun getting that out of me, Silver Monkey."

"Oh~ I intend to."

Without any warning, the HIVE assassin quickly produced his hand claw and slashed at Talia's exposed side. She widened her eyes and screamed at the pain. Talia didn't know why it felt worse than it intended to and wondered what Monkey possibly coated his hand claw in to make it worse. Looking at said weapon, there was no distinguished sheen of any added coating at all.

Not only that, but she was having an extremely harder time holding back the pain like she would normally do.

"Oh… You must be wondering 'Why aren't I resisting the pain?' or something along those lines." Monkey said with a chuckle in his voice. "You see, Talia, some of the R&D boys were able to concoct an interesting cocktail for torture interrogations." He then sliced on part of her stomach, making her eyes water. "It's purpose? Well it increases one's pain receptors quite a lot as it'll toss one's trained pain intolerance out of the window." Monkey sliced at her exposed shoulder next as she let out a pained gasp. "And I injected the solution into you some time ago so it's full effects would've worked by now, which it clearly did."

The League traitor started slicing at Talia as her pained screams filled the confines of the sealed room. Silver Monkey stayed away from the major arteries as he doesn't want to kill his captive right away as he needs the information his master requires. But that doesn't mean he can't have fun while doing so.

The monkey-themed assassin stopped his slicing as he brought his masked face up close to her features. "Oh and on the brightside, the cocktail will indeed burn through your system so things will go back to normal. Too bad you won't live long to see it."

"...Why?" She muttered out.

"Excuse me?"

"Why'd you leave the League?"

Silver Monkey rose a hidden brow. "Really? That's what you wanted to ask?"

Talia briefly nodded. "My father and I wondered why you left so suddenly and went to HIVE. No one really saw it coming as you were a good asset."

Deciding to humor her, he answered. "You can probably blame Shiva on that one. She's a complete bitch and didn't bother letting me in on the full plan on the Zephyr assignment."

"Really? Just that instance? I thought it would've been more than that."

"It wasn't just that, Warith. Afterwards, I had eventually met my new master and brought me an offer to serve him. It was honestly quite tempting on the offer and gave me time to think about it." He said as he paced in front of her. "As I pondered, I kept hearing the snickers and other assassins talking about me behind my back on how badly I messed up on retrieving the battery. For the first time in years, my record was shot and I was humiliated in the utmost way." Silver Monkey stopped, turned his head and glared at Talia's form. "So after several days, I accepted my new master's offer and joined him to become stronger and hopefully end the rest of you."

After this was said, Talia formed a small smile and stifled a laugh, despite the pain she still felt.

"What the hell's so funny?"

"Just your excuse." She said as she calmed down from her pained laugh. "First off, sure I agree that Shiva's a complete bitch but you don't see me complaining about it and going off the rails. Despite her little fault, she's utmost loyal to my family-"

Monkey scoffed. "Of course you'd say that."

Talia rolled her eyes before continuing. "Anyways, the other bit was rather dumb that you'd leave the League because of you being mocked behind your back. Well I got news for you, Monkey, people have done so long before that mission of yours and it will not stop."

Qarrad Alfidd glared at Ra's daughter harder than before. Raising his hand claw, he slashed down again on her leg. Talia gritted her teeth as tears leaked from her eyes once more.

"So… who's really incharge, Monkey? Odysseus or Darhk?" She asked as she tried to power on through. "I highly doubt they're ruling the organization together."

Qarrad Alfidd merely glared at his captive. "Like I plan on telling you that bit of information." Unfurling his hand, he massaged it's palm as he spoke again. "Now, this'll all end quickly if you tell me the League's current operations, Talia."

"And like I've pretty much said before: no."

"Hmm… Maybe a change of subjects is in order." He said as he looked away from her. "Who is Naruto Uzumaki...?"

This caught Talia off guard as she breathed out a response. "He's a renowned publicist for his publishing company that-"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way." Came his interruption. "I meant to say this: Who is Naruto Uzumaki… to you?" Turning back to her, Monkey saw Talia give him a harsher glare. "We wondered what brought you back here to Gotham and it was quite the surprise of you being quite… close with him." His lips started to curl as he saw her slow, growing reaction. "At first, we thought you were trying to seduce him for some game and throw him away afterwards. But then I really looked right past all that when I saw the small form of affection in your eyes. So much so that you clearly lowered your defenses while around him." Coming up close and personal, Talia could see the sadistic glee past the mask's eyeholes. "Who would've thought that you, of all people, became head over heels for that whiskered publicist."

As Monkey talked, Talia greatly berated herself on not noticing Silver Monkey sooner ever since coming back to Gotham. She had grown too relaxed ever since interacting with Naruto again. And because of this, not only did she captured by this traitorous assassin but said man found a weakness close to her very heart.

But then, Talia realized something was off from what Silver Monkey said.

"...We?"

"You thought I was assigned this task alone?" He asked with a mocked gasp before internally chuckling. "Asides from a good number of Ghosts, there's one person I believe that wants Uzumaki dead above all else. Well asides from Vanitas, of course." Coming up close to her again, his smile went wide underneath his mask. "With him bound and defenseless, the love of your life will die very soon.

The HIVE assassin soon saw the infamous Warith al Ghul shift through several emotions: shock, fear and anger among others. Before long, she struggled in her bonds in somehow hoping she can get free. But this was all in vain as glared with the utmost hate in her blue-green eyes.

"Tell me what I want to know and I might set him free. If not, then I'll have Minato kill your Beloved. Though I assure you he will be harmed."

Talia just laid there as she had an internal debate. Would she sacrifice League information? Or would she sacrifice her former student?

Her duty or her dearest friend?

Her 'family' or her companion?

...Her love…

What choice did she have?

And with the exhaustion and blood loss she's dealing with, Talia al Ghul gave her response.

"...What do you want to know?"

 _ **-Meanwhile, with Naruto-**_

The sounds of heavy boots stirred Naruto from his state of unconsciousness. His head was throbbing like crazy. In response, he wanted to hold his head and massage the sore spots.

Yet he felt his arm was constrained by some metal shackle. Tugging said appendage, Naruto soon felt it wasn't just his one arm, but all of his limbs. Things started to process through his aching head on what was happened to him.

He's been taken.

*SPLASH*

'HOLY SHIT THAT'S COLD!'

The ice cold water drenched his entire body as he was now wide awake at this point. His eyes wandered around to his environment in hopes of quickly finding out where he is and who took him. All he could make out he was in some barely lit cell with his shirt and sweater off while constrained to a stony wall.

But two questions quickly entered his thoughts: where is Harley and Talia? And are they safe?

"Ah~ Good~ You're awake."

'That voice…' Naruto thought as he turned his head towards the source. He soon heard a small clang of metal onto the ground before heavy footsteps grew louder when they came towards him. When the person responsible for this came closer, Naruto saw who it was by his typical hooded attire. 'Minato.'

"Been quite sometime, huh Uzumaki." Said the revealed Hiraishin with a cocky smile underneath his hood.

All Naruto could do was glare at his captor. "Afraid so." He then tightened his constrained fists. "Got a question for ya: why'd you take me? Wanted to pick up from last year?"

"In a way, yes." Was the response. "I was originally here for a different purpose, but you being near my target was too hard to pass up."

"Who are you talking about?"

"Why the dark haired bitch, of course."

Naruto widened his eyes and growled at the hooded assassin. "Leave her alone, asshole!"

"Ohh~ feisty~" Hiraishin chuckled darkly as his one hand sparked to life. "I LOVE IT!"

The assassin punched Naruto's exposed stomach with his lightning encased fist. With his wet skin, the blow was harsher as he felt the electric currents across his body. The Uzumaki gritted his teeth before the pain subsided when Minato stepped away.

"Oh I'm going to enjoy this so very much." Spoke the meta-assassin. "And if your wondering, no. This will not be an interrogation." He walked further away, leaving Naruto to his thoughts while his body was healing from the recent attack.

'Ok Naruto, let's see how you'll get out of this mess and find Talia.' Naruto thought as he heard the sounds of rickety wheels with Minato's footsteps. 'I could get out of this easily, so I won't have to deal with his creepy sadistic arousal. But I need to knock Hiraishin out before finding her since he'll most likely stop my attempts. And if memory serves, he can be easily provoked.'

When the rickety sound stopped, the publisher got an eyeful on what the meta-assassin brought forward. Naruto looked back and forth between his captor and the object nearby.

"What?"

"...Why the fuck would you need a golf-cart battery for? Don't you already have your electrokinesis?"

"First off it's a go-cart battery, Uzumaki."

"Really?~ So less power going through that thing and has a shittier job for it's recharge. But honestly, why the hell do you need that for?"

"Because normally I wouldn't need such a thing." Minato snarled as he pulled back his hood to reveal… "But because of a certain someone, this and my arm are eating up my power!"

Naruto looked at the cybernetic eye grafted into Hiraishin face as it gave out a menacing, yellow glow. It wasn't long before the Uzumaki looked to the arm he lopped off back in Starling and figured Hiraishin couldn't save his detached appendage and was forced to get the latest in cybernetic implants.

Looking back at Minato's face, the whiskered man snorted. "If your trying to do an intimidation tactic, then you're doing a crappy job at it."

The meta-assassin glared at his captive while baring his teeth.

"Oh~ I'm so scared~" Drawled out the Uzumaki. "So, you said that you need that shitty little golf-cart battery-"

"GO-CART!"

"Same shitty battery family, same shitty battery life for torture and interrogation, asshat. Get a regular car battery for crying out loud. And since your just going to be draining that thing like some knockoff vampire, then I'm assuming my taunts from last year are really being proven right now."

"Now listen here, you little-"

"I mean, there was the performance issues I mentioned with some bit on you being slow on the uptake." Naruto said, all the while _ignoring_ Minato's growing rage with sparks rolling off of his body.

"Shut up!"

"So if your implants are just eating up your power to just stay active, then it just proves your power levels are not all that great then to begin with."

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

"THEN MAKE ME!"

With a lightning encased fist, Minato roared and shot forward to impale the man before him. But much to his surprise, a barrier was quickly formed around the whiskered Uzumaki and stopped the lightning attack. And if that wasn't enough, Naruto quickly phased through his shackles before forming a Rasengan in his hand.

"Nighty night." Was all Minato heard before he was sent flying across the room and was buried deep into the concrete wall. Naruto grinned a little as he rubbed his wrists. "Serves him right."

Forming his Vanitas attire around his body, the masked publisher walked towards the now unconscious Hiraishin and placed his hands onto the man's head. 'Now to get rid of his memories of the past day so he'll be at a complete loss.' With a faint glow around Minato's head, the deed was done.

The price: exhaustion across his hidden features as wiping the memories of the past 24 hours from someone is rather taxing.

With nothing else holding him back, Vanitas ran out of the room and through the corridors in hopes of finding Talia…

And hopefully in one piece.

 _ **-Somewhere else-**_

Things were rather quiet in the temporary HIVE base. Ghosts were patrolling both the railed floor and the bottom floor while their two superiors were doing their respective roles with the prisoners. The underlings knew not to ask questions who they were unless given permission. Their role was to keep the area clear from any intruders.

Whether it was from the homeless, curious civilians or any of the costumed heroes and villains that reside in this city.

Without any warning, the room started to shake. The Ghosts went on alert and wondered who was attempting to raid their temporary base. The shaking escalated when the ground in the room's center burst opened as giant vines shot out and started swiping against the armed HIVE men.

Wasn't long for a large flower to rise from the freshly made hole. It's petals started to part away when a figure dash jumped out and came towards a HIVE agent on the upper floor.

And said man saw a skin white blonde clad in red and black clothing swinging her large mallet across his head.

"SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKERS!" Cried out the Harleyquinn as she smacked the Ghost across the metal floor. She spun her mallet around and knocked another HIVE agent away before dashing forward for more action. "COMING THROUGH!"

As several expendable Ghosts were distracted by the clown-themed woman, the others were preoccupied by the sentient plant laying down the hurt on them. Bullets flew in hopes of taking out either of these threats. But the attempts failed as Harley was too fast for them and the attacking plant's hide was too thick.

" _ **N**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **."**_ Came a voice from the flower pedals. As they finished parting ways, Poison Ivy stepped out as she glared at the attacking Ghosts. _**"T**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **'s**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _y_ _ **N**_ _I_ _ **C**_ _E_ _ **!"**_

Whipping her arms around, more vines shot out and grappled the HIVE agents and flung them around like ragdolls. She then summersalted away from some Ghosts trying to get her from behind. Ivy then rebounded back by kicking and punching them away before her 'baby' finished them off.

Coming down from up high, Harley broke her fall by using a Ghost that was about to skewer the Green champion from her side. "Man this place is getting rather hot!"

" _ **Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _s_ _ **a**_ _y_ _ **."**_ Rising her hands into the air, more vines shot out of the ground as they went to take care of the rest of the Ghosts. _**"N**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _c_ _ **'m**_ _o_ _ **n,**_ _w_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _T_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _a_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **."**_

"And are ya sure they're here?"

" _ **P**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **. T**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _p_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **s**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **i**_ _d_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _i_ _ **s**_ _b_ _ **u**_ _i_ _ **l**_ _d_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **y**_ _s_ _ **p**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **."**_

Harley nodded as the pair dashed away in hopes of finding their boyfriend as the alarms were now going off.

When Harley woke up earlier, she was having a panic attack on what happened to her puddin and new friend. She tried contacting Selina in hopes that she could assist, but she wasn't answering her phone. Harley though was able to reach Pam as she left the Crock residence when Jade and Artemis' parents returned back from paintballing.

The moment the redhead heard that both Naruto and Talia were taken, the champion of the Green grew worried and went into action. So after nabbing both Harley and their boyfriend's car via large plants, so no one would spot the damage on the later, the pair went into action.

'Don't worry, puddin, we'll find ya and Talia.'

 _ **-Moments earlier, Back with Talia-**_

"...Is that all, Talia?"

"Yes…" She panted out.

There were some information she tried to keep away from Silver Monkey, but he was able to detect some of her lies. The cost: more painful cuts and her bleeding out a whole lot more. She feared that if she didn't get medical attention soon then she might die.

"Good to know, Talia." He chuckled out. Pulling out a walkie talkie from his belt, he pressed the receiver and spoke into it. "Hiraishin, you know what to do."

Talia widened her eyes and spoke. "But you said-"

"Did you really think I'd let him live? If so, then you were more naive than I thought." Pressing the walkie talkie button again, he spoke once more. "I repeat, you know what to do."

Silver Monkey expected to hear Minato's sadistic cackle on the other end with some screaming soon after. But all he met was silence and this worried him.

Suddenly, alarms were heard, causing the HIVE assassin to snap his neck around with widened eyes. "What the hell is going on?!" Silver Monkey growled out. Soon a pair of Ghosts bursted into the room as the alarms blared across the base. "Report!"

"We're under attack, sir!" One of them said.

"By who?!"

"Some plant lady and some clown-looking chick!" Said the other. "Not only them, but Vanitas is here as he's taking out many of the guards!"

Silver Monkey tightened his fist with anger that his radio broke apart. "How the bloody hell did they find us?!"

"I don't know, but we need to leave!"

Before either of them could act, a figure burst into the room and quickly knocked the expendable men out. Seeing the source, Silver Monkey growled as he saw the helmeted black and white themed hero that bested him twice now.

As Vanitas placed his attention on the monkey-themed assassin, the hero paused and stared at Talia's cut up body. He growled and quickly formed a large Rasengan. And before Silver Monkey could process what was going on, he was sent flying through the air and slammed into the concrete wall with his armor shredded and a large spiral mark placed on his chest.

"I've got no time for you." Vanitas said before rushing towards Talia's bleeding body. "Are you alright?"

"...No… I'm not." She answered.

He slowly nodded as he carefully placed his hands on her arms. "Let's get you out of this then."

The masked publisher phased Talia out of her confinement and realized she was naked and still bleeding. Momentarily lying her on the ground, he looked around for something to cover her with. Didn't take long in his search in finding a white sheet.

As he wrapped her up in the now bloodstained cloth, Vanitas looked back at Silver Monkey's unconscious form. Quickly forming a clone, he made a silent order. The clone nodded before making its way to the HIVE assassin.

"What… is 'he'… doing?" Asked the Demon's daughter as she eyed the action taking place.

"Erasing his memories." He answered. "To be more precise, the last 24 hours. Furthest I can do so he won't come back for you or Mr. Uzumaki on whatever he had planned."

Ra's daughter felt rather impressed on this skill of his. Yet another skill she has learned and it seemed valuable to have. And this proved useful on several fronts. From Qarrad Alfidd no longer knowing the League's current activities to not knowing her connection with the love of her life.

Talia then saw Vanitas' clone clench the traitor's head as a glow surrounded it. Took several moments before the clone disbursed into smoke as she soon heard the helmeted hero pant in exhaustion soon after.

"And… what of his partner?" She asked as she didn't want to reveal her knowledge on the other League traitor.

"You mean Hiraishin? I already took care of him when I saved Mr. Uzumaki."

"And… And where is he?" She panted out as her eyes were getting droopy. "Is… Is he-"

"He's safe outside waiting for you." He quickly said. "He wouldn't leave without you, Ms. Talia." This brought a small smile across her face before passing out in her helmeted savior's arms. 'Now to get you out of here.'

As Vanitas ran out of the room as he carried Talia bridal-style, he formed several more clones to help take care of the Ghosts that so happened to come their way. When they were knocked out, the clones wiped their memories and disbursed away before the process was repeated again and again.

As much as he'd like to kill these bastards for this, he had pressing matters to attend to.

When the hero rounded the corner, he almost ran into-

"PUDDIN!" Cried out the Harley Quinn. "YOU'RE ALRIGHT!"

"Wha- HARLEY?!" He cried out as he barely dodged the blonde missle from hitting him. "WHAT WHERE YOU'RE GOING?!"

When she landed from a last second front flip, the blonde looked back with a pout. "But why- Oh…" There she saw Talia's form wrapped in a staining sheet with her own blood. "What the hell happened to her?"

"I don't know, Harley, but we need to get her to safety." Looking over to see Ivy, he spoke. "Can we use the Greenhouse?"

" _ **Y**_ _e_ _ **s.**_ _B_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **y**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **k**_ _e_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _a_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _p_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **?"**_

"I can't risk it if she's still being targeted." He answered as they moved through the corridors. "Hiraishin said he came here to target her and I don't know why. I was merely collateral."

"I see."

It took several minutes for them to reach where Ivy's plants jotted out of the ground in the complex. As they got near the plant structure, several more Ghosts appeared as they fired upon them. Ivy commanded her 'babies' to take care of them as they saw fit.

Neither one in the small group cared on what happened to the expendable HIVE forces now as the giant flower swallowed them whole and shot back down into the earth.

 _ **-Pamela's Private Garden, Old Gotham Grand Greenhouse-**_

A hole opened up within the grounds as Ivy's flower rose afterwards. It's petals quickly opened as the helmeted Uzumaki carried his old friend to the nearby medical table. After carefully placing Talia down, he disbursed his attire while going to the nearby cooler where they've kept spare blood packs.

"Harley, Pam, mind stitching up Talia's cuts?"

"Sure thing, puddin." Came the jolly response with a nod from the botanist. When the psychologist unwrapped the dark haired woman, both Harley and Pam reeled back a bit on the sight. "Damn… whoever did this made really bad work on her."

"No kidding." Pam said as she pulled out the needles and threads before handing some to her girlfriend. "Well… Let's gets started."

It took some time and effort for the two women and the returned Uzumaki with some blood packs to get Talia stable and patched up from what happened to her. Each were glad they kept the spare blood on hand in case of any dire situation, whether it was their blood or some pilfered from the Blood Bank. If they didn't, then this situation would've been harder to save Talia's life.

"Man, I'm beat." Harley yawned out. "I'm gonna hit the sack." She walked over to the side where a comfortable flower bed morphed into an actual comfy bed. "It's been one crazy day."

"Yeah~ You go do that, Harl." Spoke the redhead.

Harley nodded before she slowly succumbed to her slumber.

Looking back at Naruto, Pam saw he sat next to Talia's prone form. His hazel eyes appeared heavy to her. She came up to him and placed a comforting hand onto his shoulder.

"Are you alright, Naruto?"

"...I would be lying if I said I did." He answered with a sigh. "This… I should've gotten to her sooner and maybe…"

Pam sighed as she hugged him from behind. "It's alright, my love, you got to her and saved her. That's all that matters."

"...Yeah… I somewhat wish I could know why she was targeted."

"Both you and her said her father was important, right? Could be related with that."

"Maybe." Naruto brushed a stray strand of dark hair away from Talia's face before tightening his hand. "I just wish she wasn't placed in this position and not harmed like this."

"Everyone wishes for that and it's hard to avoid."

"I know, Pam. But when I saw her earlier, bleeding and all cut up, I was briefly reminded of what happened to you."

Pam tightened her hold on Naruto on the life changing event as it was truly hard for the both of them.

"Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"When Harley called me earlier, I was so scared from what she told me. I didn't want to lose you as I feared my heart wouldn't take it."

The Uzumaki turned around and looked into her worry filled eyes. He stood up and gave her a comforting kiss as he gave her hands a comforting squeeze. "It's alright to be scared, Pam. I would've been scared if it was the other way around."

"But not like this. Not now." This left him confused and curious on what she exactly meant by that. Catching onto what she just said, Pam sighed as her green eyes went to another part of her garden. Looking back at him, she spoke. "N-Naruto. I… I need to tell you… something."

He looked at his first real love as she gained his utmost attention. "What is it, Pam?" She didn't answer right away as his girlfriend dragged him along to a different part of her greenhouse. "Pam, is something the matter?"

She sighed while closing her eyes. "Do… you remember Yggdrasil telling you to tell me about there being a way for us to… have children?"

The details on that particular conversation with the Parliament of the Tree member came to the forefront of his mind. "Yeah, I do." He tilted his head in confusion. "Why'd you bring it up?"

The pair eventually came across a certain corner of the greenhouse which Naruto noticed a whole lot of security guarding something. From the venus fly traps to various forms of poisonous plants. With a wave of her hand, the plants moved out of the way to reveal a small tunnel with something glowing on the far end. He kept his silence as Pam escorted him further in but couldn't hold it any longer as he saw the large large pool of glowing green liquid with various plants encircling and growing out of it.

"Pam. What is this?"

She sighed. "This is something I've kept secret from you and the others." Vines started to recede from the pool as she continued. "Something that I've been working on for a long time now." Wasn't much longer on the wait as several large flower buds came out of the liquid. "And after a few attempts, these are finally stable."

"Pam… What are these?"

Pam formed a small smile on her face. "Something we hoped on having, Naruto."

"...What are you saying?" He asked with a heavy feeling in his chest. His heart seemed to have dropped into his stomach while beating so fast. It was as if time has gone to a crawl.

All the red haired beauty gave him was a smile with tears running down her cheeks. "What I'm saying is that I'm technically pregnant." Her smile turned into a widening grin. "And you're going to be a father."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Sorry for the long period of no update on this story. Been focusing on 'A Dragon's Guardian' and dealing with the February bullshit. Not only that, but the writer's block on this story sucked ass and couldn't get a good idea on how to properly get things to work on what I had in mind for this chapter.**

… **..**

… **..**

… **..**

 **I… also have some bad news on my end as it happened quite recently.**

… **..**

 **I lost my job at a workplace I enjoyed being at for two years. I will not talk about the specifics, as to the reasons why are very hard to explain. But to simplify things, I got the pink slip with a handful of others so the workplace can save money.**

 **If you go onto my profile page towards the top, you'll find the link for the Pa-tr-eon page I had set up. I am new to that and I'll need money to help me by while I'm searching for a new job. Any amount will be appreciated.**

 **And for those that don't want to get onto my profile page here on Fanfiction, the link is pa-tr-eon Jebest4781. (Just get rid of the spaces and dashes)**

… **..**

 **Please… I need the help. Writing fanfics might not only become just something I do for fun and kill boredom but also something that might help pay the bills. I admit I'm scared as I don't know if I'll find a good paying job soon.**

 ***Sigh* Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**

 _ **-Omake-**_

The couple were just about to leave the park when the redhead spoke up to the love of her life.

"...Naruto."

"Yeah?"

The changed botanist fiddled around with the hem of her clothes. "I… I don't know how to say this but…"

"But what?"

"I'm… I'm pregnant."

…..

…..

…..

…..

"Naruto?" She asked as she didn't see her boyfriend respond… or even move for that matter for several minutes. Pam reached out and was about to touch him as she spoke his name once more. "Naru-"

He suddenly took in a large intake of air as his eyes suddenly became completely white. "I'M GONNA BE A FATHER?"

Pam recoiled from the outburst and tried to get him to quiet down. "Naruto! Quiet!"

"I'M! SO! HAPPY!"

*SUSH* "What are you doing?!" She yelled out in a hushed tone.

"WE'VE GOTTA TELL EVERYONE!" Quickly getting onto his feet, he started running and oddly leaving a dust trail behind him. "EVERYONE! MY GIRLFRIEND IS GONNA HAVE A BABY AND I'M THE FATHER!"

Pam was left behind with a twitching eyebrow before having to call forth her plants to help her in her chase to stop her boyfriend from embarrassing themselves.

 _ **-Wayne Manor-**_

Bruce was enjoying some of his simpler relaxation moments in his parlor room while sipping a nice cup of tea and reading a nice book for his pleasure. Even Alfred was enjoying the nice pot of tea beside him.

When the billionaire was about to sip a new cup of tea, Naruto suddenly barged in unannounced causing Bruce to spill the hot beverage onto himself.

"Naruto?! What are you-"

"BRUCE! GUESS WHAT!"

"...Wha-"

"PAM'S PREGNANT AND I'M GONNA BE A FATHER!" Yelled out the publisher with the biggest smile he could muster. "GONNA GO AND TELL THE OTHERS! BYE!"

Without warning, Naruto ran through the nearest window and continued running while leaving a blinking butler and billionaire behind. Before either of them could properly respond to what just happened, another figure came into the room. Looking at the new arrival, they saw the panting form of Pamela Isley barely hanging onto the doorframe.

"Pam?"

"Where'd he go?" She asked as her legs were shaky. "Ran all the way here from Arkham, just to barely hear him tell Harley and Victor the news before running off."

"Which I'm so excited for!" Harley announced as she came running in soon after. "Oh I'm so happy, Red! I can't wait to have little Naru's and Pammy's running around!" She then gasped out loudly before shaking the redhead like a loon. "OH! WHEN WILL HE GET ME PREGNANT AS WELL?! I WANNA SEE MY BABIES RUNNING AROUND WITH YOURS AS WELL!" Quickly letting go of Pam, who fell down on the ground with swirls in her eyes, the pale woman continued. "And let's not forget about Selina! The readers have speculated that Naruto got her pregnant on the whole Tyger Tyger chapter, but who knows for sure if the writer wants that to happen by now!

Rising from the ground, while feeling nauseous of being treated as such, she looked to see the confused looks of Bruce and Alfred. "I'll ask again. Where'd he go?"

Didn't take long for them to point to the side to show the broken window. Pam and Harley ended up following the growing dust trail with them needing to use some of Pam's plant transportation to help them out.

 _ **-Metropolis-**_

Enjoying her day off, Lois was in her bathtub while taking a nice bubble bath. Everything has been so stressful lately because of work. All she wants to do now was to relax while reading her copy of Loveless.

Suddenly a large bang was heard from inside of the bathroom, causing the reporter to jolt in her bubbly spot.

'That must've come from my front door.' Lois thought as she tried to get out of her tub in a little frantic state. 'Who the hell is it?'

Before she could really get out, another large bang was heard as Lois screamed on the sudden arrival. Looking at her home intruder, she saw it was Naruto. If it wasn't for his abrupt arrival, she would be glad to see him.

But now…

"NARUTO?! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" She yelled out as she covered her modesty in the bubble bath.

"LOIS, GUESS WHAT? I'M GONNA BE A DAD! ISN'T THIS AMAZING?!"

The Daily Planet reporter blinked several moments and before she could respond, her old friend disappeared on her with an odd dotted outline. With a twitch of her eye, the dark haired beauty screamed out at the top of her lungs. "YOU OWE ME A NEW DOOR, WHISKERS!"

Just as she said this, Harley and Pam came into the Lane residence as they wondered where their boyfriend went off to. And it seemed they had lost track of him. Thus causing him to groan and go back out in searching for him.

 _ **-National City-**_

Over in Catco Worldwide Media, Cat Grant was watching one of her various TV monitors in her office. Reason being, there was a national wide news report that was scaring many of its citizens.

" _...Seismic activity and unusual wind patterns have occurred across the country."_ Spoke the news anchor as he read off from the prompter. _"No one knows for sure what the cause of this phenomenon, but-"_

Suddenly, the power went out as she felt her building shake. Worrying it was yet another earthquake, like the one months ago when her secret lover came into town, she started calling out towards her employees to evacuate the building.

But before she could actually give out the order, a rush of air came through the stairwell as Naruto Uzumaki stood right before her. And before she could properly register his arrival, he scooped her up into a tighening embrace. Her employees blinked in confusion on what was going on exactly.

"KITTY CAT! GREAT NEWS! I'M A FATHER!" He yelled out as many of the window panels shattered by the volume of his voice. Even off to the side, Kara had to hold her ears as she felt some blood leaking out of it from the pain.

"I… I…"

Placing her back on the ground, the publisher gave her a cheeky grin. "Well I'm gonna go back home now, bye Kitty Cat!" Naruto spoke out loud as he disappeared in a trail of smoke. If he were to look back, he would've seen several people looking at the odd spectacle such as Kara Danvers and Cat Grant.

Even hearing a pair of groans coming from the stairwell as they turned their attention to the source. They soon saw a pair of women stumbly climbing up and neither bothered trying to get up once back on the top floor.

"Where… Where the hell did puddin… get all that energy?!"

"No… clue… Harl…" Came Pam's strained voice. "But I'm gonna kill him for doing this in the first place and going out of control." She then saw the group of people looking at them. "Say… Where did Naruto run off to now?"

Kara was the one to answer. "Apparently he's going back home, I think."

"...Thanks." Said the botanist and psychologist before crawling to the elevator and going to the bottom floor. Once there, Pam will use her plant transportation to fully get them back to Gotham City.

Let it be known that an extremely excited Uzumaki is a dangerous Uzumaki. For they unknowingly and unintentionally cause destruction in their wake when they find out their gonna have a child. For it was this reason why many feared them back in the Elemental Nations.

Oh sure~ there's the bit of their dangerous techniques and whatnot. But it's merely that factor on them becoming a parent is the most frightening event of all. Unknowingly and temporarily tapping into powers beyond their comprehension to cause much destruction in their wake.

And it's part of this reason why many nations sought to destroy them in the second shinobi war.

Though Kushina was one of the remaining Uzumaki and she reignited that fear once more, years later when finding out she was pregnant with Naruto.

Oh… Speaking of…

 _ **-In the afterlife-**_

An unholy squeal could be heard throughout the heavenly paradise as many of its residents had to cover up their ears.

The source of it all is the Red Habanero, the second Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and mother of Naruto Uzumaki: Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze.

"I'M GONNA BE A GRANDMA!" She bellowed out as she ran across the cloudy streets of paradise. "MY BABY BOY HAS FINALLY PUT ONE IN THE OVEN!"

Part of her excitement ended when Lillian Isley, Pamela's mother, ruined the moment. "You do realize Pam is doing an odd form of artificial insemination right?" This caused Kushina to trip and crash land into an afterlife tree. "Not really doing things the traditional way because of Pam's _complications_."

From her spot on the ground, Kushina sniffled in a comedic fashion before turning to her friend and fellow redhead. "How could you ruin such a perfect moment by being stingy, Lillian?! Our precious babies are going to have babies of their own!"

Lillian merely sighed as she grabbed her friend and put her into a choke hold. From there she started digging her knuckles into the energetic redhead's scalp. "I am excited, Kushina, but I'm not one to fucking go nuts when hearing this bit of information!"

She then dropped the red haired Uzumaki on the ground before walking away

"MOU~ YOU'RE SO MEAN!" Kushina yelled out as she started blowing raspberries at the retreating Isley before going into her own little world. Hoping to meet her grandbabies in the mortal realm.

'Maybe I should try and sneak out of this place or ask Lady Death for some favors so I can at least meet them when their born.' Came the Uzumaki's thought as she got up from her place on the ground and tried to search for the ancient entity of Life and Death itself.


	49. Smoke and Mirrors

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 45: Smoke and Mirrors**

The skies over Gotham were occupied by thick grey clouds as the rain occasionally went on and off. It wasn't all that bad for its residents. Though most would prefer staying indoors for the day so it wouldn't feel all that muggy once they try to dry themselves off.

As for the resident Uzumaki, he was out running errands. It wasn't just for himself; but for his girlfriends, his ward, his unintentional guest… and his unborn children.

'...Okay so I've got the biodegradable diapers, baby bottles and other necessities.' He thought as he looked into his grocery cart to see said items along with the usual things for his place.

Even though they aren't going to be brought into the world for months now, Naruto wanted to be sure he got things prepared for their arrival.

It's been several days since both he and Talia got captured by Silver Monkey and Hiraishin for whatever they had intended. Naruto would've expected the pair to get arrested, but that was highly unlikely. When the GCPD arrived onto the scene, due to Harley placing an anonymous call, the one warehouse they were kept was empty. Naruto doubted the HIVE operatives stayed in the city. If they did, then he'd hunt them down and bring them to justice for what they exactly did.

It was shortly afterwards that the whiskered Uzumaki was given a startling reveal by his botanist girlfriend that by some experimentations, they were going to become parents. This wasn't done by the traditional sense or artificial insemination by using someone's womb to house the embryo, but by a more unique approach by using plants and gene therapy and some other information that flew over his head.

From what he could understand, Yggdrasil did provide Pam the information on how to _possibly_ accomplish this, but she needed to do so many experiments to get things right. Animal and plant gene therapy was the gist of things but there needed to be a powerful, stabilizing agent to hold things together. And luckily for the red haired beauty, Pam was able to come across the creepy, glowing green pool when expanding her greenhouse that provided said agent.

The green liquid oddly had healing properties and seemed to revitalize dying cells. She experimented with small samples as the botanist found it was rather pure and not tainted… from what the Green could tell her exactly. Pam wanted to acquire more information from the waters, but her plant-like superiors wouldn't budge.

Regardless, they were going to have children.

Harley and Selina knew about this… Well Harley found out first and then blabbed to Selina as she couldn't keep the secret for long…

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _...PAMMY'S GONNA BE A MAMA!"_

 _Selina reared back at both shock and of the sudden noise. "What?"_

" _Puddin put one in the oven and Red's finally gonna be a mommy!" Said the perky blonde as she bounced in each step._

 _Selina was merely sitting in her loft as she was reading a book the thief wanted to catch up on when Harley barged unannounced. After what happened last night, she needed some personal time while stroking Isis in her lap. Though the sudden announcement got Isis to freak out with Selina falling out of her seat._

 _When processing what Harley just said, Selina widened her green eyes in surprise. "Wait? Pregnant?! How?!"_

" _Does it matter?" Harley was basically bouncing all over the loft at this point. "I can't wait to see little Naru's and Pammy's running around while I spoil them to death." She gasped rather deeply as to take a large intake of air into her lungs. "Oh! OH! PUDDIN SHOULD GET ME KNOCKED UP AS WELL!"_

 _From her placement, Selina oddly saw sparkles, glitter and an odd pinkish aura surrounding her close girlfriend and lover's form. It was rather creepy on what was happening. The ravenette would've dismissed and shrugged it off…_

" _Oh~ I can't wait to feel the tiny feet and hands in my belly as I read my babies nice bedtime stories." Harley said with a soft smile as she rubbed her exposed, flat stomach. Then out of nowhere, the blonde's innocent smile went rather creepy with a perverse giggle. "And I can't wait for puddin to fuck my bloated, pregnant body over and over-"_

 _If it wasn't for that!_

" _WOAH THERE!" Yelled out the Red champion. "Don't say another word!"_

" _What? Why?"_

" _Because that's weird and I don't wanna hear that!"_

" _But I thought it was rather hot when I heard one of my female co-workers talk about it to us gals." Harley said with a slight grin. "Was rather kinky for her and her hubby and I wondered how it would feel like with me pregnant with puddin's baby inside me while he screws my-"_

" _SERIOUSLY! ENOUGH!"_

 _Harley suddenly disappeared from Selina's view before feeling the blonde hugging her from behind. "Mou~ Don't be like that~" The environmentalist then felt the psychologist's hands grope one of her breasts while the other rubbed her lower stomach that got her breath to hitch. "Wouldn't it be nice to feel that way, Buttercup? I know you've done some kinky stuff with puddin with his clones and us girls. So why wouldn't getting plowed while having one in the oven differ?"_

 _Despite feeling a little aroused on both Harley's actions and… the creeping idea, the ravenette pulled away. While taking several breaths to calm herself down, Selina spoke her thoughts. "Well I don't know if I'd want to think that way anytime sime, Harl."_

 _Harley pouted. "Why's that?"_

" _Because for one, I don't want to be a mother so soon." Answered the dark haired beauty. "The idea's really nice with having kids with Naruto. But we've been so careful for that not to happen."_

 _The blonde sighed a little. "Yeah… With the pills… the safety days… and the countless condoms which could practically restock a sperm bank-"_

" _The point is," Selina interrupted with blushed cheeks, "neither of us are ready to be parents."_

" _But that's why it's so exciting! It's so unplanned and pops right into your face and derails you quite suddenly."_

 _The thief rolled her eyes as she unconsciously rubbed her stomach. Weeks ago, Selina thought she was pregnant and guessed it was because of the incident with her literally becoming a Catwoman. The ravenette wanted to be sure as most pregnancy tests were total crap._

 _When she went to her doctor for a confirmation, Selina was glad on the news that she wasn't pregnant at all. She was merely reacting on the bad food for the morning sickness and the pregnancy test she took was actually faulty when reading on the grocery store notice._

 _Regardless on the event, Selina did feel slightly bad she wasn't pregnant with Naruto's child right then and there. But on the brightside, she was happy that Pam was going to experience that first._

 _Speaking of…_

" _Tell me, Harl. How did Red get pregnant anyways?"_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

...Anyways… Naruto didn't know if he should tell Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Rachel, Lois, Cat, Victor, Talia and Arthur quite yet.

With the Wayne household, they were good friends and they knew enough on what's going on with Naruto and his unique household. But Naruto and Pam felt the matter should be kept to themselves until later as neither knew what might happen to the unborn children before their intended arrival. So for now, neither Bruce, Alfred and Dick will know until things were comfortably right for the couple to drop the bomb on them.

With Rachel, the pair felt if they tried to tell her it might draw attention away from the ashen child. It wasn't that she couldn't handle it, but the news would be rather sudden and might cause problems with her. Would she react badly or nicely? Not only that, but Rachel was merely Naruto's ward… who he cared deeply for as apart of the family.

And thoughts of the alternate dream life with Rachel as Naruto's adoptive daughter made things awkward for him. He wouldn't know if it would be similar like in there or not on her reactions.

Victor was a good friend and he might deserve to know by right with how close he was with the publisher. But he doesn't fully know of Pam's powers and how this news might affect the frozen man. Might cause him to go into a deeper depression or something in that field.

With Lois, Cat and Talia; Naruto knew them very well and were set in a good place in his heart. Each knew of his relationship with Pam, but not of her powers. So explaining all that would cause problems.

Oh if they knew of what Pam was exactly…

(Well Talia does to some extent, but Naruto doesn't know that tidbit.)

As for Arthur, he's been out of touch with the Maine native and he might consider telling him the good news.

'I should probably give him a call later.' Naruto thought as he rounded an aisle corner. 'He doesn't know of Pam's unique condition and complications so that might work.'

Regardless on the situation, Naruto was both excited yet scared on what's about to happen. He wondered how his parents fully reacted to this and hoped there wouldn't be any complications. The Uzumaki they had their own when it pertained to his birth with Kushina being Kurama's second Jinchuriki, the seal got weakened on the ten month pregnancy and the fake Madara Uchiha wreaking havoc by ripping Kurama out on that chaotic night.

But this was different. None of their unborn children were being brought into the world in the traditional manner. They were going to be monitored by both Pam, her drones and her superior: Luisa Cruz. And if you're wondering on Pam's boss, she helped out on this project and asked to watch over one of the 'baby pods' as part of the agreement.

The Uzumaki was knocked out of his thoughts when his grocery cart crashed into someone else's.

"Hey, I'm sorry." He apologized. "I didn't- Barbara?"

"Naruto?" Spoke the red haired daughter of the Gotham Commissioner.

Recomposing himself, he smiled. "Odd that we'd run into each other here, huh?"

Barbara chuckled a little as she adjusted her cart. "So it would seem."

Getting his cart back in order, Naruto briefly looked at the large order in her possession. "Stockpiling for just you or is it with your father?"

"The later. It's my turn to get groceries instead of dad. And I would've gotten less if it was just me and save things up for roughly a month."

"I can relate." He said as the pair started to roll their carts through the aisle. "Before certain circumstances, I would've gotten quite a lot and saved on buying food for a time."

Her amethyst eyes looked at his carts contents and saw evidence of baby supplies. Raising a brow, she voiced her thoughts. "What's with the baby stuff? You getting a kid?"

"No." He quickly lied as he didn't want the delicate information to be brought out.

"Then who are you getting those for?"

"A friend. Owed her a small favor and she requested a restock on her baby stuff before she moved."

"Well that's rather nice of you."

"Meh, it's no big deal for me." Grabbing a few things off the nearby shelf, a thought came to mind. "Did you finish your book yet, Barbara?"

She blinked. "Oh yeah." A smiled then formed. "I'm almost done actually."

"Is it because of the ending?"

"...Yeah. That and because of school."

"Quite understandable. Endings are always hard to muster and school is always important."

"Heh. No kidding." Barbara grabbed some protein bars and cereal as she continued. "So how are things with you, Naruto?"

"Lately?" The publisher sighed. "Just hectic."

"How so?"

"Just a whirlwind on things, I guess. Work tends to get rather busy and my personal life tends to get some interesting surprises." His eyes gained a small feel of being distant, in which Barbara noticed. "Both pleasant and discomforting."

"...Did something happen recently?"

"Just an old friend getting hurt and I feel responsible that I could've helped her sooner."

The commissioner's daughter could feel the pain coming from the publisher's gaze. 'Whatever happened to him must've hit him hard.' She briefly looked back into his basket and saw some particular medical supplies, both public and behind the counter. 'Quite recently, in fact.'

As much as she'd want to question it, the issue was not hers to dwell into.

"Well it's been nice chatting with you, Barbara." Said the Uzumaki, causing her to snap out of her thoughts. "Got other places to be and other things to take care of. Oh and let me know when you're done with your book so I'll give it another go around."

"...Yeah… It's been nice chatting with you as well. And I will."

He smiled and waved a little for a small goodbye before moving away from the red haired Gordon.

Seeing Naruto move away from her, in such a state, made her frown. She was a decently good judge of character as she could tell Naruto was rather hurt. It didn't take much on the conversation to realize that.

Building up the nerve, she moved her cart forward in order to catch up with him. "Naruto, wait."

Hearing her call out to him, he stopped and turned around. "Yes?"

"You also said that something pleasant happened. Could you tell me what it is, if you don't mind?"

He blinked a few times before remembering that little detail. Naruto smiled in which she saw his expression take a complete 180. "Now that would be telling, Babs."

The college student narrowed her eyes as a playful pout formed on her features. He laughed before she soon followed on the action. For his laugh seemed a little infectious in hopes of brightening the mood.

'It's as if I'm with Vanitas again.' She thought as Naruto moved away from her once more as he went to make his purchases. 'With his jokes to brightening me up.'

 _ **-Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

Entering his loft, Naruto was greeted with the sight of Talia doing situps on the floor. "Shouldn't you still be in bed?"

The Demon's daughter stopped her action and rolled onto her back. Tilting her head back, she looked at the Uzumaki's eyes. "Staying inactive for too long is not good."

"Along with pulling your stitches." He said as he dropped the large load of groceries on the kitchen counter. The baby supplies were already left in Selina's loft before coming to his own, for obvious reasons. "You still got another day or so before those are good to get rid of. And I do not want to deal with the ones you reopened by your excessive workout like the other day."

She merely rolled her eyes. 'Oh please, it's not that bad.'

Talia truly appreciated him being protective of her after she woke up in his loft. She expected to wake up in the hospital, but figured her former student pleaded Vanitas to drop her off here so the Uzumaki could take care of her. Unexpected, but Naruto told her he didn't know if Hiraishin and Silver Monkey would've gone back into looking for her so best way to keep her hidden was an unexpected place: his home.

Regardless, it was rather nice of being waited hand and foot by him. Being fed while in bed, getting cleaned in a really nice bath and entertained by his guitar music for the first two days under his care. She even got those old backrubs she enjoyed all those years ago, which was absolutely to die for!

Oh she was in heaven.

And let's not forget when Naruto presented her-her old locket. She had wondered where it went off to on the night they were captured. The publisher told her he went back into the one warehouse and was able to find it for her, due to how much it meant to the assassin. Talia was rather touched and having it back in her possession made things right for her.

'Now if I could tell him how I feel.' She thought as she slowly got back up onto her feet. 'And hope he could return it in kind. Sharing a kiss. Oh and maybe convince him to join my side in the League. Then everything will be perfect.'

"What would you like for lunch, Talia?"

"Don't know." She said. "Surprise me."

Naruto smiled as once he finished getting the groceries putting. Going back into the cabinets and refrigerator, he pulled out the ingredients and started cooking. While this happened, Talia went to use Naruto's shower to get herself ready for the day.

During her time cleaning herself, Talia thought of what happened in the past several days since staying in her former student's home.

On the first day of her stay, she had called the Crocks and informed them on what happened to her and Naruto. Paula was obviously concerned for both while Lawrence was just concerned on Talia due to her just being their boss' daughter. They did ask if the Demon's daughter needed any help, but Talia turned it down as Naruto is doing what he can to keep her safe before she's ready to properly leave Gotham and head back to either Nanda Parbat or Infinity Island.

Talia was going to consider to just call it good and just enjoy her little vacation when several things bugged her from what she overheard around the time she woke up. Mind you that she was rather groggy and couldn't hear all the details or make out certain information. But as she was waking up, she heard some interesting details that pertained to the infamous Catwoman and some relations to what happened on that Saturday night.

The Demon's Heir somewhat overheard Selina talk to Naruto, Pam and Harley about a job she was doing and it's details didn't let her to respond fast enough to help them out on saving… _something(s)_ or _someone(s)_.

Asides from the questioning topic, the ravenette thief talked about the job that pertained to the rare black Siberian leopards. There were only a handful of them in the world, all due to collectors and poachers. Selina was able to acquire the feline from 'Amazing Leslies Animal Extravaganza', with the show arriving in town the other night. Though she was thwarted by several mercenaries trying to acquire the leopard and she was captured along for the ride before her escape… with her phone destroyed in the process.

Oh and it wasn't just any mercenaries, but it was the Joker and his very own gang.

Now the person behind hiring the Joker Gang and the abduction of the black Siberian leopard was one Kilgore Steed, a notorious man who enjoys hunting endangered animals for sport on his private island off the city's coast. Hearing about this man made Talia's skin crawl as she wanted to find the man and kill him for what he'd done to wildlife for his so called _fun_. And it turned out the poacher already acquired the other black Siberian leopards and wanted to hunt them down once he had all of them.

Though luckily for the Demon's daughter, Selina was able to acquire means of getting to Kilgore's island. She fought against the Joker and his gang, who had killed Kilgore and his employees, while escaping the island's various traps and extremely large maze. In the end, Joker and his gang fled with their tails between their legs.

From what the Catwoman got out of the whole experience was all of the islands' captured animals. The list consisted of: the four known black Siberian leopards in the world, a giant and thought to be dead boar, an exotic komodo dragon, a pair of extremely rare albino hyenas, a rare white rhino, and a pair of tasmanian tigers.

Harley apparently went nuts when hearing the tidbit on the hyenas as she wanted to keep them as her babies. But that wasn't meant to be as Selina transported the lot to the man who hired her for the job to safely transport to the animal sanctuary. He did show the credentials on what he was pitching and Selina acquired the money on her mission, which will be put towards well known animal sanctuaries around the world.

Talia wouldn't have minded on the gracious good act of it all, but it was the information as to who hired the ravenette thief: one Henri Ducard… One of the many alias' of her very own father: Ra's al Ghul.

Sometime after this bit of reveal, the Demon's Heir called her father and spoke to him as to the particular event. He was rather confused as to how his eldest daughter knew of this, which she explained her current predicament and reasons in Gotham. Ra's didn't mind in the end, but he told Talia on why he hired the infamous Catwoman for the job.

The leader of the League of Shadows learned of Kilgore's intention with the black Siberian leopards and wanted someone to acquire them and bring them to him in a delicate manner. He would've had several of his Shadows to do the mission, but Ra's remembered of Selina's thievery acts as she does it all towards the benefit of wildlife. So he got her to do the mission as she'd obviously use her acquired funds and quickly donate it all to wildlife charities.

What he didn't expect was the large surplus of rare and endangered animals. Ra's was extatic on Selina going up and beyond his expectations, thus paying her more for her services. And he'd obviously take the animals to his hidden preserve in the Amazon so the animals would slowly repopulate throughout the years. Not only that, but since Kilgore Steed was dead then Ra's had the opportunity to purchase the island for further plans.

'Wish he could've told Paula and Lawrence that he was coming so they could then inform me.' Talia thought as she was stepping out of the shower. She started to dry her slightly damp hair as her thoughts continued. 'Then again, I highly doubt he'd inform anyone on where he'd turn up, all in order to really test his operatives and forces unless necessary.'

By the time she finished getting dressed and stepped out of the one bedroom, her sinus' were assaulted by a pleasant smell. "Hmm~ What are you making?"

Hearing his former teacher's voice, he turned his head around and smiled. "I'm making parmesan heroes." He bent down and opened the oven before pulling out a pair of trays. "I made one with chicken, one with meatballs and one with eggplant."

"Eggplant?"

"Hey, don't judge me. Pam likes it a lot and she got me to try it." Placing the trays on top of the stove, he pulled his oven mitts away. "Gotta say, it was rather tasty and only have it every so often. So which ones would you like?"

Talia eyed the metal trays that have the sandwiches as she saw they were rather large and sauceless. The assassin looked a bit away and saw a pot with a ladle inside. This made her guess they were enough to be made for leftovers and so the sandwiches wouldn't be soggy when heated back up.

Humming a little, Talia gave her answer. "I'll take a meatball one."

He nodded and served her half of a the large meatball hero he made. The publisher was about to grab his own when his cell phone went off. Picking it up, he saw who it was and excused himself before answering. "Hey Lois, what's up?"

" _Doing well Whiskers, yourself?"_

"It's been fine." He answered with a smile. "Several ups and downs, but nothing too bad I think."

" _Figured as much."_ Said the Daily Planet reporter.

"So why'd you call me anyways? I highly doubt it's just for my birthday, which was a few days ago, and you called me at the time."

" _Which I wanted to do not only that, but also making sure if you got my present or not."_

"Yeah I got them alright."

" _Them?"_

"Kitty Cat sent me one as well."

" _Ah~ Gotcha."_

Naruto chuckled at the mention of what he got from his old Daily Planet friends. It was after his birthday when he got them, due to his birthday being on a Sunday… so no mail. Lois merely sent him money as she didn't know what he had or not in his home and he appreciated the gesture. He was sure put it towards something good… once he got the issues with his ruined car resolved with the insurance company due to the other night.

As for Cat, she sent him something quite unexpected: a camera film. There was a written note inside of the envelope saying that Cat wanted him to develop what's inside of the film as she worked quite long to get these right. Feeling curious on what the film contained, he personally got them developed at work and they were _really_ unexpected…

'Man oh man were they hot.' He thought with a hidden chuckle as he pictured the various _risky_ photos of Cat on her bed in both lingerie and nude in his head. 'Didn't know she could bend those ways. Then again, she did take lots of yoga to help relieve stress.'

He called her up soon after and she giggled on the other end. Cat said she wanted to be sure he wasn't fully missing her and sent him the roll of film just to remind him on their relationship. This just added a bit more fuel on the fire in making him want to visit her sooner.

Getting out of his remembrance, Naruto spoke up. "So if it wasn't because of the gift you sent me, why'd you call me for?"

" _Can't I just call you so I could say hi?"_

"Knowing you, not really unless something came up."

" _True."_

"So what is it?"

" _Well~ I got some interesting news and I'd thought you could be the first to find out."_

"C'mon Lois, don't leave me hanging here. You're leaving me in suspense."

He heard her chuckle on the other end. _"Perry decided to open up a branch in your neck of the woods."_

Naruto blinked. "I'm sorry, but did you say Parry wants to make a Daily Planet branch here in Gotham?"

" _Yep~"_

"Why?"

" _Perry said he got inspiration on what your doing with your company and thought he could expand in order to get certain stories done quicker on varied locations. Especially with that partnership you and Cat did with your respective companies."_

"But why Gotham? Shouldn't he try to go to one of the other well known cities like Central City, Coast City, Gateway, or Midway where it's safer?"

" _You'd have to take it up with him, Whiskers."_ She said with a possible shrug on the other end. _"Regardless, you better be ready for some competition ever since you started to get into the newspaper business with your company."_

The Uzumaki sighed. "Yeah… I guess so." He then scratched his head. "Do you know when he'll get a location set up here?"

" _No clue."_ Said the reporter. _"It's still rough on the details."_

"Understandable."

" _But this means I could be able to come visit you more often."_

Naruto could feel her smirk on the other end, causing him to form his own. "That'll be interesting."

" _Really? Just interesting?"_

"Well it would also be fun and we could hang out like normal. And I'd show you around town to see what you would expect while being here."

"I'll take you up on that." Said the ravenette reporter. _"Well I gotta go, Whiskers. Got an assignment to take care of and I'd like to finish up by day's end."_

"That's fine and good luck on your end."

" _Thanks. Later."_

The phone call ended just when he heard the doorbell ring. 'Huh… Wonder who that is?' Briefly looking back at the kitchen, he saw Talia was still eating her meatball parmesan sandwich. 'Might as well see who it is.'

Walking to the front door, he opened it without checking the peephole. When it was opened all the way, Naruto got a good look on the person before he widened his hazel eyes in surprise.

It was a woman who was roughly his age and shorter than him by half a head. She had a features that strongly showed her Chinese/Arabic/Russian heritage. Her strong shade of brunette hair, borderline black, reached past her shoulders as they were slightly wavy on the sides. Her olive skin matched that of her brown eyes and held a mischievous feel in her gaze which fit quite well on her uneven lips. Asides from her physical appearance; the dark brunette wore a red shirt underneath a black jacket, blue jeans, and thigh high boots.

His mouth hanged opened before he spoke in surprise. "Nyssa?!"

The woman smirked. "Hello Naruto. Long time no see."

Hearing the name and voice got Talia quickly choke on her food. Clearing her throat, she whipped her head towards the loft entrance. There she saw… her sister.

Well more like half-sister. But still, her sister.

Standing up, Talia spoke. "What are you doing here, Nyssa?"

Turning her head towards the counter, the now identified Nyssa spoke. "Well nice seeing you too, Talia." She then looked back at the Uzumaki. "Isn't it quite rude to not invite me in?"

"Uh… Yeah." He moved to the side and ushered her in. "Come right in."

"Why thank you." Stepping further into the loft, Talia's younger sister scanned the area. "Nice place you got here." Soon a pleasant smell invaded her senses. "Mmm~ Something smells good."

"I just made parmesan heroes for lunch." Looking over to the stove, he looked back at Nyssa and asked her a question. "Wanna have some?"

"Sure, why not."

Naruto walked back into the kitchen with Nyssa sitting in one of the stools once placing her bag on the couch. "So do you want meatball, chicken or eggplant?"

Nyssa gave him a strange look on the last option. She then shrugged. "I'll go with eggplant." The younger sister saw him nod while fetching the meal before feeling Talia's gaze at her. "Yes?"

"You didn't say why you are here, Nyssa."

"Yeah, I'm wondering that as well." Said the publisher. "Not that I mind your rather sudden arrival at all."

"With us not seeing each other for roughly nine years? Yeah, I figured you'd question about that." Tilting her head towards her older sister's direction, Nyssa spoke. "You can thank Father for sending me here."

As Talia rose her brow, Naruto practically voiced her thoughts as he served Nyssa her meal. "I'm sorry, but your father sent you here?"

"Yes." She responded. The younger al Ghul took the sandwich in her hands and took a bite. Taking several chews, she gave out a pleasant hum. "This is really good."

"Why thank you."

"Been a long time since I had something you cooked."

"Obviously. But going back to your father…"

Nyssa then swallowed her bite. "Ah yes, right. Well he contacted and asked me to help get you back home after what happened."

'After what-' "You told him?" He asked Talia, who nodded. "Well ain't that awkward."

"Considerably." Said the younger daughter as she chowed down more of the delicious home cooked lunch.

Hazel eyes met blue-green. "And did you..."

"...Yeah…"

'Weeelll crap.' He thought as he grabbed his own meal and started chowing down. The silence in the air, minus the sounds of eating, was rather tense as he looked back at the two sisters. Naruto opened his mouth and tried to say something. "So-"

"Our Father and I appreciate what you've done for Talia in helping her on these past days from her injuries." Nyssa interrupted as she ate more of her meal.

"...Your welcome." Naruto soon felt the tense feeling in the air and wanted to break some of it away. A thought did come to mind for a topic. "How've you been since I last saw you?"

Nyssa placed the last bit of her food down and looked at the whiskered Uzumaki. "I've been doing well. Work keeps me busy and I see the world quite often."

The former shinobi nodded. "And how's your relationship with Sara?"

The younger al Ghul was caught off guard before quickly guessing who told him this fact. Nyssa didn't have to look at her sister to see the little smirk on her face as she finished up her meatball sandwich. Composing herself, the younger assassin spoke. "It's been quite well."

"Really? Just that?"

"Yes."

"Huh…"

…..

…..

"Sounds like your relationship is boring then."

Nyssa glared at him while Talia started to laugh a little.

"What?" He asked with his head tilted. "If you say 'it's just well' then it seems like it's rather boring."

Talia kept laughing at her sister's expense as Nyssa's eyebrow madly twitched. Taking a deep breath, the brown eyed woman spoke. "Okay, it's been quite nice since we started dating. Happy?"

Naruto smiled. "Very. From what I heard form Talia, Sara seemed to make you less stingy. And seeing you now seems to prove the point."

Nyssa rolled her eyes as she dug back into her meal.

"So did she come with you or not?"

"I'm afraid she didn't have time to come with me on this trip. But why'd you ask?"

"I would've liked to at least meet and know the woman that made you very happy." This got Nyssa to smile alongside her older sister. "Everyone deserves to find love in their life and during the time knowing you, you needed it quite badly."

The younger sister nodded. "I appreciate it, Naruto. She's one in a million and I feel very lucky to have her in my life."

"That's good."

It was then Talia spoke up. "So, sister, when does Father expect me to head back home?"

"The flight's in the morning."

The elder sister nodded as she felt saddened that her little vacation was now coming to an end. Talia hoped she could've spent more time with her former student. But it seemed she needed to get back home and back to work.

"So do you have anything to do for the day?"

Nyssa paused her eating and looked at Naruto in confusion. "No. What are you suggesting?"

The Uzumaki pulled out some tickets from his wallet and showed them to the younger assassin. "There's this magic show going on tonight and I wanted to take Rachel and Pam with me to go see it. Sadly Pam can't come because of work and Rachel has school in the morning" He playfully sighed in disappointment. "Would've been fun for them to go as I enjoyed seeing the show for the first time when I used to live in Metropolis years ago."

That's technically true as the botanist was currently at the Botanical Gardens for the day. But afterwards, Pam wanted to fully focus on the 'baby pods' back at her Greenhouse and continue more examinations. Naruto would've taken Selina, but she was out of town to help take care of certain businesses with the large surplus of money she acquired for several charities. Harley did come to mind, but she was pulling a double shift over in Arkham and she did voice her displeasure in not coming along.

"Who's this Rachel?"

"Naruto's ward." Talia quickly answered. "You'll probably meet her later today if you don't plan on running around all over the city by yourself."

"And Pam?"

"My/His girlfriend." Both Naruto and Talia said at the same time.

"Okay…" Nyssa finished the rest of her sandwich before giving her answer. "I don't see why not in coming along. Need something to keep me entertained." Wiping the crumbs from her mouth a thought came to mind. "But what about beforehand?"

"I'm sure we can think of something." Came Naruto's response as Talia nodded in agreement.

 _ **-Evening, Gotham Mint-**_

In front of Gotham's treasury building, a simply large stage was set up. Spotlights were stationed all around for both the theatricality and lighting up the seemingly darkened part of the city. There was even two large video screens onto the sides to help project the footage of tonight's performance for those that can't see quite clearly onto the stage. Now normally there would be various other lights turned on. But the one that was about to perform requested the surrounding buildings to keep their lights off until the show's end.

"This is quite the crowd." Nyssa said as she, her sister, and Naruto walked towards the grounds. The small group wore semi-formal wear as both Talia and Nyssa didn't bring anything remotely formal on their trip here.

"With many elite Gothamites attending, why wouldn't it?" Said the Uzumaki as the younger sister nodded.

Things were rather nice during her visit her in Gotham. It had been quite a while since Nyssa was last here as she came her roughly seven years ago for an assignment. And prior to that was when her Father brought her here, as a child, for a lesson on why the League needs to help cleanse the world of it's filth. So it went well to see how much had changed on the visuals.

Nyssa had been shown some of the sights and acted like she never been here before so she wouldn't give away her cover. One of her favorite spots they went to was the Botanical Gardens. There she saw the wide plethora of flora that would have secured a place back at Infinity Island with it's beauty and odd rarity, even the millenia old tree that predated man. It was also there where Nyssa was introduced to Pamela as she was quite interesting to converse with.

Asides from this, the younger al Ghul was able to meet Rachel when her guardian needed to pick her up from school. It was rather funny seeing Alsiyada (Huntress) freaking out when said woman saw her from inside Naruto's car. She did get a laugh out of the situation before they hanged out in his loft for a while before coming to this evening's event.

But during her time here, Nyssa couldn't help but notice these odd white, lanky creatures floating around the rooftops. They were quite easily missed to the untrained eye, but to her and her sister they were barely able to see them. The sisters privately chatted of them realizing they saw Vanitas' odd summons while wondering why they seemed to be following them during the entire day.

It would be a question neither would find out right away.

When the group tried to find available seats, they ran into a pair of men. One was in a driver's attire and the other- "Oh hey, Bruce, Alfred." Naruto said with a cheerful grin. "Nice running into you two here."

The billionaire and his faithful butler turned around and smiled when seeing the Uzumaki here. It was Bruce who spoke first. "Nice to see you here as well, Naruto." The billionaire then took notice of a pair of women he never seen before. He figured they were sisters with some similarities they both had. Bruce then wondered who they were and what their relation was with his friend as the older one seemed to be a bit closer to the Uzumaki. "Mind introducing me to your friends, Naruto?"

"Ah, right." Moving away slightly, he briefly waved his hands towards the sisters. "Bruce, Alfred, this here is Talia and her younger sister Nyssa. They're visiting from out of town for the day and I invited them for this show. Naruto then moved again. "Talia, Nyssa, this here is a good friend of mine, Bruce Wayne. And this fine chap is Alfred Pennyworth."

The dark haired billionaire held out his hand towards the younger sister first. "Nice to meet you."

Nyssa smiled slightly as she shook his hand. "You as well."

As the handshake ended, Bruce soon shook Talia's hand as Nyssa shook Alfred's. It seemed rather firm and tight than he would've expected and raised an internal brow. "My, that's quite a grip you've got."

"With what work I do, it helps for me to have one."

"And what kind of work is that?"

"Revolves around environmental and wildlife as part of the family business." Was Talia's answer. It was merely a partial truth with what her Father's goal is as a whole.

Bruce smiled a bit as they ended the handshake. The three men walked away to help find seats while the sisters hanged back a bit so neither would be noticed of the little absence. It was then that Nyssa spoke up when they were alone. "So that was _him_ , huh?"

"Indeed he is."

The younger sister briefly looked at Talia with a raised brow. "Surprised you didn't want to kill him on what he pulled on you."

"I'm rather tempted."

Nyssa chuckled. "Yet you have to restrain yourself as Father has interests in him." Talia didn't say anything at this point, which was rather clear that Talia didn't like the idea at all. "There's also Vanitas, you know."

"Yes, I know." She said with slight disdain.

"...Something the matter?" Nyssa didn't get a vocal response. All that she got was a long stare. Following the line of sight, Nyssa saw her older sister looking towards the silver haired Uzumaki. It didn't take long for her to realize on what the gaze meant exactly. "You love him, don't you?"

"...Yes, I do."

Their conversation ended as the pair heard music in the air and saw the spotlights moving around. They realized the show was going to start soon. It didn't take long for them to find their seats alongside Naruto, Bruce and Alfred. And by the time they got themselves situated, someone's voice was heard through the loudspeakers.

" _Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for magic!"_

Out of nowhere, a large plumb of pinkish smoke appeared on the stage. By the time it cleared up, a woman was sitting on a sheet covered box. Upon her reveal, the audience clapped for her arrival.

She was a woman in her mid-late twenties with straight raven black hair reaching past her shoulders with bowl-cut bangs. The ravenette was currently wearing a black magician's tuxedo attire with a white button up shirt and bowtie underneath a blue corset to hike up her generous breasts. From there, she had a pair of white gloves, a top hat, black heeled shoes and a pair of black pants which replaced black nylons. Yet the leggings did her justice as they formed around her legs quite nicely.

"Good evening, Gotham! I'm Zatanna, Mistress of Magic!" She said with a smile as the audience applauded for her introduction. Hopping off the sheet covered box, she pulled the material off to reveal nothing was underneath it at all. Yet a variety of doves flew out underneath to please the crowd even more.

The female magician smiled towards the crowd as she walked towards the edge of the stage. Whipping her arm to the side, a wand appeared when she took off her hat. Waving her instrument over the headpiece, a large bouquet of flowers popped out.

"Tonight, I can promise you a few surprises." Zatanna said as a large rattlesnake slithered out of the hat, causing many to gasp in fright. The female magician paid the threat no mind as she continued speaking. "A thrill or two along the way." With another wave of her wand, the bouquet of flowers and the snake glowed in a purplish aura before they turned into multicolored bubbles. "And with luck, a happy ending."

The audience ate it up as they applauded once more as the _Mistress of Magic_ started performing several spells and illusions left and right.

"How long has it been, Master Bruce?" Asked the Wayne butler in a low tone. "Thirteen years? Forteen? Fifteen?"

"All that and another lifetime." Said the dark haired billionaire.

Naruto was able to hear this and spoke up. "Wait, you know her Bruce?" He saw his friend nod. "How?"

It was Alfred who answered. "He met them on his travels before coming back to Gotham." Looking back at the stage, they saw Zatanna pull off her white gloves and crumpled them into fine powder before blowing the dust away. Said dust then formed into a spectral image as it floated around several audience members. "In fact, both her and her father was quite fond of him."

"I was a different person then."

Without missing a beat, the Pennyworth man continued to speak. "Yes. Intense, driven, moody. She'd never recognize him now." 

Naruto stiffened a laugh while Bruce rolled his eyes on his old friend's bit of humor. Yet his blue eyes landed towards one of his oldest companions as small memories flooded his mind.

When the spectral image returned to her, they reformed back into her white gloves as she smiled at the audience. "Now open your heart to magic and become a child again."

 _ **-Flashback, 15 Years Ago; San Diego, California-**_

 _...Hanging upside down, Bruce Wayne was tied up in a straight jacket with chains wrapped around both inside and outside of the clothed confinement._

 _Standing not far away from him was an older man. He was in his early-mid forties as his blackened hair started to grey on the sides. The only form of facial hair was his moustache as it seemed to fit the tuxedo attire he currently wore. Though it was a little loose, at the current time, as the older man forgone his jacket to show the sleeves were rolled up._

 _This was John Zatara, Master of Magic._

 _Giving the younger man another look around with his blue eyes, Zatara spoke as he pulled out his pocket watch. "Now remember: concentration and control." He saw Bruce nod his head. "Focus on them, and you can master any escape." Flipping over the watch's covering, John held out his hand. "Annnnd….. Go."  
_

 _Bruce started to move about in his constraints. The inner locks had to go first, which were quite easy. Next came the straight jacket as several buckles had to be carefully unfastened without fully touching them. And it wasn't long before the clothed confinement slipped off his person as Bruce quickly worked on the rope and chains holding onto his legs. He then fell to the ground, which he quickly reacted by heaving his weight so he'd land onto his feet._

 _Zatara smiled at this spoke to the youngster. "Congratulations, John. You've beaten your old time by six seconds." Placing his pocket watch away, Zatara placed his hand on 'John's' shoulder. "Yes. You've got the makings of a great magician. Or at least a good illusionist." The magician then sighed a little. "I'm sorry you're going to be moving on."_

 _'John' nodded as his voice held a small hint of sadness. "Same here. It was an honor to study with you, Zatara."_

 _"But to what end? Three months ago you appeared on my doorstep with no interest in performing. And yet you were dying to become an escape artist." The older man formed a small smile. "And for some reason, I wound up teaching you secrets I'd never shown another magician. Well except for my daughter."_

 _"You could've sent me away."_

 _Zatara merely shook his head 'no'. "There was something inside you I had no right to deny." The pair soon walked off of the little platform and came across one of the onstaged props. "Something deep… and painful. After all, I would be foolish to assume I was the only one with secrets. Eh, John Smith?"_

 _Bruce smiled a little as 'John Smith' was merely an alias of his during his travels. 'John' held out his hand, which Zatara took in kind. "Thanks for everything, sir. I don't know how I'll ever repay you."_

 _The aging magician nodded. "I'll miss you too, John." Ending the handshake, Zatara briefly looked at the magical box before he quickly banged at it's side. This resulted in a small yelp to be heard as a figure fell out of the magic prop's door, who Bruce quickly caught. "And so, I trust, will Zatanna."_

 _"Uh… Hi, Daddy." She said in an embarrassed tone as her eavesdropping was found out._

 _Zatara was a young and beautiful teenage girl as her body started to mature like it was truly impatient in moving forward. This would've fooled others as she could've been sixteen or seventeen if it wasn't for the fact that she was barely thirteen, going on forteen._

 _Blame the strong family genetics from her late-mother's side._

 _Her curley raven black hair reached past her shoulders as they would've bounced at each of her steps if it wasn't in a ponytail. She also wore loose jeans and a purple sweater with tennis shoes which held her developing figure. And her blue eyes held much love, innocence and joy._

 _Zatara chuckled as he walked away from the room. "Good night, children."_

 _Once the aging magician was gone, Zatanna hopped out of 'John's' arms. Her cheerful appearance shifted to one of sadness. "I… I thought you'd be finishing the tour with us."_

" _I'm sorry, but I'm leaving for Japan tomorrow." Bruce said. "There's still a lot I have to learn."_

 _The ravenette teen rolled her eyes. "Boy, that's you. One big serious schoolboy." She then walked over to the nearby table and grabbed the deck of cards. "No time in your life for fun or magic." Zatanna then quickly shuffled the cards before forming a fan and presenting them to 'John'. "Here, pick a card. I'll tell your future." He picked a random one as she turned around so she wouldn't look. "Hmm… I see emotion, intensity… Two of Hearts!"_

 _Zatanna looked back at her crush and expected to see the spoken card. Yet all she saw was… Joker. Zatanna scoffed a little and threw her cards away. "Ohh~ it's a dumb trick anyway."_

 _Bruce looking at Zatanna, who was walking off stage. "Look, I don't know the future, but I know I'll see you again someday, Zanna."_

 _The teenage girl chuckled a little. "You're the only one who ever calls me Zanna. I really hate it." She turned around and saw him not coming close to her. "No goodbye hug?" Bruce saw the little desperation in her gaze. He complied, came to her and gave her a firm hug. "See. It's not so bad."_

 _"I'll write you."_

" _No, you won't."_

" _I promise."_

" _You can't."_

" _And why not?"_

 _"Cause I locked your hands to the wall." She laughed out._

 _He ended the hug and looked at her in confusion. Bruce then felt something cold around his wrist and tugged. There he saw that Zatanna somehow handcuffed his wrist with one of the toughest locks her father had for the show._

" _What?"_

 _The ravenette girl merely smiled like she won a big prize. "Looks like someone's missing their plane tomorrow." She walked away from him and didn't look back as sounds of metal meeting metal filled the air. "If you were any kind of escape artist, you'd be out of those cuffs and through the door by now."_

 _The sounds then stopped, causing her to stiffen. Her blue eyes started to well up in tears. Hanging her head low, she didn't need to look back to see the man she grew to have feelings for escaped and left her behind._

" _Now you see him… Now you don't."_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

Zatanna looked at 'John's' form in the audience as a small tear escaped her eye on seeing him again. She would've shed more, but years of stage performing made her keep up the current act as she smiled towards the audience. They did go back to her old friend's place before looking over to who was sitting next to him. She blushed on how handsome he was compared to the man beside him. From the silvery locks, the strong hazel eyes and the feral looking whisker birthmarks.

Getting a little mischievous look on her face, she waved her wand as a large bouquet formed in her grasp. The magician tossed the arrangement of flowers and her aim held true as they fell into... Naruto's unsuspecting lap.

"What the-"

Seeing this, Bruce laughed alongside the others in their applause. "Careful Naruto." The dark haired billionaire playfully warned as he nudged his friend's side. "Be grateful that wasn't a wedding bouquet or else you'd be needing to marry soon."

Naruto twitched his eye and jabbed back. "Well I would probably get married sooner than you, Bruce." He said, not noticing Talia's slight change of expression on hearing that comment. Feeling odd in having the flower arrangement in his grasp, he turned to his former teacher and held them out for her. "Will you marry me?" He asked in a jokeful tone.

Talia seemed to brighten greatly and smiled back. "I would love to." She took the bouquet and smelled them as she internally squealed in excitement. "Thank you, my husband."

From her seat, Nyssa couldn't help but facepalm on what Naruto just did… and what exactly that meant for him now. 'Oh God. If Father were to hear of this.'

Bruce rolled his eyes and smirked at Naruto's and Talia's little act before his blue eyes seemingly met with those of the _Mistress of Magic_. He could feel her gaze right at him and could tell she noticed him after all this time.

Zatanna focused back towards the audience as her smile was kept up. "Thank you." She waved her wand at the curtain as it briefly glowed and parted away to show the Gothamites the Gotham Mint. "You know I have this little problem with money. Seems like it disappears before I even make it." Holding her hand out towards the side of the stage, she motioned for a pair of men to come on up. "And here to help demonstrate are Mr. Irving Fauncewater, director of the Gotham Mint, and noted magic debunker Dr. Montague Kane."

The bank director was a aging and balding man as he wore a simple cream colored suit. As for the magic debunker, he as of slicked blackened hair with a matching goatee as he wore a simple black tux.

As the men got closer, Zatanna spoke up. "Welcome for coming, gentlemen."

"Miss Zatanna." Said the sophisticated looking man.

"This is so exciting." Irving said in a slight giddy tone. He did miss his step and fell forward, in which Zatanna caught him.

"Let me guess, first time on stage, Irv?" She asked, which he merely blushed a little. "Nothing like enthusiasm, right, folks?"

The audience laughed at this.

Montague didn't seem all that impressed. "The way they're responding, one would think your ridiculous stunt's going to work."

Zatanna merely rolled her eyes. "Just to clue you in folks, Monty here makes a living exposing magicians' secrets."

"Simple tricks and nonsense." The man said out loud.

Naruto thought overwise as he could tell the 'illusions' Zatanna was using was actual magic. He would know as he saw Jason Blood and his ward show him several times. Especially the later when training his ward back in the loft.

The magician continued. "And I've invited him here to find the secret of the feat I'm attempting tonight."

"There is no secret." Argued the debunker. "What you're proposing is flat-out impossible."

Zatanna shot back the man a look that practically screamed 'watch me' before looking back at the audience. "Well folks, impossible is what I'm all about." She then spoke towards the bank manager. "Mr. Fauncewater, would you kindly open the doors for us, please?"

Fauncewater nodded and motioned for his security to open the Mint's entrance. Many people looked onward, and onto the nearby screens, to see a large pile of money set in the center of the bank with a display of three large coins set behind the money.

"Ten million dollars and the means to make it." Spoke the magician. "Now take a good look, because you know what they say about money: Easy come easy go!" Zatanna focused power into her wand as she chanted a spell. "Raeppasid morf ruo thgis! (Disappear from our sight!)"

Yellow lightning shot out from her wand and struck the building entirely. From top to bottom, it glowed a multi-colored aura as it was soon covered in a field of pink smoke. Once it cleared, the Gotham Mint was gone!

The audience loved the act as they applauded and cheered. Many were flabbergasted on what just happened and wondered how the magician pulled it off. Was it merely an illusion or was it actual magic.

For Naruto, he knew what Zatanna did exactly and how she casted it.

From what he heard from Rachel the other day when she was doing her magical homework was a certain brand of magic that derives from speaking spells backwards. The original practitioners of this craft were the Homo Magus or Homo Magi, a sub-race of naturally magic-wielding humans. They existed for just as long as the human race, but due to their special traits, they didn't expand as the Homo sapiens.

As time went on, the Homo Magus' eventually started to breed with normal humans, resulting in many generations of Homo Magi turned to Homo sapiens. As the number of pure Homo Magi dwindled, they decided to recede and went into hiding throughout the world.

And to the Uzumaki it seemed that Zatanna is either a descendant, one of them, or was taught by them as the later would've taken years to perfect.

Off to the side, Montague clapped and nodded towards the performer. "Bravo, my dear. It was a pleasure to be proven wrong."

Zatanna smirked, feeling she finally got the upperhand on the debunker. "Why thank you, Monty." The magician turned towards the audience. "And now, just so Irv doesn't have a fit, I'll bring it back good as new." She pointed her wand back at the vacant spot. "Nruter ot ruo thgis! (Return to our sight!)"

Once again, yellow lightning shot out from her wand and struck the vacant ground. Pink smoke formed in the area and the building returned from whence it came. Everyone cheered once more on the display…

But voices of concern rose as the ten million dollars was missing.

"The money. Where's the money?!" Irving called out.

Zatanna smiled as she didn't look back. "What do you mean 'Where's the money?'." She said as she slowly turned to the Gotham Mint. "It's right there… What the-."

The Mint director was quickly losing his nerve and came up to the magic performer, who held up he hands in defense in hopes of calming him down. "What have you done with it?!"

"Now take it easy, Irv. I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation."

Dr. Kane leaned forward and had a smirk on his face that set Zatanna on edge. "I'm sure the audience would like to hear it. As would the police."

"Now, wait a minute."

The Mint director wasn't going to wait as he yelled out. "Police, police!"

The audience grew worried and concerned on what was happening as security and the GCPD was quickly arriving onto the stage to apprehend the _Mistress of Magic_.

As the police surrounded her, she tried to speak. "I don't know what went wrong, but if we can all just calm down for a second- HEY!" She was interrupted when one of the officers placed the handcuffs around her wrists.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you…" Said one of the officers as he continued telling Zatanna her Miranda Rights. The audience started to stand up in response in either defending her or accusing her on what happened to the money.

And several audience members grew worried on the display, mainly one Bruce Wayne.

When being hauled off stage and escorted to the paddy wagon, Zatanna couldn't help but hang her head low and muttered under her breath. "This never happens to me in Vegas."

The audience was slowly disbursing and moving away as many of the Mint's patrons went up and voiced their concerns if their money is still kept safe or if it was still a trick as some examples.

With Bruce, he narrowed his eyes at the scene as his hands tightened in response.

"She's been set up." Said the publisher as he came up to his friend.

"Obviously, but as she's the only suspect." Alfred stated. "And the police must hold her for questioning."

"Thus giving the real thief time to escape." Said the dark haired billionaire. "I can't let that happen."

Naruto spoke up his thoughts. "And more important, you can't desert an old friend." He briefly looked back at his two old friends and remembered some of the past times with them that he did what he could for them when they were in trouble.

"Are you coming along, Naruto?"

The Uzumaki sighed. "I don't know if I could help you on this, Bruce. It would be suspicious if I left them behind suddenly. Maybe later if the opportunity arises."

The Wayne nodded as both he and Alfred made their way to the car so Bruce can quickly change into his other 'evening' attire.

With the publisher, he walked back to the sisters and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry things turned out like this. I didn't expect the show to end so abruptly."

"You're quite alright, Naruto." Talia defended. "No show or performance is perfect." Nyssa nodded in agreement.

"So what should we do now for the remainder of the night?" He asked.

It was the younger al Ghul who answered. "As much as I'd like to do other things since the show was cut short, Naruto, I think it would be good if I took Talia with me to the hotel I'm staying. Both of us need to leave first thing in the morning and it's going to be a long trip."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "That's fine." He said as he didn't notice Talia shooting her younger sister a small glare. "We should probably run back to my place to grab her things before I drop you two off."

Nyssa nodded once more as she saw her old acquaintance walk ahead. She was about to follow when Talia pulled her back. "Yes, sister?"

"What are you up to, Nyssa? Neither of us are really tired and we can have sleep for short hours."

"I know that, but Naruto doesn't need to know."

"About what?"

"I would like to maybe go around the city and kill off several low lifes like what we used to do." Came the younger sister's answer. "We haven't done anything of the sort for quite some time and I thought we could use some good sibling bonding time." She moved forward with her older sister not far behind. "And don't worry, I grabbed your 'evening' wear from the safehouse so you wouldn't miss out."

 _ **-On the Streets-**_

Inside of the GCPD paddy wagon, Zatanna was contemplating her life in the given situation. Things were doing so well for her and nothing seemed to drag her down from her high. She did falter a little when seeing 'John' again, in the audience, after all these years. The ravenette had hoped that once the show was over, she could talk to him and at least catch up with either some coffee or tea. Hoping to see if she could maybe stick around a little longer and see if he still cared for her or not.

Maybe seeing if she could chat with that whiskered hunk while doing so as it seemed both he and 'John' were good friends. She somewhat knew the man's name, yet it kept escaping her like her father's old 'illusionary' tricks.

Regardless, this latest performance changed her plans as things went all downhill.

'What the hell did I do wrong?' She thought as she leaned her head against the metallic wall. 'Everything was perfect. The spell was right and both the building and money disappeared. Got the building back into place, but not the money…'

Zatanna then looked at the handcuffs. She could easily get out of them and escape. But doing so would make things harder for her with the police and would make her even more guilty.

'If only I had my wand, then things could've been easier. Without it, then I-'

Her thoughts were abruptly ended as she heard a slight thud from the top of the armored vehicle. Part of a latch opened up and showed a darkened figure. She gasped as she saw the infamous Batman.

'Holy-'

The bat-themed hero hoped through the hole and quickly uncuffed her. Before she could properly respond to this, the Bat got her out and placed her shotgun in his batmobile.

Zatanna was amazed on seeing the interior of the infamous vehicle as it would've costed a fortune to make. All that she could say about it was... "Nice car."

"Thanks." Was the short response.

"I didn't love the idea of spending the night in jail, but what you did makes me a fugitive." She sighed while looking out of the window. "I believe I'm looking at prison time now."

"I heard about the mint robbery. I can prove you didn't do it."

Zatanna glanced back at the costumed hero. "Why do you care about some leggy dame in nylons? Which I'm not wearing, by the way. Or have I answered my own question?"

Batman looked over, turned the wheel and parked his car. "If you want to go it alone, I can-"

"No, no. I'm sorry." She quickly said, thus getting Batman to slowly turn his car back onto the road. "I'm just having a bad day."

The hero could relate. "I'm sure whoever framed you knew how your trick was done."

"Which I highly doubt that's possible."

"...Regardless, they may have left a clue at the Mint."

 _ **-Gotham Mint-**_

The police were patrolling the grounds for anything suspicious. With the performance earlier, the GCPD were on high alert. Even more so when Zatanna Zatara escaped from the poppy wagon before it got back to the precinct.

When the last of the guards left the main hall of the Mint, the skylight from the ceiling opened up. A rope was thrown in soon after as Zatanna slid down with Batman following.

"This place is surrounded by cops." She said as her eyes wandered all over. "Are you sure we might have enough time for clues?" 

"Just relax." He said as he tapped the side of his cowl for his Detective Vision to kick in.

Walking towards the room's center, Zatanna spoke up. "This here is where the money was."

Batman got to her spot and looked towards the floor before kneeling down for a closer. "There are a series of lines scrapped into the floor." He then felt something against his fingertips and found something else. "Whatever it was-was large enough to leave them behind along with very small shards of glass."

"That would have been one mighty big piece of glass." She said before an idea dawned on her. "Or a mirror."

"Like the one you used to reflect the hologram of the vanished Mint."

Zatanna scoffed. "Not really."

Batman got up and started moving around. "Mind explaining then?"

"Sure, the idea is good and all if I was more of a standard illusionist." Said the magician. "But I don't like hogging around easily breakable objects if it costs me to replace them each and every other show."

"Then what do you explain on what you did earlier."

"Oh, it was actual magic Mr. Dark Knight." She stated. He looked back at her and seemed to raise a brow under his cowl, making her raise her brow as well. "What? You thought magic wasn't real?"

"In my line of work, I tend to see for the facts."

It was then a voice was heard from up high. "Well I hate to burst your bubble, Batman, but it's absolutely real." The pair looked up to see Vanitas sliding down the rope. Getting back up, he waved at the dark haired magician. "Hiya, name's Vanitas."

Before Zatanna could return the greeting, Batman spoke up. "Why would you think that?"

The helmeted vigilante formed a stack of cards into his hand before performing a series of tricks. "Then how do you explain this?" The cards then formed as one and expanded into human proportions. "Or this?" One of the card fell over and consumed Vanitas' form before falling onto the floor. Zatanna was curious, bent down and flipped the card over to see the helmeted hero waving at her. "Or what about this?"

"Your meta-powers." Came Batman's bland answer.

The magician could feel Vanitas rolling his eyes behind his glass-domed helm before the large card poofed into smoke where the hero laid there. "Of course you'd say that Batsy." Vanitas then saw Zatanna hold her hand out to get him onto his feet. "Thank you, ma'am."

"You're welcome." She started to move around him and gave him a decent exception. "You are quite interesting."

"Excuse me?"

"You have an interesting power radiating off of you." Zatanna then started poking him on several places, which seemed to bug him a little. "It's faint but it seems like magic or something of that nature."

Vanitas slapped her hand away as she started poking his chest. "Please stop that."

"Heh, sorry."

Batman was feeling tired of this and wanted to move back into the current subject of things. "Can we focus please?" This got Vanitas and Zatanna to get back into things. "Regardless if you didn't use a mirrored hologram, I think the money was stolen sometime before your performance." Following the scraps on the floor to the large coin display, his explanation continued. "The thief reflected a hologram of the cash while you did your trick. Then quickly hid the mirror when it was over."

"How'd he get rid of a mirror that big?" Asked the ravenette.

"He didn't." Without any warning, he grasped part of the large coin display and pulled. A small rip was heard as both Vanitas and Zatanna saw a shiny surface underneath. "It's still here, all in plain sight." 

"Who's in here?" Came the sudden call, causing the Caped Crusader and magician to stiffen. "Hold it and stay where you are."

"Make us." Was Vanitas' response.

Before the man could react quick enough, the masked Uzumaki shot forward and grasped the officer's head. A faint glow was seen by the others before Vanitas let go. The man stayed in place and didn't react to anything at all.

"What did you-" "We should probably get going guys." Vanitas interrupted Zatanna as he grasped her and Batman's hands. "The effect won't last long." A large card was formed underneath them before lifting itself off the ground and shot forward as the group phased right through the Gotham Mint and into the sky.

Zatanna recomposed herself and smirked. "Nice trick you did there."

"Thanks." He sent her a hidden smile, which she possibly figured through his slight change of body language.

Shaking her head a little, Zatanna scrunched her face a little in thought. "Whoever did that mirror trick must've been someone who really knows the method."

"Like Montague Kane." Said the Dark Knight.

The magician nodded in disdain. "He's been ripping off illusionists for years. And when I was coming here, I had originally thought of performing typical illusionist tricks. But when I realized he was living here in Gotham-"

"You decided to pull off the kiddy gloves." Vanitas finished off to which Zatanna nodded. "Magic is really hard to explain and pull off. So using your powers, you hoped to out dupe him and screw him over."

"Which apparently he decided to screw me over instead."

Batman narrowed his eyes on more of the information. "Vanitas and I will settle with Kane." He said, causing the pair to look at him. "In the meantime, he'll have to better drop you someplace safe."

"Oh, no you don't." She said with a scowl. "Kane played me for a sap, and I'll see him go down for it."

"You two do realize I'm driving this thing, right?" Spoke up the masked Uzumaki. "Driver gets to well drive and passengers need to follow or something along those lines." He then looked over at his brooding friend. "So what's it gonna be Batsy, wanna help settle the score or what?"

With the stares now directed to him, Batman sighed. "All right, but it could be dangerous." He then heard Zatanna say a successful 'Yes' before he continued. "But are you sure there's no one you want to call first? Friends, family… a husband, maybe?"

The ravenette let out a small scoff. "Me? Who's got time for a relationship when you pull rabbits out of a hat 52 weeks a year?"

'Sheesh. Talk about dedicated to your work.' Vanitas thought.

The woman then sighed with a downcasted look as they flew over the Gotham Bridge. "Besides, someone's got to keep the old act going now that dad's gone."

Batman was saddened to hear this as it was complete news to him. He heard John Zatara retired some years back but didn't know he passed away. "I'm sorry." Said the Bat.

"Why?"

"I saw him perform when I was younger. He was great." Was the Caped Crusader's response. "Made me really appreciate the illusionists back in the day."

Zatanna smiled. "Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it." She then looked over to the Bat and rose a brow. "You know, I have the weirdest feeling we've met before."

The Dark Knight looked away from her gaze. "I just have that kind of face."

Vanitas snorted on the answer and thought to himself. 'Of course you'd say that, Bruce.'

 _ **-Outside of Gotham, Montague Kane Estate-**_

"...Well ain't this goddy." Muttered the helmeted hero.

"Tell me about it." Spoke the magician as the group approached the estate. "I would say this fits Kane quite well."

"Large, dark and trying to obvious compensate on several aspects in his life."

Zatanna smirked as Vanitas phased them through one of the walls to end up in Montague's gallery. All around the room lied displays of various illusionist artifacts and tricks the man debunked. To the three, it was quite obvious they were his trophies on ruining the careers of others.

When passing through several corridors, they also looked at the decorations as each didn't really seem to fit well with each other. All this got was Vanitas and Zatanna to comment more on Montague's lack of taste and decor.

At one point of their search, the three heard Kane's voice resounding throughout the halls. _"It would seem I have guests."_ Snapping themselves to attention, the three moved forward and eventually found the firelite study where Montague was hiding. _"Come in and join me by the fire."_ The group inched closer into the room as the man seemed to mock them. _"Come, come. Don't be shy. You've obviously unraveled my little scheme and I would congratulate you face to face."_

Zatanna wasn't going to have it any longer as she lunged forward. "You're not going to have a face when I'm done with you. You slimy-" When she flipped the chair around, she gasped a little in seeing a mannequin in his place with a tape recorder in it's lap.

"It's a trap!" Spoke the Bat as he pulled his old friend back.

Though it was too late as the floor beneath them opened up and the three fell in with the mannequin and chair falling inside soon after. It wasn't much of a large drop as they went down to another level. Needing to give a good source of light, Batman pulled out his flashlight and turned it on. Looking around, the three saw the walls were lined with spikes.

 _"A trifle clichéd, I know, but effective nonetheless."_ Was Montague's voice coming from the tape recorder. _"And while you briefly savor your fleeting triumph, I am winging towards more comfortable surroundings. Adieu."_ When the recording ended, the walls started to move and close in on them.

"I have an idea." Vanitas said as he quickly formed his ice shield and slammed it down to the ground.

Zatanna could feel power radiating from the newly made shield and seeing it's affects once making contact with the metal surface. Ice shards started to form before spikes show out and impacted the walls. They groaned and held in place as the gears were now working overtime in hopes of moving forward.

"I don't know if they'll last long, but I don't want to find out." Spoke the Dark Knight. He then turned to his friend. "Mind giving us a lift?"

Vanitas nodded as a card platform formed underneath their feet. Unlike last time, Zatanna braced herself as it moved upwards and got them out of the trap. Just in time too as the ice gave way and the spiked walls crushed into each other. 

"Huh. And here I thought I knew how to make a good exit." She said as the platform disappeared. 

"Unfortunately, so did Kane." Was the Bat's comment.

"But where would be hiding now?" Vanitas asked.

Batman thought about this as his eyes wandered the room. It appeared that Montague had a fascination with planes. Upon a closer inspection to some of his possessions were modeled seaplanes. There was even a photo of him in front of an extremely large seaplane, which was rather costly to acquire. 

" _...And while you briefly savor your fleeting triumph, I am winging toward more comfortable surroundings. Adieu."_

Widening his eyes, the Detective looked towards Vanitas and Zatanna whom were trying to search for clues. "I know where to find him."

The magician widened her eyes. "Really? Where?"

"Come on." Was all Batman said as he ran out of the room. "The show's not over yet."

 _ **-Gotham Pier-**_

Upon the large state of the art seaplane, Montague Kane was sipping wine in the dining hall. He felt rather triumphant on the pleasant heist he pulled earlier this evening. Kane was able to rob the Gotham Mint and was able to quickly put the blame on the so called _Mistress of Magic_. Bah! There was no such thing as magic and he's ruined many careers with his own.

Montague would have celebrated his success here in Gotham, but then reports of Zatanna escaping the GCPD reached his ears back in his estate. He knew it was a matter of time before she could've tracked him down for revenge. Oh and lets not forget that he took her so called 'magic wand' as a trophy since he'd be leaving his other ones back in his Gotham estate.

So here he is in his large seaplane, ready to take off with ten million dollars in the safe to parts unknown so not even the illustrious Zatanna Zatara can find her.

Finishing off his glass, Montague saw they were taking off into the air. Hoisting his empty glass, the debunker spoke in a jolly tone. "Take a last longing look, gentlemen.  
We're heading to a place where the climate's warmer, the people friendlier and the extradition laws are nonexistent."

"Sorry, but the only place you're heading to is a prison cell." Came an unsuspecting voice. Both Montague and his hired help quickly turned and saw Batman and Vanitas stepping out of the darkened hallway.

"Ah~ Well done, Batman. And you too, Vanitas." Was Kane's sophiscated response as his men pulled out their guns. "You not only eluded my trap, but solved my clue as well." Quickly standing up, the debunker narrowed his glance. "Get rid of him."

With the order, the men started firing at the two heroes. Each rolled out of the way and ran towards the respective sides of the group to take them out. They were quite easy to knock out as they seemed rather pathetic.

As his men fought the two vigilantes, Montague ran off in hopes of alluding them. Coming across the nearby door, he opened it and tried to enter without looking. Though he should have noticed was already there as he received a punch to his face.

Rubbing his sore jaw, the debunker saw Zatanna glare at him as she cracked her knuckles. "Oh, Monty. You fell for the second-oldest trick in the book. And here's the first!" And with a well placed kick, the magician sent Montague back a few feet. "God that felt good."

Looking to the side, Zatanna was about to run over and help Batman and Vanitas out with Montague's men. It didn't take her several feet before she tripped over as she felt someone snag her leg. Looking back, the ravenette saw the debunker holding onto her ankle and keeping her in place.

When the two vigilantes were done with the hired goons, they heard Montague speak up. "I would stand down if I were you!" Turning to the source, both heroes saw Zatanna get hoisted up by the thief with a knife towards her throat. "You best keep your distance or her life is forfeit."

The two heroes didn't want to risk Zatanna's life. Without having to speak to each other, the pair slowly held up their hands as some groaning henchmen came up and cuffed them.

Seeing this happen, Montague smiled and turned to face his female captive. "You are most engaging, my dear." She turned her head and gave him a nasty glare as she struggled against his knife against her throat. "Beautiful, impetuous. I could be persuaded to spare you, _if_ properly implored."

Zatanna didn't like hearing what the debunker was suggesting. It was vile. Revolting! She did have an answer to his suggestion by lifting her foot and quickly slamming her heeled shoe onto his foot, causing him to yelp in pain.

Infuriated on turning down his offer, the illusionist wrecker gave a nasty glare and slapped Zatanna across her face. "You bitch!" Turning to his men, he gave an order. "Bring them all to the hanger!"

It took several minutes for the group to end up in the hanger. Both heroes would've tried to escape, but Zatanna was held at knife point and neither wanted to leave her behind. And when they reached the hangar, the three were confined together in heavily chained in hopes neither of them would escape their bonds. Vanitas would've phased them right through, but couldn't as he noticed he had power dampening cuffs on his wrists.

'No doubt Montague purchased them on the black market or some shady dealer.' Was the masked publisher's thought.

Sitting on a nearby crate, the debunker looked on with a smirk on his face. "With all reverence for the departed, Zatara himself couldn't escape those locks." Moving from his place, one of the goons walked forward and started flipping switches to the hangar door. "Still, between the three of you, you might be able to loosen a few chains before you hit the water."

Seeing what was going to happen to them, Batman whispered into Zatanna's ear. "Take my hand."

The woman looked over and spoke. "Scared? Well that makes two of us."

The Dark Knight shook his head. "Just trust me, Zanna."

'Zanna?' The magician paused and widened her eyes when hearing… her old pet name! 'John?!'

"Quick, in my glove."

Zatanna did as she instructed as she surreptitiously removed a lock pick from the bat-themed hero's glove. He then ordered the same thing to his helmeted friend as the three started to work into freeing themselves. They did have to slow down their efforts when the hired goons started to move them closer and closer to the hangar door.

Not noticing what the three were doing, all due to his blind arrogance, Montague waved the captives goodbye. "Farewell, my dear Zatanna. We could have been… _magic_."

Unbeknownst to anyone, Batman silently grabbed a length of webbing with his foot as he knew neither would be able to survive the fall, and get Vanitas out of his dampeners in time, without a little insurance.

Just when Zatanna was about finished with their bonds, the three were shoved out of the plane. The magician screamed as they quickly fell. Though her action lessened as they felt a hard tug as they stopped falling. Looking up, the ravenette saw the plane webbing was keeping them hanged midair.

"Oh god, that freaking hurt!" Vanitas said as he felt the chains started to unfurl. Zatanna was getting loose and was slipping out of the bonds, causing her to scream once more. Reacting quickly, he grasped onto her arm. "Don't worry! I got you!"

The ravenette nodded as she held onto dear life before being pulled up with Batman helping. The caped crusader soon held onto his old friend tight as Vanitas tried to free himself from the power dampeners.

From his spot on the plane, Montague glared at the three down below. Wanting to be rid of them, he leaned down and started cutting away through the plastic webbing. Seeing this happening, the three escapees started to climb on up in hopes of stopping the debunker in time. To help in the process, Vanitas used the chains that used to confine them and swung it upwards in a lasso-like fashion.

The metal links were able to latch onto Montague's arm. Seeing this, the helmeted Uzumaki smirked as he gave a mighty tug, causing the illusionist wrecker to be pulled out of the hangar door. Though the smirk quickly died as Montague quickly grasped onto the netting and held onto dear life… several feet behind them.

Seeing this happen to their boss, the goons started firing upon the three escapees. Though their shots missed, several started ripping through the net and almost hitting their boss in the process. This was noticed by the debunker, causing him to scream out to the hired help. "STOP FIRING, YOU FOOLS!" 

The shots ended as the heroes and magician continued to climb upwards. Looking off to the side, Vanitas quickly tapped Batman and Zatanna's shoulders and pointed towards the enlarged combination ski. The others nodded, took careful aim and leapt to the side. The heroes were able to safely make it, but Zatanna rolled a little too far off to the side. Reacting quickly, Batman was able to snag her arm before she plummeted several hundred feet to the waters below.

Back at the hangar, the goons were pulling on the netting and was able to get their boss inside before closing the door up for his and their safety.

On the ship's exterior, the three were able to climb up towards the wings and tried to figure out where to go at this point. And it was there that Vanitas was finally able to pick through the locks after several trial and errors.

"FINALLY!" He yelled out. "Now I can be of better help!"

Batman nodded before the three soon felt the ship started to tilt upwards, causing them to quickly fall down and started to slide off the wings. The Dark Knight quickly grasped his oldest friend and held on tight onto the metal surface as he started to slip away. Vanitas was able to stop this from happening as his gloves formed claws as he dug them into the metal to stop from falling off. He then held on as hard as he could to keep them all onboard.

"Batman!" Vanitas called out. "Can you let go and turn the rotors?!"

The Batman compiled as he slowly brought Zatanna to Vanitas' grasps so he can do the request. Seeing the magician quickly hold onto his friend, Batman carefully slid onto the metal hull and made his way to the plane's rotors. Once close enough, he started pushing and pulling on them in order to level out the large aircraft.

When this did happen, Zatanna slowly let go of Vanitas and got up onto her feet. Just as she did so, her eyes spotted the nearby door open as several goons came out with weapons on hand. One of them tried to cut into her with an axe, Vanitas quickly got up and stopped the blow from happening.

Turning his head towards her, the helmeted hero called out to her. "GET INSIDE, NOW!" Once done he punched the goon away as Batman was facing against his own lackie.

Zatanna compiled and made her way inside as the goons started to go after the two vigilantes. She didn't look back as her mind was focused on getting even against Montague Kane. Before she did get inside of the aircraft, Zatanna saw her target was in the pilot's cabin.

'Oh oh oh oh. You're mine, Kane!'

It took several minutes for her to reach the sea plane's cabin as it was odd for her to navigate through the vessel. Once she reached it, she slowly crept inside and brielfy looked off to the side to see Batman and Vanitas tossing the hired goons off to the side. Zatanna did worry a little if they killed them or not, by accident, but saw the altitude meter was low enough for a drop into the ocean would be barely safe.

Putting that thought to the side, Zatanna came closer and closer to the unsuspecting debunker. Smirking to herself, she reached out and tapped his shoulder. The man quickly turned around and widened his eyes.

"Don't you know, Kane? A magician never does the same trick TWICE!" She yelled out before decking the man with a right cross.

As Montague fell down, unconscious, Zatanna noticed something shine in his coat pocket. Bending down, she saw it was her magic wand. The magician smirked, pulled it out and twirled the object in her hand.

'Oh it's good to have you back.' She thought. 'Felt naked without you.'

 _ **-Later-**_

Back onto the safe and comfort of solid ground, Kane and his thugs were taken into custody by the GCPD. They were called in earlier and quickly responded before arriving back at the Gotham Pier. Upon arrival, they saw the ten million in case waiting for them with Batman, Vanitas and Zatanna presenting the real culprits of the Mint's theft. The magician was cleared of all charges and the thieves were going to jail for quite some time.

Once the GCPD paddy wagon left the pier; Zatanna, Batman and Vanitas were walking away from the area. Not much was spoken after the three were questioned by the police on tonight's occurrences. All they wanted to do was go home and rest after what happened earlier.

As Batman was waiting for his batmobile to arrive, via autopilot, he heard Zatanna speak up. "So… you never wrote, John. Or is it, Bruce?"

Vanitas snapped out of his thoughts and quickly turned to the pair with hidden widened eyes. "Wait, what? How'd you find out his identity?"

"He called me by my old pet name: Zanna." She answered. "After that, I quickly two and two together. Not to mention other details along the way." She said with a small smirk.

The helmeted hero groaned and face palmed his protective headwear.

Zatanna chuckled a little on the black and white themed hero's action before she spoke again. "You never did answer back, Bruce."

The bat-themed hero let out a small sigh. "I meant to." She gave him a look, which caused him to hold up his hands with how she glared at him. "Really!"

Zatanna dropped the glare as she gave her old friend a small smile. "Hey, it's okay. I can see you've been busy."

"Yeah, no kidding." Came Vanitas' response. This earned him a jab onto his side by his masked friend. "Okay, ow! What was that for?!" 

His question was ignored as the magician came closer to Batman. "Just answer an old friend one question."

"Go ahead. Shoot." 

It wasn't spoken right away as the ravenette held out her hand and placed it against Batman's cheek. "What happened that made you put this on?"

The Bat let out a sigh. "Several… painful memories. And a promise."

Zatanna formed a small smile as she pulled back her hand. "I'd say you're keeping that promise pretty well." Walking away slightly, she added in some words of encouragement. "And for what it's worth, Dad would have been proud of you on what you've done as Batman. He would've been honored to know he helped train a great hero."

The masked billionaire gave out a genuine smile when hearing this. "Thanks."

Vanitas smiled underneath his helm when seeing this. Hearing that from one of his oldest friends must've meant a lot to him.

"So, with the acts you performed," Batman started off, getting Zatanna's attention, "I never saw your father perform actual magic before."

She sighed. "Dad was easing me into it during his later years after he retired from show business." Waving her wand, sparks appeared at it's tip. "I didn't believe him at first, but my powers awoke after he… left."

"Any reason how or why?"

"I figured it was after an extreme emotional loss that got it to start kicking in." She explained. "After that, I eventually found my mom's old spellbook that dad hid from me. From what I read in his journal, dad wanted to give it to me when I was ready and after that, I learned all that I could from there."

The two heroes nodded as they heard the batmobile pull up to their position, Batman spoke. "Can I give you a ride, Zatanna?"

Both he and Vanitas jolted a little when hearing an explosion. Looking over to Zatanna's position, they saw a large plumb of pink smoke. The wind quickly picked up and blew the vapor away to reveal the ravenette magician had left the scene.

"Huh…" Vanitas said in astonishment. Looking at his friend, he gave him a hidden cheeky grin. "I like her way of leaving more than yours."

Batman playfully glared at the masked Uzumaki. Before he could move towards his car, he saw a flyer attached onto his windshield. Pulling it away, he saw it was a flyer to Zatanna's show…

And it had a written message with a lipstick mark by her signature.

 _Bruce, I hate goodbyes too. Love -Zanna_

 _P.S. Don't forget to contact me soon or else I'll put a nasty spell on you. I would like to catch up for old times sake._

The masked billionaire smirked and silently promised he'll indeed do that.

"Who would've known that you two were together, once upon a time." Vanitas voiced as he peered into the message. The helmeted hero ignored the infamous bat-glare as he chuckled. "Did you two hook up under dear old dad's nose?"

"Vanitas…"

"That would've been difficult in that kind of relationship, if you asked me. I mean having a thing for the teacher's only daughter." Vanitas let out a mocked gasp. "Oh how scandalous!"

Knowing he won't stop his friend from the teasing, he spoke his real name in a strict tone. "Naruto… Will you please stop?"

Hearing his name got Vanitas to do just that as he waved his hands in defeat. "Okay, fine~ I'll stop." Batman soon hoped into his batmobile and soon drove away to either patrol the city or return home and get some well deserved sleep. The masked Uzumaki shook his head a little and muttered to himself. "Sheesh, Bruce really needs to lighten up on some jokes every once in a while."

Quickly forming his wind lance, Vanitas took off into the sky and headed back to his loft.

…..

…..

…..

Well Vanitas would have made it home sooner if something didn't stop him after he made it past a block away from the Gotham Pier.

"Laever yht ytitnedi. (Reveal thy identity.)"

...Or rather someone.

The masked Uzumaki suddenly felt his powers fluctuate a great deal. He didn't know what was going on, but the hero suddenly felt both his armor and windlance disburse into smoke. And this disturbance caused him to fall onto a building's rooftop.

Once Naruto did a recovery roll, he frantically looked around with widened eyes as the publisher wondered what the hell happened.

"Huh, so that's who you are." Spoke a familiar voice. Turning to the source, the Uzumaki saw Zatanna standing on the rooftop with a smirk on her face.

"Seriously?!" Naruto yelled out in frustration. "Why'd you do that?!"

"I was feeling really curious." The magician then looked up and down like she was checking him out. "Glad that I did."

"DON'T DO THAT!" He said as he quickly reformed his Vanitas armor. "Do you have any idea what you've done?!" The hero started to get really animated as it seemed two comical white eyes appeared on his blackened helm. "I could have died on the stunt you pulled. I was _literally_ really high up and with my powers suddenly going out of wack, I might not have been able to survive!"

"Yet you did." Came Zatanna's cheeky response.

"THAT'S BESIDES THE POINT!" Vanitas growled out before he held up his hands to start calming himself down. It took several moments before his helmet melted away so he can rub his forehead. "Look. Can you please not tell anyone about this? I know you'll keep Bruce's, but-"

"I will." She quickly said. "You helped clear my name so it's the least I could possibly do."

"I hope so." He muttered.

"But could you do this itsy, bitsy favor for me?"

"...Which is?"

Zatanna brought out her wand and waved it across her hand. A plumb of pink smoke surrounded it before it disbursed to reveal a pile of books. "Mind if you sign these for me?" She asked. "Took me a bit earlier in my show to realize who you were exactly."

Naruto facepalmed and groaned before he motioned her to come over. Quickly forming a pen in his hand, he started signing each of his written books and the ones he published from his godfather. Once he was done signing, the hero then felt something press against his helmet. Looking over, Vanitas saw Zatanna kiss his cheek before she disappeared in a plumb of pink smoke.

The Uzumaki was about to leave before something smacked him in the face. Pulling it away, he saw it was a flyer to Zatanna's show… and it had a message on it with a lipstick mark next to her signature.

 _Next time I come into town, let's have a proper chat… over coffee? Lunch? Dinner? I just want to make up on what I did and whatnot. -Zatanna Zatara_

 _P.S. And don't worry on trying to find me, I'll find you. ^_^_

Naruto rolled his eyes as he reformed his glass domed helmet before folding and tucking the note into his utility belt. He did chuckle a little and wondered how the girls will take it when he tells them about this.

'Ugh! I can't take anymore surprises for one evening.' He thought before he formed his windlance and took off into the sky.

…..

…..

…..

If the hero were more attentive to his surroundings as he departed, he would've noticed a pair of individuals looking onto the scene with varied reactions.

"Did you pick up on that?"

"...Yeah… I did."

"...Having a hard time accepting and connecting things, Talia?"

The now revealed Talia nodded with widened eyes. This… This was not something she was expecting upon their arrival here.

The daughters of Ra's al Ghul were merely arriving into the area after going through the city and killing several individuals like Victor Zsasz as an example. They were a blight onto the world and even if they were _supposedly_ reformed, they went back to their old ways. So the sisters decided to track then down, killed them and left on their merry way.

The reason why they came to the pier was because they heard of the arrest of Montague Kane, the debunker from the magic performance earlier this evening, over the radio. The pair did learn what went on and wanted to learn everything they could of the event. Both were glad that justice was served and an innocent woman would be happy in the end.

Yet the time of their arrival was only the scrapped bulk of the situation as things were getting cleaned up. Talia wanted to leave, head back to Naruto's loft right away and say her goodbyes one last time before heading home on Infinity Island. But Nyssa wanted to stick around a little longer and get more information, if possible.

Fortunately, or unfortunately on the situation, the younger sister was glad they did as they learned an interesting bit of information once they followed the helmeted hero. The reveal was very unexpected and rather brief, yet it had a very huge impact.

All due to Zatanna's actions.

"Naruto clearly lives up to being quite unexpected." Nyssa said as she walked away from the area. Looking back, she saw her older sister still standing there motionlessly. "Talia, are you alright?"

Inside of Talia's head, many thoughts were trying to sort themselves together as to how Naruto, her former student, was Vanitas.

She clearly remembered both of their fighting styles as they were like a fingerprint: no two were alike. Yet theirs were the same with the exact same movements and gestures.

Next was how protective Vanitas was the other night when both her and Naruto were captured. When he rescued her, Talia barely made out on being more fierce towards Silver Monkey, yet being so very gentle and caring when he held her in his arms. She could even remember feeling the same warmth both emanated when his feelings were directed towards her, unlike in the mission with the sonic drill.

How could he have deceived her so well without her realizing this in the first place? How did she not see this sooner?! What else was he hiding from her?!

These and so much more were being worked over time in her noggin.

She was so distracted with her thoughts that her younger sister had to knock her back into her senses. And a simple nudge on her shoulder got this to happen. "Yes?"

"Glad that you're still living." Joked the younger al Ghul. "With how still you stood, I would've thought you died."

"Sorry, sister. My mind… was busy."

Nyssa gave out a look of concern. "Talia, are you alright?"

Talia didn't say anything, at first, but her body said it all. Her hands tightened. Her heart was beating faster and faster in her chest. And her mind fully comprehended on what will happen now because of this reveal… On what will exactly happen to Naruto Uzumaki.

"...No, Nyssa, I'm not alright." Soon, a growing smile formed on her features. "I'm ecstatic."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **First off, thank you those that have donated to my pa-tre-on page. I appreciate it a lot. I would do the option of the monthly withdrawals from you guys and donors, but I have no idea how to do that. Then again, there's the option of me just doing the deposit right away once I'm done with content so I might do with that, if that's alright.**

 **Still new to that site, so there's that.**

 **Would've gotten this chapter out sooner if I didn't kill my head multiple times on applications and cover letters for a new job.**

 **Anyways, with the chapter, have to point out certain info for those that possibly are confused on what I did exactly or mentioned. With the detail on there being a Daily Planet branch in Gotham, I should point out that in the DCAU there is indeed a location. It was briefly mentioned on the epic crossover event 'World's Finest' as Lois thought of transferring to Gotham in order to be closer to Bruce.**

 **Also thought it would've been good to introduce Nyssa al Ghul in this chapter. Needed to get her to show up sooner or later, so why not now. Not only that, but wanted Naruto to see Nyssa on what he still thought of her before the big reveal on the sisters' backgrounds for him that would change his perspective towards them.**

 **And, of course, Talia finally learning Naruto's secret identity… Yeup! Needed to do this to help set up for an upcoming chapter.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	50. I am the Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 46: I am the Night**

You know there are days out there which you clearly know are bad or just off to you. You don't know why it's like this on the later. Call it a gut feeling that something bad might happen to you or it could just be a fleeting moment. It comes out of nowhere and hurts you at the sorest spot to make a very lasting impression.

Everyone has those days that it's clearly like that. But there are those that are harsh reminders on what you had experienced in your existance. You take time to heal from the wounds and hope to fully move on with your life. Yet there are those wounds that are too infected to really heal over.

...This is the case with Bruce Wayne.

Sitting in a dark corner of the Batcave, the dark haired billionaire sat upon a cavern throne. It was naturally made with no evidence of being hand carved at all. If one were to look upon him as he sat there, in his Batman attire, he could've been slightly mistaken as a Dark King rather than a Knight.

This piece of natural furniture had served Bruce quite well ever since he discovered the cave years ago, before he donned the iconic cowl. During his renovation of the darkened scenery, Bruce rested here before working his cave further to his specific vision. Afterwards, it served as a small resting place when he wanted time to think in an area where he oddly felt at peace.

And it served him when he wanted to just be by himself… and alone to sulk, brood, and shed most of his feelings.

And this was where Alfred found him one particular day when he needed to get his former ward and current employer fed. Coming closer to him, the Pennyworth spoke in concern. "Master Bruce? Are you… alright, sir?"

"I'm… tired, Alfred."

Alfred sighed as he walked closer with a tray of food in his hands. "Oh, I shouldn't wonder. You've taken no meals today. I can't recall when you last slept."

Bruce took a deep breath of damp air as he looked into the darkness. "A weary body can be dealt with but a weary spirit, that's something else." His tired, blue eyes then looked over to his faithful butler. "Sometimes, old friend, I wonder if I'm really doing any good out there."

An eyebrow rose when hearing this. "How can you doubt it? The lives you've saved, the criminals you've brought to justice."

"I've put out a few fires, yes, won a few battles." Bruce then held his head and rubbed his eyes as they seemed to ache with pain. "But the war goes on, Alfred. On and on and it seems to never stop."

"That's the thing, really: it never stops." Coming closer, he knelt down and looked at Bruce face to face… if the younger man's face wasn't cover up. "It's a natural occurrence and conflict always arises. But you do what you can to keep them at bay and in my book, you've done a wonderful job."

The billionaire pried his hands away from his face before looking at the butler. "You have it, Alfred?"

"...Of course, sir." Said the older man.

Getting back up, Alfred pulled out an elongated box and placed it into Bruce's grasps. With the container on hand, the billionaire got off his cavern throne and moved away so he can get changed into his Batman attire.

As the man left, Alfred looked on with sadness in his gaze.

Bruce has always acted like this at this time of the year. It is as if all joy, happiness and positive feelings in his life takes a holiday. It gets rather tiresome at times, but who is he to judge upon Bruce's emotions.

After all, it's the anniversary of the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne… and the death of a child's innocence.

 _ **-On the Streets-**_

Not much could be said when being on the streets. It can be rather harsh and cold on how lives through it. It's never really much of a pleasant feeling to live by, but it's sometimes all one has.

Standing on a street corner, a teenager in a large trench coat was looking at the various pedestrians driving and walking by. He sighed as he didn't know what to do exactly when being here in the big city. He was a small-town 'boy' and when he came here on his own, he thought he could do well in finding a job and living it up.

Oh how naive he was.

'Okay, Wizard, let's find a good catch to at least help feed me for the night.' Thought the teen in self words of encouragement. As his eyes wandered, the identified 'Wizard' smirked. 'Seems I might have gotten some schmucks coming my way.'

Coming down the street were a pair of businessmen as they seemed to be in some sort of discussion. "...It's a done deal." Said one of the men. "You're looking at the new vice president of-"

"Um… Excuse me, folks." Wizard spoke, getting their attention. The teenager had put on a downcasted facade in order to help sell the act. "Mind sparing some change? I'm trying to get bus fare home."

The two men briefly looked at each other and shrugged. Reaching into their pockets, they respectively pulled out some bills and handed it to the teenager before walking away. If they were to look back, they would've seen Wizard's face taking on a devious smirk.

"Heh. Works every time." He muttered as he walked away from the scene. As the teen walked along and headed towards one of his favorite joints to dine in, he paused once coming across a souvenir store.

Most of these kinds of stores would sell some forms of memorabilia or something nice and relevant. From snowglobes, t-shirts, statues, or something of that nature. Every other city has them if they are really famous in some particular way.

What made Wizard narrow his eyes and scoff at the store was more towards the theme of this city's main vigilante: Batman.

He'd seen a handful of stores merchandising off of the bat-themed hero. Sure, Wizard somewhat knew it was just to help raise some people's spirits by having the merch on hand in this dark city. But that isn't all that great if your on the other end of a gun or a knife and you hope Batman, Robin or Vanitas would come in and save the day.

Well newsflash: neither of them can always save the day! They can't be everywhere at once and they can't stop horrible events from happening. All they do is make people feel their always protected, in one way or another.

What a complete joke… And to Wizard, Batman is the biggest of them.

 _ **-Warehouse District-**_

In a darkened area, the GCPD was slowly getting into position as they surrounded a particular warehouse.

"I say we take them now, Commish, before the deal happens." Bullock suggested. "We got enough on them." The pleasantly plump detective looked at his superior as he didn't respond. "What are we waiting for exactly?"

"Batman." Gordon replied. "He got us the dirt on the Jazzman. Said he'd be here when the hammer went down." 

Bullock let out a frustrated sigh when hearing this.

Jimmy Peake, aka The Jazzman, was a gangster that got his name due to his odd eccentricity of using a lot of music-related terms in his speech; along with carrying instrument cases in carrying his weapons and as a typical suitcase.

Six years ago, Gordon busted the man when he was still a lieutenant while working on a smuggling operation. They had gotten a tip at the time, through an anonymous source calling himself Kyuubi, on what was going down. Gordon figured it might've been someone wanting to rat out Jazzman before skipping town. Nobody, not even the Batman, was able to figure out who this Kyuubi person was exactly; so the matter was dropped.

And now since Jazzman's release, the GCPD had gotten all the evidence needed to put away the gangster for good and they'll nab him on this drug operation.

All things were rather good, but why did Bullock had a sinking feeling in his gut that things were going sideways before downhill.

'Might just be heartburn.' Harvey thought as he slowly got back into position. 'That or the burrito from earlier.'

 _ **-Park Row-**_

Walking through the darkened street, Batman could see several memories flash before his eyes. The Dark Knight walked passed the movie theatre, which was currently boarded up, where he saw the last movie with his parents: The Mark of Zorro.

Zorro was Bruce's favorite superhero when he was younger. More than Sherlock Holmes, the Shadow, or even the Grey Ghost. He was born into privilege, but he protected the poor and defended the innocent.

A dashing caballero. A masked man of mystery… A hero.

Bruce loved seeing that movie and the Waynes had a wonderful time. But it only took a single moment… to make it the worst night of his entire life.

As they exited the theatre, the family thought it was a good idea on taking a shortcut through an alley to get back to their car. Bruce was so distracted with his recounting of the biggest action scenes of the film that he ran into someone in the godforsaken place. The eight year old did apologized and would've moved on… but he pulled out a gun and aimed it at both him and his parents. The gunman demanded what money and jewels they had on their person and then they would be left in one piece.

Bruce had never been more scared in his entire life at that very moment.

His father willingly forked over his wallet while his mother… wasn't so willing to part with her pearls. It was her mother's and her grandmother's. Practically a family heirloom which Martha hoped to pass onto an eventual daughter of hers, a younger sister Bruce may (not ever) have.

The thug didn't like Martha's action and aimed his gun back at the mother and son. Thomas blocked the gunner's line of sight and tried to talk him out of this.

But then the first shot was fired.

Bruce saw his father fell as his mother screamed in horror. Her eyes darted to the gunner and tried to protect his eight year-old self as best as she could. The gunner then fought Martha in getting the pearls around her neck, but his finger slipped and fired a round into her as the necklace came loose and fell onto the ground.

Someone spotted the act and tried to help stop the thief, but he fled the scene of a shocked Bruce Wayne surrounded by his dead parents.

To this day, the caped crusader relieved that very night, that very moment, over and over again always kept him up on most nights. The only things he had left of his parents was the family name, the inheritance, and his mother's cherished possessions: her family pearls and brooch.

Sometime before that night, the young Bruce saw his mother's broach for the first time when she was personally cleaning it up instead of Alfred. He asked on why she did this as the faithful butler would have been fine of cleaning it. But she explained her reasons.

Not only was her pearl necklace her family inheritance, but also a copper brooch with a bat as the main design. Even though the necklace belonged to Martha's grandmother, the brooch was in her family line for generations. Records as to how her family came into possession of the piece of jewelry has been lost.

After explaining this, Martha had asked that when he was old enough, he would give it to the woman his heart fully belongs to and hope to marry one day. He promised her this and had hoped to give it to the first real love of his life, Andrea, but she had to give it back when she and her father suddenly left after their brief engagement.

...Back to the matter at hand, Batman soon came to the very alleyway where he last saw his parents alive. And in that alleyway was an old family friend, Dr. Leslie Thompkins.

Dr. Thompkins is an old woman with greying hair as it was wrapped in a bun on the back. She was Thomas Wayne's oldest friend ever since they first met in Medical School. They had dated for a time, but nothing could really work out. Yet they still chatted and moved on from that awkward time.

When Bruce's parents were killed, she quickly came onto the scene and comforted the young eight year old to the best of her ability. She is one of the most trusted people in Bruce's life and was the first person he revealed his hero identity all because of how much he respected her for all those years.

Leslie was lost in thought as she stared at the ground. When she heard footsteps coming closer, the doctor looked to the source. "Hello, Bruce." She said as he gave her a small nod. "You seem quieter than usual tonight."

He sighed. "Every year I come here, I wonder if it should be the last time if I should put the past behind me try to lead a normal life."

The good doctor walked closer to the cowled hero and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Santayana says that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it."

Batman then spoke. "He also said a fanatic is someone who redoubles his efforts while losing sight of his goal."

Leslie nodded in slight bitterment when hearing his argument. 'Of course you'd say that, Bruce.'

The aging doctor soon saw Batman pull out an elongated box from underneath his cape. Opening it up, the hero revealed a pair of roses to the world before placing them on the ground. Once done, he stepped back and stood deathly still as he paid his respects.

Even though Leslie and Bruce would go to the Gotham Cemetery to properly pay their respects there, it was here that seemed to matter most of all.

Their little moment of quiet reverence ended when the pair heard a large crash nearby. Investigating, they saw a pair of thugs holding a teenage boy against a dumpster.

"Wizard, you never call." Said the first thug. "You never write."

"You never pay us our piece of kale for letting you work that corner." Spoke the second.

Wizard held up his hands in defense and tried to get himself out of this situation. "Willie. Monk. Yeah, I was just looking for you guys."

"Right~" Willie, the first thug drawled out. "Let's skip the pleasantries." Slamming Wizard against the dumpster once more, Willie made their demand. "50 bucks, now."

Monk picked up right after. "It's that, or I cut out your liver and fry it in a pan."

"Hey, I haven't exactly got it right now." Said the teen as his skin seemed to pale a little.

"Then what you do got is a whole world of trouble." Said the first thug as he pulled out and slipped on a thing of brass knuckles onto his hand.

Just when Willie was about to start laying it on Wizard, his arm was pulled back by someone. Looking towards the source, the thug saw Batman before his world went dark.

Wizard soon saw the caped crusader quickly knock out Willie. He then saw Monk running away in hopes of escaping. But his legs were snagged as he fell onto the ground. The second thug tried to get out of his small confinement, but Batman struck his head to render him unconscious.

Looking towards the hero, the teenager spoke. "Hey, Bats, don't worry about me. I don't need help from some jerk in long underwear."

Batman was going to say something when his eyes spotted underneath Monk. Lifting him up a bit, the hero widened his eyes on what happened… to the roses placed down earlier. They were crushed!

When Wizard tried to get away from the scene, he was pulled back by the Bat. "Think there's room in the Mitchell Street mission for one more?" The hero said to the aging doctor.

"Of course." She said as she took hold of Wizard's arm and escorted him out of the alley. She did look back and saw Batman's body language practically read that he was rather angry on what happened to the roses. "Aren't you going to go home now? It's pretty late."

"I have promises to keep, Leslie." Was all the Batman said as he disappeared into the night. 

_**-Back with the Gotham Police-**_

Harvey saw a car coming closer and closer to their position. It slowed down and came to the one armored gate to the one warehouse. It soon opened up for the recent arrival as it drove right in before the gate closed right back up.

Moving back over to his superior, Bullock spoke. "Commissioner, it's gotta be now. Batman's not gonna show in time and any further delay might screw things up."

Gordon sighed as he knew the detective was right. Pulling out his walkie talkie, he spoke into it. "Hit it."

Once the order was made, spotlights were turned on as they were aimed at the warehouse. The SWAT teams mostly came out from hiding as Gordon spoke into the loudspeaker. _"This is the police! You men in the warehouse, you're under arrest!"_

It was not long after the order was made, various warehouse windows broke open as shots were fired. The police quickly hid for cover as they didn't want to get hit. Looking over to the side, Gordon called out for the armored battering ram to move forward. The truck slowly came out of a nearby alleyway before the driver floored it, causing the vehicle to drive straight through the armored gate. There was little success of breaking through right away, causing the battering ram to drive on back before attempting once more.

From up above, a GCPD helicopter tried to get a good spotlight onto the area in case of any runaways. Yet they started to take heavy fire as a bullet shot through the glass and severely injured the pilot. He was forced to go down as the controls were soon shot. Before the aircraft crashed onto the streets below, the officers jumped out just in time with little injuries.

Ducking from enemy fire, Gordon yelled out in frustration. "This was a setup! The Jazzman was ready for us!"

"Yeah, no shit!" Spoke the heavy set detective.

The police kept their course of actions, not knowing of an untimely arrival of the Caped Crusader. Seeing as he was possibly late for the party, the Bat glided into the warehouse's rooftop. Using his grappling hook, he tied the rope onto a secured pole. Once done, he leapt off the roof's edge and tossed colored tear gas pellets through the broken windows. Sounds of coughing and wheezing were heard soon after as bullets flew less and less.

Peeking from his defensive barrier, Bullock rose a brow in confusion on what he was seeing. "What the hell is going on?! We couldn't get close enough to use tear gas!" As he was about to look away, the detective saw a recognizable shadowy figure, causing him to grit his teeth. "Batman! Why couldn't he have shown up sooner?!"

In another area of the warehouse, a large set of windows broke open as a figure fell out and landed on a parked truck. Shaking his head free of any stray glass, the man slid off the truck's top and got into the vehicle. Starting it up the engine, the figure looked through the rearview mirror to not only see himself but the road behind him.

'I need to get out of here.' Thought Jimmy 'The Jazzman' Peake. 'Need to lay low so I'll _compose_ for another day.'

His attempt did not go unnoticed as Batman heard the truck starting to leave the area. Running across the warehouse rooftop, the Bat leapt off it's surface and landed onto the getaway vehicle. He held on tight as the truck picked up speed and broke through the damaged armored gate just before the GCPD made their next attempt.

The Jazzman kept swerving his vehicle in order to shake the Batman off. As he kept with his personal task, his eyes caught onto a figure trying to catch up to them from his left-side mirror. Smirking on the opportunity, Jimmy pulled out a gun from his coat pocket and with careful aim, he fired several rounds.

As the mob-boss was distracted, the Batman hopped onto the back. Pulling out his grappling gun, he attached a chain onto it before firing it's hook onto a nearby lamppost before leaping off and landing in a dark alley. With a secured tug of the grappling hook, the truck was jolted back and swerved into a brick wall.

This was the scene as Bullock and several police witnessed as they ran up to the crashed vehicle and roughly pulled Jimmy 'The Jazzman' Peake out from the door. The officers felt triumphant on this semi-successful raid as one of the officers read the captured man his Miranda Rights.

"Looks like the fat lady just sung, eh Jimmy." Bullock said happily before he noticed something was off. "Hey, where's the Commish? He should see this."

"BULLOCK!" Called out Officer Montoya.

"WHAT?!" He cried out and quickly looked towards Renea. When he did so, he along with many other officers widened their eyes. "Oh my God…" Bullock whispered in horror.

Lying on the ground was Commissioner James Gordon… with a growing pool of blood underneath him.

 _ **-Earlier, Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

"...So you're working part-time at the library, Babs?"

"Pretty much." Answered the spectacled redhead as she slowly drank a Vegan Caesar Cocktail; a mixture of a Caesar and a Bloody Mary without the alcohol.

"And how's that going for ya?" Asked the bubbly blonde as she sipped her own.

"It has its moments to lighten up the boring atmosphere."

Harley nodded as she briefly looked towards Rachel's room upstairs as Naruto was tucking his ward in bed.

Now you would be wondering why Barbara Gordon is currently in Naruto's loft in the first place. To explain, we would need to go back several hours.

Barbara came on by to drop off the next draft of her Binary Beast novel at the publisher's loft. She recently finished her fixes and didn't have any assignments to work on. Feeling impatient on when to hand over her next draft; the redhead came here this night, to his home, instead of coming over to Spiral Publishing the next day or so. It was going to be a simple drop off and would possibly see if she could find something to do on some solo activity…

Or so she thought.

Harley greeted Barbara at the door and dragged her inside as she ended up hanging out in the loft for the evening while joining dinner. The Commissioner's daughter got to know the pale psychologist, in person, as she previously learned about Harley because of her father. Barbara said her sympathies as she saw her bleached white skin in which Harley merely waved off.

Barbara also got to meet and befriend Naruto's ward as she ended up helping Rachel in her homework. The redhead got to admit the ashen child was really sweet, with her shy and timid personality, but the little girl was slowly opening up to the college student throughout the night.

While Harley played and watched some movies with Rachel, Naruto was helping Barbara on her book as they discussed further changes and issues. It felt strange to the spectacled college student as she was being critiqued in person on her work instead of reading the notes while at home. The only time she felt this way was with school counselors or teachers, but this professional approach would be something Barbara will need to get used to.

Asides from the small evaluation, to which he'll do a more detailed one in written notes, Naruto and Barbara got to chat with each other a bit more. They talked about their respective lives, her time and issues at school along with some other topics. Things had to be put on hold when Rachel wanted Naruto to read her something to help her fall asleep.

And in that time, Harley chatted up with Barbara as the blonde made them some drinks for the evening.

"...And you also said that you were doing gymnastics now right?"

Barbara nodded as she ate her drink drenched celery stick. "Yeah. I practice at home and sometimes at college since dad hopes I could go for the Olympics one day."

Harley snorted. "Yeah, that'll be tough to get through the qualifiers. Hell, I thought about doing that but I wanted to focus primarily on school once I got my scholarship."

The spectacled redhead nodded once more. "That's what I tell dad as well. Sure I could try to apply for one of the upcoming games, but I don't want to be one of those people that's fully committed to the games. I want to get a good career and just focusing on the Olympics would be too time consuming." She then propped her head onto her knee. "But he still sees me as his 'little girl' and kept onto that old idea."

"Sorry to hear that, Babs."

"No problem, Harley."

"Regardless, since you clearly stated you keep up with your skills, mind showing me."

Barbara looked at Harley with a raised brow, but shrugged. Getting off the couch, the redhead placed her glasses onto the coffee table before taking off her jacket doing some small stretches. It was a little tight with what clothes she had on, but she got things to work. Once done, quickly went into a handstand and then lifted up one of her arms to keep herself balance before performing other gymnastic moves in a straight line.

From her seat on the couch, Harley looked at the younger girl with an analytical eye. She took mental notes on Barbara's form before she started doing small orders to perform other gymnastic moves she didn't see yet. Barbara compiled and did what she could with no assisting equipment at all and limited space while carefully using some furniture for some moves.

Once done with her moves, the Commissioner's daughter heard some clapping from upstairs. Turning her head, her amethyst eyes saw Naruto doing the act as he smiled. "Those were really good, Barbara."

"Thanks." Said the redhead as she wore her glasses once more. "How long were you watching?"

"From the start." The publisher walked down the steps as he came up to the college student. "You were really good and your form was great."

Barbara smiled on this.

"I agree." Said the psychologist as she stood up. "Though there could be some adjustments here and there." Barbara looked at Harley with a raised brow, causing said woman to explain. "You were a little slow on some of the moves, but I can excuse it that we weren't in a more proper area to see your stuff."

"Okay…"

"But asides from your speed, I noticed your limbs possibly need more work in terms of flexibility and strength. If you do more work on those, then you could do a better job if you want to compete." Said the pale woman.

"And how would you notice all this?"

"You can blame my neighbor." Harley answered. "She was my former gymnastics teacher when I tried to get my one scholarship." The blonde then shivered as memories started flooding in. "She was harsh, sadistic and could've made boot camp look like a child's playground with how she got me to perform certain feats I never thought were possible."

Barbara had a bit of an odd imagination for that moment as she saw a chibi Harley being put through the training grindhouse. Crying and cursing on a constant rate while trying to get certain moves right in a faster and stronger approach. Hell, there was even a split thought on Harley being tied to a giant tire and having to run around a field with a sadistic woman cracking a whip on her.

'...Why did that last one come to mind?' Barbara thought in confusion.

"I could maybe help train you, if you'd like, Babs."

The Commissioner's daughter snapped out of her train of thought when hearing this. "Sorry, what?"

"Would you like it if I could help train you?" Asked the psychologist. "We could set up a schedule that can work for the both of us and I'll do things what Paula did to me… in a more safer approach."

"I would suggest you take it, Barbara." Said the publisher. "I've seen how both Harley and Paula, who's her mentioned neighbor, do their stuff. And I gotta say it's really amazing how they do their approaches, landings and all that fun stuff."

Amethyst eyes blinked on this given and rather sudden opportunity. She adopted a thinking pose and thought more on the offer. She can admit the redhead hasn't had much of a teacher for years as she's been just doing things by herself with no other form of discipline. But if Harley here is offering to teach her into being a better gymnast, then why turn it down.

Looking back at the blonde, the spectacled college student nodded with a small smile. "Sure, why not. I'm game if you are."

Harley smiled and bounced on her feet before glombing the redhead in childish glee. "HOORAY!~ MY FIRST STUDENT!~" She said, loud enough for a good yell, but not enough to wake up the sleeping ward upstairs. "THIS IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN!"

From her spot in the hug, Barbara didn't expect this and briefly regretted taking up on the needed lessons.

*RING RING* *RING RING*

"...Who's phone is that?" Naruto asked as he checked his cell phone. "It's not mine."

Ending the hug, Harley went to check hers in her purse. "It's not mine either."

Seeing as she's the odd one out, Barbara walked towards the kitchen counter and got her cell phone from her purse. "It's mine, guys." Checking the caller ID, she saw that it was Harley Bullock. Flipping the phone open, she answered. "Hey, Harvey, what's up?"

" _...Babs… Something happened…"_

Barbara rose a brow as she heard the detective speak to her over the phone. Her face slowly went from confusion into absolute shock. She loudly gasped as her eyes widened. Naruto and Harley looked on with confusion, but rushed to her side when Barbara had to quickly steady herself as her legs seemed to give out on her.

"Barbara, what happened?" Asked the Uzumaki in a concerned tone.

Closing her phone, Barbara looked at Naruto and Harley with reddened eyes as tears ran down her face. "It's dad. He's in the hospital." She cried out as they widened their eyes. "He's been shot!"

 _ **-Early Morning, Gotham General Hospital-**_

Things were rather quiet in the hospital as things were rather hard to bear as of recent events. Asides from the typical phone calls from the secretary desk or very mild chatter, the only sounds heard were from the TV set as the newscast was currently playing.

" _Last night, police broke the smuggling ring of Jimmy 'The Jazzman' Peake. But the victory in the drug war came at a high cost."_ Spoke Summer Gleeson in a somber tone as she stood outside of the GCPD. _"Police Commissioner James Gordon was badly wounded in the line of duty. Ballistics investigation has matched the bullet with the Jazzman's gun."_ She turned around and saw said mob-boss being escorted outside of the building. _"Any comments, Jazzman, on your recent actions on the police commissioner?"_

Jimmy smirked as he spoke towards the news camera. _"Let's just say it was time to pay the piper."_

As the man was taken into a police van, Summer turned her attention back to the viewers. _"Sources say that the Jazzman has long nursed a grudge against Gordon. And at this time, the commissioner remains in intensive care at Gotham General Hospital."_

Inside of Gordon's hospital room, sounds of the heart monitor and the airpumps were working around the clock to keep the injured Commissioner alive. The surgery was extensive as the man lost a lot of blood due to the several bullet wounds in his chest. Despite this, the surgery was a success.

The room's window slowly opened as a darkened figure came right through and carefully stepped closer to Gordon's body. As he got closer, the lights revealed this person to be Batman. If one were to look closer onto his face, they'd see how tired and sorrowful he is.

"...I don't know if you can hear me, Jim." Said the Bat. "I'm sorry. If I hadn't stopped in Crime Alley before the raid, then-"

The hospital room door opened up as Barbara stepped through. She paused her actions before walking again. "Batman." She said in acknowledgement.

"How is he?"

"Not good, I'm afraid. The doctors said he's stable, but… but I don't know when he'll wake up."

Batman tightened his fists as the material strained against his hands. "It's my fault. I should've gotten there first, checked it out before-"

"Don't blame yourself, Batman. You helped catch the man who shot him."

"If I'd been there-"

"You should've been there, pointy ears." Came a rough and tired voice. Barbara and Batman looked over and saw Detective Bullock walking into the room. "If you did, then maybe Peake might've shot the right guy." He then got a bit more agressive as he started poking Batman's chest in a harsh manner. "I thought you knew what's shaking on the streets How come you didn't tell us this was a setup?"

"I didn't know." Batman said defensively.

"Yeah? Then that makes you just as responsible for him being here as the Jazzman!"

"Harvey, please." Barbara pleaded as she got between the two men. "It wasn't his fault."

Seeing as he was no longer welcomed here, Batman turned around and headed towards the opened window.

Bullock saw the Bat's action and snapped. "Hey, where you going?!" He was ignored as Batman jumped out of the window opening and glided away from the area. "This ain't over yet, outlaw! You hear me?!" Bullock roared into the night. "You're going down for this! I ain't talking law! I'm talking you and me!"

 _ **-Batcave-**_

It took Batman longer to return to his cave. After gliding back to his batmobile, he drove his vehicle at the normal street limits and took his time to get back to his lair. The Bat didn't want to cause further problems with his typical speeding driving he usually does in the past.

Not this time.

He felt truly defeated. He felt truly useless. He felt so much pain and sorrow… Like that very night all those years ago.

Getting out of his car, he stumbled in his step as he walked towards his forensics lab not far away. He needed something to lean against to keep himself upright.

Once getting there, his breathing started slow before it started to escalate. His eyes dilated behind his cowl as images between Gordon's bleeding body and his parents' corpses lying beside him flashed before his gaze. His body started to shake and as an eventual reflex, he started to react…

Badly.

Gritting his teeth in anger, he soon roared as he flipped over the metal desks with it's contents falling over and breaking on the cavern floor. Tossing his arms around, Batman swept all of his beakers, test tubes and equipment around as he kept roaring.

Nothing was safe within his gaze and once the entirety of his forensics lab was destroyed, Batman collapsed onto his knees and loudly screamed in utmost despair as every bat currently asleep was now awake.

 _ **-Three Days Later, Blackgate Penitentiary-**_

Leaning against the prison wall, the Jazzman glared at his surroundings.

It has been three days since he was brought here. There was no available room at the city jail for him to stay so he was merely shoved here as an early access as to where he'll stay for years. This will be the place where he'll await his trial.

"...Bullshit." He muttered. "It ain't going to be a trial. They got enough on me to play the funeral march."

Standing beside him was a flunky of his that came here before him. The prisoner was still loyal to him, even helping him adjust to the 'temporary' surroundings.

"Not a problem, bro." Said the flunky. "Talk to Southside Eddy. He'll get you out of Gotham before the ink on you fingers dries."

Jimmy briefly nodded on the suggestion before he quickly shook his head. "Not out of Gotham. Not yet."

"But why boss?"

"I wanna make sure Gordon's got a one-way ticket to harp land."

The flunky widened his eyes in alarm and tried to talk him out of it. "Not now, Jimmy. You gotta lay low and-"

"Gordon busted me six years ago and recently." Jimmy argued as he tightened his fists. "Would've been the best score of my life and could'a retired early. I owe him big time." 

_**-Evening, Wayne Manor-**_

Opening the front doors, Dick and Naruto walked through the entrance as Alfred greeted them.

"I'm so glad you could come, Master Dick. And you too, Naruto." Said the butler in a sad tone. "It's been three days. I've never seen him like this before."

"How bad is it, Al?" Asked the Grayson.

"Very. I tried all that I could, but I believe you two might help."

The new arrivals nodded as Naruto spoke. "We'll do all we can. That's a promise."

The pair made their way towards the batcave. As they descended the stairs, the two saw the cavern felt darker and more unsettling than before. It is as if Bruce's feelings truly melded with the area to help give it form.

Once in the area, they saw the forensics area was totally trashed. And it wasn't just there. The trophy section was now all over the place with the displays thrown left and right. The armory was in shambles. Hell, even the batmobile had various dents along the hull and it's glass was shattered. The only thing that wasn't damaged at all was the batcomputer as it must've been the only source to the outside world. And damaging that would've hindered Bruce's line of information.

"...Damn."

"You said it, Dick." Naruto said in worry. The pair rounded a corner and saw something in the shadows. "Bruce?"

As Dick and Naruto got closer, they saw it was indeed the dark haired billionaire. But the man before them seemed unrecognisable as he sat on his cavern throne. His costume was all torn up, his mask was in shambles, his face looked like it hasn't been shaved in days ontop of not sleeping a wink.

All in all, Bruce looked like he was truly a walking wreck.

'Dear God.' They thought.

Wanting to brighten up the mood, Dick tried to joke around a little. "Bruce! Stay down here much longer, you'll be growing mushrooms in your armpits."

Taking a small involuntar wif, Naruto shook his head a little. "With him not bathing, I'm probably sure that might happen sooner or later." 

Bruce either ignored or didn't care on their comments at all. All he did care about where his present thoughts. "I should have been there." He muttered with a tired and strained voice. 

Dick sighed. "You can't be everywhere, Bruce. No one can."

Naruto was going to comment about that with his cloning ability, but kept his mouth shut. Only talking about that might cause further problems.

"I let him down." Said the damaged hero.

"Bruce, you're being too hard on yourself." Said the publisher. "Things happen and no one could have seen that happen to Gordon."

"He's a friend. More than a friend, really." Spoke the Bat as he looked at the two with his bloodshot eyes. "Jim Gordon's the same age my father would've been if he hadn't…" It was really hard for Bruce to finish that sentence as he gritted his teeth. "And now, because of me, he's hanging by a thread." Slamming his arms down onto his throne he growled. "If I'd gotten there five minutes sooner."

Naruto sighed. "Bruce, you're only human. You do all one man can do. Hell, you've done more than any man's expected to do."

The Grayson nodded in agreement. "Naruto's right, Bruce. You've gone above and beyond what others would've done in their entire lives."

"I chose this life." Bruce said as he slowly rose from his throne. "I use the night. I _became_ the night." Once he was on his feet, he walked forward and came towards the edge of a cavern cliff and looked towards the darkened abyss. "And sooner or later, I'll go down. It might be the Joker or Scarecrow or just some punk who gets lucky… My decision. No regrets." Bruce tightened his fists once more as his body shook with rage. "But I can't let anyone else pay for my mistakes. I could never forgive myself if that were to happen."

"Damn it, Bruce. Jim Gordon's a cop. He knows the risk!" Dick argued.

"Each and every one of them have sworn to protect the lives of others with the cost of theirs." Naruto said in order to backup Dick's argument. "They know that if they get hurt, their at least making a difference and Gordon had done just that. He has never let anyone down with what he's done."

"But how long before I let someone else I care about down?" Said the defeated man as he didn't bother looking at his respective ward and friend. "Leslie? Alfred? Either of you?" 

"What about Selina, Bruce? Earlier this year, you helped save her life and she has been very grateful for what you did for her when she was practically at Death's door." Said the publisher. "You even did all you could when Pam was acting all crazy and in the end, things were alright. Hell there was even Zatanna. You didn't let her down!"

"True. But when all is said and done, how much have I accomplished?" This time, Bruce turned around and gave them a harsh scowl. "They sell T-shirts of me. I've become a cliché! More good for the tourist trade than the streets!" 

Dick had enough, came up to Bruce and yelled. "This city would have fallen apart years ago without you! You've saved the lives of others! You've kept families together and you've inspired many by your actions! If it wasn't because of all that then this city would've become a complete hellhole!" 

"Maybe. Maybe not." The billionaire turned away from his ward as he looked back down below. "When you look too long into the abyss, the abyss looks back through you. If you blink, then you might fall and might never be able to climb out." Pulling off his ruined mask and cape, he gave it a narrowed glance. "Maybe it's time for Batman to return to the night that spawned him before anyone else gets hurt."

Without saying anything else, Bruce tossed the cape and cowl down below as Naruto and Dick looked on with widened eyes. 

_**-Next Day, Gotham General Hospital-**_

Things had not been looking great lately.

Gordon was still in his coma. Bruce was considering to retire from the hero business for good. And to top it all off, the Jazzman had broken out of prison last night and is on the loose.

Naruto didn't know what to do as he chatted with Dick and Alfred on the issue before including Harley, Pam and Selina along.

Selina and Pam were quite shocked on hearing Bruce doing such a thing. Harley thought the same thing before the psychological side of her mind took over and stated that something harsh and life threatening might be the only way to snap the Wayne back into place, even if it was temporary. The others agreed with Harley's little assessment, but they didn't know what might convince Bruce to take up his cape and cowl once more.

Until then, Gordon's life was on the line with the Jazzman coming after him. And here he is in Gordon's hospital room as he was chatting with the commissioner's daughter to see how she was holding up.

"Jimmy Peake's a madman, Naruto." Said the spectacled redhead as she sat by her father. "He'll try to finish what he started." Barbara brought her hands onto her face as she felt totally defeated. "My father can't do a thing and… God… I feel so helpless."

Naruto came up to her, kneeled down and slowly pulled her into a tight, comforting hug. "I know how you feel, Barbara. More than you might think." He felt her shaking before he slowly patted her back. "It's okay, you can let it out."

It wasn't long before he felt the small wet sensation on his shoulder as his ears picked up on the sniffles and subtle cries coming from the spectacled redhead. Her crying wasn't much, unlike the previous days of being here. Though they still felt the same weight.

After several minutes, she pulled away as she had puffy eyes with tear stained cheeks. Smiling a little, Naruto pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her. She gratefully accepted the cloth and cleaned her face with it.

"Now I know you've probably heard of this a lot and grown quite tired of it, but your place is here." He said as he squeezed her hand. "You want to go out there and help search for the Jazzman, but it's not safe right now. If he can't try to get your father then he might go after you as the next best thing."

Barbara hung her head low as she knew he was right. The college student tightly held onto his hand to show more of her frustration. "There's only one person who can find the Jazzman now." She muttered. "The Batman." 

"But what about Vanitas?" He asked in a small joking manner. "I'm sure he could help keep your father safe."

"Yeah… That's true."

Naruto smiled a little as he looked out of the window towards the general location of Wayne Manor. 'I hope Dick is doing alright over there.'

 _ **-Wayne Manor-**_

Dick was pacing back and forth inside of Bruce's office with a small frown on his face. His eyes occasionally went back towards his old guardian as he sat at his desk while working on documents sent to him from Lucius Fox. With him missing work for a good handful of days, the Wayne CEO had to drop them off so Bruce can at least be productive.

Said man was currently in a bathrobe as he had to at least take a long shower earlier from not bathing during his time of brooding in the batcave. He was at least cleanly shaven, yet he still appeared not all that there as his blue eyes seemed to not have it's usual feel.

To Dick, it seemed as if his old guardian was a broken man and this upset him greatly.

Being fed up enough on Bruce's actions as his pleas fell on death's ears, the Grayson came up to his desk and slammed his hands on it's edge. "You've gotta pull yourself out of this, Bruce. The Jazzman broke out of Blackgate. He's gone to ground somewhere in Gotham. And you know he'll find a way to get to Gordon."

The man didn't say anything as he placed another document onto the side before working on another one.

Dick clicked his teeth in annoyance. "Okay, have it your way. If you're not going after him, then I will." The acrobat then made his way out of Bruce's office. "You taught me what I know about crime-fighting. But the most important lesson was to never give up. And I'm sure as hell know that _he_ wouldn't give up either."

If he were to look back, Dick would've seen Bruce pause his actions as a small light sparked in his gaze.

In the batcave, Dick finished getting ready to head on out as Robin. He was now a man on a mission to help protect one of the most respective men in all of Gotham.

When he hoped onto his motorcycle, Robin was about to start up it's engine when he felt a firm hand placed on his shoulder. Looking back, he saw Bruce was in his Batman attire with a narrowed glance.

"No, Dick. This is my hunt. My responsibility." Was all the Dark Knight said as he made his way towards the batmobile.

From his spot in the batcave, the costumed Grayson smiled. 

_**-Gotham General Hospital-**_

Inside of Gordon's hospital room, Barbara was occasionally looking over her father's unconscious body before her amethyst eyes went back to the copy of Loveless in her hands. It was a great novel she read up to the upteenth time. It's possibly one of the best novels to read to distract her current predicament.

 _Act III_

 _My friend, do you fly away now?_

 _To a world that abhors you and I?_

 _All that awaits you is a somber morrow_

 _No matter where the winds may blow_

 _My friend, your desire_

 _Is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess_

 _Even if the morrow is barren of promises_

 _Nothing shall forestall my return_

Barbara sighed as she bookmarked the section before closing it up. 'Why hasn't Batman at least come back and visited dad after that one time? They've been friends for years.' She thought with a frown.

For twelve or thirteen years now, they have worked together through the thick and thin. Though it didn't start that way as her father tried to bring in Batman a good number of times for his vigilante acts. But as time went on, the Detective James Gordon started to trust the Bat in his actions as he knew the city desperately needed it. And ever since then, this city has lived the next day and the day after for years and years from the brink of it's own self-destruction.

Leaning back, Barbara looked at the ceiling as she thought of her mother, Barbara Sr., and brother, J.J. (Jame's Jr.). What were they doing now? What were their lives like?... Could they possibly know what's happening at this very moment?

These questions rummaged her mind every so often as she wondered what ever happened to them.

Barbara does miss them and wishes she could at least get in contact with them, in some way. It doesn't have to be much on how they could catch up. Hell, they don't have to tell her much on their lives if they want to or not.

All that she wants them to know was how she and her father have been and they've been alright.

Barbara wants to tell them on how well her life is, with her occasional challenges she faces while living here in Gotham. She wants to tell them on some instances she enjoyed quite well. She wants to tell them of her love life…

'Scratch that last one.' She thought. 'I don't have a love life.'

The commissioner's daughter has been so focused in school, work and her hobbies that she hasn't really thought about dating. Even though her father had tried to set up dates for her to go to, the redhead wasn't really interested in those men. They weren't her type at all.

On the other hand, a few people came to mind: Batman, Vanitas and Naruto.

She would've considered taking interest in the Dark Knight. He was literally tall, dark, mysterious and his voice was nicely deep. Literally what a woman would swoon over at times.

Yet there was a few problems with this choice.

For one, Batman was her father's closest friend. It would be extremely creepy, gross and awkward. And a thought crossed her mind that Batman could be like around her father's age for all she knew.

Next was Vanitas. He was a great hero and had that kind of personality that was polar opposite of the Dark Knight. He made jokes and had that kind of way of making you happy, despite the situation at hand. The black/white themed hero was also tall, dark and mysterious and made her think on what was behind his glass domed helm.

And the last was Naruto…

Barbara formed a small smile on what he's done for her. He's gone out of his way to help her with the novel she's writing. He's been kind and patient with her while listening to her these past, dreadful days.

It meant so much to her.

With her not able to get in contact with her mother and brother, she felt so alone. Sure there's a good lot of people here in Gotham that has given her sympathies, whether it's some of her college and work friends to those from the GCPD. Those people from the later were like the family she never had as they helped raise her to the woman she is today.

But take them away, there wasn't anyone else that made her feel safe and happy. All except for the whiskered Uzumaki as she felt his actions were true and meaningful.

His gentle touch, much like the way one would comfort a child… or a lover. It was warm, and so too was the man's smile helped her in these troubling times. Oddly yearning for his-

Barbara shook her head a little as she thought she was reading too much into it. 'Gotta lay off the romance novels for a while.' Though a blush formed on her cheeks. 'But I do admit, he's really sweet and caring… and really handsome.'

She doesn't know why but feels truly happy when he's around her as he gives her the gentle warmth she truly needs in life. And when they met in the grocery store the other day, she wanted to comfort him as well, even though he hid his feelings well.

Rubbing her eyes, she felt a little tired. Barbara got up from her seat and stretched a little. As she yawned, Barbara felt it was rather dry.

"I've gotta get some coffee, dad." She said as she walked towards the door. "I'll be right back."

The moment she left the room, a figure rose from the outside as Jimmy 'The Jazzman' Peake gave out a sinister smile.

'Finally she moves.' Thought the mob-boss. 'Want to make this quick and be on my way to jazzville.'

Jimmy arrived earlier after carefully avoiding the public and police eye. Once at the hospital, he needed to figure out a way to get inside, pop a round into Gordon and skedaddle. Though an opportunity arose when he saw a window washer was going to the supposed area where Gordon's room was place. He quickly knocked him out and used the platform to level himself to the commissioner's room.

Sliding open the window, the Jazzman took careful aim with his gun. "Time to face the music, Gordon."

Just when he was about to fire, Jimmy felt his weapon get knocked out of his hand. As it fell onto the platform, a bullet was shot out and disconnected one of the ropes supporting the level ground. The contraption fell sideways as he barely braced himself from falling off.

Though when his eyes went down, he saw the Batman was hanging on with a glare through his cowl.

Gritting his teeth, the Jazzman tried to stomp on the Bat's hands to make him fall. He thought it worked after one particular attempt, causing the mob-boss to climb on up in order to get into the hospital room. But he soon saw everything moving side to side, back and forth. Looking down, he saw the Bat was trying to get him off.

When Barbara walked back inside of her father's room, she gasped and dropped her coffee when seeing the Jazzman was right outside the window. She rushed over when she saw he was swinging his way to get inside and pulled a cloth barrier over to hopefully block both him and the glass from spreading all over the room.

The attempt failed as the Jazzman wasn't confined once he broke in with him sliding across the room.

The officer outside of the room came in and checked to see what happened. This was in vane as he was quickly knocked out by Jimmy. As the officer fell onto the floor, the Jazzman quickly procured the copper's gun and aimed it at the unconscious police commissioner.

"NO!" Barbara cried out as she went to cover her father.

Everything seemed to go into slow motion at this point as Jimmy was about to pull the trigger. Batman saw this happen and quickly pulled out a batarang. He silently prayed to any higher power out there that his throw is true before tossing it. The throwing weapon soared through the air and quickly lodged itself into the gun barrel just when the Jazzman pulled the trigger.

*BANG*

The gun barrel exploded as the bullet backfired. This destroyed the gun as it's little shrapnels lodged themselves into the mobster.

"FUCK!" Said the mobster. He held his hand, which was surely busted with blood leaking from several places.

The hospital room bursted open as Harvey Bullock came rushing in. Looking to the side, he saw the Jazzman holding his bleeding hand. Quickly pulling out his gun, he slammed the butt of his gun against the man's head as he fell down onto the ground.

"Freeze, Jimmy! You're under arrest!" Said the heavyset detective as he aimed his glock onto the Jazzman.

The day was saved and everything was grand. Now all that needed to happen was-

"Bar… Barbara?"

...That…

The spectacled redhead widened her eyes and turned her head to see her father was waking up. "Dad! You're all right." She said with tears running down her cheeks.

Despite seeing the Bat was here, Bullock smiled in seeing the commissioner was awake before calling in security to escort the Jazzman out of the room.

Gordon moved his head a little and saw a darkened figure in his vision. He instantly recognized him as his old friend. "The bust… went down okay?"

Batman smiled as he answered. "Yes." Gordon tried to get up, but the Bat had to ease him back down. "You've gotta some rest now."

"Gotta… keep fighting." Said the commissioner as he placed his hand onto Batman's arm. "Never… stop. What I… try to live by." Moving it back into place, Gordon coughed to help clear his lungs. "Maybe if I'd been younger… I could've been like you." Looking at his daughter for a brief moment, he trained his eyes back at the vigilante. "...Always wanted to be a hero."

Batman couldn't help but chuckle a little as a smile seemed to be glued onto his face. "You are a hero, Jim. Always have, always will be." 

_**-On the Streets-**_

In what felt like forever, Batman felt his spirit was renewed and with a purpose long thought was lost. He took his time in gliding through the air as he can't keep his smile down. When he landed on a random building, he looked down and rose a brow when he saw a certain teenager at the bus station. Swooping down to investigate, Batman slowly came up to the unsuspecting Wizard.

"Up to your old tricks, I see." Said the Bat, thus startling the teenager as he jumped in his spot before turning around. The vigilante then saw the teenager had a suitcase on hand. "How about returning that suitcase to its owner and return to the mission, Wizard."

The teenager held up his hand. "Hey, man, I am the owner." Bringing it down, he looked at the Bat as he sighed. "I… was kind of hoping I'd run into you." Batman rose a brow, causing Wizard to explain. "Look, I'd been in places like where you left me. Heard the rap, wasn't impressed." Looking away slightly, the teenager scratched his head. "But this time it made sense. Maybe I was ready to hear it and… made me think things differently."

"What do you mean?"

Wizard sighed. "I admit I never really liked you vigilantes, or at least some of the concept on the idea. Taking the law into your own hands to bring justice onto others blah blah blah. People have grown too used to you, in particular, as they think you'll be everywhere and save them." He shook his head. "If their hopes are too high up, it would be really hard when things come crashing down when they don't get saved."

Both the teenager and hero heard the bus horn go out, signalizing it was going to depart soon.

"Look, Bats, I had this whole speech prepared for and whatever, but I'm gonna miss my bus. I'm heading back home and I guess I kind of owe it to you. I bet you hear this all the time, but you saved my life and got me to rethink my life. It's time for me to go back home and restart my life."

Rushing towards the bus, Wizard briefly looked back and waved at the hero with said man returning the action.

When the bus departed from the scene, Batman heard a voice from behind him. "Seems your back on your feet again, Bats."

The hero didn't have to look over to see it was his friend standing not far away from him. "It seems so, Vanitas."

"Heard of what happened at the hospital and I'm glad you were able to save Gordon in time."

"Thanks." Walking away from the area, Batman asked a question. "Though where were you?"

"Picking up the slack you left behind on your brooding time." Was the response. "What? You thought there weren't other crimes going on in this city when you were gone?"

The Dark Knight rolled his eyes. "So what are you gonna do now?"

"Gonna head over and check on Gordon and Barbara before heading home." Said the helmeted hero. "It's been a long evening and time for me to punch out for the day." He formed his windlance and slowly took off into the air. "Have fun patrolling, Batsy."

The Dark Knight looked at his departing friend and shook his head. Pulling out his grappling gun, he fired at a nearby building before being lifted up into the air. Once high enough, he opened up his cape and gliding through the air to see what justice must be done to his city, his home.

For it is time for him to be apart of the Night once more. 

_**-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **I liked this episode a lot as it was a really deep character development in Bruce. Him conflicting on staying as Batman or hanging up the mantle once and for all. Sure it did go on each points on the argument that even with all the good he does, there are still those that are hurt regardless on his actions. It's just an ongoing war with countless battles. Many will be lost and others won.**

 **I also thought on using this episode as I felt I haven't been focusing on Bruce/Batman all that often. So needed to do some more screen time for him while doing some small focuses on other characters. Even doing some good arguments between Dick and Bruce as I honestly haven't seen much of this asides from the episode Robin's Reckoning and I had already mentioned this in a previous chapter. Asides from that, the times when we really see them argue was in the New Batman Animated Adventures as Dick became Nightwing. So yeah, needed to do some chapters that would have some good arguments between the two to help cause more tension in the pair.**

 **...Progress on finding a new job is slow and I hope to get one soon. Until then, need some more possible donations on pa-tre-on as I didn't get much at all. Sorry on that. But I still appreciate the two people who did for their small, yet generous offers.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	51. A Terrifying Night

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 47: A Terrifying Night**

It was a dark night in Gotham as people and children were out and about on the streets. Most were having a jolly good time while others weren't all that into it. With many residents dressed for the big night while others stayed in their usual attire.

You may wonder why it's like this. Well to simply put it, it's Halloween!

...Well it's technically the day before, but it's still Halloween!

Children were out going door to door in order to acquire sweets and treats while some guardians stay with them to keep them safe, especially in this city. Other Gothamites were going to parties to live up the night and possibly have some _extra_ fun afterwards. And everything else is just making the city much more _interesting_ as time passes by.

In one particular area of Gotham, a pair of children were walking up towards a mansion. One was dressed up as an alien while his friend was a pirate.

"Man, this place gives me the creeps." Spoke the 'alien'.

"Let's just knock on the door and see if they got candy." Said the 'pirate'. "If they do or don't have any, we'll bolt on outta here."

The alien child nodded before reaching forward and banging on the door as he couldn't see a doorbell all that well. There was no response for several moments. The pair thought no one was home and was about to leave when the entrance quickly opened up to reveal a pair of old women that were apparently twins.

"Uh… Trick or treat?" Said the boys.

One of the old twins smirked as she and her sister looked down upon them. "My, what wonderful costumes, eh Virginia."

"Yes, they certainly are, Georgia." Said the second twin. Looking at the boys, a mocked question came to mind as she spoke to them. "But what are you doing trick-or-treating?"

The alien boy rose a brow. "Uh, hello. It's Halloween."

"You know, 'go door to door for treats'." Spoke the pirate child.

It was Virginia who spoke next. "Ah, but it's not just any Halloween."

"It isn't?" Said the alien.

"Tonight is Ghoul's night." Georgia said as she slowly rose her hand towards the distance. "Do you two see the swampland over yonder?"

The boys turned around and off into the distance, they indeed saw the swamp in question and some distance away lied what remains were left of the oil tanker destroyed months ago in the whole Pyg and Toad fiasco.

"There, the swampland. Otherwise known as Slaughter Swamp is the birthplace to the Gotham Ghoul." Spoke Virginia. "It was 150 years ago on this very night, in that very same swamp that a monster rose from the muck and slouched toward Gotham. All in order to wreak havoc against the very architects of our fair city."

Georgia picked up where her sister left off. "But the lives of the Gotham Ghoul ruined that fateful night weren't enough to satisfy him. The creature vowed to haunt the descendants of his victims by returning on the darkest of All Hallows Eves. And it's on this very night, during a total lunar eclipse, that the Gotham Ghoul will rise again."

The two children were really creeped out when hearing this as they visibly shook. "How do you two know so much about this?" Said the pirate.

"Yeah, I never really heard of this before."

The sisters smirked a creepy smile as they looked down upon the two boys. "It's because we are the granddaughters of Emmett Bolton, one of the Ghoul's victims." Said Virginia.

"And it could come for us at any moment." Spoke the other twin. She suddenly gasped and looked away. "OH MY GOD, IT'S ALREADY HERE!"

The two boys widened their eyes, screamed and bolted out of the grounds as they didn't look back to see the two elderly twins cackling like stereotypical witches.

Seeing them leave their property, the sisters closed their mansion's entrance and walked further deep into their home. They enjoyed their joke towards the younglings as it would surely give them quite the fright tonight.

The elderly twins eventually came in front of a portrait of their grandfather, Emmett Bolton. They picked up their cups of tea and hoisted them up towards the portrait for a little celebratory toast.

"To grandfather Emmett, who left us so much money and wonderful stories to scare children with." Spoke Virginia as both she and Georgia took sips of their prepared drinks. Once done, they soon crackle once more for their small humor.

Though this all came to a sudden stop when they heard a loud, inhuman groan in their very home. The elderly twins widened their eyes and looked over their residence. They heard the groan again and eventually found the source of it all, causing them to drop their teacups onto the floor.

The being walked towards them as the mansion shook with each heavy step. Coming closer to what light there was in the home, it's large and intimidating figure was shown as it glared at them. With it's rotting pale white skin and black clothing, it snarled as the Bolton sisters screamed. 

"Destroy!" Spoke the creature as he slowly came towards them. "Grundy must destroy!"

 _ **-Earlier this Evening, Gordon Residence-**_

Stepping out of the shower, Barbara Gordon started drying her wet body before wrapping a bathrobe around it.

'God, I needed that.' She thought as she pulled a towel from the rack to start drying her hair. 'Harley's training today was brutal.'

It's been at least a week since Barbara started taking the gymnastic regimen from the bubbly blonde. It was really good and enjoyable to truly know her strengths and weaknesses. Yet Harley's lessons kicked her ass hard.

For her lessons, they've all taken place in her very home as one of the rooms was large enough for training and exercise. She mostly took possession of the area as it held all of her gymnastic equipment. Sure there's also a lot of weights that her father uses for his exercises, but Barbara had to start using them a whole lot more as to Harley's sessions.

Her father was confused on the first day as to why Harley suddenly came on by, but he understood his daughter's reasonings. Of course there was the tidbit pertaining to payment. Both James and Barbara thought they had to fork over cash, but Harley asked to just get paid by dinners…

Something she apparently got used to when it pertained to her neighbor and the Gordons were fine with that option. They honestly admit things got rather boring at times when it was just them, so another person joining was fine enough.

Getting back into things, Harley was _indeed_ a taskmaster when pushing Barbara to the limit. This involved by breaking and rebuilding her back up on some past sessions. Even on one session, her own father seemingly laughed on her own misery.

If it wasn't for him having to heal back up from his injuries on the Jazzman incident then Barbara would have hit him for that.

Stepping out of the bathroom, once getting her contact lenses on, she saw her father getting dressed in his usual attire. "Are you going to work, dad?"

"Yes, Barbara." He simply said as he started tying his tie. "I've rested long enough and I need to go into the precinct today."

"Do you have to? Can't you just stay at home for another day at least."

"Nope." James said with a small smirk. "Being cooped up here for so long, asides from the small walks outside, was driving me nuts. And doing what paperwork I could here can only go so far."

Barbara sighed as she continued to dry her hair. "Yeah, figured as much."

"Not only that, but it's Halloween. And you know how some of the past ones were like, right?"

The redhead nodded as Halloween in this city oddly makes the crazies go a bit more rampant. So it's all hands on deck on this day for the GCPD, despite tomorrow actually being the actual holiday as it's sometimes not celebrated on Sundays.

Barbara never really argued about it, but its something she had to deal with.

"So are you going to be getting help from Vanitas and the Dynamic Duo tonight?"

"Somewhat." He vaguely answered. He looked from the nearby mirror and saw her confused expression. "It's just going to be Vanitas and Robin helping out Gotham tonight."

"Why not Batman?"

"He came by and visited to check up on me about four days ago. On the visit, he told me he was leaving town to track down the man behind the Rockridge heist." Gordon saw his daughter nod from the reflection in understanding. "And as far as I know, he hasn't gotten back yet." Turning around, he gave her a questioned look. "Why'd you ask?"

"Oh, no reason." Was her response.

Seeing his daughter once more, he gave her a raised look on her lack of clothing asides from her bathrobe. "That's not what your wearing to Cindy's party, is it?"

Barbara blinked before looking down and quickly looking back at her father. "First off, dad, her name's Sandy. Second it's a _costume_ party. I haven't put mine on yet since I just got out of the shower from Harley's workout session earlier."

James chuckled in slight embarrassment. He finished getting dressed while double checking what he needed to bring tonight. Taser, his issued glock, spare magazines, spare handcuffs, and his prescription from the hospital.

As he went to grab his trenchcoat, Gordon heard his daughter speak up. "Dad?"

"Yes, sweety?" He asked as he saw her sitting on the couch.

"Do… Do you ever wonder what it's like… to be Batman? Or even Vanitas?"

The police commissioner took the bait by asking his own in hopes of explaining her thoughts. "What do you mean?"

In a dream-like state, Barbara sighed. "You know, leaping from rooftops… chasing criminals… dodging gunfire…" He looked at her and oddly saw odd stars in her amethyst eyes. "It just sounds so… exciting."

Gordon he scratched his head. Sitting down onto the couch, he looked straight into her eyes. "There's something you have to understand, Barbara. Every night a lot of men, with a lot of guns, try to kill them. _Every night._ And all it takes is _one_ mistake… _one_ lucky shot… and it's _over_." Her father sighed. "Look, I admire them for what they do. But I don't _envy_ them. _Nobody_ should."

Barbara nodded when hearing this, which got him to smile a little. "Well, enough lecturing for one night for you. "Standing up from the couch, he walked towards the door. "Have fun at the party tonight and don't do anything too crazy."

The redhead gave him a wave before seeing her father exit their home. Once he was gone, Barbara went over to her bedroom and pulled out a box from underneath her bed. Placing it on her covers, she opened it up right next to her stuffed teddy bear.

"Good thing I didn't show him the costume. Right, Freddy?" She said with a smile.

 _ **-Moulton Towers-**_

Walking up to the front entrance, Barbara double checked her attire for the upteenth time before heading inside. 'I wonder if anyone will recognize me in this.' She thought. 'They probably won't unless I introduce myself.'

What the commissioner's daughter was currently wearing is a Batman costume… Or rather a Batwoman costume for women wanting to dress up as the Caped Crusader.

The only thing similar to the Batman's regular attire on her costume was the primary grey color on the body. It was in a dark blue color for the cowl, cape, knee high boots and elbow length gloves. The eye holes for the mask were plain white which were fully functional. The only other color of the costume was yellow as it was towards the utility belt and the Bat symbol on the chest.

(It's the first rendition of Barbara's Batgirl outfit from the Batman: The Animated Series. Though the white eyehole addition felt necessary.)

It was rather odd for Barbara wearing this as it was practically the last thing she expected to wear. She had originally thought on wearing either an officer outfit inspired from Star Trek or Princess Leia's outfit from A New Hope. There was even an idea of her dressing up as a police officer, but she felt it would be rather insulting into wearing that without being inducted into the police department.

But her ideas changed when Batman saved her father from getting killed by the Jazzman. She felt rather weak and wanted to feel strong and confident. And the closest she could maybe feel that way was dressing up as the infamous Gothamite hero, even it was for one night.

It was rather last minute on the change, but Barbara didn't mind at all. Though she did wish she got the costume sooner so it would've been closer to the actual Batman color-scheme of it being black and grey. Instead she got this more 'colorful' one as the other ones were sold out. Not only that, but it felt odd to keep her hair confined underneath the cowl.

'Now what was that floor again.' Barbara thought as she went towards the elevator in order to get to the party.

From the outside of the hotel, a pair of figures walked closer and closer to the Towers.

"Well ain't this convenient." Came a female chuckle. "A costume party at here of all places."

" _ **I**_ _a_ _ **g**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **, S**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **. I**_ _t_ _ **'s**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **p**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _f_ _ **e**_ _c_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _p_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **s**_ _u_ _ **p."**_

Selina Kyle smirked as they sneaked their way into the building. "We'll blend in, sneak into the Vanocouver residence and nab the information before hightailing outta there." The thief then clicked her teeth. "Though I wish we could nab the Surh Diamond, which is supposed to be displayed in this building for another few days."

" _ **W**_ _e_ _ **'r**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **i**_ _a_ _ **m**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **. W**_ _e_ _ **'r**_ _e_ _ **j**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **V**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **C**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _p_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _u_ _ **c**_ _t_ _ **i**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **y'**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _l_ _ **d-**_ _g_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _s_ _ **w**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _c_ _ **h**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _d_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **m**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _c_ _ **h."**_ The woman snarled as the plants around her stated to shake.

"Easy there, Red, easy." Said the costumed ravenette as she tried to calm her girlfriend down. "We don't want to give ourselves away and get in trouble now, don't we? Wouldn't want to be separated from Naruto, right?" The results slowly showed as Selina saw the plants settle down. "Better?"

" _ **L**_ _e_ _ **t'**_ _s_ _ **j**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **g**_ _o_ _ **."**_

Selina rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Pam."

 _ **-With Barbara-**_

'Man… I didn't think it would be this packed.' Thought the costumed redhead. 'Sandy really went a bit too far, I think.' Passing by a girl wearing an astronaut outfit and a few people in clown attires, the Commissioner's daughter suddenly felt claustrophobic all of a sudden. 'I wouldn't be surprised if she invited half of the college campus was invited here.'

Barbara tried to pick up some conversations with some random party goers, but it was rather hard with how loud the floor was. People tried to talk over others while some people started to get a little too extreme. If she knew it was going to be like this, then the redhead wouldn't have bothered to come here.

Yet here she is and she'll just stay for a little while to at least say she at least attended the party for a time.

'Question is now, where the hell is Sandy?' She thought before coming across a girl dressed up as a cowgirl as she was chatting with someone dressed as a ninja. "Excuse me!"

"Yeah?!"

"Have you seen Sandy?"

"Sandy?" Questioned the cowgirl. She scratched her head before turning to the 'ninja'. "Have you seen Sandy, Dave?"

"Yeah, I think I did." He pointed to the far side of the room. "I think I saw her go down that hallway!"

Barbara said her 'thanks' before carefully navigating her way through the party room. It was a little difficult with how cramped it was getting. But the costumed redhead eventually made it before she looked at the varied doors in the vacant corridor.

"Now where'd you go, Sandy?" She muttered before a door opened up and she saw a security guard step on out. "Uh, excuse me?"

The guard turned his attention towards her and quickly got angry at her. "Hey! You ain't supposed to be back here!"

"Sorry, but I'm looking for my friend…"

"I don't care, missy! Nobody is allowed back here for the party's duration!"

Barbara held up her hands and stepped back with a nervous chuckle. "Sorry, sir. I'll head back now." She turned back and scratched her clothed head. 'Sheesh, he didn't have to try and bite my head off. So if Sandy's not there, then whe-'

"Hey! You girls ain't supposed to be here!" Cried out the guard.

"Well crap." Said a woman's voice. "Seems we have one that was more attentive."

" _ **A**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _w_ _ **e**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t."**_ Said a second one.

"Hey! What are you-"

Barbara looked back and saw a series of vines wrap around the one guard and quickly dragged him inside of the one room. The costumed redhead widened her eyes and quickly reacted. Heading towards the one door, she saw Catwoman and another woman described as that plant woman that was in the news last month.

But looking off to the far side of the room, the college student saw her friend Sandy Vanocouver tied up in the corner of the room. The captive was a bushy blonde haired woman as she wore a princess attire.

Something inside of the costumed headhead snapped as she yelled. "What have you done to her?!"

" _ **W**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **?**_ _H_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **?"**_ Said the plant woman. _**"W**_ _e_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **k**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **."**_

"Liar!" Acting rash, Barbara leapt forward and tried to strike the Catwoman with an overhead kick. The costumed thief ducked from the attack before having to block a following kick.

"Hey! Watch it!" Catwoman growled as she pulled the costumed college student's leg. "We didn't-"

She was interrupted when Barbara suddenly slammed her head against hers and the impact caused her to fall and slam her head against the door frame.

"NO!" Cried out the masked plant lady as she shoved Barbara away. _**"O**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **y!"**_ She then checked on her friend once she crouched down. _**"**_ _S_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **a,**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **?"**_

The dark haired thief had a dazed look on her face. "Yeeeaah, Ivy… I'm juuust gonna liiie here for a bit… Didn't know… she had a thick… noggin."

Barbara heard the now identified 'Ivy' let out a sigh of relief before quickly looking towards her. _**"Y**_ _o_ _ **u."**_ She growled. _**"**_ _Y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **'l**_ _l_ _ **p**_ _a_ _ **y**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **."**_

Quickly looking around for a weapon, the college student quickly grabbed the nearest blunt object she could find. "Back away. I've got a…" Barbara then noticed what she exactly grabbed. "A potted plant… And I'm not afraid to use it!"

Ivy widened her eyes before growling once more. _**"Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _w_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **l**_ _d_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _m_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **b**_ _y_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **k**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _f_ _ **e**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _c_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _p_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **? W**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **k**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **m**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u?!"**_

Barbara was at a loss on what the plant woman was talking about. Acting quickly, she tossed the plant out of the room. "Here! Catch!"

The college student saw Ivy yell out 'NO!' as she dashed past her with a following crash in the hallway. Barbara soon closed the door behind her and quickly locked it. The entrance was started to bang several times as the costumed redhead rushed over to Sandy's side.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked as she started undoing the gag placed on her.

Free of the gag, Sandy spoke as the costumed Barbara got her out of rope. "Yeah, I think so."

"That's good."

"But who are you?"

Barbara hesitated as she wondered how her friend didn't recognize her voice. But then remembered her current attire as it covered all but her lower face in terms of physical description. "I'm… Uhh… I'm Batgirl." She said before mentally facepalming herself on the 'girl' portion. 'Why'd I say that? I'm a woman, not girl.'

"Batgirl?"

"I'm… Uhh… new." The now named 'Batgirl' lied. "Batman couldn't make it." She saw Sandy nod before the door started to give way with loud growls coming from the outside. "Come on. We need to get out of here."

The costumed princess nodded as they ran out of the room through a connecting doorway. "I can't believe we made it!"

"Not yet, we aint."

"True, but you were amazing back there!"

'Batgirl' looked back with a hidden, raised brow. "You think so?"

Sandy gave her a beaming smile. "Are you kidding? You just beat up Catwoman and that Ivy woman who made her debut last month."

This got Barbara to smile. "I guess I did, didn't I? Well we'll be sure to get you away from them as they captured you, ma'am." She said before a thought came to mind. 'You know, this isn't as tough as I thought it'd be!'

"But… they weren't the ones who did that."

This got Barbara to skid to a stop as they were about to round a corner in the corridor. "Excuse me?"

Sandy was about to answer when a security guard showed up in front of them. Barbara approached the man and was going to talk to him when something unexpected happen.

*BAM*

Sandy shreked when seeing her impromptu savior getting punched into a nearby wall, fell down onto the ground and went unconscious. She tried to help 'Batgirl' but she was grabbed from behind by yet another security guard. Wasn't long before the pair were dragged away with Sandy fighting to get free with 'Batgirl' placed in a fireman carry by one of the guards.

 _ **-Later-**_

Barbara felt extremely groggy as she felt her head was throbbing as her ears picked up the loud sounds of drilling to make her headache worse. She tried to nurse it, but felt her arm was restrained. Shaking her head, the costumed college student then saw she was tied down onto a table. And it wasn't just her as Sandy, Catwoman and Ivy was in a similar position.

"Well… Well… Well…" Came a gravelly voice from a dark area of the room. "Seems the party is now in full attendance."

'Who said that?' Barbara thought as her eyes roamed around the room. She saw the security guards were keeping watch around the room while one of them was drilling into the ceiling. It wasn't long before she saw a man who clearly stood out from the rest.

Sure the man wore the garb of a security guard, but it was the headwear he had on. It was comprised of a raggedy cloth with bad stitchings at every other part. Towards the jaw lied a stitched-in air respirator and around the man's neck lied a noose.

This was Jonathan Crane, the infamous Scarecrow.

The revealed Scarecrow walked towards the captive Catwoman as he stared down at her. "It's quite interesting seeing you here." He traced his fingers onto the table as his didgests were all too close to her head. "Are you here trying to butt into my operation, Miss Kyle?" He then looked towards the bound plant woman. "And I'm wondering who you are, my dear, while helping out our illustrious cat burglar."

"What the hell are you talking about?" 'Batgirl' said from her part of the room.

Crane looked towards the bound woman and spoke. "Why I'm talking about a double job, if you will." The fear doctor then looked at the ceiling. "Above us is the Surh Diamond, a rare and precious gem that is worth millions. And in the first time since it's discovery, it has been let out of its native country." He then looked back down as he smirked underneath his raggedy mask. "The security on _that_ floor is top-notch, yet the security on _this_ floor isn't." Crane walked around his captives as he continued. "So I had the security replaced with my own to make things much more easier."

"But Commissioner Gordon personally guaranteed the safety of that diamond!" Barbara yelled out.

The Scarecrow chuckled darkly. "Yes, I know. A little sure of himself, don't you think?"

From her place in the room, Catwoman clicked her tongue in thought. 'Great~ Seems I'm not the only one that eyed that precious hunk of rock.' The thief then realized something from what Crane said earlier. "Wait. You said a double job. What else are you doing exactly?"

"Why miss Vanocouver over there." Was all he said as he walked towards the now shaking blonde. "Her father is worth millions and taking her is too good to pass up." Aiming his arm towards her, a burst of green mist went straight into Sandy's face. She coughed several times before the costumed princess started screaming in fright. "With the safety of his daughter, his heir, he'll fork over as much money as I desire. Not only to make a good amount on the side, but to help fund my research."

Soon a loud bang was heard from up above. Scarecrow looked up and saw his hired goon was able to penetrate the upper floor. The fear doctor smirked under his mask as he saw another of his 'guards' climbing up the ladder. After a minute, the same man climbed back down with the diamond in his grasp.

"Excellent." Crane said with sadistic glee. Turning his attention to Sandy, he spoke. "Now I fear it's time for us to depart with both prizes." He then pulled out a smoke bomb from his pocket and slammed it onto the ground as a green gas slowly filled the room. "Now some insurance for you lot to not follow us that easily."

Scarecrow and his goons then departed from the room with the screaming Vanocouver heiress in tow as the room was slowly filling up with the infamous Fear Toxin.

'Damnit, I need to save Sandy.' Barbara thought. Turning her attention to Ivy, an idea came to mind. "Do you really control plants, Ivy?"

The champion of the Green looked at the 'Batgirl' with a raised brow. _**"Y**_ _e_ _ **s,**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _y_ _ **?"**_

"Can you get us out of these ropes?" Barbara asked before seeing Ivy glare at her. "Look, I'm sorry I jumped into conclusions earlier. I shouldn't have done that. But if we don't get out of here in time, then we'll get affected by Scarecrow's gas and he'll get away."

Ivy didn't say anything as she focused her powers around her in order to connect with any nearby plants. Luckily for them, there was some outside of the nearby window. The vines broke through and quickly went towards their bindings in order to free them. Barbara was the first one that was able to get freed as she quickly picked up a left behind tool on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Asked the cat burglar.

"Sounding the alarm." Was all Barbara said as she tossed the tool through the hole above.

Her aim held true as the item broke the glass which held the diamond earlier, thus setting off the alarms.

In the hallway, Scarecrow and his goons heard the alarms blare to life as many of its occupants were now going into a little frenzy. "DAMMIT! THE ALARM!" He growled as he pointed towards the elevator. "Quickly! In there!"

The hired goons piled in and awaited for their boss to join them. Yet things changed when he snatched both the diamond and the Vanocouver heiress from their grasps. Before they could properly respond, Crane tossed in several Fear Toxin smoke bombs as the doors closed and them screaming their heads off.

'Good. Now they'll distract the real guards with the expanding Fear Toxin while I get away.' Thought the fear doctor as he carried the heiress upstairs. He rushed as fast as he could with the added weight, but once making it to the roof he saw his sight of escape via helicopter.

Just when he was about to reach it, Crane was kicked to the side as he dropped both Sandy and the diamond from his grasp. Looking towards the side, he growled when seeing the 'Batgirl' landing on the ground as she soon picked up the diamond.

"You'll pay for that, girl." He said before pulling out a small metal canister from his pants pocket. Slamming it on the ground, Crane quickly twisted the nob before kicking away as the Fear Gas quickly went into the air.

 _ **-Insert Ride or Die by TheUnder-**_

Barbara coughed several times before her vision seemed to change around her. The sky seemed to go into a fiery orange color as the buildings around her started to warp into a truly dark tone. It was as if Halloween truly took over the city.

"It's time to exp _ **LoRe your FEARS!"**_ Said the Scarecrow as his voice started to change. _**"Be hoNoRed TO bE the FIrST to tESt my new FORmula."**_

When the smoke cleared, Barbara shivered in a building fright when seeing Crane truly look like his namesake. The man seemed to grow taller as he appeared more of a gaunty man with his skin literally showing his bones. With what openings there were in his flesh were glowing orange light with feathers sticking out every other place. His mask had a more sinister feel to it as the same orange light pierced through the openings. An in his hand was a giant hook with a chain connected at its end.

Trying to overcome her fear, Barbara tried to taunt the criminal. "Yo-You are a bad doctor, Crane. You don't wait for people's consent."

Crane merely chuckled. _**"EvEryONE Must fACe tHeir feARs sOONer or LATer."**_

The masked Gordon growled. "You're disgusting."

" _ **I've HEARD woRSe."**_

Barbara was the first to move first as she rushed forward. Seeing this happen, Crane moved to the side before swiping his chained hook weapon at her. She tried to evade, but the weapon was too quick for her as she got knocked back.

Barbara tried to recover quickly, but Scarecrow started laying it on her as his flurry of kicks and punches delt serious damage on her. The college student did as much evading as she could, but she could only do so much before taking more damage. Though she was successful in a few kicks and punches here and there, but Barbara was still overwhelmed.

As 'Batgirl' fell down, Scarecrow stalked forward with a menacing chuckle. _**"My TOXin aFFeCTs you."**_ He taunted. _**"You're QUITE the frAUd, aren't yOu little BAT?"**_ He suddenly kicked her, causing Barbara to skid across the rooftop before slamming against the short wall. _**"You're nOt rEALly a Bat at all. MeRelY a PREtender."**_ Crane reached down and plucked the Surh Diamond from her before walking towards the unconscious heiress. _**"If you were trained BY the real deal, ThEn you would have HELD your own. But I FEAR you hAVe failed."**_

Barbara tried to get back up and say something, but someone spoke up. _**"O**_ _h_ _ **~ I**_ _w_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **l**_ _d_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **s**_ _a_ _ **y**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t."**_

Before the fear doctor could properly react, a series of vines smacked him away as the diamond fell from his grasp. _**"WHO DARES?!"**_ He yelled out.

" _ **I**_ _d_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e."**_

Crane looked off to the side of the building as Ivy came into view as vines helped elevate her. Once at the roof, the masked plant woman stepped off her plant platform as she glared at the gaunty looking man.

Seeing the returned captive, the fear doctor pulled out smoke bombs and tossed them at Ivy's feet. The gas surrounded her, which caused her to fan it away from her once she coughed several times. As the Fear Gas blended with the air, Ivy merely rose a brow. _**"A**_ _m_ _ **I**_ _s_ _ **u**_ _p_ _ **p**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _b_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _f_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **k**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **?"**_

" _ **Hmm~ INterestING~ My tOXin doESn't fully aFFect you."**_ Mused the fear doctor. _**"I can't wait to PEak inSIDe your head TO find out why."**_

" _ **T**_ _e_ _ **m**_ _p_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **, b**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _n_ _ **o."**_

Scarecrow spun his chain hook at the new arrival in which she quickly used several vines to block the attack. Ivy dashed forward and ducked from a punch he threw at her. When she got close, the Green champion delivered a series of punches towards his chest before pushing him back across the roof. Crane tried to recover, but a broken fan crashed into him.

The Scarecrow then saw his opponent rushing towards him, which caused him to spin his chain hook around as a form of defense. The act was successful as Ivy was knocked back a bit, yet she recovered by somersaulting on the rooftop. The masked plant woman then bounced back with compacted vines striking his front.

Crane gasped for air as he was sent flying into the neighboring tower and stumbled across it's rooftop. Ivy then used her plants as a strong springboard to get onto the other rooftop before performing a recovery roll.

When he tried to get back up, the Scarecrow hotly glared at her. _**"WHY iSN't my GAS WOrKing like IT'S inTENded?!"**_

" _ **I**_ _t_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **s**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _g_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **w**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _k_ _ **w**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **w**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **p**_ _l_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _s_ _ **, C**_ _r_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **e."**_ Came her taunt.

The fear doctor growled as he grasped a large amount of fear gas bombs from his person. Sending his opponent a devilish grin, he slammed them onto the floor. With the amount of Fear Gas now forming in the area, the smoke covered not only the one rooftop, but the neighboring ones.

Barbara and Ivy coughed from their respective spots before they seemed to hallucinate by seeing Crane growing into monstrous heights. The costumed redhead shivered at the sight while Ivy seemed to hold her ground with a narrowed glance. Before she could react, the weapon of the enlarged Scarecrow quickly struck her before he seemed to swing her all over the place. The plant woman's body slammed against the current rooftop several times before being sent flying back to the neighboring one.

The 'Batgirl' saw Ivy skid across the rooftop before coming to a stop at her position. Barbara then rushed towards her side. "Are you okay?"

" _ **Y**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _h_ _ **, I'**_ _m_ _ **f**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **."**_ Ivy groaned out.

They then saw Scarecrow appear near them as he chuckled darkly at his opponent's position on the rooftop. _**"Had eNOuGh?"**_

The plant woman got up before forming several vines around her arms. _**"N**_ _o_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _c_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **."**_

Crane's reaction time was rather slow at this point as Ivy lashed her vines at him as he was struck several times across his body. The fear doctor flailed on the onslaught and tried to recover. Yet her onslaught wasn't done as Ivy leaped into the air and wrapped her legs around his neck before punching his noggin a good number of times. Once done, she whipped her hips around in order to toss Crane away as he slammed against the bricked rooftop entrance.

As the Scarecrow tried to get back up, his legs were harshly tugged before he was dragged across the rooftop's pavement. He was then slammed against its surface several times before he was lifted up into the air. When his glowing eyes focused once more, he didn't know if his Fear Toxin was leaking into his mask…

" _ **T**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _i_ _ **g**_ _h_ _ **t**_ _s_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **c**_ _k_ _ **, d**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **y~"**_

Because Crane saw a giant venus fly trap open as he was soon tossed inside its mouth.

" _ **GAAAAAHHHH!"**_

The fear doctor was chomped several times before he was spat onto the ground as he was now unconscious and defeated.

" _ **G**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _d_ _ **g**_ _i_ _ **r**_ _l_ _ **~"**_ Ivy cooed as she patted the enlarge plant's mouth. _**"N**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _r_ _ **u**_ _n_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **t.**_ _I_ _ **'l**_ _l_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **g**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u'**_ _r_ _ **e f**_ _l_ _ **ie**_ _s_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **r."**_

From her place, Barbara widened her eyes in amazement on how Ivy handled the situation and laid the beatdown on Crane. She then saw the giant venus fly trap disappear from the rooftop as she looked off it's edge to see receding into the ground from the street below. Looking back onto the rooftop, the 'Batgirl' saw her vision to go back to normal as Crane went back into his humanistic appearance with the surroundings soon following after.

" _ **A**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **o**_ _k_ _ **a**_ _y_ _ **?"**_ Barbara blinked a few times before she nodded at Ivy's question. She tried to stand up, but held her side as it felt a bit in pain. _**"L**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _k_ _ **e**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t."**_ Ivy soon dropped several seeds onto the ground before she waved her hand. The costumed redhead soon saw flowers burst from the ground before they puffed spores into her face. Barbara coughed several times before she suddenly felt her injuries were slowly fading away.

" _B_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **r?"**_

"...Yeah, I think. Thank you."

Ivy nodded as she used her vines to wrap up the former college professor's prone body. Once done, she walked over to the diamond and picked it up. This was all before she walked towards the roof's edge as a plant platform rose up.

"What are you doing?" Barbara asked.

" _ **T**_ _a_ _ **k**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **g**_ _r_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **f**_ _l_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **p**_ _o_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **c**_ _e_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _k_ _ **e**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **m."**_ Was all Ivy's response was before she eventually disappeared from view and from Barbara's slight protest on leaving.

The 'Batgirl' soon sighed before hearing a groan from one part of the rooftop. Barbara soon realized Sandy was waking up, causing her to rush to her side. "Ma'am, are you alright?"

The costumed heiress groaned. "What happened?"

"You were taken, but you're safe now." Sandy briefly nodded before drifting off. The costumed redhead lowered her head with a sigh. 'I should probably get her back to her room.' She thought before carefully picking Sandy up and getting to her floor as fast as possible.

It took several minutes for Barbara to get back and do just that. She dropped Sandy onto her bed before noticing some rips and tears onto her costume from the earlier fight. 'I need to get changed.' Barbara thought as she went towards the fire escape. 'I don't want to get questioned when the police arrive.'

When Barbara returned to the scene ten or so minutes later, she was greeted with the sight of several GCPD personnel questioning the party guests. Her eyes wandered as she then saw her father talking to one of the patrons. "DAD!"

Hearing his daughter's voice got Gordon to snap his neck around to see her coming towards her. "Barbara?!" He said before taking her into a firm hug. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, dad. I wasn't anywhere near the action." She lied. "Practically spent the whole time eating munchies and I was about to leave when the alarms went off."

He nodded before seeing her casual attire. "What happened to your costume?"

"Oh, that? Someone spilled punch over it earlier." Barbara said for her little excuse. "Had to head back to my car and change before coming back."

"Well I'm glad you did so before the ruckus earlier?"

"Why's that?" She said in order to play along.

"Jonathan Crane attempted both a robbery on the Surh Diamond and a kidnapping on your friend Sandy." Gordon said, getting a 'surprised gasp from his daughter. "Luckily some woman going by Poison Ivy was able to stop both attempts."

What Gordon didn't tell his daughter was that he already knew who Poison Ivy really was. He remembered having to arrest and escorting Pamela Isley to Arkham Asylum earlier this year when she went mental. When the events of 'The Laughing April Fools' went down and the giant zombie looking fellow attacked months ago, Gordon had guessed that it was the same woman that participated to help restore order.

'I'll need to have a chat with Pamela when I get the chance.' Was James' thoughts. 'Both to thank her and to warn her on what it is to be a vigilante.'

And as for Barbara, she had thought about telling her father on what happened earlier, but she didn't want to make him really worried. From briefly fighting Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Scarecrow respectively; all that would make him have an early heart attack. Especially with him still healing from his prior injuries.

So for the time being, this will just be her secret and she'll laugh about it later on in life. And the same went with her father on his part.

When the father/daughter pair exited the building, they saw Crane getting shoved into the police van with Summer Gleeson trying to have an interview with the masked plant woman. Yet the Gothamite reporter's action failed as the ground underneath Ivy crumbled and plants covered her form to escape from the attempted interrogation.

Both Gordon and his daughter briefly laughed when seeing their reactions before going off to their separate directions for the rest of the evening.

 _ **-Meanwhile, Wayne Manor-**_

At the home of the Wayne family for a good number of generations, varied places were decorated in the holiday spirit. From the carved out pumpkins, hanging cutouts of Halloween imagery, and the dish bowl full of candy placed by the front door. They weren't much in heavily decorating the home, but it was only shown in several places until the start of November.

Coming towards the lobby, Alfred Pennyworth was dressed up as the illustrious and famous detective: Sherlock Holmes.

In his eyes, this was a fun costume he occasionally wore for a good number of years on this holiday. When both he and Bruce were younger, the Wayne butler had dressed up as a clown a few times in order to humor the aging boy. But after that tragic night, Alfred had stopped dressing as that character and went with more mature costumes from novels the Pennyworth enjoyed on reading. From the Time Machine and the Invisible Man, the Wizard of Oz, Moby Dick, the Count of Monte Cristo and of course Sherlock Holmes as fine examples in passing years. Though once the young Dick Grayson came into the household, he went back to dressing as a clown in order to help raise the young lad's spirits on some reminder of his years in the circus.

But that time has long since past as Alfred went back into his costume he enjoyed quite well.

Once checking himself in the lobby mirror, the Wayne butler heard the doorbell ring. It will be quite the occurrence for the evening of answering the door in order to hand out sweets to the Gothamite children.

Coming up to the door, with the the bowl of candy, Alfred opened the door… only to jump back when he saw a grotesk mask right in front of his face.

"GAH!" He cried out in brief fright. The butler did hear a series of laughs soon after as he looked down to see three individuals in costumes.

One was a blonde haired girl dressed as a vampire as she powder her face to make her skin paler than normal. One was hard to describe as the person wore a tattered black cloak with the hood drawn up and underneath said hood was a black nylon mask with red eyes shown through to make the appearance disturbing. And the last as a familiar ashen child as she wore a purple attire with an attached pony's tail on her back while wearing a headpiece with pony ears and a horn on the center.

"Trick or treat!" Cried out the three youngsters as two of the three still chuckled at his small expense. And he saw they carried large bags filled with goodies as proof of their long night of going door to door for treats.

A feminine chuckle came soon after as Alfred looked back up to see the woman who wore the ghoulish mask. Pulling it off her head and placing it into her purse, the butler saw she wore a domino mask underneath to fit with the rest of her current attire.

It was a black and red colored rendition of a harlequin outfit with a white collar and matching cuffs on her wrists. And on the ends of the pig tailed headpiece lied small white puffs. This, of course, oddly complimented her bleached white skin.

"Sorry if I scared you, Alfey Holmes." Said an all too familiar voice. "It's Ghoul's Night, y'know?"

Alfred gave out a sigh before giving her a dry look. "I am well aware, Miss Quinzell."

The now identified Harley gave a cute pout. "Mou~ You found out who I was already? Pfft. Spoilsport."

The butler rolled his eyes as the group of four came through the entrance and got themselves comfortable. "It was quite easy to _deduct_ who you were shortly after you rid yourself of that ghastly mask you wore." Alfred then looked at said item in the costumed Harley's hand. "Though why you decided to wear, I would not know."

"Oh, y'know, getting some laughs when scaring the daylights out of some homeowners." She said, which was backed up by the dark hooded person to nod with a feminine chuckle.

It was then that Naruto rounded the corner into the lobby and saw the group. "Don't tell me you did that all night long, Harley?" He said, getting an enthusiastic nod from her. The Uzumaki groaned a little before looking at the attires of Rachel, Artemis and- "Why are you dressed up like the world's most evil Jawa, Jade?"

"Because I felt like it, Naruto." Was the teenage Crock's answer.

"She at that age that she's doesn't want to go trick or treating, Naruto." Said the costumed psychologist. "But she still wanted candy."

Naruto chuckled as he saw Jade fume a little.

It was then that Dick Grayson arrived in the area as he overheard the conversation. "Oh I remembered when I was like that." He said as he smirked when seeing the 'evil Jawa' costume. "Nice costume, kid."

"Thanks." Jade said before she pulled the hood back and took off the nylon mask to reveal her slightly reddened face. "Man, it was getting hot under there."

"Yeah, I imagine."

Harley chuckled a little as she pulled off her head piece to let her hair run free. "You really should've seen of what happened at this one house we went to." Said the blonde.

"What happened?"

The woman smirked. "We went to this one house and on the front porch was this three or four-year old dressed up as Batsy." She then looked over to Jade as she chuckled on the memory. "Jade was walking up the sidewalk to go up to that door and when that kid turned around to leave, he freaks out and runs across the entire length of the porch -which was the whole length of the house- and jumps off into a bush."

It was this point that both Naruto and Dick bursted out laughing when hearing this. They knew they shouldn't, as it was a horrible thing to have happened, but they couldn't help themselves.

"You two shouldn't be laughing." Said the younger Crock girl. "He's probably traumatized by what Jade unintentionally did."

"We know!" Dick said as he tried to calm himself down. "Bu-But-hehehaha!" Just the odd imagination of 'Batman' being scared of an 'evil Jawa' just made his night. 'If Bruce were to hear this, he'll obviously be pissed.' Was the Grayson's thought and unknowingly Naruto's as well.

The doorbell rang again as Alfred went back to the lobby to answer the door. As he left Naruto and the others behind, they chatted.

"So do you guys have the things ready for the girls' sleepover before you two head out?" Harley asked as the girls went to find the entertainment area of the manor.

The idea came up a few days ago when Bruce left town to track the man behind the Rockridge heist. Since Alfred would've been alone in the manor, Dick decided to stay over to keep the butler occupied.

And it wasn't just Bruce that was gone, but also Paula and Lawrence as they had to leave rather suddenly. They said they were called in by their respective jobs for some out of town meetings and wouldn't be back until a few days into November. Until they return home, Harley was incharge of looking over them.

And that included entertaining them.

So when she learned that Bruce was gone as well, Harley got the fun idea to do a sleepover at Wayne manor. It took some time convincing Alfred to let this happen as it would at least get him something to do on Halloween night.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I got the girls a few games they could play in the entertainment center."

"Like what, puddin?"

"Well there's this one game one of my writers actually made and wanted some of us at work to test it out."

"What's it called?"

"Monty called it Remnant." He answered.

It was Dick who picked up from there. "I was looking over the rules earlier and it's a lot like Risk, but it's more of a fantasy variety. Not only that, but it includes card-based actions like 'traps' and 'monsters'."

"Well ain't that interesting." Came Harley's response.

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Monty wanted to make something connected to a book series he was writing and he wanted people to get an early idea on what it might be in his series' world."

"Anything else asides from that Risk parody?"

"There's a few video games like Doom and Secret of Monkey Island. And in terms of other things they could do are carving and painting pumpkins while possibly seeing a movie or two before they hit the sack."

"Ah~ gotcha."

"I've been meaning to ask this, Harley, but where are Selina and Pam?" Asked the Grayson. "I thought they were going to be with you guys."

The pale woman sighed as she scratched her head. "That was the original plan, but they said they wanted to run a few errands before meeting up with us at some point."

"Yet they haven't." Said the publisher.

"Yeah~"

"Have you tried contacting them?"

Harley nodded. "Was able to get ahold of them on the way over here. They said they would've met up with us sooner, but some things held them up. Don't know what's going on, but they'll show up here soon."

Naruto and Dick nodded before they saw Alfred come back from the front door.

"Any good costumes this round?"

"If you consider Joker, the Mad Hatter and Magpie _good_ on the last group, then yes." Dick asked.

"Eh~ Nevermind then."

Naruto then saw the startled look on the butler's face. "You sure you didn't see a ghost, Alfred?"

The Pennyworth merely sighed. "I was a bit spooked by the chaperone's Solomon Grundy mask."

The three other adults shared a worried look.

Weeks after Naruto, Pam, Bruce and Dick fought against the Champion of the Black, the media kept talking about what the four fought against. They kept discussing on how the being came to be and wondered where it resided. The media eventually picked up on the name as they did connections with the poem the zombie spoke in the confrontation.

And because of this, the four plus Selina and Harley started seeing items being sold pertaining to Grundy. Hell there were even several people they saw today dressed up as the Black's champion.

"Well… it is Ghoul's night." Spoke the Grayson. "So people thought they could make Grundy the image of Gotham's old legend… in their odd way."

Alfred sighed. "Not all legends are legend, Master Dick."

"Well we've faced a lot of things that go bump in the night, Alfred. So legends have stayed as legends."

"True, but do keep an open mind at least."

The young acrobat nodded before turning to Naruto. "Should we head out now? We did promise Gordon we'd help him out tonight."

"Yeah we should." Said the publisher as the two made their way to the Batcave. "Besides, what would Halloween be if we didn't get to wear our costumes?"

 _ **-Bolton Estate-**_

Things seemed quite well when the pair went to the GCPD. They checked in on Gordon before heading out to do what they did best. And to help out out with the patrols were Vanitas' void clones as they were spread out far and wide to take care of both robberies and the crazies.

Though it was shortly after they started their patrol when Vanitas' helmet radio picked up on a call that someone wrecked up an estate. With nothing to do, both Vanitas and Robin went to investigate.

Yet they didn't realize of how severe it was once they arrived as the estate as in complete shambles.

"Damn," Robin said with widened eyes, "what happened here?"

"I don't know, Robin." Said the helmeted Uzumaki. His eyes did land on a pair of elderly twins, no doubt the ones who made the call earlier. "But I'm sure they know."

The two heroes came up to the Bolton twins, who were hunched over on the ground. Wanting to see if they could hear them, Robin asked them the obvious question. "What happened here?"

Hearing the sudden call caused the elderly twins to whirl around before they shreked once their eyes landed on Vanitas' form.

"A demon!" Said Victoria.

"The-The-The police will be here any moment!" Spoke Georgia.

Vanitas held up his hands as a response. "I'm here to help, not harm you ladies."

"Trust us, ma'ams. We do mean well." Robin said as he tried to calm down the twins. "So onto the matter at hand: Who or _what_ did this?"

It was Victoria who spoke first. "It was him. He came for us."

"Who?"

"Solomon Grundy." Georgia said with fear in her voice.

Once hearing this, both Vanitas and Robin widened their eyes and looked at each other before looking back at the twins. "Are you sure about this?" Asked the helmeted hero.

The twins motioned their arms all over the place in order to emphasise their statement. "Look how strong he is." Said Victoria.

"He did this with his have hands." Spoke the second twin. "And it was all part of his revenge."

"...What revenge are you talking about?" Robin questioned.

Georgia was the one to speak of it as she held her arms in order to calm herself. "Just as the legend told: The Gotham Ghoul would return on darkest night to deprive the descendants of all in their sight." Both she and her sister then looked all over the place as tears streamed down their eyes. "Our home, our assets. We're fortunate we still have our lives."

It was feeling like it was complete nonsense at this point, causing Vanitas to speak up. "Ladies, I know you're frightened, but-"

"If you don't believe us, look." Victoria interrupted before pointing to where the two heroes stood. Looking down, they saw large muddy footprints that outsized their own. "He came for us. And he'll indeed come for the others too."

This caused the two vigilantes to pause.

And it was Robin who asked the obvious questions. "Who are these _others_?"

 _ **-Winslow Estate-**_

When they arrived at the large estate, both Vanitas and Robin saw the destroyed entrance with muddy footprints leading inside. And when they ventured in, they saw the lobby was absolutely trashed. From the walls, the pillars and the railings; nothing was spared.

And it wasn't long before the vigilantes heard screams and commotion going on from another room.

Rushing towards the source, they widened their eyes that it was indeed Solomon Grundy as he towered over the estate owner. The man tried to get away, but he tripped and fell onto the ground. Turning around, he saw Solomon Grundy was about to crush him with his foot.

Not wanting to see the man die, they rushed in as Robin called out to the man. "Winslow, run!"

Grundy's attention was transferred onto the two heroes as a result while Winslow was able to run away to safety. The walking corpse growled and charged right at them with his fists held high. "Grundy must destroy!"

The pair leaped out of the way from Solomon's strike as the attack destroyed a good portion of the floor. As he was a good distance away, Robin quickly pulled out his grappling gun and fired in order to entrap the zombie for as long as possible. This helped by Vanitas some time as he brought out Lunar Rose and swung at the reanimated corpse.

Yet he wasn't quick enough as Grundy quickly grasped the incoming blade and pulled the helmeted hero closer to him.

"Destroy!" Said the Black champion as he quickly punched Vanitas through a wall.

Wanting to assist his friend, the 'Boy' Wonder tossed several smoke bombs at Grundy's general direction to obscure his vision. As the walking corpse waved the smoke away, Robin leaped towards his head and kicked it towards its side. Grundy looked back at the younger hero before quickly grabbing his cape and tossing him around the room before letting go as he came into contact into a bookshelf.

'I think Naruto's right about capes.' Robin thought as he groaned on the ground. 'Someone might take advantage of that in a fight and it'll cost me one day when they'll use it against me.'

It was then that Vanitas reappeared as he brought out his Kazekage lance and tried to strike his side. Yet his attack was quickly avoided by the enlarged man before the attack pierced him. Grundy was able to pull the weapon out of Vanitas' grasp and struck the hero with it several times. Tossing the wind lance to the side, the Black champion picked up the black/white themed hero from the ground and tossed him into the lobby.

From his place on the ground, Robin tried to get back up as he saw his friend getting pummeled while several more pillars were getting destroyed in the process.

'Dammit!' He thought. 'If this keeps up, then the place will tumble right on top of us!' Robin had to bite back his pain as he rushed out of the destroyed study and went to secure his friend.

Yet this attempt was halted as Grundy saw this coming and grabbed a broken pillar and batted the incoming Robin away. The young hero yelped in pain as he crashed into a crumbling wall. And it wasn't long before the rest of the building started to collapse into itself.

It was several minutes later when Robin groaned awake. His body was throbbing and he was indeed sure he wasn't going to be getting out of bed tomorrow. When Robin opened up his eyes and regained focus, he saw several trick or treaters standing above him. One was dressed up as a bedsheet ghost, one was a fairy princess and the other was dressed up as him.

"Woah." One of them said in amazement.

It was rather hard to tell which one who said that, but Robin didn't care. Both he and Vanitas got their asses handed to them.

Pulling off debris off of him, Robin got up as he dusted himself off. Once done, he saw the kids were still looking at him. "Uh… No candy here, kids." He then looked around for any sign of his friend, yet he didn't. Soon, a thought came to mind once Robin looked back at the trick or treaters. "Hey, have you three seen Vanitas around here? You know: black and white themed, taller than me and has this annoying voice-"

"I HEARD THAT!"

The others looked some feet away as debris was lifted off of the ground. When Vanitas stood up, they saw his glass domed helmet was cracked in several places while a hole was shone right through as his eyes glowed from the darkness.

Pulling on his limbs to get some kinks out, the helmeted Uzumaki spoke towards his companion. "You just had to say that last one, didn't you Robin."

Said hero laughed a little, yet had to hold his side due to the pain. "Hey. It was the only way I could find you quicker."

All other communication stopped as both the vigilantes and newly arrived trick or treaters heard newly made sobs and wails. Looking at the source, they saw Winslow grovel on the ground. "My home." He said in misery. "Everything I own, gone…" 

The two heroes looked on with saddened expressions on their faces as another victim was made this night and they were powerless to stop it.

Looking at the central child in the group, the 'Boy' Wonder nodded with a smirk on his face. "Spiffy costume."

Vanitas rolled his eyes underneath his helm. "Of course you would say that, Robin."

 _ **-Wayne Manor-**_

Inside the entertainment room of Wayne Manor; Harley, Jade, Artemis and Rachel were playing an enthusiastic game of Remnant…

With interesting results.

On each side of the board, each of the players controlled the following territories: Rachel with Vale, Jade with Vacuo, Artemis with Atlas and Harley with Mistral. Each player had a selective amount of 'soldier/warrior/hunter' pieces while Grimm pieces littered every other area of the 'world'. These consisted of Beowolves, Ursa, King Taijitu, Nevermores and much other from what one Monty Orm was creating in his book series.

Looking back up and down from both her cards and placements on the board, Artemis formed a smirk on her face. "Aunty Harley, prepare your kingdom for battle!" She announced, as she pointed at her neighbor.

Harley balled her fist and gave out a determined grin. "Bring it on!"

The blonde Crock quickly stood on her chair and spoke with a raised voice. "I deploy the Atleasian Air Fleet!"

The Arkham employee gave out a _surprised_ gasp.

Feeling triumphant, Artemis gave out a haughty chuckle. "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!" The young child then motioned her hands -like an airplane- and gave out a crashing noise soon after.

"Y-Y-You fiend!" Said the blonde woman. "You would do that to your own aunty?!"

Artemis was so distracted with her play that she slipped and fell from her chair. She quickly recovered by playing off the little injury once poking part of her head out. Her grey eyes held a mischievous glee with hints of pain showing in her gaze. "And since Atlas is a part of Mantle, my repair time is only one turn!"

This bit of triumph seemed to end once she heard Harley give out an evil chuckle. . "That's some grade-A sneaking skills right there, Arty. But…" the pale woman pulled out a card from her hand, "you activated my Trap Card!" She announced, causing the young Crock to recoil in surprise and shock. "Giant Nevermore! So if I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"

The young girl recomposed herself and pointed towards her surrogate aunt. "But, if you roll a six or a lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!"

A dark glint seemed to shine from the older woman's blue eyes. "That's a chance I'm willing to take!" Harley informed, as the two blondes stared down at each other with determination.

As this went on, the other two occupants at the table were mixed when being interested in the game. Rachel was occasionally looking back into the rule book to see if things might work in her favor. As for Jade, she seemed rather confused and wondered how she got roped into the game in the first place.

Though the older Crock child's eyes went off to the side to see what the others were doing.

By the corner of the room, Alfred was too engrossed by reading some dusty old book as everything else around him seemed to fade away. Pam was sorting through each of the piles of candy to see which ones were good for the girls while others were bad… like what a concerned mother reacts like on Halloween candy. And Selina was typing away into her laptop as she was researching something on a flashdrive she brought earlier.

Something involving Vanocouver.

While the girls were painting and carving their pumpkins earlier, Pam and Selina showed up to join in on the festivities. Both women seemed rather tired, but they played things off well as they did their own thing on their respective pumpkins. While Selina carved away into the orange vegetable… fruit(?), Pam was merely painting as doing any harm to the pumpkin was considered a waste of good food.

...for some reason.

After all that was done, Harley was going over the Remnant rule book with Rachel and Artemis while Jade seemed bored out of her mind before she was roped into playing.

In all honesty the dark-haired Crock girl didn't want to do anything else after trick or treating except for watching a good horror movie before going to bed. Yet she was brought here for an odd sleepover at the infamous Wayne manor with her sister and friend, due to Harley's connection with the Wayne household.

Jade was rather fine on going, at first, when learning Naruto was going to be over here as a supervising guardian. Yet he had to suddenly leave, for some reason, which made it feel like he wasn't really doing his intended promise.

The early teenager liked the Uzumaki a lot and enjoyed the time when he spent time helping her and Artemis on homework. Even his knowledge on weapons and fighting seemingly helped win her over.

To her, Naruto was perfect. And with her developing hormones going underway, Jade was starting to develop a crush on the whiskered man.

There have been times she dreamed and fantasized of her being with the successful publisher. Whether it was him training her on how to fight -instead of her father- to taking her out on dates… for quite some time.

And her fantasies went beyond that once she got her hands on a copy of the Icha Icha books as she started to-

*Bonk*

'Huh?' Jade thought as she felt something bounce against her head and clutter onto the table. Looking down, she saw one of the Nevermore game pieces. The Crock teen then glanced her eyes over to see her sister lying on the table with a defeated face as she whined out a 'Noo!'.

"Well, Jade, it's your turn." Harley said with a grin.

Blinking a little, Jade looked back at her cards before speaking in confused admittance. "...I have absolutely no idea what's going on."

"Well~" Harley drawled out, as she slid right up next to her older 'niece' and wrapped her arm around the ravenette teen's shoulder. "...Look, it's easy! You're playing Vacuo which means that all the Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus." She explained.

Jade looked at her 'aunt' with a raised brow. "That… sounds dumb." She said, only for Harley to rip the cards out of her hand and look through them. "Hey!"

The older blonde looked over the cards as she nodded in the process. "...Hmm, yep-yep. You've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... Oh! OH! Resourceful Raider!" Placing the cards back into Jade's grasp. "Now you can take Artemis' Discarded Air Fleet…"

"Nooooooo!" Arty cried out with comical tears streaming down her cheeks.

"...And put it in _your_ hand!" Harley finished off.

The Crock teen looked entirely out of place. "O-kay..."

"And since Vacuo Warriors have an endurance against Natural-based Hazards, you can use sandstorms to disable _my_ ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my Kingdom!" Informed the psychologist with a cheeky grin. Though she suddenly scrunched her face as she glared at her older 'niece'. "Just so know that I will not forget this declaration of war."

Jade blinked in confusion. "...And that means..." She trailed off.

"You're just three moves away from conquering the world." Rachel said once she placed the rule book onto the table.

"RACHEL! DON'T TELL HER THAT!" Artemis yelled out.

A switch seemed to flip inside of Jade's mind as she formed a psychotic smile. She then clasped her hands together and rubbed them like a stereotypical villain. "Mu-ahaha! HAHAHAHAHA! YES! FEAR THE ALMIGHTY POWER OF MY FORCES!" Jade started to cackle and rave like a loon. "COWER AS THEY PILLAGE YOUR HOMES AND WEEP AS THEY TAKE YOUR MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN FROM YOUR VERY ARMS! SLAVING AWAY INTO THE MINES-"

"Trap card."

"...What?" Jade voiced as she heard Harley suddenly say that. She then saw the older blonde quickly moving the pieces on the board, clearing the older Crock's side.

"Your armies have been destroyed!" Harley announced with a shit-eating grin.

Jade sat down and looked at the board with a twitching eye. Her supposed and incoming global victory was now gone! "...I hate this game of emotions we play!" She whined with comical tears falling down her cheeks.

Jade suddenly felt her little sister glomp her into a hug to join in on the comical crying. "Stay strong, Jade. We'll make it through this together~"

"SHUT UP! DON'T TOUCH ME!" Jade said, despite she hugged her sister close as their cries went into sink.

From their spots in the room, Pam and Selina looked towards the one table and rose a brow on how suddenly Jade got into the game.

And from her spot on the table, Rachel couldn't help but roll her eyes on how weird her two friends reacted to this. "Seriously. This is just a game." She said in a bland tone.

Before Jade could oddly refute, the doors to the entertainment room opened as both Naruto and Dick entered. Jade brightened upon seeing the Uzumaki, but dimmed a little when seeing that both he and Dick seemed worse for wear. Yet they kept a facade that nothing really bad happened.

"Hey, sorry it took a while for us to get back." Dick said. "Certain issues kept us from getting back."

"And where did you two go exactly?" Artemis asked as her teen sister thought the same thing.

"Around." Was Naruto's vague answer. He wouldn't outright say what the two heroes did as Jade and Artemis doesn't know who they really were. Coming up to the one table, Naruto saw what they were playing. "You four having fun?"

Harley enthusiastically nodded, Rachel gave a brief nod while the Crock sisters had their respective answers. "Yeah, I was really enjoying it Naruto." Said the younger Crock.

"Well that's good."

"And Jade here seemed _way_ into it all of a sudden."

"Oh~ How so?"

The ravenette teen glared at her sister. It practically read 'don't tell him or you'll regret it'.

Luckily for Artemis, Rachel was the one to answer. "She was about to win the game."

"Really?" Naruto said as he beamed a smile at the teen's way, causing her to blush a little. "That must've been something for your first time playing this game."

Jade smirked as she seemed acted a little arrogant. "It requires a good level of tactical cunning. And I'm quite sure you possess a lot of it if you were to play."

Before Naruto could speak, Rachel butted in. "Right~ Like when you attacked your own naval fleets two turns ago." She said towards the teenager. Jade quickly glared at the ashen child, which she didn't seemed fazed by that at all. "And you _were_ about to win until Harley suddenly defeated your forces when she looked at your hand."

As this conversation took place, Alfred was checking on Dick as he saw his current state. "Sir, what happened to you?" Said the butler.

"Grundy happened." Dick replied in a hush tone so those at the one table wouldn't hear them. IE: Jade and Artemis.

Pam, who overheard the conversation, turned her attention towards the college student with a worried look. "Solomon Grundy? Are you sure?"

"There was a resemblance. Scarily spot on, I'm afraid. And he beat us real good as neither of us were prepared."

"How so?"

"For one, we thought it was someone dressed up as the zombie when we first investigated." Said the Wayne ward. "That costed us when we fought him on the second estate he struck."

"Figured as much since his appearance is everywhere right now." Pam muttered. "But why didn't you contact us, or at least me, earlier to help out?"

"Naruto and I thought we would have handled the guy until we saw it was actually him." Dick said as he nursed his shoulder. "And on the way back here, Naruto said that something was odd about him that didn't make sense. Something about Yggdrasil would've contacted either you or him if Grundy was back." 

Pam nodded at this. The last time the Black Champion rose, Yggdrasil did contact her to help out her lover. Regardless on how long the delay was on doing the act. To make up for it, the ancient being promised he'll contact them if Grundy were to come on out.

"Was there anything else about him that might shed some light?" She asked.

"Not that we know of, Pam. And when we went to the Bolton estate, the owners there told us that Grundy was going to target two others: Winslow and Parish." Dick informed. "Though we don't know exactly why."

"I believe I might shed some light on the matter, Master Dick." Alfred said as he presented a book to Pamela and Dick.

"Really? A storybook, Alfred?" Said the college student. "I just don't know if something from that would help us."

"You would be wise to listen closely, sir. For the legend may provide a clue to lifting this _Ghoulish_ curse." Said the butler as he ignored the eye roll from the others. Turning the pages, Alfred came to a stop when he spoke. "Ah. Here we go."

Coughing into his hand, the Pennyworth spoke. "It says here that Gotham Swamp wasn't always a swamp. Once, it was a lake home to the mostly Eastern European laborers who built Gotham City. But three businessmen, Bolton, Winslow and Parish conspired to make the area a dumping ground. For the industrial waste created by Gotham's construction turned the lake into Gotham Swamp -later known as Slaughter Swamp- rendering the area unsuitable for habitation."

Hearing this particular detail got Pam tightening her fists on what those businessmen did all those years ago. She remembered hearing about this during one of her lessons from the Green as they were very displeased as to what happened to the perfect ecosystem not far from here.

Not knowing of Pamela's train of thought, Alfred continued. "Several laborers, who lost their homes, were versed in magic from their native countries. On All Hallows Eve, during a lunar eclipse they used that magic to form the Gotham Ghoul from the very waste of Gotham's swamp. And since the laborers and their families lost everything they owned, so too would the Ghoul haunt Gotham's founding fathers and their families through the years, leaving them destitute."

"Oh, poetic justice at its most spine-tingling." Said the Uzumaki with a small smirk.

"When did you hear all that?" Pam asked as she and the others turned to the publisher.

"Just now." He replied. "Was going to ask what you guys were talking about until hearing the story."

"Yeah, and despite it being good and all, it does give us clues as to what Grundy's motives are." Theorized the Grayson as he exited the entertainment room.

"And where will you be going, Master Dick?" Alfred asked.

"Heading back out." Dick answered. "If Grundy's allowed to strike his last victim, he could disappear for another 150 years. Or possibly sooner since he's a champion of the Black." Before he could make it far, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking over, he saw the whiskered man behind him. "Naruto?"

"I think it might be good if you sit this one out, Dick." The Grayson blinked and was going to say something when Naruto explained his reason. "I know you want to go back out and stop him, but you're not well enough equipped to handle that zombie. It took four of us last time to take him down."

"But you said that Grundy seems different this time." Dick argued. "I can help."

"I know you can, but I don't want to see you get really hurt because of it." Naruto then sighed as he saw the hurt look in the college student's face. "Please trust me on this, Dick."

Dick wanted to say something, but he saw the look on Naruto's face. It was like what Bruce had every now and then when he wanted to think of Dick's safety over the mission. It was honestly rare seeing this.

'Naruto is really hanging out with Bruce way too much.' Dick thought with a sigh. 'He unknowingly got _that_ face rubbed off onto Naruto.' After thinking it over a little more, Dick reluctantly accepted the suggestion. Seeing this, Naruto started to walk away as the college student chimed in. "Do hurry back. We wouldn't want you turning into a pumpkin."

"And if it is indeed Grundy, let me know so I'll be there quickly." Pam added in

Naruto nodded before he remembered one last thing. Turning to Dick, he spoke. "Hey, let me know when the results from the batcomputer come up."

Dick nodded as Naruto left. Turning around, he saw Pam's curious expression. "Why does he need you to check on it?"

"Before we came up here, I wanted to do some analysis on the mud Grundy left on my cape." He answered. "Bruce's analytical training kicking in and I wanted to get more clues."

Both the botanist and butler nodded before turning their attention back to the entertainment room as Harley yelled out 'Yahtzee!' as she won the game while Selina was still on her laptop on the Vanocouver thing from earlier.

 _ **-Parish Wax Museum-**_

The tolling of the hour was at hand as Vanitas was perched on a rooftop, overlooking one of the only known establishments of the Parish family.

Sure, the family was quite wealthy years ago. But after gambling and stock drops, the Parish's had to sell their home and move in order to settle down. And after a while, the family was able to still run a few small businesses. From bars, diners and of course Gotham's oldest attraction: the wax museum which they've had for generations.

And with it being Halloween, the wax museum is their biggest moneymaker. But just to be on the safe side, the masked Uzumaki had several clones stationed at each of the other Parish owned establishments.

The helmeted hero saw the lights for the wax museum turn off before seeing the owner exit the building and close it up for the night. As the man made it down the street, the vigilante heard a recognizable groan not far away. His eyes scanned the area and was able to spot him a block or so away. Leaping down and rushing towards Grundy's last known location, Vanitas stopped and was left in a state of confusion.

'Okay~' He drawled out, in thought. 'He's really fast for a swamp zombie, but where'd he go?'

Suddenly, the hero heard a series of bangs coming down from the other side of the alley. Moving fast, Vanitas soon stopped when he saw something move. As it came closer, the hero saw… a black cat crossing their way.

"Meow~" It sounded out as it went it's merry way.

The vigilante sighed. When he turned around, Vanitas saw someone jump right at him as the man wore a demon mask. This caused Vanitas to quickly go on guard..

"Whoa, there, buddy. I'm just messing with you." Said the demon mask wearing man. He pulled off the piece of costume to reveal his face to the heroe. "Hey~ didn't see you at old man Parish's shindig." The man inspected the hero's outfit and whistled a pleasant sound. "Damn~ That's quite the Vanitas costume you's got there."

An idea formed in Vanitas' as he eventually spoke. "Hey, listen. I'm looking… for a friend of mine. He's quite big and he's dressed like Solomon Grundy."

The man scratched his cheek as he tried to think if he saw the man Vanitas described or not. All he did was shake his head 'no.' "Sorry man. Haven't seen any swamp zombies." He then walked away as he still spoke to them with a series of chuckles escaping his throat. "But if I do, I'll let him know _Vanitas_ is looking for him." 

As the man was out of sight, the vigilante was about to move on until he heard his coms go off. _"Hey, Naruto."_

Pressing the side of his helmet, Vanitas answered the call. "I'm here, Dick. Go ahead."

" _I'd like to let you know that we're about to start the movie back at the manor."_ Said the college student. _"And the others are quite anxious for your return."_

Vanitas sighed. "I'll come back soon."

" _Good to know. But I somewhat wonder why you didn't just leave a clone behind before you left. Been trying to come up with good excuses to cover your butt when Jade and Artemis kept asking."_

The hero groaned as he facepalmed. "I'm an idiot."

Vanitas heard Dick chuckle over the end. _"Now I know telling you that bit of information isn't really important, but this one is."_ This got the hero to really focus in on what Dick was about to say. _"The batcomputer was able to trace something in the mud. It is actually human DNA… of the mutated variety."_ Vanitas perked his head at the mention of this. _"The odd thing is it wasn't of any follicles or skin."_

"But in the mud itself." Finished of the masked Uzumaki.

" _...How on earth could you possibly have known that?"_

"Grundy may be supernatural, but this threat isn't."

Vanitas soon heard a series of loud steps as he saw the hulking figure of Grundy coming right towards him. "GRUNDY SMASH!" Slamming his fists onto the ground, a series of cracks formed in the pavement.

The force of the impact caused the hero to quickly move out of the way as Grundy pulled a large chunk of earth from the ground and tossed it at Vanitas. Thinking fast, the helmeted Uzumaki formed Lunar Rose and sliced through the earthy chunk. He then threw several smoke bombs to obscure the zombie's vision. Yet it wasn't enough as it rushed forward, grasped and then tossed Vanitas across the road and into the museum's outer wall.

As the black/white themed hero tried to recover, he literally felt the ground shake as Solomon charged right at him. Vanitas rolled out of the way just in time when the animated corpse crashed into the wall.

"Grundy will crush you!" Yelled out the zombie as he charged right towards his opponent.

Quickly standing on his feet, Vanitas held his ground and raised his scythe into the air.

"Halloween's nearly over, Grundy."

The moment Grundy came close-

"Time to lose mask of yours."

Vanitas quickly sliced the zombie's head right off his shoulders as the head bounced and rolled on the ground. The body moved past the hero by several steps before coming to a stop.

Looking at his bladed weapon, Vanitas spun it to get rid of the 'mud' as he spoke. "Trick or treat, Hagen."

He then heard a dark chuckle coming from the head on the ground. Looking towards it, the body part turned into mud and slithered right back to its body. " _ **Can't blame me for having some Halloween fun, can you, Vanitas?"**_

Turning around, Vanitas then saw 'Grundy's' body start to reform into a brown clay-like substance. It's limbs and clothes started to blend together as the one color became more prominent. And it wasn't long before the head regrew into something else as it's jagged teeth was present with yellow eyes staring right back at them.

This is Matthew Hagen, former movie star and now present meta-human: Clayface.

"Terrorizing the descendants and destroying their homes was your cover." Spoke the masked Uzumaki. "But it was their money you were after." 

" _ **Right you are."**_ Soon the former actor's hands started to reform into large, spiked balls. _**"Leave them destitute, just like the old legend says."**_ Clayface then launched the formed weapons at Vanitas' general directions as the hero had to quickly move out of the way.

Once landing a good distance away, Vanitas pointed his scythe at the meta-actor. "No one would think of chasing after Grundy for the money." Said the helmeted hero. "They'd have to dredge Slaughter Swamp in hopes of finding anything."

Clayface hotly smirked. " _ **And I'd be long gone with my loot taking any face I wanted."**_ His head started to form into that of the demon mask the vigilante saw from earlier. _ **"Alive, dead or nonexistent."**_

'I knew we couldn't lose a 500-pound zombie that easily.' Vanitas thought as he sliced through another strike with his scythe. 'Hagen quickly went into his mud form and easily escaped by blending into the environment until the coast was clear.'

Receding back his arms, Hagen soon growled at the hero. _**"I may not have tricked you and the Boy Wonder, but I'm still gonna collect my treats."**_

Without any warning, Clayface quickly formed a muddy pillar and rushed right through Vanitas. The meta soon crashed right through the wax museum outer wall as he made his way inside. Not wanting to lose him, Vanitas went right after him.

"Well ain't this perfect." Drawled the masked Uzumaki. "A shape-shifter in a wax museum. Thrilling…"

Making it at a certain point in the establishment, the hero slowed down his pace. In the current environment, Vanitas didn't want to be jumped by his opponent so the went on guard.

His eyes roamed at every other display he passed on by. Werewolves, vampires, mummies, samurai, knights, ghosts… you name it. It was really hard to tell which one was the former actor as Hagen is literally acting by keeping himself still.

Rounding the corner, the hero came face to face with Solomon Grundy. They stepped back a bit, yet they calmed down a little.

'Can't be this guy." Vanitas thought. 'It's too obvious.' Looking around, the vigilante spoke something that was on his mind. "Mind telling me something, Hagen? Why hasn't there been any sign of you for months after your 'deathly' performance?"

Vanitas soon heard Clayface chuckle a little and it was really hard to pinpoint his hiding place with how it eerily echoed around the large room. _**"You think I'm that stupid into staying in Gotham. You must've been out of your mind."**_ The helmeted vigilante continued to move as the meta continued talking. _**"I've been traveling and doing small robberies for quite some time to live by. Honing both my skills and crafts so the next time I come across you costumed freaks, I'll be ready."**_

"So why come back to Gotham after all this time?" Vanitas asked as he moved towards an alien display. "You said you traveled a lot. You could've stayed away and no one would think twice into looking for you. Especially when you faked your death."

" _ **You can say 'it's to test my metal' against you, Vanitas!"**_

The hero was then knocked onto the ground. Looking back, he saw a moving T-850 -from the Terminator film- as it's hands morphed into buzzsaws. The Clay-Terminator launched his arms forward as the buzzsaws destroyed several wax displays.

"And why the Grundy getup?" Vanitas asked as he threw several formed cards. "Isn't it creepier with what you currently look like?"

Cutting through the projectiles, the Clay-Terminator answered. _**"Taking advantage of the old holiday legend here."**_ He rushed forward as Vanitas quickly used his scythe to block the grinding attack from one of the moving blades. _**"And since Solomon Grundy got so popular, I thought 'why not' and acted the newly minted 'celebrity'."**_

Quickly pushing the attack away, Vanitas lept back as he replaced Lunar Rose with Haku. As he came down, the masked Uzumaki slammed his ice shield onto the ground. The frost built up rather quickly as it went towards the Clay-Terminator and captured his one leg as he tried to escape.

" _ **DAMMIT!"**_

"Sorry. But I'm the one providing the chills tonight." Vanitas quipped.

Clayface growled before he enlarged one of his arms and swiped it across the room. The vigilante was then knocked away from the attack. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Hagen used his buzzsaw hand to slice himself free from his icy confinement. He then reformed into his _normal_ appearance before fleeing the scene.

Vanitas was going to give chase before his eyes landed on Clayface's entrapped leg as it was trying to free itself. Getting an idea, the hero brought his boot down hard to break the ice.

With the Clay-leg freed, it went into mush and quickly moved across the floor with the hero following. He rushed through several corridors and quickly maneuvered through some fallen displays so the hero wouldn't lose his pace. And it seemed Vanitas' search ended as he saw the clay moving up the stairs and into an office with the lights turned on.

Rushing into the room, the hero saw the vault door was opened.

'How in the world did that get opened so fast?' Vanitas thought as he walked towards it. When the masked Uzumaki came into contact with the vault door, he looked inside and saw… another door?

"What?" Suddenly his arm was ensnared by the 'vault door' as he was started to get consumed. "HEY!" As his body was being covered, Vanitas felt pressure building around his helmet as it was starting to get crushed.

" _ **The problem with this mask, Vanitas: No air holes!"**_ Cackled the meta-actor as he applied more pressure onto his head. Hagen then felt something stab into his clay-like arm and saw a pair of daggers. Before he could respond to them, the weapons sparked to life as they traveled all over his body and started to electrocute him. _**"GAAAAAAAAHHH!"**_

This caused Clayface to receed his limbs, thus freeing the hero from hs confinement. As Vanitas' helmet was fixing itself back up, he was quickly shoved through the glass wall and into the wax factory outside.

The helmeted vigilante fell and tumbled across the floor before slamming right into the large waxing pot. Getting up, Vanitas saw Clayface wasn't in the office room above. And it was then that he heard Hagen laugh in a dark tone.

" _ **Try and fi nd me~"**_ Clayface taunted as his voice echoed around the room. Vanitas whirled his heads around and saw there were mannequins all over the place. _**"I'm just another face in the crowd!"**_

"Sure you are." Vanitas said as his brought out his wind lance. "Now let's thin out the herd."

Quickly spinning his weapon around, the masked Uzumaki brought forth a large gust of wind as many of the mannequins were easily tossed left and right. Needing to apply more power, the wind picked up at a faster rate.

As this happened, the vigilante kept a close eye for anything astray. And he was rewarded by seeing one of the mannequins move its arms in order to block the wind from it's face.

"Found him." Vanitas muttered out as he suddenly stopped spinning his lance before throwing several exploding playing cards at Clayface's position. Once they came into contact with the 'mannequin', it exploded as Hagen's yells were quickly heard.

Reforming back together, Clayface growled at the hero. _**"Lucky shot!"**_ He said. _**"Now here's your door prize! The waxworks hot wax special!"**_

Clayface lunged forward as his arms knocked the vigilante into the large waxing pot. Vanitas struggled to free himself, yet Hagen kept applying more pressure. And before the hero knew it, he was lifted up into the air and right above the central waxing pot.

" _ **Face it!"**_ Spoke the meta-actor. _**"You'll be the most realistic dummy in the place."**_

The moment Hagen threw the hero into the pot, Vanitas quickly formed a floating card platform underneath them. And before Clayface could react fast enough, the masked Uzumaki threw his lance at the chains above. The bladed weapon cut right through, causing the links to give way.

And this caused the large container of hot wax to tip over and pour it's contents onto the meta-actor.

" _ **NOOOOOOO!"**_ Hagen cried out in pain and horror as he was consumed by the boiling mixture.

Steam quickly filled the room once the hot wax came into contact with the cold floor and Clayface's screams were slowly lowering in volume. Recalling his wind lance, Vanitas quickly spun his weapon around to move the steam away to reveal the large wax statue of Clayface as he tried to move, yet fail.

"Man. I'd hate to own that piece of 'art'." Vanitas chuckled as he heard Hagen groan in defeat.

 _ **-Wayne Manor-**_

Naruto was in the kitchen as he was helping Alfred wash the dishes alongside Dick. Asides from the typical plates the manor guests used for dinner, there were the popcorn bowls used for the movie earlier.

After quickly dropping off Clayface at Arkham, the Uzumaki had made it back to Wayne Manor. Just in time too as the movie started in the entertainment room. Naruto said his excuses to the Crock sisters so nothing would raise their suspicion all that well…

To some degree.

The party watched The Lost Boys and something called Wicked Scary. The later was supposedly a 'cursed' movie that haunted it's viewers once the film ended. But this was all just a marketing ploy to get people to rent the movie more and more to see if the 'curse' was real or not.

Though it seemed the film rating should have been set higher, due to how scared the three younglings got by the movie's end.

Anyways, these were quite fun in hopes to wrap up the rest of the early holiday. The adults would have watched something way scarier like Suspiria, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or Evil dead; but with the three youngsters present, they had to restrict themselves to the two films they recently watched.

"Oh, another All Hallows Eve come and gone." Spoke the Wayne butler as he placed the last dish into the dishwasher.

"Well, at least the Gotham Ghoul's curse is lifted." Dick said as he dried his hands. "Now future Gothamites might not deal with that problem anymore."

Alfred merely rose a brow. "What makes you so certain, Master Dick?"

"You're kidding, right?" The Wayne ward asked in disbelief.

"Just because an archvillain masqueraded as Grundy tonight doesn't mean the zombie doesn't exist." Naruto said as he leaned back against the kitchen counter. "Solomon might still be out there and the Black will spring him out when we least suspect it."

Dick looked over to Alfred as he nodded with the publisher's argument. The college student sighed as he rubbed his temples. "I guess you make a compelling argument, Naruto." Dick then yawned. "Welp, seems I need to finally hit the sack and get some well deserved shut eye."

Naruto nodded in agreement as the two left the kitchen, but not before saying goodnight to the faithful butler.

The two walked through the halls as they went to their respective rooms for the night. Once waving goodbye to Dick as he entered his old bedroom, Naruto traveled further along to check on Jade, Artemis and Rachel. Coming across their assigned room, Naruto opened the door to see Harley tucking Rachel into bed.

"...Do you have to do this, Harley?" Rachel asked as she laid in the guest bed. "I am old enough to tuck myself in."

"Well you were rather creeped out when we saw 'Wicked Scary'." Jade chimed in as she tried to fall asleep in her respective bed. "Which, by the way, was a great choice."

"Yet I didn't realize how bad it was for little Ray-Ray and Arty~" Harley wined. "If I had known, then I wouldn't have rented the movie!"

Throughout the film's run, Artemis and Rachel screamed a few times and shook in terror. Some of the adults had asked if the pair would be fine on going to bed right away. Yet the two children responded 'no' as they wanted to brave themselves through.

Quite the cute little troopers.

Though they did try to laugh off the jump scares as it was all for the aspects of fun.

"And this is the reason why you should watch the movie beforehand, in case of anything Harley." Spoke the Uzumaki.

"Says the man who watch the scariest ghost movie ever made because he thought it was a love story." She smirked turning her head to see a blushing Naruto.

"Who in the right mind puts in 'Love Never Dies' as their title?" He said with a pout. "I didn't know it was a crazy guy haunting his last victim that killed him and kills everyone. And ghosts are reasonable to be scared off, you can't touch them and kill them… because they're already dead!" Naruto gained a paled look on his face. "But they can _kill_ you!" He said turning tiny and shivering in the doorway. "Unfair… man… unfair…" But he recovered to smile at Rachel's and Artemis' smiling faces.

He would be the butt of the joke if it meant her smiling.

Hearing the publisher's voice got Jade to move in the guest bed to see him by the doorway. The Crock teen was glad the covers hid most of her face as she blushed when seeing him.

During most of the scary moments of the last movie they watched, she jumped in her seat and landed in Naruto's lap. It felt rather embarrassing for her to happen. And while trying to get off him, the ravenette teen ended up feeling his muscles and a certain pendage in Naruto's pants.

Walking over to Jade's guest bed, Naruto smiled as he leaned forward. "What? Need a goodnight kiss?" He joked, missing Jade's more cherry red face underneath the covers, before she manage to calm down. "Nah~ You're too old for that." He said as he walked over to Artemis and Rachel. "Do you-"

"I'd rather not, Naruto." Artemis said as she scrunched her face as she hugged her Chica plushie. "It's creepy if you did since you're not family."

"Ah~ That's understandable." He muttered before turning to the ashen child "Rachel~?" He whined hoping that his ward would-

"I'm already asleep…" To make the sentence more true, she laid down with her eyes closed trying to pass off as sleeping as her bunny plushie was wrapped in her arm.

"WAAAHH~" The blonde male cried waterfall tears as Harley pat on his back. "No one loves me~"

"Oh don't worry, puddin." Harley said as she wrapped her arms around him. "I love ya." She then leaned forward and captured his lips with hers.

Artemis gave out a brief 'gross' on what she was seeing before turning herself around so she wouldn't see her surrogate aunt kiss her favorite author. And as for Jade, she briefly narrowed her eyes when seeing the action before her.

'Wish I could get that.' Jade thought before turning in the bed to try and enter the realm of sleep sooner.

Once the kiss ended, Naruto went over to Rachel's prone form. Leaning down, he patted her head and leaned forward to whisper something in her ear. "Sweet dreams, Rachel. We'll be sure to celebrate your birthday tomorrow with just you, me, and your 'aunts'; just like you wanted."

"I will…" The girl open her eyes to smile at Naruto before he walked out of the room with Harley not far behind once they turned off the lights.

When it was coming closer to her birthday, Harley had thought on making a fun party to celebrate the occasion. Yet the ashen ward requested not to and wanted it to just be the five of them. Rachel didn't feel comfortable yet in having others know her birthday quite yet and the four adults respected her wishes.

Not even Artemis and Perdita, whom are her closest and bestest friends.

As the couple went towards their guest room, Naruto suddenly felt Harley pull his arm and motioned for them to move faster. "What's the rush, Harley?"

"Oh I just wanted to hurry up and get to bed, puddin." She said with a mischievous smile.

The Uzumaki rose a brow when seeing her expression. He was going to question about it before they got to their assigned from for the night. Harley quickly opened the door and shoved him inside before locking the entrance.

When Naruto regained his balance, the whiskered man saw Pam and Selina… in nurse costumes… on the bed… in provocative poses.

"Wha-" He briefly voiced before seeing Harley in her usual work attire when she's working at Arkham. "Wait. How'd you change from your Harlequin costume and into that so quickly?"

Harley giggled as she pushed Naruto back onto the bed. "That's my secret to tell, puddin." She then looked up and motioned her fellow lovers to crawl towards their boyfriend. "But now, I believe it's time for a well… deserved… check up~" Harley said in a seductive tone as she started rubbing his whiskered cheeks in order for primal growls to emanate from his throat.

Naruto chuckled as he quickly formed a silencing barrier around the room. The Uzumaki figured his three lovers wanted to get onto this turn of the 'rollplay wheel'. All other thoughts were gone as the four enraptured themselves to their pleasure of 'hospital play', amongst several others. And after several rounds of love making, they group fell into a pleasant sleep.

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

 _The birds were chirping as they flew across the skies above the tranquil lands below. The flower beds were blossoming and the trees can never be any greener. The rivers were crystal clear as the waters flowed and the fish swam to and fro. And the land was peaceful and everyone was mary without a care in the world._

 _For this was Azarath: a realm of beauty, peace, and tranquility._

 _The land was practically paradise and one would literally want to sacrifice an arm and a leg in order to enter its borders and live here for the rest of their days._

 _Everyone was happy and enjoyed themselves…_

 _All except one._

 _In a certain part of Azarath, a young child wearing white robes was putting the last finishing touches on the chalk drawing on the ground. Dusting her hands free of the residue, she carefully stepped through the empty gaps in order to not disturb the line work. Once in the center, the child carefully sat down…_

 _In the center of a demonic pentagram._

 _You would wonder what she was doing exactly. To clear things up, the child in question was getting sick and tired of people looking down on her. Practically avoiding her like a plague while not telling her a thing as to their reasons._

 _Closing her eyes, the child channeled the magic inside of her and drew it out. The power slowly came into contact with the pentagram as the white chalk markings started turning red. And it wasn't long before purple flames appeared along the lines._

 _She was bracing for the power to come, but she knew that the others could stop it. She needed to know more about her origins, despite what limited information she got on her father…_

" _Raven! Where are you?!" Cried out a feminine voice. "Where are you my little- Raven! What are you doing?!"_

 _The child snapped open her eyes and looked over to see her mother -who wore a similar white cloak- with a shocked expression on her face._

" _Oh dear God, what have you done?" Spoke the child's mother._

 _Before the child -now identified as Raven- could answer, the wind suddenly started to pick up at a quickened pace. Whirling around, both mother and daughter saw the clouds darkening the sky as the sounds of thunder filled the realm. The earth started to quake and crack all over the place._

 _And before long, a pillar of red hellfire bursted from the very center of Azarath._

 _People started to scream at what has come forth upon their peaceful lands and fled in terror. Though their attempts on fleeing was all for naught as demonic beings shot out of the fiery pillar and started slaughtering the innocent left and right. No one was spared._

 _And before long, four sulfuric yellow eyes peered through as a dark bellowed cackle filed the air._

" _Raven," spoke her mother, "you need to run."_

" _B-But Arella-"_

" _RUN!"_

 _Raven did as her mother commanded as the two fled for their lives. The pair had to block out the varied screams of the citizens of Azarath as it consumed the very air. It was rather dephening once it was mixed with the earthquakes and storms from up above._

 _Looking over to her mother, she saw her hands glow as she was chanting a spell. The ravenette woman did all she can to keep her concentration with what was happening all around them._

" _What are you doing?" Raven asked._

" _Opening a door to Earth." Arella answered. "This place is no longer safe." Raven's mother then blasted the spell several dozen feet away from their position as a white door was formed._

 _The moment the pair were about to enter, a large quake caused them to fall. Briefly looking back, both mother and daughter saw the fiery pillar explode as flames consumed the land._

 _Just when the pair were about to reach the portal, the ground gave way and Arella fell on through._

" _MOMMY!" She cried out as she saw her mother trying to climb herself out._

" _RUN, RAVEN!" She demanded as her grip was starting to slip._

" _NOT WITHOUT YOU!" Yelled out the child as grasped her mother's hands._

 _They were so close into escaping as their door was just a foot away._

 _Looking back, Arella saw the fire was coming closer and closer. Turning around, she saw her only child struggle to pull her free. Gritting her teeth, the ravenette pushed her daughter away as she looked back with widened eyes once she came into contact with the white portal._

" _RUN! AND LIVE!" Arella cried out as white light consumed Raven's vision._

 _And all she last saw of her precious mother was the hellfire consuming her entire form before everything disappeared._

"MOMMY!"

 _ **-Waking World-**_

Rachel lept up in her bed as she gasped for air with the sounds of a storm brewing from outside. While the ashen ward tried to calm down her beating heart, she felt her skin was rather clammy. No doubt from her sweating a cold sweat. Rachel then brought a hand onto her face as she felt the continuous stream of tears flowing down her cheeks.

'It… It was only a dream.' She told herself as she tightened her grip around her arms. 'It's only a distant… memory.' Her hands then went towards the side and reached for an object she had beside her…

Only to realize her bunny plushie wasn't there.

'Must've fallen out of bed.' Rachel thought before looking over to the side of the room and rose a brow. 'I'm… surprised they didn't hear me.'

In the past, when she had suffered nightmares, Rachel was always heard. When she lived on the Gotham streets once coming to this world, she was heard and fled for safety. When she was taken in by the Sewer King and lived underground, she was heard and was punished because of it.

Yet once living under Naruto's care, Rachel was comforted by her guardian and his three girlfriends when she woke up from her nightmares…

The ones which she always cried and apparently screamed every now and again.

...So it was odd for her that neither her current roommates and her newly loved ones didn't rush to her side and comfort her.

Hopping out of the guest bed, Rachel went onto the floor to find Bonnie. Though much to her confusion, the ashen child couldn't find her plushie. Even going to the other side of the bed, just in case.

Yet the same results happened.

'Where could Bonnie have gone?' She thought as she scratched her violet locks. 'Maybe fell underneath the bed. Wouldn't be the first time.' Rachel then walked over to the nearby lamp and flipped the switch- 'Okay… power's out.' She looked through the nearby window to see rain pouring and a flash of lightning. 'No doubt from that.'

The ashen child then wandered the room and slowly opened some nightstand drawers in hopes of finding a flashlight or something close. As she did so, she also checked on Jade and Artemis to see if they were awake from their cries, yet they were still asleep.

'Strange. They're usually light sleepers.' Rachel soon checked the nightstands next to their beds and was able to find a flashlight. Lowering the device, she flipped the switch and saw some light illuminating part of the floor. 'Okay, so this works at least.'

Rachel moved the flashlight around the floor in hopes of finding Bonnie underneath her bed. But the bunny plushie wasn't there at all. This made the ashen child really confused on how it seemingly disappeared. And when she turned around to make her way out of the room and to her guardian's guest room, Rachel saw something else that was rather strange…

Artemis' plushie, Chica, was also missing.

'...I swear I saw it moments ago.'

Shaking her head, Rachel rubbed her temples and made her way towards the bedroom door. Opening it up, she aimed her flashlight into the hallway in order to help find her way. Though when she lifted it up, Rachel paused when she saw something rather large at the end of the hallway just before it rounded the corner.

'What the-'

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard faint scratchings coming from the room's window. Turning around, she saw a shadowy figure trying get in. Coming closer and aiming her flashlight at the window for a better look, the figure disappeared and was replaced by tree branches.

'...I really need to get some sleep. I think I'm starting to see things.' She thought before turning around and almost jumped out of her skin.

Reason being: her bunny plushie seemingly appeared on her guest bed and oddly staring right at her.

'Something is _really_ wrong here.' Coming up to her plushie, Rachel poked it a little and wondered how it seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Not feeling comfortable anymore in being in this guest room, the ashen child made her way to the door. When she was about to exit, Rachel paused her movements and widened her eyes. It was faint, but she swore she heard breathing…

And felt it on her.

Quickly closing the door, Rachel then felt the entrance shaking a little as something was trying to get in. It then started to escalate as banging was heard and felt. She held on as hard as she could to keep the door closed, yet she felt the gateway being roughly pulled open.

With tears now forming in her eyes, Rachel looked back and cried out as loud as she could. "JADE! ARTEMIS! WAKE UP!" The ashen child then saw them shift in their beds and turn over to look at her. The violet haired child felt small hope building that they can help her in this endeavor.

But this went on the decline when she saw their glowing orange-red eyes.

"No…" Rachel whispered in dread.

This bit of distraction caused the child to lose her slack in keeping the door closed. The entrance was roughly pulled open as Rachel came tumbling into the hallway. Shaking her head a little, Rachel looked up and saw red eyes looking down on her.

On a brief bit of instinct, the child aimed her flashlight at the figure and saw a nightmare version of Chica the Chicken. With its several row of razor sharp teeth, metallic claws, rotting exterior and glowing orange-red light coming from it's openings. And on the bib, instead of the words 'Let's Eat', lied an all too familiar of a Nightmare spirit.

 _ **"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!"**_

Reacting to the sudden roar, Rachel bolted down the hallway as Nightmare Chica was chasing right after her. Time when she lived on the streets started to kick in as she slid on the floor several times to get some good distance away while knocking several large objects from the hallway sides in order to stop her pursuer. Yet these weren't enough as the Nightmare Spirit kept on coming.

'If that _thing_ is here, then I must still be sleeping.' Rachel quickly concluded. 'There isn't any other way around it.' Focusing mana into her hand, the ashen child brought it to her mouth and gave a loud whistle.

*FWEET*

Suddenly, two puffs of smoke appeared beside her as she kept running. One was a Komory Bat with it's pink body, yellow fur, green ears and purple feet. The other was a Majik Lapin with it's purple body, orange face and ears and blue clothing.

"I need help guys!" She spoke out.

Without any further instructions, the Komory Bat quickly latched onto it's summoner's back and took off at a faster speed. Seeing the child take off, the Majik Lapin quickly bounced off the walls and kicked the Chica Nightmare away. As the pursuer stumbled back, it was then blasted further away by the Dream bunny's Sparkga spell -which consisted of three rings of light crystals- before the Dream Spirit ran away to catch up to Rachel and it's comrad.

As Rachel kept flying through the halls -courtesy of the Dream bat- she wondered how to escape this dream. The young ward wasn't all that knowledgeable on the subject, but it didn't mean she can't keep trying and trying.

Even if that meant navigating through the manor's ever changing hallways.

 _ **-With Naruto-**_

"...This is a bunch of fucking BULLSHIT!" Naruto growled out as he held the door closed. He then heard something from the other side of the room. "What the fuck is up with the steppy steps?!" He rushed over to the other side of the room and quickly kicked a Nightmare Bonnie out into the hallway. "QUIT STIP STEPPIN' ALL OVER THE PLACE!" Yelled the Uzumaki before rushing to the closet as he saw the door move.

...This was not a great way for Naruto to wake up to at whatever time it was. The power was out so he had an awkward time finding the bathroom to relieve himself. And his cellphone battery ended up dying on him all of a sudden so he couldn't figure that out.

 _ **"▄▅▄▅▂▂-!"**_

"Fuck! YOU!" Naruto said as he quickly closed the closet doors. "Just stay! Stay! Stay!" The Uzumaki then heard the bedroom doors shake a little. He was about to leave his spot before he yelled at the closet. "YOU STAY THE FUCK IN THERE FOXY!"

...And when he tried to get back into bed, that was when he started noticing several things were awry.

For one, his girlfriends somehow disappeared all of a sudden. Two, these nightmare versions of Freddy Fazbear animatronics started to show up out of nowhere. Third, said animatronics started to go all fucking nuts on him and almost gave him several heart attacks all of a sudden.

So having to figure things out rather quickly on holding these things back was not fun -AT ALL!- in this fear induced nightmare.

Insert sarcastic hooray here…

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" Naruto cried out as he tossed a lamp at the Nightmare Freddy. Though this act seemed to piss off the fucking scary bear from Hell. "You know what? FUCK THIS!" The reverted Uzumaki lept into the air, quickly formed a Rasengan and slammed it into the nightmare monstrocity.

The results were quite noticeable as N. Freddy was blasted through a wall and fell onto the ground with a large hole in its chest. And without needing to see the further results, Naruto bolted and ran like Hell through the hallways in order to escape these things.

"I don't care if Bruce will get pissed if I destroyed parts of his home." He muttered as he neared a corner. "Dream or reality, I don't want to- OOMPH!"

Naruto fell onto the ground with some weight colliding onto him. Shaking his head, the Uzumaki regained his vision before looking down his chest to see Rachel lying on his chest. And he knew it was her, instead of some figment of his imagination, as he saw two Dream spirits near her.

"Rachel! Are you okay?!" The ashen child lifted her head up and saw her guardian. She instantly hugged him tightly as he patted her head in a comforting manner. "Hey, it's okay. I'm here."

"Bu-But how are you here?" She asked before being brought onto her feet. "I-I thought I was the only one."

"I thought the same thing." He said as he narrowed his eyes. "We'll need to leave this place." Closing his eyes, Naruto focused on trying to get him and his ward to the waking world… but something was wrong.

It's as if _someone_ or _something_ was blocking their attempts to leave.

He was going to voice this concern right away when he saw one of those Nightmare Animatronics stampeding right towards them. Quickly pushing Rachel behind him, Naruto brought out his ice shield before slamming it into the ground. Chilled spikes bursted out of the floor, struck the Nightmare and ensnared it.

 _ **"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!"**_

Getting a good look of the Nightmare, Naruto yelled at it. "Yeah keep yelling and fighting, you overgrown chicken! You won't-" He then saw the ice breaking. "Okay~ We should get going now."

Seeing what her guardian was referring to, Rachel nodded as the pair ran with her Dream Spirits right behind them. "Do you have any idea how to get out of here?" She asked.

"Normally it would either be naturally waking up or forcing ourselves to do so." Naruto answered as they rounded the corner and came across several imp-like Nightmare Freddies. Quickly switching his shield for his Void Shots, he fired upon them as they disintegrated away. "Though something is keeping us here."

"So if we take care of the problem, then we wake up?"

"Pretty much."

When the pair was rushing through another ever changing corridor, something bursted out from one of the nearby doorways. It briefly looked like the Nightmare Foxy Naruto encountered in his 'guest room' earlier. Yet there were several differences: it's white fur, pinkish face and it's mangled robotic body with seemingly a second smaller head.

 _ **"▄▅▄▅▂▂-!"**_

The Mangled Nightmare was quickly silenced by Naruto quickly leaping in the air and kicking the animatronics face away. The Uzumaki then grasped it's second head and with a hard yank, the disfigured skull was ripped out of the body. The Mangled Nightmare reared back and roared at the whiskered man, but was silenced by him shoving the detached head into its mouth.

"Doggy woggy woggy ain't gonna bark no more!"

When it tried to remove it's severed second head from it's mouth, with it's extra limbs, Naruto quickly brought out his scythe and sliced the Nightmare in half. It's pieces fell onto the floor and disbursed into darkened smoke with hints of burnt ash on the ground.

"Doggy woggy woggy, shut the hell up!" Naruto said as he, his ward and the two Dream Spirits moved forward.

"That could've been said better." Said the ashen child.

"Huh?"

"That… thing wasn't really a dog, it was a fox."

"...Foxes are related to dogs, Rachel."

"Regardless, the rhyme could've been better or something."

Naruto rolled his eyes at this.

They kept their guard while occasionally looking back as they ran in case of any of the Nightmare's tried to ambush them from behind. As the little group progressed forward, the two humans picked up on a faint sound in the air. They paused in the hallway in order to focus more on the sound.

"Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Do you hear… an ice cream truck?"

The Uzumaki rose a brow at this. It did indeed sound like an ice cream truck tune, but that didn't make any sense. "I think it's more of a music box, Rachel. Same kind of music, but not in the right kind of field. Honest mistake."

Rachel nodded on the slight bit of error. "But why are we hearing this now?"

Naruto was about to answer when some things bursted from the darkness and tried to attack the pair. The Dream Spirits were the first to react as they rushed ahead and collided with the attackers. The Komory Bat and Majik Lapin writhed in pain as the small Nightmares tried to get rid of them.

Not wanting her Dream Spirits to be harmed any further, Rachel thrusted her arms forward and cried out a spell. "Thunder!" Sparks of lightning shot from her palms and collided against the Nightmares. Instead of the Dream Spirits, it was now the attackers that writhed in pain before letting go and falling onto the ground.

"Nice spell, Rachel. No doubt from Jason." Her guardian complimented as they bent down to inspect the Nightmares. They appeared to be little plain ballerina dolls with the Nightmare symbol pasted onto their chests. Sparks still surrounded their figures, but disbursed into darkened vapors once the spell fully destroyed them. "Glad that I didn't get you dolls for your birthday."

"Glad that you did." Rachel muttered as they stood back up. "Would've donated them right away after this. Either that or used them for target practice."

Her guardian nodded, but made a mental note to tell Harley to do a gift exchange in the morning. 'And such a shame too.' Naruto thought. 'She really wanted to get Rachel that American Girl doll and those Barbie dolls.'

The pair could still hear the faint music in the air and it seemed to get louder as they went through certain hallways and rooms. It was as if whoever was behind this was leading them somewhere.

During this time, the pair still kept their guards up as they were still assaulted by several Nightmare versions of Freddy Fazbear animatronics. Some were recognizable while others seemed different in their animal themed style. There were handfuls of 'toy' looking Nightmares like a balloon boy and other dolls, spectral/phantom ones (which Naruto cried like a girl when encountering them), some coming from a zoo like elephants and pigs, and there were even ones that seemed to be scraped rejects.

The human pair and Dream Spirits fought against each and every one that they came across. Whether it be by Rachel's spells, the Dreams' attacks or Naruto's weapons; none stood in their way with various forms of difficulty.

By the time they found the source, it was coming from inside of the Wayne Manor ballroom.

As they approached the doors, Naruto turned to his ward. "Be sure to get ready for whatever's inside, Rachel." He said, getting her to nod. The Uzumaki then looked over at the Komory Bat and Majik Lapin before clicking his tongue. 'Might have so summon more of those once inside.'

With things now set for them, Naruto opened the doors as they entered the ballroom. Once passing through, the doors suddenly shut themselves behind the group in a loud *BANG*. The ashen child was briefly startled but tried to compose herself.

It was then that the music suddenly stopped to fill the darkened room with an eerie ambiance. And if that wasn't enough to boost the creep factor, a soft hushed female voice was spoken what seemed to be everywhere. _"Have you had fun with the birthday game?"_

The voice sent a chill down the spines of the guardian/ward pair. Wanting to be brave, Rachel called out into the darkness. "Show yourself!"

" _...As you wish."_

Suddenly a spotlight appeared from out of nowhere as an animatronic lied within it. The guardian/ward pair saw the robot was reminiscent of a female clown. It had auburn hair in high pigtails on either side of her head. The eyes were bright neon green with long, blue eyelashes, short blue eyebrows and matching eyeshadow. It's thin red mouth was opened in a wide smile revealing small, flat endoskeleton teeth. The cheeks were large, round, and red that matched the squarish nose.

Part of the midsection was exposed, revealing a metal fan surrounded by an orange triangle with rounded points. The limbs have silver segments in rectangular shapes and its hands have red palms. The fingertips appear to be ball-jointed and aren't sealed, revealing shiny silver underneath. It's knees have round, shiny, silver caps, and parts of the limbs have what appear to be blue pins sticking out of them.

For the robot's clothing, it wore a red crop top with frills on the shoulders and a matching, frilly, red skirt. Its footwear were jester shoes with golden bells placed at it's tips. And lastly, the robot is holding a microphone in it's left hand.

" _Hello."_ Spoke the clown-themed animatronic. _"My name is Baby."_

Naruto kept his eye on this 'Baby' and felt something was really off about this entity. His eyes looked for anything that was amiss until he saw something shimmer from her limbs. The Uzumaki thought it was just it's metallic surface.

That was until he saw it traveled upwards and into the darkness like a very small thread.

'Something is up there.' He thought before traveling back at the animatronic in front of them. "Hello." Naruto said as he motioned for Rachel to slowly get behind him. "I believe your the one keeping us here?"

" _You can say that."_ Came the vague answer.

"And why are you doing this?"

" _To get some entertainment before proceeding to my objective."_

"You've got a sick way of doing thinking what we went through was _fun_." Rachel spoke up from behind her guardian.

" _We all have our forms of entertainment."_ Was Baby's response. _"Mine just so happens to see others struggle through fright and nightmares."_

Neither Naruto or Rachel liked hearing this comment as they seemed to be more at the edge.

" _Now then. I believe you both don't want to be beaten around the bush any longer, correct?"_

"Yeah, like why trap us here in the first place." Naruto demanded.

Baby moved her head over slightly to put more focus on the guardian. _"It really wasn't going to be this way, if little Rachel was all by herself."_ The ashen child stiffen at this. _"If you didn't come in contact with her, then this would've been so much easier. But you… complicated things more than you realize."_

'What the hell does she mean by that?' Thought the Uzumaki as he briefly looked back to see Rachel's confused face.

" _I'll make things short and simple. Fully surrender the child -of everything- and you may leave."_ Demanded the circus themed animatronic.

"I will not." Naruto instantly said as he stared down at Baby.

The circus themed animatronic then lurched forward as a dark miasma came from up above and latched onto it before surrounding its form. Loud sounds of metal groaning was heard as the body started to change. The guardian/ward pair then heard the animatronic shriek a ghastly wail before the miasma disappeared to reveal the Nightmare's new appearance.

Baby took on more of a scraped form as it was more terrifying. Her hair was more human-like and her pigtails are slightly shorter. On her chest, she seems to have been mish-mashed with some electric panels. Her right hand was replaced with a giant metal claw. Her jester shoes were replaced by roller skates. And to finish her appearance, her face gained a cracked demonic look as her eyes glowed with a hellfire red fire in her sockets.

" _ **Then we shall take her by FORCE AND KILL YOU!"**_ Came a demonic voice that truly matched the Scrapped animatronic Nightmare's form.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance: The Dread of Night-**_

As if a signal was given, the lights around the ballroom started lighting up to reveal the room was covered with a variety of Nightmares with the animatronic style the pair seen so far in this dream. With more light's present, Naruto saw the shimmers from their bodies as they were leading towards the darkened ceiling.

The publisher would have time to figure out what's exactly up there, but for now he and Rachel had work to do.

With a wave of his free hand, Naruto summoned a pair of Dream Spirits to stand by his side. One was an Electricorn while the second was a Flowbermeow. The later had an appearance of a cross between a cat and a dog with a horn on top of it's head. As for it's tail, it had a flower on its end.

Without any further notice, the animatronic Nightmares ran towards their targets with their respective yells and screeches.

The Dream spirits were the first to react in order to help their summoners. The Komory Bat latched onto Rachel's back and flew her into the air. This gave the rabbit spirit to hop around and started firing elemental spells like Blizzard, Fire and Thunder at every other direction. The Electricorn followed suit by leaping over every other Nightmare and striking them in varied manners, whether it be through Thunder spells or piercing them with it's jagged horn. As for the Flowbermeow, it merely bounced around and struck down several animatronic Nightmares with it's massive weight once it grew in size.

While flying around via Komory Bat express, Rachel was firing magic attacks while dodging the Nightmares' attacks by either trying to grab her or firing dark energy blasts. She was knocked out of the air a few times, due to the Nightmares' sonic screech attacks, but Rachel recovered as she focused mana throughout her body in order to heal herself.

Bringing her limbs together, she built up much of her mana as she chanted her signature spell. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" And with glowing white eyes, Rachel unleashed a large, dark energy attack that incinerated a good number of animatronic Nightmares.

Panting from the attack, the ashen child was about to move once more before her Komory Bat was struck from behind. This caused her Dream Spirit to let her go. Rachel quickly moved upright and reinforced her body with mana to handle the landing on the ground. Shaking her head from the fall, the purplette saw Scrap Baby landing not far away from her.

With a demented smile, the clown-themed Nightmare spoke. _**"Would the birthday girl like a balloon?"**_ It's chest compartment then opened up and shot a claw out in hopes of ensnaring the ashen child.

"Not from you!" Rachel growled out as she fired several mana blasts from her hands to knock the chest claw away. "And I already have balloons, you clown reject!" Quickly focusing mana, she called out a spell. "Balloonra!"

A cluster of multi-colored energy balloons quickly formed in front of the child. She quickly struck them as they shot all over the place before Rachel was picked up by her Bat spirit and flew off. In the Nightmares' wakes, they were stunned once the energy balloons came into contact with them, leaving them wide open to the Dream Spirits and Naruto's attacks.

Speaking of, the Uzumaki was zooming all over the place as he threw his Foundre daggers all over the room. Everywhere he teleported to, Naruto quickly struck the Nightmares with his Kazekage lances. He did summersault and roll out of the way every so often before kicking and stabbing at every other Nightmare in order to kill multiple ones.

Yet they seemed to be endless in their endeavor.

He was going to move again when he quickly grabbed a demonic looking cupcake as it tried to bite his head off. Moving his head over to a Nightmare Chica, Naruto dashed forward and yelled. "Take your nightmarish cupcake from Hell and shove it up your ass!"

The Uzumaki then shoved both the Cupcake Nightmare and an exploding Fair Play card into the robotic chicken's gullet before kicking it away. It tried to pry both out, but it's head exploded before disbursing into dark vapors.

Landing back onto the ground, the whiskered guardian heard a growl from behind. Turning around, he saw Scrap Baby seemingly glaring at him. _**"You're making this harder than it should be."**_

"Good." He said with mirth in his voice. "Shows that it'll take much more to take us down."

" _ **Indeed."**_

The Scrap Baby leaped forward with it's claw aimed at the Uzumaki. Naruto wasn't fast enough as it's scrapped claw latched onto the human's head. It squeezed and squeezed as it cackled a dark laugh while Naruto screamed in pain.

But before the Scrapped animatronic Nightmare could savor the victory, Naruto disbursed into smoke.

" _ **WHA-"**_

"SURPRISE BITCH!" Came Naruto's sudden call as he struck down the Nightmare with his Kazekage lance. The animatronic Nightmare screamed in pain before disbursing into dark vapors. "Heh~ Gotta love clone replacements."

Looking up, Naruto glared at the darkened ceiling and could start seeing an outline of a large Nightmare. It was hard to make out on its body, but it's face was oddly simple. Asides from the Nightmare symbol on its forehead; it's face was lightish grey, had purple tear streaks, red lips covering sharpened teeth and beady white eyes in the blackened eye sockets.

And with the strings of light coming from the Nightmares up towards the ceiling made the publisher think it was a demented marionette puppeteer.

'That must be the Nightmare controlling all of these things and behind all of this.' He thought before turning his head around to see Rachel was struggling against some Nightmares. Rushing over to her position, Naruto kicked several opponents away.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome, Rachel." He said before he made a clone and had it quickly formed a barrier around them.

"What are you doing?" She asked. "They'll over power and surround us."

"I know." He responded before he quickly called the Dream Spirits to enter the safety barrier. "But answer me this: Do you see something above us?"

Looking up, she shivered when seeing the creepy looking face staring down at them. "Yeah..."

"Good." He held out his hand and formed a Rasengan in his palm. "I'm gonna take that out."

"Why?"

"Asides from being a large target. I believe that's the puppetmaster of our current situation."

Rachel nodded before she felt an odd shift in the confined space as her hair seemed to stand on their ends. Looking over to her guardian, she saw his Rasengan started to change from it's purple color into bluish white with sparks forming around the sphere. It started expanding and formed itself into giant arrow with the sphere placed in the center of the arrowhead.

She looked on with bewilderment and asked the obvious question that came to mind. "What… is that?"

Naruto merely smirked as he grasped the arrow shaft. "Something I really wanted to try out for a long time now after training my butt off." Sparks started to heat up the confined space as his smirk grew wider, despite on how weak he was starting to feel by draining much of his power. "I'd like to introduce to you my lightning style Rasengan: Rasen-Yajirushi! (Spiral Arrow)!"

Without any warning, the clone quickly opened a hole in the barrier. With the opening, the original used a lot of his strength to throw his new attack up into the darkened ceiling. The barrier quickly sealed itself up as the clone reinforced it greatly while the animatronic Nightmares kept trying to get on through.

Yet they should've stopped the arrow of lightning as it impacted the hidden Nightmare in the ceiling and a large explosion formed right after.

 _ **"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!"**_

It was really hard to hear the screams coming from the Marionette Nightmare as the lightning storm consumed the room. Lightning struck down many Nightmares as they were vaporized on the spot.

It was so loud that Rachel had to cover her ears so she wouldn't become deaf. Though it helped as her Majik Lapin covered her ears with its cushiony and floppy ears.

Looking around the area, Rachel looked on at amazement. 'Holy… He infused that Rasengan with Lightning and actually shaped into something other than a shuriken.' She thought on the past times she trained in the Dreaming and saw Naruto use his Rasenshuriken attack. 'I didn't think that was possible.'

As the storm subsided, all of the Nightmares on the ballroom floor were gone while the darkness on the ceiling disbursed. Wasn't much longer as the Marionette Nightmare fell and collided onto the ground rather hard as sparks radiated off it's form.

Dropping the barrier, Naruto stalked towards the fallen Nightmare and kicked it down as it tried to get back up. Before it could try to get back up once more, the Uzumaki stomped on it's chest. "Now… I'm gonna ask this once: Why do you want Rachel?!" Naruto demanded.

It didn't respond right away but was rewarded by being kicked across it's face, resulting in forming a massive crack across it's masked surface.

"TELL US!"

" _ **Fo-oor,"**_ it started out in a shaky tone, _**"th-thee maast-t-t-terrrr-rrr."**_

And without any warning, the Nightmare seemed to combust in flames as the Marionette was consumed by it. Naruto had to quickly move away so the fire won't latch onto him. Even having to jump back a good distance as the flames seemed to grow and formed something on the ground before dying out. Being curious on what the scorch marks formed, Naruto formed a card platform beneath him and Rachel and lifted themselves up into the air.

What they saw was an oddly stylized _**'S'**_ with several other marks surrounding it.

'No…' Rachel thought out with widened eyes. 'Not him…'

Her reaction was noticed by her guardian as he saw her shake with fear. "Rachel?" He slowly came up to her while lowering the card platform to the ground. "Rachel, what's wrong?" She didn't answer him at all, yet her expression alone made him realize she knew something he didn't. Slowly holding onto her, his ward quickly finished it by latching onto him like a lifeline. "Please. Tell me what's wrong."

"I-It's him." She muttered in the hug. "It's him."

"Who?"

"...My father."

Naruto blinked in confusion as many questions formed in his mind: Who exactly is her father? Why did those Nightmares go to such lengths in trying to get her? Why was he trapped here as well if they just wanted his ward?

He was going to ask this until the pair saw a blinding white light in realizing that they were finally waking up.

"Rachel." He said in getting her attention. "You can tell me what's going on in the real world." She shook her head 'no' as a response. "I told you I won't judge on who you are as I deeply care for you. You're my family and I'll do everything I can to keep you safe and happy. If it makes you feel any better, this can just stay between us. And if it helps, I'll tell you of my real past as I feel we have much in common."

Rachel briefly nodded as tears were streaming down her cheeks. "O-Okay."

Naruto smiled as the light consumed them and returned to the waking world in order to celebrate Rachel's birthday.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Now you readers might be a little confused on what I was doing on this chapter. Had a little inspiration on the 'Holiday Knights' episode from the DCAU when doing this Halloween-eske chapter. And the final part of the chapter was honestly challenging for me with what I decided to use and I hope ya'll like it.**

 **Not only that, but I needed to focus on some characters that haven't really been looked at all that often like Jade, Artemis and Rachel with some build up on Barbara. Hell I even needed to do more action with Dick/Robin as he hasn't done all that much in my story if you ask me. Even if it's not much on each, I did my best on them.**

 **With the combat from earlier in the chapter, I do want to remind you readers that Barbara is a complete novice as she doesn't have proper fighting training. Do note she does have police training via her father and surrogate family with the GCPD. But in terms of actual fighting skill as Batgirl is hardly existent at this point. She will get more as time moves on. I just needed to point this out as her ass will be handed to her until she can handle on her own. Though all she will somewhat have to rely on at the current time is her current skills and luck.**

… **..**

 **I've also gone back to 'Smoke and Mirrors' and did some changes towards the end. Had finally come up with a better way on getting Talia to find Naruto's secret identity. When I was originally writing the ending, my mind wasn't fully functioning as I was doing it late at night. The portion I added did come across my mind at the time and I thought it wouldn't work. Yet surprise, surprise it actually did.**

… **..**

 **On some light news on my end, I got a job.**

 **Mind you readers it's just a Summer/temporary job, but a job nonetheless. It's going to be starting next week till the end of June. This will give me plenty of time to find a more permanent job by the end of it's run.**

 **So at the time, I'm still not really out of the woods just yet.**

 **Also… INFINITY WAR WAS AWESOME! Words cannot describe how I feel about it and I can't wait to see how the next films that lead up to Infinity War Pt. 2 will affect said movie.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	52. Batgirl Begins

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 48: Batgirl Begins**

It was a cold night as crime was afoot. It is a constant and is everywhere no matter where it hides. High or low, it's eventually found when you look hard enough.

Especially when you look at the warehouse district where it's happens quite often.

Inside of the export building, struggling crime lord Rupert Thorne was supervising an operation. He was doing this in hopes of possibly acquiring the necessary funds and product to get back into the game. It was rather harsh once he got out of prison several months ago through questionable means.

Rupert thought things would've been easier for him when several crime lords were taken out of the picture in the past months. These included a boarding school director named Faye 'Ma' Gunn, Vinnie Ricorso and Louie the Lilac. Yet because of how easy many of the mentioned crime lords were taken down, Rupert realized he was now having a much harder time to run his operations.

This is the reason why Thorne had to come here with only a handful of his hired lackies. He had to keep his kept funds tight and secure while being extra careful on his operations.

'God, I wish this could be a simple run.' Rupert thought before he heard one of his hired men yelp in fright.

"Dammit." A goon muttered as he finished prying off a crate lid. "This place gives me the creeps."

"Heh. No kidding." Spoke a second one. "Why do we gotta do this stuff in the middle of the flipping night?"

Getting tired of their yammering, Thorne came up to them and growled as he caused them to jump in their spots. "Maybe you'd prefer moving contraband in broad daylight when the cops might notice."

"Jeez, boss. You shouldn't sneak up on guys like that." Complained the first goon. 

"Just get this stuff loaded." Ordered the crime lord as he started walking away. "I never liked this place."

Just when he made it several feet away, lights were blared into the warehouse from the outside. The little gang looked over in response before hearing someone speak through speakers. "This is the police! We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up!"

'Dammit!' Thorne growled in thought before looking at his hired goons. "I can't be seen here.  
Hold them off." He said before running to the nearby ladder without seeing the goons' response.

As he was climbing towards the roof, Rupert heard the police breaking through the warehouse entrance with gunfire heard soon after. Once on the rooftop, the struggling crime lord jogged to the skylight and saw his hired men were now in cuffs and escorted away.

'I _never_ liked this place.' Came Thorne's thought as he tried to look around for a proper way to escape.

Yet his action came to a halt when he saw a pair of all too familiar shadows sweeping over his form.

Quickly pulling out his gun, Rupert started firing rounds into the darkness as he made a break for it. "Come on, then!" He yelled out. "You're not taking Rupert Thorne without a fight!"

The crime lord rushed for some cover before peaking over to see if the coast was clear. There was no activity at all for several moments and briefly thought he was fine to leave. But as he was about to flee for safety, he saw the Dark Knight standing several feet away.

"You!" Growled the crime lord as he pointed his gun at the bat-themed hero. Looking the other way, Rupert saw Vanitas to show he's now cornered. "If I gotta go down, I'm taking you two with me!"

As the sounds of gunfire was heard once more, the police bursted through the rooftop entrance doors. They carefully moved around so neither of them would get hurt by any stray bullets.

When Gordon was moving forward with his glock in his hand, he looked over and held a man back. "Careful, Gil." The commissioner warned. "Thorne is a tricky fellow."

Gil Mason is a tall, red haired man in his late twenties. He had strong features with seemingly cold blue eyes as he wore his bullet proof vest over his clothes. Gil rose through the ranks with lots of blood, sweat and tears before gaining the position as the deputy commissioner of the GCPD.

The deputy commissioner nodded in agreement before yelling out into the darkness. "Don't make this hard on yourself, Thorne! Step out where we can see you!"

There was no response at all as the rooftop was placed in an eerie silence.

When the officers roamed the area, Bullock was the one to respond first. "Hey! I found him!"

The group ran to Bullock's position and saw the tied up and unconscious form of Rupert Thorne. The crime lord was lying on the ground with what appeared to be Vanitas' scarf. And sticking out of the material was a blank card with a pair of chibi drawings of Batman and Vanitas saying 'Enjoy your gift'.

Chuckling to himself, Gordon put his gun away. "Don't you just love it when they give them to you gift wrapped?" He rhetorically asked as he motioned the officers to cuff the unconscious man.

 _ **-Morning, Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

" _...The deputy commissioner, Gil Mason, who last night was instrumental in capturing Rupert Thorne."_ Spoke the news anchor, Summer Gleeson. _"Mason attributed the incriminating evidence against Thorne to a mysterious informant."_

The footage was then switched to seeing Gil Mason speaking to the camera in front of the GCPD. _"...And the commissioner and I won't rest until every crime kingpin hustler and two-bit crook is off the streets!"_ Was all the man said as many supporters cheered the man on. 

The TV set was then turned off by Naruto as he heard a resounding 'Hey!' from his blonde girlfriend. "Aren't you supposed to go to work soon, Harley?"

"Yes, I am, puddin." She responded before _trying_ to snatch the remote from his grasp, yet failing. "I was just catching up on the news."

"Sure, you were."

"But c'mon~ You gotta admit that Rupert Thorne back in jail would bring a smile to your face." Harley said as she stood up from the couch. "I can even imagine Brucey doing the same thing."

"True, but I'd love to know who this mysterious informant is." Said the publisher. "I mean, this is the forth ganglord Mason's brought down in as many months."

The Arkham psychologist nodded in agreement. "Yeah~ It's quite alarming. But do you have any ideas who it is?" She saw her boyfriend shake his head 'no'. "Then does Kurama?"

Naruto groaned a little as he rubbed the bridge between his eyes. "I think he does, but doesn't want to tell me when I went to see him last night before taking Thorne down."

This got Harley to adopt a confused look. "Why wouldn't he tell ya, Naru?"

"Kurama said that I ran out of the 'favors' he owed me." He said with an eye roll. "I call bull on that and think he does know who the man is, but doesn't want to sell him out."

"Ain't that annoying."

"Yeah, but the old fuzzbutt seemed happy when learning Thorne was going back to jail and even on the others that was put away."

"How so?"

Naruto scratched his silver hair when answering. "If I remember correctly, they were some crime lords that didn't sign on with Kurama and I think he just wanted to get rid of the competition that he was _neutral_ with."

Harley shrugged before grabbing her purse. "Regardless, if this continues, you might even be forced into taking a vacation from crime fighting."

He chuckled before he was brought into a chaste kiss. "Hope you have a good day at work, Harl."

"You too."

"And are you still gonna head over to Gordons after work?"

"Yeup~" She said with a smirk. "Gotta say, once again, that it still feels rewarding teaching such a fine pupil. Not to mention that I look forward to the tasty meal afterwards."

"Well don't kill her like the last several times."

"Oh, I won't." Was all she said as she headed towards the door. "Anyways, give Rachel my hugs before she goes to school today."

"I will." 

Once Harley was out of the door, Naruto went up the stairs to check up on his ward.

It's been two weeks since Rachel's birthday and things have been rather _iffy_ since then. Celebrating her birthday was quite good with just him, his girlfriends and the ashen ward. Nothing bad really happened, but Naruto saw Rachel was having a hard time keeping things contained on her special day.

But once the pair were in the Dreaming, the floodgates Rachel held back broke loose as she told her tale.

Naruto learned that she was born in an inter-dimensional realm called Azarath after her mother was taken by some of its resident monks from Jump City. They were peaceful folk that wanted to help protect the realms. But they took notice of Angela/Arella Roth once she was pregnant with Rachel and had to take them both to safety.

Reason being: Angela got impregnated by a demon. Not just any demon, but a Demonic War-God named Trigon.

Obviously, Naruto was floored and skeptic on there being such a title. This caused the Uzumaki to seek out Jason Blood if he knew of anything…

And~ Naruto wished he could've done a far better approach.

 _ **-Flashback-**_

" _Naruto."_

" _Yeah?"_

" _I do feel rather offended you came to me in asking about the subject."_

 _Naruto rose a brow in confusion. "How so?"_

" _Because you bluntly asked if I had known about Rachel's father because of Etrigan being my 'roommate'." Was Jason's response. "I… I somewhat feel that was rather racist."_

" _...Eh…"_

" _You could've just asked me since I'm an occult and demonologist expert. Yet you, came here and asked on what I knew… because of Etrigan."_

" _...Uhhhhhhhhhhhh… Sorry?"_

 _Jason pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed. "I'll forgive you on this as long as you don't do it again."_

 _Naruto nodded so fast that he could've imitated a bobble head._

" _I mean, I already knew of Trigon before becoming Etrigan's mortal vessel."_

" _Really? How?"_

" _By being Merlin's personal scribe."_

 _Naruto blinked in confusion before letting out a surprised 'EH~!'._

" _Yes, I was." Jason chuckled out as he went into a little bit of nostalgia. "It was my first job when I started living in Camelot before I became a Knight in Arthur's court. It was a great honor as I learned quite a lot of spells and had a better understanding of both the occult and demons." He then had a downcasted look. "Though when Camelot fell, I took possession of all that I could take with me from Merlin's tower so no one would be corrupted from such great power."_

" _Huh… Would've thought you got into magic after being Etrigan's roommate."_

 _Jason nodded in understanding before recomposing himself and went back to the topic at hand. "Now, what do you know about Trigon?"_

 _Getting into a serious expression, the former shinobi answered. "Only as much on what Rachel knows and had told me like Azarath, how she found out about her father and how her home was destroyed."_

" _Then what about of him being a Demonic War-God that invaded, conquered and corrupted all of the worlds he came across." Jason said with a straight face. "Whom has grown stronger with each conquest. Commands a large portion of the Hell dimension. And his gluttony for ruling all life would never be sated."_

 _Naruto swallowed a little lump in his throat. "Yes on the first bit, but not on the last three."_

" _Then I have the unfortunate news that they're all true." It felt like a large weight was placed onto Naruto's chest when hearing this from Jason. "Mind telling me how this came up? I didn't think Rachel would tell you about this so soon."_

 _It was then Naruto spoke of the details on how he and Rachel were trapped in the Dreaming… once telling the immortal man what it was from his knowledge from Dream of the Endless. Fighting through various Nightmares that were controlled by an unknown force. And by it's end, the one_ _ **'S'**_ _sigil was burnt into the ground which caused the ward to be very weary._

" _Hmm, yes. The Mark of Skath: his signature symbol with his cult of worshippers."_

" _So was it Trigon himself or one of his followers that got Rachel and I trapped in there?"_

 _Jason adopted a thinking pose before responding. "Hard to say. If I could've been there, then I would've figured things out a whole lot better. But all I can say now that Rachel is going to be targeted more frequently as the next several years pass on by."_

 _A small feeling of dread crept over the Uzumaki before asking the simple question. "Why?"_

" _You see, Naruto, Trigon can't just fully come into a world on his own power. He needs a gateway to get him through. Trigon would only appear for a brief time in order to spread his influence and create a gem."_

" _...I'm sorry, but what?"_

 _Coughing into his hand, Jason recited a poem-like prophecy. "The Gem was born of evil's fire. The Gem shall be his portal. He comes to claim. He comes to sire. The end of all things mortal." Once he was done, the immortal man saw the Uzumaki look on with a bit more confusion, causing him to explain. "Thing is, Naruto, in order for Trigon to come into the world is for him to create a 'gem' and use said 'gem' as his passageway here."_

 _Naruto looked away as he slowly processed this. It took some moments to piece things together before dread crept over him once more. Looking back at his ward's teacher, the Uzumaki tried to voice his revelation. "Y-You mean… Rachel…"_

" _Yes." Jason grimly said. "Trigon uses his spawn as his gateways."_

" _...Is there anyway to stop this?"_

" _I wish I knew, Naruto. All we could do is hopefully prepare in time for his arrival and figure things out before then. And it's really tough to know when she is ready to become the portal."_

" _What do you mean?"_

" _From what I do know, each of Trigon's children are ready to become his portals to each respective world when they are between the ages of 14 and 18. And it's really hard to tell as each vary when they're at the proper time to have that occur."_

" _But Rachel just turned eleven!"_

" _Then that means we have either three to seven years to get ready for his arrival."_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

...Along with the fact that now Naruto was going to become more protective of his ward as he'll go through Hell and back to keep her safe from her _father_.

Now Rachel was really scared when sign of her father started rearing his ugly head, even if it was just by his signature sigil. She didn't want to leave her new home with the people deeply caring for her.

Yet Naruto felt saddened when hearing all of this information and comforted her before telling his true past to her. From the very day he was born to how he came into this world. He did not leave anything out and by the time he was done, the guardian/ward pair felt much closer than before.

Coming to his ward's bedroom, he knocked and opened to see Rachel finish getting dressed with Isis walking out of the bedroom

"Hey, you ready, Rachel?"

"Just about." Was her response. "Just need to have breakfast."

Naruto nodded as the pair soon descended the stairs and went to the kitchen. "Any preference you want?"

"Just yogurt and granola. Not really hungry this morning."

The publisher got the desired food items to her before he started working on her lunch for the day. Wasn't long after till he got Isis' bowl filled with cat food.

"Hey, Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"When will Selina and Pam get back?" She said before eating a spoonful of her breakfast.

"They did leave for some stuff for their jobs two days ago." He reminded her. "So they won't be back till later this week."

With Pam, she was out of town -on Dr. Cruz's orders- to acquire more plants for the botanical garden. There was someone from out of the country that wanted to donate several rare species to the establishment. But said person wanted to meet a representative from the Gotham gardens to see if it's actually worth it.

With Selina, she's out for a business opportunity but not much was mentioned as to what it was exactly. It was rather sketchy, yet the ravenette took the job out of boredom. But she did promise she'll be careful.

Rachel nodded as she went back into her morning meal as her guardian was finishing up her lunch before taking her to school for the day.

 _ **-Evening, Gordon Residence-**_

"...Okay Babs, let's see the routine."

Barbara nodded at Harley's order as she stood some feet away from the balance beam. She wore a simple gymnastic outfit as it was primarily light purple in color from the neck to her wrists and lower waist. With her legs, it was a simple light nylon color that merely darkened her leg color slightly while wearing a pair of black gymnastic shoes. And to finish off her appearance, Barbara wore contacts so her glasses would stay off for her practice with her hair put into a high ponytail.

Her attire hugged her fit and slim figure extremely well as it showed her toned arms and legs, slim waist and wide hips, decent sized bust and tight butt. If one were to see Barbara, in her current appearance, it can be arguable that said person could get rather hot and bothered when laying their eyes upon the red haired college student. She was already beautiful in her normal day to day appearance, but seeing her in her gymnastics attire leaves little imagination on her naked glory.

...Yet that would be rather hard as her father, Commissioner Gordon, was currently present in the work out room to oversee the training.

Once taking her time, Barbara ran several steps before leaping into the air and landing hands first on the balance beam. She twisted her body around before flipping over several times across the board. Once back onto her feet, Barbara spun around in her spot with double and triple L turns.

They would seem all easy for her at this point once Harley got her leg work and posture correct. Her center is kept well as her full, reverse and half turns on the four inch beam have been done well. The red head then flips several times across the beam as her arches are kept nice, sturdy and precise.

"Looking good, Babs." Harley spoke out as the college student walked forward on the beam. "Now if we could get some nice styles into the routine then maybe if the Olympics come around, you can enter if ya want."

"Thanks, Harley." Came Barbara's response as she quickly turned around and started walking backwards. "Hey, dad."

"Yes, Barbara?"

"With the stuff going on lately, people are gonna mistake you and Gil for Batman and Robin if you and Gil keep nailing bad guys."

James chuckled as he got off from the nearby wall. "What can I say? Gil is a godsend." He said as he saw his daughter do several flips towards the one of the beam. "And he's not bad-looking, either."

This got Barbara to groan. "Dad~ I just got you to stop treating me like a kid and now you're trying to marry me off."

"Oh don't think I didn't see you two at that fundraiser last week. Thick as thieves, you were."

Barbara rolled her eyes on what her father was implying.

Yes, she was chatting it up with Gil Mason at said event last week. But she was merely being nice and appreciative on what the deputy commissioner has done so far. Barbara had no interests in the man in any romantic fashion.

Yet it seemed that Mason had gotten the wrong idea as he was trying to get her attention.

But she was glad that Naruto was able to save her from her little suffocating debacle. He had the excuse of talking more to her about her Binary Beast novel. It was a good excuse to do it in a private setting as the red haired college student was able to relax more before having some quality time with the man she grew to admire and possibly developed feelings for. 

Back in the current time, Barbara soon jumped off the balance beam and flipped in the air several times before landing with no stumble in her step. And not too far away, Harley seemingly brought out a scorecard with a 9.6 printed on it.

Seeing the scorecard, Barbara rose a brow. "Okay, first off, why did I get a 9.6? And second, I don't know how you got that from out of nowhere."

"Well Babs, you didn't have some good 'umph' when jumping off." Was Harley's odd excuse. "And with these things, you'll never know."

Barbara rolled her eyes as she grabbed her towel to wipe off the sweat from her face.

Suddenly, the doorbell started ringing off several times.

"Now who could that be?" Gordon said as the three made their way towards the front door. Along the way, Harley tossed her gymnastics student a pair of sweatpants and sweater to cover her sweating form.

When coming to the front door, James looked through the peephole before opening the entrance to reveal Gil Mason with a pair of officers behind him.

"Oh hey, Mason, you must be psychic." Gordon said with a smile. "We were just talking about you." Seeing who was at the door, Barbara said a brief 'hello' with Harley doing a simple hand wave. "So what are you here for? Another tip on a case?"

Mason merely sighed as he walked into the home. His facial expression and body language screamed that something bad just happened. "Believe me, Jim, I don't wanna be here." Gil said. But I thought it would be best coming from me."

This left the Gordons and Harley in a state of confusion. Though it was Barbara that voiced the question. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Pulling out a sheet of paper from his coat pocket, the deputy commissioner spoke. "James Gordon, I have a warrant for your arrest."

James, Barbara and Harley widened their eyes in alarm when hearing this.

"This is a joke, right?" Barbara asked.

"On what charges?" Spoke the Arkham doctor.

Snatching the warrant from Gil's hands, Gordon sped read through the detail before speaking in a confused tone. "Accepting bribes? You can't be serious."

"The department has reason to believe that you've been taking money from Rupert Thorne for years." Gil said, getting wide eyed looks from Barbara and Harley as he was getting handcuffed by the officers. "Especially once we found certain evidence from the recent raid."

Barbara was absolutely appalled when hearing this. "What?! Dad's never taken a bribe in his life!" 

"I'm sorry, Barb." Mason said in a sad tone before he had to straighten himself out by speaking directly to Gordon. "You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say-"

"I know my rights, Gil." Gordon interrupted as he was starting to be escorted out of his home. 

When this happened, Harley and Barbara got a clear view that news reporters and photographers were right on the front lawn.

"Oh God." Harley muttered. "This is gonna get worse."

"Dad!" Cried out the redhead as tears were starting to form in her eyes.

Seeing this happen, he called out to his daughter as reporters started swarming the handcuffed commissioner. "Don't worry, Barbara. It's all a mistake, you'll see." James was then brought into a police car and placed in the back seat before driven away.

Feeling the distress on her junior, Harley brought Barbara into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry, Barbara. I really am."

"I know, Harley. I know." Was Barbara's response as she needed good support on this tragic time right now.

Though the moment seemed to quickly end as the reporters started rushing towards the entrance of the Gordon residence as they tried to get statements from the distressed redhead.

Not wanting this to happen, Harley pushed Barbara behind her before quickly pulling out a baseball bat from out of nowhere. calling out to the reporters. "BACK! BACK, YOU STINKIN VULTURES!" She called out to the reporters. "DON'T MAKE ME USE THIS!" Said the Arkham doctor before shutting the door in front of their faces.

"Oh, Harley. What am I gonna do?" Barbara said in duress before she was brought into a hug once more.

As Harley brushed the college student's hair, she spoke in a comforting tone. "I don't know, Babs, but I sure as Hell know that it won't be just us who'll see about this. I promise you that."

 _ **-Morning, City Hall-**_

Things have become rather busy inside of City Hall as to what happened last night. Reporters occasionally stopped on by in order to get more information about Gordon's allegations. And even city officials were working over time to hopefully fix this public mess.

Like at the current time, Barbara Gordon was walking down the hallways while chatting with the current District Attorney, Janet Van Dorn, who replaced after Harvey 'Two Face' Dent was disgraced back in March. She was quite the prestigious lawyer of superb skill who could acquit a client even in an impossibly prejudiced court. And part of that ability came from Janet's brilliance in questioning witnesses, such as goaded them and reacting to ways to what is really needed for the jury to go to her side.

Said woman was in her early to mid thirties as her light brown hair was tied into a low ponytail with some puff towards the top of her head. Her wire framed spectacles sat in front of her blue, calculating eyes. And to finish off her attire, she wore a blue business suit with a suitcase on hand.

"...But you're the DA, Janet. You've worked with my father." Pleaded the spectacled redhead. "There must be something you-"

"The evidence is solid, Barbara." Interrupted the DA in a slightly calm tone. "Money deposited to your father's name in laundered accounts witnesses who swear they saw him take bribes."

"That's not sufficient cause to deny bail."

"True. But we also found deposit receipts for a South American bank." Janet brought up, causing Barbara to halter in her step. "We have to consider him a flight risk that if he did get bail, he'd flee the country." 

Barbara wanted to pull out her hair at this point. "This is crazy. My father would never-"

"Maybe you don't know your father as well as you think." Said the brunette as she had a bit of a downcasted look. "Maybe none of us do." Janet looked over to Barbara and continued. "Look, I know your father is innocent, but my hands are tied. I wish I could help, but right now I can't."

Before Barbara could properly respond, the DA had to leave in order to take care of other matters that have come across her desk. The college student looked on and didn't know what to do on this situation. All other thoughts came to a halt when she felt a hand placed on her shoulder. Looking over, she saw Detective Bullock give her a small smile.

"Hey, don't you believe her, kid. Your pop's the best there is." He said before his smile grew a bit more. "That's why the department's putting on a rally for him tomorrow night."

Barbara brightened when hearing this. "Harvey, that's a wonderful idea."

The plump detective scratched his head in response. "Yeah… Wish I could say it was mine."

The spectacled redhead was going to ask when someone beat her to the punch. "Just because I have a job to do doesn't mean I'm not on your side, Barbara." Looking over, Barbara saw Gil walking towards them. "I'm going to see your father gets all the public support we can muster."

Bullock nodded in agreement. "Yup. All the top cops will be there, including yours truly. So don't worry your pretty little head. It should be quite a show."

Barbara nodded as she walked away from the two so she can get back to campus and take her classes for the day. Though as she left, a thought crossed her mind: if she can get the infamous vigilante's to appear at the rally, then there will be nothing to stop her father from going to jail.

 _ **-Evening, City Jail-**_

Lying across the small cot of his prison cell, James Gordon was bored out of his mind.

'Wished I had something to read.' He thought before rising from his bed and pacing around the confined space. 'Would've helped take my mind off things.'

As he was kept here since last night, Gordon didn't have much to do at all. No crossword puzzle to do, no book or newspaper to read, or any past-time lesures. Gordon did admit the officers were just doing their job and couldn't do anything to help him in the simplest things.

Turning around from his cell window, for the upteenth time, he felt something flew right past his face with a following *Clang* against the cement wall. Looking towards the source, he saw it was a batarang… with something hanging off from it's center.

Taking a closer look, Gordon saw it was an earpiece.

"Huh… I was wondering when you'd get around to me." James muttered as he pried the batarang out of the wall before placing the earpiece into his ear. Tapping it a few times, he spoke. "Can you hear me?"

" _I do, Commissioner."_ Came Batman's voice through the earpiece. "I got a look at the evidence."

Gordon nodded as he went to his cell window and tossed the batarang through the bars so it wouldn't be on his person. "What did you find?"

" _Those deposit receipts were perfect forgeries dated months ago. But it doesn't look like Thorne's handiwork."_

Walking back to his cot, the spectacled man asked the obvious question. "Then who?"

" _Word on the street is a new syndicate is moving in with the vacant spots made as of late."_ Was the Bat's response. _"Could be a connection which I'll be sure to check out."_

Gordon nodded in understanding. Whenever a major or minor player in the crime world is taken out, a power vacuum is formed. Either someone higher in the crime food chain takes over the vacancy or a new player would fill it in. It's always a known constant in this sort of field.

" _Before I go, is there anything you need?"_

For a brief moment, James had thought of asking Batman to get him something good to read to pass the time. But the man shoved that down as he remembered his daughter. The arrested commissioner was worried for her and hoped for her to be okay.

With his mind made up, Gordon spoke his request. "Yes. Check on Barbara. And please, keep her out of this."

 _ **-Gordon Residence-**_

"Thanks for you guys coming over, Naruto. It means a lot."

"Hey, it's no problem, Barbara." He said as he vacuumed the living room floor of crushed popcorn. Harley helped out earlier with the dishes, but she was currently using the restroom.

After seeing the news report last night of Commissioner Gordon being arrested on his bribery allegations, he quickly got a call from Harley before asking him if he saw the news. Things were not looking good and Naruto came over to see Barbara as soon as he could. She was a total wreck and the redhead needed the extra support. And once he got off from work earlier today, Naruto went to check up on her once again while bringing Harley and Rachel along.

Barbara appeared to be a whole lot better than from last night and he was glad to see _some_ improvements. She was a bit more upbeat and he thought that something might've happened to make her act that way. When questioning about it, Barbara told him that the GCPD is going to be having a rally tomorrow night in order to help support her father.

Naruto was obviously glad when hearing this and promised he'll be attending the rally.

Rachel and Harley had the same mindsets and wished Barbara the best of luck. Yet the ward and psychologist had to let Barbara know they wouldn't be attending the event. With Harley, she had a shift to cover that night while Rachel had school in the morning. Barbara understood and was fine with them not attending, but it's the thought that counts.

Asides from that, the four spent the evening together by having Barbara's home cooked meal. It was a delicious dinner and they chatted amongst each other while entertaining the spectacled redhead for the past several hours. Whether it was playing Yahtzee or Uno for several rounds to watching a movie.

The college student had her spirits raised and was happy as she didn't have to be alone for the night.

"And I'm glad that Harley picked out the movie earlier." Barbara said as she lifted up her feet so Naruto can pick up the remaining crumbs.

"Since you were in a dark time, she thought seeing a romantic comedy would've helped out getting you out of your funk."

"Which it did." She said with a small smile.

Harley had brought over several movies from her collection and had let Barbara choose which one to watch. The redhead chose 'When Harry Met Sally' as it was the more appropriate one the psychologist offered. She would've picked 'Die Hard' or 'Goldfinger', but she didn't want to get Rachel uncomfortable seeing some of the _specific_ content shown in that.

Anyways, Barbara was able to enjoy her place beside her secret crush while watching the movie. She had a good amount of laughs and enjoyed how the romance had built up over the two character's lives. Sure, most moments were cheesy, but they were a bit real to her on how it things went.

"So when do you need to head on out, Naruto?"

"Probably soon." He said after turning off the vacuum. "As much as I'd like to be here more, I have work in the morning and Harley's pulling a double." Naruto then motioned to the drosing child on the recliner. "And I believe Rachel is starting to fall asleep."

Barbara nodded as she saw the publisher gently shake Rachel awake. Though a thought briefly came to mind. "Hey, Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Batman and Vanitas would show up at the rally tomorrow?"

The Uzumaki looked back when hearing this. "Excuse me?" He asked.

"It's just an honest thought."

Naruto adopted a mock thinking pose before answering. "I wouldn't see why Vanitas wouldn't show up to the rally. He supports your father and I believe he wouldn't want to see an honest man be in jail for a crime he didn't commit."

Barbara smiled a little when hearing that. "And what do you think about Batman?" Was her next question.

The whiskered man was going to answer when a voice surprised them both. "I'm afraid I won't attend."

Whirling around to a dark corner of the room, the pair saw the Bat of Gotham step out.

Naruto merely gave his masked friend a dry look. "How long have you been here?"

"Just moments ago." Was the simple response.

"Right~"

Ignoring this bit of conversation, Barbara spoke towards the cowled hero. "What do you mean you won't attend?"

"It is what I said, Miss Gordon."

"B-But you have to come to the rally." She said in a raised voice. "The public respects you. And if they see you there, they'll know Dad's innocent."

"Sorry, but there's more to this than a simple frame-up. And I'm not gonna find out by appearing at rallies." 

"But don't you see-"

Batman soon interrupted her. "The best thing you can do for him is to keep out of it." Turning around, he made his way towards the nearby window and opened it. "The people behind this are dangerous."

Naruto wanted to say something to his friend, but Batman was a bit too fast to react by jumping out and heading over to his batmobile. He then groaned in thought. 'I'm definitely gonna need to talk to him when I have a moment.' Turning towards Barbara, the former shinobi ended up seeing her glaring at the vigilante's shrinking form. "Uh, Barbara?"

"Tch! 'I'm a professional. Don't try this at home', huh?" She muttered with disdain.

"He's just looking after you, ya'know." He said, causing her to briefly glance at him. "He and your father have been good friends for years. The Bat's probably trying to keep you safe for his sakes."

"But why doesn't he want to come to the rally?" Barbara asked with tightened fists. "He doesn't have to be there long. Just a few moments, that's all." Looking back at Naruto, he could see the frustration slowly creep up in her gaze. "Him being at the rally could decide if Dad goes free."

Naruto sighed as he scratched his head. "I wish I knew, Barbara. I wish I knew."

 _ **-Unknown Location-**_

In a secluded part of Gotham, a man sat by himself as he read from the newspaper. There wasn't much to really do for the time being, especially as to where he resided.

Part of his little past time was interrupted when the door to the room was opened. The man looked up to see who it was before his eyes went back into the newspaper. The new arrival was a tall man with a slight hunch to his back. Not much could be said about his characteristics, asides from the large buck teeth he had sticking out from his mouth.

" **Hello, Buck."** Came the man's gruff voice before he coughed a few times.

"Hey, uh… You called for me, boss?"

" **Yes.** The rally's tomorrow night **and everything's in place."** Looking back up from his newspaper once more, the man looked at his lackie. **"Is it?"**

"Yeah, boss." Buck responded with a nod of his head. "We's got everything ready."

"Good… **You know what to do."**

 _ **-Next Day, Wayne Manor-**_

"...You are a real piece of work, Bruce."

"Why would you say that, Naruto?"

"Because you bluntly crushed Barbara's hope of seeing you at the rally." Was the Uzumaki's response. "She was really counting on you."

Bruce didn't say anything as he was getting some worn out clothes on.

"I mean, you are her father's biggest supporter and you being at the rally could helped out on public moral."

Off to the side, Dick was looking at at the conversation taking place and decided to input his thoughts. "Naruto's right, ya'know. I kept hearing people at campus talk about that all day." Walking up to his mentor, the acrobat gave some examples. "'Would Batman show up?', 'Of course he is, why wouldn't he.' and stuff along those lines. And you should realize that by now, people are expecting you to show up in his time of need; especially after what happened weeks ago when he was shot."

Once again, the billionaire didn't say anything as he was applying some makeup on his face.

Naruto and Dick sighed in slight frustration in knowing that Bruce's mind was made up at this point and not gonna change it.

"Will you at least wear a transceiver?" Asked the college student. "I can monitor from here in case they try to-"

"No." Bruce interrupted with a scratchy voice. "It's too easy to detect." 

On what Bruce was doing exactly was going undercover with his alias: Matches Malone, a two bit, low-rent muscle-for-hire crook. The appearance included some facial scars, dark glasses, slight change of hair color and style, a matchstick for his nickname, bad breath, and a scratchy voice. But most of all, it was the mustache that finishes off the look to pass himself on his role.

Yet this 'role' of his wasn't made up at all.

You see… The identity was Bruce's important in his war against crime as once he applies the makeup and scars, no one can ever tell he was Bruce Wayne at all. Asides from this fact, it's really hard for the billionaire to look at his own reflection.

The resemblance was really haunting to him…

Matches Malone was a real life person that was gunned down years ago when Batman and Robin was on a particular case. They came across his body in his rundown apartment in hopes of finding clues. When inspecting the body, the Dynamic Duo froze in fear of what they saw once pulling away the man's dark glasses.

If you take away the scars, one would've mistaken Matches for Bruce's own father -Thomas Wayne- back when he was in his prime. Before be was gunned down on that tragic night.

Dick merely rolled his eyes. "I didn't miss a Bogart festival in film class just to sit on my butt here while you hit the streets." He groaned out. "There has to be something I can do."

Looking at his protege, Bruce spoke up. "Do you make public appearances, Dick?"

 _ **-GCPD-**_

The area in front of the police headquarters was jammed packed with many supporters. There would have been a whole lot more, for obvious reasons, but there could be so much an area could hold. News cameras were stationed to do a live feed to the Gothamites at home, offices and at diners all over the city.

Several people already spoke their speeches throughout the event: Harvey Bullock, Mayor Hill, and several other people of big importance.

Currently standing on a temporary stage, Gil Mason was speaking in a microphone behind a podium to rile up the citizens while finishing up his speech. "...After all Commissioner Gordon has done for Gotham City, the least the city can do for him is grant him bail!"

The crowds went wild as they cheered on for Gordon's release. And in that crowd, Naruto was cheering alongside them.

Though throughout the rally, the Uzumaki was looking all over the place in hopes of finding a particular, spectacled redhead.

'Where is she?' He thought as he scratched his head. 'Barbara should've been here.'

Naruto tried calling her cell several times throughout the rally, but there was no answer. He moved throughout the crowd, but there was no sign of her. The Uzumaki even checked some of the nearby porta potties.

Yet nothing.

Shaking his head, Naruto looked up towards a nearby building where his clone and Robin were stationed at in order to make their 'public appearance'. It's simple really: swoop in for several moments before leaving. And if either of them wanted to, they could stand on that stage and give a small speech if they were comfortable with it.

Looking at his watch, Naruto checked the time before looking back up at the stage. 'It's probably showtime now.'

Seeing a particular shadow fly past a spotlight, Naruto looked up and expected his clone and Robin. Yet he was thrown off guard when he saw… 'Bruce?' He thought with widened eyes. 'He came?'

People were muttering amongst themselves as the figure landing on the far off building. The dark silhouette was seen by all as spotlights and news cameras tried to reach Batman's form. Though the results were instant as people's morals were risen that they know the imprisoned commissioner has Batman's support.

'...Something seems off.' Naruto thought with a narrowed glance. 'Bruce would've told us if he changed his mind and would've pulled this off.'

Over at the far off building, the Batman ran across the ledge before leaping towards a rooftop. Landing in a recovery roll, the hero slowly rose up before hiding away from any bright areas. Creeping towards it's edge, Batman jumped down and let out a feminine 'oomph' once landing on the ground.

...Wait, what?

The 'Batman' let out a feminine chuckle. 'Touchdown.' Peeking out of the alley's entrance, she smirked at the enthusiastic reactions from the citizens people towards her arrival. 'And the crowd goes wild.' Ducking back into the darkness, she reached her hands into certain areas of her outfit and pulled out pads and stuffings from her chest, arms, legs and groin areas. 'Man, these things were starting to itch.'

After Naruto left with Rachel last night, Barbara immediately went into her bedroom and pulled out her Batwoman costume from Halloween. A thought came to mind that if Batman wasn't _really_ going to show at the rally, then she would do the next best thing: impersonate him.

She had the costume and with several adjustments from some extra cloth and pads she had stored away, Barbara made a close resemblance towards the Dark Knight. Problem was, she can not be seen up close or else her role would be blown and would get people to know Batman didn't show at all.

Sitting on the ground, Barbara took off her boots and pulled out the pads so she could be a little more comfortable. They were needed from the leaps earlier that without them, her feet could've been hurt really badly.

Creeping out of the ally, the 'Batgirl' was going to slip away and sneak back towards her car. But this act was put on hold as sounds of screeching tires filled the air. Looking towards the source, Barbara saw a car speeding down the street with it's windshields down.

And poking out of them were several guns.

Many citizens saw this and screamed while running away so neither of them would get hit by the upcoming bullets. The car swerved a bit in order to fire rounds onto the stage. People ducked and dashed off the stage while avoiding broken glass, due to spotlights being destroyed by the gunfire.

'I need to do something.' Barbara thought. 'People might get hurt.

And before she knew it, the disguised redhead ran into the action.

After running a good distance, the 'Batgirl' saw the car turning around in order to flee the scene. Not wanting to get hit, she leapt into the air before latching her hands onto one of the rally banners hanging high into the air, all thanks to Harley's training. The support wasn't all that great as the banner was ripped off it's ends, causing her to fall down.

'Oh crap!' She yelled out in her mind as she wasn't able to quickly move to recover in her fall. Closing her eyes for her eventual painful landing, Barbara braced herself. Though it was all for naught as she felt someone catch her before rolling across the pavement.

Shaking her head a bit, the 'Batgirl' looked from behind her white mask lenses to see Naruto's face.

"Hey. Are you okay?" He asked out of concern.

Barbara could only nod as she was extremely glad her mask was covering up a massive blush forming on her face with how he saved her. She had to hold back talking to him as she didn't want Naruto to know it was her. Even then, the masked redhead had to bite down a moan as she felt several of his muscles through his clothing along along with his hand unintentionally groping her firm ass.

'Oh~ that feels soooo good.' She thought before she heard a resounding crash.

The pair looked off to the side and saw what happened to the one car. The banner fell over the car's windshield and possibly blinded the driver. Thus they crashed into a nearby wall. When the vehicle's occupants got out of the car, who were wearing ski masks, they quickly pointed their weapons at the pair.

Quickly acting, Naruto covered the masked woman with his body as the bullets flew through the air. In his arms, Barbara widened her hidden eyes on the selfless act, but also feared for the worst on his safety.

Though it was all for naught as Vanitas landed onto the ground and formed a protective barrier around the two as bullets either bounced off or were destroyed on impact.

"Sorry I'm late." Said the helmeted hero. "Had to be sure the other citizens were protected."

The 'Batgirl' briefly nodded before fighting her way out of Naruto's hold. The act surprised him as she got free, started running away and out of the barrier. Seeing this happen, the publisher was about to go after her when Robin swooped in and gave chase.

"Hey!" Robin called out. "Wait!"

The 'Boy' Wonder pushed his legs to the limit as he came closer and closer to the person in front of him. Just as he was close enough, Robin grasped the back of her cowl before he tripped on the street, resulting in freeing a large portion of her reddened locks into the cold, Gotham air.

'Wait? A girl?' Robin thought with widened eyes.

The masked Gordon looked back for a brief moment before running further away, not noticing Summer Gleeson seeing the act before her. Quickly scrambling to her news camera, the Gotham reporter aimed her equipment at the new vigilante trying to flee the scene.

Though 'Batgirl' was halted in her act as she almost ran into an armed man who aimed his handgun at her.

Acting quickly, she backflipped away as the man tried to fire several rounds at her. Once back onto her feet, Barbara ran forward and punched the man's face before delivering a roundhouse kick towards his stomach. The goon heaved over as he fell onto the ground.

Just as she was about to leave once more, she spotted a pair of goons rushing towards her. Barbara was about to fight when Robin and Vanitas tackled them to the ground.

"Sorry boys, but she's with us." Vanitas said as he pulled out handcuffs for him and Robin to restrain the ski-masked men. Looking back up at the masked woman, he spoke up. "Are you crazy? You're lucky you didn't get killed."

The masked Gordon didn't respond as she looked off to the side and saw one of the men run away from the scene. Without thinking clearly, she gave chase while leaving the two heroes to take care of the others.

From his position on the street, Naruto saw the masked woman's retreating form. Well more towards her free flowing red hair.

'That… hair…' He thought. 'It looks nice.'

...Yeah… Naruto and his interesting attraction to red hair everybody… Just like his dad…

Back with 'Batgirl', she ran into an alleyway where the assailant went into. Seeing as he was a good distance away from her, Barbara picked up a trash can lid and tossed it at him. And fortunately for her, her impromptu weapon landed it's mark as he fell onto the ground.

She ran up to him and turned him over before taking off his ski-mask. There she got a good look of his features, especially the buck teeth, before being punched in the face. She scrambled back and fell into several garbage cans, resulting in the man quickly getting up and fleeing from the scene.

As Barbara got back up onto her feet, the masked redhead saw the grime on her costume and felt some liquid coming through the back of her head. Reaching back, she saw various moldy liquids getting into her hair.

'Yeuk!' She thought in disgust. 'Now I need to wash this and take a shower when I get home.'

Looking towards the alley entrance she came from, Barbara saw several police cars rushing towards the scene. Knowing it's bad to stick around any longer, the masked Gordon fled in order to get back to her car and get back home.

If she were to stick around any longer, she would've been confronted by Robin and Vanitas as they barely rushed into the alley.

"Well that's just great. She's gone too." Robin said out in frustration.

"You know what's funny, Robin," Vanitas said as they walked back out of the alley in order to call it a night. "I don't remember a Batgirl in our little club."

The masked Grayson nodded. "You're telling me. I mean we got Harley, Catwoman and Ivy helping out as new additions; but no one else."

 _ **-Morning, Batcave-**_

Walking into the lair underneath Wayne Manor, Alfred had a tray of breakfast for Dick and Naruto. The later arrived not too long ago after he dropped off his ward at school for the day. Reason why they were here was to go over not only just the current case but to what happened last night.

" _...All of Gotham is talking about the mysterious Batgirl who foiled an assassination attempt on acting Commissioner, Gil Mason."_ Spoke news anchor Summer Gleeson from the bat computer monitor. _"Even though Robin and Vanitas apprehended several suspects on the alleged attempt, they committed suicide via cyanide pills in order to escape questioning."_

"Expanding membership in the crime-fighting club?" Came Alfred's witty question.

"In the unintentional way, yeah." Naruto said as he paced around the expensive piece of equipment. "People join for the right and wrong reasons, Alfred."

From his seat in front of the computer, Dick voiced his frustrated thoughts. "If I find out who she is, I'll-" The college student suddenly stopped as his eyes caught onto something on the monitor. "Hey… Wait a second."

"What is it, Dick?"

Typing away on the keyboard, the news footage quickly paused before rewinding a good portion and stopped when the armed men were about to fire at the stage. Dick then played the video at 1/4th speed as the scene was played out to them. The three quickly saw a large error on what was happening before their eyes.

"Would you look at that?" Voiced the butler in astonishment. "Mr. Mason ducked _before_ he saw the guns."

"Almost as though he expected it." Naruto said with a narrowed glance. 

Dick nodded in agreement as he seemingly adopted thinking pose number 5 from his mentor. It was quite uncanny on how the Grayson was able to replicate it. But after years of living with Bruce, it's probably hard not to.

"Question is: what is Gil involved in?"

 _ **-GCPD-**_

From his desk, Bullock had a look of disgust across his features. He was reading the newspaper from last night's events and the majority of it focused on the vigilante newcomer Batgirl.

"Batgirl?" Spoke the detective as he crumpled up the newspaper. "What's next, Weasel Woman?" Once he was done, Bullock saw Barbara walking towards him as she smiled and waved at him a little. He was about to respond in kind when he noticed something odd. "Hey, Babs, where'd you get that shiner?"

In reaction, Barbara brought her hand towards her blackened eye as it was still recovering from last night and forgot to put on makeup before leaving her home.

When she got home, Barbara immediately tossed her costume into the wash before taking a lengthy shower to get herself clean from both garbage grime and sweat. When she got out, the spectacled redhead saw her eye was starting to bruise. So while she slept, Barbara kept an ice pack on her eye to help with the swelling.

The act worked, but there were still hints of the bruise.

"I ended up getting it last night at the rally." She said before mentally facepalming herself on letting that bit slip. Barbara recovered with a lie. "Got it when I tried to get away from those shooters and I ran into a pole on accident."

Bullock didn't say anything else as he seemingly bought her lie. The detective quickly excused himself to use the restroom while cursing himself on eating a certain burrito this morning with how fast he was walking.

Barbara looked onward to see the detective leave his desk before opening his drawers to pull out the mug books where previously arrested felons are placed for witnesses for later crimes. Flipping through the pages, the spectacled redhead occasionally looked off to the side as a precaution during her search.

The redhead thought her search would take longer, but it was surprisingly short as she saw the picture of the thug she tackled last night. It was rather hard to not remember with his large buck teeth he had sticking out from his mouth. And checking on the name, the man was called 'Bucky Mad Dog'.

Smirking to herself on her find, Barbara quickly placed the mug books back into their resting place before quickly leaving the department to head to her next destination. 

_**-Gil Mason's Apartment-**_

A series of knocks came across Gil's door, causing the acting police commissioner to answer it. When he checked who it was from the peephole, Mason was surprised to see Barbara there. He opened the door and was going to greet her when she started to talk without a proper greeting.

"Gil!" She said with a chipper voice as she walked into his apartment. "You know those guys who shot at you? Well, I think I know who one of…"

Gil rose a brow when Barbara suddenly trailed off and became rather quiet. In response, he asked out of concern. "Is something wrong, Barbara?"

The spectacled redhead looked onwards and saw Bucky 'Mad Dog' sitting on the living room couch. Thoughts overcame her mind as she wondered why that thug was in Gil's apartment in the first place. Realizing she needed to speak, Barbara turned her attention back to Mason. "Uh, sorry. I didn't know you had company."

Blinking a bit, Gil momentarily forgot who he had in his home. "Oh, no problem. My friend here was just leaving."

Realizing it was not a good time to be here, Bucky looked at his watch. "Oh, yeah." He spoke. "Hey, ah, gotta run now." Bucky got up from the couch and made his way towards the door. "Listen, I'll see you at the business meeting, Gil." The thug said before turning to Barbara and gave her a curt nod out of politeness. "Miss."

As Bucky exited his apartment, Gil felt a little awkward but composed himself to act all charming to his new guest. "So… welcome to my humble abode."

Snapping out of her thoughts, Barbara turned over to the acting commissioner. "I just came over to… to see if you're okay." She lied while trying to divert her intentions from earlier. "I was worried about you."

Mason smiled at this and felt a little touched. "Hey, I appreciate that. I really do." He said as he came up to her and brought his arm around her shoulder. Being ignorant on her shuddering look on his recent act, he asked her a question. "Would you like a drink? Water? Soda? Beer?" 

The spectacled redhead shook her head while carefully prying Gil's arm off of her to not seem offensive. "Oh, I'm sorry, I was just on my way to see Dad." Stepping away from him, Barbara made her way towards the door. "But I'm sure I'll catch you again."

As she left his apartment, Gil had adopted a look of confusion on his face.

 _ **-Gordon Residence-**_

Entering her bedroom, Barbara groaned as she plopped herself onto her bed.

"Ugh! What am I gonna do?!" She yelled out in complete frustration. "If Gil's involved in this, there's nobody I can trust." The redhead flipped herself over before staring up at the ceiling. "I could try to reach out to Vanitas or Robin, but I have no idea how to reach them; especially with my access towards the GCPD rooftop now limited." She said with reference towards the Bat Signal.

Pulling out her phone, Barbara looked through her contact list and scrolled towards Naruto's number. She was about to press send, but paused in her actions. She could call him and ask for his help in some manner, but didn't know of how far his reach could be. He was a famous publisher and owns a newspaper company as well. Without all of the facts, then her little attempt would be useless. If he sends out investigators, then they might not be fast enough to respond before his father is fully incarcerated for his _alleged_ crime.

"And if Batman's not around-" Barbara muttered before she suddenly stopped and widened her eyes. She whipped her head around towards her Halloween costume, which was hanging by the door to dry out from last evening. Getting off the bed, the redhead made her way towards it and inspected it.

After the outfit was cleaned up from the wash, Barbara saw there were more rips and tears than she would've liked. Sure, they are mendable, but the redhead knew the fabric wasn't going to be all that great if she decided to go out again… as Batgirl… which the name is now stuck by public knowledge.

Craning her head off to the side, she saw her leather biker jacket in her closet as an idea formed in her mind. Turning back towards her old teddy bear, she spoke. "What do you think, Freddie? Could use some work, huh?"

 _ **-Evening, Stacked Deck-**_

Playing pool for the upteenth time in a row today, 'Matches Malone' sighed as he drank from his cup of beer.

There has been no luck on finding out who was behind Gordon's frame up and the events of last night. The disguised Wayne has been at a loss as he'd been going to every underbelly area he could get into to find information. Yet whoever has been behind all of this has been keeping things rather tight.

Rolling his shoulders, 'Matches' was finishing up this current round of pool when his eyes caught onto someone. The buck toothed man seemed a bit too sketchy as he entered the bar. Especially when the man made a b-line towards the phone booth and started putting change inside of it once closing the glass door.

Moving around the table, the disguised Wayne narrowed his eyes to get a good look at the man's mouth in order to read it. Just in time too as he picked up on something quite interesting.

" _...Yeah, boss, like Batman, only a dame."_ Was the man's words via lip-reading, causing Matches to raise a brow. _"She almost screwed up everything… Oh, don't worry. No one can hear me… Right, boss… I'm heading back right now."_

Once the call was done, the buck toothed man hung up the phone and exited the phone booth. As he did so, 'Matches' quickly ended the game before grabbing his coat and paying his tab to the barkeep. From there, the disguised Wayne exited the bar in order to tail the man in order to find out what is going on exactly.

 _ **-Later, Park Row-**_

After driving for quite some time, the disguised Bruce was able to finish tailing the man all the way over to Park Row. Having to loop around the area and park at a good distance away, 'Matches' exited his vehicle and made his way towards the building where the buck toothed man entered.

Knowing it would be stupid to bluntly enter from the front door, he pulled out a grappling hook and swung it several times before tossing it upwards. The hook snagged onto a ledge and once giving it a few good tugs, 'Matches' made his climb.

It took several minutes to reach its end, but the disguised Wayne's task was complete. When he got onto his feet, he quickly rolled up the grappling hook and tucked it away into his coat. From there, he carefully opened up the window in order to make his way inside.

But the very moment he opened the window wide enough, 'Matches' was electrocuted as he yelled out in pain before collapsing inside and groaned in pain.

" **It appears we have a prowler."** Came a gravelly voice.

The disguised Wayne was roughly flipped over before being slapped across the face several times. "Okay, please stop that." 'Matches' said as he swatted the offending hand away.

Seeing as he's responsive at this time, 'Matches' was roughly brought onto his feet by several men. The disguised man's vision was blurry, after being electrocuted, as he looked at the men holding him up. 'Matches' must be hallucinating as he was seeing double.

Correction, he was seeing a pair of twins.

Both were in light brown suits with one half seemingly darker than the other half. They were fair-skinned and straight, shoulder length grey hair with a light blue tint to them with long bangs covering each different eye of their bangs being polar opposite from the other. They both had dark markings around their eyes along with odd marks around their mouths, giving them an androgynous appearance.

'I swear I've seen them before.' Bruce thought before he was slapped again. "Okay, I'm up already." He growled out. "So stop slapping me!"

"Who are you?" Spoke the twin on his left.

"What are you doing here?" Said the twin on his right.

Roughly prying his arms away, the disguised man spoke up. "Name's Matches Malone. I heard about a new mob and thought I could make some more dough."

" **Is that so?"** Came a familiar voice to Bruce's memory. "Well, you heard right." 'Matches' looked into the darkness and saw a figure stepping closer and closer into what available light peering through the boarded up windows. As the man's details were slowly being revealed, the disguised Wayne slowly widened his eyes. " **In fact, you can double your take on the jobs we're pulling assuming I let you live to join my gang."**

He was a fairly tall man with combed black hair with light grey eyes. But that was what seemed normal with the man on the right side of his body until you would focus on the other. With the burnt red skin with his gaping eye without an eyelid making people wonder how it's still in there along with showing most of his teeth. His suit was custom tailored being white and pristine with the sleeve rolled up with the black button up shirt underneath on the right side. But when looking at the right showed that it was black with various parts of it scorched and the left sleeve seemed to be ripped off along the elbow to show the red skin of the arm.

"Matches Malone, huh? I swear I heard of you before, from some place... and time." Spoke the former Gotham DA said as he scratched the right side of his head before his gravelly voice came up. **"But there's something about you that I don't like. Nothing I can put my finger on, but I… trust my hunches."** Pulling out his signature coin, with one side normal while the other was heavily scratched, Two Face flipped it several times. "Kind of like second sight, you know?" The scarred man stopped flipping his coin and presented it to the two-bit thug. "Now this will be real simple: Good heads, you live. **Bad heads, you don't."**

Without any further notice, Harvey 'Two Face' Dent flipped the coin into the air as anticipation filled the space around them.

 _ **-Gordon Residence-**_

After working throughout the rest of her day, Barbara was finishing tying up her black laced, dark yellow combat boots onto her feet before standing up and stretching to get a good feel of her newly made outfit.

Her outfit was very much like the Batman's in terms of design, but Barbara had her own take on the iconic costume with what she scrounge up from around her home and in the armory her father kept here in case of anything. The redhead even went out and purchased a good number of things to help finish things off since her Halloween costume was hardly salvageable, asides from several items, and it wouldn't protect her very well in fights. So she used what she could on the armor from her home's armory to be worn underneath her clothing like elbow, knee, arm and shin pads.

It was primarily black in design from the black leather biker jacket and black matte leather pants. The jacket's collar was stand-up with a snap-belt with a hidden zipper right above the collar seam and below the collar belt. Her dark yellow, wrist length leather gloves have snaps on their ends to make things snug and won't fall out easily. Her irregular jagged triangle sectioned black cape, with snaps on the shoulders, went down to her mid thighs as the lining was primarily a dark yellow. Barbara still kept her utility belt from her costume, but made some improvements like adding in a hip-holster purse. She salvaged the Batgirl cowl from her Halloween costume, due to the white functioning lenses over the eye holes, with her red hair flowing out from the back.

And to finish off the look was the yellow spray painted Bat logo on the chest as it was also incorporated into the zipper seams.

"So… if Batman can't help me. Well fine." Barbara said as she inspected herself in front of her mirror. "In that case, let's see what Batgirl can do."

 _ **-Rooftop overlooking Gil Mason's Apartment-**_

From his position on the rooftop, Vanitas kept a close eye on Mason's form with his 'Zooming' ability. Said man in question was pacing back and forth on his patio like he was either a nervous wreck or rather impatient as he occasionally glanced at the phone on the table.

'What are you waiting for, Mason?' Thought the helmeted Uzumaki. His train of thought ended when he heard a slight step onto the rooftop before calling out. "Took your time getting here, Robin."

"Sorry if I don't have powers of getting here so easily, ya'know." Robin grumbled out as he walked to his friend's position. "Anything?"

"It looks like he's waiting for something, but I believe it has to deal with getting a phone call."

Robin nodded as he waited alongside Vanitas.

Reason why they were here was because of them noticing the oddity in the news footage earlier today. The act made them theorize that Mason knew he was going to get shot at and probably knows more on what's going on.

So for most of the day, Naruto has had clones occasionally look over the place for anything suspicious, but nothing at all. He did get memories of Gil meeting up with a buck toothed man for a few minutes in his apartment before Barbara showed up. And when the clone saw the look on her face, Naruto had a feeling she possibly knew something.

But if he tried to confront her about it as either himself or Vanitas, then things might become too suspicious for her so he left her be.

The helmeted hero was so focused on his task, he didn't notice someone else appearing at the nearby rooftop… But Robin did.

She appeared at the corner of his eye and rose a brow on who she was. He would've mistaken her for someone else, but then did a double take when seeing the outfit she wore. Despite the fact that it was something entirely new, it was the same woman from last night.

'Her again?' Robin thought in surprise. 'What's she doing here?'

The 'Boy' Wonder made his way towards her position as she was looking over Mason's apartment. It took less than a minute to get there before he krept up to her.

When he got close to her, Batgirl suddenly spun around and kicked Robin away. The protege recovered before he went down and swept kicked her legs. She fell down and bounced a little off the rooftop with a groan.

Batgirl quickly got up and went into a fighting position. The two would've fought if it wasn't for Vanitas appearing between the two and made them stop.

"Will you two stop?" Vanitas demandedly asked as he looked at the costumed pair. "And what is going on here… Batgirl, was it?"

Before Batgirl could speak up, the 'Boy' Wonder interrupted her. "Hey, she started it." Robin accusingly said.

She glared at Robin. "By you coming up at me from behind." Was her defense. "I have every right to defend myself."

Vanitas rolled his eyes under his glass dome helm. "Look, under normal circumstances you two can argue all you want, but we've got a job to do." He said while taking the leadership role of the situation.

Robin and Batgirl looked at each other before quickly turning their heads away with their arms crossed.

"Well, I don't have time to baby-sit amateurs." Robin said.

Batgirl scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself. I may not have a diploma from crime-fighting school but I can do fine on my own, thanks."

Vanitas really wished he could melt away his glass dome helm for a brief moment to massage his temples. 'It's going to be like this all night long, isn't it?' He asked to himself before turning his attention bat to the costumed redhead. "Batgirl."

She snapped out of her scowl before responding to the helmeted hero. "Yeah?"

"What are you doing here anyways?"

"Same as you two." Was Batgirl's answer. "We already suspect Mason of-"

Their conversation was put on hold when they heard a phone ring. The three costumed individuals quickly focused their attention towards the source to see it was coming from Mason's patio. They then saw the acting police commissioner head back towards his phone.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, Robin quickly pulled out a transceiver gun and fired a round towards the pillar some feet above Gil's head. It lodged into the rock as the radio was going to pick up on the conversation. Once it was ready, Robin detached a small ear bud from the gadget and placed it into his ear.

As this went on, Vanitas placed his attention back at Mason with his 'Hawkeye' ability to see if he can lip-read the man's mouth.

" _Mason here."_ Gil said. _"You wanna meet?... Okay, where?"_

Feeling left out on what's happening, Batgirl turned to Robin and asked the obvious question "What's he saying?" All she got in response was a quick 'Shh!' before focusing on the call. The costumed redhead then clicked her tongue. 'Ass.' 

An idea soon formed as quickly pulled out a pair of collapsible binoculars from her utility belt. It's the only thing she could work with at the current time. Good thing too as she saw Mason write something on a notepad.

Focusing more towards that now, Batgirl was able to get down what Gil wrote: South Gotham subway, the old river entrance and in one hour. Once getting her information, she quickly put away her binoculars so neither Robin or Vanitas would notice.

Just in time too as the masked Gordon heard Robin speak up as he put his equipment away. "Well, show's over. You can run along home now."

Batgirl glared at Robin's back and wanted to snap at him. Though she decided to act a little… in all too sweet tone. "Okay~"

Robin paused his actions, along with Vanitas, as they turned over to see Batgirl's expression.

"Okay?" Asked the 'Boy' Wonder.

"If you won't let me help you, what else can I do?"

Robin could only smirk to himself. "Good." He said in a cocky tone. "You've got some sense after all."

Robin ran off and jumped off of the rooftop towards his motorcycle on the street. Vanitas merely walked away but paused in his step and turned around to face the costumed redhead.

"Robin… means well, just so you know. He just doesn't want others to be put in danger."

Batgirl snorted. "Yeah~ Real nice guy, but a few bats short of a belfry."

Vanitas chuckled. "True, with who he trained under for years, but he still has a lot to learn." He said, getting her to close her eyes and nod. "Like knowing you already got information on the meeting from Mason's notepad."

The costumed redhead quickly froze and widened her eyes in response. "Wait. How'd you-"

"I multitask."

"...Okay…"

Vanitas sighed a little. "Look, I can understand that you want to help out on whatever is going on exactly, as I assume it's probably related to Commissioner Gordon's allegations and whatever happened at the rally yesterday, right?"

Batgirl nodded with a smile forming on her face, clearly getting the helmeted hero to know she might've found something was off as well.

"But you need to understand that something big is happening and you might get hurt in the process if you try to tread this path." He said as he quickly noticed her facial expression was turning a little sour. "I have a feeling you don't like being put down like that, but I'm just putting this out there. This isn't just some situation that you might go unscathed. You can possibly die with what goes on."

"I understand that, Vanitas, I really do."

"I don't think you do." He said in an even tone. "You must understand that when us costumed folks go out every night, a lot of men try to kill us. And all it takes is _one_ mistake… _one_ lucky shot… _one_ blow and it's _over_." Vanitas stated, not noticing her expression changing into something else. "I know people admire us for what we do, but they shouldn't _envy_ us. _Nobody_ should."

'...Wow… It feels like deja vu.' She thought when remembering of what her father told her on Halloween.

Not knowing her present thoughts, the helmeted Uzumaki spoke up. "Though I do have to say you did a good job some weeks ago."

This knocked the masked Gordon out of her thoughts. "I'm sorry, but what?"

"I heard of what you did on that Halloween party." He said, surprising her on that. "And I appreciate on you trying to save the Vanocouver heiress from Scarecrow."

Batgirl blinked several times in confusion. "Wait… How'd you know I was there? She didn't tell the police on-"

"You can thank Poison Ivy and Catwoman on telling me." He interrupted her, getting a wide eyed look from underneath her cowl. "Sure, you weren't put in the newspaper on that incident, but Ivy and Kitty helped fill in some blanks when we last chatted."

Things came into questioning on that Sunday morning -Rachel's Birthday- when Gordon showed up at his loft and wanted to talk to Pamela in private. Once he left, Naruto immediately asked what was going on, causing her to explain the events of the one Halloween party at the Moulton Towers.

The masked Gordon merely nodded a little while scratching the back of her head and blushed on the praise. Despite the little lecture he gave her, this compliment elevated her spirits a bit.

"Oh and one more thing."

Batgirl stopped her action and focused back at the hero before her. "Yes?"

"Has anyone told you, you have really beautiful red hair?"

"...W-W-Wh-What?" She stuttered out as her hands quickly reached for her red locks.

He nervously chuckled as he rubbed the back of his helmet. "Sorry about that. It's just that red hair seems to stand out to me a lot and you have a perfect blend of red and orange."

The masked Gordon thanked her lucky stars her cowl covered up her growing blush. And just when Batgirl spoke out a hesitant 'Thanks', Vanitas jumped off of the rooftop and quickly summoned a Kazekage lance to fly into the night.

She was lost to herself that she soon realized what happened. Batgirl snapped out of her thoughts and wanted to talk to Vanitas, only to realize he was gone.

'That was really odd.' She thought as she fumbled in getting out the grappling gun she had in her utility belt. 'He's the second person to compliment me on my hair, asides from my father… and fat pigs trying to get in my pants.' A smile then formed on her face. 'And I gotta say, it felt nice.'

Aiming her gadget to a nearby flag pole, she fired it and watched the hook fly. 'Though something with how Vanitas said it seemed oddly similar to how Naruto-' Batgirl quickly shook her head while giving the grappling gun a good tug to know the line is secure. 'Nah~ It's just a coincidence. Nothing more.'

Once tugging the line one more time, Batgirl jumped off the rooftop while mentally screaming on what she was doing. 'SHIIIIIIT!' She quickly closed her eyes for a brief moment before remembering what was going on. Forcing herself to open her optics, she saw herself descending towards the street below instead of swinging. 'How the fucking hell can Batman, Robin and Vanitas do so well on this?!'

Her fingers jumbled on the grappling gun and pressed a button that disconnected the only cable from the gun, causing her to fully drop onto the roof of a supply truck. She skidded a little and grasped onto the container's edge while trying to control her breathing and heartbeats.

'Gotta work on that landing, girl.' She thought to herself as she hanged on for dear life. 'And note to self: train how to use a grappling gun, in a proper way, and consider getting yourself a motorcycle for better travel.' Were her thoughts as she won't be anyway close to her car anytime soon.

 _ **-One Hour Later, South Gotham Subway-**_

Sounds of the old river running with the passing trams filled the area when Batgirl arrived. It took a while to get here on her own, but she made it. Though she did have some bad luck along the way with certain vehicles going where she didn't want to-to having to car hop quite often.

'I hope I don't do that for quite a while.' Was the masked Gordon's thoughts as she crept towards the old metro entrance. 'Or else I might get screwed in the long run.' As she ventured past the entrance, Batgirl saw a good number of men knocked unconscious with them tucked into a corner. 'Huh. I guess the party's started without me.'

Walking further in, the masked Gordon saw a broken up escalator. Now this would've been a hindrance of finding a way down a level. But Barbara Gordon was creative as she saw part of the escalator was still in tact.

Going back several steps, Batgirl went to a running start before leaping into the air and landing on the smooth gap between the escalators and slid on down. The costumed redhead saw towards the end of her little trail, the metal started to get rather jagged. She then noticed she was picking up speed while at the halfway point, causing her to jump into the air and over the jagged area before landing on the ground with a very soft 'thud'.

'And she sticks it.' She thought to herself before hearing something some distance away from her.

" **You sure you haven't seen him at the department?"** Came a gravelly voice. **"He could be an undercover cop."**

Batgirl hid behind a large, stone pillar and saw a large gathering of men as they questioned a scared up man with a thick moustache on his upper lip. Though one of them was rather recognizable being the infamous Harvey 'Two Face' Dent, causing her to wonder what he was doing here.

This question was put to a halt when Batgirl saw Gil Mason step forward and inspected the scar-faced man. "I'd remember that face." Said the acting police commissioner. "Who is he?"

" **In a few minutes, nobody's gonna care."** Two face said before his voice went from gravely to normal. "Okay, you're done here. Go home and rest, Mason"

Gil was rather livid when hearing this, causing the man to speak out with annoyance laced in his voice. "So that's it? You bring me all the way to South Gotham to ID some two-bit hood?"

Two Face didn't like hearing this, making the former DA to growl at Gil. **"Don't get wise with me, Mason. Remember who got you set up as Gordon's assistant and your informant."**

Mason wanted to snap back, but held his tongue. He only looked away before answering back. "Right, Harvey, right."

The acting commissioner was suddenly yanked and was forced to face the heavily burnt man he was currently working for. **"Don't call me that!"** Yelled the former DA. **"It's Two Face to you, pretty boy!"**

"Okay, okay!" Gil said in order for Harvey to stop his actions. "Two Face, take it easy. You're the man."

Letting out a 'humph', Two Face shoved Mason away before adjusting his suit. **"Don't you forget it."** As Gil balanced himself out, the former DA continued talking. **"Since our little stunt at the rally, I got this city thinking you're the best thing since the Batman and Vanitas."** He then pulled out his coin and started flipping it. **"Once Gordon's out of the picture you'll be a shoo-in to take his place."** Two Face then chuckled. **"In fact, they could be calling you 'Commissioner' by tomorrow."**

From her hidden place in the room, Batgirl held back a gasp on what's happening.

Things were starting to click and fit into place inside Barbara's mind. She remembered that Gil was initiated by Dent as her father's assistant before he became Two Face. And now in return for Harvey's favor, Mason would help take out gang lords -in a legal fashion- in order to boost his popularity while Two Face absorbs their assets and becomes a powerful crime boss.

But that's not just it. The former DA wants to have Gil, his lacky, to replace his father! Making a corrupt man as commissioner and controlling him from behind the scenes? It was just like what happened with the former Commissioner Loeb and Carmine Falcone, except the crime lord sold him out to save his own skin to shave off years from his prison at least a decade ago.

'Wait… did Dent say 'tomorrow'?' Barbara thought with widened eyes.

Mason blinked in surprise and voiced his thoughts, along with Batgirl's. "What do you mean 'tomorrow'?"

" **I'm stepping up the timetable."** Was Dent's response. **"Too many people nosing around. This guy,** " pointing to Matches, **"that Batgirl chick. I'm not taking any chances. My men will bust Gordon out of jail tonight. Then we'll dump him off Bayshore Wharf."**

The masked Gordon gritted her teeth at what they were planning. 'Not if I have any say about that.' She thought while pulling out several smoke bombs from her utility belt and was about to throw them. But Batgirl paused in her actions when she felt something crawl up her body.

Looking down, she saw a large ass rat scurrying up her leg.

...And as a result, she involuntarily shrieked.

"EEEEEEEK!" She yelled out as she shook the rat off her. And in the process, Batgirl dropped the smoke bombs as they rolled across the ground and exploded soon after to fill up the space with smoke.

"Hey! Someone's here!" Said one of Two Face's goons as he quickly pulled out his gun.

" **We got company!"** Two Face said as he put away his coin and pulled out his gun. The former DA then saw a figure in the shadows and pointed in that general direction. **"Over there!"**

'Shit!' Batgirl yelled out as she ran for better cover.

As she did, she quickly pulled out what homemade batarangs she had -which were not fun to make bytheway- and threw them at the thugs. Some landed their marks at either legs or arms while others were laughably missed. Regardless, Batgirl was a bit unprepared at the current time as she was going to get overwhelmed by Two Face's men.

Fortunately for her, help arrived as Robin and Vanitas dropped down from the darkened ceiling.

Vanitas drop kicked one of the thugs before grabbing him and tossing the man into a small cluster of goons. From there, the helmeted hero dashed forward with escrima sticks to knock their weapons out of their hands before punching their lights out.

With Robin, he leapt over a goon and punched his exposed back in a rapid succession. Once that man was down, the 'Boy' Wonder quickly pulled out his grappling gun and fired a round to a thug across the way. Retracting the line, Robin flew across the area and kicked a man into a concrete wall before elbowing a man's face.

Not wanting to be left out and to help do her part, Batgirl took a risk by fleeing from her cover and slid across the floor to knock over a pair of goons. Using what momentum she had left, the masked Gordon bounced off the floor and delivered an uppercut to an unsuspecting thug. She did have to roll away once or twice for some distance before backflipping and kicking a man's chest and made him collide into one of his cohorts.

As this all happened, the disguised Wayne saw several goons were approaching a very distracted Robin. He even saw several thugs aim their weapons towards him. Not wanting this to happen, 'Matches' ran forward and knocked them down.

"Robin, look out!" 'Matches' yelled out over the fighting.

The masked Grayson heard Bruce's warning, causing him to quickly duck and spin around to sweep the men off their feet before focusing on other goons in the subway. 

From his place in the impromptu battlefield, Two Face blinked on the recent warning. "Robin?" Questioned the burnt man. **"Wait a second."** Turning his attention towards Matches, Two Face hotly glared at him. **"Then that makes you-"**

The former DA couldn't say anything else as he knocked onto the ground by one of his defeated goons. The burnt man growled and pushed the man away before scrambling onto his feet. His eyes were still trained on 'Matches' and fired several rounds towards the man's general direction.

The disguised Wayne grunted as he had to quickly roll into the subway line and crawl into a crevice so he wouldn't be noticed any further.

'Seems I'll have to retire Matches for a while.' Bruce thought as sounds of fighting still filled the air.

As this was all going on, Gil ran up to Two Face and called out to him. "We need to get outta here!"

The former DA nodded as he and many of his lackies fled from the abandoned subway. As they reached the surface, he ordered Bucky a simple order. **"BLOW IT!"**

The buck toothed thug nodded as he pulled out several grenades from his coat, pulled the pins and tossed them into the tunnel. They bounced off each escalator step for several seconds before-

*KABOOM*

When the explosion went off, Vanitas acted quickly and pulled Batgirl into a protective hug due to how close they were to the blast. The pair was sent flying into a support pillar as Vanitas took the majority of the hit. Once landing on the ground, the masked Uzumaki still protected Batgirl as debrie started collapsing and blocked the subway entrance.

As things settled, Batgirl groaned as she tried to lift the weight off of her. She then realized what was on her and gasped to see Vanitas' prone body and he wasn't responding. There were even a large amount of cracks forming on the glass dome helmet to show much damage was shown.

'Oh god! Please be alive!' The masked Gordon thought as she tried shaking the black/white themed hero awake, but there was no movement at all.

Getting himself off the ground, Robin glared at Batgirl. "Shouldn't you have stayed home? We had this handled." He then glanced at his friend's unconscious body, which seemed to add more fuel to the flames. "If you hadn't show up then this might not have happened."

Before the masked Gordon could retort, the scar-faced man she saw earlier walk up to them. "Robin, enough." He ordered. "It wasn't her fault."

The masked Grayson grubingly stood down as he tried to calm himself.

Turning his attention to the costumed redhead, the disguised Wayne spoke. "I believe you're the so-called Batgirl?"

Robin looked at his mentor in confusion before speaking. "I thought she was with you."

"She clearly isn't, Robin."

The 'Boy' Wonder rolled his eyes. "Well I mean she's got your taste in clothes." He muttered in reference to the style. "Oh yeah, speaking of which…" Robin then pulled out a package from his back and handed it to his mentor. "Brought these for ya."

The disguised Wayne was about to change outfits when he noticed Batgirl was still looking at them. Turning towards her, he spoke. "Do you mind?"

Batgirl blinked before realizing what the man was about to do. She chuckled a little before focusing her attention on the hero that protected her from the explosion.

Back up on the surface, Gil was arguing with Two Face.

"Well, this is just great." Mason growled out. "Now Batman, Robin and Vanitas know what's going on."

"The Batchick too." Bucky said, getting their attention. "I saw her down there."

The former DA stroked his chin to contemplate on what happened. "The explosion probably took care of them." He then pulled out a remote and flipped over the protective covering. "But just in case…"

Back in the subway, Batman had his arms crossed as he was severely speaking to the rookie crime fighter.

"...I don't know who you are or why you're doing this, but let's get one thing straight." He said as Batgirl flinched under his tone. "It takes more than a costume and an attitude to do this work."

Trying to keep herself together, Batgirl spoke up as she kept Vanitas up against the wall. "Look, I've got a reason for being here so-"

"You've already fouled up once." Batman said as he referenced their current predicament. "So stay out of our way so it doesn't happen again."

Batgirl gritted her teeth, but didn't say anything as she checked back on the unconscious Vanitas once more as she saw several small dark holes form in his protective covering. It was really hard to tell if the helmeted hero was alive, or at least breathing, but there was some very subtle hints with the feint rising of his chest to show he was indeed alive.

Walking up to his protege, who was trying to find a way out, Batman spoke. "I should've known it would be Two Face. It's a perfect two-part plan. He consolidates the gangs while Mason takes over the police."

"What he said about the commissioner," Batgirl said, getting Batman and Robin's attention, "will… will he-?"

"You saw him flip his coin." Spoke the Dark Knight. "It's judge, jury and executioner."

Without seeing Batgirl's expression, the Dynamic Duo ventured further into the tunnel.

"...And here we sit with no way to get out of here with Vanitas uncons-"

*KABOOM*

The area shook once more as they heard the loud sounds of water rushing through the tunnels.

"OH CRAP!"

The Dynamic Duo rushed through the opposite end of the tunnel and tried to get onto the upper level. Batman was the lucky one while Robin ended up caught by the rushing water. The protege was going to be swept under the water if it wasn't for Batgirl quickly throwing a rope as it wrapped around his arm.

"Hold on!" She cried out. "I got ya!"

Batgirl struggled to pull Robin up to the upper level, but with Batman's help they were successful in getting him out of the water.

"Not… Bad…" Robin panted out as he looked at the costumed redhead. "Maybe there's hope for you after all." He then noticed the water was rising higher and higher in the abandoned subway. "Well crap."

Batgirl gasped and quickly turned her head towards Vanitas' unconscious body. Rushing towards his side, she tried to pick him up when they were knocked over and swept by the large current of water. The group struggled to keep themselves upright, but it was rather hard with how fast things were going.

Though things have come to a brief resting period when they were swept to a large area of the subway that at least helped level out the water.

"If you have any ideas, Batman, that would be great." Batgirl said as she did her best to keep the helmeted hero upright in the water.

The Dark Knight nodded as he pulled out his grappling gun and some C4 puddy from his utility belt. Placing the puddy onto the hook, the Bat aimed up towards the high ceiling and fired. The puddy covered hook soared and once coming into contact with the ceiling, a large hole was formed after a brief explosion.

"Great." She briefly said. "Only how do we get to it?"

Robin then pulled out another grappling gun. "Always carry a spare." He said before aiming upwards and fired towards the large hole. Once the hook disappeared from view, the 'Boy' Wonder gave it a few good tugs to show that it was secure.

Robin then handed the grapple gun to Batman who then handed it off to Batgirl. "You first." He said, getting a surprised look from her. "Press this button here to send it back down to us."

"But what about Vanitas?" She asked as she looked at his floating body.

"We'll worry about that next."

The masked Gordon hesitantly nodded before pressing the button to rise her out of the water.

"Wait!" Robin called out, causing her to stop. He then pulled out several batarang and handed them to her. "Just in case you run into trouble up there."

She nodded and placed them into her utility belt. "Thanks." Was all Batgirl said before pressing the button once more, rose out of the water and headed straight towards the opened ceiling.

Once on the surface, Batgirl looked down into the hole before holding onto the cable. Pressing the one button, she saw the device lower itself towards the Dynamic Duo and the unconscious hero down below.

Just when the grappling gun was within their grasps, a large section of the subway wall bursted open causing them to be swept under by another surge of water.

Widening her eyes, Batgirl cried out in absolute shock. "NO!"

The masked Gordon didn't know what to do on saving them. A heavy weight was suddenly dropped onto her shoulders and her gut that three great heroes possibly perished in the subway below… and it was all her fault!

Her body shook as she gritted her teeth. 'I… I should've done something…' Barbara thought as she formed fists from her hands. 'I should've done more!' Tears were beginning to form under her cowl. 'I… I shouldn't have come! They were right! I screwed up and I'm paying for it!'

Barbara sniffled several times before eventually remembering why she was on the surface in the first place.

'I… I need to warn the police.' She thought as she stood up with the grappling gun. As she unhooked and retracted the cable, Batgirl ran through the streets. 'I need to warn them of dad.'

As the masked Gordon ran, she looked all over for a payphone. The costumed redhead would've used her cell phone, but it was damaged due to the water from earlier. Besides, she needed to do an anonymous call as doing it from her cell might have caused problems.

After searching for what felt like forever, which was really several minutes, Barbara found a phone box.

Once closing the door, Batgirl pulled out her little change purse from her utility belt and inserted the desired amount before dialing 911. From there, she waited for several moments before a masculine voice was heard from the other end.

" _Hello? GCPD here. How may I direct your call?"_

"Hello. I need to warn you-"

" _Hey! Can you speak up?!"_

The redhead groaned before yelling into the phone. "I need to warn you! Commissioner Gordon is in danger!"

 _"I can barely hear you!"_ Spoke the officer. _"The phone lines must've been damaged by the explosion! So speak up!"_

She blinked and wondered on what the officer meant by explosion. Shaking her head, Batgirl spoke up once more. "I said Commissioner Gordon is in danger!" 

" _I still can't hear you! Look… If you want the story on Gordon's breakout, come down here!"_ Was all the officer said before he ended the call. 

"...Breakout?" Barbara questioned before her eyes widened with realized horror. "Oh god, they've got him."

 _ **-Earlier, City Jail-**_

"...Bullock."

"Yeah?"

The spectacle man sighed as he lifted up a fork full of… something from a meal tray in his cell before putting it back down. "If I ever get reinstated, remind me to do something about the food in here."

Bullock chuckled a little when his boss learned of the kind of food that was served in the city jail. It wasn't great, but it did fill up prisoners for the day.

Swallowing a bite from a slice of pizza, the detective spoke up. "Relax, commish. We got the judge to reconsider bail, didn't we?"

Gordon nodded as the rally yesterday did get the judge to look back over the case. He did inform the GCPD this morning on the good news. So that's at least some silver lining.

Finishing up the rest of his pizza slice, Bullock was going to speak up again when he heard something. "Commish?"

"Yes?"

"Are you hearing… ticking?"

Gordon blinked a few times before looking for the source. His ears caught it from… his prison window?

The detective and incarcerated commissioner looked over to the window and gasped when seeing a bomb was placed there. The pair tried to quickly move, but it was too late…

*KABOOM*

...As the bomb quickly went off, sending Gordon into the cell bars while some debris hit Bullock in the face to render him unconscious.

The spectacled man groaned as his vision blurred while a loud ringing was being heard in his ears.

"..me…, commi….."

"W-What?" Gordon muttered out as he saw two blurred men quickly lift him up.

"...said: Come on, commissioner." Said one of the thugs as James was roughly dragged out of his cell and into the city streets. "It's time for your just deserts."

 _ **-Back in the Subway-**_

Batman, Robin and the unconscious Vanitas were dragged through the currents as the Dynamic Duo did what they could to keep their friend upright. It wasn't an easy task, but they did what they could.

Coming across a submerged train car, Robin dived down and latched onto the doors before prying them open as hard as he could. His arms were getting rather sore with the building pressure, but after several moments they were spread open wide enough for Batman to quickly shove Vanitas' body inside with them following right in.

Closing the door right behind him, Robin panted for air before looking around and seeing water was slowly rising in the confined space. "Do… Do you think she made it?" Robin asked.

"I hope so." Batman said as he panted for air as well.

"And… do you think we'll make it?"

"In time."

"Well do you have any ideas?"

"I've got an idea." Came a familiar voice. Looking to the side, they saw Vanitas was now starting to stir. He looked all around him and rose a hidden brow. "...What the hell happened? And how long was I knocked out?"

Robin chuckled. "It's about damn time."

"Can you get us out of here?" Came the Bat's request.

Situating himself onto his feet, the costumed Uzumaki melted his helmet away to expel the built up water inside of it. Shaking his head a little, the hero reformed his protective covering before answering. "Give me a moment."

More and more water formed in the confined space, causing Robin to speak up. "Can that moment come sooner?"

Vanitas rolled his eyes before spreading his arms out and concentrated. His head still felt the explosion from earlier, so it took some extra time to get his power in working order.

Before long, a large Fair Play card formed underneath them before they started to rise towards the subway car's ceiling.

"You two better hold your breath."

Batman and Robin nodded before pulling out a pair of portable oxygen tubes from their utility belts and placed them into their mouths.

"...Or you could do that."

Once they were ready, the three were soon phased right out of the old subway car and rose through the layers of concrete before rising into the surface. The Dynamic Duo saw this, causing them to take out their devices from their mouths to get a bit of fresh air… after coughing for a few moments.

"Think they got the commissioner by now?" Asked the 'Boy' Wonder.

"Most likely."

"I'm sorry, but what?" Vanitas asked with hidden, widened eyes. "What happened to Gordon?"

"We'll explain on the way." Spoke the Bat. "But now, get us to Bayshore Wharf."

Vanitas nodded as he directed his floating card platform to their desired destination.

…..

"Hey Bruce."

"Yes, Dick?"

"Why didn't we use these while in the flooded tunnels earlier?" Robin asked, in referencing to their portable oxygen tubes. "They… would've helped."

All Vanitas and Robin heard in response was a small groan coming from the Bat.

 _ **-Bayshore Wharf-**_

Standing on the wooden dock at the wharf, Gordon glared at Two Face and his gang surrounding him. More so towards the acting commissioner.

"I trusted you, Mason." James growled out as he was held back by Sakon and Ukon, Two Face's twin lackies. "Ever since you joined the force and rose through the ranks, I trusted you. And this is how you-"

"It's just business, Jim." Gil spoke up as he came up to the restrained man. "Nothing personal. Hell, as a matter of fact, I respect you." All he got back from Gordon was a glare. "I do! But a fella has to take his opportunities where he finds them. And with you out of the way, I'll be mayor inside of a year."

"You're sick, Gil." James spat out before directing his head towards the former DA. "A lot sicker than him. At least I can see his bad half."

Mason sighed. "Sorry you feel that way, Jim." The man then formed a smirk that made Gordon feel sick. "At least you won't have to worry about Barbara." This caused the confined man to widen his eyes. "In fact, I'll take good care of her. After all, she's very fond of me, you know."

In a surprise bit of strength, Gordon pried himself free from Sakon and Ukon grasps before leaping at Mason and punched him across the face. "You bastard!" James was then pulled back by the twins once more as the spectacled man hotly glared at Gil. "Like I'll ever let you lay a hand on my daughter!"

Straightening out his suit, Mason walked back towards Gordon before punching the man across the face. The blow was hard enough for his glasses fly off his face and land onto the ground.

"Well you won't be around long enough to do that." Said the acting commissioner as he flexed his hand from the delivered blow. "Since you'll be put down for good and there will be nothing you'll do to stop _that_."

Gordon merely growled in response. "I may not be around to stop you, but I know some people who will.

"I wouldn't count on it, Jim." Pulling out a gun from his coat pocket, Mason aimed his weapon towards James' head. "There's been a recent decline in the hero population."

Just when Gil was about to pull the trigger, a batarang knocked the weapon out of the acting commissioner's hand.

"What the-"

Wasn't long before a can of tear gas was tossed in the middle of the gathering of men. Each of them wheezed and coughed while a figure rushed into the smoke.

James was having a hard time focusing on what was happening before he heard pained yelps from Two Face's twin lackeys. And before he knew it, Gordon was dragged out of the smoke as he was forced to run in the process.

"We need to run, commissioner!" Came a female voice.

Gordon had a hard time seeing who the woman was, due to the tear gas and losing his glasses. But by the general shape and attire, he had a good idea who it was.

"Batgirl, I presume." He stated, causing her to nod in the process as they quickly behind a closed up kiosk.

"Don't worry, Mr. Gordon, I'll get you out of this… somehow." She said as the sounds of bullets filled the air as Two Face's goons opened fire upon their position.

If either groups paid more attention to their surroundings, they would've seen a large shadow crossing over the armed gang. Though it was too late for them as several batarangs and daggers knocked the assault rifles and handguns out of the hands of some thugs.

Looking towards the source, they saw the Dynamic Duo dropping down from above. 

Hearing a decrease of bullet fire, Batgirl peaked out of cover and came face to face with Vanitas.

"Hiya." Spoke the helmeted hero in a chipper tone. "Did you miss me?"

Batgirl smiled brightly and quickly hugged the black/white themed hero. "I thought you guys were-"

"It'll take much more than what happened in the subway to take us down." Vanitas said while returning the hug for a brief moment. Though he had to quickly ending it by pushing her back into cover to avoid some stray shots. "Sorry to cut this short, but I've got an appointment with some thugs."

Batgirl nodded as she saw Vanitas run back into the fray to help out the Dynamic Duo. Turning her attention to her father, she spoke. "I think you're safe now, sir."

Gordon could only chuckle in response.

" **Get them!"** Two Face roared out as he fired rounds at the evading vigilantes. **"Kill them all!"**

Bucky tried to rush towards Batgirl and Commissioner Gordon, but Robin saw this happen and quickly acted to stop him. Pulling out bolas, he threw them at the buck toothed man's legs to trip him up. Bucky tried to move forward once entangled, but with a good tug of the rope from Robin sent the man into the water.

Leaping into the air, Vanitas dive bombed a pair of goons by slamming them into the ground. When several thugs tried shooting at him, the helmeted hero quickly formed his ice shield to block the bullets as he rolled towards them. And with the same momentum, he dashed forward and smacked each of them with his weapon as they were quickly frozen in place.

As for the Bat, he slid across the wooden dock to sweep a man off his feet. From there, he spun around and delivered an uppercut towards another's chest before punching him into the water. And using the same momentum, the Bat grappled a shooter's head and spun him around to make the man fly into another thug.

 **"You've screwed up my plans for the last time, Batman!"** Two Face growled out as he emptied his clip at the Caped Crusader. Seeing it was useless, the former DA tossed it at the Bat before delivering several punches which were easily avoidable.

The burnt man then grasped the Batman's hands as the pair soon struggled for dominance over the other. It appeared that the vigilante was winning over the little bout. But in a surprising move, Two Face headbutted the Bat. He then used the disordinating attack to his advantage and grasped Batman's shoulders before tossing him to the side.

Seeing as it was his chance to flee, Two Face ran off and went past Batgirl and Gordon.

The costumed redhead was about to run after the former DA when she noticed Batman rush past her. And it was at this moment when Batgirl caught Gil Mason, at the corner of her eye, flee to the far side of the wooden bridge in hopes of getting away.

'Oh no, you don't.' She thought before bolting from her cover.

Mason ran down the wooden stairs to get to the getaway boat on the lower level. He quickly fumbled through the keys to start up the engine. Once untying the mooring rope, Gil took off and didn't look back.

If he did, then he would've noticed Batgirl jump into the water and grasp the rope that Mason forgot to pull into the speed boat.

Back at the docks, Two Face was nearing a building with a large display of a silver dollar hanging above the gates. Seeing as he isn't going to reach the former DA fast enough, Batman quickly saw a target and took it by pulling out a batarang and throwing it into the air. Two Face briefly saw this happen and pushed himself harder in his run, thinking he could outrun the thrown weapon.

What he should've realized was that the batarang wasn't aimed towards him, but the display above him.

The wood suspending the coin display underneath gave way once a small explosion went off. With its massive weight, the fake coin fell down and collided with the wooden dock, causing it to cave in and shake. And with how close he was to the coin once it fell, Two Face was pole vaulting into the air and fell onto the ground.

Once impacting on the wooden ground, the little quake caused the coin to topple backward, landed on top of Two Face and entrapped him there.

"Well ain't that a first." Gordon said as he chuckled at the blurry sight before him. "A coin flips Two Face."

Both Vanitas and Robin jogged onto the little scene and chuckled a little on what they saw before them.

Though this little moment quickly died as the 'Boy' Wonder looked all over for Batgirl. "Where's Batgirl?" He asked.

"Out there." Responded the Bat as he gazed at the watery distance. "On her own."

"I'll go get her." Was all Vanitas said before he quickly formed his wind lance and took off into the air.

A mile or two away from the wharf, Batgirl was struggling as she pulled her way closer and closer to the boat via mooring rope. As she got closer, Gil seemed to turn back and saw what she was doing. Pulling out his gun, Mason emptied her gun at her, but he missed his shots.

Though one of the shots hit the tank, causing flames to start forming from the newly made hole.

Releasing the steering wheel, Gil rushed towards the back in hopes of taking care of Batgirl. When he got close, he tried to fire his gun only for the resounding *Click* to be heard. This gave the costumed redhead enough time to quickly pull herself into the boat and kick the man away.

With the boat losing control on where it's going, the constant rocking caused Batgirl to fall back. Gil took this opportunity to tackle her down as they struggled for dominance.

"Now, let's see who you really are!" Mason quickly grasped Batgirl's mask and pulled it away to reveal- "Barbara?!" He said in absolute shock. "I-I didn't know it was you."

Barbara hotly glared at the man before her. "Would it have made a difference, Gil?" She spat out before delivering an upward kick towards his jaw.

The impact knocked the man back and fall onto the boat's railing. This resulted in Gil's head impacting the transom so hard that he lost consciousness.

Barbara was quite satisfied with this and let out a bit of breath she seemed to have kept in her chest. Though her momentary bit of peace came to an abrupt end when she noticed the boat was careening towards Gotham's Statue of Justice.

The unmasked Gordon gritted her teeth once her eyes landed back onto Mason's prone body. Grasping his coat, she struggled in lifting him up. "I ought to leave you here." She struggled out before tossing him off the boat before she jumped off soon after.

And just at the very last moment as the boat crashed into the statue, causing it to explode soon after.

Moments later, Barbara gasped for air as she broke the surface and held Gil's body up so the corrupt man wouldn't die by drowning. Panting soon after, she looked around and saw the burning wreckage not far away from her. She then realized that trying to get back to dry land was going to be a total pain in the ass while dragging Mason's body with her.

If only she had some help…

"Need a lift?"

Before she could register who spoke, Barbara felt herself get lifted from the water. Looking down, she saw a giant playing card as it was a surprisingly good surface. It was even stable enough to keep the unconscious Gil balanced on it.

Barbara then realized who exactly saved her.

"Yes." She answered with a tired smile. "I'd very much appreciate it."

"Then you're welcome, Miss Gordon."

Barbara blinked in shock on hearing her name. She then remembered that Gil took off her mask moments earlier.

"...Are you going to tell my father?"

Vanitas looked towards the shore before back to her. "Nah~"

"...What?"

"For one, your father might get a heart attack if he knew you did this." He said, getting her to let out a nervous chuckle as she knew he was right. "And second, it's not my little secret to tell."

"Wait… You mean…"

"Yeup~" He said as he expanded the card platform so he can hop on. "Your secret's safe with me, Barbara."

She let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god." Then a thought resurfaced to the forefront of her mind. "Hey, Vanitas."

"Yes?"

"I'm… I'm sorry on what happened earlier… at the subway."

He sighed as he realized that must've eaten her up a lot. "All is forgive, Miss Gordon." This got her to brighten up a little. "Whatever happened, happened. An uncontrollable instance that could've happened to anyone."

"But Batman said-"

"He can be quite the hardass prude." He suddenly said, getting a wide eyed look from her on him saying such a thing to the infamous Batman. "But he does mean well as he's just wants to protect others. Even if that means he has to be rough to get his point across." Vanitas groaned soon after. 'Then again, with how he's brought up, it's hard not to see that.' Was his thought.

Barbara nodded a little in understanding.

"Though he should realize this city doesn't have it's fair share of times of being unsafe." Vanitas said, getting her to briefly nod again. "So… if you'd like… I could help you know how to defend yourself."

The red haired beauty widened her amethyst eyes when hearing this. "Wait, what?"

"It's not much and I-"

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" She yelled out in joy while hugging him rather tightly.

This was a great opportunity for her! Her being trained by Vanitas himself! Oh it's a dream come true… in some way or another.

Soon realizing what was still happening, the redhead quickly pulled away and coughed into her hand. "Uh, sorry about that."

Vanitas chuckled as he 'drove' his card platform to the city. "Now do you need me to drop you off somewhere?"

"Yeah, my car. It's parked a block away from Mason's apartment." She said before looking at said man's body. "And are you-"

"After dropping you off."

 _ **-Morning, City Hall-**_

A large gathering of news reporters stood in front of the City Hall steps as they broadcasted the event while interviewing the now released James Gordon as he was reinstated as Commissioner of the GCPD. All of the false charges were obviously dropped and Gordon had received a public apology on live television on what has happened.

Behind the man was Mayor Hill, District Attorney Janet Van Dorne, many representatives of the GCPD in full uniform, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, Naruto Uzumaki and the commissioner's very own daughter a few steps away from the whiskered publisher.

"...Commissioner, I understand that Gil Mason is still in a coma." Summer Gleeson asked as she held the microphone to the spectacled man.

Gordon nodded. "Yes he is, Summer. But even so, he has been indicted."

'Not to mention his memories wiped on Batgirl's identity.' Was Naruto's thoughts as he noticed Barbara inched a bit closer to him.

After dropping Barbara off at her car, Naruto took Mason to the GCPD so he can be properly arrested. Though to be on the safe side of things, the Uzumaki erased the man's memories on the moments before his coma so Barbara would be kept safe if Gil were to ever wake back up.

"So how does it feel to be behind your desk again?"

James smiled before answering Summer's question. "A heck of a lot better than it felt being behind bars. And the foods better as well."

This got several laughs from the crowd.

"And what of the mysterious Batgirl?" Asked the Gotham reporter as she was still the latest topic as of late. "Who is she and where has she vanished to? Any thoughts you'd like to share?"

The spectacled commissioner took a moment to think before answering. "As far as I'm concerned, she's as welcome in Gotham City as any of the heroes residing here and doing their part to make it safe for all."

Off to the side, Dick whispered to his mentor. "How do you think _Batman_ will feel about that?"

Bruce merely smiled. "I suppose there's always room for one more. And I have a feeling we'll be seeing her again."

Overhearing the conversation, Naruto smirked as he looked at Barbara's cheerful expression beside him. 'I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see her quite soon.' Was the Uzumaki's thoughts as he witnessed the public event before him.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Sorry on the update being late. Would've gotten this out sooner if I haven't been going to several job interviews within several days and doing more job applications. Having to prepare for each one as they ate up a lot of my time. Even though I have a temp job, which just started today, I still want to get a permanent job and hopefully quit the temp job a bit early.**

 **Who knows.**

 **...So we have finally gotten to Batgirl's true debut into crime fighting. Sure there was Barbara's thing last chapter, but this is her official start.**

 **Now I kept getting reviews and PMs about Barbara if she's going to be changing outfits… Obviously she got an outfit change on this chapter with her later 'New 52' look. It's just that in the last chapter, she didn't really have much of a choice on what she had at the time on her situation.**

 **With her chosen outfit here, I think this one's a more practical and functional in my opinion than the more spandex and armored ones we are all used to… especially with her limited access to things at the current time. She may or may not get the armored and high techy outfits later on, but at current time the later 'New 52' look is her current outfit.**

 **With that out of the way, I should address Barbara's relationship with the Bat family. In the past, she has been on an on and off again association/partnership with them. She took on the moniker of Batgirl out of respect on what Batman has done for the city. Also she hasn't always lived in Gotham exactly as she did her crime fighting in several other places like in Japan and National City for a time. Sure she did her primary work in Burnside, but that's just a district in Gotham.**

 **Point is, if I want Barbara to take a more active role as Batgirl, she doesn't have to just stay and be restricted to the Gotham borders.**

 **...Now with the stuff mentioned earlier with Jason Blood, it is stated in the new 52 that before becoming a knight in King Arthur's court that he was actually Merlin's scribe. I just wanted to bring this out there for you readers since I found that interesting. Jason had gotten into magic** _ **after**_ **becoming Etrigan's mortal vessel in many past iterations, but having him be knowledgeable to the mystic arts prior to the two becoming 'roommates' made things better. Especially with what I have planned for the story.**

… **..**

 **Came across an interesting show on Netflix called AggRetsuko and I'm already hooked as it's really relating to my life right now with stuff pertaining to work and whatnot.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	53. The Demon's Quest

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 49: The Demon's Quest**

Opening the door to her apartment, Harley shook herself a little from the rain that was pouring outside.

'Ugh!' Harley groaned out as she took off her coat. 'I knew I should've brought that umbrella.' She thought as she closed the door. The pale woman then flipped the switch before raising a brow to see the lights were out. 'Huh, the storm must've blown the fuse. Then again, the hallways were rather dark.'

As she carefully went further into her home, Harley felt a bit uncomfortable. The asylum doctor didn't know why the feeling arose in the first place.

'Must be my imagination.' Was her thought. 'It has been rather crazy day since I started working on Harvey again.'

Just when she was about to enter her bedroom, Harley felt a stinging sensation in her neck.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" She yelled out from the pain. Quickly placing her hand towards her neck, she felt something was there. Pulling it out, her blue eyes saw it… was some sort… of dart…

Wait… why was everything spinning in her vision all of a sudden?

Harley quickly leaned against the hallway wall as she groaned while trying to stay upright. Though her action was failing as she was starting to slip into unconsciousness. And before long, she fell onto her carpeted floor and went out like a light.

…..

Seeing the unconscious body on the ground, a pair of individuals walked out from the shadows, carefully picked her up and took her out of her home. Others stayed behind in order to clean up what possible mess was made in order to make it seem that nothing seemed amiss.

 _ **-Two Days Later, Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

Entering their humble abode after a long day, Naruto and Rachel decided it was time to rest and unwind.

The guardian/ward pair spent the past several hours being with each other once Naruto picked up Rachel from school. They went out for an early dinner and stopped on by an ice cream parlor before heading to the arcade. This made things feel great as it made the pair quite happy.

Especially with what has been going on as of late.

When Naruto went to pick up Harley for their planned date yesterday, he was rather confused on her being at her apartment. He tried checking the Crocks, but they weren't home either and figured they were on a family outing at the time. Naruto then went to Arkham to see if she she was still on the clock and might've forgotten on their date, like the past several times.

Yet to his worry, the Arkham staff reported that she hasn't been to work that day.

The staff tried reaching her, but they kept leaving voice messages throughout the day on her not showing up. Harley had a good attendance record so they had let that slide, but they asked Naruto that if he were to find her then tell her that she has a lot of things to take care of once coming back. And it was after this that he ended up calling Paula and asked if she saw her, but there was no luck at all on that end.

Oh and it wasn't just Harley that wasn't responding to her phone, but it was also Pam and Selina.

The Uzumaki tried contacting them to inform them on Harley's odd disappearance, but neither answered his calls. Naruto asked Shizune if she got word from Selena, but nothing. He even tried talking to his girlfriends in the Dreaming, but something… was wrong. They were there, but they weren't responsive to his voice at all.

This greatly unnerved him.

Rachel obviously could tell her guardian was worried on this situation, so she did what she could to cheer him up. This consisted of making him breakfast this morning before heading to school and asking if they could hang out once done with classes. He was happy on both the breakfast and the little opportunity to spend more time with his cute little ward.

"Day could've been better if it wasn't raining." Rachel grumbled out.

"True, but we can't control the weather."

"Yet you do have a conjured weapon that can manipulate the wind." She pointed out as she dropped her backpack onto the couch. "And if you focus hard enough on it, you can make mini-storms. Thus you can manipulate the weather."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "But I don't want to abuse that and keep pulling it out to clear or cover up the skies if I don't like the weather, ya'know."

Rachel merely sighed in response.

He chuckled as he knew how much his ward hated the rain and would glare at it to no end.

Taking his eyes off of her, Naruto shifted through the mail he got for the day. This consisted of bills, Rachel's magazine subscription, work invoice, invitations, bills, barely marked brown envelope, credit card offers-

'Wait?' Naruto thought as he shifted through the pile once more and found the brown envelope. '...This doesn't seem suspicious.' Was the rhetorical thought.

It was addressed to him, but there was no returning address.

Opening up the sealed flap, the former shinobi saw they were photos once he saw their back. Shaking them out of the tight envelope, they fell into his hand. Naruto then flipped them around and-

'No!' He thought with absolute dread. 'It can't be!'

Quickly pulling out his phone, he went through his contacts and found his secretary's number. Pressing send, Naruto waited for her to pick up. After what felt like forever, Jillian answered her phone.

" _Yes, Naruto?"_

"Hey, Jillian, I need you to either cancel or put all of my appointments on hold." He said, getting Rachel to quickly turn her head towards her guardian's direction. "I'm unavailable to everyone at the current time."

" _...Are you sure about that, sir?"_

"Yes. Something came up and needs my full attention until further notice." Naruto said as he started to fidget in his spot. "I'm sorry that this is short notice, but I hope you and the others understand."

" _I-I guess so."_

"Alright then thank you." Once he ended the call, he spoke towards his ashen ward. "Rachel, I'm gonna need you to pack your bag for a few days."

Rachel rose a brow on the sudden request. She was about to speak up when she saw the pained look across his face. Rachel then nodded as she quickly went to her bedroom.

Once reaching her destination, she spoke the obvious question that came to mind. "Where am I going exactly?"

"Jason Blood's place."

"And why can't I stay with the Crocks?" She yelled out from upstairs.

"Because he's the only one that can properly protect you at this time."

"...Can we stop downstairs to get Isis then?"

"Yeah since she'll help keep you company." Was all he said before looking down to the photos in his hand with a note attached.

...Naruto was no stranger to peril. For he has pitted his strength, courage, skill and intelligence against the deadliest of foes and most ingenious of criminals throughout his life… Yet the current thought came across his mind in the past, he was not prepared in the slightest for this happening now.

...For the photos showed that all three of his girlfriends and his former teacher, Talia, were bound, gagged and taken.

 _Dear Vanitas,_

 _Save them while you can since their lives depend on it._

 _ **-Batcave-**_

After dropping off Rachel to her Jason's home in Park Row, Naruto immediately went straight towards Bruce's hidden lair underneath Wayne Manor with a duffle bag of spare clothes and essentials.

You would be wondering why he is here in the first place. Asides from the obvious details of the photos, Naruto needed a full analysis on them for any DNA markers like skin residue or fingerprints or anything else. And for that, he needed to use the batcomputer to start his journey.

Naruto would've called Bruce for help on this situation; but he, Dick and Alfred were currently out of the country and currently heading towards Japan. Something pertaining to one of Bruce's former teachers requesting help. And the Wayne could not deny the request, causing Bruce to drag his grown ward and butler along for the ride.

Coming closer to the batcomputer, Naruto turned on the power switch as the expensive device was booting up. As he waited, the Uzumaki voiced his plagued question for the upteenth time. "Who the hell took them and how did they find out who I was?"

 _ **-Insert Arrow Soundtrack: Season 3 Meeting the Demon-**_

"I expect you weren't well protective of your identity, Naruto Uzumaki." At the sound of an icy, penetrating voice, Naruto whirled around to find the source.

It didn't take much longer when Naruto heard extremely faint footsteps and turned towards the source. A pair of shadowy figures made themselves known as more details became more apparent to the whiskered Uzumaki.

The first man was a bald muscular man of Indian descent. He's at least six feet tall, 300 pounds, had black eyes and with thin eyebrows. The muscular man wore arabic style clothing to show off his physique with several knives strapped to his belt.

The second mysterious man was a tall and daunting man with fierce and imposing blue-green eyes. His slicked back, peppered black hair had several grey and white streaks running through it. The man also had a goatee that seemed rather longer on each side of his chin. He was dressed in a regal manner with his clothes covered by a high-collared green cloak with large gold buttons. Underneath, he wore a black vest with gold hems, a white undershirt, and a golden sash to help match his black pants and boots. In terms of jewelry, the mystery man wore a pendant and a ring of some demon-like design.

Once revealed in the light, the daunting man continued to speak. "Or shall I address you as Vanitas."

Naruto's first response in this situation was glare at the intruders while asking the obvious questions that came to mind. "Who are you?! How'd you get in here?!" He asked while stalking forward.

Seeing the Uzumaki advance, the muscular man pulled out one of his knives and quickly threw it towards the whiskered man. Acting quickly, Naruto caught the blade inches away from his face. In his frustration, the former shinobi tightened his grasp on the blade as it briefly glowed before the weapon corroded away into nothingness.

"Now that was rather rude." Said the publisher as he dusted off his hands of any remaining residue.

Seeing this act before him, the regal man rose a brow. "Interesting." He said. "Very interesting indeed." Stepping closer to the Uzumaki, the man continued to speak. "You must forgive my guard, Ubu, for he is well-trained."

"Right…"

The now identified Ubu didn't like the tone Naruto spoke out and moved forward, but his master held up his hand to halt his action. The muscled Indian soon stepped back, but still glared at the Uzumaki.

"Now, I believe I should introduce myself." The dark haired man said as he walked closer and closer to Naruto until coming to a stop at a comfortable distance. "I am he who is called Ra's al Ghul."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "The Demon's Head, in arabic, if I'm not mistaken."

"Which you are not."

"Okay, but mind telling me how you got in here? And better yet, _why_ are you here in the first place?" Naruto asked while a thought crossed his mind. 'Bruce is really going to flip his shit when hearing this. And better yet, he'll really need to update his security, AGAIN!'

Ra's smirked at the publisher as he folded his arms. "That's for us to know and you to never find out." He chuckled at Naruto's little reaction. "Now as to why I'm here is that we have a common problem."

"Which is?"

Pulling out a photo from his cloak, he presented it towards the former shinobi. Taking a good look of it, Naruto widened his eyes. "As you can see, I want… no _need_ your help. For my daughter has been abducted alongside your three lovers."

Naruto still kept his eye on the photo before landing right back onto Ra's as a realized thought presented itself. "You're Nyssa's and Talia's father?"

"Indeed I am. Though I'm surprised you didn't recognize my name sooner. Surely my daughters mentioned me by name in the past."

"...Not really." Naruto admitted. "They kept avoiding mentioning it whenever I asked."

Ra's nodded in understanding. "I wouldn't expect either to-" His speech was suddenly halted by a series of loud coughs coming from the man. Naruto recognized they were rather harsh, causing him to reach forward to possibly help him out.

Ra's held out his hand towards his eldest daughter's student. "Keep your distance!" He said. "I appreciate the gesture, for I am merely old. Older, perhaps, than you can imagine." Ubu came forward and gave his master a handkerchief to wipe away the blood from his mouth and hand. Once done, the Demon's Head continued to speak. "But not so old that I cannot assist you in your search."

Naruto sighed. "Alright, I get the message." His eyes looked back at the batcomputer and showed that it was now usable. Making his way over, Naruto quickly typed into the computer to log himself in. With his access to the device, he quickly took one of the photos and placed it on the microscopic spectrograph scanner. From there, Naruto quickly typed through several more commands to get things started.

As the computer was doing it's job, he turned around and saw Ra's and Ubu standing nearby. No doubt coming closer to possibly see him work. Naruto sighed before pulling out one of the other photos he had on him before presenting it to Ra's. "So while we wait for the computer finishing the scans, I'll get into some details." Pointing to one part of the photo, the Uzumaki spoke. "First off, look at the curved jagged blade. From what I know on it's details, it's used by a cult of mercenaries in the south-eastern Asian territories."

The aged man nodded before the three heard a resounding *Ding* throughout the Batcave. 'Huh, that was rather fast.' Naruto thought as he looked at the computer screen. 'Gotta hand it to Bruce with the fastest computer ever owned.' "And it seems there are powdered residues of a certain hemp indigenous to the more southern areas, which are used in ceremonies." Adopting a thinking position, the Uzumaki continued speaking. "And if I were to guess, the kidnappers are located in… Calcutta."

Ra's smiled on hearing the results. "Well done, Naruto. If the title of 'detective' wasn't taken by your friend, then you'd surely hold the reputation."

The Uzumaki narrowed his eyes a bit in response. Ra's noticed this, but didn't care that much. "We proceed to India, then." He said as he turned around and made his way out of the Batcave. "Come. I have an aircraft waiting for us."

Naruto nodded as he picked up his duffle bag and turned off the batcomputer before following Talia's father. Though Ra's seemed to be a little slow in his step as the whiskered man walked further ahead of him. This caused Ubu to quickly grasp Naruto's shoulder and shove him back.

"What the hell's your problem?" Naruto asked with a glare.

Ubu growled out the response. "Ra's al Ghul leaves the chamber first."

"Forgive my servant, Naruto." Ra's said as he walked further ahead. "He feels that no one should precede me." Turning his head towards Talia's former student, Naruto saw Ra's smile a little. "Call it… _overzealousness."_

As Ubu walked ahead of the _infidel_ , after shoving him once more, Naruto's eyebrow twitched at the bodyguard. 'I think I'll call it 'strike one'.'

 _ **-On the Streets-**_

Naruto was currently sitting next to Ra's inside of a Lincoln town car, with Ubu driving, as they made their way towards the Gotham Airport. The Demon's Head stated their aircraft was there and they'd be able to easily bypass security to hopefully make it towards their destination in good time. The Uzumaki was skeptic hearing about this, but he'd ignore the current fact in order to save his girlfriends and Talia.

Occasionally glancing at the road, Naruto could feel a reflected glare coming from the musclebound Indian. He could only roll his eyes in response. 'That is gonna get old, real quickly.'

Deciding to break the silence, Naruto turned his attention to Talia's father. The Uzumaki noticed the thousand yard stare in his gaze as he seemed to be thinking many topics. Naruto can only guess they pertained to the current situation and the safety of his eldest daughter.

Though there are currently a series of questions plaguing the whiskered man's mind which he wanted answered.

"You still have me at a loss, Ra's." Naruto spoke for the first time in this ride. Said man broke his thousand yard stare to look at the Uzumaki. "Just how did you learn who I am? Not to mention-"

"How I learned Bruce Wayne was the Batman?" Ra's finished off, getting Naruto to briefly nod. "You see, Naruto, I control a vast global organization. At one point, I took focus towards Gotham and inspected the Dark Knight quite thoroughly." Taking a sip of his drink, he continued his explanation. "Obviously, his activities require certain… _costly_ implements. So it was rather simple for my people to learn which wealthy Americans were amassing what Batman might require. And in the end, along with certain events, my deductions ended up with Bruce Wayne."

Naruto sighed while rubbing his eyes. "Of course you would come to that conclusion." He let out a bitter chuckle. "If someone had the right mind and done their homework, then they might eventually put things together."

"Indeed. Most people tend to be either ignorant or unproductive in wanting to learn the truth. But if one wanted to learn such a secret, one must dig deep. And I believe you told my daughter 'look underneath the underneath'." Ra's smiled a little. "Very wise words if one truly thinks through it.'

Naruto could only nodded at the words that man said, it wasn't far what he does when he is driven. "Wise words, that my sensei once told me. Confusing as hell but when you get it… well kinda says itself."

"Indeed."

"With that out of the way, you still haven't still explained how you learned who I am."

Ra's heartly chuckled. "Now _you_ were quite the challenge. And I have to admit that my daughters were right that you are very unexpected and unpredictable."

Smiling a cocky smile, the Uzumaki felt pride in those words. "I try."

"I have studied what footage and information my people could acquire in hopes of figuring out your fighting style. Reason why, each person's fighting style is like fingerprints. Each and everyone is different and unique to their own."

"Thus you were able to connect that myself and my alter ego were the very same." Naruto concluded.

"Not quite."

"But it at least rung some bells, I guess."

Ra's gave a small hint of a shrug. "From there, I had followed your _nightly_ activities ever since you arrived onto the scene with that Daggett debacle earlier this year to find some additional clues to your identity. But alas, not much could be found."

The Demon's head lightly coughed a few times into his hand. Naruto could tell they seemed a bit pained, but they were manageable.

"With how I was able to find out who you were was due to Talia."

"...Excuse me?"

"You see, Talia has kept a _very_ close eye on you during your interactions with her." Ra's said, getting Naruto's attention. "She had her reasons as to why, but there was one circumstance that she came across on how she learned of your identity. And from there she felt compelled in telling me."

Naruto bit his inner cheek on this. "Must've been one hell of slip if that was the nail on the coffin for my identity." He muttered. "Why didn't she confront me about it instead of going straight to you?"

"I do not know." Ra's said in an even tone. "As much as I care for my children. They do have their stubborn streak. Good thing too otherwise they-"

Suddenly Ra's coughed rather hard, causing Naruto shift over. "Do you need help?" Asked the Uzumaki out of concern.

All Naruto got was a glare. "I *Cough* need nothing." Spoke the Demon's Head before wiping away the blood from his mouth from the back of his hand. "As Napoleon told me: a strong will can fuel a frail physique."

This got the former shinobi to look on in curiosity and had a gut feeling something else was up.

For one, Naruto doesn't know if Ra's hasn't been truly honest with him. And two, Ra's seemed to have been familiar with the Corsican/French ruler in a more personal manner. And this led to a new question forming…

Ra's said he was older than Naruto could've imagined. If so, then how old is Ra's al Ghul?

 _ **-Some hours later; On board Ra's luxury aircraft, over the ocean-**_

Talia's father was indeed true that the three were able to go around the airport security in order to go straight to Ra's private aircraft. The Uzumaki wasn't able to spot the small crew for some reason as they seemed to be confined to the pilot's cockpit. The only person that was able to serve him and Ra's food and drink was Ubu.

Since it was going to be quite the long trip, Naruto needed something to do to keep his mind off from worrying. At first, Naruto decided to talk to Ra's to get to know the man to some degree. There wasn't much the Demon's Head could let out as he remembered Talia and Nyssa telling the Uzumaki of how much of a private person their father is. After conversing for some time, Naruto read a book he brought before he eventually got bored.

It was from there that Naruto asked Ra's if he was up for playing chess. And luckily for him, Ra's had a chess set on board.

And unluckily for Naruto… he was losing… badly… for the last three games.

"I must say, usually people rather give up then continue playing." Ra's said, intrigued that Naruto continued for more matches. But was more surprised that he was steadily getting better.

"Well I ain't one to give up that easily." Naruto said as he reset the board. "Besides I've grown used to playing many sessions of chess, even after I lose a game or so. You can thank my former landlord for beating that trait into me in terms of gaming."

The Demon's Head merely chuckled.

Once things were set once more, Naruto went first by moving his white pawn to 'E4' while Ra's moved his black pawn to 'D6'. Naruto then moved his second pawn to 'D4' before Ra's had his knight travel to 'F6'.

Neither player said a word as Naruto briefly looked up before glancing down to move his white knight to 'C3'. A black pawn moved to 'G3', a white bishop traversed to 'E3 and it's dark counterpart went to 'G7'. The ivory queen moved away from her kings side to 'D2' as an ebony pawn advances to 'C6' before a white pawn goes to 'F3' with it's black counterpart going to 'B5'.

It was from there that Naruto moves his knight to protect the ivory royals at 'GE2'. Ra's mirrors the same action with his knight going to 'BD7' to protect his queen. The publisher sees an opportunity and moves one of his bishops across the board to 'H6'. The bait was set as a black bishop took out it's white counterpart. And this gave way for Naruto to use his queen to take out said bishop.

Ra's smirked a little on Naruto's advancement as he moved his remaining bishop to 'B7'. Sure, the whiskered man could take out his king in two moves, if it wasn't for his black rook defending his piece. Once seeing Naruto move a pawn to 'A3', Ra's moved his one pawn from 'E7' to 'E5' in order to strike hard at the boards center.

The former shinobi decides to have his king become more committing towards it's queen's side. Naruto does so by bringing his rook and king together and switches them ('O-O-O').

Ra's takes a moment to think before moving his ebony queen to 'E7'. The Uzumaki moves his king to 'B1' before the Demon's Head moves his pawn to 'A6' to help strengthen his other pawn at 'B5'. From there, Naruto moves his white knight to 'C1'.

Talia's father mirrors Naruto's move from earlier to move his king and rook closer together and switches them ('O-O-O'). The second white knight moves next to it's twin at 'B3'. A black pawn takes white pawn and a white rook takes said dark piece at 'D4'.

A black pawn moves to 'C5' to unleash the remaining bishop in Ra's forces. In response, Naruto retreats his white rook to 'D1'. One of the black knights goes to 'B6' while a white pawn goes to 'G3'.

It was at this point when Ra's moved his king to 'B8', he spoke. "Do you know what it is to be _King_?"

Naruto blinked on the seemingly random question. As the Uzumaki moved his white knight to 'A5', he asked for confirmation. "Are you asking on a literal or figurative sense? Like a leader or a ruler, perhaps?"

"Typically yes." Black bishop retreats back to 'A8'. "But what I meant to say is this: What use is a _King_ if he doesn't really act?" Ra's said in an even tone. " _Kings_ need to do more than sitting behind a desk and read and sign documents all day. They must fight and defend. They must strategize and lead so their respective forces willingly follow."

Naruto nodded in agreement as he moved his bishop to 'H3'. "That is true as that makes good qualities of a good 'King'." Looking up, once seeing Ra's move a pawn to 'D5', he continued speaking. "Though it really depends if said _King_ tries to do what's right for one's people." Naruto then moves his queen to 'F4'. "Check."

Ra's moved his king forward to 'A7' to avoid the enemy queen. "Decisions and acting upon them in one way or another makes all the difference."

"Thus said actions makes one either beloved," Naruto moves his one white rook right next to it's brother on 'HE1', "feared or mocked as a result."

"Indeed." A black pawn moves to 'D4' for a little risk. "Sadly, in many cases, to defend the _King_ , sacrifices must be made."

"Right." White knight moves around the black pawn and settles on 'D5'. "But who do you think should be King?"

Ra's took pause and looked at Naruto. "Excuse me?"

"Sorry, just an old memory resurfacing. That's all."

"Mind explaining your thoughts then?" He asked before going back to the board and using his black knight to take down it's ivory counterpart from Naruto's previous move.

Naruto shrugged. "You can say that in my mind, the _King_ are the children." He said as he uses his pawn to avenge his fallen knight by moving forward to take down the black knight, thus causes Check. "More so the future children the world has."

"Oh~ how so." The ebony queen moves diagonally to 'D6' to cause an exchange of queens.

"Because future generations lead the next and the following ones, so on and so forth."

Naruto moves his white rook forward and takes the black pawn at 'D4', thus causes Ra's to raise his brow on the interesting move. If he were to take out Naruto's queen with his own, then the white rook would take his queen and then Naruto would soon take his knight or pawn to do another check.

To counter this, Ra's uses his black pawn to take out the offending white rook. "And who told you that?" Ra's asked.

"An old, departed friend of mine." Naruto said with a sad smile as he thought back of Shikamaru when Asuma died on his last mission. "I was confused when hearing about it first, but things did make more and more sense as years went by."

Ra's hummed in agreement before he decided to change the subject. "I have been meaning to tell you this, but you do have my thanks."

Naruto rose a brow. "On what exactly?"

"For protecting and nursing my eldest daughter."

With a clear path on the board, Naruto's remaining white rook advanced to 'E7' to help seal off Ra's advancements for a time for a drag and drop tactic. This also calls another Check from Naruto. "You're welcome, Ra's." He said as he saw Ra's move his king forward to 'B6'. "Nyssa did mention that when she picked up Talia weeks ago."

"Yet neither of us knew you were Vanitas at the time."

Naruto nodded as he moved his white queen to the side to take the black pawn at 'D4'. The black king moved in order to take out the final white knight on the board at 'A5'. A white pawn advances to 'B4' as Ra's king moved to 'A4'. As the white queen heads back to 'C3', it's dark counterpart advances and takes out the white pawn at 'D5' in order to defend her king. From there, Naruto moved his rook to 'A7'.

"Getting desperate, are we?" Ra's said as he moved his remaining bishop moves to 'B7' in order to buy time on the coming turns.

"Desperate times call desperate measures." Said the Uzumaki as he moved his rook to take the remaining black bishop. "Even if that means the battle has to be extended."

Silence befell the small area once more as Ra's moved his ebony queen to 'C4' as the white queen went to take out Ra's final night at 'F6'. In retaliation, the black king kills the neighboring white pawn while escaping to undermine the other white pawn at 'B4'. From there, the white queen moved to 'A6' to take a black pawn as Naruto said a brief 'Check'.

Ra's black king moves back to take a white pawn on 'B4' as a fantastic move to sustain his attacks while being defended by his pawn and queen. Yet this was temporarily futile as a white pawn advances to 'C3' to do another 'Check'. This leaves an opening for the black king to take said white pawn.

White queen then retreats back to 'A1' to defend her king while enacting another 'Check'. Black king advances to 'D2' to avoid said 'Check'. White queen moves once more to defend king at 'B2' to do 'Check', again. The black king moves closer to its counterpart at 'D1' in order to avoid disaster. The remaining white bishop moves back to 'F1' in a sharp, drag and drop move.

The black rook advances from 'D8' to 'D2' before its counterpart moves to 'D7' for yet another sharp move by the whiskered player. This leaves the black rook to take it's remaining white counterpart while as Ra's knows he's getting into trouble now. Naruto uses his remaining white bishop to take the black queen at 'C4'.

'Well played, Naruto.' Ra's thought as he used his black pawn to remove the remaining bishop off the board.

Naruto moves his white queen far back via diagonal to take out Ra's rook at 'H8'. The remaining black rook moves to 'D3' in order to stay coordinated. The white queen is then dragged to the opposite side of the board at 'A8' to start moping things up.

One of the black pawn moves to 'C3' as the white queen advances to 'A4' to land a 'Check'. Ra's king moves away at 'E1' to where it's white counterpart originated at the start of the game. Naruto's white pawn advances from 'F3' to 'F4' before it's counterpart advances from 'F7' to 'F5'. The ivory king was then inched over to 'C1' as the black rook went to 'D2'.

Naruto picked up his queen and placed it at 'A7' as he started to chuckle. "And I believe that's Checkmate, Ra's." The Uzumaki said with a growing smirk.

Eying the board, Ra's chuckled as well before he gave out a hearty laugh. "Oh, this was a good-" The Demon's Head soon coughed into his hand hard as Naruto moved forward in order to help Talia's father. Ra's waved Naruto away as Ubu came over and handed him a water canteen in order to drink some sort of liquid.

Naruto eyed the container as he didn't see Ra's use that until just now. "A prescribed concoction perhaps?" He voiced.

Holding his chest for several moments, one the container left his lips, Ra's nodded. "You can say that. It's a lesser dosage of what I normally take to help me for some time." Tightening the lid, the Demon's Head passed it back to his faithful servant.

Naruto nodded, but still eyed the container for a brief moment as Ubu went to put it away. 'Why didn't Ubu bring it with him if Ra's condition seems that dire?' He thought before looking back at Ra's. "Do you need some rest?"

"Later. But I'd like to play a few more rounds before I do."

All the Uzumaki could do was shrug before resetting the board. 'Now let's see if I can hopefully tie the score.'

 _ **-Fifteen Hours Later, Calcutta, India-**_

Calcutta… City of a thousand miseries and a million tears. Behind every door lurks a horror. And behind every smile, a knife.

Walking down the darkened streets, with the moon brightly shining from the heavens, the unlikely trio kept their eyes everywhere.

"How can you be certain that those we seek are to be found here?" Asked the Demon's Head.

Currently in his Vanitas attire, the masked Uzumaki answered. "I came here when I traveled with Talia about 11 years ago." His hidden gaze took on a nostalgic glint as he briefly reminisce his time here. "I remember this one curry shop some streets away. I don't know if the place is still there or not, but they had the hottest food I've ever had. I thought my tongue was burnt off and a new one was replaced soon after." He chuckled soon after. "Talia handled it like a champ, but I was freaking out like a loon. I mean, sure the spices were perfect with each other, but the sauces were so black and red respectively that I didn't think it was possible."

"Ah yes, I remember Talia telling me about that." Ra's said as he stroked his beard. "But why bring up this curry shop anyways?"

Quickly getting back on track, Vanitas pointed to a certain alleyway. "Because it's nearby an area called the Alley of Windows: a mercenary hideaway where many congregate." He said as they got closer to said alley. "We might find the information we need there."

When the helmeted Uzumaki attempted to enter the alley first, Ubu quickly grabbed his shoulder and tossed him away. The act caused Vanitas to crash into several clay pots.

"What the hell is your problem?!" Vanitas hissed out.

"Once more I warn you, Infidel!" Ubu growled out as Ra's walked past the two. "The master goes first!"

With a twitch of his eye, the costumed Uzumaki glared at the musclebound Indian. "Okay. That's two." He muttered to himself as he got back up.

As the unlikely trio got deeper and deeper into the Alley of Windows, several figures dropped down from the rooftops. Their movements were very quiet as they walked closer to the unlikely trio. But when a small sound was made, Vanitas quickly turned around to see heavily clothed assassins.

Seeing as they were spotted by the helmeted hero, they went into action once pulling out their scimitars.

As the assassins charged, Vanitas briefly called out Ubu and Ra's to stand back before quickly blocking a strike with Kazekage lance. Pushing the assailant away, the masked Uzumaki broke his weapon in half to use it as escrima sticks. From there, the hero blocked, parried and dodged all of their attacks.

Vanitas twisted around to block two sword strikes with his bladed sticks. Holding the attackers back, the hero kicked them away and rolled forward to get some distance between them and Vanitas' unlikely traveling companions. Still using his momentum from his roll, the masked Uzumaki jumped into the air and slashed the chests of a pair of assassins. Coming back down, the hero wrapped his legs around one of their necks and used his weight to toss the assassin into another before focusing on the others.

Another masked assailant charged forward as Vanitas blocked the attack. He grabbed the man's arm, threw him over his shoulder and kicked the man into another assassin as they fell onto the ground. The hero ducked down from a sword strike and used this opportunity to sweep kick the man. When the man struck the ground, Vanitas quickly moved over him and slashed the man's tendons in both his arms and legs so he wouldn't get up that easily and for quite some time.

Vanitas quickly blocked another attack before phasing himself through the attacker to get behind him. The assailant was quickly confused on what happened before the back of his knees were kicked to the side. The man was then put into a headlock before being flipped backwards to be thrown into the alley's wall.

The hero lunged forward and attacked the remaining assassins. He had to bend back to avoid a sword slice to the head and blocked another with his bladed escrima sticks. Vanitas back flipped to kick one of them away before drop kicking the other. The previous one tried to attack once more, but his scimitar was broken in half by Vanitas' bladed weapon before being knocked unconscious. The final one had his leg grabbed by the hero before being spun around and chucked into the far end of the alley.

Said assassin miraculously got back up and tried to flee via smoke bomb. Yet Vanitas brought out a dagger and chucked it towards the general direction the assassin was trying to escape from. Once it came past the masked assailant, the hero teleported to his throwing weapon.

The masked Uzumaki didn't waste any time and got behind the assassin. He then wrapped his arms around the man's neck in a strangling position, and cutting of the assassin's air supply.

''Gah!'' He gasped in pain as Vanitas' arm tightened around his throat, weak arms struggling to free himself from the vice like grip. ''L-Let go!''

The costumed Uzumaki ignored the desperate plea. He was not having a good time with what's currently going on. Vanitas had no mercy to give.

But killing the man right now will not be useful.

''Where are they?''

''W-What?'' He managed to mumble from under Vanitas' hold.

Pulling out a photo from his utility belt, the hero presented it in front of the assassin's face. "Where are they?!"

Getting a good look on the photo, the assailant growled while trying to escape. ''L-Like hell I'm telling you!''

The masked Uzumaki heard the man's tone of voice. 'Seems this guy is too loyal to his job… or possibly too fearful on who he works for.' He thought before an idea came across his mind. ''Suit yourself, but I'm not going to let this matter go no matter what." He then started to tighten his grip around the man's neck to choke the assassin even more. "In fact, whenever you are a step away from passing out I will give you just a bit fresh air, only to tighten my hold once more."

The assassin started to struggle as his face started to gradually change color underneath his clothed face. He tried prying the armored arm away from his jugular, but the strength Vanitas used was not letting up. And just when the hero loosened the feeling, the grip tightened once more like a snake with it's prey.

"I'll keep repeating this cycle over and over again, and then you can enjoy sensation of slowly repeatedly suffocating without the sweet mercy of passing out.'' Was all the hero said before he pulled out a dagger and aimed it towards the man's groin.

"Wh-What the hell?!" The assassin rasped out as he saw Vanitas' attack.

"And don't think on telling me any bullshit." The hero warned. "Think of it as some additional insurance. I don't plan on killing you, but I will gild you and it will be quite painful."

Without warning, the costumed Uzumaki stabbed the man in a very sensitive part of his leg, causing the man to shriek out in pain. Even more so when the hero twisted the dagger.

"FUCK!"

Releasing some slack around the man's neck, the assassin was barely able to breath in some air before the hold was tightened once more.

"I'm not going to ask multiple questions here." Vanitas said as he roughly pulled out the dagger as the assassin was starting to bleed. ''So what will it be?"

He was shaking and sweating in fear, eyes bouncing in his head as he finally snapped from everything he was experiencing at the very moment. ''F-Fine!" The assassin rasped out.

"Good. Now tell me, where are they?"

"Th-They fled… to Ma-Malaysia." The assassin answered. "I-In a pagoda in the shadow of Mount Merapi. I-I know nothing more, I swear it!''

''Thank you.''

The assassin didn't get to get off that easily as Vanitas quickly let go of the man before punching him into the alley wall. The force of the impact left several cracks as the assassin was practically lodged in there. The costumed Uzumaki figured the man possibly had some damaged organs and broken bones as the end result.

"You didn't kill them… or your interrogated assassin." Ra's said as he rose a brow at the display in front of him and Ubu. "Why is that?"

"To tell you the truth, Ra's, you can say that despite me being capable in taking their lives, I won't do such a thing." Vanitas stated as he walked towards Talia's father. "But I want them to know and understand the errors they've made that despite it being kinder to kill them, I want them to know I made them suffer for their actions."

Hearing this after seeing the display before them made Ra's gain a small grin across his features, but it was quickly hiddened from Vanitas' view when the Demon's Head harshly coughed into his arm. And once more, Ubu helped his master by giving him some of the liquidy concoction from Ra's canteen to settle him for the time being.

"We must get back to the aircraft post haste." Ra's said as Ubu pulled out his phone to inform their crew on latest developments.

"Can't agree with you more." Vanitas said as he created a Fair Play card platform underneath the three. "Now hang on tight you two, since we'll be flying rather quickly."

Ubu quickly fell onto his butt when the floating card platform went into the air at fast speeds while Vanitas helped keep Ra's in place. The masked hero chuckled seeing the muscled bodyguard be caught off guard as they sailed back to Ra's private aircraft.

 _ **-Four Hours Later, Malaysian Rainforest-**_

Driving through the rainforest in a safari jeep, Ubu kept his eyes on both the road and his surroundings for any sign of danger. In the back seats, Ra's directed Naruto's attention towards their surroundings.

"Look at it, Naruto, one of the last of the rainforests." Ra's said with a narrowed glance. "The world depends upon its oxygen, yet the rich see only profit in its destruction." He then looked back at his traveling companion. "You, who belong to the overclass, have much to answer for."

"First off, Ra's, I do everything I can to preserve nature." Defended the Uzumaki. "My company uses recycled materials in order to make our products. And second, I donate millions of dollars each year to preserve these forests." He said before thoughts on Pam came to mind.

Naruto wanted to say that his botanist lover does much to help save these forests with her 'Green' working shifts. She and her fellow Green champions help preserve nature at their fullest potential as they do help fight back loggers and plant new acres of trees.

Yet the Uzumaki had to hold his tongue as he didn't trust informing the Demon's Head on this information.

Not knowing his companion's thoughts, Ra's gave his argument. "Which are being depleted at the rate of 120,000 acres a day." He said with his ever growing glare. "Does your money solve this problem? No." Talia's father looked back at the forest with a brief saddened gaze before it quickly hardened. "It will take more than wealth, it will take power. And, I fear… _ruthlessness_."

Soon the group exited the forest and into an opened, rocky field.

Ra's soon continued talking to the Uzumaki. "Humankind must be forced to serve the planet instead of its own appetites. 

"And you're the one who'll do the forcing?" Naruto asked with a narrowed glance.

"I _am_ qualified, yes." Ra's then let out a deep sigh. "But I may not have sufficient lifetimes left to me."

Before Naruto could question more about this risen topic, Ubu spoke up. "Master, ahead. Look!"

The backseat occupants looked onward and saw a large, desolate temple with a large column of steps leading towards the building's entrance. With the moonlight shining onto the valley, a lot of shadows were casted upon the structure due to the neighboring volcano.

"In the shadow of Mount Marabi, just as the assassin said." Said the Demon's Head as Ubu slowed the speeding jeep to a complete stop some feet away from the temple. Once it was safe to exit, the vehicle's occupants got out and made their way towards the temple. "Let us hurry. The next piece of our puzzle surely waits within."

Speeding ahead, Naruto quickly formed into his Vanitas attire and went up the steps. If he were to look back, the hero would've seen Ubu's annoyed look on Vanitas moving ahead of his master. Though the masked Uzumaki didn't care at this point. All he wanted to do was get in, possibly find his girlfriends and Talia and leave. 

When the hero got inside, all he could see was darkness with only several windows barely lighting up the space around him.

Out of nowhere, a large metal door fell down from a crevice from up above. Whirling around, Vanitas reacted and tried to phase himself through in order to escape. But he was soon screamed a bit, due to an electrical current ran right through him, before being blasted back and falling onto the floor.

Vanitas got back up onto his feet while berating himself on not realizing his means of escape might not be that done easily.

Suddenly a throaty snarl was heard in the darkness and before Vanitas could react, the creature leapt at the helmeted Uzumaki. It's fangs bared at its prey with the creature's eyes containing unrestrained bloodlust. Almost without thinking, Vanitas smashed his left elbow deep into the creatures mouth. He was glad his armor protected him from the strong bite or else he might have problems with his arm once this was through.

Taking a close look now, the hero saw it was a rather large panther.

'Yeah~ There is no way I'm killing this guy.' Vanitas thought as he fell onto the ground due to the feline's weight. 'If I did, then Selina would be extremely pissed at me.' He quickly phased himself out of the panther's grasp before jumping back some distance. 'I need to render it unconcious.'

The mighty beast leapt forward, causing Vanitas to sidestep in order to avoid it's raking hind claws. As the large feline failed to disembowel it's prey, it quickly turned back to attempt it's previous action once more. In a split-second timing, Vanitas drived himself in and ensnared his body around the feline fury.

Using much of his strength, the masked Uzumaki kept the jaguar in place as he pulled out a vial from his utility belt. He uncorked it before prying open the large feline's mouth before pouring it's contents down its throat. The beast thrashed several times before it started to slow it's movements.

And before long, loud purrs could be heard in the darkened room to show that Vanitas' strong sedative did its job well.

"Sweet dreams, tabby." He said as he let go of the beast and stood back up.

As the hero painted, he heard loud bangs coming from the metal door. Whirling around, Vanitas saw it cave in several times before it was thrown off its hinges. And following with the door was Ubu via shoulder charge.

"Huh." Vanitas muttered with a raised brow. "Stronger than he looks."

Walking into the darkened space, Ra's looked at the panther sleeping on the ground and eventually put two and two together. "Congratulations on thwarting our tormentors, Uzumaki." Spoke the Demon's Head. "Obviously, our quest was meant to end here."

"Maybe." Vanitas briefly said as he pulled out a small flashlight from his utility belt. "Maybe not." Pointing in a random direction, the hero continued speaking. "The panther was trained, Ra's. Someone taught it to act as a guard." Moving the flashlight around, Vanitas finished speaking his thoughts. "Question is… What's worth guarding here?"

The small search ended as the light beam glanced over a map situated on a small table.

"Hello… What's this?" Said the helmeted hero. Walking towards it, he and Ra's saw it was a map. Shining the light on it more, the two saw what map it's for exactly. "A map of the Himalayas." 

"Ah~ Another clue in our quest."

Vanitas nodded before he noticed something on the map. "Look here." He said as he laid the map down and shined the light on it. "There's a faint scratch, almost certainly made by a fingernail tracing a route."

Ra's took a closer look and nodded in agreement. "I see." Backing away from the map, the Demon's Head looked at the costumed Uzumaki. "I am familiar with that area. And I believe the nearest field large enough to accommodate my aircraft is 100 miles or so from our destination." Turning around, Ra's headed straight towards the door. "I will arrange for a helicopter when one is needed."

Vanitas nodded as he walked towards the entrance alongside Talia's father. Just when they were about to exit, the hero paused in his step. Ra's and Ubu looked at the costumed Uzumaki with a raised brow.

With a mock bow, Vanitas ushered the Demon's Head out. "By all means, after you."

Ubu was rather pleased in hearing this, with the smile shown on his face, as he saw the helmeted Uzumaki know his place.

Ra's moved forward and made his way towards down the steps -with Ubu and Naruto not far behind- in order to get back to their driven vehicle. When reaching the bottom, the unlikely group then saw a dark plumb of smoke formed out of the ground. It looked like a pyre of purplish-blue fire that went into an oval shape with dark wisps coming off of its sides. Before long, it dissipated to reveal a man in a dark leather outfit to hide his features.

The attire was a full length black coat with a hood covering up the person's head entirely with a waist-high slit riding up the back to be similar to a duster. There was a large silver zipper that fastened at the top and zips down to seal the coat. It has silver drawstrings for the hood decorated with a large silver bead hanging from the end and a silver chain ornament adorned with four large cylindrical silver beads that fastens to a loop on either side of the collarbone region. Everything else that could've been visible was covered up by leather gloves and black boots and pants.

Ra's can admit he was rather surprised on this sudden entrance and was about to question the mysterious man when Vanitas rushed forward and pushed the Demon's Head back.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Vanitas growled out as he quickly formed his wind lance.

The mysterious man didn't answer.

"Answer me!"

" **Along the road ahead lies something you need."** Came the Mysterious Stranger's oddly inaudible voice.

'What's that supposed to mean?' He thought before something came to mind. 'Is he talking about my quest to find the girls?'

" **However -in order to claim it- you must lose something dear to you."**

Not liking the way the dark cloaked man said it, Vanitas glared at the new arrival. "That's it! Just who the hell are you?!"

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts ReCoM: Lord of the Castle Extended-**_

All the mysterious man did was raise his hand into the sky as a glowing, crimson rose petal fell from the heavens. Once it came into contact with the man's gloved hand, a flash of light appeared as a more colored version of Vanitas' Lunar Rose appeared in the cloaked man's grasp. Swinging his scythe down to the ground, a torrent of black vapor and dark sakura petals surrounded the mysterious man.

" **Nobody special."**

The hooded figure suddenly chuckled all of a sudden before he flickered out of existence with sakura petals in his place. And before Vanitas even realized it, the new arrival appeared right behind him and slashed at his back. The hero screamed out in pain and tumbled onto the ground. When he got back onto his feet, the helmeted Uzumaki's form was surrounded by red and black vapors before the number '34' appeared above his head.

" **Now let's see if you can break through this curse of mine before you die."**

The Mysterious Stranger leapt forward and quickly delivered a series of slashes at the helmeted hero. Vanitas tried to block each strike, but the blows were both too fast and strong for him to handle. So much so that he was sent back a good number of feet away from the last swipe of the man's flower themed scythe.

It was as if the Stranger was truly upping his game in order to take him down.

Vanitas briefly took an upwards glance and saw the counter above his head dropped from '34' to '29'. The masked Uzumaki quickly put things together that the moment the counter reached '0', he was dead due to the Mysterious Stranger's curse.

Truly being on guard now, the hero quickly saw his opponent disappear from his place on the battlefield. Acting on instinct, Vanitas quickly rolled away from a scythe swipe before having to leap back when the cloaked man brought his weapon into the ground. Once the blade was dug in deep, the Stranger channeled power into the blade and brought it back out to release a blade of dark pink energy across the field to leave a deep gash into the earth.

Once dodging the energy attack, Vanitas landed on the ground and threw his lance at his opponent. The Stranger knocked the attack away, but the hero teleported to his weapon, grasped the pole and brought the bladed lance down. The attack held true as the blade slashed against the darkly cloaked man's exposed back. Not wanting to let up, Vanitas quickly spun his weapon and set loose a series of slashes to deal in some damage.

Vanitas was a bit too greedy in his onslaught as the Stranger jumped into the air and spun his scythe around his body with great force. The reaction caused three energy pillars of dark pink wind to form across the battlefield and converge on the hero. Needing to counter this, Vanitas summoned two more of his wind lances and spun them around to form his own tornados. The opposing forces clashed, causing a mild explosion to occur as both fighters were knocked back and dealt with some damage.

" **Prepare."** Spoke the Mysterious Man as he swiped his scythe several times and sent energy attacks at the hero.

Vanitas evaded the incoming attacks before focusing much of his power into his lance. When the last energy slash attack came close, the hero brought his lance up and bounced the attack right back at the cloaked man. An explosion occurred soon after and the masked Uzumaki could feel the glare coming from his opponent.

With a roar, the Stranger flew down towards the ground and slammed his rose colored blade into the earth. Massive cracks formed and energy exploded from underneath, causing the hero to grunt out in pain. Tumbling on the ground, the costumed Uzumaki barely saw his counter reach down to '25' before having to quickly move when his opponent tried to swipe at him once more.

" **Your Will shall be judged!"** Roared out the cloaked man as he swung his weapon at the hero.

Reacting quickly, Vanitas was able to block the incoming swipes. When the Stranger finished his last swing, the hero knocked the scythe out of the man's hands. The cloaked man tried to reach for it, but Vanitas grasped it and jumped back.

"We'll see about that!" Yelled out the hero. Dashing forward, with his opponent's scythe on hand, Vanitas delivered a flurry of swipes. Each one landed their mark as the Stranger was sent flying into the air. "Now back the Hell off!" He said as he threw the rose colored scythe at the Stranger as it impacted his chest.

Off to the side, Ra's was analysing the fight before him and he was rather pleased with what was occuring before his aging gaze. He did see the counter above Naruto's head go back to '30' and wondered how that was possible. The Uzumaki was able to land blows on the new arrival, yet the number didn't grow from each successful hit. Yet when Naruto used the opponent's weapon to deliver the blows, the number did.

'Now I wonder if he will notice this fact or not.' Ra's thought as he continued watching the spectacular fight behind his loyal servant.

When the cloaked man fell onto the ground, Vanitas dashed forward and attacked his opponent. After quick swings of his bladed lance, the hero broke his weapon in half before continuing the assault. The cloaked man was on the defensive before disappearing and reappearing above the helmeted Uzumaki. Said man back flipped to avoid the downward swing of the rosy blade. Landing back onto his feet, Vanitas swung his bladed escrima sticks to send his opponent back with a gust of wind.

Staggering back, the cloaked stranger was greeted with various swings from Vanitas' weapons as he blocked them with double the effort now since the hero is putting much more force into each swing. Their blades smashed and clanged against one another, neither gaining the upper hand as each blow was countered or parried. Their gazes never broke contact with the other as arcs of silver, cobalt blue and rosy red sparked all around them in a beautiful dance of death.

" **You have no chance of winning."** Spoke the Stranger.

"We'll see about that."

Seeing as they were in a stalemate of sorts, Vanitas quickly pulled out a flash bomb from his utility belt and dropped it; blinding the Stranger as for a second as he flipped back. As his opponent was momentarily disoriented; the hero quickly dismissed his weapons, kicked the man's chest and grasped the rosy scythe all before slashing the man with his own weapon.

Getting back up from the ground, the Stranger snarled before he called his weapon back from his opponent's grasp before teleporting around the battlefield. Each time he reappeared, the cloaked man was covered in pink ethereal energy as everything seemed to cut all around him. This added more danger when the man swiped his blade as the earth formed gashes with each action.

Vanitas was forced to dodge each and every strike, while several landed it's mark causing the hero to grunt out in pain due to the powerful blows.

Appearing in the middle of the battlefield, the Stranger held his scythe up high. **"Do you want to scream?!"** The cloaked man then slammed it's pommel into the earth. The ground suddenly shook before large vines bursted through the surface.

And the hero felt something awfully familiar coming from the plants.

'He can use the Green?!' Came Vanitas' thought.

The Stranger pulled his scythe out of the ground and pointed it's blade at the hero. **"Sulk in despair!"** He said as the recently grown plants shot forward. **"And scatter to oblivion."**

"I'd rather not!"

Dashing and jumping out of the way from the various vines coming after him, Vanitas tried to formulate a plan. Yet other thoughts overpowered the others.

'This is complete bullshit.' Vanitas leapt onto a growing vine and rushed forward to avoid the plant strikes. 'It's that weapon… My weapon.' He then sliced through several vines that tried to skewer him. 'I forgot it's connected to the Green. But _his_ appears more connected while mine… isn't, like hardly at all.'

Vanitas soon noticed a shadowy, pink energy buzzsaw like blade riding up the vine he recently landed on. He jumped out of it's range, but to his surprise the blade shot out of the giant plant and went after him. The hero made several clones in order to stop the attack, but they were ineffective as they quickly went up in smoke.

Having to flip over the incoming attack, which soon disbursed, Vanitas saw the number above his head drop significantly as each clone was destroyed.

"THAT'S BULLSHIT!" The vines started growing large flower pods with several detaching from their roots. They hovered in the air and to the hero's surprise they started firing lasers at him. "OH COME ON!"

Back at a safe distance away, Ra's saw the masked Uzumaki avoid the pink projectiles as he summoned another one of his wind lances. He used both of his weapons to either reflect the lasers into a flower pod or skewering them. The Demon then saw the hero form wind spheres and sent them flying all over to destroy much of the newly made flora controlled by his opponent.

...Ra's felt his eye twitch on what Naruto did exactly.

'Focus.' The Demon thought as he fought down a growl. 'Naruto… had no choice in the matter.' He took a deep breath as he saw the helmeted hero switched out his wind lances with his laser arrowguns to fire off a volley of projectiles to destroy the remaining laser flower pods. 'Though I wish he could've done something else than to destroy the nice specimens.'

Landing onto the solid earth, Vanitas looked around for any sign of his opponent. In his search, his gaze caught onto a shower of dark sakura petals littering the area. Something was clearly amiss in this situation.

And without any notice, Vanitas saw pillars of black and pink energy bursting from the ground.

"Crap!"

The hero rushed all over in order to avoid the blasts as he heard a dark laugh in the air. Many were successful while one was not so much as he was launched into the air. He was then sliced by the Stranger's scythe by all sides, causing the counter over his head to drop to '13'.

Growling in frustration, the hero dismissed his arrowguns and quickly grasped his opponent's scythe just when the man reappeared. Vanitas swept the weapon across the cloaked form several times as his counter rose higher and higher. With one final hit, the hero tossed the enemy scythe away before bringing out his own.

'Time to end this.' Was the hero's thought as he brought his scythe down onto the Stranger.

When the opponent was slammed onto the ground, Vanitas rushed forward and spun his weapon in a pinwheel motion before going into a diagonal swing. As the man staggered, the hero grasped the man's shoulder headbutting the man to add in more damage before tossing him over him. With the back exposed, Vanitas formed a Rasengan and slammed it to send the man flying into the air.

Not wanting to end the assault, the hero chucked his weapon into the air and teleported to its position once it flew past the Stranger. Once facing the cloaked man, the hero grasped his scythe's pole, channeled a lot of power into it's blade and spun the weapon in a pinwheel-like fashion. The opponent roared in pain as the two came straight to the ground, even when the hero buried his ivory blade into his chest.

The pair crashed into the ground, leaving a medium sized crater into the earth. The force of the impact caused Lunar Rose to fully go through the Stranger's chest. Vanitas growled as he channeled power into his arms, roughly pulled his scythe upwards and sliced his opponent in half.

The 'dead' body turned into dark sakura petals before they whirled all over Vanitas' form. The speed started picking up more and more in a miniature tornado for several moments. In the process, the petals turned into energy and latched onto both the hero and his weapon as they briefly glowed. Once the last petal faded away, Vanitas' attire disbursed with his scythe briefly glowing.

'That was different.' He thought as he eyed his scythe. 'I prefer that than the last two times.'

The hero heard the sounds of clapping and turned to the source. He briefly thought it was the cloaked stranger, but it was in fact Talia's father as he wore a small smile on his face.

"Congratulations are in order, Uzumaki." Ra's spoke up as he and Ubu walked towards the whiskered publisher. Though the smile seemed to die when he saw Naruto disburse his attire to see the small frown across his features. "You don't seem pleased. You killed your adversary-"

"He's not dead, Ra's."

Aged blue-green eyes blinked in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"Not the first time I faced the bastard and surely won't be the last." Naruto said as he swung his newly 'upgraded' scythe around to get the feeling of it. 'After all, I merely fought a clone of his.' Came his thought.

"And how can you be so sure?"

Naruto sighed. "Just call it a gut feeling. Besides, he shows up when I least expect it."

Ra's briefly nodded before looking at the surrounding area. He saw the devastation the fight caused and narrowed his eyes in disdain.

Seeing the look Talia's father was giving, a thought crossed Naruto's mind. Looking back to his scythe, the Uzumaki smirked. 'I wonder…' Taking a deep breath, the former shinobi swung his weapon upward and channeled a lot of power into it. 'Hope this works.'

Slamming the ivory blade into the earth, Ra's saw the action and was about to question on what Naruto was doing. This action was halted when he felt the ground shake. Before his aging eyes, trees sprung from the earth. And if that wasn't enough to surprise him, Naruto swung his weapon to the side as the trees reached across the barren area and started reaching all across the dormant volcano that was Mount Merapi.

'Sweet~' He thought with a fox-like grin. 'I can't wait to show Pam this!' Turning to Ra's, whose eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets, Naruto spoke in a happy tone. "So~ Shall we get goin' now?"

Snapping out of his surprised stupor, the Demon's Head nodded as the three made their way to their jeep. Once getting in, Ubu drove their way through the newly grown extension of the Malaysian Rainforest. It was rather thick, but Ra's didn't mind at all.

In fact, the aging man was rather pleased with the new addition to Naruto's growing list of actions he's seen so far in this quest of theirs.

 _ **-Twelve Hours Later, Himalayas-**_

Mount Nanda Devi, one of the thirteen mountains making up the mighty Himalayas. Rising from the frozen wastelands between India and Tibet; rising 25,645 feet above the sea level into thin, brutally cold air. Treacherous, savage terrain that allows any who dares it only one mistake before it costs them their life.

It would be quite the nightmare of blistering wind, darkened sky and blinding snow trek for Vanitas and his two strange companions once they land their helicopter.

Currently wearing protective and warm clothing, Ra's and Ubu looked towards the whiskered Uzumaki who not only wore his Vanitas attire but also the mere essentials for the trip. When asked about this, Naruto stated that the cold oddly didn't bother him as much and merely wearing all of the warm clothing might slow him down.

Once the costumed publisher opened up the helicopter's side door, Ra's spoke as he gazed at the snowy environment. "Beautiful, isn't it."

"You can say so, Ra's."

The aged man took on a solemn look across his features as his blue-green eyes grew distant. "It is a beauty to which my soul responds… So stark, so pure… as untainted as my childhood home. I am cursed with a love for emptiness… desolation…" The Demon's Head looked back towards Vanita's as the hero scanned the area below as he recomposed himself. "The mountain in question is directly ahead. I've radioed for my men. They await me on the mountaintop."

"While I descend the hard way." Said the black/white themed vigilante.

Ra's nodded. "You must search for clues, I'm afraid, on your end. If we perceive any danger, we can signal you with-" The Demon's Head started coughing as he leaned against the helicopter's innards for support. It seemed much worse than from before.

Being really concerned at this point, Ubu rushed towards his master's side. "Master, we've run out of the spare water." The muscled bodyguard gravely said. "We must get you to one of the pits."

Underneath his helm, Naruto blinked and voiced his thoughts. "Pits?" 

"Ignore him, Uzumaki." Spoke the Demon as he sat back down. "We must stay on the hunt for _their_ sake."

Vanitas sighed as he checked his parachute harness one more time. "All right. If that's the way it's to be played." He said before jumping out of the helicopter.

As he plummeted towards the snowy mountain, the masked Uzumaki pulled on the rope to let the chute go loose. By the time it fully unfolded itself, the hero felt the brief yank as he started gliding down towards the harsh snow below. After several seconds of steady drift, the hero saw something sparkle in the distance.

'What… is that?' He thought before he heard a sound. His 'Zooming' ability activated and saw something fastly flying through the air.

The hero then saw it was a missle and it was coming his way!

"OH SHIT!"

Phasing himself out of the parachute on instinct, the missle caught onto the clothed skirt and went straight towards Ra's helicopter. By the time the hero flipped himself in the air, he saw the airborne projectile colliding into the aircraft…

*KABOOM*

...and set it ablaze.

As Vanitas plummeted towards the snowbank below, a thought crossed his mind. 'Talia's gonna be devastated, that's for sure.'

The hero's drop was getting faster and faster, causing him to tuck himself for a safe, abrupt landing. Once crashing into the snowbank, Vanitas popped out and shook himself of excess snow. Looking off to the side, he saw the remains of Ra's helicopter.

The masked Uzumaki was about to run over there and hopefully see if either of its occupants were still alive. Yet the arrival of several men on skis arrived with assault rifles caused him to quickly change plans.

 _ **-Insert SSX Deadly Descent OST: Death Zone-**_

Not wanting to confront them, the hero jumped into the air and formed a black and white snowboard underneath his boots. He quickly formed his ice shield to not only blast the enemy skiers away but to give him a boost to send him gliding across the snow.

'Been years since I did this.' Vanitas thought as he hurtled towards a natural ramp. 'Hope my skills from my old ski-trips with Lois and Cat haven't gone _too_ rusty.'

Leaving the ramp, the hero soared through the air and was forced to backflip from the momentum. As he did so, he saw the skiers were following him with their guns aimed towards him. As he landed on the ground, the bullets flew and tried to get him. Yet the hero swerved to not only avoid them but to round the pass.

'If I remember correctly on the map, it's literally all downhill to make it to my destination.' Came the thought as he left the ground and performed several front flips. Landing back down, Vanitas slammed his ice shield onto the snowy ground to form ice spikes to halter his pursuers' advances.

It wasn't long before he flew over a cliffside and performed several tweaked blackflips to help nail the landing. He did jump again several times, but the hero kept himself leveled out so he wouldn't lose track of any enemy skiers.

And he was right as he saw several dark clothed individuals appearing out of nowhere, with snowboards, coming right after him with mini-guns trained at him.

'Man, this is turning out to be something from a James Bond film.' He thought as he avoided gunfire from the enemy snowboarders and returning skiers. 'Some specific mission going on and a chase happens in the snowy mountains.' Vanitas then took a swift sharp turn before spinning around and firing ice shards at his pursuers. 'Heh~ Don't I feel lucky.'

Turning back around, the masked Uzumaki took another sharp turn and soon saw a large dark pit ahead of him. This would normally cause problems for any… adventurous skier/snowboarder to deal with the sinking darkness, yet it was no problem for him.

Especially since he has his light filters in his helmet.

Once diving into the abysmal pit, Vanitas quickly switched to night vision to see his surroundings. His landing was rather rough, but he recovered before doing a forceful flip to get back his momentum. Sliding down the snow, Vanitas ended up performing tricks while navigating through the darkened tunnel. He was careful into not falling into any deep crevices or else he would've been screwed.

Just when he saw the literal light at the end of the tunnel, he saw a massive gap that he assumed was a good yard or so across and wide.

'Time to take a page out of Bruce's book.' He thought as he formed gliders underneath his arms for the wind to carry him across the massive gap. When he thought he was safe enough, he dropped the glide wings and fell towards the ground for another harsh landing.

It wasn't long before he had to fly off another natural snow ramp to cross another gap. Landing once more, the momentum caused the former shinobi to slide up a cliff-face for a moment before sliding back down. He had to try to hug the side so he wouldn't slide off the snowtrack and fall into the abyss on accident.

The long, steep slope in front of him became a blur. every muscle reacting to the challenge of speed, snow and wind. Looking back, the costumed Uzumaki saw his pursuers were still coming after him. It wasn't just snowboarders and skiers this time, but also… armed paraglider-equipped snowmobiles flying through the air?

"...The fuck is up with these guys?!" He yelled out as he went off another ramp and soared through the air. Taking the opportunity, Vanitas flipped around and used his shield to fire off a volley of ice spikes at them. Most of them impaled the ground and blocked the skiers and snowboarders pathways, others were obviously missed as they progressed forward.

Whirling around on the snow track, Vanitas fired more ice spikes towards the air to take down the paraglider snowmobiles. Some evaded while others were shot down as they crashed into the surrounding mountains. In retaliation, they tossed grenades in the hero's path and they exploded on impact.

'This _is_ turning out to be something from a James Bond film!' He firing more spikes at the falling grenades to either destroy them or encase them in ice. Soaring over another large gap, the hero tried to formulate a plan. 'I need to either lose or get rid of them, but it seems I can't lose them that easily.'

Leaping and gliding over chasm after large chasm, Vanitas fired more and more projectiles from his ice shield at his pursuers. At one point of the ongoing confrontation, an avalanche went off all because of the constant explosions due to the paragliders' grenades. Many enemy pursuers were buried in the snow while others sped along to avoid the collapsing snow.

Not wanting to get caught up in the unstable area, the hero focused a lot of his power into his snowboard to help speed him along. He also using his ice shield to propel himself forward with his conjured ice by forming a large ramp to get some much needed air.

High up off the snowy ground, the hero spun around, whipped his shield wielded arm and roared as he blasted a large volley at the remaining paragliders. Each fell from the sky and either crashed in the snow or into a fiery blaze.

Falling across the final chilled chasm, Vanitas flung himself forward once shooting out his grappling scarf. A final, desperate attempt to reach the steep slope thirty feet away with a yawning doom below. The conjured cloth receded, once latching onto the cliff's edge, and brought the helmeted hero forward. Vanitas tumbled across the snow before facing the avalanche that fell over the chasm.

"HAH! Eat your fucking hearts out; George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton!" Cheered out the hero. "Your snow chase scenes are shit compared to mine!"

After several moments of cheering and calming himself down from the large bit of adrenaline, Vanitas got himself up and rode his snowboard down the hill for several minutes. Taking a stop, he looked around to figure out where exactly he was at to where he needed to go.

At one point in his search, the hero found something.

Bending down into the snow, the masked Uzumaki inspected the indents in the snow. He hummed in thought. 'Thank Kami that it hasn't snowed for several days. The trail's barely clear.'

With his path surely clear, Vanitas disbursed his snowboard and ice shield before trekking forward.

He kept himself steady and watched his footing throughout the search. At one point, he came across a cliffside and saw there were foot-and-hand holds hacked into the ice. The masked Uzumaki could only guess they were the remains of the trail he found earlier.

Not wanting to waste time, Vanitas brought out a Kazekage lance and rose himself while hugging the cliffside. He did not want to possibly get spotted if any more shooters were present while climbing the cliff. His method of travel helped out a lot as if he tried to ascend the old fashioned way, Vanitas might've plunged into the icy bottom far below.

Once reaching the top, the hero thought he saw something in the distance. Using his Zooming ability, the masked publisher saw what appeared to be… smoke?

'Hmm… Possibly from cooking fires.' He thought as he moved forward once switching out his lance with his arrowguns. 'Better that than anything. And no point in keeping them in suspense.' The hero hugged the cliffs to hide himself once getting closer to the smoke. 'It's like they're almost inviting me.' Coming to the end, he saw several guards finishing up a meal with one of them killing the flames. 'And since I've come half-way around the world, I'll just accept that invitation.' Vanitas adjusted his arrowguns to fire a tether round to immobilize them and quickly knock them out. 'There will obviously be more inside, so I'll need to stop these guys before moving forward.'

Of course it didn't take long to take care of said guards as they weren't all that great to deal with. Once they were down for the count, the masked Uzumaki boldly strided through a passageway before entering a chamber hewn from rock, ice and darkness.

And in the center of said chamber lied a spotlight hitting several individuals tied up.

Stepping closer, the hero spotted power dampening cuffs on Pam and Selina's wrists while Harley was merely wrapped up in restraints in their respective chairs. They also wore blindfolds over their eyes to obscure their vision.

 _ **-Insert Arrow Soundtrack: Season 3 Merciless-**_

"Girls?" He called out, getting an instant reaction out of them. "Are you-"

"PUDDIN!" Harley cried out as she hopped in her restrained chair. "YOU'RE HE-OH SHIT!" The blonde fell onto the ground and groaned in pain. "Ouchie!"

Vanitas chuckled as his heart seemed to lighten of seeing Harley's actions.

"Man, I'm so glad to _see_ you're here." Selina spoke as she turned her head to where her boyfriend is at.

"I'll have you three free in a minute." He said as he slowed his pace and felt eyes staring down at him. "So… Been here long?"

"A couple days, I think." Came Harley's answer.

"A bit longer for us." Selina said as she gestured herself and Pam with said redhead nodding in response.

"Food wasn't great, by the way."

"Well I thought it was." Said the changed botanist.

"Of course you'd say that, Red. It was heavily organic."

"Asides from the food," Selina said as she grew tired of the annoying argument, "we still don't know who took us."

Vanitas stopped his movement several feet away from his three lovers before forming his bladed escrima sticks. He then let out a brief sigh. "Unfortunately, I think I do."

Without any warning, several men appeared from the shadows and leapt forward in order to defeat the new arrival with their halbirds and other bladed weapons. Yet when they came in close for their kill, they seemingly went right through him like he was merely a ghost. In their brief confused states, the masked Uzumaki struck back.

And the entirety of the hero's fury that has been held in rigid check… until now as it explodes!

This was no brutal being. There is a part in the Uzumaki's heart that despises violence… But he is a product of his era, his world.

The horrors of many struggles, missions, conflicts and deep personal tragedies have shaped the man he has become today. So, unfortunately, violence does live within him.

And given the occasion, it can become an icy, remorseless vengeance!

Moving quickly, with precision, Vanitas spun around and sliced the assailant's exposed limbs to render them imobile for the time being. To add humiliation to the fight, he disbursed his weapons into smoke before grasping one of the fallen short swords and used it against them.

He spun around, blocked and parried many incoming strikes before delivering ones of his own. Vanitas channeled power into the blade to easily break their weapons. Though the strain seemed too much for his carried short sword that by the time he defeated his opponents, his borrowed weapon crumbled into nothingness.

'That takes care of the appetisers.' Vanitas thought before quickly reforming his bladed escrima sticks to deflect several arrows at his person. Turning to the source, the hero saw a pair of masked individuals with their bows trained at him. 'Now… for the main course, I believe.'

One of the assailants was Warith, the same female assassin that he had the temporary partnership on the Vertigo incident months ago. The other was also female as she wore a red and black themed outfit. It was vaguely similar to Warith's, but it was more cloth than armor like with the twin tailed coat. The woman also had red vambraces as she wore matching red leather pants with black combat boots reaching just below her knees.

 _ **-Insert Arrow Soundtrack: Season 3 Team Takedown-**_

The two assassins let loose a volley of arrows, causing Vanitas to engage them. He dashed towards their positions, causing them to end their archery skills and use their compact bows as blunt weapons. Once the vigilante was close, they delivered punches and kicks while blocking Vanitas' strikes. 

"It's been a while, Warith." Vanitas spoke as he pushed the green themed assassin away before parrying an attack from her companion.

"That it has, Vanitas." Warith replied with her synthesised voice. She then pulled out her short sword once tossing her compact bow to the side. "That it has."

Her red themed companion followed suit as both assassins had out their short swords before slashing at the helmeted Uzumaki. The vigilante spun around to lock their attacks with his Kazekage escrima sticks. They were forced to pull back to free their swords, thus causing the hero the chance to stab at them.

The assassin pair were quick to react to evade Vanitas' blows as they flipped into the air. Landing back onto the ground, the two worked together in synch to take down the helmeted vigilante. Vanitas ducked from their sword swipes before spin kicking them off their feet so they would fall onto the ground. Both assassins recovered by flipping back onto their feet to show they weren't going to quit that easily.

"Psst!" Harley spoke towards her girlfriends as she tried to get off the ground. "Who do you think is winning?"

"No clue, Harl." Pam responded. "It's hard to tell without seeing the fight."

"Oh, right."

Both Green and Red champions rolled their eyes in response underneath their blindfolds as they could only listen in on the fight taking place.

Vanitas ducked under another sword slash to his head and spun around Warith's companion and slashed at her exposed back. Yet said assassin blocked it by quickly moving her sword behind her. The black/red themed woman luckily back kicked the hero's stomach. Vanitas took the hit in order to ensnare her leg with one of his arms.

Using the appendage to his advantage, the hero swung his other arm towards her, but she bent forward to avoid the escrima's blade. As Warith's companion bent forward, she placed both her hands on the ground and used her other leg to kick Vanitas' chin. But he moved out of the way and she flip forward to her feet. She then attempted a spin kick at the vigilante's head, but Vanitas grabbed her leg once more and threw her as she then flipped in the air and landed on her feet.

The hero then spun around to block Warith's strike. He pulled back his weapon before delivering a punch towards her chest, which was blocked by her elbow. Vanitas spun around to perform a roundhouse kick, causing the black/green themed assassin to flip over his strike. The hero then threw a wide leg kick behind him to land a hit on her intended path. Warith saw this, causing her to bend forward to barely duck under the kick, yet she kicked her back leg up to hit Vanitas in the head; which he blocked said strike. The black/green themed assassin back flipped once more and tried to hit Vanitas in the jaw with a rising kick, but the hero backed away.

Vanitas charged forward and brought his fist down on Warith but she dove to the side, so his fist smashed into the cavern floor. Moving quickly, Vanitas tried to strike his current opponent, but she blocked his thrown punches and elbow strikes. Yet this was a ploy for him to grasp each side of her head before flipping Warith over his shoulder. With her exposed back present, Vanitas kicked her away.

The sound of a compact bow being drawn was picked up. The hero quickly formed several daggers and threw them to the side which sliced through the incoming arrows down through their very center. Turning to the source, the helmeted Uzumaki saw Warith's companion fire more and more arrows at his general direction.

Rushing towards the black/red themed assassin once more, Vanitas quickly slid across the cavern floor to dodge the incoming arrows. The assassin quickly pulled out her sword out of the ground before using both said short blade and her compact bow as her primary weapons. Vanitas quickly formed his Kazekage escrima sticks once more to strike against Warith's companion as they were put into a deadlock.

 _ **-Insert Arrow Soundtrack: Season 3 Arsenal Takedown-**_

"You're good." Spoke the black/red themed assassin with her synthesised voice. "You're very good."

"Thanks."

From his position, the hero shifted his body in order to deliver an upward kick at his current opponent's hidden chin. She bent back just when Vanitas got back onto his feet and brought his leg up to do a drop kick on the assassin. Yet she rolled out of the way and his leg smashed into the ground.

Warith's companion kicked out his leg, forcing Vanitas to go into a split. The hero then swung his other leg at her which she blocked and threw a punch at his head which he dodged. Vanitas then grabbed her arm and threw her over him and onto the ground. He then flipped back to his feet and delivered an offensive punch combo with a rising knee strike that black/red assassin blocked and avoided and countered with a spinning kick to his head, which he blocked but then got hit with a follow up kick to his side.

Vanitas recovered and blocked an incoming kick to his side before noticing Warith coming right at him with her sword coming in hot. The hero soon used his bladed escrima stick to block the enemy blade before spin kicking and nailing Warith's chest in order to knock her away. The black/green themed assassin rubbed her sore spot before charging back in for more.

Warith swung her short sword at a downward slash to which the hero blocked by crossing his bladed escrima sticks. He then used one of them to push her sword away before swinging at her side with the other. Warith backed away and parried the incoming strike and tried to lunge at his head, causing Vanitas to move his head to the side to avoid it.

When Warith lunged once more, so did her companion as she joined in on the fight. They once more forgone their compact bows to focus more towards their short swords. Both quickly threw shuriken at the hero as he rolled away from them before blocking their sword strikes once more. They tried to overpower him, yet he wouldn't let up.

Wanting to end the fight here and now, Vanitas channeled power into his arms and weapons to fully push them away before slicing through their swords.

At the momentary loss of their bladed weapons, the hero performed a sweeping kick to knock them onto the ground. The two assassins tried to get back up, but Vanitas pointed his Kazekage escrima sticks at their throats to cause them to stop fighting. Warith's companion seemingly grumbled under her breath as a response while the black/green assassin remained silent.

Looking at the darkness underneath Warith's hood, Vanitas oddly thought he felt… a joyful gaze directed at him?

'The hell?' He thought in utmost confusion.

Once the fight was officially finished, Vanitas and his three lovers heard a series of claps coming from the darkness. The masked Uzumaki turned to the source to see a figure dressed in all black with a special leather jacket and special vambraces with a black hoodie pulled back as the man wore a jackal mask to obscure his face. And strapped to his waist was a sword with a dragon-themed guard.

And by telling from the person's presence and feeling alone made Vanitas know who exactly the man in front of him is.

"Your cohorts are finished!" Vanitas growled out as he dismissed his weapons and pounced at the jackal-masked man. "Your whole bloody group is done for!" As the two masked men fell onto the ground, the costumed Uzumaki grasped the jackal-themed mask. "No sense in hiding behind that mask any longer..." With the mask free from the man's face to reveal… "Ra's."

Smiling up at the masked Uzumaki, the Demon's Head spoke as the dark cavern started to brighten. "Congratulations are once more in order, Uzumaki."

Hearing Ra's speak Naruto's name caused the Uzumaki's three lovers to suddenly stiffen. Each shared the same thought that their boyfriend's secret identity was practically exposed at this moment.

Getting up from the ground, Vanitas melted his glass domed to reveal his displeased face. "Obviously, your little _accident_ wasn't fatal." Naruto said as Ra's got up from the cavern floor. "I imagine you and Ubu left the chopper when I wasn't looking."

"Indeed." Shifting his shoulders a little, the aged man spoke. "At the moment it exploded, it was proceeding on automatic pilot." Ra's then tilted his head in curiosity. "So… how long have you known that I planned this?"

"Almost from the beginning." Naruto answered. "How could you have known Pam, Selina, Harley and Talia were abducted on the same night?"

"Unless I had done the abducting?"

The Uzumaki glared in response. "Exactly." Suddenly he was being surrounded by the many assassins, causing the hero to be on guard. Ra's then held up his hand and silently ordered them to stand down before Naruto continued speaking. "And do you think I'd have let you take me anywhere unless I suspected you'd lead me somewhere?" He then crossed his arms. "First off was you appearing in the Batcave."

"WHAT?!" Harley yelled out with a wide eyed look, once she was able to free herself of her blindfold. "You mean to tell me he knows-"

The pale blonde woman was soon interrupted when Selina spoke up. "Harley. Now is not the time and place to talk about that, despite… how bad that bit of information is."

Once giving Harley an apologetic look, Naruto went back to his explanation. "As I was saying… you appearing in the Batcave. You must've known I did not have the necessary resources on hand to properly inspect the envelope and photos so you went to the Batcave to confront me. That would show that not only you have known my identity but also the Batmans."

"Correct."

"Next were all those assassins back in Calcutta." Said the Uzumaki as he continued his explanation. "They knew where we'd be and when. So someone had to be tipping them off. And that someone _had_ to be you."

Ra's merely smirked in confirmation.

The former shinobi then glanced over to the muscled bodyguard, who walked towards his master. "Oh and then there was you, Ubu." He said as Naruto narrowed his glance. "You were always by your master's side, always very picky about letting Ra's go ahead of everyone else." The costumed publisher stepped forward and pointed a finger at the large Indian. "Except in Malaysia, where you knew there was danger waiting inside of the temple. If you were to yell at me on moving ahead of you into the temple, then things would've stayed in character; yet you didn't."

Ra's chuckled as his smirk grew. "I am deeply impressed, Naruto. Especially with what transpired at Malaysia. Though I do admit that hooded figure battling you was not apart of the plan. And I was truly amazed with you growing trees soon after your fight. But I must say it rightfully deserves 'extra credit', as it were." 

Hearing the last tidbit caused Pam to whip her head around and widen her eyes underneath her blindfold. 'Wait? Did he just say that Naruto grew trees?' She thought in bewilderment. 'But how? He never done so before.'

Warith rose from the ground and helped her companion get back onto her feet. Once done, the black/green theme assassin spoke once deactivating her voice synthesizer. "As am I."

Spinning around, Naruto recognized the voice and saw Warith pull her hood back and face mask down to reveal…

"Talia?" He spoke in a surprised tone with widened eyes.

The eldest daughter of the Demon gave her former student a soft, cheerful smile. "Hello Naruto."

"Wait, Talia?!" Harley yelled out in surprise. If she were to look at her two girlfriends, they would have similar reactions.

And if the surprise wasn't enough for Naruto, Warith's companion pulled down her hood and face mask as well to reveal Talia's younger sister, Nyssa.

"...Seems we finally had that spar, huh Nyssa."

"That we have, Naruto." Said the younger sister before her little grin turned into a frown. "Though did you have to destroy my sword? I worked hard in making it just right."

"...Send me the bill?"

Nyssa scoffed. "Like you'd be able to afford it."

He looked away and coughed into his hand. 'Must be really… expensive then on the materials.' Naruto thought as he went over to his three girlfriends to unbind them.

Talia soon followed as she helped Naruto out. Though the whiskered Uzumaki gave her a glance as he didn't know what to do in the situation. The Demon's eldest daughter saw the pained look in his gaze and could understand what's running through his mind. By the time Naruto's three lovers were unbinded from both normal means and from the power dampeners, each woman looked at Talia with a similar expression their boyfriend had.

Harley, Pam and Selina trusted Talia and considered her a good friend. Yet the reveal damaged the relationship quite well.

Once the three prisoners were back onto their feet and free of their bindings, Naruto spoke up. "You three ready to go?"

His three lovers nodded as they wanted to leave this place and return home.

As the four left, Talia held up her hand in hopes of stopping them. Yet her actions were ignored but Ubu acted upon them in her stead by rushing forward. "The master gave you no permission to leave." He gruffly said.

Briefly looking back, Naruto shot back a response. "I didn't ask for any, Ubu."

Ubu didn't like hearing this and snarled. "I shall dance on your corpse!" He then delivered a punch at the retreating vigilante. Though much to his surprise, the Uzumaki easily caught it and started applying pressure to it to make the muscled Indian grit his teeth.

"Not likely." Naruto said as he swiftly turned around and kicked the man's stomach to skid the man back. "But size and strength don't count for much."

The muscled bodyguard recovered and dashed forward in order to successfully land a hit on the _infidel_. Yet his attacks were dodged effortlessly.

"Skill is the trait that counts." Said the former shinobi as he evaded an offending kick. "Agility helps too." Ducking from a right cross, the hero spoke a bit more. "And those things you lack!" The costumed Uzumaki then punched the man's gut, causing the muscled man to heave over from the delivered force. "You're clumsy and soft!" He then sent an uppercut towards the bodyguard's chin. "And you have a chin as fragile as a soap bubble!"

As the larger man staggered, Naruto grasped the man's head and slammed it into his glass domed helm to deliver more damage. "I bet you've been getting by-by scaring people with your _intimidating_ height and stature." He then hoisted him in the air and spun him around. "Problem is, I don't get scared _that_ easily!" Letting go of the bodyguard, Ubu was sent flying into the cave wall and groaned in pain as he slid onto the cavern floor.

Dusting his hands, Naruto spoke with a smirk. "Oh and Ubu, that was three." 

Turning back around, the Uzumaki saw his former teacher standing a foot away from him. Pam, Selina and Harley came close to their boyfriend as they glared at their so called _friend_.

"Please, Naruto. I can't let you leave like this. My father meant you four no harm." She defended spoke with emotion in her voice.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Then he had a _very_ funny way of showing it." He said, which caused his three lovers to nod in agreement. 

"My time is short, Naruto." Ra's said, causing the four to turn around to face the aged Demon. "I have no sons and I need a man to assume my position when I am gone."

Naruto blinked in confusion and was going to voice an obvious thought crossing his mind regarding Talia and Nyssa possibly replacing their father. Then he remembered their detailed info that Ra's is _really_ old fashioned and wants a man to do so.

Shaking his head a little, the Uzumaki spoke the next thing running across his mind. "I've been meaning to ask this, but what position are you talking about? You said it was a global organization earlier in our _quest_." He looked around and saw the various assassins littering the cavernous room. "I'm assuming these people?"

Ra's nodded in confirmation. "You see, the position I'm talking about is becoming the new leader of the League of Shadows as the new Ra's al Ghul."

Not seeing his three lover's shocked looks, Naruto narrowed his glance at the Demon's Head. "Then it was a test? All of it?" Ra's nodded. "But why me and not either Talia or Nyssa? They're your daughters and either of them could fill the role in terms of succession."

Nyssa sent Naruto a pleased glance as she greatly appreciated the gesture. Ra's youngest daughter saw her sister have a similar look, though it was more heartfelt in response.

Yet the aged Demon shook his head in response. "It is because you are most worthy, which is now proven beyond any doubt." He said before his blue-green eyes went towards Talia. "And because I want to become Ibn al Ghul, Son of the Demon, by joining your house with mine by having you wed my precious, eldest daughter."

Naruto widened his eyes in response as his three lovers shared the same reaction. "I'm sorry but what?"

"It's because I love you, Naruto." Talia confessed, getting the four to whip their heads towards her. "I have for years." She said with a growing smile. "I wanted to tell you for the longest time, yet… yet I didn't know how to tell you." She came close to him, grasped his hand with hers and held it up close to her face. "You became everything I wanted for a husband and I want you to join the League." Talia's eyes were truly filled with love as tears of joy were threatening to spill. "Become my Betrothed, my Beloved, and the world will be saved from it's corruption."

Many thoughts ran through the publisher's mind, along with his three lovers, on what just happened. The confession was rather sudden and it was truly hard to process with neither being prepared for it.

As the three women shared thoughts on how odd things were getting, Naruto was processing things in a different light.

The Uzumaki started to realize on the certain actions she had towards him in the past. From the two years traveling together to their time interacting ever since she returned to his life months ago. And looking back into her blue-green eyes, Naruto saw they were truly genuine on how deeply she feels towards him.

Looking away and tightening his fists, he gave his blunt response.

"Forget it."

Talia widened her eyes on the rejection and felt a growing pain in her chest soon. Her world seemingly shattered as many hopes and dreams of being with the love of her life were thrown out of the window. And her tears of joy quickly turned into ones of despair.

Nyssa narrowed her glance at Naruto for rejecting her sister as she knew how much the Uzumaki meant to her. The whiskered man helped mend their relationship and strengthened it beyond what they realized. Sure it was fine when they grew up together, but it was rather damaged with how each were taught. But during the times when each sisters interacted with Naruto, he helped them see things differently. Thus causing them to care for each other a whole lot more.

As a result of both past and recent events, Nyssa hoped that Naruto would've made Talia happy by becoming her husband so that the pressure placed onto the younger daughter would be lifted so she can be with Sara for good.

And as for Ra's… well…

"Then this means we must be enemies!" Snarled the aged Demon as rage filled his very being. "You will regret this insult, Naruto! You will-" Ra's started to violently cough as blood started spilling out of his mouth. It wasn't long after as he collapsed onto the ground.

"Father!" Cried out the man's two daughters. The pair rushed to his side as Talia held up his head in hopes of keeping his airway clear.

Turning towards the love of her life, Talia spoke in desperation. "Naruto, he's dying!"

Feeling concerned at this point; Naruto came over, bent down and checked Ra's pulse as the aged man rasped for air. The Uzumaki widened his eyes and looked at his former teacher. "Holy shit. His pulse is bad. There's no way in Hell he can fake that."

"Please Naruto, we must take him to the Lazarus Pit." She urged him as she tried to lift up her father.

Not wanting her to struggle, the publisher formed a card platform underneath the man's body and rose him up to help transport him to wherever they needed to go to.

 _ **-Insert Batman the Animated Series Soundtrack: The Lazarus Pit/Revitalized Demon-**_

After several minutes of travel, the large group appeared in a glowing chamber that reminded the four Gothamites of the green liquid pool located in Pam's Grand Greenhouse. The liquid before them was located several feet below them underneath a rocky ledge. Nearby was a crank with a chained metal slab attached

There was a big difference between the two in the Gothamites' minds. While the one back in Gotham seemed brighter and… cleaner, the one before them seemed darker and dirty like it has been overused as it bubbled in an unnatural way.

"Behold, the Lazarus Pit." Spoke the muscled bodyguard.

The four Gothamites shared a look and rose a brow on the name given on what the liquid was exactly.

It was at that point when Harley spoke up in concern. "You want us to put him in that? You're crazy! I mean, that stuff looks really bad, Talia. And it looks like it would kill your pops."

The eldest daughter argued. "No, listen to me, I know it is difficult to believe but the Pit is what kept him alive. What has kept him alive for 900 years."

"900 years?!" Yelled out Naruto's girlfriends with widened eyes.

Ignoring their surprised reactions, which were clearly understandable, Nyssa came up to Naruto. "Please, you need to believe us."

The publisher contemplated on what to do as he looked at Talia and Nyssa's dying father, who was still on his floating card platform.

The Uzumaki sighed and nodded before moving his construct to the metal slab. It soon disbursed as the body briefly fumbled onto its surface. It wasn't much longer before Ra's followers removed most of the man's items off his person, along with certain articles of clothing.

Once done, Ubu moved the crank to lift the slab off it's resting place before Ra's men pushed it over to hover above the glowing pool. After that, the muscled bodyguard turned the crank to lower his master into the natural concoction below. You can practically hear the faint hiss and smell a thick, musty odor as the glowing green liquid bubbled over Ra's dying body on the metal slab once both came into contact with each other.

After several moments, things seemed to have died down with the vapors all around the area.

"...He's dead." 

"No." Talia simply said in response to Naruto's blunt statement. "All is well."

After several moments of being covered in the Pit's waters, the concoction started to do something truly unnatural. A large geyser burst forth from the distance below as the onlookers oddly saw fire surrounding Ra's very being with a growing, unnatural roar. Ra's body soon rode the geyser's current before landing onto the rocky edge in a crouch to show he was completely active.

The drenched man before them was no longer the aged, gaunt man they've seen beforehand. Now it was a man that's practically in his absolute prime! His greyed and whitening hair turned into a strong shade of dark brown, practically black, while his body seemed to gain an athlete competing in the Olympics.

It was as if the man was truly a modern-day Lazarus arisen from the dead.

If the recent event didn't unsettle Naruto and his three lovers, then it was merely gazing into Ra's blue-green eyes. It was as if the Demon's Head was truly someone else as he bore a mirthless, insane joy glittering in his gaze.

Rising to his feet, the now deaged Ra's started to softly chuckle before he let out a bellowed, haunting laugh that seemed to shake the four Gothamites' spines.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Rushing towards her father to get things under control, Talia was suddenly seized by the current mad man via bearhug. She screamed in pain as her father squeezed her sides while in his fit of madness. And it wasn't long before she was lifted up into the air.

"TALIA!" Naruto roared out in absolute worry. He then glared at Ra's as he didn't like where this was going. "PUT HER DOWN, RA'S!"

The Uzumaki rushed forward in order to stop Ra's upcoming action. Yet he was kicked away by a powerful strike towards his chest and sent flying back into Nyssa and his three lovers. Each checked if he was alright, but he got back onto his feet and glared at the Demon's Head.

"I SAID, PUT HER DOWN!"

All Naruto got in response was Ra's continued haunting laugh as the cavern was filled with it's sound. Thus causing the very memory to be forever burned into the four Gothamites' minds for years to come.

Naruto gritted his teeth and tightened his fists as they glowed with raging power. "Damn it, Ra's, that's your daughter! So put her down, now!"

The rejuvenated man ignored Naruto once more as he still laughed maniacally. He turned around and was going to throw his eldest daughter into the waters below. In response, the Uzumaki let loose his grappling scarf onto the Demon's Head in order to restrain his movements.

"Father!" Talia cried out. "Come to your senses!"

Nyssa came up to Naruto, who struggled to keep the man in place. "We must stop him, Naruto. The chemicals can revive the dying, but will kill a healthy person."

"Yeah I get it, Nyssa." He growled out before turning to Pam. "Mind giving me some help?"

The changed botanist snapped out of her shocked stupor and nodded at her lover's request. With a wave of her hand, vines bursted from the rocky earth and helped ensnare Ra's al Ghul. Looking at each other, the pair yanked the rejuvenated Demon off his feet and falling onto the cavernous cliffside.

The action caused Ra's to throw his eldest daughter off to the side as she screamed. She reached forward in hopes of snagging the rocky edge, but her arm wasn't long enough to make it. Talia plummeted towards her inevitable demise…

Yet a yank on her caused the Demon's Heir to look towards her savior as he grasped her arm.

"Talia, I got you!" Naruto yelled out. "Just hang on!"

She smiled at him as the dark haired beauty was pulled up. Once on solid ground, her smile met with his relieved one.

Though this small moment between them quickly died as they saw Ra's get back onto his feet and quickly broke free from his double ensnarement via Naruto's powered scarf and Pam's extremely thick vines with no scratches and burns on his skin. 

"...Holy shitsnacks." Harley muttered as she quickly hid behind Nyssa in terror.

"What the hell are you doing?" Snapped the Demon's second daughter.

"What does it look like, Nyssi?! You're my meat shield?!"

"First off, it's Nyssa not Nyssi. And second, you will not use me as such!"

As the Demon's Head stalked forward, Naruto stood up and pushed Talia behind him. "Stay back, Talia." He said.

Talia briefly smiled on the protective gesture. Yet she walked around her love and went towards her father. "I can handle this myself, thank you very much."

Naruto was about to reach out and stop her when he and everyone else in the cavernous room saw her do the unthinkable…

*SLAP*

"...Did… Did you just bitch slap your father to his senses?" Harley asked. She then looked around and saw the various looks from everyone else in the cavern. "What? We're all thinking the same thing."

"No we're not." Nyssa said with an eye twitch.

"...Okay then it's just me, puddin, Red, Kitty and the writer."

…..

(Honestly people, it did look like that in the episode and I thought it was fucking hilarious back then and now. Just saying ^_^)

…..

Feeling the massive pain across his cheek, Ra's shook his head as an odd little change was shown. The mirthless, insane joy slowly faded away as it was soon replaced with the old calculating look everyone was used to.

Rubbing his sore cheek, he looked towards his eldest daughter. "Thank you, Talia. I needed that. For the resurrection process can be quite disconcerting." The Demon then turned his gaze towards the whiskered Uzumaki. "And thank you, Naruto, for saving my daughter's life once more."

"You're welcome."

Nyssa walked up to her father, with a towel on hand, to help wipe off the excess Pit waters. Ra's gave a brief nod of thanks as he dried himself off.

His eldest daughter then spoke up. "You look _refreshed_ , Father. Renewed a whole lot more even." 

Giving himself a little inspection, even with seeing part of his own reflection upon a borrowed sword, Ra's nodded in agreement. "Yes, it appears so."

"Mind explaining what just happened?" Selina asked as many thoughts ran through her head. "I get the Lazarus Waters can bring you back from death and all, but what the hell was with you becoming completely and utterly insane?"

Ubu glared at the ravenette thief and wanted to take action, but his master stopped him. "It's alright, Ubu, it's an honest question." Ra's then looked at the four Gothamites. "After all, you four are quite curious on what occured."

Said individuals nodded.

It was Nyssa who answered the question. "You see the Pit offers physical rejuvenation from either small wounds to ones that leads you to Death's doorstep."

Talia then picked up from there. "But the price for escaping Death causes the body so much stress that it leaves one temporarily insane."

"And no man may reap its blessings indefinitely." Ra's finished off the little detail.

Off to the side, Harley oddly pulled out a notebook from out of nowhere and started scribbling down this information as it was actually interesting to know this tidbit pertaining to the mind.

'I should probably ask Pammy later to acquire some samples from the Pit waters back home to test things out.' Thought the Arkham psychologist before something crossed her mind. 'Wait. Puddin's and Red's babies are soaking up in the waters back home. Oh this ain't good if they turn out crazy as hell.' Her blue eyes landed on Pam's face and instantly realized the same thoughts. Her gaze then went towards the Pit below and another idea was formed. 'Maybe something else is amiss that causes the insanity meter to go up.'

 _ **-Insert Arrow Soundtrack: Season 3 Take My Place-**_

Not knowing what was running through Harley's mind, Ra's looked back at the Pit's below. "It was Herodotus who first wrote of these waters." He said, gaining Naruto and his girlfriends' attention. "And Ponce de Leon traveled the earth in search of them. Their discovery by Al-Khidr is chronicled in the quran." Ra's turned his gaze back to Naruto. "And they have permitted me to live way beyond my time as I am at least nine centuries old."

Getting this bit of information, Naruto had little response, causing Ra's to raise a brow. "You don't seem too fazed by what I've told you."

The Uzumaki let out a brief sigh. "Throughout my entire life, I've seen things that have helped me to believe that things are a whole lot bigger than people realize. Then again, I was taught to keep a very opened mind to things."

Ra's chuckled. "True. But the truth is… everyone, _everything_ , must come to an end. Even for one such as I. For man can only evade Death for so long." He waved his arm back to the waters below. "The Pit's powers are losing their effect on me and I fear for the worse on what may happen if I prolong my meeting with Death itself." The Demon's Head walked forward as he was handed his leather jacket before slipping it on. "My time is almost over, but my legacy won't be just ash and bone…"

"But it will be history." Naruto finished off. "Is that what you're suggesting?"

"Precisely."

Naruto felt as if that was an insult since the man doesn't have any sons. His gaze went towards the man's daughters as they were just as worthy of taking their father's position of this assassin organization. "And you think that I'll help you secure that legacy?" He asked

"Of course." Spoke the Demon as he slipped his Demon's ring around his finger and strapped his sword to his side. "What better person to help continue my legacy with with a warrior such as yourself." Ra's turned around to look straight into Naruto's eyes. "A man who wants to bring justice… for we are justice." The man tilted his head a little. "Isn't that what you've dedicated your life to?"

Naruto gave no response.

"Then why confine your _heroics_ to a single city when I can give you a whole world to save."

"By executing anyone who stands in my way?" Said the Uzumaki. "Is that what you mean?"

Ra's narrowed his gaze. "You would command resources that you cannot even fathom." The rejuvenated man waved his hand to his many followers. "Numbers greater than any army and more loyal. If you wish for them to renounce killing: thy will be done." 

Naruto scoffed. "I doubt that. I mean it's called _The League of Shadows/Assassins_ for a reason."

"When you become Warith al Ghul, Abn al Ghul and then Ra's al Ghul; the League's reason would be your own." Spoke the League's leader. "Which is why I must ask you again, Naruto. Will you truly wed my daughter, Talia, and carry on for me when I am gone?" He said as Talia gazed at her former student with hopefulness.

Naruto merely glared at the Demon's Head. "You kidnapped three of my most precious people in my life and practically scared them half to death. You made me do this entire quest for a bloody test of yours. And for what, your title and organization?" The Uzumaki took a deep breath to calm himself down. "I admit the benefits… are rather tempting as your forces would be at my beck and call." His eyes grew distant as thoughts of his old dream being Hokage resurface. Being the leader of the League of Shadows/Assassins was practically a Kage position and he would've helped the world. "If this was under different circumstances, I would've taken it, but not like this Ra's." His eyes went back to Talia's and Nyssa's father to give his response. "I'm sorry but my answer is still no."

Talia once more became hurt on being rejected by the man she truly loved. Nyssa came over and gave her sister a comforting hand as a response.

And all Ra's did was softly glare.

"A pity." Said the Demon. "You leave me no choice." With a snap of his fingers, every other League member present -asides from Talia and Nyssa- aimed their weapons at Naruto and his three girlfriends. It didn't matter if they were bladed, arrow or of the gun variety.

The small group was surrounded on all sides.

"You see, if you are not with me, Naruto, you are against me."

Talia widened her eyes and tried to go to Naruto's side in order to protect him and even his current lovers, but Ra's quickly grasped her arm and yanked her back. She looked back and pleaded. "Father, please!"

"They has seen too many of our secrets, Talia." Spoke her father. "And he knows too much to be permitted to leave here."

The League members slowly exited the Pit's chamber as the gun wielders were the last ones to leave. Each made sure the four Gothamites remained in the room with Ra's and his two daughters being the first to leave. Naruto would've fought his way out, but he didn't want to risk his three lovers' lives in the process.

Once Talia was dragged out of the chamber, she saw her father press a switch along the wall and realized his intention. "You would destroy this place?!" She yelled out.

"It's only a minor loss, daughter." He said. "There is nothing here that cannot be found in our desert stronghold. And we must leave nothing behind that might be later used against us."

It wasn't long after the switch's activation did the hidden complex quake. Large cracks were formed with rocks and stalagmites breaking off from the ceiling and started falling all over the place. And if that wasn't bad enough, the Lazarus Pit seemingly rose higher and higher from it's originated level.

Things were not looking good for the four Gothamites.

Just as the chamber door was closing up, Ra's looked over to the former shinobi and called out to him, due to the growing sounds of the complex's destruction. "Farewell, Uzumaki!"

As Naruto looked on, his eyes met with Talia's. Despite the loud quakes surrounding them, Naruto was able to read her lips saying 'Goodbye, beloved' just before the chamber door finally closed up.

The moment the chamber door met the cavern floor, a large crack formed underneath the Gothamites before it gave way. The group fell through as they respectively screamed in their own ways. As the four got closer to the Pit's waters, a floating card platform appeared underneath them.

"We need to get outta here!" Pam yelled out.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Responded her boyfriend.

He quickly formed a barrier around them as the floating structure flew upwards. Stalagmites and cavern walls fell upon Naruto's defense as they zipped out of the crumbling League base. Once they reached the outside world, the four looked back to see mountain collapse in on itself. Lazarus Pit waters bursted into the sky, like an active volcano, while all the snow fell down the mountain and caused an avalanche. 

While the group saw the destruction on part of the Himalayas, Naruto spoke towards his girlfriends. "You three okay?"

Each woman gave a respective nod.

It was Harley who spoke first. "Sure. Though I wish I'd worn something a whole lot warmer." She gestured to her work attire. "But other than that-"

The group soon heard sounds of an aircraft over the blistering, cold winds. Looking off to the side, they saw not only Ra's private aircraft but also a much larger one flying off into the distance. This made them realize that Ra's and his followers fled the area.

"Well that's just great." Selina spoke with a click of her tongue. "Thought we could've had enough time to possibly catch up to them, but it seems they thought ahead for their clean getaway."

"And by the time we get down this mountain Ra's could be a quarter away to his desert stronghold." Pamela said as she scratched her red locks. "Wherever that is."

"And who says you three are going?" Said their boyfriend. He briefly ignored their looks as he directed their card platform to Nepal, which is the nearest city to their current position. "I need to drop you girls off somewhere safe before I go after Ra's… Something tells me that something big is going to happen soon and Ra's needs to be stopped. I need to do this fast so I at least have a chance-" Naruto stopped talking as he noticed Pam carefully walked to his front and stared him down. "Yes?"

"Correction, _we_ have a chance." Spoke the changed botanist.

"Red's right, Naruto." Said the thief. "Whether you like it or not, we're coming with you. We're tired of you doing all of the work and I believe each of us wants some good payback on what they did to us."

"And that means we'll get to crack some skulls." Came Harley's remark as she had a wide grin plastered on her face.

"...There's no way convincing you otherwise, right?"

"You bet your sweet fine ass we don't, puddin."

Seeing their determined looks, he sighed. "Alright, you gals can come." Each woman smirked in their own right at this. "Though there might be a problem that y'all aren't currently equipped-"

"Oh, I can easily get that taken care of." Pamela said, getting a curious look from Naruto. "My cute little _children_."

Naruto rolled his eyes on Pam's control over plants. Having to go into a deep focus, Pam could control plants from the other side of the globe. And if she wanted to, she can travel to and from that location, even transporting certain items.

And with the current situation, she'd order her plants to acquire Selena's and Harley's gear to bring them to their location.

As he spotted Nepal's border in the distance, he spoke up. "Regardless, we've gotta find out where." 

"But where do we even start looking?" Said the pale woman.

"You three were his prisoner for quite a while. You must have overheard something." He pointed out.

Selina and Pam shook their heads in response.

As for Harley, she scratched the back of her head. "I think… there was one thing." She said, getting the others' attention. "A word I heard several times, even though it was a little hard to make out."

"What was it?" 

Harley scrunched up her face more while dwelling deep into her memory. "It sounded like Orca… Orpha… Orpheus." She suddenly snapped her fingers with a toothy grin. "Yeah, that's it! Orpheus!"

 _ **-Next Day, Sahara Desert-**_

Heat... Fierce and merciless... A sun that stings the eyes and air that scorches the lungs and hundreds of miles of sand that shimmer and glistens and burns.

This... is the Sahara Desert! A hellish panorama of blazing emptiness that defies living creatures. Yet people do live in this part of the world. And stranger still, some of them do indeed prosper.

Flying over it's sandy dunes, a seaplane… or sandplane in this case cruized at a decent distance off the ground. Said vehicle was acquired by Pamela with some of her hypno-spores that got the owner to give it up for a time. Inside contained Naruto, Pam, Harley and Selina which the later was currently flying the sandplane.

Now you'd be thinking why they be in this remote part of the world.

During their brief resting period in Nepal, Naruto went to the Wayne Enterprises location in the city and used his small access -given by Bruce himself- to get into it's servers. There he properly looked up any reference to Orpheus he could muster.

In Greek mythology, Orpheus, descended into the Hades to bring his beloved wife, Eurydice, back from the dead. The man was successful in convincing the Greek God into letting this happen by playing a beautiful song that was able to shake his and his wife, Persephone, of their very souls. They were free to go and return to the surface, only on the condition that Orpheus can't look at his departed wife until they saw the light of day.

Just when they were about to reach the surface, the man accidentally looked upon his wife and she was dragged back into the Underworld.

Asides from the saddening tale that according to the Wayne Enterprises database, Orpheus is also the name of a privately-owned satellite launched into synchronous orbit over a year ago.

Coincidence? Not by a long shot.

And of course it's orbiting over a desert, but more specifically the Sahara desert. And it didn't didn't take much for the former shinobi to guess out the specific coordinates indicated Ra's al Ghul's desert stronghold. 

Checking the Sahara Desert map, Selina called out to the back. "We're within 200 kilometers of the targeted drop off point, Naruto." She didn't have to look back to see him nod. "Gotta hold her steady at 500 feet to stay under their radar, but you can still eject at this altitude."

"Then let's do it." He said as he stood up and walked towards the plane's side door.

"Do you have to go alone, puddin?" Harley asked as she was checking out her gear one last time. "Red and I could join you."

"We've been over this, Harley." He said, earning a pout in response. "I need to go in alone at the beginning so when the time comes, y'all can come in for support if things get dicey when I give the signal by my borrowed signal watch."

Harley reluctantly nodded once more, but her hand got a comforting squeeze from Pam. And for some reassurance, Naruto came up to the bubbly blonde and gave her a chast kiss to help ease her worries.

He did the same towards his other two lovers before phasing himself through the aircraft's bottom and fell towards the sands below. Reaching closer to the surface below, the Uzumaki formed his Kazekage lance to not only break his fall but to fly across the dunes.

Back with the girls, Selina started lowering the plane at a possible good distance away from what could be Ra's desert stronghold. Once coming to a landing, the three sat in their place and thought things over on what had occurred to them within the past week before getting Naruto's signal to move in and take action.

Towards the end of their respective trips outside of Gotham, Pam and Selina were abruptly knocked out and taken when they were alone. They had woken up in a humid cell some unknown time later with Pam having power dampening cuffs on her. Neither were able to get out of them and when trying to contact Naruto through the Dreaming, something seemed to block their attempts. And when Selina tried to break them out with her Red powers, the pair were eventually subdued and re-woke later with the ravenette having dampeners on her.

It was two days after the escape attempt when Talia was brought in and on the next day, Harley arrived in the shared cell. _Neither_ knew why they were taken and were forced to talk to keep themselves preoccupied. The three Gothamites were able to catch up with Talia and vice versa and were able to enjoy their time together, despite the circumstances.

And after the second day of Harley joining them, they were knocked out and transferred to the Himalayas. Once again, _neither_ knew what happened. Even when Talia was taken out of the cell early yesterday, for some reason, when Naruto arrived to save them.

Yet it seemed the three Gothamites were fooled as Talia indeed knew what was going on with her being apart of the whole situation. And in order to keep the facade, the Demon's Daughter had to stay with Naruto's three lovers until the supposed time was right for the Uzumaki's arrival.

This caused them to lose a lot of trust in Talia and they don't know if she'll earn it back.

 _ **-One Hour Later, Ra's Sahara Stronghold-**_

Looking into the vast desert underneath the darkened moonlit sky, Paula Crock sighed for the upteenth time from the mountain complex's walls.

'So many things happening within a handful of days.' She thought as her gaze went to a far off distance. 'Wish this didn't have to happen.'

The Vietnamese League assassin was not enjoying how things started out ever since Ra's called her and Lawrence several days ago to abduct Harley from her home. It left a very bad taste in her mouth as she wondered why the Demon's Head ordered them to do this. The Crock couple asked, yet the question wasn't answered as they were forced to do the assignment.

Harley was practically a younger sister to Paula and doing this made her feel she was betraying family.

When Naruto came and asked where Harley went off to, both her and Lawrence had to lie to his face if they knew of her whereabouts. Their answer was indeed true as neither knew where her former student was transported to after dropping her unconscious body at the rondevu point.

As much as Paula wanted to tell Naruto on what they've done, they were ordered not to… for some reason which raised more questions than answers!

And if that wasn't odd enough, Paula tried contacting Naruto within the past few days, but he ended up disappearing as well. The Crock matriarch tried contacting him on his cell phone, stopping by at both his loft and office; yet he wasn't present in Gotham at all. Only saying that something came up and he had to either cancel or postpone all of his appointments and work schedules until further notice.

Paula's worries grew worse and worse as a result.

Then, out of nowhere, Ra's contacted them to arrive at the League's Sahara stronghold at the very last minute yesterday. Both were forced to leave Jade and Artemis behind, stating that she and Lawrence had a rather sudden _business_ trip they were forced to go to.

Neither knew what their League leader was going to do exactly as many operatives were kept in the dark on the Demon's reasons. All that the pair were assigned to do, until further notice, was to keep lookout at the stronghold's walls and report on both any unusual activity along with the arrival on other League members and the several caravans consisting of one hundred camels and trucks worth of supplies each.

"Doing alright there, Alsiyada (Huntress)?" Came a female voice. "You seem rather distant."

Paula didn't have to fully turn around to recognize Ta-er al-Sahfer (Yellow Bird), the Beloved of Nyssa al Ghul.

Said woman had golden blonde hair that reached past her shoulders as it was tied into a ponytail. Her sky blue eyes was hidden behind a black domino mask that matched her black leather attire consisting of black pants, gloves, shirt, jacket and combat boots. She wore a black choker that has a voice filter function while on assignments. Ta-er al-Sahfer also has sonic devices attached to her belt with a bo-staff that separates into expandable batons.

Paula let out a deep sigh. "You can say that."

"Wanna talk about it?" Asked the masked blonde. "We've got an unknown amount of time until the last of the supply caravans arrive. And I doubt any of our superiors would complain about us chatting."

Ah yes, their superiors… the hierarchy of the League can be confusing for any outsider and newcomers.

On the _food chain_ , Ra's al Ghul is at the very top -obviously- as he's the overall leader of their organization. Right below him are the Children of the Demon, which are currently Talia (Warith/The Heir) and Nyssa (Aibnatu/The Daughter) as their orders are superseded by Ra's himself. After them are the Horsemen, the League's best hunters and Ra's personal hands.

Below the Horsemen consist the Elders, who are the oldest members currently living (asides from Ra's), as they're responsible for overseeing the majority of the training the recruits undergo. The Savant are the League's librarians and knowledge keepers in the organization with the Dhanvan being the organization's head physicians. There's also the Seven Men of Death, who are Ra's personal hitsquad. And after all those positions, there's all the generic members.

Now to place Paula and Yellow Bird/The Canary, they are respectively placed in odd steps in the food chain.

Paula can be considered a pseudo-Horseman, or Horsewoman in her case, as she can take hold of the position -alongside with Lawrence- if becoming a full time League member. But after getting permission from Talia to help raise her daughters, she's been put into the _seasonal_ slots and would only work as an assassin when called in by her superiors consisting of the Elders, the Children and Ra's himself.

Asides from that, the Vietnamese woman would also report to the Horsemen until she decides to become more active in the League and take her place as a Horseman herself.

With _The Canary_ , she's inside of Nyssa's small inner circle and personal guard which consists of just herself and Talibah (the Student/Seeker of Knowledge). They can surely report directly to the Elders, Horsemen and Ra's; but with Ta-er al-Sahfer being Nyssa's _beloved_ , she has some leniency as long as she follows orders to the letter.

"Been chatting with Lawrence about it, but he's been ignoring and brushing off our recent problems too much as of late. It would at least be nice to talk it over with you." Paula admitted.

The Canary smiled a little as she walked to the edged and leaned over to help keep watch with her fellow assassin. "What's on your mind?"

"First off is Lawrence and I having to abduct a former student of mine, under Ra's orders."

The blonde blinked in confusion. "Excuse me, but what? Why?"

"No clue and it's been driving me insane." Paula groaned out. "I tried asking him, Talia and Nyssa about it and the reasons, but they wouldn't budge. I even went to the Elders and Horsemen but I got the same results."

"That sounds quite odd."

"Tell me about it. I see Harley, my former student, as the younger sister I never had after interacting with her for so long. She is also my neighbor as she helps me out in a variety of situations when I'm involved with League business or my civilian job. Hell, she helped Lawrence and I through a lot of couples counseling and babysitting our kids." The Vietnamese assassin then let out a frustrated sigh. "Yet when Lawrence and I were ordered to knock her out and transport her to Gotham harbor for Sarab to take her to god knows where, I felt like I was betraying my relationship with her while being outright confused on the orders."

"...I'm sorry about that, Paula."

"Thanks." Huntress then rubbed her temples to help with her migraine. "But it wasn't just that, but I wanted to tell her boyfriend so much." She said, getting the Canary to adopt a confused facial expression once more. "He made her so happy and got her out of some very dark moments after they first met earlier this year. He earned my respect and trust on what he's done for her. So when he came asking about Harley's whereabouts, it hurt me deeply on having to lie to his face."

The Yellow Bird could only nod in understanding

"Not only that, but Ra's sudden full summons got me rather worried."

The blonde assassin sighed and briefly looked back to see the growing numbers present in the Sahara compound. "You're not the only one."

It was really odd that Ra's ordered every League member to arrive not only here, but to every main location that has a Lazarus Pit. Ones that were 'off clock' and on standby were ordered to come in. And operatives currently on assignments were told to quickly finish things ASAP before showing up at their respective locations.

Not everyone knows what the bloody hell is going on, leaving much confusion among the ranks. Outside of Ra's and his kin; only the Elders, Horsemen and specific technicians in each compound (like the ones fiddling around with a rather large computer system connected to Orpheus' ground satellite off to the corner of the stronghold's courtyard) knows whats up. Said individuals are tight lipped and won't reveal things until the very last moment when everyone was present and accounted for.

The Canary was going to speak up when they heard Ubu speak towards them from behind. "Anything to report?"

Both the Canary and Huntress stood up straight to address Ra's bodyguard. And it was Paula who answered. "Nothing yet, Ubu. The final caravan hasn't arrived yet. Though by from their last radio call, they should be seen at the horizon any minute now."

The muscled Indian nodded. "It's quite understandable."

"And what should be done once they've arrived?" Asked the Canary.

"Immediately report to the main courtyard for further instructions. Ra's al Ghul will then explain his intentions for our gathering."

Both Huntress and Yellow Bird nodded as Ubu turned around and walked away in order to get reports from the other League members manning the complex's walls.

"...Out of all of the Horsemen, I can honestly say I can handle Sarab over the likes of him, Shiva and Cain anyday." Ta-er al-Sahfer said with admittance. She then looked over to Paula and smirked as she saw her fellow assassin nod in agreement. "And if you were to be more active in the League, I would be able to handle you quite a whole lot more."

"Thanks." Turning back around to survey the vast desert, Paula narrowed her eyes on seeing something shine in the horizon. Pulling out her binoculars, she zoomed in and saw the leader of the final caravan flipping on and off a flashlight. "Seems they've finally arrived." She then turned to her fellow assassin and asked a request. "Mind calling it in?"

The blonde assassin nodded and pulled out her radio from her waist to call it in the recent news. "Calling in, Aibnatu. This is Ta-er al-Sahfer. Do you read? Over."

After several seconds, Nyssa's voice was heard on the radio. _"This is Aibnatu. What's to report, Ta-er al-Sahfer?"_

"Final caravan's arriving." Spoke the Canary. "Approximate time upon reaching the gates will be ten minutes or less."

" _Good to know. I'll report this to Ra's now."_

With that, the radio went silent as the blonde assassin clipped her device back to her belt. "I should probably get going now."

Paula nodded. "That's fine and thanks for at least listening to my complaints, Sara."

The Canary, otherwise known as Sara, smiled. "It's no problem. Though sorry for not giving you any proper responses to your venting."

The Huntress waved her off a little. "It's fine. With Ubu suddenly showing up for a report and the final caravan arriving now, nothing much could be talked about."

"Not only that, but I think the responses I might give would take time to talk about."

It was roughly ten minutes later after the radio report when Ubu walked towards the stronghold's gates. The musclebound Indian crossed his arms behind his back as he looked towards the handful of League members opening the large gate. The group briefly struggled before a large creak could be heard.

Once the wooden gates were opened wide enough, Ubu saw the final caravan approaching.

"So you've finally arrived!" Spoke Ra's bodyguard as he eyed the group before him. He then called out to them and pointed towards the stables. "Hitch your mounts and follow me while others will unload the supplies! We must not keep the master waiting!" It wasn't long before many of the camel riders went to the stables and got off their mounts while the trucks went off to the side to park. "Quickly!" Ubu ordered. "Our time grows short!" 

As the riders followed Ra's bodyguard, one of them walked into a dark alleyway.

Ubu noticed this at the bare corner of his vision. He quickly ordered one of his men to direct the others while going after the wayward camel rider.

When he approached the dark alleyway, Ra's bodyguard called out. "You there! Did you not hear me?" Rounding the corner, the musclebound Indian growled. "What is the matter with-?" The bodyguard was left in a state of confusion and saw no one was there. This was only temporary as his eyes wandered all over to find the wayward camel rider.

If he were to turn around, Ubu would've seen his intended target calmly walk across the courtyard.

'This is rather easy.' Thought the wayward rider. 'Just need to keep calm and pay attention to my surroundings while acting my part.' He adjusted his head wrap to be sure nothing could be seen underneath. 'Just keep my head low, for the most part, and I'll do fine. Along with the fact that I'll need to avoid getting people close to me to notice something is off.'

If one were indeed close to this wayward rider, they would see his whiskered visage underneath the headwrap.

At some point of his journey to find Ra's Sahara base, Naruto came across a suspicious looking caravan with several members wearing League getups. The Uzumaki quickly went into his Vanitas attire and hanged back to find a good person to knock out and play something he hasn't done since his years in Metropolis: identity theft. It involved knocking someone out and wearing their uniform/attire to help sneak through certain areas.

Sure the actual name of it is rather bad and should never be used on anyone, but given the current situation it's quite needed.

 _ **-Insert Arrow Soundtrack: Season 3 Storming the Castle-**_

Coming across one building, the disguised Uzumaki peeked through a small window and saw a control room. Across the screen laid the world's map as various locations were highlighted throughout the world. The hero wanted to know what said locations were for, causing him to attempt to go inside.

Yet his attempt was halted when a firm hand was placed on his shoulder before being tossed overhead. When the disguised hero landed on the ground, he saw Ubu stalking over to him.

"So my eyes did not deceive me." Spoke the muscled Indian. "You will pay for this trespass." 

Ra's bodyguard and the intruder rushed towards each other for their own means. One to kill and the other to knock out before continuing in his investigation. When the disguised Uzumaki jumped towards Ubu, the muscled Indian quickly grasped him and tossed him aside. The hero recovered in the air and planted his feet against the nearby wall. And with a mighty push from his legs, the disguised Naruto leapt towards Ubu at a fast speed.

Coming close to his target, the former shinobi flipped around and kicked Ra's bodyguard in the chest, sending him flying into a series of boarded up boxes.

This act drew the attention of many League members, causing them to rush in to not only see what's going on, but to assist Ubu against the intruder.

The first wave of assassins rushed towards the disguised hero and the first one threw a punch. The attack was quickly countered with Naruto ducking to avoid the hit and delivering an uppercut before grabbing the assassin's head and slammed it against another. It wasn't long before he blocked a low kick, a downward punch before he spun around the one attacker and struck the assassin's back with a series of strikes. Once done, he grabbed the man's clothed back and tossed him into several of his fellow assassins.

Needing some extra from the crowding space, Naruto dashed away before he went loose.

The Uzumaki made quick successions with each of the following assassin's with elbow strikes towards several areas of the body when quickly switching from opponent to opponent. Even dodging the various hits on his person with some difficult ease, due to how trained these League members were. Naruto's movements were fluid as he jumped away and kicked opponents left and right that to some it seemed they were looking at a blur with how the masked intruder is moving so quickly. He had purposely taken some hits so he can grab some offending limbs and break them.

"You will pay for your transgressions, intruder." Said one of the assassins as a new wave started showing up.

After tossing an assassin overhead, after kicking his exposed back to collide onto others, the disguised hero whipped out his arms as a volley of throwing daggers flew out of his sleeves and struck a good number of assassins. As they fell, the masked Uzumaki dodged and maneuvered around a good number of arrows trying to take him down. Taking precisioned aim, Naruto threw more and more conjured daggers at said assassins on both the courtyard and at the higher grounds to take them out.

At one point, the hero created his escrima sticks under his loose sleeves before sliding them out to block incoming sword strikes. The intruder made quick successions of smacking the assassin's heads around with his conjured weapons. Blocking several punches, kicks and sword strikes with his escrima sticks before he ducked from a few opponents and spin kicked a few of them to get them on the ground before he immobilized them. Even ducking several times before he headbutted them, quickly grabbing their heads and slamming them down on his knee before he threw them at the other assassins.

"Who the hell is this guy?" Asked the Canary as she, Huntress and Sportsmaster watched from the sidelines of seeing the fighter was winning wave after wave of assassins.

"Whoever he is-is in a whole world of hurt." Sportsmaster chuckled as he popped his knuckles. "We should probably take care of him now before Ra's shows up."

The Canary and Huntress nodded in agreement as they rushed alongside Sportsmaster to help take care of the masked intruder.

The hero wasted no movements as he kept going on through many strikes at the growing onslaught of assassins. He bashed his escrima sticks against their heads to quickly knock them out before flipping over some of them, grabbed the back of their clothes and threw them at several more opponents. Even twisting around several times to evade the sword strikes at his person before he smacked the offending wrists in order to make the assassins drop their bladed weapons.

Just when he finished fighting up against the last assassin, by throwing his escrima sticks at him to quickly knock him on his ass, the hero soon saw a smoke bomb roll to his position and explode into extremely thick vapors. The covering blocked his momentary view, causing the former shinobi to form his Vanitas attire underneath his disguise. From there, he momentarily went to infrared vision to see three stand out assassins (a tiger themed woman, a man in a sleek metallic hockey mask and a blonde biker chick with a domino mask) rushing towards him.

Still using his infrared vision, the disguised hero dodged a sword swing from Huntress before forming his Kazekage escrima sticks to snag the enemy blade. Feeling the vibration in her sword and not seeing the intruder's weapon, Huntress used one of her hands to punch her opponent's head downward before kneeing his waist. This caused the hero to momentarily let go of his weapons, good enough for the tiger-themed assassin to pry away her sword before swinging towards his exposed side.

To her surprise, the hero quickly blocked the blade with his forearm before uppercutting her jaw with his other fist. Huntress staggered back before the disguised intruder delivered a spinning roundhouse to her stomach with a following one to send her flying back.

It wasn't long before the hero rolled across the ground as the Canary came at him with her bow staff as the smoke was starting to dissipate. The former shinobi turned off his infrared vision before he slammed his pommels together to have his Kazekage spear whole and swung to block the blonde assassin's strike. Their attacks were blocked, parried and evaded with precision. Though the Canary could feel her hands shake from her opponent's powered blows. At one point in their small confrontation, the disguised Uzumaki phased through her, thus confusing her greatly before she was struck from behind and thrown away like a ragdoll.

The hero soon heard something metallic clang onto the floor, giving him little time to spin around and dodged what appeared to be a metallic sphere attached to a cable and guarded handle. Seeing the attacker, the disguised Uzumaki saw Sportsmaster pull his weapon back before swinging it around like a whip and flung it towards him. With the attack coming towards him, the hero reared his arm back and focused a lot of power behind it as he launched it forward.

As his fist came into contact with the metallic mace, the weapon broke apart as several parts flew at random directions. With his mace now useless, Sportsmaster pulled out two metallic cylinders and pressed a button as its ends extended to form javelins. The hockey masked assassin threw the first javelin as it came close to the intruder before it exploded once the man kicked it away.

The force of the blast unfurled the head wrappings surrounding the intruder's head to reveal the obsidian glass domed helmet of Gotham's vigilante: Vanitas. And from their places on the battlefield; Sportsmaster, Huntress and the Canary saw this happen and widened their gaze.

'What the hell is he doing here?!' Huntress thought in utmost surprise.

"Seems I don't need this anymore." Vanitas muttered as he phased himself out of his disguise to reveal the rest of his appearance.

Quickly overcoming his shock and with the new opening, Sportsmaster came forward to strike down the vigilante before him. Yet the hero quickly grasped the javelin and phased it out of Sportsmaster's grasp before tossing it aside as it exploded soon after.

With Sportsmaster weaponless, Vanitas charged forward and fired off a volley of punches. The hockey masked assassin blocked the initial barrage of punches but as he makes the counter attack he gets hit with a palm strike to the face dazing him. The hero continues with a right hand punch to the gut and jumps into the air for an axe kick to which Sportsmaster barely manages to roll out of the way, the impact from the kick leaving an impact on the ground. The League member recovered quickly to land a left uppercut to the intruder, only for him to recover as if he wasn't even affected and countered with a hand stance and slamming both of his feet into Sportsmaster's chest sending him flying back.

Landing back onto his feet, the hockey masked assassin rubbed his chest as he felt the recent blow's result.

'God that fucking hurt.' Sportsmaster growled in thought. 'My armor's gonna need fixing and reinforcement after this.'

It was at this point when he saw Ubu get back up onto his feet as he brandished his clawed gauntlets. It wasn't long before Sportsmaster pulled out another cylinder and pressed a button to have the object expand and form into a rapier. The pair then gave a subtle nod to each other as they circled around Vanitas before rushing towards their prey.

As Sportsmaster thrusted his sword, Ubu unleashed a fury of blows upon the vigilante. Vanitas spun around Sportsmaster's rapier before leaning back to briefly dodge Ubu's ferocious strikes. Coming back up, the hero had to block the clawed swipes at his person, he grunted in momentary pain as Ubu attacked with the force of a power hammer. The hero went to the ground and evaded another rapier thrust before coming up and delivering an elbow strike at Sportsmaster's center.

With the hockey masked assassin staggered back, Ubu swiped his claws at the hero once more with his imposing figure. "For this indignity, _Infidel_ , I will see you suffer!" Growled out Ra's bodyguard.

"Right~ Like when I kicked your ass back in the Himalayas."

This got Ubu to get more angry, causing him to swipe his clawed gauntlets at Vanitas. After dodging some of the blows, the hero quickly squatted before backflipping to send a powered kick towards Ubu's lower jaw. This got the man flying back and fell onto the ground.

Just when the fight was about to continue, a volley of arrows were shot towards the vigilante. The hero quickly formed his escrima sticks and blocked the projectiles. Yet one went towards his legs and exploded to reveal a device before it latched onto his leg.

'What the-' "GRAAAH!"

It wasn't long as Vanitas gritted his teeth and fell onto the ground on all fours as he felt his powers were fluctuating like crazy.

"It seems we have had quite the show."

Many of the assassins turned towards the source and saw Ra's standing alongside his daughters, which Nyssa had her bow out, at the top of a flight of stairs. Everyone either kneeled, bowed or stood in their leader's presence for his utmost respect.

Eying Vanitas' downed and struggling form, Ra's smirked before jumping down from the higher placement off the ground. He walked towards the helmeted hero, who was then roughly picked up by his muscled bodyguard to be presented to his master. Once coming close enough, Ra's saw Vanitas' attire start to melt away to slowly reveal his civilian clothing underneath.

"You are rather foolish," spoke the Demon's Head as Vanitas' bodysuit melted to show his muscled arms underneath, "or so brave." Soon the armor melted towards his helmeted visage. "My admiration for you was well-founded." Before long, Vanitas helmet disappeared in black and white wisps of smoke to reveal Naruto's face as he glared at the assassin leader.

"Too bad I can't say the same, Ra's." Said the Uzumaki.

From their respective spots, Sportsmaster and Huntress widened their eyes in utmost surprise once more. Neither expected that Naruto was Vanitas at all. And this didn't go unnoticed by Ta-er al-Sahfer as she looked at their eyes.

'They know him.' Sara thought. It wasn't a question, but a fact. 'Neither of them can't get _that_ surprised _that_ easily.' She then looked towards Nyssa and Talia as it seemed both of them knew who this man was as well. 'I'm gonna need to ask them what's up.'

"Shall I dispatch him, master?" Asked Ra's faithful bodyguard.

The Demon merely shook his head 'no'. "He is powerless with the dampener attached to his leg." He said as he walked away from Naruto. "But do search him. Make certain that he conceals no surprises which might enable him to escape."

Ubu nodded as he and several others ripped off Naruto's civilian shirt and patted down his legs for anything out of the ordinary. All that he has left on him were his cargo pants, combat boots and watch.

This caused the Uzumaki to struggle as he was being frisked down. "You have nothing to lose by telling me what you're doing here!" He growled out.

The Demon's Head stopped walking and turned around to face his _successor_. "Yes, I suppose I do owe you that much, Naruto. Since, in many ways, you are responsible for it." 

"...You have me at a loss at what you mean, Ra's."

Ra's walked forward as he explained to the captured Uzumaki. "You see, I had hoped to achieve my vision of an earthly utopia gradually over time with my heir carrying on my work after I was gone." He then stopped in front of Naruto. "But your refusal to become my heir has left me no other choice."

'His _heir_?!' Yelled out Canary, Sportsmaster and Huntress in unison inside of their minds.

Ra's narrowed his eyes gestured his men to bring their captive along as he continued speaking. "For I must now use what I call the _Lazarus Effect_ to achieve my utopia in one bold stroke."

Naruto merely rose a brow. "How?"

The Demon's Head pointed then gestured to the large structure nearby, which was several feet away from the control console. "The material of the Pit is an unknown chemical stew that bubbles to the Earth's surface only at certain key places around the globe." Walking up the console steps, the assassin leader then typed a series of commands. Soon, the rooftop of the metallic structure started to recede to let the Lazarus Pit waters to interact with the open air.

It was then that a large crane could be seen carrying a large black sphere as it was drawn outward and started hovering over the exposed Pit waters. "Even now, my people are placing bombs, such as that one, over the various Lazarus Pits around the world." Spoke the Demon. "And these bombs are electronically linked to a private satellite already in Earth's orbit."

"Orpheus."

"Precisely." Ra's started typing in more commands into the keyboard as he kept talking. "And at the moment when sun and moon are in alignment to cause the greatest upheaval in Earth's geomagnetic field, I shall send a signal to that satellite beginning a countdown." Once done, he looked towards the night's sky. "Five minutes thereafter, one bomb will be lowered deep into the heart of each pit which my forces have procured over the years. The satellite will, in turn, relay a microwave signal that will detonate all the bombs simultaneously."

This caused not only Naruto, but several League members not in the know of their master's plans to have shivers down their spines.

"The multiple explosions will result in a global chain reaction. All the Lazarus pits throughout the world will overflow. The globe will be saturated with their chemical solution. And when the resultant cataclysm has abated there will come a blessed peace. And this poor, defiled planet shall find itself restored to its former _pristine_ glory."

"B-But that will cost countless lives!" He yelled out.

"Actually, Naruto, we have counted." Ra's turned around and faced the Uzumaki. "Two billion, fifty-six million, nine hundred and eighty-six thousand."

The feeling of utmost dread filled Naruto's very being along with the several assassins that were not in the know. And both the Demon's daughter were amongst the shocked individuals.

"A most impressive plan, would you not agree?"

Naruto looked down, cutting off the gazing connection for several moments. "Yes, I can see it clearly now for the first time." He said, getting Ra's to smile upon his _successor_. Though this changed when he saw Naruto look back up and hotly glare at the ancient assassin. "You are completely out of your mind!"

Ubu didn't like hearing this, causing him to lash out against the captured Uzumaki. " _Infidel_ dog!" He growled out as he kicked against his exposed back, causing Naruto to tumble onto the ground. "This time I shall attend to you personally!"

Talia was about to rush towards Naruto's side and hopefully protect him from Ubu. But it seemed her father beat her to the punch by calling out to his faithful servant.

"Ubu!" Ra's spoke out, causing the muscled Indian to halt his actions. "I would prefer Uzumaki live to witness the realization of my dream." Ubu nodded as he roughly grabbed Naruto and hoisted him up to his feet. "Take him to the tower to await my moment of triumph." He said before walking away.

"As you wish, master."

Just when Ra's bodyguard was about to take Naruto away, with a pair of assassin guards, Talia rushed forward.

"Wait." She called out, causing the small group to briefly stop their actions. They wondered what Talia wanted from them exactly.

But out of nowhere, she grasped her former student's head and slammed her lips with his.

The action caused Naruto to widen his eyes and momentarily opened his mouth in a shocked response. Taking advantage of the moment, Talia slipped her tongue into his orifice. And after several moments into the kiss, the Demon's Heir pulled away as her hand caressed his whiskered cheek.

"To remember me, beloved." Was all she could say before Naruto was taken away from her.

The Uzumaki briefly looked back to see her loving, yet worried gaze as he was taken to the prison tower. It took several minutes to get there before Ubu brought the whiskered Uzumaki into his cell. Before he could retaliate, the muscled Indian punched his stomach and then shoved him into the wall.

As Naruto was being chained up by the assassin guards, Ubu harshly slapped the publisher's face. "Not so dangerous without your precious powers are you, _Infidel_?"

Naruto didn't say anything back, only glaring at Ra's bodyguard. Said man scoffed before leaving the cell with the assassin pair standing on guard until further notice.

The former shinobi eyed Ubu's form as he rounded the corner. After several moments, Naruto moved his tongue around inside of his mouth to poke something out from his lips.

'Did not expect Talia to kiss me, much less slip this lock pick in my mouth.' He thought as awkwardly moved his body to get himself close to one of his arms. 'Mouth's bleeding through, no thanks to Ubu slapping me and making the pick cut into my cheek and gums.'

Once done getting himself out of his chains, Naruto crept forward to the cell's entrance so he wouldn't alert the guards. Reaching his hands through the bars, he quickly grasped the back of their heads and slammed them to the cell door as hard as he could. Soon enough, the assassin pair were quickly knocked out cold.

'That was easy.' Naruto thought as he bent down and reached forward to grab the cell keys. Once nabbing them, he quickly unlocked the cell door and stepped out. 'Now comes the hard part.' He then pressed a button on his watch to send out a signal to his girlfriends.

Outside in the stronghold's courtyard, Ra's stood on a raised platform as he addressed his many followers both in person and by satellite to the other League locations.

"My children, we stand on the threshold of a great adventure." Spoke the Demon's Head. "Even now, the satellite _Orpheus_ is moving into proper alignment and the moment of destiny is finally upon us."

" **RA'S! RA'S! RA'S!"** Cried out the many League members in both the present location and throughout the world.

As the crowd cheered, Talia came up to her father's side. "Father, it is not too late." She pleaded. "Surely there must be some other way."

"No, daughter. Your sister has already voiced her concerns as well, but the decision has already been made."

Talia looked away and turned towards her younger sister as she too had a displeased expression across her features. 

Putting his attention back to his followers, Ra's spoke once more. "In five minutes, the world will be forever changed." The Demon's Head then motioned to his technicians to start the _Lazarus Effect_ through the nearby satellite console. 

As this was all happening, Naruto skulked in the shadows and quickly incapacitated several guards as he got closer and closer to the crowd.

'I need to stop all of this.' Thought the Uzumaki. 'But how?' His head moved all over to think of several ideas. 'The girls should've been here by now to help… but I'm guessing the signal watch is getting jammed somehow. So how can I reach them?' Yet his eyes landed to an armament storage room. A devilish fox-like grin then formed on his face. 'Ohh ho ho ho~ This will definitely help on both of my problems.' Looking back down to the downed guard, Naruto pried off a grenade belt before pulling off the pins and tossed them into the armament room.

The Uzumaki then ran away from the armament building as the cheers went on and on so he can get close to the satellite control console.

'Now let's start this off with a-'

*KABOOM*

A massive explosion occurred at the one section of the League's stronghold. A fire started to quickly spread as many rockets were shot out from the blazing inferno to spread the ensuing chaos. As a result, many League members were forced to flee for safety.

By the podium, Ra's looked onward with a shocked expression.

'How could this have happened?' Thought the Demon's Head. 'Has HIVE come to attack us?'

"MASTER!" Cried out his faithful bodyguard over the growing chaos. "THERE! BY THE CONSOLE!"

Ra's wiped his head towards the Orpheus control console and saw his successor quickly battling the technicians.

"Stop him!" Yelled out the Demon's Head. "He'll ruin everything!"

The muscled Indian didn't have to respond as he was quickly heading towards his intended target. Ra's bodyguard soon saw Naruto finish taking care of the last technician, causing the large Horseman to pull out and unfurl his whip. He then pulled his arm back before sending it forward to have the piece of leather latch around the Uzumaki's neck.

" _Infidel!_ " Ubu roared ou as he pulled Naruto off the console and onto the ground. "You will pay for what you've done!"

Rolling across the ground, Naruto quickly got up and grasped ahold of the whip. "If you only knew how sick I am of you calling me that!" He yelled out.

With a hard yank, the Uzumaki got Ubu to stumble on his feet. This gave the former shinobi the opening he needed as he rushed forward to not only get the much needed slack around his neck but something to use Ubu's own weapon against him. As he got close, Naruto quickly punched the bodyguard's soap bubble like jaw to send him back before the man fell onto the ground like a pile of bricks.

"Now stay!"

As the growing inferno raged on around the stronghold, a voice was able to reach Naruto's ears.

"I have been called criminal and genius, yet I am neither." Naruto turned around and saw Ra's approach him. "For I am an artist."

"Then you're a very lousy one, Ra's."

The Demon's Head merely glared at his _successor_. "Perhaps, Naruto, it is time that you and I finally finish this." Ra's took off his leather jacket to present his athletic body to the growing fires around them. "For it's the only chance you will have to stop my satellite." The ancient assassin then took out his sheathed sword from his waist before pulling his dragon guarded sword from its sheath before tossing the later to the side. "Well? Are you man enough to face your better, Naruto Uzumaki?"

 _ **-Insert Batman Arkham City: Blood of the Demon-**_

Naruto looked to the ground and saw a discarded assassin sword. Picking it up and giving it an experimental swing, the Uzumaki twirled his acquired blade and held it in a stance that felt natural to him with it's blade pointed at Talia's father. Said man had one hand behind his back with his other gripping his sword up front.

"If you insist, Ra's al Ghul."

Without any warning, the two fighters lunged forward and they met in the middle as their respective blades clashed with each other. Both combatants held their ground in the contest of strength before pulling back to swing their weapons once more again and again. With how strong the attacks were, sparks seemed to form between them.

Naruto swung his procured sword at an angle to which Ra's ducked and jumped back to dodge a following attack towards his legs. The Demon spun around, swung his ancient blade upwards and brought it back down which was soon clashed with his opponent's blade to block the attack. Naruto momentarily moved back before leaping forward to strike Ra's side in hopes of getting close.

Ra's started forcing Naruto to move back and away from Orpheus' control console and towards the structure which was holding the Lazarus Pit. The Uzumaki knew of this, but had no choice as he couldn't risk his life in this endeavour without his powers.

As Naruto parried a strike towards his right, the Uzumaki received a roundhouse kick which staggered him closer to the Lazarus Pit structure's stairs. The Uzumaki briefly looked back to get his footing and placement right in order to travel upwards. Though in retaliation, the former shinobi fell down and kicked his opponent's legs before swiping his blade towards the ancient assassin's left with the utmost force. Ra's was momentarily put off guard when he felt the strike against his form though he kept going as they traveled higher and higher up the structure's steps.

The heat: a vicious, intangible beast hungry for mortal flesh. Standing in the cold night, there was the contradictory heat surrounding the two strong combatants. Each determined and each, in their own way, splendid. The battlefield within their area was filled with the clangor of clashing blades and the stench of bodies strained to the limit of human endurance.

And as the two men were locked in the most terrible of encounters, Talia looked onward with tears threatening to spill from her eyes. It was truly hard to tell if it was from the stinging heat, the sweat forming to close to her optics… or the conflicting emotions she has if she wants to save the very man who raised her or the man she fell deeply in love with.

'What… What should I do?' Thought the Demon's Heir as she looked off to the side and saw more and more League members fleeing away. She even saw her sister with her own beloved staying together and evading the chaos of the stronghold which was burning from the inside out. Yet their gazes went upwards towards the fight currently taking place as neither wanted to miss out on what will happen next.

Back with the ensuing fight, Naruto backflipped away from a forward thrust from the Demon. Landing back onto the steps, the Uzumaki quickly held up his knee to stop Ra's kick before punching the man in the face. The ancient assassin grunted in momentary pain before he spun around to strike at the former shinobi's legs. Said man was able to evade the attack just in time before he kicked Ra's back several steps.

The whiskered man jumped back from a forward thrust as Ra's blade soon buried itself into the rocky steps. Running up the steps, Naruto had to spin around and parried another sword slash before following it up with an elbow strike towards the Demon's neck. Ra's leaned back to evade the attack before he blocked an overhead swing.

Throughout this confrontation, both fighters kept their gazes at each other as neither let up in their duel to their possible ends. When they reached the top, Naruto reared his unarmed fist and used much of his strength to strike down the League's founder and leader. Once more, Ra's grunted in pain but not before returning the favor with a mirrored attack after sending a feint sword swing.

Even with the self training and the ones Talia gave him since coming to this world, Naruto was still at a disadvantage. He blocked another swing from Ra's sword with his own blade trying to read his moves and gain an opening. Even though he was at least 900 years old, Ra's al Ghul has proven why he was a formidable opponent. To Naruto, the man before him became one of his greatest adversaries he has ever faced in his entire life.

But this was a fight he couldn't lose no matter what. Because if he does, then all life on this earth will be doomed.

Another attack was blocked yet Naruto kept on the offensive while managing to block Ra's quick swings. The fire in his eyes showed he was determined to end it all for the sake of everyone he cares about. Now they were fighting to the death while Ra's was disappointed at the much potential Naruto possesses. No doubt he would have been a great leader and the League would have gotten even stronger.

"I offered you a chance to make your life something better, to protect more lives than you can ever do in Gotham. I gave you my legacy so you can turn it into your own, as the new Ra's al Ghul, you could have bring more justice than you can have ever done as Vanitas."

"And how many lives will be taken by taking your mantle?"

"In this world, this life there will always be sacrifices no matter if they're done for good or bad intentions. You will kill, I assure you, but more lives will be saved than the ones been taken." Said the Demon. "You have heard that term 'kill one to save a million' correct?"

Naruto glared at his opponent. "You really know nothing about me Ra's. I'm ending your ambition right here."

The Demon's Head showed no emotion as he quickly performed a roundhouse kick sending Naruto to the ground, who quickly rolled back to gain some distance from a sword strike. The Uzumaki showed more determination to defeat Ra's. Said man was able to block his attacks and at the same time the former shinobi was able to block his as well.

"Feel pride, for you have survived longer than most." Said the ancient assassin. "Though I'm afraid we'll both perish together, Naruto. Accept it. Time is running out and you have no choice, but to accept the inevitable."

The Uzumaki briefly glanced at the satellite control console as an idea formed in his head. "If I can't outrun time, then I might as well buy more of it."

Before Ra's could comment a response to what his _successor_ just said, his blue-green eyes saw Naruto toss his procured sword into the air before grasping the blade. And without any warning, Naruto used much of his strength to throw, with precisioned aim, his sword at Orpheus' ground satellite.

"NO!" Ra's roared out as he saw the bladed weapon strike the console's satellite and destroying it.

"Huh. Didn't expect it to blow up like that." Naruto muttered. "Only thought of having the hanging cables get disconnected." The former shinobi glanced back at Ra's and saw the furious look across his features. "...Well shit."

The Demon came charging forward and tried to strike the Uzumaki down with his own sword. But with both of his hands free of any weapons, along with Ra's blinded by rage, Naruto was able to get in close and strike the man's sword wielding arm to make the ancient assassin drop his weapon. Not wanting to let the League's leader pick it back up, Naruto kicked it away as it fell over the edge and clamored down the structure's stairs.

Seeing what his _successor_ has done, Ra's took a deep breath to steel himself. And without having to speak anything at all, the Demon's Head took on a fighting stance. Naruto understood the message and went into his own.

If they can't fight with their swords from earlier, then they would fight with their natural weapons: their very own bodies.

Once more a wordless signal was made, causing the two fighters to launch towards each other with their strengthened fists towards their opponent's chests. Neither dared to evade as both combatants striked true as the pair momentarily gasped for air from the pain. Both fighters jumped back a bit and readjusted themselves before continuing onward.

It was Ra's who acted next with his fast paced punches towards Naruto's head. The former shinobi quickly moved his body around to evade and counter the blows. Once swatting them away, Naruto jumped back a bit before leaping into the air. Ra's then brought his arms up, in an 'X' formation, to block downward kicks from both of his _successor's_ legs. With a powered push, Naruto was able to skid Ra's some bit aways on the Lazarus Pit's opened surface before he landed on the narrow battle ground.

Going in for the surprise, Naruto dashed forward and tackled Ra's to the ground as the pair tumbled and rolled across the paved area. Ra's ended the toss up by slamming his foot down before pushing Naruto away. Both quickly got back onto their feet and the ancient assassin rushed forward before the Uzumaki could react quick enough.

Once close, the Demon's Head delivered a volley of punches. Naruto parried the strikes and spun around to kick Ra's away. The ancient man brought his arm up in time to block the attack. Yet this left an opening for the Uzumaki to exploit by leaping in the air and used his other leg to strike Ra's in the face.

The League's founder staggered back before blood seeped from his hairline as it started to blind his right eye. But with his other eye, Ra's quickly grabbed Naruto's leg, spun around and tossed him away to give himself some space. He then used this time to wipe away some of his blood from his face.

"Impressive, Naruto." Spoke the Demon as he saw Naruto land back onto the structure's opened top. "It truly has been a long time since someone has drawn my own blood."

"Don't I feel lucky."

Naruto dashed forward once more as he sent a right cross towards Ra's face. His opponent swatted the punch away before doing the same towards the other ones coming his way. Naruto then spun around to kick the assassin's exposed side, yet it was blocked. Not wanting to waste the momentum, the former shinobi twisted his body around to elbow strike the man's leg. Yet it was not meant to be as Ra's palmed Naruto's back and slammed him down to the battle ground, causing the publisher to cough out in pain.

The whiskered man rolled away to evade a downward punch towards his head, which left several cracks on the very spot. Naruto leapt onto his feet only to have met with Ra's own when they struck his chest. The Uzumaki staggered but he grasped the assassin's left leg and brought his elbow down onto its side which resulted in a resounding crunch.

Ra's gritted his teeth in pain before he punched Naruto in the face to send him away. The ancient assassin soon placed a lot of weight onto his right leg at this point to help out his other. Before he realized it, Naruto came forward and delivered a series of punches.

Seeing the fight from the burning courtyard, Talia widened her eyes in amazement. 'So much.' She thought as her legs seemed to move on their own. Before the Demon's Heir realized it, she ran towards the Lazarus Pit structure's steps and ascended them. 'You've grown so much, Naruto. Holding against your own against Father for so long. I don't know if it's by some miracle, your experience or your sheer dumb fox-like luck. But… But as much as I want Father to win, I want you to prevail!'

When she reached the top, Talia was able to see the blood splattered ground before eying the combatants. She saw that both were bleeding at this point, whether it was from their knuckles or from their cut up faces. There were even bruises forming on both their chests and arms.

Before she realized it, Talia saw her father delivering an uppercut towards Naruto's chin; sending him too close to the edge where he might fall into the Pit's below. The Demon's Heir gasped out in shock and was going to rush forward to save her beloved.

Though this was unnecessary as Naruto was able to land on his feet and leaned to the side to punch Ra's exposed side. From there, the publisher quickly went behind the assassin's back, grasped his opponent in a bear hug and performed a German suplex.

The resulting attack caused Ra's to tumble across the surface and fall over the edge.

"FATHER!" Talia cried out as she rushed over.

Naruto quickly moved as well and peaking over, both he and his former teacher saw Ra's was hanging onto a dagger's handle. It seemed that the Demon's Head quickly pulled it out and stabbed it into the wall to save himself.

Without thinking, Naruto reached his arm towards his opponent in order to save him. "Ra's! Give me your hand!" He said as Talia mirrored her beloved's action to help out.

Talia's father brought his other arm up and tried to use much of his strength to hoist himself up. Yet the pain from their recent fight was starting to finally come to him full swing. So all Ra's did soon after was bring his arm back down, much to Naruto and Talia's confusion.

"Well done, Uzumaki. Victory is yours." Spoke the Demon with a smile. "I was indeed right all along that you are indeed my heir, my successor." The smile then grew a bit more as it seemed to unsettle both Naruto and Talia. "Perhaps it is time I am finally one with the planet I so love."

Without any warning, Naruto and Talia looked on with widened eyes as Ra's let go of his dagger's handle; plugging himself into the Lazarus Waters below as the very pit that helped him give life swallowed him whole for his demise. 

Naruto could only look away from the waters below him. He then remembered who was currently with him. Looking to his side, the Uzumaki saw his former teacher shed tears from her eyes. He scooted over and brought her into his arms to help comfort her from her loss.

…..

As the fire's eventually died out from the mountain stronghold, Naruto was walking towards the seaplane his girlfriends had waiting for him half a mile away from the League's base. With the power dampener now unlocked and off his body, the Uzumaki felt his powers were fixing his battered body. The tingling sensation was good in showing that things were working…

Yet his powers still didn't fix the damage that was currently placed in his heart.

Looking towards his side, Naruto eyed Talia -who was currently mourning her father's death- as many thoughts raged through his mind.

She betrayed his trust, she helped harmed his three lovers and betrayed their trust as well. Naruto honestly didn't know what to do as he cared for Talia. But with what happened… he didn't know what… what could happen next.

Both sisters were obviously against with what their father intended on his latest plan to save the world. It was long the category of the Moon's Eye Plan from his home reality with how devastating it was.

"...You must understand, Naruto," Talia spoke for the first time since leaving the stronghold, "I share my father's vision and seek the same ends but I do not choose his means to those ends." 

Naruto could only sigh and run his hand through his hair. "I know and I understand… with what you and Nyssa want to accomplish."

"But… Where will I go?" She spoke quietly in the silence of the twilight sunrise. "Will I become your prisoner?

Naruto did not answer, but more than that, he was unwilling to. Instead… his body was beginning to move on its own. He could blame this as something automatic for comforting others or… something else.

His hands placed themselves on Talia's shoulders, the action causing her to shudder in surprise. Her face was inches away from his, her soft breath tingling his skin, but he did nothing else but stare.

The sheer allure of her blue-green eyes that glanced to the ground in embarrassment, and the subsequent reddening of her cheeks, all were not lost on him. When they did meet back with his eyes, the sun's rays seemed to brighten them considerably to be that of precious gems. Even for her, she saw his hazel eyes change in the twilight into a sparkling amber that made her heart beat faster that she can truly be lost in them…

Just like her thoughts as what felt like eternity.

The life that they had experienced together, and the journey that they possibly still had in their future.

He could still be the new Ra's al Ghul and she his follower… or vice versa with how he said in the past that either she or Nyssa could take their father's title if they wanted to. Regardless, Talia thought of them being together and raising a family that their children would take over the League when they were old and fading away.

The future had many possibilities and similarly many things that could go wrong, but nothing was truly set in stone. As all manner of thoughts flashed across her mind, something halted them completely.

Neither knew who did the action first as their lips pressed against each others.

All the feelings she buried from him had broken free. They flooded her entire being as her arms wrapped around him and held him tight...

As she was lost in the passion of a kiss.

Like a letter, a phone call, anything that was meant to deliver a message; Talia put her heart and soul into the action as she didn't want it to end. The Demon's Heir feared that if she let go then he would be gone from her life forever. The mere thought of it caused her to cry.

It was Naruto who broke the embrace and saw her tear stained face. He wiped the tears away with his thumbs before kissing her forehead.

"This isn't goodbye, Talia." He said, causing her to look into his eyes. "It's more like… see you later, alligator." This caused her to weakly chuckle in a pained smile. "After a while, crocodile."

Talia nodded a little with hope in her eyes as he walked away from her. He walked towards the seaplane while she walked towards her provisioned horse -with several days worth of food and water- to get to the nearest form of civilization. Hopefully she could run into other League members, maybe Nyssa and Sara even, before going to god knows where.

The Demon's Heir looks back once saddled on her horse to see Naruto's seaplane transport start up with the engines roaring. The propeller slowly spun before going full throttle. It turned and sped across the sandy dunes before rising into the sky.

As Talia motioned and steered her steed to their intended destination, she looked up into the sky as her blue-green eyes saw the dawn was finally breaking further through the twilight sky to help slay the rest of the night. Undaunted by the light of the Sun, Naruto's transport speeds away as if fired like a bow drawn hot. He and his lovers make it for home in order to raid upon the morne.

A phantom feeling overcame her as she rode across the dunes. Talia thought it was merely just the tingling feeling across her lips from their recent kiss to him brushing her tears away to even the kiss upon her forehead.

Though it was merely something else as she if she were to return back to the stronghold, she would've found something quite interesting.

Going back to the Lazarus Pit structure, the green steam seeped into the air from the waters below. If one were to pay close attention and filter out the churning bubbles the waters emit, you'd hear a soft chuckle. Not only that, but a series of scraps along the hardened rock. It wasn't long before said chuckle started to become louder and louder with the scrapes became more frequent.

And once a dagger dug into the very top with a slight bloody hand grasping it's handle, that chuckle became a haunting, bellowed laugh.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **First off, sorry on the late update. Work has drained me and couldn't do much for the progress of things on the chapter. Along with the fact that I've been trying to not only find a more permanent job, but I've been trying to find a new place to live with my little sister/roommate. Sure the place we currently live at is good and cheap, but she wants to live in a bit bigger place. Have to figure things out by the end of the lease or else I'll have to go either month to month or try to sign on for another year.**

 **Now to get this out of the way, I am so glad to have finally gotten to this point as this two-parter episode was one of my favorite episodes when growing up. From the fight towards the end and some of the music.**

 **And most of all: Ra's maddening laugh! Oh dear god that laugh always gave me goosebumps.**

 **Speaking of Ra's… he probably should not have been a main villain in Arrow as he was primarily a Batman villain through and through. And one of the things that seemed to tick off many DC fans was Oliver killing Ra's… and the man not coming back to life because of the Lazarus Pits. This made Ra's character severely less badass than he's in the comics because he's supposed to be on par with Batman and many other DC comic fighters. This is just the fact that Ra's trained Batman or at least partially trained Batman in some manner. Sure in the Nolanverse, Ra's did fully train Bruce before he went back to Gotham but in various other iterations, it was just partial on some techniques.**

 **So going back to Ra's persona in Arrowverse, it was disappointing when seeing him get killed by Oliver, even though he was a much better fighter. I believe that not only I but other fans of the Arrowverse would forgive this bit if they did bring Ra's back to life via Lazarus Pit waters. But the problem is, they had it stated in the show that 'no one was brought back to life before' stick and that pissed off others that they didn't even go with this route. Not only that but this undermines the character in several aspects that he got his ass handed to him by Oliver who is not that great of a fighter compared to Ra's at all and they didn't even bother bring the man back to life.**

 **No offense to Matt Nable who portrayed Ra's in the Arrowverse at all. He's a great actor and did the role quite well, but I blame the writers that they didn't do the man justice on doing character developments and all that fun stuff. On how he turned out, Arrowverse Ra's became the least best portrayal of Ra's. Both Liam Neeson and Alexander Siddig had far better live action portrayal of Ra's character.**

 **If they had Matt Nable's portrayal be put as a semi-minor villain in Arrow instead of a major one with season 3, then it would be more forgiving as he would've been seen more and be more present in the series run. But I do admit he was rather badass on how he beat Oliver the first time and several of his plans, but that was just it.**

 **So this is the reason why I'm going to be having Ra's portrayal in my story be more of a mix between DCAU and of the comics. These were the portrayals I grew up with and loved about the character…**

 **Except for the bit on Batman Beyond with the creepy mind transfer.**

 **I know they had this bit in the comics with Ra's albino son, Dusan, as the guy sacrificed his mind so his father can take over his body. But why in the world did they do this on Talia? It made me really creeped out along with fans everywhere.**

 **So just to drop this bit of information for all you readers, I'm not going to be doing Arrow season 3 events… well to some degree. I will do a good number episodes from that season since I thought they were great and helped build up certain character developments. But I will be doing changes to them to make everyone happy.**

 **And that means when I get to Arrow season 2 events, there will be changes to them as they're connected with season 3 and things wouldn't be all that great if I seem to leave them out.**

 **Now with Talia, yeah… you guys can obviously tell she'll need to regain her trust in Naruto and the girls after what happened in this chapter's events. She'll want to romance him and all that fun stuff.**

 **On other news; Margot Kidder, actress best known for her portrayal as Lois Lane opposite of Christopher Reeve's Superman/Clark Kent… has recently passed away. May you join your Superman in the big blue sky above once more. Rest well…**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	54. By the Sound of her Wings

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 50: By the Sound of her Wings**

There are those days that you are either stuck at home, school or in the office and being completely bored out of your mind. You just want to go out and do something either productive or fun to settle yourself down. By the end of the little experience, you feel glad and accomplished on the results, no matter what it is.

Then there are those times that something bad happened, whether quite recently or for a long time, and you try to do the earlier mentioned details. The results vary like one's depression is uplifted… or they remain.

...No one can tell if the wounds heal just the right way or not. You'd distract yourself with anything at all, whether it's big or small. But the emotional, physical or mental pain would always come back to you at some point.

So all of the crazinesses that you avoid in the day-to-day business of life comes to you in your home, school and work and eats your mind. You know that you'd want to work on something, but you don't feel like it taking a big part in doing it at all.

…..

"Do we have any more loafs?" Asked the ashen ward as she threw her last piece of bread in front of her. "Or at least more bird seed?"

"I think there's more in the backpack, Rachel."

She nodded as she reached into the bag and fished out the last bread loaf before continuing the little activity with her guardian.

…..

You would be wondering where exactly the guardian/ward pair was at exactly… Well they're currently in the park and feeding the birds before Winter settles in. Reason why? They just needed to clear their heads from recent events and things have not been pretty as they've been mostly hectic.

...It's been days since Naruto encountered the League of Shadows/Assassins at the Sahara stronghold and battled Ra's al Ghul in order to save the world.

This all occured due to the silver-haired Uzumaki catching the eye of the ancient assassin leader in his hero persona, Vanitas. Ra's had ordered the abduction of Naruto's three lovers/girlfriends sometime after his identity was revealed to the man for their eventual _quest_. The League's leader then put Naruto through a series of obstacles and challenges for their his _test_ …

In order to prove that Naruto can gain the titles of both Warith and Abn al Ghul before becoming the new Ra's al Ghul.

'The position would've helped fulfill my dream of becoming Hokage.' Thought the Uzumaki as he tossed more pieces of bread to the ground. 'It was practically within my reach and it could've helped fill in the goal I long thought was lost since coming to this world.' He sighed as he watched a good number of pigeons coming towards the food and picking at it. 'But if Ra's did his _proposal…_ in a whole 'nother way, then I could've given things more thought before giving my answer. But what he did...'

Naruto ended up refusing the offer, causing Ra's to resort going into his fallout plan by restarting the world with his exploding Lazarus Pits. The former shinobi thought the man was truly over reacting on not getting what he wanted, but the ancient assassin was really desperate in wanting his chosen successor -ie Naruto- to replace him. And in the end, the whiskered Uzumaki sought the man out in the Sahara, stopped his doomsday plot and defeated Ra's before he plunged himself to his death.

...One would think things would seemingly go back to the way things normally were, but that was not the case…

With the kidnapping, Harley had piles of paperwork that metaphorically reached the ceiling. The Arkham psychologist had to make up for the time she lost -with additional time- and she obviously couldn't tell her superiors on why she missed out of work. If Harley did, then questions would be raised and things would get very… very complicated as a result.

Thank God that Harley wasn't gonna be put under evaluation because of this or else things might've gotten worse.

Selina was really frustrated on not letting out some proper steam on the possible fight she would've taken part of at the Sahara. She, Harley and Pam were ready to bust some assassin heads, but the signal they were promised to get did not arrive due to the League's jammers placed around the compound… from what Talia mentioned. And by the time they arrived to the stronghold when Naruto set off the explosions at the ammunition room, Naruto already defeated Ra's and many of the assassins fled the area.

Because of this, Selina had to take out her frustrations by robbing several places and almost getting caught in the act.

Sure there was the portion that Selina fought hard against many people on the streets, but she wanted to do something fun. But the excessive robberies put her under the radar. As a result, she and Naruto yelled and fought each other before taking up a good number of jobs from Kurama till the heat died down.

As for Pam, she's been testing the Lazarus Pit waters in both her greenhouse and the samples she procured from the Sahara stronghold the day after getting back to the states. This was due to the revealing fact of using the Lazarus waters leaves psychological damage to the subject, even for a short while. And obviously the Green champion became extremely worried that she might've harmed their unborn children with what she's done by saturating their flower pods with the glowing green bath.

Neither Pam, Naruto or their shared girlfriends would know the results until the kids are born. And until then, the changed botanist was going to be experimenting with the Lazarus Pit samples in both of her labs (botanical and greenhouse) and with the batcomputer for an unknown amount of time on their affects… and any other side effects.

And put towards the middle of all of this, Rachel has been feeling the aftershocks and has been extremely worried. And being an empath made things worse for her as it's placing quite the toll on her. The ashen ward's been trying to fix things on her own, even assisting Naruto on the problems, but things have been quite the mix bag on the results.

…..

...With their current activity in the park, the guardian/ward pair just needed something to do that was rather mellow and calming. They would've done something else, like going to a museum or a book gallery -like what they've done in the past- but they agreed to change things up and do this instead.

Though this was an activity Rachel hasn't done in a long time. Last time she'd done this was with her mother back in Azarath. Both gardening and bird feeding was a great past time the ashen child used to do with her only family member… until _that_ fateful day. And while Rachel had enjoyed gardening with Pam as it somewhat helped fill in the void in her heart, but bird feeding was something else entirely.

The pair tried to talk about anything in general, but nothing comes to mind… Okay that was an honest lie, but they do want to keep their thoughts away from the recent problems.

As the two kept feeding the birds, their eyes wandered to the surrounding activities. There were a group of children playing tag, some were chasing the birds, people were walking their dogs, riding their bikes and there was a game of soccer taking place…

"Look out!"

With it's soccer ball coming straight towards them!

Naruto quickly reacted and caught the ball before it could impact his ward's pretty little head. Rachel barely registered the incoming black/white ball and flinched a little bit. This caused her powers to flare a little as parts of the pavement cracked underneath her.

"Hey mister." Spoke out one of the soccer players that came towards them. "Nice catch."

"Thanks." Naruto muttered as he lowered the his hand which caught the offending ball.

"Can we have it back, please?"

The publisher sighed. "Just watch where you're kicking it." He said as he tossed the ball back. "You could've hurt someone."

The small group of players nodded before running back towards their game.

Just when the guardian/ward pair was about to go back to their silent activity, a feminine voice spoke up. "That was quite the catch."

The two looked to the side and saw a peculiar woman standing not far away from them.

The woman in question appeared as an attractive, pale gothic woman in her mid-late twenties with hair as black as the night's sky that reached to her shoulders with some bangs coming across her face. She wore a set of black clothing which consisted of skinny jeans with a studded belt and a tank top. She also wore a leather jacket and boots with a silver ankh on a chain around her neck. The last distinguishing feature about her was a tattoo like marking similar to the Eye of Horus around her right eye.

'That tattoo must've been painful in getting.' Came Naruto's and Rachel's shared thought.

The publisher saw the goth still stood there as she seemed to hear back a response. "That was nothing miss."

A smirk formed from her blackened lips. "I believe that." Her dark eyes traveled to their side, causing her to voice a question. "Got room for one more?" Naruto and Rachel blinked and looked over at the bench they were occupying. Being polite, Rachel scooted over before guestering the goth to sit on down. "Thanks."

"No problem." Said the ashen ward.

Naruto and Rachel continued feeding the birds around them when they suddenly heard a question coming from the pale goth. "You do that too much, you know what you get?" Their expressions practically said 'what', causing her to answer with a smile. "Fat pigeons!" She laughed a little as they blinked a little in response. "What? It's a line from Mary Poppins."

"Huh, did not know that?" Said the guardian. He then scrunched his face a little. "Though I think I didn't really notice it all that well."

The goth gave a shrug. "Not all that surprising since no one can remember every single line."

Rachel rose a brow at the new arrival. "I'm assuming you're one of those people then."

The goth chuckled. "Guilty." She then took on a whimsical look across her features. "Story of a banker as he doesn't have time for his family or actually having a life outside of work. And out of nowhere, Mary Poppins swoops in from the clouds and shows him and his family what's important: fun, flying kites and all that jazz." The dark haired beauty leaned up with one of the brightest smiles she could muster. "And I swear the film produced one of my favorite words meaning great, wonderful, ginchy, gnarly, peachy keen."

There was only one word that comes to mind to the guardian/ward pair, causing them to voice the answer. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."

"Um diddle diddle, diddle um, diddle ay!" The goth briefly sang out with a laugh. "Sorry, couldn't help myself."

The goth's laugh seemed to be infectious, causing Naruto and Rachel to join in the feeling. Something about her made them slowly feel comfortable around her and neither minded it since they needed to feel better as of late.

As they settled down, Naruto spoke up. "The movie's really cute, but it's not for everyone."

"True, but you gotta admit that Dick Van Dyke's British accent defieds belief, even if it was rough on a few places." She then cleared her throat and spoke with a spot-on British accent. "Hoh 'hits a jolly 'oliedye wiv yew, Mairee Pawpins!"

Naruto smirked while Rachel giggled.

"You're funny." Said the ashen ward.

"I try to be every so often." Said the gothic woman. "Helps lessen a dampened atmosphere."

The purplette turned to the woman sitting next to her and introduced herself. "My name's Rachel."

"Nice to meet you, Rae-Rae." This got the child to cutely narrow her eyes. "Too much, too soon? Well sorry then."

Naruto chuckled as he didn't want to be left out now. "And I'm Rachel's guardian, Naruto."

"Like a fishcake?" The goth saw the Uzumaki groan a little. "Relax, I'm joking. I know it also means 'maelstrom'."

"So what's your name?" Rachel asked. "I mean, I think it would be rather rude if we just refer to you as 'the goth girl'."

"Rachel…"

"You're thinking the same thing."

"...I won't deny or accept that fact."

The goth chuckled once more. "Give her a break, Naruto, and I didn't mind at all." She held out her hands, in an awkward manner due to how she was sitting next to them. "Name's Didi."

The guardian/ward pair shook the now identified Didi's hands before the purplette asked a question that quickly crossed her mind. "Does Didi mean anything at all?"

"It's just a nickname." Said the goth as she pulled back her hands. "I ended up preferring being called that every so often, due to some of my family members. Oh, and before you ask, I have quite a large family. An older brother, two younger brothers, two younger sisters and… well I wanna say a little tranny of a sibling."

Naruto and Rachel nodded yet they adopted curious expressions at the mention of Didi's last sibling.

"Why'd you say that?" Asked the Uzumaki

"Because that's the way s/he is." Didi replied. "I accept on who s/he is and so does the other members of our family."

He nodded. "That's good that you guys accepted him… her… like that."

"It's no biggie, given what's going on these days." Didi's smile then turned into a small frown. "Though s/he can be quite an ass at times, which frustrates both me and my younger brothers every so often."

"Then you have my sympathies."

"Thanks."

"But what about your parents?" Rachel asked.

Didi sighed a little. "It's was just dad and asides from that, never really knew him all that well."

"How so?"

"Dear ol' dad can be put into one word: complicated and leave it at that."

Rachel nodded in acceptance as she tossed more food for the birds on the ground. Yet it was Naruto who voiced his response. "Well that sucks."

The gothic woman rose a brow. "Well ain't that strange."

"Excuse me?"

"Usually people would say 'sorry' or something along those lines. Yet you said 'that sucks'."

The whiskered Uzumaki sighed as he racked his fingers through his silver hair. "I'm in that kind of job that I tend to say 'sorry' a bit too often." He looked at Didi and explained further. "Sorry doesn't have the strength it once had when used too much and even less when used in one sentence. Sorry is meant to be used when bumping into a person on the street or the subway by accident. Sorry is to be used when offering condolences when a person you know lost a loved one."

Rachel nodded as she backed up her guardian's little argument. "It's not just that, but random people -who you don't even know and vice versa- would end up saying that towards a certain situation. If you don't know the person or individuals involved with a tragic incident, for example a car accident or a funeral, then it feels like an insult."

"I can accept that." Said the goth. "Yet Death will cause people to do stupid things, don't ya think?"

Naruto and Rachel nodded in understanding as both knew all too well on that particular subject. From the _demon_ hunts, the ignoration… the pain and suffering… the whole nine yards.

Tossing the rest of his bread onto the ground, Naruto responded. "But people would either rise to the occasion or fall into despair. And it all falls onto how a person handles it all."

"You have quite the experience with that, huh?"

"You have no idea."

Suddenly the three heard a distinguished growl, causing Naruto and Rachel to look for the source. They didn't have to search far and long as they heard Didi let out a nervous chuckle.

"Sorry, that was me." The gothic woman admitted. "Didn't realize how hungry I suddenly got."

"It's no biggie." Said the ashen child.

Didi suddenly took on a bright smile once more. "Do you two wanna join me for lunch? I'm craving a burger like no tomorrow!" She said with absolute excitement. The guardian/ward pair rose a brow and was about to reply when they too felt their stomachs grumble. Didi smiled more when hearing that sound. "Seems that answers that question."

"I guess so." Naruto muttered as he stood up with Rachel soon following. Both dusted off the bread crumbs off their laps and before they knew it, they were seemingly dragged by the perky goth.

 _ **-Big Belly Burger-**_

Upon arriving at the nearby food chain, the three saw the place was a little busy. Then again, they arrived during the lunch rush. It didn't take them long before a waiter escorted them to a booth at the far corner of the establishment. And after asking for some waters, the employee left the group to look over the menus.

"Mmm~ Many of these look good." Didi hummed out. "So hard to decide."

Naruto tilted his head as he looked at the gothic woman while Rachel looked through the menu. "You don't come here often or what?"

"Pretty much." She said. "I travel quite a lot but I hardly get anything worthwhile. So when I settle down for a time, I wanna get something good." Didi flipped through the menu as she continued talking. "Like one time I tried out some really good French food. Heh, it was practically a _Revolution_ on my taste buds."

The Uzumaki curiously looked at their companion in a curious manner. He could tell Didi was rather strange, not that there's anything wrong with being strange at all mind you. It wasn't really about her personality, but something about her _feels_ strange.

And Naruto wasn't the only one to notice this as Rachel felt something was off about the gothic woman. Her magical senses picked up something weird about Didi like she wasn't fully there, yet was indeed there at the same time.

It was quite the conundrum.

When the waiter came back with their waters, he asked for their orders. Naruto got his usual order of a double cheeseburger bacon combo with special sauce and a coke. Rachel ordered a chicken salad with a small order of both fries and onion rings.

And as for Didi…

"I'd like a basic cheeseburger combo with special sauce on the side." Started off the goth. "And I'd also like the Casa Diablo burger from your secret menu with a chocolate shake." She said as she handed her menu to the waiter. "I'd also like a Sprite for my drink."

The waiter finished writing up the rest of the order before heading to the kitchen to get things started on the group's meal.

"Rather hungry, aren't ya?"

"You have no idea." Didi took a sip of her water as she hummed a little tune to herself.

The three absently waited for their meals to arrive. It wasn't long before Naruto's and Didi's drinks arrived. They thanked the waiter as they once again waited with chatter and clambering surrounded the restaurant's interior.

Didi inserted her straw into the carbonated drink before taking a sip. The goth hummed out a pleasant tone from the first sip before taking another. "Mmm~ Feels so tingly." She said with glee. "Now I can somewhat understand why mortals enjoy drinking carbonated drinks. I can feel the caffeine starting to hit me already."

Naruto and Rachel blinked in confusion. And it was Rachel who voiced the question. "Mortals?"

The goth snapped out of her little pleased state and looked at the pair. "Did I say that out loud?"

"You did." Said the Uzumaki. "And I reckon both of us wonder what you meant by that."

Rachel nodded in agreement.

"Huh, meant to keep that in my head." Didi said with an eventual shrug. What's done was done.

"You didn't answer the question." Said the ashen ward.

"I know," Didi said, "but can't I enjoy my soda for a quick tick?" The gothic woman then sucked up the rest of the Sprite from her straw to leave the cup baren of liquid, minus the melting ice. Didi shuddered a little before going back to normal. "Well ain't that an interesting feel." Her dark eyes looked back at the pair sitting across from her. "What was the question again?"

"Why did you say mortals in such a way?"

Didi nodded in understanding. "Right~" Her lips formed a thin smile. "I'm not exactly what you'd call _normal_."

Before Naruto or Rachel could comment about that, the waiter arrived with their meals and placed them down in front of each individual.

"Wow, that's rather fast." Said the goth as the waiter walked away. She then grabbed her basic burger and took a decent sized bite before chewing. "Mmm! This is so good!" She mumbled with her mouth full before swallowing down the portion. "Now I can see why you humans particularly love to eat greasy food. Who knew by frying cow meat, kale, three different types of cheeses, tomatoes, onions and the like bring out such flavor!" Didi took another bite as the guardian/ward pair looked at her with questioning glances.

Rachel felt a little annoyed now that her and Naruto's question was being left unanswered. "Would you answer back, please? You're being rather rude and delaying our request."

"Rachel…"

"You're thinking the same thing, Naruto." Snapped back the ward before looking back at Didi, who briefly glanced back as she chewed on another bite. "You're going on like you'd never experienced drinking soda or even eating a burger before. Just who are you, Didi?"

"You didn't have to sound rude, Rachel."

Didi merely waved the Uzumaki off as she swallowed her food. "Nah~ She's fine. I've dealt with worse people in my existence." The goth picked up her water cup and drank a little before setting it down. "To answer your question, with eating and drinking before, I did but that was a hundred years ago."

This merely raised more questions than answers for the pair. With a flick of his wrist, Naruto formed a silence barrier around them so the conversation couldn't be heard.

Didi looked around her and placed her hand into the air as she traced her finger along the barrier's edge. "Nice little trick you got here, Naruto." She said, getting a surprised look from the publisher. "I can understand your concern, but I mean either of you harm at all. Afterall, I know you very well that you wouldn't want to cause harm in a public place like this."

"And how would you know him exactly?" Rachel asked as she carefully picked up some fries and ate them. She knew that if neither of them started eating, then some onlookers could ask questions on what's wrong.

Naruto picked up on what his ward was doing, causing him to eat his fries as well.

Didi finished up her basic burger before tilting her head with her forefinger to mockley think things over. "Like~ with you being Vanitas." She said, causing the guardian/ward pair to choke on their food. "Along with the fact that you come from Konoha." Her dark eyes looked over at Naruto, whose hazel eyes widened dramatically, before her gaze shifted to Rachel. "I even know you, Rachel Roth of Azarath."

"Okay, who the hell are you?!" He yelled out with Rachel feeling rather nervous. "And how do you know that?!"

Didi wasn't startled by the yell as she kept on smiling. "You actually do know of me, in fact we've met several times in your past." Her gaze shifted back to Rachel. "More so than others."

She got a narrowed glare from the publisher. "I would distinctly remember you, given your appearance."

The goth shook her head. "Not entirely." She took several fries and ate them. "Your life is quite interesting that I got to see meet a bit too much than I would've thought."

"I have no idea what your talking about, especially on the fact that I know you exactly."

Didi kept up with her smile, yet her expression seemed to shift into a sad and melancholic one. "Everybody knows me, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze." She said, getting him to flinch once more on his full name as he never used Namikaze at all. "They've all meet me at one point or another in their lives. Even though most of the time they don't remember me or pretend not to remember." She dunked some fries into her special sauce and ate them before continuing. "For example, I'm like the little black sheep of the family that people don't like to talk about and prefer best to ignore. So I'm usually rejected and turned into a pariah. Most of the time, people like to act as if I didn't exist."

Her eyes glanced at the pair in front of her as she kept munching on her food. "Everyone always dread our inevitable respective meetings, hoping that by not acknowledging me, they would delay the day when I will come knocking at their doorstep. Out of sight and out of mind as they say; a silly way of thinking in reality. For it doesn't matter how much they attempt to shut me out." She leaned back in her seat with a sigh escaping her lips. "I come when I please and there's no one that can keep their doors close to me; which brings us back to your current situation."

The guardian/ward pair felt their breaths becoming shallow as they seemed drawn in by their voice, yet their hearts seem to beat faster and faster.

"Even as we're talking -well more like I'm talking- I'm there for old and young, innocent and guilty, those who die together and those who die alone." Her darkened eyes look out of the window. "I'm in cars and boats and planes; in hospitals and forests and abattoirs." Didi then looks back. "For some folks, it's a release and for others it's and abomination; a terrible thing really. But in the end, I'm there for all of them. In West Africa, a small village is being massacred by mercenaries, in pay of their own government; I'm there. In Bialya, a dictator is manipulating officials to side in her rule and slaying those who won't be swayed by her _gift_ ; I am there. And in the farthest reaches of a distant galaxy, far far away; handfuls of planets were destroyed in an effort to draw out rebels from hiding from a man trying to rule everything within his reach. I too am there.

I'm in all of those places, and I'm also here talking to you two. When the first living thing existed, I was there waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished." The gothic woman looked over around the restaurant. "Once done, I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave before I return when existence comes a knocking once more."

Didi could practically see the gears turning inside of their heads, given their current expressions. "I should probably _re-introduce_ myself. Hi, my name is Death but I typically go by Didi." She said with a small smile.

At this point, Rachel was starting to freak out as her powers seemed to fluctuate in recognition in what exactly is sitting right in front of her. Several things both inside and outside of the food establishment was starting to crack and break, due to her magic, like drink glasses, the pavement and lamp posts. Naruto saw this and held her hand to help comfort her as he was faring a bit better than his ward.

"Bet you two weren't expecting me to be like this, huh?" Didi, Death, rhetorically said. "Everybody is always a little stunned when they finally meet me and always expect me to be something entirely different." Her dark eyes rolled a little. "I sometimes blame humans on them depicting me as a walking skeleton, or a very gaunty being, in a cloak with a stereotypical scythe. Then again, it was the 1800's when that trend started with the English and Germans." Didi looked at the pair in front of her and felt bad on this little reveal. "Oh lighten up, you two, I'm not gonna take you away. It's clearly not your time for me to collect."

"That's easy for you to say." Said the former shinobi.

"All I want is to enjoy my holiday and have some time to chat."

Rachel mustered up some courage and spoke a responsive question. "Y-Your holiday? What do you mean by that."

The gothic woman's gaze softened more and more to help calm not only Rachel, but her guardian before speaking. "When I was young... well in the first handful of years of my existence is what I meant to say." Didi coughed into her hand from the little mistake. "Anyways, an extremely long time ago I used to think I had the hardest job out of all of my family members. At the start of my job, I was completely fine with it just like what everyone thinks with their day-to-day occupations. Now, at the very beginning, dying and living were new things and people did them with the enthusiasm they always bring to new things."

Didi let loose a depressed sigh. "And then after a while, it got harder. At one point, I got rather confused why people were pleased to see me at both their beginnings and endings. They'd tell me all about their experiences, like all of it. The only people who greeted me with relief did so as an escape from something bad or intolerable. The rest of them just wished I'd go away, as if dying were some kind of admission of failure. It made me sad and depressed. I thought about giving it up and walking out… And one day, I did."

She looked at the pair, whom were really engroused into the story at this point. "Mind you this was still a long time ago and long before this particular world came into existence." She looked away once more before continuing her tale. "But I kind of refused to do it anymore as I stopped taking life. People and animals, plants, bacteria and ideas: nothing died, period. And the chaos that ensued got extremely bad with everything getting worse and worse. And this was just for a handful of hours with nothing dying."

"Damn…" Muttered the Uzumaki.

"I know, right?" Said Death. "I don't know how, but a young man came a long way and eventually found me. And the first thing he did was pleading for me to start taking lives again. I was going to ignore his pleas, but then I looked around at what I'd done... and it scared me." The goth sighed to calm herself a little. "And just like that, I went back to work. I saw what the alternative was and I did not want to see that happen ever again.

Then sometime later, there was a period when I got kind of hard and cold and very brittle inside. It really started to get to me. I mean, people feel as pleased to have been born as if they did it themselves. And mostly, they didn't. But they did get upset and hurt and shaken when they die, even if they did it themselves. And sometimes they did. After some time working, I came across a small girl one day and when I came to take her to the afterlife, she looked at me in a peculiar way as I was icy, distant and vain. All she said was 'How would you like it?'... and I was completely stumped."

Naruto and Rachel looked at Didi with a resounding thought, with the ashen ward voicing it. "How so?"

"I... felt really hurt and I kept thinking on what she meant by that. After some time, I realized on what she meant."

"By becoming… mortal?"

"Pretty much…" Answered Death. "So I made a deal with myself that every hundred years, I take a holiday in order to live like a mortal. To see how I liked walking in their shoes and see what I could learn from the experience... And after my first official holiday of being alive, I met _me_."

"Me?"

"With how much work I have to do on a daily basis, I have to split myself up to cover up the groundwork. And even then, I need other Aspects to help out on the workload." She smirked at the Uzumaki. "Kind of like with your shadow clones... Or is it void clones these days? I sometimes mix them up every so often."

"Like gaining back your memories, experiences and the like." He said.

"Pretty much. Now going back to 'me', I saw that I was quite the cold hearted, stuck-up, frigid bitch... And that was just saying it nicely with Rachel here."

The Uzumaki's ward nodded as she got the general idea on how _vocal_ Death might get.

"And in the end, I fully got the message." Didi said with a sigh. "You see, when someone dies, mostly they're a bit shaken or hurt, or angry, or worse. And all they need is a kind set of words and a friendly face. People may not be ready for me and my gift, but they get it anyways.

The Sunless Lands, my realm, are far away and the journey's hard. And many would be glad their in the company of a friendly person. At the end, each of us stands naked with nothing else to hide. At the end, each of us stands alone. And since I figured that out, it's not exactly deep, but it took me a very long time to understand it. And since then, things have been rather good. I've experienced so many cool things and met so many people and worlds. I've learned so much. Lots of people don't have jobs they love doing, do they?"

"...You got that right." Said the whiskered man.

"Don't you love your jobs? And yes I mean _jobs_ with the multiple ones you have." Death then listed them off. "You being Vanitas, owning and running your publishing company and practically being a father or older brother to Rachel here."

Naruto looked over to his ward and saw the look in her gaze. He smiled at her, which made Rachel smile in return. "Yeah, I do very much." He looked back onto Death and asked a question. "And what about you?"

"After my first holiday, yeah, I feel really lucky in having my job." Answered Death. She looked back at the food in front of them and spoke. "Aren't you two gonna eat? It'll be a waste if you don't."

The guardian/ward pair snapped out of their present feelings, which involved processing what Didi/Death spoke to them about. They soon ate their food, which was at a decent pace as they occasionally glanced back at the ancient being in front of them; whom was munching down on her spicy burger.

As Rachel munched away into her onion rings, a thought formed in her mind. "Hey, Didi."

"Yes?" Said the gothic woman, once licking her fingers of the spicy burger sauce.

"There's the bit pertaining to you making deals-"

" _ **I**_ don't make deals, Rachel." Death interrupted.

"...But why not? I mean you could if you wanted to."

Naruto nodded in agreement on the thought, in which Death took notice of.

"Indeed _**I**_ could, but things get _real_ interesting if I go through that route."

"So the deals…"

"They're typically done through my Aspects and they end up getting mistaken for me as the end result." Didi let out a sigh as she scooped up a spoonful of her milkshake. "You have no idea of how tiresome it gets to be when that happens." Once swallowing the deserted bite, she explained. "What if I brought back someone to life, even if it's for a little while. Because once I got to touch life without taking it... Nostalgia, sentimental, fondness... and because that would be how the deal would be struck. There are no take backs or returns like at a store. If one were to exchange their life for another, then nothing can be done to change it with _my_ specific deals."

The guardian/ward pair nodded in understanding as the three went back into eating their meals in relative silence.

As they ate, Didi glanced at the Uzumaki as she could tell a lot was running through his noggin. So she voiced the question. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

"...I don't know what you mean, Didi."

"Your conflicted about what happened with Ra's offer." Death said, getting him to flinch a little. "Even your relationship with Talia."

The former shinobi contemplated with his thoughts and didn't know if he should talk about it. Yet with the given chance with talking to Death herself, it would be a waste in not taking it. "I mean, if it's not going to bore you or upset you..."

Didi merely chuckled. "People don't bore me. I like people."

Rachel stopped eating and looked at Death. "Really?" She asked. "All of them?"

"All of them."

"Even the creepy ones?"

The gothic woman chuckled. "Nobody's creepy from the inside, Rachel. Some of them are sad, and some of them hurt, and some of them think they're the only real thing in the whole world. But they're not creepy."

"And you see them from the inside?"

"Pretty much."

"...That's weird."

Didi chuckled at Rachel's response. "In my case, it's pretty normal."

"If you say so."

Naruto processed this little bit of info before speaking. "So... does it matter if I tell you this or not? I mean, don't you know it already anyways?"

Didi kept on her typical smile. "I don't know it all already."

"...If you say so."

"Then go ahead, Naruto. Tell me what's on your mind."

The Uzumaki let out a sigh. "It is indeed about what happened with Ra's, his assassin organization and… Talia." He said as he rubbed part of his temples. "Ra's offer was rather tempting that if I could've taken his title, I would've become a _Kage_ in this world by leading them and the like. But they still would've taken lives regardless on what I say."

"Obviously." Said the goth. "For one, it would take some time for them to adjust to the new rules and guidelines you would set. And if you forced it upon them, then splinter groups would form and cause more problems. Even more so by making the splinter leaders undermine your rule."

"That's what I thought as well." He said in agreement. "Ra's would've had a better choice with his daughters, but he wouldn't budge." Didi nodded as he continued his rant. "He's more concerned with having a proper _male_ heir to continue his legacy." Naruto rolled his eyes with a scoff. "Ra's should've realized that times are changing and women can easily qualify in taking a man's role anyday. Yet his head is oddly stuck in the past _while_ trying to think of the future. If he was more open minded, then things would've gone a whole lot smoother on that process."

"It's hard for most people to change their views, Naruto, as they can be too stubborn to let go." Death stated as he closed his eyes and nodded. "After all, people always hold onto old identities and faces long after they have served their purpose, but you'll need to learn to throw away things eventually."

Her dark eyes saw him pause before craning his head back with a quizzical look in his gaze.

'That… I heard that before.' He thought as he looked away for a brief moment. The Uzumaki racked his mind before remembering _who_ told him that sentence and when. "Hey, Didi."

"Yes?"

"Uh~ Do you know a man that's at least a head taller than me with red hair and goes by the name-"

"Olethros." She said with a smile, getting Naruto to look back at her. "Though he sometimes prefers Oleth."

"How'd you-"

"He's one of my younger brothers." Didi revealed. "In fact you met two of them."

"...I have?" He asked while trying to process that the redhead he briefly met and befriended the last time he went to Metropolis was Death's brother… somehow. But Naruto met another of Death's siblings?

"Yup~ You did a job for him and in return for his services, you gained better access in the Dreaming."

It was there that things clicked. "You're talking about Morpheus?"

Didi enthusiastically nodded. "Dream is considered my younger twin as he was born shortly after life first began once it dreamed a dream. And Oleth, otherwise known as Destruction, helped pave way for creation through his namesake." She explained before smirking on his dumbfounded appearance. The goth even saw Rachel having a confused look upon her ashen face upon mentioning the younger Endless sibling. "Now I believe we're not talking about my family for the current topic as we're discussing your previous thoughts."

Naruto blinked as Death was right. He recollected his thoughts before opening his mouth. "Right. So I did talk about Ra's and his title, but his organization-"

"Would've been like being the Kage of your old village, correct? Yes we had briefly touched on that subject." Said the gothic woman. "Ra's stated that you could've done more as his replacement than you being Vanitas. Having unlimited resources and making much more of a difference than just a dent. Though I should at least tell you this: dents make a much more impact as time rolls on."

This got Naruto to perk a little on him being Vanitas.

"But you should remember that even if you did become Hokage back in your homeworld, there would've been missions that people had to die in the process." And this made him feel slapped across the face. "You fantasized about the title and knew certain aspects when growing up there, yet you didn't see the full picture of the title." He flinched a little under her gaze, which seemed to be a lot like Tsunade's when she lectured him. "Kage's sent those under them to missions where they might not come back from, even missions where they have to take lives in order to complete their objectives. Like when you killed Doto in order to protect Koyuki, what you had to do to save Shion from that demon Moryu and his followers, killing Kakuzu and the bodies Nagato possessed." Death tilted her head a little as Naruto lowered his head. "Do I need to say more?" She didn't get a reply back from him. "It's not that easy to swallow, is it? Forgetting that leaders have to make hasty choices that would mean life and death, salvation and damnation? Even having to live with said choices for the rest of their lives?"

"No, I'm afraid it's not." He said as more weight was placed upon his body.

Death briefly sighed before she saw Rachel feeling uncomfortable in her seat while hearing all of this. The ashen ward excused herself to use the restroom. The gothic woman knew it wasn't to just relieve herself but to get away from the seemingly heavy topic that befell her young ears for some moments.

'I wouldn't blame her.' Didi thought with a saddened gaze. 'With what she had to experience.' Once Rachel's form disappeared from her sight, the goth looked back at Naruto. "How about we talk about Talia." She said in order to change topics.

After thinking to himself for several moments, Naruto spoke. "I do care for her, Didi, I really do. Talia is one of my precious people and became a big part of my life ever since I came to this world. And in our time together, I thought I knew a lot about her, but... but it seems I was wrong." His gaze went so far as if he tried to search for her in the distance. "We talked and experienced so much with each other. We had the time of our lives and it honestly made me happier than my training trip with Jiraiya as I learned so much from her. Hell, it was practically ten, no a hundred times better than that time."

Didi sighed. "Not everyone can fully understand another, Naruto."

"It's one of life's great mysteries."

"Exactly."

"...When it was coming closer and closer to my flight towards the States, Talia asked me to stay with her. I told her that I wanted to see things on my own and she accepted it, even to this day on my decision." Naruto looked back at Death's calm face. "What would've happened if I took her offer?"

"That's the thing, Naruto, there are times I don't know what may or may not occur. Life has no set plan for everyone as one's road, path, whatever is always in flux."

He rose a brow. "You sure about that?"

"Maybe~"

Naruto felt his eye twitch from her response. He then shook his head. "Anyways, her confession… I didn't know she felt that way."

"You have been rather dense." Came Death's snarky remark as she ate a spoonful of her milkshake.

"Yeah… I have." Naruto scratched his head. "I just didn't know I truly meant that much for her. Then again, she kept it hidden from me quite well and she said she didn't know how to approach me on the fact." He sighed once more. "Yet the reaction didn't go all that well with Harley, Pam and Selina."

"With the secrets and one's past." She stated, making him nod. "Ring ring. Hello, this is Pot calling Kettle black."

"Well the girls did learn of my past, Didi. Mostly after Harley found out and made me reveal my identity to Selina and Pam."

"But were you planning on telling Talia?"

"...Maybe. I don't know."

"No one can be really sure on such decisions, but they have their respective reasons why."

He shook his head a little. "Anyways, the girls felt betrayed on what Talia did and they don't know what they would do if they saw her next. Not to mention they felt violated that they couldn't get in touch with me as they slept."

"You'll have to talk to my brother, Dream, about that." Didi said as she finished the rest of her shake. "He'll shed light on the subject."

Naruto nodded as he should do that soon, possibly tonight.

"Now, regardless on what happened on the entire situation, do you forgive her?"

"...When things ended at the Sahara and I had time to think things over… Both times, I do forgive her for what she's done." He answered. "I… I couldn't have the heart in not doing so."

Didi nodded before speaking up. "One would need to forgive others in hopes of moving forward and feel at peace. Yet in that process, forgiveness takes time to heal."

It wasn't long after the discussed topic when Rachel returned -who felt better now than from earlier- before the three finished up their respective meals. The waiter arrived with the check and headed back to check on other tables. With their bellies full, the group got up from the booth before heading towards the front to pay at the register.

"You don't have to pay for my meal, Naruto."

"Eh~ I insist, Didi." Said the publisher. "It's your holiday and you should be treated well."

The gothic woman smiled as Naruto paid the check before they left the food establishment.

 _ **-Later, On the Streets- -Insert Kingdom Hearts 2: Lazy Afternoons-**_

"...Hey, Didi."

"Yes?"

"Do you believe in love at first sight?" Rachel asked. Didi gained a certain glint in her eyes, causing her two companions to understand it just before she could answer. "And, you know, the whole bit 'til death do us part'?"

"Yeah, I know all too well."

The pair momentarily forgot on who they were talking to exactly.

"And… do you love anyone?" Rachel innocently asked.

"Well yeah I do."

Both Naruto and Rachel gained a curious expression. They soon voiced the same question that quickly filled their minds. "Who?"

"Everybody… Even if not everyone loves me back."

Rachel frowned a little. "So, in the end, do you still care for them?"

"I care about everyone, Naruto, Rachel." Her gaze then went towards her companions. "Maybe I ended up caring about you two a little bit more than I should have."

The guardian/ward pair adopted quizzical expressions at this.

"How so?" Asked the whiskered Uzumaki.

All they got was a teasing smirk from her dark lips. "That would be telling."

Much of the day has come and gone for the three as the sky started to shift into twilight. The guardian/ward pair oddly enjoyed Death's company as they walked amongst the crowds and around the city in order to entertain the ancient being. It was as if they were truly feeling good at being alive…

Both literal and metaphorical.

Everywhere they went, people were happy to see her as none of them knew who she really was exactly. But if the knowledge was brought onto them, the people would either laugh it off or think the three need to spend some time in Arkham.

Places they went to was the library, the museum and even the arcade. Didi did small commentaries with various books she came across with the many dead writers and topics pertaining to each written works. The same happened when they went into the museum, but the small conversations were a whole lot more interesting on the well known artifacts and items out on display. And as for the arcade, Didi was clearly enjoying the games as she tried to beat Rachel on a good number of them.

Now they were passing by little stands here and there in order to figure out what to do next.

At one point, the three passed by an ice cream vendor -with a decent sized line- as Didi licked her blackened lips. Naruto caught sight of this and spoke. "Would you like some ice cream?"

"I'd like it very much."

"Any preference?"

Didi thought for a moment. "Get me something out of the ordinary." She said. "I don't feel like getting any of the ordinary flavors."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Alright." Naruto walked a few steps away before asking his ward the same question. Rachel said the same thing, making Naruto to nod before leaving Death and the half-demon to their own devices.

Seeing as her guardian has left them alone, Rachel looked at her _much_ older companion. Her eyes darted to and fro from the gothic woman's form as several thoughts came to mind. Before long, she decided to voice them.

"Can I ask you a stupid question?"

"Sure, ask away."

The ashen child scratched her violet locks in embarrassment. "Actually, it's sort of more than one question, Didi."

"Meh, I'm fine with it."

"Um... Why do we hurt?" Rachel asked, getting Didi to tilt her head towards the young child. "Why do we _die_? Why isn't _life_ good all the time? Why isn't it fair?"

A small smile tugged Death's lips. "Those aren't stupid questions, Rachel. For some people, they're the only questions that matter."

"Then does that mean you won't answer them?"

Didi scratched her darkened locks. "I'll answer, but it's kind of a big subject, even for one young such as yourself." Rachel nodded, getting Didi to continue speaking. "It's got lots of answers and said answers don't really mean anything... They aren't stupid questions, but they could just as well be 'When is purple?' or 'Why does Thursday?', if you get what I mean."

"...I somewhat do, I think."

"It's no problem if you can't fully understand, Rachel." Said the gothic woman as she soon adopted a lecturing pose. "Well, I think some of it is probably _contrasts_. Light and shadow, for example. If you never had the _bad_ times, how would you know you had the _good_ times? But _some_ of it is just: if your going to be human, then there are a whole load of things that come _with_ it. Eyes, a heart, days and life." Didi smirked a little. "It's the _moments_ that illuminate it, though. The times you don't see when your _having_ them... They make the _rest_ of it matter."

Rachel gained a far distant look as she thought back to many of the bad times she experienced back in Azarath. From many of its residents ignoring and staying away from her and hampering her education -due to _what_ she was- to the day the peaceful realm fell by her mistake and her mother's life was the highest cost as a result.

But then, one of the best days of her life was when Naruto took her in and she was able to have a new family. And because of that, she was able to start getting friends among other things.

"Tell me something, Rachel. Do you like Naruto?"

The ashen child snapped out of her thoughts before answering. "Of course I do. He means the world to me after taking me in." Her lips grew into a smile. "Everything became better since then."

"Good. Then if something happens to him and is about to get lost-"

"He doesn't get lost." Rachel said with child-like ignorance.

"Not the kind of lost in terms of direction, but in fact wandering down a dark path alone." Didi said, getting the young ward to nod in confirmation. "You make sure to stay with him and keep him safe and he'll do the same in return."

"But how can I?"

Death chuckled as she ruffled the purplette's hair. "That's for you to find out, my cute little Raven." Rachel fought the urge to smack the hand away, but kept it in with _who_ exactly was doing the act. "And I'm counting on you to do it, okay?" The child then querked her head a little in some confusion, causing Didi to explain. "Naruto cares about you a lot, like a daughter or a little sister and he'll do anything to keep you safe. And he's not the only one with Pam, Harley and Selina -along with your friends- for they're your light in the dark."

Rachel processed this before nodding.

"It's not just that, but you should contribute in the relationship with you have with them." Said the gothic woman like a concerned sister or mother does towards a youngster. "With how you typically feel on most days, you feel rock bottom. You need to work through with what you're dealing with. Talk to people and express with what your feeling. Now I know Naruto's typically helping you to express some of your emotions, due to his powers and helping you open up to others, but bottling up everything isn't good for your health. And I know keeping your emotions under control pertains a lot with your powers, but you should at least express them every now and then."

"But I do."

"I know you do, but I'd thought I should let you know."

Rachel nodded before fiddling her hands a little. "Hey, uh… Lady Death."

"You don't have to call me that, y'know. Didi is fine unless you feel it's necessary otherwise." The gothic woman saw the ashen child nod. "But did you want to ask me something else?"

"Yeah. Mind… Mind not telling Naruto I asked you on this." She asked with saddened eyes. "I don't want him to become overly worried about it. Especially since…"

"Don't worry, I'm good at keeping secrets." Death said with an easy going smile. "I'm famous for it."

"What secret are you talking about?" Naruto asked as he came up to the female pair with his hands behind his back.

"Something that's between little Raven and I."

He blinked. "Raven?"

Rachel fidgeted in her spot. "It's my mother's old nickname for me."

"Huh, you learn more and more each and every day." Naruto muttered before he smirked. "Anyways~ I got you girls interesting treats." He brought his arms in front of him to show three baby blue ice cream bars.

"What flavor is it?" Rachel asked as she and Didi respectively took an ice cream.

All the Uzumaki did was smirk. "Try it out."

Didi and Rachel looked at each other and shrugged before taking a small bite. Once it happens, both of them had their own reactions from Didi humming in delight while Rachel recoiled on the taste.

"It's salty…" Said the ashen child before she took another small bite. "No, it's sweet!"

"Quite the contradictionary taste." Spoke the gothic woman as she licked her frozen treat.

Naruto chuckled at their reactions. "I'm glad that you two are enjoying it."

The three then heard the resounding bells coming from the Gotham Clocktower to signal of the new hour.

Looking towards the piece of architecture, Didi got a nice idea. "Mind taking us up there?" She asked.

Naruto looked at Death with a raised brow. "Any reason why?"

"I wanna see the sunset with a _much_ better view as a mortal." She answered. "It's been over two hundred years since I saw it at a good vantage point."

The guardian/ward pair looked at each other and shrugged at Death's simple request. Naruto motioned the two to follow him into a nearby alley before they could take the _expressway_ towards the city's clocktower. And it wasn't long after as a card platform shot into the sky and headed straight towards its destination.

Upon reaching the structure, each group member took careful steps when going at the tower's ledge as neither wanted to fall. They carefully sat down and situated themselves, with Didi sitting between Naruto and Rachel, before gazing towards the twilight sunset blanketing the city.

And it was honestly quite the beautiful sight.

'It's been so long since I've done this.' Thought the Uzumaki as he started nibbling on his ice cream. 'Relaxing and enjoying a view with others.'

He's done this countless times with Talia during the two years traveling together. And once coming into the states, Naruto shared the same experiences with Lois and Cat when he used to work alongside them.

Both instances made them forget all of their troubles with no cares holding each of them down. It was honestly a true pleasure for them to help relax their minds, hearts and souls.

'I'm surprised I haven't done this with the girls.' He thought with a small frown. 'I should make it up to them soon before the snow starts piling in.'

"Hey, Naruto."

"Yes, Didi?" He asked, once coming out of his thoughts.

"I haven't had the chance to thank you."

"On what exactly?"

"Several things." Death answered as she licked more of her ice cream. "One pertains to my brother, Oleth." She turned her head to look at Naruto. "Thanks for giving him that pep talk."

Memories flooded the forefront of Naruto's mind as he remembered his encounter with Death's younger brother back in Metropolis. "You're welcome, Didi." He replied as they looked back towards the sunset. "It appeared he had a lot of weight on his shoulders and I wanted to at least help him out. Somehow, someway."

"And it worked. He came back to visit us and my two younger sisters enjoyed his return."

Naruto rose a brow and looked back at Death. "What about your other siblings?"

"My older and younger twin wanted Oleth to take back his old job while my tranny sibling was neutral on the whole thing."

"Speaking of family, you didn't say much about them and Morpheus told me you lot were called the Endless." Said the Uzumaki as Rachel took closer attention to the conversation now on this viable piece of information.

"Indeed we are." Spoke Death with a small nod. "Seven of us in total with me being second oldest. I love them all, but we have very diverse viewpoints and lifestyles. From the very beginning, we've only had each other as family."

"That's quite understandable. I mean who wouldn't?" She chuckled on his response. "Mind telling me about each of them?"

Didi nodded in compliance. "My eldest brother, Destiny, is of the solemn sort; but he's the best at what he does. He's blind but don't let that fool you, he knows how to get things done and _sees_ it through." Naruto smirked on her little joke. "Cleverer than most as he's usually one step ahead of everybody."

"I have a feeling he and I might not get along."

All Didi did was shrug as she didn't want to answer that. She took several more licks from her treat before continuing her listing. "You've obviously met my brother, Morpheus. He can be moody the best of times and maybe a little pigheaded, but I can't help but fret over him." The gothic woman stopped licking her treat and looked into the distance. "Even when he was trapped in a prison for 70 years."

Naruto and Rachel quirked a brow. 'Trapped for 70 years?' Thought the pair.

As if reading their minds, she answered. "Occultists tried to summon and entrap me in hopes of ruling over me. Yet they ended up summoning Dream and things didn't go well because of that." Didi sighed. "It was universally wide as countless people either slept all day, couldn't sleep at all or were in waking dream-like states… He was able to escape, by chance, and had his revenge on the perpetrators." Death ate more of her ice cream with a stern, scrunched up face. "Though he was a complete idiot in not calling out to us to help free him in that time."

"...After getting to know you a bit more, I believe 'sorry' really works in this situation."

Death snorted a laugh from the conversation back in the park earlier today. "What's done was done and things eventually went back to normal." She burped a little and excused herself. "Now… Oleth, you obviously know that he abandoned his post. I won't tell you the reason why as it's his story to tell."

Naruto nodded in understanding as it was indeed a sensitive subject to briefly touch on-on their previous encounter. "At least he does have a good job now as a freelance artist."

"Works well with the creative aspect of himself." Said the gothic woman. "The next sibling on the list is Desire, the tranny I mentioned before. And let's just say that one knows what s/he wants and leave it at that since s/he is quite the can of worms to discuss."

Naruto and Rachel nodded and accepted Death's word of advice.

"Desire's twin, Despair, is very shy." Her dark eyes looked over to Rachel. "Even more shy than you, little Raven."

"Really?" Rachel asked for confirmation as she ate the rest of her ice cream.

"Indeed she is, but she means well on what she does." Didi then smiled a goofy grin. "And finally is Delirium or Mania as she sometimes calls herself, is the youngest of the bunch. She can be quite cooky and cheerful as she lives at her own pace." Her goofy grin simmered down several degrees. "She had gone by another name, long ago, which perfectly went by Delight, but… something happened that made her change into what she is today."

Death felt a comforting hand on her shoulder and arm respectively and appreciated Naruto's and Rachel's concerned gesture.

With a healed smiled, Didi continued talking. "Asides from that, she be quite interesting to talk to. And do you want to know the best part about her? She's actually the smartest being there ever is."

"...How?"

"One who knows too much eventually goes insane." The goth answered. "One who knows truth as truth and nothing else can't comprehend this world of lies. Only one that is truly insane and handle it can understand absolute knowledge."

This left the guardian/ward pair rather stumped.

"Quite the odd family, no?" She questioned.

"But you love them all the same, right?" Naruto stated with Rachel nodding in agreement.

"Indeed I do."

"But what about your father?" Asked the ashen child. "You said it was just you, your siblings and your father."

Didi sighed as she popped the rest of her treat into her mouth and consumed the rest. She chewed on the popsicle stick a little before pulling it out. "Right~ dear old dad." She blew out air from her mouth while looking towards the vast distance above. "The Voice, the Hand, the Presence. Each are his identities. His _voice_ birthed Destiny with the first word, his _hand_ molded and formed each universe while his _presence_ is everywhere, yet nowhere."

"Like the cheshire cat?" Rachel questioned.

"Right you are."

"When you said your father was complicated, you weren't joking."

"Yeup~" Didi looked down to her popsicle stick and rose a brow. "Won't ya look at that, it says I'm a winner. So what do I get?"

"Another thing of ice cream." Naruto answered. "There was a sign on the ice cream stand saying that if you present it to the employee, then you get another thing of ice cream for free."

"Then let's get another." Didi said as she stood up from the ledge. "That sea-salt ice cream is rather addicting."

"If you say so, my lady." The publisher said with a smirk. "But what do you wanna do after that?"

The mortal form of Death adopted a thinking pose and hummed. After several moments, an idea was formed. "I always love parties!" She spoke out. "And I would love to enjoy one in the modern day."

Naruto scratched his whiskered cheek as he looked at Rachel. "Maybe we should go find one once I dropped off Rachel." He said, getting Didi to look at him. "A lot of _parties_ at this time of day and era are mostly at clubs, which have age restrictions."

Didi shrugged in understanding. "Yeah~ It's getting rather late and I believe little Raven wants some time to rest at your loft."

From her spot on the ledge, the purplette nodded. Even though she wasn't remotely tired, there was a lot of information she learned today and needed to process them accordingly.

A card platform materialized before them as they stepped onto its surface. Once done, they headed towards the same alleyway as before to acquire Didi's free ice cream. And from there, Naruto directed his floating card to take them to his loft in order to drop off his ward.

When asking about where the mortal Death wanted to go, she spoke with her ever present smile. "That's just part of the human condition, isn't it? Afterall, as my older brother would say, 'certain destinations are inevitable'. Just guide us along and I'll tell you when to stop."

 _ **-Evening, The Undercut-**_

The sun disappeared in the skies above with only for the moon and some barely seen stars to replace it. The city lights appeared giving the city life after dark. As a result, an older crowd got off from work and came out to _play_ as the youngsters went home.

At one point in their little journey, Didi ordered Naruto to stop and lower their transport to the ground before they wandered around to look for a good place to go to. And it wasn't long before they came across a nightclub with posters labeling past, present and up-and-coming musicians.

"Sure looks packed." Said the goth as the pair stood in line to get in. "Wonder who's playing."

"No clue, Didi." Replied her companion. "Haven't gone to a nightclub like this in quite some time."

"Naruto? Is that you?" Spoke a woman's voice from behind.

The Uzumaki and mortal incarnation of Death turned around and saw a pregnant woman with tanned skin and short brown hair. She was wearing a shirt with the word 'dyke' pointing upwards and the word 'baby' pointing towards her swollen belly.

Blinking a few times, Naruto recognized her. "Hazel! How's it going?!" He said as he brought her into a one arm hug, which she returned in kind. "As a matter of fact, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be drinking at all."

Hazel rolled her eyes before elbowing his side. "I don't plan on doing that at all, boss." She then smiled. "But I'm doing quite alright, thanks for asking. And as for me being here, Foxglove's playing."

"But I thought Donna was still writing short stories and poems."

Hazel scratched her hair before answering. "Yeah... She's been getting tired on not selling any as of late, even with some of the colab works at the office." Hazel looked towards the line as it steadily receded inwards. "This is her first real gig that anyone's giving her any money for and I merely came by for support, despite the fact I got this little guy." She emphasized by patting her tummy. Her eyes then landed on the goth next to her boss. "Who's she?"

Realizing this, Naruto spoke up. "Right, sorry. Hazel, this here's a good friend of mine, Didi. And Didi, this here is one of my dear employees, Hazel McNamara."

The two women shook hands as they properly greeted each other.

"So what do you do exactly?" Hazel asked.

"I travel a lot for my job." Didi answered. "You?"

"I work part-time at his guy's office building as one of the chiefs while working another job at my brother's restaurant."

"And when's the baby due?"

"Any day now." Hazel answers while rubbing her stomach once more. "Ooh! The baby kicked! You wanna feel it?"

Didi merely smiled. "Sure!" She placed her hands on Hazel's stomach and indeed felt the kick. "Say, why you working two jobs?"

It was Naruto who answered. "Some stuff happened to her and Donna -which is Foxglove's real name- early this year right after Hazel got pregnant. They were booted out by a sexist landlord that didn't enjoy the gays, so the two were forced to move in with Hazel's mom." He then put his arm around the chef as the two smiled. "And when I heard about it, I gave this wonderful gal a raise to help build up support for their new arrival."

"Ain't that nice of you, Naruto." Said the goth.

"I do believe in karma, Didi."

Didi nodded before turning back to Hazel. "So is this your first?"

"And my last, probably." Replied the chef. "Don't know if Foxglove and I wanna consider getting another, either through preggers or adoption, but the idea will come later down the line." Death nodded in understanding. "So you two gonna come in? Foxglove needs all the support she can get."

Naruto and Didi looked at each other and agreed to go on in, once the line was more diminished that is.

As they got down the stairs at a steady pace, Hazel spoke back up. "I think the show might start soon so I'll have to head backstage right away. I would take you two with, but…"

"Yeah, I know of Donna's problems with anxiety and nausea." Spoke her boss. "Maybe, if ya want, you can have her chat with us sometime after."

Hazel nodded as they came up to the ticket booth. The chef went up to the employee and asked for her name to get herself in before getting to the back as fast as she could with how crowded the space was getting. And it wasn't long after as Naruto paid for his and Didi's tickets to see Foxglove's first performance.

"Hazel was nice."

"Yeah, she is. But I feel bad for her and others in the LGBT community on what kind of crap they have to go through. So whatever employee I have that's apart of said group, I do what I can to make their work experiences comfortable and treat them fairly."

"That's good for you to do, Naruto."

"Thanks." He said as the two went into the crowd while trying to find a good spot to properly see the stage. "Been meaning to ask ya this, but don't you know everything? Like the gender of Hazel's kid?"

"Not really."

"Why's that?"

"If I did then I'd be Delirium." She seemingly joked, making him roll his eyes. "But in all honesty, I do like some surprises here and there… But I don't know what may occur. Life has no set plan for everyone as one's road, path, whatever is always in flux."

"If you say so."

After several minutes, a woman -probably a manager or employee- walked onto the stage, grabbed the mic and spoke. _"Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Undercut and thanks for attending. Now our performer tonight goes by the name Foxglove. It's her first gig so please be respectful and treat her kind."_

As the woman walked off stage, another appeared.

The person in question was a blonde haired woman with her hair styled like a sea urchin with how spiky it was and went everywhere. She wore dark blue clothes and held an acoustic guitar in her one hand with a stool in the other. There wasn't any other form of equipment brought onto the stage, minus the microphone, as it showed Foxglove wanted her music performed in a classical manner. No use of electronic amplifiers to lose or reduce its natural sound accurately.

Most people prefer this method, but this also shows -at times- that the musician would've been rather tight on money and can't really afford the more expensive instruments.

After adjusting the microphone stand, Foxglove took a deep breath and spoke towards the audience. _"Uh… good evening, everyone. This first song is called_ Donna's Dream _. It's about some people I knew. At least one of them is dead and it goes a little something like this."_

After strumming her guitar chords for a few moments, the blonde sang.

 _My name is Judy and I died_

 _On a bad day in eight nine_

 _And I've come back to see you girl_

 _To talk about the old times_

 _It's been awhile, but you're looking good,_

 _Let's sit and drink some wine._

 _And I wondered what_

 _You were doing tonight_

 _In my cold place underneath the world_

 _And there's worms inside my eyes_

 _And my bones are getting dry_

 _But I still love you girl_

 _Well tomorrow I'll sleep in the ground again_

 _But tonight I'll sleep with you_

 _I've missed your lips and tongue_

 _And touch, so much,_

 _Say you missed me too_

 _In the dark I kissed you girl_

 _I wonder if you knew_

 _I wonder what you're doing tonight_

 _In my cold place underneath the world_

 _I don't breathe or sleep_

 _I can't even spit or weep_

 _But I still love you girl._

 _I wrote you a letter,_

 _Girl, on the day I checked out_

 _Said I hurt you 'cos I loved you._

 _Was I wrong? And the seasons turn_

 _And the years go by, but the dark continues on._

 _Close your eyes and I'll kiss you,_

 _In the morning I'll be gone._

 _And I wonder what you're doing tonight._

Once Foxglove finished her song, the crowd clap in applause for her first performed song.

The blonde smiled at this as she soaked in the praise she was getting. Yet she was far from done as she took a breath to steady her nerves.

" _Thank you. Now this next song was given to me by a dear friend of mine and he wanted me to at least sing this for y'all. It's called_ In the Woods Somewhere _."_

With more strumbs from her guitar, Foxglove sang her second song for the evening.

 _My head was warm_

 _My skin was soaked_

 _I called your name_

' _Til the fever broke_

 _When I awoke_

 _The moon still hung_

 _The night so black_

 _That the darkness hums_

 _I raised myself_

 _My legs were weak_

 _I prayed my mind_

 _Be good to me_

 _An awful noise_

 _Filled the air_

 _I heard a scream_

 _In the woods somewhere_

 _A woman's voice_

 _I quickly ran_

 _Into the trees_

 _With empty hands_

 _A fox it was_

 _He shook afraid_

 _I spoke no word_

 _No sound he made_

 _His bones exposed_

 _His hind was lame_

 _I raised a stone_

 _To end his pain_

 _What caused the wound?_

 _How large the teeth?_

 _I saw new eyes_

 _Were watching me_

 _The creature lunged_

 _I turned and ran_

 _To save a life_

 _I didn't have_

 _Deer in the chase_

 _There as I flew_

 _I forgot all prayers_

 _Of joining you_

 _I clutched my life_

 _And wished it kept_

 _My dearest love_

 _I'm not done yet_

 _How many years_

 _I know I'll bare_

 _I found something_

 _In the woods somewhere_

And once more, like before, the crowd loved her song.

 _"Thanks. This next song was inspired by something my friend Wanda once said to me. She's dead too. Maybe it's contagious. It's called_ Tracks _."_

 _If somewhere in the dark I am alone_

 _Will you come to me,_

 _Bringing me your light_

"Wow, that's dark. What's with the dark songs pertaining death?" Naruto asked before freezing and turned towards his companion. "Not that there's anything wrong with it, Didi."

The goth merely smiled as she listened to Foxglove's music. "Death's handled differently in each other's way. And there's a large variety of songs out there, even the greatest ones there ever was, that were inspired by the death of others."

"Yeah, everyone handles death differently." Naruto said as his mind thought towards the many deaths in his life from his home world to this one. The Uzumaki shook his head to pay attention to Donna's music. "Either way, she does sound really good."

"I dunno." Spoke a dark skinned man.

Naruto looked towards the man and voiced a question. "What do you mean?"

"There was this one girl, Michelle Shocked, she already did an acoustic guitar shtick already and did it better. And Suzanne Vega did the wistful intellectual with a dream diary bit. She didn't say anything new."

The publisher raised a brow. "You a critic?"

"Nah. I'm with a recording company. Only out here for a week to seek new talent from National City."

"Yeah, I've been there. But what label?"

"Xerxes." The music scout answered. "We're part of-"

"Yeah, I know who you guys are. Heard about you from a friend of mine."

"So, uh... you like her?" Asked the scout. "I mean, you don't think she'd be too morbid for the kids?"

"Nah. Not really." Came the Uzumaki's reply. "Music tastes change over time and a lot of kids that don't like certain genres at the first go around will end up loving it when getting older. So give Foxglove up there a chance and things will turn out just fine."

The dark skinned man scratched his head as he thought things over before turning his attention back to the performer on stage as the audience cheered Foxglove on for more.

 _ **-Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

"What movie do you wanna watch, Didi?"

Looking at the movie collection, Death pulled out a pair of movies. "Hard to decide between Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid."

Things were getting rather late in the evening as the pair ended back at Naruto's loft after attending Foxglove's entire performance.

The show was a success as Donna was really happy with how it turned out. People loved her work and her songs. Better yet, she was able to chat with a music scout on a possible recording contract. But there was the slight catch that a tape needed to be made before possible interviews with the recording studio.

But Naruto stepped in and helped out on the situation -once the music scout left- that if Xerxes Studio wouldn't take Foxglove in, then the publisher would use his connection with Cat Grant to find a studio that'll work with her.

And since the 'Media Queen' of National City has quite a lot of influence, then things might go quite well for the blonde musician.

...Due to Didi honestly not having a place to stay for her holiday, Naruto offered her his place to sleep at for the time being. She accepted the offer on their way back.

"Beauty and the Beast was a better movie, but... I think the songs were better in the Little Mermaid." Said the ashen child as she finished washing the dishes.

"Yeah, with the former having like two good songs while the later had more catchier ones." Didi admitted. "But storywise, I like the Little Mermaid more. I mean, even though Disney gave it a happy ending. My brother, Dream, is kind of a purist when it comes to stories. But I honestly don't see why Ariel would've had to lose her soul and die in the end if they went with the original route."

"With modern audiences, they would rather not want to see any morbid stuff in a fairy tale." Spoke the publisher as he warmed up some popcorn on the stove. "It was completely fine as it was back then, but now well you get the gist."

Before getting into the next activity for Didi's holiday, watching movies, she had a nice home cooked meal with just Naruto and Rachel.

It's been more than a few centuries since she had a pleasant meal like this. Taken in and served a nice plate of food and eating in a safe environment. It was a nice experience to have again after so long and hoped to have it in her next holiday.

Didi had briefly hoped into meeting Naruto's three lovers -while in the mortal flesh- but things might get quite complicated in doing so. For one, her sudden appearance would throw them off for obvious reasons. And if she did reveal _who_ she was to them, one can imagine their reactions.

Yet the mortal incarnation of Death wasn't able to meet them on her holiday. With Selina out of the city, Pam focusing her entire time on her projects, and whatever Harley's doing right now either at work or being with her neighbors. Didi was fine and understanding on that matter.

For she'll meet them at a later date.

During the dinner, Naruto asked his ward a little bit more about the _Raven_ nickname that Didi brought up earlier today. It was what her mother called her from time to time back in Azarath. Stating that Arella Roth was fascinated with the avian breed throughout her life and loved them very much. And when Rachel was born, she called her as such when her child oddly inheritage that same fascination.

Yes, it was quite odd on getting the pet name but the name seemed to stick with the ashen child.

And, of course, being called Raven by Didi threw Rachel off as she didn't know if she'd hear that ever again.

Placing the selected movies by the TV set, the gothic woman walked past the kitchen as Rachel dried her hands and the sounds of popped corn was heard. On the counter, several bowls were laid out for each of them so they wouldn't run out all that quickly of popcorn. Didi kept walking, opened the patio door and stepped into the night air.

Naruto saw this from the corner of his eye and was curious as to why she went there. He then asked Rachel to finish popping the corn while he checked on their guest. When he stepped outside, Naruto saw her leaning against the rail and looking towards the sky above.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Destiny's Union-**_

"Beautiful, isn't it?" She asked.

"You can say that." He said as he joined beside her. Naruto didn't know what was running through her mind at this moment, but he could briefly tell from her gaze alone that something was definitely running in there.

In what felt like eternity, Naruto heard Didi speak to him.

"You know the Mr. Bank's character when I talked about Mary Poppins earlier today?" Didi said with an oddly distant, yet near tone. "With him having little to no time for his family or anything? Even _living_?" She asked, getting him to nod. "Well I sometimes think that could be applied to a large variety of people out there." The goth then looked towards Naruto. "Like you, for example."

The Uzumaki adopted a curious expression. "Me? What do you mean?"

"First off, you believe in the multiverse theory?"

He blinked. "Yeah, I do. After all, I did come from a different reality and I've grown up with an open mind." Naruto fully turned towards her to face Death in the face. "Each and every decision we make affects everything around us. And in another reality, the opposite action happens to cause something else to occur. For each decision there is, a branching factor takes place for the whole 'what if' scenario. From being rich instead of poor, good and evil, certain people never met so someone was never born. So on and so forth in odd infinitum."

"That's nihilism for ya."

"But why bring that up?"

"Lets just say that out there, there's another Naruto that he is so preoccupied with his job that he hardly has time with his wife and children… like Mr. Banks. So much so that he ends up having marital problems with his wife, his son practically despising him and his daughter is very sad that he doesn't try to spend more time with them."

"But shouldn't he, I don't know, try to make time for them?" He argued while looking at her like she was crazy. "I mean, couldn't he just use shadow clones-"

"He has and yet the idea didn't really work." Didi countered. "Instead of having them do the work in the office, he sent them straight towards his family to take care of them. His thoughts were too preoccupied with work that he ended up shoving his family out and he never realized the consequences until it was too late. And do you wanna know the _funny_ thing about that? It has happened way too often -in so many realities- than you would truly realize."

Naruto looked at Didi in disbelief and wanted to say something, but his tongue felt tied. He couldn't say anything as a sinking feeling seemed to grow and expand.

Death's mortal form looked at the publisher and blew out a small puff of air. "I can understand your little frustration, but there are key factors which result in those events to happen. Whether it's from his own volition or being influenced by others." She sighed while scratching her darkened locks. "But you should know that there are a good margin of _yourself_ that does the exact opposite. They do think better and spend time with their families while having their clones do the work. And if they don't have the means to create clones, they compromised to the best of their ability to spend time with their loved ones." She smiled upon him. "Just like what you're doing, Naruto."

The feeling in his chest died down when hearing her words.

"Though sorry to dampen your mood on pointing this out but~ there are _Earths_ out there that even if your a hero in most, you're a villain in others." She said she saw him appear conflicted now on his thoughts. "Don't blame yourself, it's the multiverse so the factor had to be there."

"...I guess."

'At least he accepted it.' Didi shrugged in thought. She then looked towards the darkened sky above. "Do you see each of those stars in the sky?"

Naruto rose a brow on the question, but guessed the shift in topics would be good right now. "Somewhat due to the light pollution, Didi." He said.

Didi chuckled. "You ever wonder what stars are at times?"

"Planets being seen due to sun's rays reflecting off their surface or even the suns themselves." He answered through a scientific view. "But… since you stated earlier that there's life out there -back during lunch- I'm also adding in worlds filled with life."

"Good. Most people have a hard time believing that there are inhabited worlds besides this one." Her eyes kept focus towards the barely visible stars above. "And many individuals out there wouldn't really know of the whole scientific aspect you said a bit ago. For they think that the stars in the sky are in fact _Hearts_."

"Hearts?"

"Yup~ The worlds have Hearts of their own and they shine so bright in order to proclaim that they are alive and thriving. So much so, it's become quite the spectacle for many onlookers as their Light shines down upon them like a million of trillion lanterns." Death breathed out a sigh. "But when they flicker out, they go into a result of either going into three states."

He got really curious at this point, causing him to ask the question that came to mind. "What are they?"

She held up her hand and pointed her index finger. "They would either be dead and that I have Reaped the world." Her middle finger came out. "They would be entrapped by Darkness." Her ring finger came last. "Or they would be placed into a deep sleep."

"...I get the first one, Didi, but you lost me on the last two." Stated the Uzumaki. "Mind explaining on the other two?"

A chuckle escaped her lips. "I will, but not now." She turned around and headed back inside. "I believe it's time to see the movies before hitting the sack."

Seeing her walk away from him made him want to know what she meant on her answer as they left more questions in their wake. He sighed and scratched his head before following her to watch her selected movies for the evening.

 _ **-Later, The Dreaming-**_

"...This is new." Said the Uzumaki as he and his ward sat up from the ground.

The pair gazed across a vast, desolate land filled with nothing but sand that stretched as far as his eyes could see at every direction. They rose from the loose ground before dusting and shaking themselves of any of the grainy material off their person. Once done, they looked towards the oddly purple sky with tinges of blue here and there with several moons floating in the sky and pinkish clouds to finish off the starlit scenery.

"...If a fantasy writer or artist were to see this, they'd probably pass out from shock." Rachel muttered.

'That and creaming themselves.' Naruto thought as he soon scratched his head. "Where… and why are we here anyways?" The publisher adopted a thinking pose as he muttered his thoughts. "I know we're in the Dreaming, but I have no idea why we're here… and where."

"That's because I brought you here." Came a familiar voice. Naruto and Rachel turned around and saw Didi smiling upon them.

"Uh… hey."

"Hello."

"Hey yourselves."

"So what did you mean you brought us here, Didi?" Rachel asked.

"I merely wanted a companion or two when traveling to my brother's place." She answered. "If I was my true self, then I wouldn't need to do such a thing. But~ since I'm currently mortal, the trek tends to be rather lonely and quite long."

Naruto blinked on her reason with his ward tilting her head. "You could've just asked and forewarn us before we went to bed, y'know." He stated.

"I know, but I thought this would've been quite the surprise for ya."

"...Indeed it has, Didi." He said as she walked past them. "Do you know where to go?"

"Yeup~ If I didn't then we would've been lost getting there for countless years."

They was about to follow when he widened his eyes. "I'm sorry, but what?"

"If you don't know the way, then you'll be lost in the center of my brother's domain for an unknown amount of time." Came her reply.

'That… is rather unsettling.' Was his thought as he ended up following her in her trek.

It felt like forever when traversing the sandy landscape, yet having each other as company eased the timely weight. For beyond the infinite dust, infinite sand, infinite dark and light; the way to the center of this dream-like desert was an extremely slow spiral. Overcoming hazards left and right of varying degrees, but never life-threatening. One passes the old way stations of the frontiers of Nightmares. It's residents -the Nightmare Dream spirits- had typically roamed their pathway, yet it was nothing Naruto and Rachel couldn't handle before continuing onward.

From there, they charted a course Nightward until reaching the Gates of Horn and Ivory.

As the guardian/ward pair looked at it's detailed wonder, they heard Didi speak. "Dream carved them himself and order was needed."

The Uzumaki took a closer look at the pair and marveled at the ever shifting artistry shown here, representing the ever changing dream one experiences most nights. He didn't need to even touch the surfaces to tell the texture would be the same, in his theorized guess.

The former shinobi looked back and saw his gothic companion pointing towards the Ivory gates. "The Dreams that pass through those gates are lies, figments and deceptions." She then pointed towards the Horned-themed ones. "The other admits the Truth and no one guards them anymore."

"So how do we get in?"

She smiled before grasping their hands. And before they knew it, their sight was blinded with a pale white light. When their vision went back to normal, Naruto and Rachel rubbed their eyes before widening their gaze at the sight before them.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts 2.5: Magical Mystery-**_

It was by far the largest castle they've ever seen in their entire life. The style was like countless structures meshed together and it would've been possible at all to perfectly blend them. Yet here it is in all it's marvelous glory with every type of stone and metal they could think of with ones they never known before.

Didi smiled at her companions' expression. She then walked in front of them and faced Naruto and Rachel before widening her arms when introducing the home of her younger brother. "Welcome to the Ghost Castle, otherwise known as the Palace of Dreams. The very heart and center of the Dreaming and my brother's seat of power."

Naruto shook his head before pulling and pinching his cheek in order to tell if he was dreaming… wait… poor choice of words in the current moment.

Rachel rolled her eyes on what her guardian was doing before following Death towards the castle.

"Come on, Naruto. Let me show you."

Didi's melodic voice snapped him out of his thought process before walking to catch up with her and his young ward.

As they neared the large gates, with stars and clouds as it's design, Naruto and Rachel saw three gargoyle like structures coming to life with the stone-like texture turning into living flesh, fur, feathers and scales. One was a large griffon, a pegasus and lastly was an oversized dragon.

" _Who dares intrude upon the master's residence?"_ Spoke the griffon as he and his fellow guardians stared down upon the small group.

It was Didi who stepped forward and spoke. "I know it's been a hundred years or so since I came through this way, but surely you lot recognizes me."

The three guardians blinked before the dragon spoke in recognition. _"Oh! A thousand apologies on not recognizing you right away, Mistress Death!"_

" _Forgive us, m'lady."_ Said the pegasus in a meekly tone.

"It's no problem, you three." Didi spoke in a carefree tone.

" _Though pardon the thought, but who are the two behind you?"_ Asked the griffon.

The gothic woman turned slightly to introduce her companions. "These two are friends and I wanted to bring them with me as I come to visit my brother."

The three guardian's nodded as the doors to Dream's palace opened for the small group to enter.

"Do you really consider us friends, Didi?" Rachel asked as they walked into the foyer.

"Why yes I do, little Raven."

After venturing further into Dream's castle, the three were soon greeted by the tallest and thinnest man the guardian/ward pair had ever seen once he stepped into the foyer. His brown hair was spiky, despite it being slicked back, as he wore round spectacles on his pointy ears and a butler's attire.

Didi was the first to greet the man. "How's it going, Lucien?"

The now identified Lucien gave a small nod. "My lady, all goes well." He said with a sophisticated voice.

"And the library?"

"The same and I thank you for asking."

"Great!~"

"Are you here to talk to the Master?" Asked the tall, thinly man.

"That and one other thing."

"Which is?"

"I don't have anything good to read lately and I wanted to borrow some books from you." Lucien nodded in understanding. "Have you got anything with a happy ending? And nice people in it? Or funny animals?"

"I'll make a selection for you, my Lady. But question is: when will you pick them up?"

"After my holiday." She answered.

"Very good." Lucien then looked towards the odd people out in the room. "And who are these two?"

"They've been my companions during my holiday, Lucien. And I thought to bring them here for the time being."

"If you say so, my Lady." The tall, thinly man gave a small bow towards Death's companions as he introduced myself. "Hello, my name is Lucien. I'm the chief Librarian of Dream's library and head supervisor of the Dreaming itself, second only to the Master himself."

Naruto smiled as he stepped forward and held out his hand. "Hiya. Name's Naruto Uzumaki and it's a pleasure to meet ya."

Lucien saw the offered appendage and resorted in kind by shaking the whiskered man's hand.

Rachel came up to the chief Librarian and introduced herself. "And my name's Rachel Roth, good sir."

"Pleasure."

"You know, Rachel, I believe you might like the library here." Didi said.

The ashen child blinked in confusion. "How so?"

"You see, it not only has every written work ever conceived but ones that have never been made as it's been all imagined." The gothic woman explained. "And I mean _every_ story that one has ever been dreamed; whether it's written down, filmed or put into a game. You'll never find them in the waking world on stories with authors that never wrote or finished their desired works, except in their dreams." Didi adopted a thinking pose for a quick moment before snapping her fingers with a smile. "For example, all of Edgar Allan Poe's books, tales, plays and poems that he never wrote are all in there."

The interests for both Rachel and her guardian were peaked when hearing this detail.

It did make sense that many fictional works are made purely by one's imagination. The thought process would've been done considerably in order to get things right with one's motivation and drive with their creativity. And in turn, they would be connected to the Dreaming one way or another for this all to happen.

As if sensing their thoughts, the chief Librarian spoke up. "Most of the works in the Master's library aren't considered true creativity, mind you." The guardian/ward pair were curious at what Lucien meant by that, causing him to explain. "Writers and artist often tend to pick up on psychic energies from another realm via subconscious link. What they would think is merely creative, imaginary thoughts are really psychic memory of events occurring in other realms."

"Hmm, that makes sense." Muttered the Uzumaki before he went into his thoughts. 'The ideas I got for my Final Fantasy books and Loveless merely came to me. So I might've hitched onto that psychic energy some way to record things.' Naruto internally groaned. 'Great~ Now realizing this, I might not be able to do well when writing my next books with me being aware of _that_.'

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts when Didi spoke up. "We should probably get going. My brother is probably expecting me by now."

The chief Librarian gave a curt nod as Didi walked onward with her two companions walking close behind.

"Oh and when you see Scheherazade next, tell her I said hi."

The spectacled man bore a small smile as he responded back. "Will do, Mistress Death."

As the group went into a small discussion, Lucien walked towards his Master's library to acquire Death's requested books. Wasn't long before a raven flew down from one of the ceiling's many support beams. The creature gilded towards spectacled man before perching itself on Lucien's shoulder.

"So… that's him."

" _Indeed he is."_ Spoke the blackened bird with a masculine voice.

"Given by your description of him, everything was spot on… except for his hair and eyes." Lucien said as they saw the pair following Death to chat with her brother, their Master. "Are you sure that is indeed him?"

" _I'm positive."_ The raven's dark eyes were trained towards the Uzumaki's retreating form. _"I never forget that easily."_

"Then how do you think he got the changes?"

" _I… believe he was stuck at_ that _Realm far too long than one would've thought."_ Replied the red eyed raven. _"I'm surprised his personality wasn't altered by_ that _place. Even if his chakra and the Kyuubi was removed from his body before coming to the current_ Earth _."_

"And how can you be so sure? You didn't talk to him."

" _I have my ways, Lucien."_ Came the avian's vague answer.

The tall, thinly man let out a small sigh. "Whatever you say."

" _Hn…"_

The two then heard a series of steps coming towards them. Lucien turned his head and saw Rachel coming up to him. "May I help you?" He asked

The ashen child looked a bit bashful before speaking. "I… was wondering if… it wasn't too much trouble… if I could see the library."

"...Does Naruto know?"

"I asked him and he said I could go if you're fine with me seeing it."

Lucien hummed a little before nodding his head. "I don't see why not."

Rachel smiled as she walked beside the tall, thinly man. After several moments, she saw the blackened bird perched on the man's shoulder and didn't see it beforehand. Of course, like most children, she stated the obvious. "Why do you have a raven on your shoulder?"

Lucien was about to speak when the black avian beat him to the punch. _"I just wanted to tell him something."_

"...You can talk?"

" _Of course I can."_ Replied the raven. _"Afterall, I'm not an ordinary bird."_

"...Clearly." Rachel said as she scratched her purple locks. "Then again, I forgot that things here aren't… normal…"

" _Especially from where you come from, animals don't speak your language."_

The ashen child nodded as the small group went towards the library. Yet an innocent question lingered on her mind. "Mind telling me your name?" She asked.

" _Pardon me?"_

"Well, I don't know if I just wanna refer to you as 'the raven' and I think it would be rude doing so."

The black avian chuckled slightly. _"You are not wrong, but wouldn't it be best if you introduced yourself as well?"_

'Wouldn't see why not.' She shrugged in thought. "I go by the name Rachel… but my guardian might end up calling me Raven from time to time… after him learning my old nickname."

If the raven had a better mouth, he would've smirked. _'Of course he would.'_ He thought before opening his beak. _"Well it's nice to meet you, Raven. You can call me Itachi."_

While Rachel followed Lucien to Dream's Library, Naruto followed Didi as she navigated her way through Dream's home. With all of its twists and turns in the corridors, one would've been lost without knowing where to go; just like the outside desert plains.

After several more minutes in the hallway-like maze, the two made it to their destination. Didi rapped on the facing door as they heard a brief 'Enter' from the other side. The gothic woman opened the door and there they saw Dream finishing up some paperwork in his study. He was currently wearing a grey t-shirt with jeans and black boots.

Looking up from his desk surface, Morpheus gave them a brief wave of his hand. _**"I've been expecting you, sister."**_ His gaze shifted onto her companion. _**"You, however, not at all."**_

"Call it a sudden impulse, brother." Didi said as they walked into the room. "Besides, you've always known that I often bring others for my _Dreamy_ travel."

"Didi… that was a horrible pun." Said the whiskered man.

The gothic woman merely let out a small huff of annoyance as they sat down on some spare chairs.

" _ **Would you like some tea?"**_ Dream offered to the nearby tray. _**"Or some other refreshments?"**_ The pair were fine with tea, getting the Dreaming Lord to nod as he stood up to pour them drinks. _**"So, sister, how has your holiday been so far?"**_

"It's been rather great." She answered as her brother handed her a cup of what she believed was jasmine tea, given by it's delicious smell. "Trying out new foods and the like all thanks to Naruto here."

Naruto waved her off. "It was nothing really." The whiskered man soon took a tea cup from Didi's brother. "Though you did give Rachel and I quite… an informative discussion."

" _ **She does that from time to time."**_ The Dream lord said he enjoyed the aroma of the prepared brew. _**"Ah~ herbal teas are the best for company and sleeping."**_

"Indeed." Didi said in agreement as she took a sip. "Although, you have a habit of putting strong sleep inducing herbs in most drinks."

To Naruto's surprise, Morpheus didn't seem to deny it as he shrugged. _**"Ah, but only who does who need it. Dreams are the blissful state those who work hard earn, I help those who overexert themselves to give a bit of a well deserved nap."**_ The male Endless said with a small smirk. _**"Those who stay up all night or others who think dreams aren't worth it. Well… it wouldn't be sleeping without a nightmare or two."**_ He joked as he took a small sip of his tea, slightly yawn as he put down his cup onto its saucer. _**"After all, after Death gives mortals their eternal rest. And those who do or don't deserve it, will finally sleep for good."**_ The Dream Lord finished with a prideful look to his older sister, who looked rather cheerful at that… more so than her previous holidays. _**'I'll have to ask her on that at a later time.'**_ Came Morpheus' thought.

Naruto nodded when hearing this explanation as he had experienced those instances quite often in his past.

Endless though look rather...happy when his eyes reached Naruto. _**"But you are a close second, child."**_ He said making Naruto seem unnerved at his attention. _**"Dreams of marrying the love of your life and having a family, gaining your well deserved position in life, and saving/destroying the world are mere small examples. Dreams about your fears from being horrifying or childish. Ahh, if only I could record them…"**_

Naruto looked at Didi who smirked as she giggled. "Dear brother here, doesn't look at one person's dreams. Rather he can see more than one person dream… Do you understand what I mean? If one can be more… yet still the same person, can you guess what that is?"

Naruto eyes seemed to harden answering this riddle, which he soon answered. "Other realities that have other versions of me?" The Uzumaki concluded.

The male Endless placed his teacup down before he reached forward and gently tapped Naruto's forehead. Then with his other, Dream flicked his wrist as a web similar to a spiders appeared showing other someones eye view of the world. The some show a woman, others battles, and other mundane things.

So many scenarios and the like were shown in each small window as it was truly hard for Naruto to keep track of.

Didi looked at them as she saw the 'webs' out edges expanding inch by inch. "With the ever expanding multiverse, many situations occur… Just like what we talked about in your loft."

Naruto shook his head a little. "This is like for everyone?"

The Dream lord nodded. _**"Correct, but more so towards specific individuals of great importance. Each can be in different times around the beginning or end of time. For they are an unpredictable variables that can change something drastically by just existing. That's why I love watching the dreams every so often… so many new experiences for one to see."**_ He explained. _**"Two Naruto's could be raised exactly the same, yet something causes them to dream of a land full of women or sees himself being married with a sweet wife."**_ He took a deep breath before lowering his arms to stop the web and made it vanish. _**"Sorry, when you watch dreams for so long, when someone like you arrive make my time go faster when watching your reactions to dreams."**_ Morpheus coughing into his hand for his long winded speech.

Dream was usually more collected but like many others… explaining his hobby tends to make one drone on.

Naruto nodded before a thought crossed his mind. "I've been meaning to ask you this, Morpheus, but it's been bugging me quite recently."

" _ **Which is?"**_

"Some time ago, my three lovers were taken and when I tried to track them through the Dreaming, I had… problems."

Dream tilted his head a little before remembering the little occurrence. _**"Ah, yes… I know what you're referring to."**_

"You do?"

The male Endless nodded. _**"There are several methods that can make one not fully fall into the Dreaming and would be hard for one to connect with them."**_ Dream picked up his tea cup and drank the rest of its contents before pouring some more. _**"Some examples include specific drugs and hypnotism that can make the effect of being asleep, yet fully awake at the same time happen."**_ Death's younger brother answered as to what the mortal's mind could comprehend.

Naruto nodded once more as the three went into other topics -which seemingly lasted for quite some time- before it was time for Didi and the Uzumaki to depart. They bid their host goodbye as they traveled back to the foyer. As they reached their destination, they saw Rachel had a small stack of books next to her as she read an old tome.

Didi and Naruto quickly concluded that the ashen ward had _checked_ them out for the time being, due to how particularly interesting the reading materials were. After all, Dream's library is vast and ever expanding with works that'll truly draw you in. And given the situation, Rachel wouldn't want to waste it.

Reuniting with the purplette, the three exited Dream's castle before a blinding white light soon enveloped them as they were to return to the waking world.

 _ **-Morning, Gotham Park- -Insert Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days OST: Musique pour la tristesse de Xion-**_

As the new day broke through the horizon, Naruto and Didi walked through the very park they had met yesterday. Neither said much after getting up from their respective beds and ate breakfast. All that Didi wanted to do right after was requesting to go on for a walk with Naruto.

In the end, the pair came across the park's water fountain and sat down at it's edge while staring into nothingness.

"It was a good day." Didi said, breaking the silence.

"I guess it was and I really enjoyed it. Rachel as well." Said the former shinobi. "So what now?"

"Well, my time is almost up. Let's just talk 'til my time comes."

"Then… what do you wanna talk about? Cause I'm honestly at a loss of pitching ideas."

Silence surrounded them as the only things being heard were the fountain's spurted water and birds chirping in the air. Despite the calming feel it gave off, there seemed to be a tensioned weight being formed. Didi didn't either care or felt it, but Naruto did.

The Uzumaki was about to speak when Death's mortal form beat him to the punch. "I do have to thank you on stopping Ra's fallout plan."

"Your welcome."

"The natural order on this world would've been thrown off balance if his plan went off without a hitch." She said in a grim tone.

"About life on this world being reset with the waters?"

"Yes… and no." Was the vague response. "There are things residing within this planet that are essential for the sanctity of all life in this universe and much _more_." Her words truly held weight in them as Naruto swallowed a nervous feeling in his chest. "If Ra's plan did happen, then countless fates would've been thrown out of the window and this _Earth's_ lifespan would've been cut rather short."

Naruto breathed out held breath that he didn't realize he kept.

The mortal form of Death leaned back on the fountain's edge and let out a sigh. "There are things about the Lazarus Waters I should not tell you about. And as much as I'd like to, I feel obligated in not doing so. As much as I am loathe to admit it, some secrets must remain so until the time it comes to light."

"So there's more than just it's healing properties and prolonging one's death?"

"Yes. But be glad the specific source Pamela's using is extremely pure and untainted." This left him confused. "There will be no negative side effects placed on your children with her with what she's doing to keep them stable, I assure you."

An easy, relieved feeling welled up his chest when hearing this.

"Now, Naruto, there are many monsters roaming all around us." She stated, making him place his full attention at her. "Many look upon them and wonder 'Were they created out of the desire for immortality?' Those seeking it in order to gain further knowledge over others… Many whom desire war as I've seen them roam the bloodiest of battlefields."

Her gaze grew distant as countless experiences and memories quickly invaded her mind. Many atrocities and acts that should never have been done and spoken about. Didi truly felt sorry and wished none of those happenings ever occured to those people.

Recollecting herself, the gothic woman continued her little speech. "I even hear their battlecries as they crave for it. Yet in all honesty, they _all_ crave for _me_ … One way or another."

"You? And whom?"

"Gods, monsters, titans, interdimensional beasts and so many others seek out immortality to gain a foothold for power." She answered. "For revenge towards those ones have lost. For untold knowledge. Castles, kingdoms, lands, people, loved ones, even for their own identity. Everything is lost and all that remains is a pale shadow, wandering from _battle_ to _battle_ in pursuit of their goals." Her dark eyes went to Naruto. "Yet, from all of this, I know that those playing _immortality_ are frail, sobbing children. And those that are ignorant for towards that fact, they are either typically afraid of losing their immortality before I come to collect them… Or numb and void of one's emotions -for too long- that they become mindless and only following their instincts to truly become a _monster_ that I'm afraid needs to be put down."

"But… But all life should at least get a chance at life, Didi." Responded the whiskered man as he was processing everything she said. "I… I know many people tend to waste such a gift to their own selfish ends. Good or bad, they need to at least experience it to the fullest." He looked down to the ground as she kept her gaze trained at him. "There are people out there that deserve to be put down for their actions, but… they have their own place in life that connects with another; whether they are good or bad instances.

And I know I've taken the lives of others, but I've never enjoyed it at all. I was merely doing so to protect others that I cared about. In the end -on some cases- it was going to be me or the other guy and I still came to terms the act. That by taking one's life, I could never settle well with doing such a thing. So I do what I can to bring them in so their crimes can be answered, but I don't want to play judge jury and executioner like it was nothing."

"And will you blindly take down a monster for just being a monster?" Her question threw him out of a loop, causing her to put it into more detail. "Will you kill them without knowing their pain and sorrow?"

Memories… Memories of his childhood crept forward… More importantly the ones of him treated as a _monster_.

From the censored like the ones he shown to his three lovers to the uncensored with the fox hunts that sometimes made him plead for Death to end his suffering.

"There are monsters out there that do not wish to bring harm onto others. For they were forcefully made that way as they didn't wish to become such a being." Didi said in a saddened tone. "If you look underneath all the written details of many legends and stories, you can find the truth."

The gothic woman looked on ahead as she gave out an example. "The story of Medusa is a tragic one. For she was a beloved, mortal goddess and a shy one at that. Poseidon took advantage of that and sweetened her up with many gifts like her Pegasus; which came from her own blood. And as time went on, she trusted him. But things went south when he took advantage of her and did horrible things to her in Athena's temple. Said goddess arrived too late, despite Medusa praying and calling out to her."

Didi's voice took on a disdain tone. "And what does Athena do in the end? Does she heal Medusa and help her through her tragic ordeal? No. She cursed the mortal goddess for what happened, despite what Poseidon had done to her earlier and turned her into the infamous gorgon.

Many never knew the reason. But in reality, it was due to Athena being jealous of Medusa and her two older sisters -Stheno and Euryale- in being more beautiful than her and having more worshipers than her."

Naruto gritted his teeth when hearing this tale as he never knew the details behind Medusa's backstory.

The mortal incarnation of Death then let out a sigh. "After her transformation, Medusa unintentionally killed several people -with her stone turning gaze- as she didn't mean to. This caused her to become reclusive and hide away from the world at the Shapeless Isle with her sisters joining her in the self-imposed exile. It wasn't long after their move-in when Athena incited the populace by lying that Medusa has locked up her own sisters. This agitated all worshipers to be filled with zealous fury and sought to end the _monster_ in order to _free_ the _captured_ goddesses to appease the Olympians.

Yet it was just Athena's ploy to fully rid herself of her _rival_."

Her gaze grew heavy with sadness. "Medusa was forced to slay them in order to protect her and her sisters. The numerous worshipers were no match for the gorgon's strength and stony gaze as thousands fell upon their actions.

And from their corpses, Medusa's grief eventually became anger as it enveloped her.

But things grew worse as the changed Medusa eventually devoured her sisters whole in her madness. She soon realized what she's done, causing her to wallow further into her grief and sadness. For the gorgon would never see her sisters alive ever again.

Word got out to the Olympians on the event, causing them to finally take care of Medusa once and for all… Even though this was all caused by Poseidon for his lust and Athena for her jealousy.

Perseus was chosen and blindly obeyed the Greek gods for their task once manipulating events in order to summon the Kraken so it'll destroy Polydectes' kingdom. From there, they soon directed the demigod to Medusa's location in hopes of ending her to finish off the rest of his 'Kraken quest'. When Perseus arrived at her home, Medusa didn't want to fight him and only wanted to be left alone. But the demigod fought and slew the _monster_ , regardless of her pleas, all because he blindly followed the words of others on how dangerous she was.

To make her final moments worse, Medusa was put into an illusion which made her see her sisters alive and happy before her head was cleaved off from her shoulders.

And despite what the myth says, Perseus fought for himself; for glory. The demigod lied to the populace that he also slew Stheno and Euryale as they've been corrupted by Medusa, becoming gorgons as well in order to increase his popularity. And when returning home, he became a ruling tyrant once he married Polydectes' daughter.

Afterall, most stories are told by the victor."

Naruto was silent throughout her storytelling as he tightened his hands into fists. He felt truly sorry for Medusa as his heart grew heavy with grief and rage.

"...You see, Naruto, many have abused their title and status as heroes, righteous gods, and saviors; performing horrible acts which disgraced them and tarnished the ways people see others who truly hold said titles and status'." Said the mortal form of Death before touching Naruto's shoulder, causing him to look straight into her eyes. "So tell me, what will you do?"

"...Excuse me?"

"Will you truly act and be a Hero?" Didi answered with a question. The gothic woman stood up and hopped onto the fountain's edge before walking along it's circular surface. "Would you -a Hero- save and protect others? By merely defeating and slay the monster? And would they stand above all others or support from below?"

...It felt like forever for Naruto to think this over. He thought long and hard to give Didi a viable answer. And after some time in silence, the Uzumaki gave his answer.

"Heroes are people who fulfills what others couldn't do." He said with conviction in his voice. "For Heroes chooses themselves in occuring times while also being chosen by others." Naruto then let out a bitter chuckle. "Though to be fair, the last one is pretty much debated as it's sometimes unfair for one to declare such a title onto themselves or others… No matter who it is."

"Indeed it is." Death said as she walked back to Naruto's sitting form after he answered some of her questions. "So would you sacrifice to defeat and slay the monster? Would you risk yourself to save the lives of others?... Oh and don't blindly answer to that one as many have done so throughout history. Many stood by their answer while others have not while not thinking it through all that well."

Naruto accepted her suggestion and thought once more for an answer.

Didi was right. There had to have been people throughout history that exploited their titles and status' while thinking they could get away with it. It would've been a surprise if there wasn't.

He then remembered them watching _Beauty and the Beast_ last night and thought of a small example from that. Despite his monstrous appearance, the Beast was actually a kind person that was dealt with a bad hand from circumstances; much like the stories the animated movie was originally based on. It's merely the inside, their personality and shade of grey that matters.

...Though to be frank on that movie, things would've been better if the Beast back then merely had one of his servants answer the door and done the act from there. I mean, seriously, as snobbish the guy was, he was a pre-teen and why would he answer the door that late at night in such of a big place.

Nitpicking the movie detail aside, the mentioned fact earlier can be applied everywhere these days. People would be seemingly nice at first or second glance, but under all that an individual could be rotten to the core.

He learned that the hard way throughout several points in his life.

Naruto's then thoughts went towards Pam and Selina as additional examples on being _monsters_. When Pam went out of control and harmed those industrialists earlier this year, he didn't want to fight her; for he knew and loved her so much. But he had no choice as he needed to get her back to normal. And when Selina became a werecat -due to Dorian's experiment- Naruto could never call and see her as such.

When Naruto was about to break out of his thoughts, he felt a small jab in his mind which resulted in a brief headache.

It was hard to tell what it was at first, but the pain was in fact some corner of his mind tugging him. Naruto didn't resist and followed through to make things easier.

What he saw… was a brief, faint memory… which he could vaguely see and remember.

Winter was the setting with several children running off in the background. And everything was muted upon the Uzumaki's ears. His eyes then wandered around for a brief moment before he saw… _Her_.

A child -in ragged clothing- was like Rachel with ashen skin and darkened hair, except for the girl in the memory appeared to be half of his ward's age. The ashen child before him peered through her messy black hair to reveal… her rustic orange eyes. They held so much pain… and sorrow… and was like a kindred spirit seemingly long forgotten.

The Uzumaki saw her lips move with no sound being heard. Normally he would've had a hard time understanding what she said, but his knowledge and training with lip-reading gave him some help.

" _Why'd you help me?"_

Naruto then heard a familiar voice reaching his ears. _"Because it was the right thing to do."_ Turning slightly, he saw… himself?... At that age? With blood leaking from his nose and lip with a bruise present on his face. _"Those bullies shouldn't have hurt ya, dattebayo!"_

'He… me… must've fought those bullies.' Naruto thought as he scratched his head. 'But when did this happen? I don't remember it… or do I and it's so far back for me to recollect…'

" _But why? I'm… just a monster…"_

Naruto tilted his head in confusion and felt his child self mirroring the same action. And his younger self then spoke. _"How could you be a monster? You've got pretty awesome eyes!"_

" _...What?"_

" _Orange is awesome!"_ Child him proclaimed.

" _Excuse me?"_

" _They're not just awesome, but very pretty as well!"_

The ashen child in the memory stepped back a bit in surprise. _"P-Pretty? Y-You think they're pretty?"_

" _Yeup!~"_ Child him said with a fox-like grin. _"And anyone with those eyes is not a monster in mine!"_

The little girl didn't know how to respond to that.

" _Hey. Do you wanna play?"_

" _Huh?"_

" _Well… You look lonely and now I think we should play something."_ Child him said before holding out an offered hand. _"You can pick, for starters."_

The girl from the memory hesitated for several moments, no doubt contemplating the current situation. But after what felt like forever to his younger self, Naruto saw the ashen child take his hand before he pulled her along as their figures seemed to fade…

Just like the memory as he soon realized he was back in the park with Didi waiting for his response.

'I… I knew _her_.' He thought with utmost certainty. 'I don't know how and when, but I knew _her_. But I can't seem to remember _her_.'

It was shortly after that things seemed to fit into place. Not of the memory of the girl, yet much about it… along with other details.

From there, he answered 'No'.

"No?" Didi asked. "No to what?"

"There's no need to sacrifice others, Didi." The Uzumaki then explained his thoughts. "Taking on sacrifices weighs heavily on oneself. So why does one have to sacrifice when saving another? I'd rather risk my life for them."

Naruto let out a sigh. "A Hero is someone who risks their life to save others while not expecting anything in return. They're people who go into a fight or situation to protect someone, knowing full well they could die. And even if they do win, they might not get any thanks or recognition for what they do.

"But in reality, there's more than one way to become a Hero and it's not just from fighting by putting your life on the line. It's so easy forget that there are real-life heroes out there: police officers, firefighters, doctors, teachers… friends, family and even yourself. They are those which others look up to as they not only save, but set an example. Anyone who helps others can be a personal hero to the person that is helped."

Naruto was so into his explanation that he missed the growing smile on the goth's face.

"For instance, a child was sad because of someone or something happened. Anything at all and the results would be the same in the end. It doesn't matter if it was a family member, a friend or a complete stranger and said person could have powers or not were to see this. It's how they act on the situation that truly matters to make the child turn that frown upside down.

And as for the so-called _monsters_ , they just need help from the real ones. A true Hero exists to lend a hand to those in need like listening to their side of the story, protect them from harm and being sure their happy to the very end. All they really need is a friend, a lover, someone they would feel safe with at their lowest point."

When the Uzumaki looked back at his companion once giving his answer, he rose a questioning brow as he saw Didi smiling upon him. "And that's what I was looking for." She then took the ankh necklace off around her neck and handed it to him, who gave her a perplexed look.

"What's this for?"

"A gift for Rachel to remember me by." Didi then reached into her pocket and pulled out two pennies hands before placing it into his other hand. "And I've got to thank you for making my holiday great, Naruto."

"That's not necessary, Didi. It's been a pleasure-" Naruto suddenly felt her hand resting on his whiskered cheek. Turning his head around, Naruto saw Didi give him a warm smile as she leaned in. He was going to say something when he suddenly froze... as his lips met hers.

People say that Death's kiss can be, well deadly, while also sweet and tender. His heart beated against his chest as he shivered under her simple touch. He never experienced this sort of feeling before and… he didn't know how to fully describe it. Even as he felt an odd sensation coming from his stomach before it traveled towards his heart and then his sternum.

Didi was the one to end the kiss as Naruto was left completely dumbfounded by the act.

"W-What was that for?" He stuttered out with a growing blush.

"Just because." She said with a mischievous smile. "I also wanted to experience what it felt like."

Naruto's mind wasn't properly working due to her recent action. The goth took this chance, stood back up and took her place at the fountain's edge. She spread her arms far and wide as a large flurry of birds came flying around her.

Suddenly, Didi felt an aching pain in her chest.

'No…' She thought as she clutched her chest as her heart started to beat less and less. 'Please… Not… yet…'

Soon the sounds of water being splashed could be heard. This caused Naruto to snap out of his thoughts as a brief idea crossed his mind.

"Didi, I don't think it's a great idea to swim in the fountain." He said with a chuckle. "I know you like to experience new things, but I don't think doing _that_ is a great idea."

…..

"Didi?"

…..

Turning around, Naruto's eyes widened in horror as he gazed at Didi's body floating in the fountain's water. And like that, his heart felt like stopping.

"DIDI!"

The publisher rushed towards her and pulled her unmoving body out of the water. He placed her onto the ground and started performing CPR by pumping her chest and blowing into her mouth. Yet nothing he could do could bring her back as tears started streaming down his cheeks in utter despair.

'I… I thought there was more time.' He thought as he silently cried. 'I-I didn't want…'

Clenching his fists, he felt Didi's ankh in his one hand and the two pennies in the other. He loosened his grip while feeling defeat… before a thought crossed his mind.

Naruto opened the palm that carried the coins as he oddly knew what Didi intended Naruto to do with them. He carefully placed the two copper pennies onto her eyelids before clapping his hands to perform a little prayer.

'I… I hope to see you again.' He thought. 'Somehow and not when… my time comes. But until then, I wish you the best of luck with your work, Didi.'

…..

In a land of black, white and various shades of grey; Didi stirred from her place on the ground. Rising from the spot, the two copper pennies slid off and fell onto her lap.

"So… that was it." Said a feminine voice.

"Yup."

"How was it?"

Rising to her feet, Didi picked up the coins and turned around to see her true self staring back at her with a pleasant smile on her face.

"Oh, it was wonderful." Didi spoke with nostalgic glee. "It was filled with people. I got to breath and eat and… all sorts of stuff." Then that glee slowly turned into sadness. "I wish it could of gone on forever. I _wish_ it didn't have to end like that."

"Indeed as the show is over." Death said towards her mortal self. "The curtain's falling, we've taken our bows and it's high time we've made our exit."

"I know." Didi muttered out. "It's a damn shame really. I had hoped to be alive a little while longer. I've spent a good day by eating a good lunch; going to a library, museum and arcade before enjoying the rest of the night. I've even met some good people along the way."

"Yet you gave Naruto a proper send off."

"Indeed I have." The mortal persona of Death looked at both her Endless self and towards the whiskered Uzumaki. "It was a good run while it lasted."

Wasn't long before Didi reached out and grasped Death's hand as her form glowed into spectral wisps of light. Said ethereal wisps merged with the Endless being as memories of her mortal holiday illuminated with the collective. Death breathed in deeply to process it all as several tears were formed and shed with a smile on her face.

Once done, the gothic woman waved her hand at her mortal body as it too turned into ethereal light, much to Naruto's confusion and sadness. He reached out to stop it from happening, but it was no use as the lights disappeared from his sight and reach.

Before he could properly question about this occurrence, the Uzumaki swore he heard the beating of mighty wings. Looking towards his side, he saw her as his tears ran freely down his cheeks.

She merely smiled at him and waved before her image disappeared from his sight.

…..

…..

…..

Yet that tearful smile quickly died from her expression as Death quickly rose a hand to block an incoming assault towards the Uzumaki, which he will never see in the Sunless Lands. A blast of blue light came into contact with her as the attack died soon after. All that remained of it was a small plumb of smoke coming from her palm.

Death deeply sighed as she glared at the perpetrator. "Why do you do this, Jon?"

" **He is dangerous."** Came a voice that seemed void of much emotion. **"No matter which reality he resides in, he causes disorder with what changes he unknowingly makes. He threatens the very law this universe abides by."**

"That's what you think. But then again, you take order way too seriously with that clock-work idealism of yours that everything should be where it should be to make things properly tick."

" **Naruto Uzumaki changes the fates of specific events and diverts the path certain individuals must take."** Jon argued. **"He must be stopped."**

"First off, he's not the only one in the resounding omniverse. Second, it's the Monitors' job to keep things in check. And third, that's where you're wrong, Jon. Naruto will help guide the heroes to a better tomorrow. For they need his assistance for what's to come."

" **I cannot allow you to do that, Death. His very being here has already taken the path of which this universe once tread on off of its course"**

The gothic woman scoffed. "Skepticism, doubt, corruption. All things your cold heart believes in. But in the end, there's hope and the heroes of this universe that embodies it. All of their hopes and devotions, their love for one another will vanquish what you've done as they'll prove you wrong." Death hotly glared at the being she was talking to. "After all, you're just a man trying to play at immortality. And as such, you will be put down like the monster you've become."

" **And do you think the** _ **gift**_ **you gave him just now will help stop me?"**

"At the current moment, no. But give it time as his dents will take you down."

" **We shall see about that. But before I depart, I wish to ask you of this."** Jon said as Didi saw his form glow a bluish tint in her lands. **"Why do you cling to this 'hope'? It is a mortal concept of which holds very miniscule value other than the word being as it is."**

"You used to have it when you were mortal. Before your accident that made you who you eventually became." Death said as she saw his glowy visage go into a threatening feel, to which she easily brushed off. "Yet your time being the so called _Superman_ of your world made you forget that as people lost hope as they gazed at you. Mercilessly killing people and not stopping the act… just like what Eddie told you: you drifted away before losing your touch and grasp with humanity." She shook her head a little. "And I do agree, _Hope_ is a mortal concept. And that is pretty wonderful and powerful if you ask me. For it drives many and is priceless once you obtain and keep it within yourself."

From his place in the Sunless Lands, Jon could only stare back at Death in his neutral, emotionless face that became cemented ever since he first became what he was today. He didn't say anything else as he departed Death's domain with a flash of blue light.

The gothic woman merely sighed as she walked away to start off her shift to take the departed to their respective destinations. This encounter was not a great way to start it, but she had experienced worse throughout her existence. After all, no shift can really start out perfectly…

Even with her line of work.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **I would've been able to get this out sooner if it wasn't for the fact my older sister was visiting from the other side of the country and had wanted to spend time with my and my little sister. There was also the typical writers block and recent events made me think more on my story to add in more details for later events.**

 **Now I'd like to point out on what I brought up of how Death/Didi has knowledge of the other Earth's/realities. Sure on the end of chapter 29 of this story that she has to go to other 'Earths' as she's the only Death there is with her many avatars and aspects to help things out on her job of transporting souls.**

 **For example of the** _ **possible**_ **death of Wally West/Kid Flash from Young Justice (he's practically stuck in the Speed Force) that Death is the same person to reap him as she reaps Moira Queen over in the CW** _ **Arrowverse**_ **. Death is knowledgeable on the other 'Earths' so this has greatly hinted on the concept.**

 **Another thing to point out is that when a universe/'Earth' finally dies, the other six members of the Endless die with it but Death is all that remains. She is there when the new universe is made and perishes and neither of her six siblings would know of their past experiences in said universes. And in each universe, there's another version of the Endless members but there's only one Death/Didi throughout the DC multiverse.**

 **Though there is the tidbit of the difference between Death from Marvel and DC comics. To me, I think they're like cousins in every generalized sense. It's really hard to talk about on that concept, but I thought to just put that down for my opinion.**

 **Asides from all of that, with the stuff in the end of this chapter, I got inspiration on this through various means. One from the recent DC comics on various issues, two from many topics brought up with crossovers and the like of people changing situations for better or worse (ie Fanfics), and third from my good friend** _ **free man writer**_ **with his story 'Along Came a Spider' with his Fallout arc.**

… **..**

 **Also… new trailers for Kingdom Hearts 3, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Devil May Cry 5, Doom 2, Death Standing, Last of Us 2, Resident Evil 2 Remake/Remaster, the new game from 'From Software' and more! HELL THE FUCK YES! I CAN'T WAIT FOR THEIR RELEASE DATES!**

 **Also to quote Dr. Krieger from Archer: Stop! My penis can only get so erect!**

 **BUT SERIOUSLY! STOP PUTTING OUT ALL OF THESE AWESOME TRAILERS! I'M GOING TO BE BROKE AND POOR IF Y'ALL KEEP SHOWING THESE!**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	55. Power Listings 5

Hey readers of 'A Nobody'. Jebest4781 here.

Here is the next chapter of the powerlistings. It's up to date with how things are now and will follow the trend of posting the listings every 10 or so chapters. This is just to show how big of a leap Naruto has been with his skill sets and additions to his inventory.

Like I stated before, I'm not going to be super accurate on this. So please take it easy on me on this.

 _ **-Abilities-**_

Natural Physical Skill: Physically fit, along with reflexes and agility, despite him losing a lot of skills when he came to the current reality. Despite all that, Naruto's basic physical skills remained.

Enhanced Physical Skill: Due to Pamela's vaccine serum, it enhanced his strength, speed and agility that he can now jump higher with better reflexes, run faster and have better strength and durability.

Healing Factor: Originally, Naruto's healing was exponentially great due to Kurama's influence inside of the seal that he can practically have his skin burnt off due to using the Tailed Beast Cloaks and afterwards the skin grows back after a given time. Excluding Kurama's influence, it was also great due to his Uzumaki heritage. But due to coming to current reality, Kurama level healing factor was removed and went back to one of a normal person. Over time, the healing factor started to come back of slowly 'healing' the body by removing 'erasing' or 'fading' the pain away. Does have limits though…

Disease Immunity: Was given to Naruto by his girlfriend/lover, Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy, when injected by her vaccine serum. The user's immunity, digestive, and other organ systems are enhanced or evolved far beyond that of a normal human's. They are completely immune to every form of disease brought on by bacteria, viruses, or even parasites.

Brawler: Naruto's basic fighting style for many years due to not being properly trained in the academy. Helps make him unpredictable during confrontations but tends to be downfall at times with him not rationalizing through in physical fights by just relying on brute strength.

Frog Kata: Naruto's fighting style when he trained to become the new Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku to use Natural Energy/Nature Chakra to improve his physical strength, speed and agility. When Naruto came into the new world, this ability was mostly useless due to not accessing nature chakra but fighting style still works well despite being limited. When Yggdrasil had given Naruto access to nature energy again, Frog Kata could work to its full potential… in time.

Other Fighting Styles: eskrima stick fighting, scythe fighting, bo staff, lance. Kickboxing via Selina Kyle, but not at her level on what she was taught. She was taught by Ted Grant/Wild Cat just to clear things up. Even was trained under the man for a bit of time. Was also taught by Talia al Ghul years ago.

Memory Manipulation: The user can selectively remove their presence from the target's memories as soon as they disappear from sight or can do so via other means. Will leave person to be partially invisible for a given time if needed. Could remove recent memories from someone to help cover up user's identity if needed.

Sound Manipulation: User can create, shape and manipulate silence, absence of noise/sound. Example would be creating a barrier of sound, or lack-of, around certain objects or on one's self.

Intangibility: User is able to move through objects and ignore most physical effects in their way, exact means how this is done vary between slipping partially into other dimensions, being able to make their own particles move between other particles, being non-physical being of energy, vibrating their molecules into a new quantum frequency, etc. Regardless the user is able to ignore most attacks, physical dangers and gravity. Of course the ability won't be able to work against certain materials and barriers depending on how powerful they are.

Defensive Capabilities: Naruto has a hexagonal barrier of sorts to protect him from oncoming threats to be similar to Gaara's 'Ultimate Defense'. Most projectiles can be bounced off but can be penetrated though if given enough force to break through.

Emotion Detection/Presence Sensing: User can sense the presence of emotions, including feelings, moods and their effects, of themselves, people, animals and other creatures. They can sense the presence of others by sensing their emotions. Naruto used to have really good mastery of this ability in a short amount of time after gaining Chakra Mode but was lost after coming to current reality. Currently he can detect how many people are in a building or room but not their location.

Void Rasengans: Variant of Naruto's Rasengan attack from home reality that instead of chakra manipulation it is comprised of void manipulation. There are variants of them like the varying sizes and strengths of them to the ever popular Rasen-Shuriken attack. Could even be powered down to be thrown to blow back some opponents without any real harm if needed.

***Note that Void Rasengans help more on void manipulation in terms of raw power. Not only that, but other variants of the rasengan will be present as time passes with different elemental factors.***

Clone/Copying: Naruto had the ability to create Shadow Clones due to his vast chakra but after losing the ability to use chakra, Naruto can only make singular clones. They are primarily Void clones, but with current skill right now he can only make a few at a time with the same ability of knowledge gaining and reconnaissance. Given time he can create more with different ability variants like card, water, etc.

Warp/Teleport: Similar to the body flicker technique or shunshin, Naruto can go to one place to another quickly because of his speed and agility. But with his powers enhancing the technique that he can travel vast distances easily that could possibly rival his father's Hiraishin technique in terms of speed. Does have limits of traveling certain distances at a time that it sometimes is limited to visual distances up to roughly a two mile radius.

Sometimes could use weapons to warp to locations like Minato's Hiraishin technique or Noctus' warp ability from Final Fantasy XV.

Hawkeye/'Zoom': A visual ability in which three purple circles appear to zoom into anything within a four kilometer (2.5 mile) range. Often used for scouting to help survey anywhere by simply looking up or down, depending on one's position. Even helps more to execute projectile weapons

Corridor of Darkness: These pathways are formed out of Darkness, so it's unsafe for a normal person to travel through them. The only safe method is if the person forming the pathway deems other people that are going through it are friends/companions/allies. If not then it'll be unsafe and harder to travel through. One upside to using this is that it provides a faster route to certain destinations than from the warp/teleport ability.

 _ **-Nature Abilities-**_

One would say these would be apart of Naruto's chakra echo's or something of that sort due to his life in other reality and losing chakra when coming to current one. Due to his unique circumstances of having most powers from the Organization XIII weapons, he can be able to access those abilities only when weapon of Nobody member is present. Given time and full mastery over weapons, Naruto won't need to summon said weapons to use certain nature abilities.

 _***Note that with Nature Chakra/Natural Energy also has traces of the Red, Clear/Blue and White due to how animals can feel at peace when around Naruto. Not only that but concept with Sage Mode dealt with him being one with nature so there's that.***_

Air/Wind: Naruto's original nature trait when he was a shinobi. Can channel said nature ability around an object to make things sharper and faster on attacks. Even used it in his Rasenshuriken to penetrate things on a cellular level.

Lightning: User can create, shape and manipulate electricity, a form of energy resulting from the movement of charged particles, allowing control over electric fields, all charge carriers, electronics, and electromagnetic forces.

Ice: User can create, shape and manipulate ice, water frozen into a solid state and appears naturally in forms of snow, slush, hail, icicles, ice spikes and candles, glaciers, pack ice, frost, and polar ice caps, and cold by reducing the kinetic energy of atoms and thus making things colder, for various effects and combinations. Could possibly use techniques remembered when battling Haku from original world to make things more interesting.

Plant/Wood/Green: With Naruto originally having access to Sage Mode, he was able to access Natural Energy/Nature Chakra so he can be one with nature. Has come back when Yggdrasil tapped into remnants inside of Naruto's soul. Argued on it being from connection of Sage Mode training, Kurama because of him being 1/9th of the Shinju Tree, because of Naruto's past life was Hashirama or furthest back life being Asura (Hagomoro's youngest son). Will be able to gain skill of controlling plant life after becoming a deputy Green champion of sorts. Not full control over the power for obvious reasons.

 _ **-Constructs-**_

User can create objects from nothing by imagining object, or rather "idea of an object", and then removing non-existence from it, thus making object real. Is better to research on concepts of what user wants to create to have better understanding and use out of object(s). Some small constructs wouldn't be listed like morphing finger tips into claws or making vambraces.

Motorcycle: Hardy-Daytona from Final Fantasy VII

Twilight Thorn Scarf: Can be used as a grappling hook/gun to latch onto certain surfaces or objects to be pulled towards or pull the object to the user.

Outfit: Vanitas Remnant outfit from KH franchise with some changes from no logo on the mask and has a utility belt. Organic bodysuit to be like a second skin to user. Mask covering can 'disperse' to show user's face to the world. Pretty much is merged with the Stealth Suit MK II from Fallout series that Kurama has given him. Mostly named as a psychoanalytic cardiac-dampening sneaking equipment. There is supposed to be a built-in medical system that dispenses some stimulation and medical packs. Has a multi-vision function based off of the Splinter Cell series that has thermal/infrared, night and electromagnetic field capabilities.

 _ **-Weapons-**_

Similar to the construct portion on the list but this time is to create weapons. For the story, Naruto will have access to the weapons of Organization XIII but will take time to access them and use their full capabilities. Color scheme of the weapons will be White, Black and Silver/Grey with some regular color put into weapons depending on what they are.

Also note that any power Naruto has, excluding the main ones, will only be present when he is using one of the weapons down below. Naruto gains full access to the weapon's powers after fully defeating the Absent Silhouettes of each Organization XIII member.

Void Shot: Based off of Xigbar's weapons in the KH franchise. Firing laser like projectiles filled with Void energy. Has three settings in terms of firing the 'bullets': non-lethal, lethal, and tether. With non-lethal, strength of the shots equal those to BB and rubber bullets so one won't die upon impact even as they are lodged into person. With lethal, person would suffer intense pain upon impact or disintegration depending on how strong one is. With tether, holds person down in place while making person weaker over time.

The two arrowguns can be combined into a sniper rifle for a far better accuracy. Regardless, non lethal and lethal projectiles can ricochet off of certain surfaces. Weapons can be charged to fire a more powerful shot.

Kazekage: Based off of Xaldin's weapon in the KH franchise. Attacks tend to become rapid due to the wind enhancing the speed of the weapon. Limit on summoning them is six in total and user can carry three at a time while the rest float around the user. Lances can help form a wind barrier or a natural defense if needed. Helps the user ride through the wind. Though, when combined together, could form a pseudo-dragon to fire compacted whirlwinds.

Yuki: Based off of Vexen's weapon in the KH franchise. An elongated, combat shield having protruding spikes in the end to help both defensively and offensively. Even more so to help when defending oneself while on the move rather than stationary like his barrier. Using ice related powers from it can help out at times by freezing ice over the shield to make a gigantic sword. Can orbit around and defend the user when needed for a hands off approach. Though it can shatter if attacked too often, but will reform given time.

Lexicon: Based off of Zexion's weapon in the KH franchise. It will allow the user to record knowledge into it like a notebook within its unlimited pages. Things from regular notes, story writing, spells, schematics, etc. Current form is that of a regular sized hardcover book, but later on it'll look like a regular thick bounded grimoire and can be used as a blunt force object containing knowledge of previously mentioned stuff on the weapon. Other ability it will eventually have will help create illusions to make up for Naruto's lack of genjutsu handling in the past along with trapping other's within its vast pages. Can be used as a thick defensive barrier if needed since its contents are unlimited amounts of paper and never go away.

Fair Game: Based off of Luxord's weapon in the KH franchise. Playing cards or tarot cards that can be used as throwing weapons. They are sharp enough to cut through nearly anything from flesh, stone, bullets, etc. At some point, full uses will be accessible from creating a defensive barrier of either a single, large card that can grow up to 10 ft. or rapidly spinning cards around the user. Act like like exploding tags if needed. Can alter/warp reality to some degree. Also could allow the user to put oneself or others into cards for safety or entrapment until further notice or death. Can be able to create card clones and cards large enough to hold a few people at a time while floating in the air.

Lunar Rose: Based off of Marluxia's weapon in the KH franchise. Scythe weapon accessed after the meeting with Yggdrasil to have some limits with the Green and possibly the Black later on. When using the weapon, Naruto's warp/teleport ability will gain a white flower petal appearance to be similar to Ruby Rose from the RWBY series when she moves at fast speeds.

Not just that, but handles in plant manipulation a whole lot more by growing them at a better, stronger rate. Energy projectiles can form from said plants.

Foudre: Based off of Larxene's weapon(s) in the KH franchise. Throwing knives/daggers/kunai that can be used close quarter fighting. Electricity coats each of them when activated to deliver more damaging strikes. Though when focusing hard enough could grant user psuedo-Speed Force powers with the lightning/electric abilities and attacks.

 _ **-Summons-**_

Back in Naruto's home reality, he was able to summon the Toads after signing the Toad Summoning Contract. Though once coming to the current reality, he lost the ability to summon his old Toad friends. But in exchange for this loss, he is able to summon an array of help based off of beings from the Kingdom Hearts series. Though with most Nobody summons, they can only be able to be summoned once certain Absent Silhouettes are defeated.

Dusk: A low-ranking Nobody summon that are the only ones able to 'speak'. Used primarily for simple recon and courier operations. Their name refers to the period of time when the sun begins to set and twilight begins to set in. This emphasizes how Nobodies are beings of neither Light nor Darkness, but are closer to the Darkness.

Creeper: A low-ranking Nobody summon that maintain an astounding ability to contort themselves. They display the ability to shapeshift; turning into a large lance similar to the ones used by the Dragoons, a large sword, and a small, hexagonal shield. It can also turn its arms into small wings. The Creeper's name refers to its tendency to crawl using its large hands rather than its feet. Mostly are better effective in large groups.

Dream Eater Spirits: Gifted by Dream of the Endless, Naruto and chosen others could access these beings only when in the Dreaming as these summons are only available in that domain. Each of them vary in different shapes, sizes, colors and abilities as they have different functions while fighting their dark counterparts: nightmares.


	56. Fear of Victory

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 51: Fear of Victory**

Sitting inside of his dorm room, Dick Grayson was watching the highlights of yesterday's football game alongside his roommate, Brian Rogers. Said man is an african-american college senior who worked his butt off on both his school work and his collegiate career.

" _...Look at Gotham State's Brian 'The Rock' Rogers!"_ Spoke the announcer from the local sports channel. _"He's a one-man offense."_ Footage then showed Brian catching the football and making it towards the opponent's side of the field for a touchdown. _"A repeat performance this weekend against that tough Tech team all but guarantees Rogers a big-buck pro contract."_

The Grayson smiled, turned his attention towards his roommate and spoke. "Sounds like it's off to the pros for you, roommate."

Sitting at his end of the dorm room, Brian wore a half-lidded smile on his face. "Maybe, but he's right." Said the football player in a nervous tone. "The scouts will be watching me real close against Tech."

Brian was right. It was that time of the college gaming season where scouts and drafters start roaming campuses around the country to find possible add-ons to the NFL rosters. They pay close attention to their targets to see if the players are right for the picking or wait again next year on most individuals.

For Dick's roommate, the quarterback, this was possibly one of his last chances to get drafted through the college route by making one hell of a good impression. If Brian doesn't make it, then he'd have to try out for the Gotham Knights once graduating college. Said option is harder as more people sign up at that time to possibly gain a spot out of god knows how many potentials.

Dick shook his head and tossed his friend a football. "It's no sweat, Brian. You'll dazzle them for sure tomorrow."

Catching the ball, the football player rubbed his hands against it's leathery surface as he let out a nervous breath. "I hope so." Brian said as his half-lidded smile grew into a bigger one. "Making the pros means I can help out my folks. Maybe even put my sister through college." 

Dick nodded when hearing his roommate's goal. It was a good one as it was noble with what he wanted to do exactly. When Brian got his college scholarship, he didn't want to waste it at all. That meant hardly any 'party-time' as his primary focus was towards his classes and team workouts. And when it was off-season for both school and football, Brian would send his family much of his paychecks to help pay the bills and his sister's college tuition.

The two roommates then put their attention back at their TV as the sports channel went back to it's announcer from a brief commercial. _"Now it's time for Boseman's Bloopers. And boy, they were coming off the walls this week."_ Footage switched to a clip showing a boxer was chasing another around the ring. And across the running one's face was absolute fear. _"Heavily favored middleweight champ, Rudy Lovell, set two new records: One for the shortest fight in history, the other for the 50-yard dash."_ Things then switched to a hockey game as a goalie was huddled up in the netting with his eyes were bawling out. _"Goalie, Rick Gale, came up with a novel way to defend his goal. Rather unorthodox, wouldn't you say, Rick? But effective."_ And one final clip appeared as a tennis match was underway with one of the players suddenly freaking out and dodged an incoming tennis ball. _"And here's top seed Chris Adams, making it look like she's in the wrong racket."_ The footage then went back to the announcer, who was scratching his head. _"Seriously though, this was mighty puzzling behavior from some of our finest Gothamite athletes."_

Turning off the TV, Dick rubbed his eyes and muttered out his thought on the situation. "I'll say."

Suddenly, the sounds of the door to their dorm room was being knocked. Dick and Brian looked at each other in curiosity at who was on the other side.

"Did you buy a pizza again?" Asked the Grayson.

Brian shook his head 'no' before he got up and walked towards the door. He peared through the peephole and saw a telegram man on the other side.

Opening it up, the college football player spoke towards the man. "Yes?"

"I've got a telegram for Brian Rogers." Said the telegram man as he waved a sealed envelope in his hand.

"That's me." Brian was handed the envelope before he fished out his wallet from his pocket before handing the telegram man a five dollar bill for a tip. "Here you go."

"Thank you and have a good evening, sir."

The telegram man walked away from the dorm room as Brian closed the door. The football player then looked at the envelope with a questionable look. And this was shared with his roommate.

Wanting to know the letter's contents, Brian unsealed the envelope and pulled it out. His eyes scanned the letter and spoke his thoughts. "This is weird."

"What ya mean?" Dick asked. "Let me see."

Brian compiled and handed his friend the letter before the Grayson read it.

 _Dear Brian,_

 _Best of luck against Tech. And remember that only a fool knows no fear. I'm betting on it.  
-A fan._

Dick looked up and Brian easily read his roommate's expression. "As I said, Dick: Weird."

"Yeah, weird."

 _ **-Morning, Gotham University-**_

Sitting at his desk, the Wayne ward rubbed his eyes a little as he tried to pay attention to his Criminology teacher among his fellow students. He'd usually he'd be fully awake for the lecture for one of his favorite classes. But as of late Dick wasn't all that attentive.

All things considered, Dick couldn't call these past days great. For you see, the Grayson has been rather tired for some time now and you can blame them on recent events.

The problem started when Yoru Sensei, Bruce's old martial arts teacher, called and asked his guardian for help. Kyodai Ken had returned by kidnapping Yoru's star student and adoptive granddaughter, Kairi, while demanding a very unique ransom demand. And if said demand isn't met in time then Kairi's life would be forfeit.

Now the demand dates back five centuries ago as Yoru Sensei's ancestor created a fighting style that made him unstoppable, yet _The Way of the Fang_ was too dangerous to teach. Said ancestor hid the martial art's manual with a map to its whereabouts passed down from generation to generation, son to son, for an odd family tradition.

And since Yoru Sensei never had a son or a grandson, the secret will stay with him to his grave.

Dick was brought along to Japan since Bruce had a distinct feeling Kyodai was not going to be fair on his revenge on Bruce, who the old fighting school rival knew was also Batman. The feeling was proven true as Kyodai had hired mercenaries to make things difficult for the Dynamic Duo during the hostage/map exchange.

Luckily for them, Kairi was saved. Unfortunately, the map was taken.

It wasn't until the next day when Bruce came back with what remained of the martial art's scroll, which was tracked down at Mount Kakilki, as it fragmented into pieces. A piece was seemingly missing from the remains and Yoru Sensei guessed it was the most lethal move of _The Way of the Fang_ : the death touch.

When they least expected it, Alfred was taken and Kyodai wanted Bruce to show up for a final showdown at Mount Kakilki. Dick was able to find Alfred while his guardian fought his old rival once last time as the mountain volcano erupted. In the end Kyodai had perished while Bruce tried to save him from the lava.

After the whole ordeal, the ensemble returned to Gotham while getting things back on track and catch up on things from Dick's school work to Bruce's time in the office. Everything was good and nothing seemed to have happened in Gotham in their time away as they believed Naruto took care of things in their stead.

Yet their time of peace was clearly thrown off for the Wayne household as the whiskered Uzumaki came to them and spoke some unfortunate news: during their time away; Selina, Pam and Harley were kidnapped the League of Assassins/Shadows.

Naruto explained that Ra's al Ghul, founder and leader of the organization, orchestrated their abductions all for Naruto's test in order to see if he was qualified in replacing the ancient assassin. The publisher did tell them what happened afterwards with the showdown at the Sahara and what Ra's planned when he turned down the offer.

Suffice to say, Bruce and Dick were floored on the details. Even freaking out on not just the world threatening situation, but Ra's knowing of their hero identities.

This got Bruce to go full Batman-mode as he interrogated Naruto everything he knew about Ra's and his organization. From there, the Wayne billionaire went into upgrading the Batcave's defenses… again… so nothing like the earlier situation won't happen for god knows how long.

Yet this wasn't enough as Bruce left town quite recently in order to pursue any leads on the League of Shadows/Assassins. And because of this, Dick has been running solo and filling in the workload while his mentor is away; even with Naruto's assistance.

Now to clear things up, Dick had little to no problem as he was fine with the past instances when this occurred. In fact, the Grayson occasionally forgot how much he enjoyed doing things solo. In Dick's honest opinion, college is great and all, but what he does as Robin feels much more important.

But there was a problem about this: like his guardian, Dick gets too drawn into the crime fighting life.

The college crime fighter had to be careful about this every now and again when Bruce left him to take care of things. This had to be treated carefully, especially in college. When he was in his first year, his grades dropped for a brief time due to being left to fend for himself in crime fighting. Dick thought he didn't think there was a point in going to college as he'd just focus being Robin full-time; even after graduating as he'd just go straight into it.

But there was a time that the Wayne butler had a similar choice around Dick's current age: whether to follow in his father's footsteps of being a butler or pursue a career in the theatre.

This honestly surprised Dick when learning this little detail as he only learned the man was apart of the British secret service before working for the Wayne family. You see, Alfred had taken an interest in acting throughout most of his life. And although he knew even then it wasn't what he was meant to do, Alfred found it extremely difficult to leave behind. At one point he did quit the theatre life and oddly incorporated it into his life as a British agent for many of his past missions. And that too was difficult to leave behind as he traded one life for another.

The point Alfred gave Dick was perhaps he was meant to be himself or Robin. But you won't make the right decision if your unwilling to let go of the past.

The Grayson's thoughts were abruptly ended as he heard a gunshot in the classroom. His focus immediately went up front to see their teacher, Iruka Umino, hunching forward as if he was indeed shot.

'What-' Dick thought as his eyes caught onto man's appearance with a gun in his hand and took better note before said man ran out of the classroom. 'That sound…'

"Somebody do something!" A female cried out. Looking over a few seats away, Dick saw it was Barbara Gordon who spoke out before pointing to a random student. "You! Call 9-1-1!"

"That won't be necessary, Ms. Gordon." Called out their criminology teacher. Everyone looked to the front of the room and saw their teacher was perfectly fine. Iruka straightened himself out before walking in front of his desk. "The man you just saw was a paid actor, the gun was fake, and I am unharmed." Their teacher gave a small shrug. "An unconventional teaching method, I know, but what's a criminology class without a little crime?" Iruka joked with a smirk for his own little joke. "Let's continue, shall we?"

"An act? It's... part of the lesson?" Barbara asked in bewilderment as she slowly sat back down.

Leaning over a little, Dick spoke to his fellow classmate. "Nice moves, Officer Gordon." He smirked as he saw her eye twitch. "I expected you to start reading the guy his rights next."

The spectacled redhead turned her head and glared at the Wayne ward. "Oh Ha Ha Ha." She kept her eyes trained at him. "Get something straight, Grayson. You may not care about learning anything in this class, but I do." She suddenly heard Dick chuckle a little. "What's so funny?"

"We're waiting, Ms. Gordon." Barbara whipped her head towards the front as everyone was staring back at her with the teacher addressing her. "Perhaps you'd like the question repeated?"

Dick let out another chuckle, causing Barbara to briefly glare at him once more.

"I was asking each student to recall everything they could about my _attacker_." Mr. Umino said. "Did you happen to notice anything?"

"Uh yes, sir. And... sorry about talking." Their teacher briefly nodded before Barbara thought and gave her answer. "Um... He was around six foot one, between 200-215 pounds and between 20-25 years old. Caucasian with brown hair and he was left-handed... That's all I could make out."

Iruka curled his lips a little as he wrote something in his clipboard. "Impressive, considering that 'big white guy' was the second most detailed description there is, Miss Gordon." The criminologist looked up and saw Dick's smirk. "May I understand from your grin that you have something to add, Mr. Grayson?"

Dick nodded as he spoke. "Just that he was carrying a cap gun, not a real one."

Iruka smiled as he wrote something on his clipboard. "Very observant. Now can anybody else add to that description?" The teacher looked around. "Anyone?... No? Then as long as there are no objections from our two 'junior detectives', let's move on."

Barbara looked over and glared at Dick, who merely smirked at her reaction. "I'm going to get you for this." She muttered.

Some time has past before Iruka looked at the clock before calling out to his students. "And that's it for today, class. See you all next week and be sure to be ready for your finals coming up: both the test and your paper."

As the students gathered up their things, Barbara spoke to Dick. "Earlier on the questioning, how could you tell it was a cap gun?"

"It has a distinctive sound." He said, getting her to tilt her head which got him to explain. "You grow up in a circus, you learn to recognize it." She let out a sigh, making him quirk a brow. "Why are you sweating this much for the class anyways? You want to be a cop or something? Possibly the next Commissioner Gordon?"

Barbara glared at Dick as she slipped her arms through her backpack straps. "There something wrong with that? Is there?"

Dick quickly shook his head. "No! Of course not."

"And who do you want to be like? Bruce Wayne with how you keep going through other girls on campus?" She let out a huff. "You'll need some plastic surgery first and a lobotomy."

He sighed as he understood a little on the jab. Dick had recently called it quits with this last girl he was seeing due to things getting more cluttered in his life and he needed more time for his life. This was understanding on her part and things were fine for both parties. Yet this little tidbit has often been seen by his peers as something he possibly picked up from Bruce, due to him going through dates like pieces of candy or some better analogy.

Rubbing the back of his head, he spoke. "Look, sorry Barbara. I didn't mean that earlier bit."

Barbara rolled her eyes a little and accepted the apology before making her way towards the front. As the other students left the room, the spectacled redhead stayed behind with Dick hanging back as he was a little curious on what Barbara was doing.

Looking up from organizing his belongings, the criminology teacher addressed his student. "May I help you?"

"First off, Mr. Umino, I want to say that I've learned so much in your class. And to be able to discuss the issues at length with you. It's really great." Barbara said, getting him to nod on hearing the appreciation he got from her. "I just have one more question."

"Shoot."

"It's about the midterms."

Iruka rose a brow. "Okay… Why bring that up now instead of then?" He opened and looked through his grading book to see her score. "And I don't see why it's bad, Ms. Gordon. You're passing my class. Both then and now."

The commissioner's daughter fidgeted in her spot before explaining her reason. "You gave me an 'A' and Dick an 'A+'. I think I have a good grasp of the material as he does-"

"Not as good. Better." The criminologist teacher started putting things away as he continued speaking. "Your dedication to the class is apparent. Your research abilities, your analysis, are all of the extraordinarily high quality. I had to look up some of the references you cited."

"Then why?"

"It's your mindset." Her teacher answered. "You think like a decent human being because that's what you are, Ms. Gordon. But a great criminologist must be able to think like a criminal at times. But of course it can be a hard skill for anyone to grasp that's not a criminal, someone trained in this field, the police or crime novel writers."

Barbara looked a bit disheartened at this. "Are you saying that I couldn't be… a good police officer… or a writer?"

The spectacled redhead could somewhat understand this problem through a writer's standpoint. It was still one of those difficulties she still faces when going over her Binary Beast novel. Naruto does what he can to help her out on that particular detail, but she keeps hitting that roadblock quite often. Something she hasn't quite fully grasped yet.

The criminologist teacher sighed. "Please don't misunderstand this, Ms. Gordon. With your skills, you could develop such an ability over time. I'd ask that you consider, however, whether or not you really want to."

It was at this point that Dick decided to walk up to them and spoke his mind. "Think of it like this way, Babs. It's somewhat like stepping through the looking glass. Once you see the world through a criminal's eye, it's difficult to reacquire the proper perspective."

Iruka nodded as he pointed his thumb at the Grayson. "Couldn't have said it better myself." The teacher went back into putting things away as he talked some more. "For example, there are the MacGuffin pistols put up on display here on campus. Their owner, Angus MacGuffin, was a notorious outlaw that struck the nation in the 19th century. No one was able to find his loot, especially when officials looked high and low for its whereabouts."

Iruka grabbed his belongings and walked out of the classroom with the two students not far behind. "When I first wanted to apply to this college as a teacher, I wanted to make things unique to get me in. So I studied the case inside and out and I even had to break out of my normal thought patterns to help my case. And soon enough, I eventually came to a realization that Angus must've hid his cache whereabouts on his person at all times. Somewhere no one would even think to look."

"And where was it?" Barbara asked.

"The map for his cache was hidden inside of his revolver handles." Came the teacher's answer. "It was easily hard to miss as the series of scratches on the handles -which came from Angus dropping his guns quite often- covered the screw skids in order to open and close the handles frequently when MacGuffin wanted to change his cache location." They stepped outside as he finished his tale. "I soon presented my case and the board inspected the guns before they indeed found a map inside of the handles to help me get the position you see me in today."

"Was there some point to this?" Came her question.

"It's not much of a difficult one, Ms. Gordon: just think and see things from a criminal's perspective to get a better angle on things." Their teacher said as he sighed. "Sorry if it's not much, but I hope you understand that fact even once you're done with my class by semester's end." Barbara nodded in understanding as that detail will be hard to fully get through. "Now if you two will excuse me, I've got a lunch date with my fiance before we go see today's game."

With that, Iruka went off leaving Barbara and Dick by themselves.

It was honestly a little awkward now, in the Grayson's position, as he honestly didn't know what to do next. He looked at the redhead and spoke what seemed to come to mind. "Speaking of today's game…"

"Yeah?"

"You planning on going, Babs?" He asked, which responded with a quick 'no'. "Why not?"

"I've got this assignment I need to make up for in toxicology." She answered. "You know, poisons and their antidotes. It's all part of my degree."

"Can't you just do that later? We're up against State Tech today."

"With how tempting it is; no can do, Dick." Barbara stated as she walked away with him following after her a little. "Mr. Siddiq -my one teacher- wanted me to do the make-up assignment today since I was not doing all that great on previous ones." Passing by several students, she continued talking. "Finals are coming up soon and he said I need to do this one or else my overall class grade won't change in preparation for finals. And the only available time he can take time to oversee my assignment is during the game today and I had to take the opportunity or else I'm screwed." Barbara let out a frustrated sigh while lifting her glasses to rub her eyes. "I definitely need it… since chemistry and I don't get along too well… And even after finishing that, I've got some stuff to work on right after."

Dick gave a brief nod in understanding before something funny crossed his mind. "Heh~ I can probably imagine it's quite attached to you... with the stuff spilled on your clothes." He said to make light of the situation.

The commissioner's daughter rolled her amethyst eyes on his joke. "Ha ha. Well at least I got to learn that if you mix bromine powder with denzenel, you get denzl bromide: a form of tear gas."

"...You learned that on accident, didn't you?" Her face said it all as Dick chuckled at her expense, yet let out a resounding 'OW!' when she punched his arm.

 **-Later, Gotham Stadium-**

The sun was coming closer and closer to the horizon, causing it's blinding light to strike the faces of many stadium attendees. People were rowdy, like in any sports game, from either the hype or being a tad drunk from most patrons consuming a bit too much alcohol. Yet their focus was primarily aimed towards the football field below on what was currently taking place.

The score was 24 to 3 and things would've be good for the Gotham University football team… if they were the winning that is. And this was rather unexpected in quite the shocking way.

The whistle blew and a large groan could be heard by many watching the game both at the stadium and viewers at home.

" _Yet another bad pass by Rogers."_ Spoke the announcer with an even tone in order to hide his displeasure of tonight's events. _"Brian Rogers is having the worst day of his collegiate career."_

Sitting in the stands; Dick was watching the game with varying levels of intrigue.

"Come on, Brian!" Dick cried out amongst the loud attendees. "Get it together!"

"What the hell is going on out there?" Muttered the man sitting next to him. "Kid seemed fine at the start of the game."

The Grayson sighed as he leaned back in his seat. "He was when I talked to him before the game. But now I have no idea what's going on."

"It might be because of the pressure."

Dick didn't know how to properly respond to that, so he didn't speak a word as his eyes went back onto the field.

In a small team huddle, Brian was sweating and panting every other second as his vision seemed a little blurry. The last one he thought it was just because of him giving off a lot of nervous sweats, yet wiping all that off didn't help in the slightest. And he tried to calm himself down, but nothing seems to be working at all with his heartbeat going faster and faster.

"All right. All right." Brian said to his team as his head shifted from side to side. "Let's try a run." He let out a few pants of air. "Off tackle…

"On third and 25, we need to pass!" One of his teammates spoke out.

Brian nodded in acceptance. "Yeah, yeah, okay, okay." He nervously spoke out. "Yeah, yeah, sure, pass."

"Are you okay, man?" Said another teammate. "You don't look so good."

'The Rock' merely shook his head. "N-N-No problem, really."

As the quarterback left, the others looked at each other with a lot of concern. Wasn't long before they fully broke the huddle and went into formation to start off the next play of the game. And after several moments, Brian called out 'hike'.

" _The ball is snapped."_ Spoke the announcer as the Gotham U. quarterback ran back a few feet. _"Rogers is going back..."_

Just when Brian was about to throw the ball to one of his teammates, his vision seemed to have suddenly cleared up…

'No…' He thought as his heart rate suddenly spiked.

Only to see the incoming State Tech players swiftly change into grotesque monsters that came out from his very nightmares.

"No!" Brian cried in absolute horror. "Don't hurt me! Don't hurt me!" The quarterback then dropped the ball and fell onto the ground in absolute agony while curing up for his protection.

The game came to a sudden stop with what was transpiring. Many whispers were spoken throughout the stands as the medical team rushed across the field to check on the Gotham U's quarterback.

Feeling worried for his roommate, Dick hoped over the guardrail and rushed over to see what was wrong. As he got closer, the Grayson heard Brian mumble things that he was barely able to pick up on.

"T-T-They were s-s-so big and sc-scary." Brian whispered out with tears running down his cheeks. "I-I couldn't…"

"It's gonna be alright, son." Spoke one of the medics. "We're gonna take you to the infirmary for observation and see what's up."

When the medics took the quarterback away, Dick looked on with absolute concern and confusion before he was confronted by security and escorted off the field.

 _ **-Evening, On the Streets-**_

"...It was unbelievable, Bruce." Said the masked Grayson as he called his guardian through the car's phone. "The guy totally freaked right there on the field."

Driving through the Gotham streets, Robin rode the batmobile for his nightly patrol; one of the few perks he got to do when Bruce left on his own. And unlike his mentor, Dick drove the Bat's car at safe, reasonable speeds.

" _Your roommate, Brian 'The Rock' Rogers, he was under a lot of pressure."_ Bruce spoke from the other end. _"You can never tell when things finally get to you."_

"But I still consider it strange with how odd it went earlier."

" _If you say so, Dick."_

"So how's things going on your search?" Dick asked as he slowed the batmobile to stop in front of a red light.

" _Not great, I'm afraid. The League of Shadows/Assassins are harder to track than I could realize. All I could figure is that they seem to be underground and hiding."_

"Because Naruto took down their leader?"

" _That's a possibility."_ Bruce replied with a small groan. _"With an organization that large, there could've been contingencies placed if something like that could've happened. So any normal methods on how to reach them are temporarily halted. And since neither of us -Naruto included- know what the contingencies are and where they could be located, it would take a long time for any of their operatives to come into the light."_

Robin merely sighed as the light turned green and propelled the batmobile forward. "Then I guess you're coming back to Gotham?"

" _In a few days, Dick."_ Responded the Wayne. _"Despite that I've run out time for my search, I still have several business meetings to attend to out of the country."_

"Well make it back in one piece, Bruce. Getting really tired and I need a break."

" _Isn't Naruto helping you out?"_

Robin was about to respond when he saw something drop in front of the batmobile. He suddenly stopped the vehicle to a screeching halt before reclining the roof to see some suspicious activity.

" _Dick? You there?"_

"I'm gonna have to call you back later, Batman. Something came up." Said the masked Grayson as he ended the call and hopped out of the vehicle. He walked closer to what fell on the road and saw it was a pearl necklace. He rose a hidden brow before looking up once pulling out his binoculars and zoomed in. "Hello~ What do we have here?"

Up on high on a building's ledge lied a pair of thieves as they were smuggling jewelry from some room from said building.

"Time to get to work." Robin muttered as he pulled out his grappling gun and fired straight up. Once it was secure, the masked Grayson pressed the reclining button to shoot himself straight into the air. As he got higher and closer to his target, Robin saw the thieves spot him and made a break for it via ladder towards the roof.

At the halfway mark up the building, something strange happened to the 'Boy' Wonder as his vision started getting hazy with his heart rate suddenly spiking. Robin squeezed his eyes shut for a brief moment and when he opened up his eyes… the cityscape suddenly switched to a circus tent.

'What?!' Thought the masked Grayson as he peered down and widened his eyes in fear. 'Oh God! NO!'

Robin squeezed his eyes tight and kept on tight on the grappling gun with all his might. His body then collided with the building, causing him to let go before falling and landing onto one of the gargoyles. Once he stopped moving, Robin latched onto the building's decorations in order to feel safe. Yet tears formed underneath his domino mask while the hero shook like a leaf.

'I-I-It c-can't be r-real.' Robin thought in absolute fear.

Up on the building's rooftop, the two thieves looked at the scene with mild-confusion before laughing at Robin's expense.

"Hey, boy blunder!" Yelled out one of the thieves. "What's the matter?! Bat got your tongue?!" Said thief then heard metal hitting against rock and looked over to see his partner digging a crowbar into a cement block with a connecting statue. "Whatcha doin man?"

"Taking care of the broken bird." The second thief grunted out. "C'mon and help me push!"

His partner compiled and helped out to complete this task. But before the statue could get free from it's placement and fall onto the downed hero, a cloth-like material forward -along with a grappling hook- and wrapped around both the thieves and statue to snag them in rather tight.

"What the?!/What's going on?!" The two thieves cried out.

"Now pull!" Yelled out a new arrival.

"Right!" Spoke a feminine voice.

Before the thieves realized it next, they were quickly pulled back onto the rooftop along with the statue to hold them in place. They looked towards the source and saw Vanitas and Batgirl walking towards them.

"Sorry boys, but you're not killing any birdies tonight." Batgirl spoke out with a smug smile. As she stopped a foot away from the downed men, the masked Gordon saw Vanitas walk towards the edge of the building and look down. "Something wrong?"

"Yes, Batgirl. Something is wrong." He said to her as he jumped onto the ledge. "You wait here and watch these two. I'm going down to see what's up." The helmeted hero saw her nod on the small order.

With the grappling scarves still connecting to him, Vanitas leapt down and descended down to Robin's position. The cloth length extended once the helmeted hero felt the hard tug before slowing his decent to his friend's position. When he got closer, Vanitas saw Robin was in a fetal position and shivered like no tomorrow.

'Whatever happened really spooked him.' Vanitas thought as he nudged Robin slightly. "Robin, it's me Vanitas." There wasn't much of a response, getting the masked Uzumaki to carefully pulled the costumed Grayson to face him. "All right, Dick. You've got to pull yourself together." He spoke low enough so Batgirl wouldn't hear Robin's identity, despite the distance.

"I...I don't know…" Robin muttered out as his eyes briefly looked down, causing him to stiffen up again.

"Don't worry, I'm getting you down to the ground." Vanitas said as a card platform appeared underneath them. "Safe and sound."

The masked Uzumaki formed a clone to take hold of the ethereal chains as he brought the 'Boy' Wonder to the streets below. Once they were at the batmobile, Robin tried to cool himself off with his heart rate trying to lower itself, yet his nerves were still getting to him.

"I don't know what happened to me, Vanitas." Admitted the masked Grayson. "I was scared to death. I couldn't even think and possibly breathe. It was so unreal." 

"But how? You were okay in the previous times you were so high up."

Robin nodded. "You're telling me. But today… I don't know what the hell is going on."

"Could be the stress getting to you of doing the nightly patrols while Batman's not around to school finally getting to you." Stated the helmeted publisher, only getting a barely visible shrug from the shook up hero. Vanitas helped him up and got him into the batmobile. "I should probably drop you off at your dorm building so you can sleep it off."

"Might as well." The 'Boy' Wonder steadily said. "After what happened earlier today… I thought doing the patrol… would've cleared my head, but it didn't."

Vanitas perked a hidden brow at this. "What happened earlier?" He asked as he started up the batmobile and made their way to the university dorms.

During the early part of the drive, Robin recalled of what happened to his roommate, Brian, at the football game. How he acted before and during the event. Vanitas listened carefully to each detail, causing him to narrow his gaze.

'Sounds a lot like what's going on in the news lately with those athletes.' Thought the costumed publisher as he carefully navigated to their destination.

 _ **-Dick's Dorm Room, Gotham University-**_

"...I can understand that you wanted to bring me back in here personally for my own safety," said the still costumed Grayson as he sat on his bed, "but why are you still here?" Robin asked while Vanitas combed through the dorm room.

"Call it a gut feeling, but I find it too strange that you and your roommate would have panic attacks on the same day." Was the response. "Was there anything you two came into contact recently that would've caused this to occur?"

"Hell if I know. There's a lot of things in here we touch… so it's hard to tell."

The helmeted hero sighed a little as he shifted things through Brian's desk before something fell onto the ground. He bent down and saw it was a telegram card. Picking it up, Vanitas was about to put it back on the disk's surface when he saw something was amiss.

"Did you come into contact with this?"

Robin looked up and saw his friend wave something in his hand. Rising from the bed, the masked Grayson walked over to get a closer look and saw what it was exactly. "The screwy telegram? Yeah. Why?" Vanitas didn't say anything as he handed the telegram over. Once it came into Robin's grasp, the 'Boy' Wonder saw a light powder staining his gloves. "Hey, what's this?"

"Our lead."

 _ **-Batcave-**_

"What are you doing now?" Robin asked as approached his friend -who was using the batcomputer- while drinking some water. Whatever was causing him to be like this was making him rather parched while on the way over here.

"Using the microscopic spectrograph scanner to get a readout on the telegram." Vanitas answered as he typed more commands into the system. "I suspect the powder is absorbed through exposed skin to cause the reaction you and Brian had earlier."

"You sure about that?"

"Pretty sure."

After several moments, the batcomputer was able to get a proper readout of the powder's chemical makeup as several connections appeared on the screen.

"Seems the hunch was correct." Said the helmeted hero. "It appears that the compound is activated by adrenaline. So whenever you or Brian or any of the other athletes got agitated…"

Robin snapped his fingers. "The stuff kicks in, turning our excitement to fear." He then adopted a questioning look on his face. "But how long is this gonna last?"

"Who knows." The costumed Uzumaki rose from the chair and walked past Robin to head back to the batmobile. "But I'm afraid there's only one person who can answer that: the Scarecrow."

The masked Grayson then gained a worried look across his features. "But… isn't he locked up in Arkham?"

"Only one way to find out."

 _ **-Arkham Asylum-**_

Harley gave out a yawn as her blue eyes briefly glanced at the clock in her office. "Almost time to head on home." She muttered out.

These past days have been rather stressful for her, due to what happened in the events of _The Demon's Quest_ , as she calls and refers to it. Work has been piling up with her typical workload and assignments she had to make up for when she was kidnapped. Things could've been easily taken care of if she told her superiors on her being taken, but that would've waved too many flags and questions in her general direction.

So instead of taking the easy way out, Harley took the harder path in order to protect herself and her loved ones.

'I hope things can get better for the lot of us.' She thought as she started to gather up some of her belongings. 'Selina still hasn't contacted us yet, both phone and the Dreaming.' The pale woman sighed. 'I know we've given her space, but I'm getting really worried for her.'

Harley exited her office and locked the door before making her way towards the restroom to freshen up a little as she continued her thoughts with a small smile. 'On the upside, at least puddin and Red's babies will turn out alright.'

It was quite odd for her and Pam when Naruto suddenly told them that the new arrivals will have none of the crazy insanity they learned with the Lazarus Waters' side effects. Neither knew if he was telling the truth or needed some psychologist sessions from the bubbly blonde.

But when Naruto showed them his memories, both Pam and Harley changed their tunes.

The Arkham doctor was quite intrigued when her boyfriend met Death herself and learned all those juicy bits of information throughout _her_ holiday. Sure Harley did freak out on that reveal and feared for Naruto and Rachel's safety -as did Pam- but things were assured when Death meant them no harm. The whole _viewing_ gave the changed blonde a new perspective on life and it made her rather tempted into writing a book about the concept.

One tidbit that seemed to stand out the most for Harley was the mentioning of Delirium. She had a small feeling the youngest member of the Endless was the same imaginary friend she had as a child. The asylum psychologist could be wrong, but a part of her knew it was true… somehow.

'If I ever got the chance to see her again…' Came the drawled out thought before she collided with someone, causing her to quickly snap out of her thinking process. "Oh, sorry about- PUD-MMPH!"

Vanitas quickly shushed her as he covered her mouth with his hand. "Seriously, Harley, why do you keep doing that?" He asked his blonde girlfriend.

The pale woman pried the hand away with a small grin was seen. "Because seeing you here always makes me happy to lighten my mood." She answered before looking behind her pudding and saw- "Hiya Roby!"

"...Hey Harley..." Robin muttered out.

Harley rose a brow and voiced a question. "What's got ya in the dumps?"

"We'll explain along the way to the holding cells in the men's wing." Vanitas said as they walked down the hallway. "Reason why we needed you for an employee access."

The asylum employee nodded as Robin and her lover explained the situation.

Over in the men's wing of the asylum, a nurse walked through the entrance to deliver some food for the evening. Some of the other inmates in said section were already fed, but there was only one last meal to deliver.

Coming up to the guard stationed for the wing -who seemed to almost fall asleep at this point- the nurse spoke up as she gestured to a covered plate of food. "This is for Jonathan Crane."

The guard quickly woke up at the mention of the inmate and turned his attention to the plate of food. "I got it!" He said as he snatched it from the roller. The guard opened it up to inspect the meal for anything out of the ordinary and he chuckled on it's contents. "Heh~ corn on the cob. A scarecrow's gotta love that."

The nurse rolled her eyes on the joke before exiting the area in order to get back to her station.

As the nurse walked through the doors, the guard peeked over one last time before he started digging into the meal in front of him.

"Now that is rather rude, Jenkins." A feminine voice called out, causing the guard to almost choke on the food. He swirled his head around and saw Dr. Quinzel narrowing her gaze at him with Vanitas and Robin standing behind her, who seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere. "You're eating a meal that's not meant for you." 

Jenkins coughed to clear his throat before looking straight at the two vigilantes. "You're not supposed to be here!"

"We know." Vanitas said before moving his arm towards Harley. "But Dr. Quinzel here has authorization."

"And these two can come here as long as I'm with them." Harley said with a tilt of her head. "Now we need to see a particular patient here for a late night visit."

The asylum guard swallowed a small lump before asking the one question across his mind. "Who?"

"The Scarecrow." Vanitas answered as he walked towards the main holding cells. "After all, he's supposed to be here."

"W-What do you mean?" Jenkins stuttered out. "He's in his cell."

"I'd like to make sure of that."

The guard rushed forward and blocked the hero's path. "Take my word. I just saw him five minutes ago."

The costumed Uzumaki merely phased right through the man and kept walking forward. "Then you won't mind if I pay him a visit."

"B-But you can't do that! It's against the rules! You just can't!"

"Why so defensive, Jenkins?" Harley asked as she tapped her foot against the ground. "You go on ahead, Vanitas, I'm sure Robin can keep me company while I question him on his conduct."

Vanitas nodded and looked over to Robin, who seemed a little relieved on Harley's offer as he rubbed his arms. And without another word, the helmeted hero phased through the locked door as he briefly heard his blonde lover start reprimanding and questioning Jenkins. 

There were a good number of inmates locked up in the men's wing of Arkham with a number of familiar faces. Harvey 'Two Face' Dent was flipping his scratched up coin in his quarters. Jervis Tetch, the Mad Hatter, was making macrame characters from the Alice in Wonderland franchise. Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad were kept in separate cells as they respectively prepared themselves for bed. Matt 'Clayface' Hagen was watching one of his old movies before glaring at the hero. And Waylon Jones, the Killer Croc, was brushing and flossing his razor sharp teeth. 

Upon reaching the frontal glass cell of Jonathan Crane, Vanitas saw the former college professor was rocking back and forth in a rocking chair..

"Professor Crane?" Vanitas spoke as he reached closer to the inmate. "I'd like to talk to you-" The hero stopped as his gaze landed on a little motor hidden on the floor. It was connected to the rocking chair and it didn't take long to figure out what was going on.

'I'll need to inform Harley that Crane escaped.' He thought as he bent down and turned off the motor connecting to the dummy decoy.

 _ **-Gotham Square Theatre-**_

'...This guy is sure taking his time.' Thought a musclebound-looking thug as he was tailing a particular man. And the man he was following went by the name 'Lucky'... obviously a cocky nickname or a not very creative alias.

Now the reason why the thug was following 'Lucky' was on the orders of his boss, Leon the Bookie. 'Lucky' has been winning the bets so steadily over the past several weeks and when the mysterious man collected his recent winnings of twenty-eight thousand dollars, Leon had enough. The thug was tasked to follow 'Lucky' and beat the information out of him on his 'lucky' streak while getting the recent winnings back.

So far in this tailing act, the lacky has been following 'Lucky' for half an hour by car to get across town before coming to a stop at a random block. From there, the mysterious man ended up walking the rest of the way to his destination.

And 'Lucky's' little hideaway ended up being the Gotham Square Theatre. The location is closed down for the season as no shows are scheduled to take place for quite some time. To a lot of criminals, said location can be considered a great place to temporarily crash at if you can break in and clean out in a timely manner.

Coming across the corner of the building, the bookie's lacky saw 'Lucky' come across one of the side entrances and unlocked the door with a key, no doubt procured from a spare inside one of the building's offices. Just when the target got inside, the thug quickly ran in just before the deadbolt door locked itself up upon closing.

Leon's lacky saw his target walk down the wide hallway and came across another door to unlock it. Feeling tired now on this little chase, the thug sped up his walk to finally confront 'Lucky' and to get some answers.

When getting inside the new room, the thug saw he was in some sort of animal pen. The man figured it was where many creatures are kept for specific events and performances here. The lacky looked around and wondered where his target went off to when he felt a small tap on his shoulder.

Quickly turning around, the thug saw the man smiling underneath his large hat.

"Lost?" 'Lucky' questioned in a mock tone. "You have that bewildered look, but your sort always does."

The thug didn't like 'Lucky's' tone, causing him to harshly grab the man's coat, hoisted him up and slammed him against the nearest, stable wall. "I ain't lost. I'm looking for you."

"And why's that?"

"I wanna knows how come you always win, _Mr. Lucky_."

"Oh that~ It's quite simple, actually." Lucky said with a smirk. "I fixed the games."

The thug quickly rose a brow when hearing this. "How the hells did you do that?! One or two, I can figure, but you can't fix _all_ those sports! Nobody can!"

'Lucky' rolled his eyes at this. "Oh, ye of little brain, allow me to illustrate." One of his hands reached into his coat pocket and fumbled around a little before pulling out a sealed envelope. Lucky then presented it to the thug. "Here. You can read, can't you?"

The thug narrowed his eyes before letting go, letting 'Lucky' to tumble onto the ground and into a dark part of the room. The bookie's lacky harshly grabbed the envelope and opened it up. A plumb of dust came out and impacted his face, causing him to cough a little before reading the evelop's contents.

Yet there was only one word printed on the paper: Boo!

"Hey, is this some kind of joke?!" Growled out the thug as he crumpled the paper and tossed it away.

"It's no joke, I assure you." 'Lucky' spoke out as he got back onto his feet. "You wanted to know how I fixed an athletic contest, right?" The thug looked back and saw 'Lucky' toss his hat away before pulling something out from the inside of his coat. Just when he slipped it over his head, the thug reached forward and grabbed 'Lucky's' coat. "It's the fear of victory." The mysterious man lifted up his arm and a plumb of vapor shot into the thug's face, causing him to cough once more. "And the agony of _**The SCareCRow!"**_

The thug opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings as everything became dark and warped beyond his imagination. In the center of it all, the lacky's heart rate quickly skyrocketed when seeing the horrific, nightmarish being before him.

With his fear controlling him, the thug stumbled back and fell onto the ground before crawling away from the Scarecrow. "N-No! NO! GET AWAY!" The former university professor ignored the man's pleas while stalking forward. "GE-GET AWAY FROM ME!"

" _ **Now lEt's SEe hoW thINgs turned OUT when I cOmBineD bOTh my GAs and poWDEred variants of my FeAR ToXIn."**_ The Doctor of Fear said as he grabbed ahold of the bookie's thug. _**"So teLL me, ANd bE hONest: how do yOU FEEL?!"**_

If one were inside of the building, they would've heard the loud wails echoing throughout it's halls with a sinister laugh not long after.

 _ **-Next Day, GCPD-**_

Staring from the outside of the infirmary, Vanitas and Gordon watched on as a thug was a whimpering mess as his skin was drastically pale, had bloodshot eyes and was in a cold sweat.

"He's gonna get me…" Muttered the thug, who was sitting on the bed while hugging the blankets like a lifeline. "He's gonna get me… He's gonna get me…"

"That's how we found him." Spoke the Commissioner as the pair walked away from the infirmary. "Scared as a rat at a cat convention." He sighed. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Then you haven't been watching the sports channel lately." Said the helmeted vigilante.

James blinked in confusion. "Sports?" His eyes widened behind his spectacles. "You mean those athletes? But what's that got to do with-"

"You can piece things together, Commissioner." They walked further into the hallway to get to the main part of the precinct. "That man back there works for Leon the bookie. And word has it, he's been losing a lot of money as of late."

"You're telling me that walking pile of straw scares the stuffing out of sports stars? And then bets against their teams?"

"Pretty much." Responded the hero once entering the lobby. "A perfect way to scare up some quick cash for his sick schemes and experiments. And what better opportunity than with many sports events happening right now." He sighed before asking what was on his mind. "Did you get any more information as to how Crane escaped?"

Gordon scratched his chin with a sigh. "Yeah, we did. After Dr. Quinzel called us on his escape, she asked us to question the one guard. Turns out that after going through his financials, Jenkins was paid by Crane after his escape of a good twenty grand to keep people away from his cell so he wouldn't be noticed."

"Any reason why Jenkins accepted the offer?"

"Gambling, obviously."

Vanitas nodded before the pair nearly ran into the Commissioner's daughter. "Morning, Barbara."

Said spectacled redhead gave a brief wave to Vanitas and her father. "Sorry if I can't chat, but I need to head to work now."

"Any reason why you showed up here, sweetie?" Her father asked.

"Yeah, you forgot to eat breakfast and grab your lunch before heading over here. Got you breakfast on the way over and both of your meals are in your office."

James let out a choppy laugh in remembrance. The call this morning was rather sudden, causing him to rush over here without getting a bite to eat and snagging one of Barbara's home cooked lunches for him.

"Well thanks for that, Barbara."

Barbara gave her father a small peck on his cheek and looked at Vanitas -her mentor- one last time before rushing out of the precinct.

Now normally the spectacled redhead would take her car to work today -and come here to drop off her dad's meals mentioned seconds ago- but by the time she went to startup her car, Barbara noticed she was out of gas. The Commissioner's daughter forgot to fill up her gas tank yesterday so she's SOL (shit outta luck) for the time being until she can get a small container filled up to help solve that small problem.

So today, Barbara needed to take the bus to the city library. And as she traveled to the nearest bus stop -which was a few blocks away for the library bus stop- the spectacled Gordon thought about things lately on her now busy life.

Ever since the day her father was given the public apology on his false accusations, Barbara Gordon's life got even more crazy.

The redhead admits her new schedule was rather hectic and complicated now than before. Juggling these now in her life and it would be a miracle -in her opinion- if she can handle _and_ manage them with no problems. But that will only happen later on once getting used to them.

Her old, typical schedule started out of normal stuff at home before heading straight to classes. After that, Barbara would run some errands before going straight to work; but on most days it's typically the same but no classes in general. Once done, she would work on her homework before having time to relax with her eventual dinner with dad or by herself. After that, it's straight to bed before repeating her little cycle all over again.

...That was all before her life changed with Naruto coming into her life as things arrived at her metaphorical doorstep soon after. From working more and more on her one novel, the gymnastic lessons from his friend, Harley, to her becoming the protege of Vanitas as she took on the mantle Batgirl on some evenings.

The helmeted hero didn't really take her out on any real crime fighting ordeals just yet as he wanted to show her the ropes on the basics. Barbara was understanding on that fact as when she briefly fought Scarecrow back on Halloween, she only lasted a little bit before her butt was harshly kicked. Not to mention of the time when her father was falsely accused, due to him being framed by Mason and Two Face.

So far in her training as a future vigilante, she was learning how to fight in hand-to-hand combat and how to properly use throwing weapons. Things were honestly frustrating for her on said lessons, but she wouldn't give up that easily as she kept at it for the few hours she spends with Vanitas. Barbara even practiced those lessons while on her own like mentally going over fighting skills while at work.

Her lessons recently changed as Vanitas got her to start learning how to properly use the grappling gun.

There were moments that Barbara couldn't really handle it on the sudden rush when being reeled through the air before reaching the hook at some random buildings. The redhead was limited on the skill as she couldn't utilize the grappling gun full capabilities. From flinging herself into the air and gliding across the skies for instance. Batman and Robin can do such a skill, due to what their capes were made out of and constructed. But for her, there's no way she can do that with her cape being small and not fashioned like what the Dynamic Duo had on their persons.

Speaking of, Barbara had asked her new mentor if he had told them of her being Batgirl. He reassured her that he's keeping her secret safe from them. Vanitas does know _their_ secret identities as well, but he isn't going to be telling her that. If she wants to come forward and tell them her identity, then Barbara can do so when she felt ready. And she was glad on that fact.

As Barbara was crossing the street to get to her designated bus, a truck was blocking her view if any vehicles were coming her way. The spectacled redhead was only able to hear the sounds of a motorcycle engine as it suddenly got louder. Swirling her head to the side, she saw a motorcyclist was too close to her, causing Barbara to briefly yell before said cyclist quickly turn their handle and press onto the breaks to the side in hopes of not hitting the redhead.

Yet this was not the case as Barbara was knocked to the ground and tumbled around a little.

The motorcyclist quickly parked their vehicle and rushed over to the redhead's side. "HOLY SHIT!" Spoke out the cyclist in a feminine voice underneath her helmet. "I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there!"

"It's… alright, I think." Barbara groaned out as she rubbed her head. "I should've looked better for any incoming…" The Commissioner's daughter drawled out in her speech when she saw the cyclist pull off her helmet to reveal her features.

The woman appeared to be around Barbara's height and age. Her golden blonde hair was mostly tied into a back bun with a red bandana holding it in place. There were small side braids -one on each side of her head, leading up to the bun while the rest of her hair was wildly sprawled out to help frame her smooth face. Her eyes were like sharply bright emeralds that showed a fierceness in them when Barbara peered into them.

The blonde's attire consisted of a crimson leather jacket that opened up slightly to show off a white t-shirt underneath with what appeared to be some necklace barely tucked underneath said shirt. Her pants appeared to be loose with it ripped up around several places along the length. To finish off the attire, the blonde wore black combat boots.

Now don't get her wrong, Barbara is indeed attracted to men as she has growing feelings for Naruto with how handsome he is and has the right qualities for her in hopes of pursuing him… if he wasn't in a relationship. But seeing this girl's face seemed to light up her cheeks slightly on how attractive she appears to be.

This caused Barbara to cough into her hand to possibly defuse the feeling as she figured it was just because of the small adrenaline rush coursing through her system.

"Are you okay?" Spoke the blonde out of complete concern as she carefully helped get Barbara onto her feet. "Did I hurt you?" She clicked her teeth and smacked herself on the head. "Of course I hurt you! GAH! I'm such an idiot for not paying more attention to the road!"

"No, it's okay." Barbara said as she adjusted herself on her feet, but winced slightly when feeling her leg was sore from a bit ago. "I'm fine. I get hurt more often as I get tossed around during my lessons."

The blonde blinked her emerald eyes with a raised brow. "You fight?" She asked, getting Barbara to briefly nod. The motorcyclist inspected the spectacled redhead's body for not just to see for any injuries, but to see on her capabilities. "You sure don't look like a fighter."

"I've started some weeks ago. And my instructor-"

"Say no more." Interrupted the blonde. "I get the idea." She then walked over to her bike and moved it to the side of the road so other vehicles can start going through the intersection. "Ugh~ I'm so embarrassed on this. It never happened before."

Barbara tried to wave her off on the incident. "No, it's alright. Really."

"Oh hey, let me make this up to you." The blonde held out her hand to help form the greeting. "But first, my name's Morgan."

The redhead looked at the hand before grasping it and shook the appendage. "Barbara."

"So where were ya going anyways?"

"Work."

"Where at?"

"The public library."

"Huh. Well ain't that something." The blonde shrugged out. "Ya start learning more about this city when exploring."

"...I have a feeling you're new here?"

Mordred gave a nod. "Yup~ Just moved here some weeks ago with my mom."

"Where at?"

"Just barely outside of the city limits… I think." Answered the blonde as she scratched her head. "It's debatable on the border placement."

"Like where?"

Morgan scratched her golden locks a little to think on the answer. "Eh~ All I know is that the last owner was arrested for stealing money from the Gotham Mint."

Barbara widened her eyes slightly in recognition of the location. "You mean Montague Kane?"

The golden blonde smirked and snapped her fingers. "Yeah, that's it." She let out a boisterous laugh. "Heh~ My mom ended up with a sweet deal on the place once the authorities seized all of that guy's assets, leaving the estate bare."

The Commissioner's daughter nodded before asking the motorcyclist a question. "Any reason why on moving here?"

Morgan gave a shrug. "Mom and I have been traveling around for quite some time and she decided to settle down for the time being before starting back up again."

A sweatdrop formed on the side of Barbara's head. "Wouldn't it be better to move into an apartment?"

"Mom has a shitload of stuff and doesn't trust storage places all that often." Was the response. "Besides, the one barely outside of Gotham isn't the only home we have so I'm used to moving around quite often."

The spectacled redhead merely rose a brow. 'I think… her mom must be rather loaded if that was brought up.' She thought before her eyes caught onto a particular numbered bus as it left the stop nearby. "CRAP!"

"What?"

"My bus!" Barbara groaned out. "Now I'm gonna be late for work…"

The motorcyclist sucked in her teeth a little before a lightbulb formed above her head.

"Hey, Barbara."

"...Yeah…"

"About owing ya one for hitting ya…" Morgan drawled out with a cat-like smirk. "Need a ride?"

"...W-What?"

"I was asking if ya needed a ride to work. I'm offering."

Barbara contemplated on the suggestion, but she didn't want to get in trouble by her manager. He was rather strict when it came to scheduling and she wouldn't want to get marked, despite her good attendance record.

So with a hesitant nod, the Commissioner's daughter accepted.

Morgan formed a wide smile as she grasped Barbara's hand and brought her to her motorcycle, which upon a better exception by the redhead was a Bimota Tesi 1D with it's red and white color scheme. After sitting on her motorcycle, Barbara was soon handed the blonde's helmet to be put on.

"Shouldn't you be wearing this?"

"I would, but I believe you'll need it more than me." Came the response as Morgan restarted her motorcycle's engine. "Afterall, I tend to go rather fast!" After revving up the bike, the emerald eyed blonde widened her smirk. "So ya better hang on!"

Without any warning, Morgan quickly sped her bike through the streets with Barbara quickly holding onto the blonde's frame while weaving through the streets. A thrilled scream permeating the air with a hearty cackle following soon after.

 _ **-Later, Batcave-**_

"Okay, Dick." Muttered the Grayson as he took careful steps across a narrow cliff while in his Robin attire. "One foot… over the other… Nice and steady… And don't… look down…"

You might be wondering why Dick is going this over a deep chasm inside of the illustrious Batcave. To simply put it, he's trying to overcome his fear of heights.

It's a good idea to face one's fear to better yourself, but it's easier to do things at a baby step approach. For example, tying a rope between two trees and balance yourself to walk from one end to the other and progress from there to help conquer one's fear of heights.

But at the current time, Dick is doing the approach in the wrong way… with him going straight into the situation at the present time.

"You can do it, Dick." He said as his vision switched the dark cavernous surrounding into the circus tent once more. "D-Do-Don't look…" Dick shut his eyes and kept moving forward until he was halfway through the narrow path. "I'm not afraid! I'm not-" His foot suddenly missed it's mark, causing him to slip a little. Dick tried to regain his balance, yet he fell over the side. "NO!"

Dick's arm was suddenly snagged as he was forced to look into the abyss below. But the darkness wasn't what he was seeing at all for something else took its place. Though this sight ended as he was yanked upward and came face to face with Naruto, who had an extremely worried look across his features.

"Dick! What the hell were you doing?!" He spoke out. "If I wasn't here, you would've died!"

The college student flinched while his body shivered. "I… I was trying to… to…"

Naruto sighed and escorted Dick to the larger part of the cavern. "You know that I'm here for ya, Dick. Alfred and Harley as well." Naruto said in a soft tone to help calm the shaken Grayson. "But if you don't at least talk about your problem, then this might not go away that easily."

Dick eventually leaned against a cavern wall before sliding down in order to sit on the cold surface. "When I was just a kid, I learned how to walk on a high wire like it was nothing." His voice seemed to lose it's feel, as if it's owner was becoming hollow. "But now I can't stand on a step stool or a ladder without freaking the hell out." With his head down, it wasn't hard for Naruto to tell what could've been seen across the younger man's face. "I'm… no good to you or Bruce anymore."

Naruto sat down on the floor and looked at Dick with a serious expression. "And who says you're no longer good, Dick? I mean, the fear toxin in ya is bound to wear off." The Grayson didn't look up, but the Uzumaki didn't stop there. "If you no longer want to be out on the field, you can still be helpful behind the scenes in a supportive role. Like being at the batcomputer and feeding Bruce information on building layouts or anything else of that nature." Once more, Dick didn't respond back. "And even if you don't want to do that, you still have your whole life ahead of you once you graduate from college next year. A career, finding your future wife and having a family of your own. We're all there for you, Dick, and nothing will truly change that."

"...Thanks." Spoke the college student for the first time in several minutes. The startled teen rubbed his arms as he let out a sigh. "But… But it's not just the heights, Naruto."

"...What'cha mean?"

"It's… a memory. A really bad memory." Dick moved his head up, getting the publisher to see tears running down his cheeks. "Like Bruce, I had a really bad memory."

Things clicked inside the Uzumaki's head on what the Grayson was referring to: his parent's death.

The Wayne ward let out a shaky breath before speaking his mind. "When I was in Haley's Circus, doing all of those acrobat and trapeze acts were the absolute time of my life. I loved doing it along with my parents as it was practically everything to me." He swallowed a lump in his throat and sniffed a little to somewhat clear his nose, even though it'll return not far along. "But when my parents died… in such a way… I could never be so high up without seeing their faces staring up at me as they fell."

Dick felt a hand placed on his shoulder and realized that Naruto must've moved from his spot in front of him to help him out on this moment. The Grayson nodded on the appreciated gesture as a result.

After some moments to recollect himself, Dick spoke again. "For a while, I've had nightmares to that night over and over again. And when Bruce started training me to become his partner, it took some time to get over my fear of heights." He flexed his hands and felt they were clammy for several reasons. "But it wasn't just that… as I wanted to honor _their_ memory." Dick looked down to his costume and traced his hand on some of it's details. "Bruce didn't choose the color scheme and the style for my Robin outfit, Naruto, it was my parents."

Naruto blinked in surprise when learning this particular detail.

Seeing this expression, the Grayson explained. "On our last show together, they made me wear these colors and gave me the Robin name… well it was actually my mom who did all that in order to draw all the attention towards me… She and Dad were already wearing the new outfit at that time and hoped to cheer me on me doing my big solo act… I was about to perform to the audience with my new costume, but was never really given the chance.

As time passed on, I decided to adopt my Robin role my parents gave me as my hero persona. I wanted to honor their memory by going out there and serving justice. And everytime I flew in the air, I imagined my parents were right beside me as we continued our performances. But… But now, my old fear reared its ugly head and I don't know if I'll ever properly recover."

Once that was said, Dick went back into a relative silence in order for Naruto to process it all. It was quite the sad bit of information on how the Grayson got his hero name with the tragedy behind it. And in Naruto's honest opinion, it seemed better than how Bruce got his Batman name… unless there was more to said name that he just didn't know about.

After thinking things through, Naruto spoke up. "You know, Dick, for years I wore orange as I enjoyed the color very much. I never really knew the reason why but I just felt connected to it." This got Dick to briefly look at his friend and wondered why he suddenly went into that. "If anyone said it was stupid, I proclaimed that it was the color of the gods." Naruto chuckled at the memories on how he got back at said people with his pranks. "As I was a bit younger than you, I eventually learned the reason why I felt drawn to the color in the first place: like you, it was because of my parents. I never knew of them when I grew up until at one point and certain circumstances. I did learn of their nicknames and their relation with said names in detail. With my mother having her vibrant red hair to match her scary personality with my father being known for being fast and all people could see was his yellow hair." The publisher formed a somber smile. "I eventually came to the conclusion that their colors appropriately mixed well with each other to make the color my subconscious wanted me to wear quite often."

He looked back at Dick with his somber smile turning into a normal one. "Dick, the point is that we all have our ways to cope with the past. Bruce merely broods around and acts upon a promise he made as a child. I merely do what's best in my life by making others happy in my line or work as I knew my parents possibly wanted me to move on. And with you, you're honoring your folks by wearing the _Flying Grayson_ design and you've done so time and time again." Naruto let out a small sigh as he looked up towards the cavernous ceiling. "It might just be me, but…"

"But what?"

"But I think, at some point, you should retire from the Robin name." The Grayson looked at Naruto like he was crazy, but his friend held up his hand before explaining his reason. "First off, Dick, you don't have to do that now. It's way too soon to make that decision so quickly. And second, sure the name is a big part of your life and nothing can change that. But do you even want to still be called Robin several years from now? You can change and become something else, something more than what you are today." The publisher nudged his young friend in the shoulder. "But in the meantime, you've got to fight it, Dick. Regain control." Naruto said as he pulled Dick up onto his feet. "Now come on."

Dick blinked in confusion when he was getting dragged along. "W-Where are we going?"

"I thought we'd catch a game tonight." Came the vague response. "What? You thought I'd let you stay here and brood the entire time? I can only handle one brooding person at a time and I'd be damned if his broodiness spreaded onto you." Naruto let out a small smirk when he saw Dick brighten up a little. "Last time I checked, the Gotham Knights are favored 4-1, thanks to their quarterback, Mitch Nole."

"You think he's gonna get a telegram?"

"I'd say it's a good bet."

Dick hanged back a little as he rubbed his arm. "I… don't know. I'll only get in the way."

"Oh don't be like that." Naruto said as his Vanitas attire formed around him. "I'm sure you'll do fine."

 _ **-Evening, Gotham Stadium-**_

The lines were crowded as people tried to get in to attend the upcoming game. From what many could tell, it was going to be a very jam packed event.

At a good distance away, Robin hid in the bushes while peering through his binoculars to find any suspicious activity to indicate Scarecrow's arrival.

'Okay, Robin.' Thought the masked Grayson. 'Get it together. Everything will be fine.'

The 'Boy' Wonder had volunteered to help keep a lookout for Crane if he were to arrive while his companion searched inside. And so far, there have been no signs of the former college professor in these past few hours. Even with the help of Vanitas' summons to help widen the search radius, nothing was reportedly found.

Robin was about to move around the perimeter when he saw something briefly enter his vision, despite how large the crowd was. With his binoculars still in place, he turned to the source and saw a mysterious looking man walking to the employee entrance. The man didn't look like an employee as he kept his facial features hidden.

Trusting his gut instinct, Robin left his post and went after the mysterious man.

It took some effort to hopefully get close to the suspect, all due to how large the crowd was, but Robin was able to get inside with little to no problem. He kept himself away at a safe distance to the mysterious man wouldn't spot him. After ducking and slinking away at several moments, Robin saw the man enter a locker room.

And not just any locker room, but one assigned to the Gotham Knights for tonight's game.

Staying hidden in a dark covering of a hallway, Robin waited for the mysterious man to exit the locker room. He would've just gone in there right away and confront the person he was tailing. But this would possibly cause him more harm than good. Asides from that, he learned more from that as Bruce's training reminded him to be patient before acting.

After a minute, Robin saw the locker room door open up with the mysterious man stepping out. It was at this moment the 'Boy' Wonder got a good view of the man's face, causing him to widen his eyes before narrowing them upon realizing he just found Jonathan Crane.

As the former professor walked down the hallway, Robin quickly entered the locker room and started searching for anything amiss.

'All right, Scarecrow. What's your game plan this time?' Thought the masked Grayson. 'Why'd you come here instead of sending out a telegram like what you did on your previous victims?'

After searching every spot he could think of, Robin was about to leave before his eyes spotted something off in one of the player's cubbies. Taking a closer look, the 'Boy' Wonder saw some discoloration on the edges and holes of the football helmet. Looking at the jersey number, Robin realized this was Mitch Nole's uniform and he already knew what Crane did exactly.

Without any other thought, Robin took the helmet and left the locker room in order to dispose of it in order to hamper the Scarecrow's plans.

Sometime after the game's start, things appeared to be doing very well. The crowds were cheering for their respective teams and none of the players had any problems… well except for the occasional scrapes, falls and arguments one would see in a typical sports game.

" _...Mitch Nole is ripping the Colonials apart!"_ Spoke out the game announcer. _"Four hundred yards passing, and the game's not over yet."_

 _ **-Insert Batman Arkham Knight: Murder of Crows-**_

High above the roaring attendees, Jonathan Crane -currently wearing his signature mask- was seething as he watched the game unfold before him.

"What the bloody hell is taking so damn long?!" He growled out as he paced back and forth in his hiding spot. "The rest of my powder in that helmet should've been enough to panic a pachyderm!" The Scarecrow then saw the next play taking place as Mitch Nole was able to successfully deliver the football to his teammate to get a touchdown. "He should be prostrating himself and crying for mercy!"

"Change of luck, Scarecrow?"

Swirling around in his spot, Crane saw the helmeted vigilante of Gotham stepping out of the shadows.

The former college professor gritted his teeth as he glared at Vanitas. He never interacted with the man before, only that of the Batman and of his protege. But he saw him several times when he was at Arkham and on the news. So him showing up here would hamper his plans.

But all the Scarecrow could do at the present moment was growl at the hero before him.

"You're aware that gambling is illegal in Gotham?" Spoke the black/white themed vigilante as he stalked towards the professor of fear.

"I need the money, Vanitas." Said the Scarecrow as he stepped back from the hero. "You know the cost of chemicals and experiments these days."

"And yet you kept doing this act over and over again with all of those players shown in the news as of late."

With Vanitas coming closer and closer, Crane reached into his pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a triggering device. "Don't step any closer, Vanitas! If you do then I'll set off gas canisters -filled with my Fear Toxin- I had placed throughout the stadium and hidden from sight. And with the amount I have stationed will practically put every pathetic person into a stampede of half-crazed beasts crushing and clawing each other!"

At a level or two below them, Robin saw this all occurring through his binoculars. Quickly pulling them down, his worries grew as his mind went through the motions on what will happen. The 'Boy' Wonder thought for a brief moment the trigger in Crane's grasp was for a bomb, but he quickly dismissed that as the man's MO is always through the methods of spreading his fear.

Robin didn't know how many containers of Crane's Fear Toxin there are and where they're placed. The only course of action he could think of is for Vanitas to find and deal with him. Yet this would leave Crane alone and the opportunity to flee…

'Not… If I have anything to say… about that.' Robin looked down from his high placement above the crowds and shuddered as his vision quickly switched to the Haley's Circus tent. The masked Grayson shut his eyes and slapped his cheeks to somewhat help clear his vision. "Come on, Robin. Get a grip!" Opening his optics, Robin turned to the nearby ladder and made his way up. "It's now or never."

"Now, what guarantee do I have you won't follow me?"

"You have my word, Scarecrow." Vanitas responded as he held up his hands and back away slightly. "Just don't press that button."

Crane merely hummed and narrowed his eyes underneath his mask. "Actually, Vanitas, I'd prefer a little insurance that you'll be otherwise occupied."

With that said, the Scarecrow quickly tossed device off to the side.

"NO!" Cried out the hero as he dived towards it.

He missed it by a hair as the trigger landed on a suspending scaffold and tumbled across the way. When landing on it's metallic surface, Vanitas ended up causing the trigger to shake and skid closer to it's edge. As the hero reached forward to stop it from falling, Crane jumped from the rafter above and landed on to the lower one to cause the suspending area to shake. And even when the Professor of Fear leapt on Vanitas and started assaulting him, it was too much for the sought after item, causing it to fall over the edge and to the roaring crowds below.

 _"It's a fumble!"_ Spoke the announcer at the recent action in the game. _"This could mean disaster for Gotham!"_

Seeing this happen from the ladder, Robin had to swallow hard in order to hold off of his fear, even for a temporary moment. Pulling out his grappling gun and with quick aim, he fired before the hook snagged on the suspension above. And as the device fell, Robin let go of the ladder and swung towards it.

While this occured, Robin's vision started to change to that of that tragic night of his life. He prayed for all his might in order to reach for his parents. The masked Grayson was never more determined in his entire life to finally beat his fear once and for all.

Drawing closer and closer, the Bat's protege reached forward as his hand got closer to his parents. They soon smiled before the haunting memory faded away to bring Robin to the present for him to see his ever present target.

And by some self-miracle, Robin caught the trigger by the skin of his teeth.

" _And would you look at that! What a recovery!"_

Landing on the rafter above Scarecrow and Vanitas, Robin let out a nervous breath as the crowds below cheered for the teams. Looking down, the masked Grayson's felt relieved as he conquered his old, buried fear.

Seeing this, Vanitas smiled underneath his glass domed helmet. "Good work, Robin." He said with a hidden smile before he punched Crane's lights out, causing him to lay unconscious on the scaffold surface. "Looks like you've got a handle on your problem." 

"Yeah." Breathed out the 'Boy' Wonder with a shaky smile. "I'm getting there."

 _ **-Morning, Wayne Manor-**_

Sitting by the kitchen counter, Dick was eating breakfast as he watched the news alongside Alfred.

" _...Jonathan Crane, otherwise well known as the Scarecrow, was arrested last night for his actions of sabotaging many of the recent sports games involving the following athletes: Rudy Lovell, Rick Gale, Christeen Adams and Brian Rodgers."_ Spoke Summer Gleeson as she read off the report. _"Because of this, the games said athletes had recently participated are going to be re-evaluated. So it's too soon to tell on what might exactly happen as an end result."_

"At least that's being taken under consideration." Said the Wayne butler as he sipped his morning tea.

"You're telling me." Dick yawned out.

After getting back here once delivering Crane to the authorities, Dick had to perform several tests on himself to be sure the fear toxin was out of his system. And sure enough, it was as the last of it was burned out. Of course the little drawback for the time being was being overly exhausted so his body can properly recuperate.

And even though Crane's toxin was gone, the psychological scar Dick had was somewhat present.

It would take some time for it to either fade away or get buried once more like all those years ago. But the Grayson was suggested into seeing Harley sometime soon to help take care of this problem. And sure he never really went into therapy in the past, due to him and Bruce wanting to protect themselves and their identities. But since Harley knew of their double life, she can be trusted to deal with any and all problems concerning their mental health.

And Dick will finally take up on this opportunity now more than ever.

" _...For some good news, the Gotham Knights took under consideration into bringing in Brian Rogers for their first-round draft picks."_ Said the news anchor. _"And many of you at home are wondering why and how so. Well~ the drafting board forgave the college quarterback on his previous game earlier this week due to recent findings of him being drugged by the Professor of Fear. So for now, Brian Rodgers will be put into a probationary period to see if the Knights will fully take him on or not."_

Alfred looked over and saw the Wayne ward smile upon hearing this. The Pennyworth knew of his relationship with the college quarterback and was happy things turned out well for the better.

"It appears that your friend is back on track again."

Dick can only keep his smile as he soon took a bite out of some toast. Once swallowing, he spoke up in a cheerful tone. "Yeah, I can't wait to congratulate him."

"You can always send a telegram."

The Grayson gave Alfred a deadpanned look on the bad joke before giving out a dry laugh. "Very funny, Al."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Sorry for the late update here guys, things in my personal life ate up a lot of my time. For one, by the time of this chapter's release, my temporary job gig came to an end. Leading up to this in the past few weeks, I've been searching for a permanent job. But so many jobs kept asking for certain years of experience on specific details and unfortunately, I didn't have that criteria.**

 **For example, I applied for some secretary positions and I would've done well in the new environment. But they turned me down and won't give me the chance.**

 **Luckily for me, there might be something that'll come my way when I go to this job agency place after this weekend. Couldn't apply there sooner because they were open during the hours I was at my temp job. And there's another job opportunity that I'll get word from them sometime next week since I was told they were severely understaffed.**

 **Now with my story, I've been getting a good number of reviews pertaining to the last chapter and they all pertain on why I brought it up.**

 **You see, there will be events in my story that will be affected by the last chapter. Naruto needed to know more of the perspective of certain issues and him gaining something that'll truly help him out soon enough. And I felt that I needed to bring out said chapter as it was necessary on a typical scale of things.**

 **As for this chapter, I wanted to focus a bit more on Dick and Barbara… moreso on the former.**

 **I can understand if many of you don't like this entry at all, but at this point I don't really care. I wanted to do this one to do development on Dick's character. There aren't all that many to begin with on this show and I want to use as much as I can.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**


	57. A Cycle of Life and Death

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 52: A Cycle of Life and Death**

How did Life begin? There can hardly be a bigger question to start out with, huh? For much of human history on this planet, almost everyone believed some variation of 'the gods did it'. And any other explanation was inconceivable from then on for centuries.

For one example, there are those of the religious sorts as they're so closed minded to the scientific aspects on how this came to be. In Judeo-Christianity, believed the Earth has been around for at least several thousand years and that He created Adam, Lilith and Eve as the first forms of man. And in the Roman-Greek side of things, there were the different Ages based on metals with different methods on how the Titans and Gods created man.

...Let's just say that the religious concepts on how this occurred are very complicated, with each one having their own interpretation and leave it at that. After all, it's quite the can of worms to get into, right?

But with the scientific view, all Life on this planet began when all continents were as one: Pangea. Both theorists and scientists on this Earth agreed on this, yet they argued where exactly in this supercontinent had the event occured. They've mainly guessed it all happened at some unknown shoreline as a little grey fish heaved itself up on the beach and things progressed from there. It could've been at the continent's connecting edge at the unifying ocean or at some water channel leading to the very heart of it the enlarged mass.

To the scientific community, no matter where exactly it all took place within its borders, the Cradle of Life on the planet Earth was located in Africa…

And in this part of the story, it is where we start our tale as Pamela Isley rode shotgun in a jeep speeding through a desert.

"Welcome to Southern Angola, Dr. Isley." Spoke the driver as he briefly looked at the map at his side. "Some of the Earth's most spectacular and oldest ecosystems are here."

The driver was of african descent in his mid-late fifties with his receding gray hairline. He wore a short button up shirt with khaki shorts and mountain boots. And tucked between his legs was his beaten up straw hat that would have flown away into the wind, due to him speeding across the barren lands around them.

"I'm pretty sure we can find what you're looking for-"

"I have." Pam interrupted as she gazed off to the side. "Now would you kindly slow down the car, Dr. Nepolo. I believe I see it not far ahead."

Said man nodded as he complied with the request. And after slowing down to a complete stop, the two doctors of their respective fields exited the vehicle and walked around a little. It only took a minute to find their desired target as it was behind a rocky slope.

"Hello~ beautiful~" Spoke the red haired botanist with a pleasant smile as she took off her sunglasses.

Pamela currently wore a loose, green button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and several buttons undone to show a white t-shirt underneath. She too wore khaki shorts -with multiple pockets- and mountain boots while having a water canteen slung across her shoulder.

What was before the pair's gazes was a giant plant with its many leaves laid across the ground. It was primarily yellowish-green in color, due to the sweltering heat and lack of moisture. There were pinkish-orange flowers barely blooming at every other spot, but they were mainly located at the plant's center.

"Indeed it is beautiful, Dr. Isley." Dr. Nepolo said as he fanned himself with his hat. "Old as well."

"Finally, the living fossil: Welwitschia Mirabilis." Pam said as she carefully stepped down the slope.

"Heh~ This one must be at least 2,000 years old. It's an extremely good find."

"Actually it's much older than that."

Dr. Nepolo rose a brow from above the rocky slope. "Oh? How can you tell?"

"Like a human, this suffers from dementia and it's lost count on it's years living."

"...Whatever you say, Dr. Isley." He then saw her kneel down and placed her hands on both the surrounding dirt and the plant itself. "What are you doing?"

The redhead lifted up the hand previously on the dirt to motion her companion to stay quiet. "Sorry, but I'm having a conversation here." The african doctor blinked in confusion and looked at Isley like she was crazy. After several moments, Pam spoke up with a pleasant expression across her features. "Okay, we're good. Let's get to work."

Her companion merely shrugged as he went back to the jeep to grab their equipment to extract the living fossil. Once returning with their tools, Dr. Nepolo tossed one of the shovels to her to start the next part of their job here.

...You might be wondering why Pam was in this African country in the first place.

You see, the Green contacted their Gothamite champion and informed her of the living fossil's current location and condition. They wished for her to extract and relocate it to a better location -preferably back at her home in Gotham- so it'll live exist some time longer for it's _retirement years_.

Pam took advantage of this and informed Dr. Cruz of her _contact's_ information in order to have permission to retrieve the ancient specimen. Luisa compiled and thought it would be a great addition to the botanical garden. After contacting the right channels, Pam's superior gave her the go ahead to legally move the ancient plant from the African country.

After digging into the dirt for several minutes, Pam's companion took off his hat and wiped away the sweat off his face with a bandana he had on hand. "Whew~ You should wear a hat or at least some sunscreen, Dr. Isley. This sun and heat can kill you."

All this did got a chuckle out of her. "The sun won't kill me, it likes me." She stopped digging before unscrewing her canteen lid and drank some water. "Though the heat might cause some hydration problems."

The African doctor gave out a smirk as he figured Pam was one of those people that liked the blazing sun but not enjoying the particular temperature in question. Just when he was about to continue digging into the earth, a sound permeated the air.

"What was that?" She asked.

Her companion focused on said sound before adopting a worried expression. "I think we may have company."

Pam merely looked at him and asked a question crossing her mind. "Who would be out here in the middle of the desert?"

"Bad men, from the diamond mines nearby." Came the response as an armored truck came towards the two scientists. "You saw them movies, right? They torture and murder. And they destroy the environment all around them."

All this got out of Pam was a distasteful look from her face. "They're interrupting our work."

Once the armored truck came to a stop a few feet away from them, two men got out of the vehicle with assault rifles in their grasps while another stayed in the driver's seat. One of them hanged back while the other came up to the two scientists.

""You two. You are trespassing." The armed man said in broken english.

"No, we have permission from the university-" The african doctor was quickly interrupted and silenced by the armed man slamming the butt of his weapon at his head.

"You don't have _our_ permission, old man."

As this happened, Pam clenched her fists as her eyes started glowing in an eerie light. _**"Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t."**_ She said in her dual tone.

"Shut the fuck up, woman!" The armed man yelled out before the ground beneath them started to shake. "What the fuck-?!"

Suddenly, the ground opened up as large plants bursted from underneath and shot towards the armed men both inside and outside of the armored truck. They were quickly ensnared before Pam commanded the plants to _dispose_ of them in a proper manner. The plants compiled as they went back down below with the screaming, armed men before the earth swallowed them whole.

"W-What the hell just happened?" Dr. Nepolo asked as he barely saw what occured before his eyes.

"I believe Mother Nature wanted to protect us in our current job." Pam said as her voice went back to its normal state. She helped up her companion and gave him some of her water. "Now come on, this old gal won't dig itself out."

 _ **-Two Days Later, Gotham Botanical Gardens-**_

"There ya go, _young lady_." Pam said with a soft smile as she petted some of the leaves. "Welcome to the Gotham Botanical Gardens, your new retirement home."

Standing off to the side, Luisa was taking a sip from her mug. Once her mouth was clear of her beverage, the hispanic woman spoke in a pleased tone. "It's still great to have you on staff, Pam."

The redhead stood up and picked up a watering can to help a little on the garden's new addition. Her green eyes darted not far away to see a wheelchair bound man, who was in his 80's. "Tell that to Grimley."

Dr. Cruz looked over and saw the chair of the research department was looking this way as he inspected the new plant in his own, _unique_ way. "Oh, ignore him. He still thinks women have no place in sciences. Especially plant sciences."

Placing the watering can away, Pam spoke to her colleague. "Luisa, I sometimes wonder on how you got me hired with him involved."

"I merely showed him your research on transgenic hybrids." The hispanic scientist then leaned over and whispered into the redhead's ear with a smirk. "He thought P.I. Isley, PhD was a _man_. I didn't exactly correct him."

The Green champion merely snorted.

"Okay, class, gather around." Said a sudden voice.

Luisa perked up. "Oh good, they're finally here."

"I'm sorry, but what?" Pam asked before looking in her superior's general direction. "Are those... students?"

"College students to be exact."

"...I didn't know this was supposed to happen today."

"Well you should've. This class was scheduled to come here for the end of the Fall semester before getting ready for the next course in the Spring. Though I think you forgot when you were in Africa." Pam didn't say anything about that and tried to walk away. "Where ya going?"

"I need to check on my experiments."

Luisa grasped her hand to hold her back. "Oh no you don't. I'm not doing this alone. Your friend funds us, remember?"

"Bruce isn't exactly my friend." Pam corrected. "He's more like an acquaintance."

"And he's friends with your boyfriend." This got the redhead botanist to roll her eyes, but Dr. Cruz ignored that and addressed the visiting class. "Hello, class, I'm Dr. Luisa Cruz, one of the plant sciences specialists here. You're just in time to see Dr. Pamela Isley, one of our researchers, planting our latest acquisition. It's called Welwitschia Mirabilis, the Living Fossil. Anyone know why?"

"Cuz it's old?" Asked a female student.

"Exactly. Thousands of years old, in fact. Lots of plants live longer than animals. Birch, maple ash... these trees can live between 100-120 years. Willows can even live up to 400 years." The hispanic scientist then escorted the college class through the area and showed them one of the trees planted here. "Taxus Baccata, the Yew. Anyone want to guess how long this tree can live?"

"500 years?" Asked another.

"Try five thousand."

Pam hanged back and had hoped she could escape this, but Luisa caught her eye and gave the look that spoke 'you have no choice in the matter'. The changed botanist sighed before her green eyes saw one student about to touch some poisonous plant. Coming up to him, she spoke near his ear. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." The male student jumped, getting a small smirk from her lips. "Those berries there are very poisonous."

The student yelped and retreated back to his class just when Luisa spoke again. "Now Dr. Isley will _show_ you what we're working on together." Dr. Cruz said as she swiped her keycard at a locked door before opening it up. "Let's go into the lab, shall we?"

Seeing as she didn't have much of a choice now, Pam sped up her walk and entered into the floral lab first. Once some distance away, the red haired scientist spoke. "Imagine if we could take the most desirable traits of _all_ species, plant or animal, and combine them."

"But aren't plants and animals really different?" Asked another student. Pam waved her hand in a 'so and so' motion. "Well, yes and no. All living organisms share similar DNA. Sixty percent of human DNA is actually the same..." she plucked a banana out of Winston's hand "as this banana here."

"Hey, that's my lunch!" Said the 'office pig' as he snatched his meal back.

Pam just rolled her eyes. "I was merely using it as a demonstration." She ignored his annoying behavior as she focused back to the visiting college class. Pam then noticed one of the students briefly raise their hand. "Yes? You have a question?"

"Well, that's all nice in theory, Dr. Isley. But are you creating new GMO hybrids?"

"It's more than theoretical." Pam answered before gesturing to a mice cage not far away. "Mice like these normally die after six or so months. But these little guys have been injected with a serum derived from a combination of the plants you saw outside. We've tested them and they'll probably be able to live at least a year or so."

"There's still a lot of unknowns here, but the good news is, Albertus Eric Grimley, our head, just announced we've received a sizable grant from an anonymous donor to expand our research in this direction." Luisa turned her attention to the redhead scientist in the room and gave her the floor. "Dr. Isley, why don't you tell the students about your experiments."

Pam mentally sighed. "Well, I've been exploring a new form of genetic engineering to produce-"

"Hands off, bub." Came a familiar voice in the Green champion's ear. "Don't ya see I have a visitor's badge here?"

"I do, ma'am, but you're not supposed to go in there without permission."

Pam, Luisa and the visiting college class turned their heads to the source and saw a spectacled blonde getting into the lab with a security guard trying to keep her out.

The redhead scientist was ready to walk up to her shared girlfriend when her superior came up to the Arkham psychologist. "Hello there, may I help you?"

"Not really." Harley said with a smirk. "I was just stopping by."

"For what reason?"

Pam soon came up to them and grabbed Harley by the arms and slowly escorted her away. "Sorry about that, Luisa, my friend here tends to do her own thing at times."

This clicked in the hispanic scientist's head as she voiced her thought. "Oh~ So you're Harley, the one Pam talked a lot about."

Harley smiled more when hearing this. "Really? Like what?"

Pam once again interrupted the small conversation as she quickly excused themselves. "May I have a _word_ with you?" As the pair were some distance away from the class visit, the Green champion hissed at Harley in a hushed tone. "Harley? What the hell are you doing?"

"You weren't answering my calls, Red."

"I've been busy working."

"Too _busy_ to let us know you came back to the states."

"Harley, you can't just drop into my workplace whenever you feel like it."

"And why not?" Harley whined out.

"It's not like I have all the time in the world."

*Poke*

"Harley…"

*Poke* *Poke*

" _Harley…"_

*Poke* *Poke* *Poke*

Pam had enough and swatted Harley's hands away. "Would you stop that?!"

"Make me."

"And why were you doing that?"

The psychologist scrunched up her face and crossed her arms. "I don't think I know you... Are you _you_ or are you one of your plant clones and your just taking a dirt nap at the greenhouse?"

"You know I don't want to abuse using _that_ when it comes to working here."

"And yet you seemed fine when Naruto does it on occasion."

"Because I know he can handle the situation and no accidents really happen at his office." Pam said before blowing out a puff of air in her chest. "And I really can't use _those_ here because certain experiments I have to do might end up harming _them_ and expose who I am."

"But you said your mentor here knows who and what you are."

"But not the others, Harl." The Green champion let out a frustrated sigh as she rubbed her eyes. "Look, can we finish talking about this later? I don't feel comfortable doing it right now."

Harley narrowed her eyes for a moment before relaxing. "Okay, Red. But I'll be picking you up after work so we can talk this out." Said the changed blond. "And there is no backing out of that."

Pam ran her hand through her hair before adopting a defeated look across her features. Just one look from Harley got her to know she got her gal pal right where she wants her. The Arkham psychologist then left the lab to finish up the rest of her errands for the day.

Harley did look back for a brief moment -with a worried glance- at Pam returning to the class visit and wondered what seemed to be eating her up.

 _ **-Evening, Stacked Deck-**_

"PHWAH~! This is what makes life worth living!"

"I wouldn't say that."

"Oh c'mon, Babs." Morgan started out as she brought the glass cup filled with ice to the table's wooden surface. "Don't be such a prude."

The Commissioner's daughter could only sigh as she drank her third sangria for the night.

Her new friend -which is loosely termed at the early part of their relationship- decided to take her out for drinks to help celebrate Barbara's success on what finals she finished so far. The spectacled redhead said it would've been better to actually celebrate when she finished _all_ of them, which is later this week. Yet Morgan felt rather impatient and _really_ bored on not doing anything fun without her new friend.

And this wasn't the only time this happened ever since they first met. Mordred showed up at the library each day and sometimes hunted her down at campus in hopes of hanging out when things were done for the redhead.

At one point after their _hangouts_ , Barbara had to ask why Morgan kept bugging her.

 _"I just hate dilly-dallying all day and night and hardly doing anything." Complained the wild blonde. "Riding my bike, going out for walks and hiking and reading can only saite myself for so long before I get bored. And even running errands for my mom doesn't help either."_

 _"So why don't you find something else to do other than bugging me while I'm at work or class?"_

" _IT'S JUST SO BORING ALONE!" Morgan whined out as she rolled around the ground in an odd, childish fashion._

Barbara could only sigh from the brief memory. 'It was like dealing with a child.' Thought the college student before a bitter bit of info crossed her mind. 'Then again… she admitted she didn't have that many friends anymore which somewhat made her like that.'

It wasn't much of the old cliche fact that moving around would cause one to lose contact with their friends. This could be partially remedied by calling them or at least sending letters to the respective parties to keep things together.

No. The fact as to why Morgan doesn't have many friends anymore was simple: their dead.

It was shocking for the wild blond to admit that to her and felt sorry for that to occur. Morgan waved it off and said she had time to heal. Yet she kept the details on her friends' deaths to herself as it was merely her story to tell and Barbara has no right to pry for such information.

It was only a few days ago when Morgan told Barbara that she thought of the redhead as a good friend -or at least an acquaintance- after spending much time together. Reason why the wild blonde also sought her out was because the college student reminded her a lot of one of her departed friends. It was a bit creepy on this tidbit, but Morgan doesn't want to see and compare the commissioner's daughter with someone from her past. The wild blonde merely sees the spectacled redhead as her own person and left it at that.

And in Barbara's mind, Morgan would've been considered an interesting friend of hers as she hardly has any as well. The wild blonde oddly grew on her with the short time they knew each other. She admits that… despite the unique faults Morgan has…

Speaking of…

"Hey! Hey Hey Hey! I've got a joke for ya!" Said the wild blonde as she downed another glass of rum. "What was the God of Thunder like when he's in a bar and getting his ass wasted since he can't get enough of his prefered ale?"

"...What?"

"He was just so Thorsty! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Okay." Barbara drowled out as she didn't think the joke wasn't all that funny. "I think you had enough to drink tonight."

"Nonsense. I'm not even wasted like half of these _boys_ here." Morgan smirked at the bikers sitting at the other side of the building, who were indeed drunk off their asses.

"I don't even understand how you're not even drunk yet since that's your second bottle of Bacardi."

"Shoot~ I enjoy drinking this stuff -among other brands- since a good lot of them is just concocted piss water." Morgan muttered with a smile as she sipped the rest of her glass as it was just melted ice at this point. "I mean, I wonder how many people back in the old West handled some of that shit since it was supposedly water, roots and some other crap. Just slap a label on 'em and serve it as a desired drink… or a stupid medical solvent. And even during the medieval times -and prior to that- wine's very much comparable to grape or apple juice these days."

"...You really do know your drinks and enjoying them…"

"Hells~ yeah~ Even rum more than most." The wild blonde poured herself another glass of the bottle of Bacardi she purchased. "If you ask me; rum, absinthe and really good scotch -like Ardbeg Provenance- are the only things to actually get me drunk… after three or so bottles. And before ya ask, yes I've tested it myself in a controlled environment."

Barbara merely rose a brow as she drank the rest of her sangria. "And I can tell your mother wasn't all too happy about that."

"No kidding." Morgan drawled out. "You wouldn't believe how pissed she was. Of how her sweet, sweet beloved child ended up wrecking some of her stuff." She shook her head as she chuckled. "Regardless, no other man can ever have the balls to keep it up with a woman."

The secret identity of Batgirl could only roll her eyes as she munched on the peanuts and pretzels on the table before calling out to the bar's owner for more sangria.

As this went on, Harley and Pam walked into the semi-packed bar and walked up to the main bar before sitting down.

Looking up from preparing a new sangria, Moxxi saw two of her favorite customers. She gave them a smile before speaking to them. "Hiya Harley, Pam." 

"Hey/Hi Moxxi." The two friends voiced out.

"What can I get ya two?"

"I'll have a margarita with extra lime." Said the Arkham doctor.

"And I'll get a virgin bloody caesar." Came the botanist's order.

"Ya got it."

As Moxxi finished up the next sangria, she walked away to deliver the drink before working on the recent orders.

When the bar owner left, Pam munched on some peanuts as her green eyes looked upon the alcohol display before her.

The Green champion had been rather curious on what the lot of them taste like. If she wasn't part plant, then she would've drank a good number of them by now. Enjoying the flavors and at least having an enjoyable time being drunk like the very few times she was indeed like that during come parts in college.

But this had to come to an end upon the realization that Pam can get really drunk after not getting her job back at STAR labs. She got a 6-pack of cheap beer and got wasted from those alone. So with her being the plant hybrid, she can only handle a certain amount of alcohol for the rest of her days.

Pam had actually experimented on the different alcoholic beverages after being brought into this bar months ago. The botanist now had to set herself carefully that every time she went out for drinks, Pam can only handle one glass each and every time. If not having alcohol, she'd only drink club soda or virgin drinks in general.

Harley saw the long distant stair and loudly coughed to snap Pam out of her thoughts. Once getting the redhead's attention, the changed blonde leaned back into her seat before getting into the topic at hand. "Okay, Red, we didn't really talk at all on the ride over here."

"And?"

"And~ it's time to continue our chat from earlier. So spill."

The Green champion sighed before using her tongue to pick out some peanut residue. This gave her a few moments to collect herself, despite thinking things over throughout the day. Once done, Pam spoke up. "You know I'm a hybrid in a lot of ways."

"I know. After all, I was your doctor for like five months back at Arkham." Responded the psychologist. "But you weren't always like that."

"Please, stop trying to classify me."

"I won't, Red. All I'm just trying to do is to find out what's going on." Harley said as she grabbed some pretzels and popped one into her mouth. "Go ahead, Red, let it out. Talk about your feelings as of late."

"I don't _need_ to talk, Harl. I'm connected to the Green, remember?"

"Well~ you still have at least a good amount of human feelings..."

"...You drawled out there… You think I'm not really human anymore."

"I know you're not entirely human, but I'm just concerned if you still have your humanity intact."

"The exact percentage is imprecise."

"I don't care about the percentage, Pam. I'm just concerned of your well-being." Harley moved her hand over to her girlfriend and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Naruto and I are worried… and I don't know what I can do to help if you don't let me in." The psychologist gave her a saddened look. "Please…"

The Green champion looked down and sighed. "Humans... are so complicated." Muttered out the botanist, making Harley adopt a confused expression while having her full attention. "Recently, I often wonder if I'm better off being by myself. How humans manage to communicate is clearly beyond me as of late." She then squeezed Harley's hand. "Being so frail and limited. Yet they cause _so_ much pain." Pam swallowed a lump in her throat as her eyes stung a little. "But... But I feel... afraid and wonder if I really need anyone anymore."

"Red..."

"You and Naruto know so much about me with only Selina trudging not far behind." Tears were welling up and slowly spilled out. "My... My heart is all out for you. Yet there are times if that's just really me or just phantom feelings of my humanity still wanting to feel alive. I truly felt like I died on that day earlier this year and I was given new life because of the Green. Yet because of that, I don't know if I'll ever fit in the human world anymore."

"But you have us, Pam." Harley said as she moved her former patient around in her seat. "We love and care for you. And it's not just us three, but think about Rachel. She sees you as the second chance at having a mother." The blond then grasped the redhead's other hand and squeezed that as well before forming a smile. "Speaking of, you have your upcoming babies. You of all people should be super excited for that."

"I know, Harl, but…"

"But what?"

"I don't know if they'll turn out alright."

Harley gave Pam a skeptic look. "What are you talking about? You saw puddin's memory with Didi." She said as she tried not saying _Her_ real identity in a public place. "She said the Waters aren't gonna cause problems with the solution being that of a pure source."

"I'm not talking about that." Corrected the botanist. "I'm talking about… not being a good parent for them." The psychologist gave her a look that said 'explain, now'. "I don't know if I'll make them happy, always be there for them, do the right things…"

Harley let out a frustrated sigh as she took her hands back. "Geez, Red. Is that what's upsetting ya on that? Being a _perfect_ parent?" The blonde gave out a bitter chuckle. "Listen, no parent is perfect. There never is and ever will be. My parents weren't perfect when I was growing up with my dad going in and out of jail for being a con-artist while my mom had to focus on my siblings. And then there's-"

"Mine?" Pam interjected with a small glare. "You were going to say mine?"

Harley reared back and tried to correct her. "Pam, I-"

"My mother was a saint and was always there for me and there's nothing that can ever take that away from me." The redhead's tone then went darker as her eyes glowed a little. _**"T**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **b**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **f**_ _a_ _ **f**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **r**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **c**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _h_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **d**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **i**_ _d_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **I**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _n_ _ **e**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **f**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _g_ _ **i**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _m_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **."**_

Harley then rose her voice as spoke in a strict tone. "Pamela, will you shut up for a moment and listen to me?" This paused Pam's actions as Harley never called her by her full first name, even during their sessions back in Arkham. "I was never going to bring up your parents, especially your father. I know quite well on how bad that can of worms is with you. I agreed to never talk about that subject as I respected your wishes ever since our sessions together."

Pam settled down as her eyes faded back to its natural form. She slinked back into her seat and took several breaths before speaking back to her former doctor. "Harley, I'm sorry…"

The blonde merely smiled a little as she took one of her hands again and gave it a reaffirming squeeze. "It's okay, Pam. I don't blame you." She sighed as Moxxi came over with their drinks.

"Is everything okay, girls?" Asked the bar owner. "You two seemed like something bad happened."

"Everything's fine, Moxxi." Harley said. "Just a small misunderstanding that merely went sideways."

Moxxi merely gave them a look before nodding in acceptance. "Well don't cause any problems, you two."

"We won't."

Once Moxxi went to her own devices, Pam spoke up. "So what were you going to say anyways before… I jumped the gun?"

"About other not-perfect parents? Well there are my neighbors that they fight quite often. I do what I can to help, but it takes time to fix their problems." Harley said before partaking more of her beverage. "Though I do question why Paula and Lawrence seem distant to me ever since the whole Demon's Quest debacle."

"Have you asked about that?"

"Sort of, but I don't want to push it or else I might end up making it worse." Taking another sip, the blonde placed the drink down before putting down some other facts. "There are the deadbeat parents and there are those that does well to make their children happy, despite their current environment. Each person has skeletons in their closets and children don't really see those unless circumstances present them before others. So what any parent out there is seen by their children, they'll never be truly seen perfect for perfection is merely an illusion being placed by others."

Harley gave out a sigh as she took her drink and sipped some of it to quench her dry mouth. "From what I'm trying to get at, Pammy, is that you'll be a great mother. I guarantee you'll love and care for them like no other since you've worked so hard to accomplish your goal on having children. And Naruto will do everything he can to help you raise them and won't resort into doing anything stupid like what Didi _exactly_ told him."

Pam gave out a small smile on all that, plus what Harley was referring to. "Thanks. I needed that." She said before drinking her virgin Bloody Caesar.

Harley nodded and was about to drink her margarita when she noticed two things. One was Barbara and possibly some friend of hers sitting at a booth not far away from them. Sure it was odd for her to see her student here of all places, but what seemed to stick out was the one she was having drinks with. It might've been her imagination, but the Arkham doctor briefly swore she saw the wild blonde focusing her attention towards their direction…

...As if she was listening into their conversation with utmost attention before the pair left the booth to head to god knows where.

'What's up with her?' Harley thought before she focused her attention back to Pam before speaking her thought. "Is there something else bugging you, Red?"

Placing her drink down onto the bar's surface, Pam let out a sigh. "Yeah, there is."

"Then what is it?"

"...When we saw Naruto's memories of meeting _Her_ ," she scratched her scalp and cringed a little, "I thought I was imagining things."

"About what?"

"Me seeing Didi before."

Harley gave Pam a perplexed look. "I'm sorry, but what?"

"I… saw her before."

"How?"

"I thought it was just my imagination at the time, due to the circumstance, but after seeing her again through Naruto's memory got things to come back and made me realize it was all real. As if like it was some sort of repressed memory."

Harley readjusted into her seat before speaking with her utmost attention. "Well… we got nothing else to do for now. So you might as well tell me."

Pam took a large swig of her virgin cocktail since she knew explaining all of this will dry out her throat. Once the glass was practically empty -asides from the ice and celery stick- the Green champion spoke. "It happened after my accident earlier this year when I met Her."

"...When exactly?"

"While I was in my coma."

 _ **-Flashback; 11 Months Ago, Gotham General Hospital-**_

 _The sounds of machines were heard throughout the hospital room as Pam looked at Naruto, who appeared to be a recovering wreck. And in the bed was… her… all wrapped up in bandages with tubes inserted into her to help keep her alive._

 _Pam briefly wondered what was going on and thought this must've been some sick dream. All the botanist could do was to witness the scene before her. The only sounds she could ever hear were both the hospital equipment and that of her lover's voice._

 _And then, quite suddenly, all other sounds appeared to have gone silent. Pam soon heard a noise which seemed familiar, yet she'd never heard it before. From what she could make out of it, the sound was like wind blowing the pages of a very large book. Either that or the beating of mighty wings._

 _With a blink of an eye, Pam saw there was another person in the room who appeared from out of nowhere._

" _Sad, isn't it." Spoke the gothic woman as she looked at the scene right across from her. "Having to see this before you and can't do a thing about it."_

 _Pam didn't know how to properly respond to this as she kept standing there. Many thoughts crossed her mind as she wondered who this goth was exactly. Yet something about her seemed familiar._

 _The goth moved around Naruto's sitting form and around the hospital bed to stand a foot away from the red haired botanist. "You're wondering if this is a dream, correct?" Pam looked over and opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything. "Sorry to say, but it's not. This is really happening."_

" _W-What do you mean?" Pam stuttered out. "H-How could I be here," pointing to her current spot before pointing to the prone form on the bed in front of her, "and yet there?"_

" _It's simple really: you've been having an outer body experience for roughly a week."_

 _Pam's scientific portion of her mind took over as she shook her head. "That's ridiculous." She muttered out. "That can't be the case. I mean..." She widened her eyes as tears ran down her cheeks with memories rushing through. "Oh god... I... I remember fighting Woodrue in my lab and... the burning..." She wiped the tears away before shaking her head. "Whatever I'm seeing here must be a dream and a really bad one."_

 _The goth shook her head. "Like I said before, this is not a dream-"_

 _"And I'm having an outer body experience." Pam finished off with a sideways glance. "And... I suppose you're claiming to be… Death? You don't even look like him."_

" _"Are you looking for the scythe? Or the skis? Well sorry to disappoint you. It's just me. But you're right about my job. I'm Death."_

 _Pam merely blinked in absolute astonishment. "You're telling me Death is a woman?" 'Death' nodded her head with a smile. "Huh... Not only does that feel original, but I feel that a big score was made towards women everywhere." She quickly shook her head to get back into things before looking straight into 'Death's' eyes. "Give me one reason I should believe you."_

 _The gothic woman didn't say anything. All she did was reach forward and bopped the redhead's nose, which she oddly felt before said feeling seemed to spread to the rest of her face. From the corner of her eye, Pam saw in the room's mirror black veins quickly forming from the center of her nose to all over her body. And after several seconds, they receded and faded away before her widened gaze shifted back to the woman standing next to her._

 _"Believe me now?"_

 _The botanist could only nod in absolute shock._

" _Okay, so there's this thing I can do... which can sometimes sort of clarify the situation for people." Pam rose a brow on where Death was getting at. "It's called the Life Review. You know when you're dying and your whole life flashes before your eyes? It's like that only later... usually."_

 _Pam didn't like hearing this and tried to decline the offer. "Please, I-I don't want-"_

" _Don't be scared, Pamela. You might even enjoy it." The nearby light seemed to grow in intensity as the redhead had to shield her eyes. "Hmm~ There's quite a lot to choose from." Said the gothic woman as she peered into the light. "I can see_ all _your life from here. And it looks like I thought it would."_

 _"What's that supposed to mean?!" Pam asked as she looked at Death. "I don't want to see-" The moment she looked away from Death's form, the redhead saw_ everything _. Moments after her birth, her childhood, her mother's death, her following school years, her time at work, being with the Hollands... meeting Naruto and having the time of her life being with him. "...My life?"_

" _Yup~ It's all there, Pamela."_

" _...Please." Pam pleaded with watering eyes that were filled with mixed feelings. "Please turn it off."_

 _"And why not?"_

 _"You wouldn't understand!" Yelled out the botanist with anger filling her very being._

 _"I understand just fine, Pamela. I'm a really good understander." Death scratched her ebony locks before speaking once more. "Look... Y'know, this would be so much easier if you'd please stop looking at me like some supervillain trying to take you away."_

 _Pam's anger quickly faded away as all that remained was her widened eyes. "...You're not?"_

 _"I'm not. After all, it's not your time yet." Death then leaned back as she stretched out her arms. "Besides, I'm rather busy with me meeting a hundred and fifty thousand humans every day... on this planet alone. Not counting cats, birds or goldfish as examples. And you people are always dying of something. It's what you do. Sometimes you get killed one way or another, but in the end y'all come back to me."_

 _Pam fidgeted in her spot as she was under Death's gaze. "Sorry... about yelling at you. Anger's not really a constructive response to this kind of situation."_

 _The goth merely gave the redhead a small smile. "Obviously."_

 _"So... What would it take for you to change this?" Pam emphasized to her current state in the hospital bed. "What do you_ need _?"_

 _Death pondered for a moment before giving a response. "A pony."_

 _"A pony?"_

 _"A magic pony. A magic pony who sings."_

 _"...Do you mean that literally? Is there really one out there that-?"_

 _Death started to laugh for a moment before settling down. "Sorry. I was joking. I've met lots of magic ponies that sing quite often. And there's one that tends to break the 4th wall and oddly breaks reality and physics, all due to my youngest sister's influence." Her smile still remained after her laughter died down. "I mean, I've met_ everybody _… and in the Equestrian case,_ everypony _."_

" _...I don't get it."_

" _It's just a play on words." Pam rose a brow and somewhat wanted to know more, but Death moved onto other things. "Now... You meant on what did I_ need _?" The goth let out a sigh. "It'd be nice if there_ was _something. Sorry, but at the current time: no. Besides, I always find 'bargaining' the hardest of these stages to deal with."_

 _"Stages? Like this whole thing is some sort of process?" Pam's gaze moved from Death to the scene before her. "I... can tell you've seen this more times than anyone can ever could." The red haired botanist swallowed a lump in her throat as tears started to form again. "This is... happening... and I feel_ helpless _." She brought her hands onto her face as she cried. "E-Even though yo-you said it's n-not my time, I've never been more scared in my entire life!"_

 _Pam soon felt an embracing hug, stiffening upon the contact. She had heard Death's embrace was a mixed bag in terms of reactions, but this was rather comforting. Its as if she was hugged by a sister she never had… or even a caring lover._

" _Shhh~ It's okay. I'm here."_

 _The pair merely stood there in what felt like eternity in Pam's perspective, even though it was just a minute or two. Opening her eyes, the redhead asked a simple question. "Can… Can you help me?"_

" _You know, I've been doing this for a_ very _long time. I've seen_ every _different reaction. And you're not the first person who's tried to engage my sympathy."_

 _Pam sniffled a little as she pulled away from the embrace. "I'm guessing it doesn't work all that often."_

 _"No." Death surprisingly said to her. "It_ always _does, yet it doesn't make any difference." She tilted her head a little as she stared at her. "You're getting through these 'stages of grief' quite well. And the next stage is meant to be acceptance. So-"_

 _"But I can't accept this!" Pam spoke out before slowly lowering her head and looked at her prone form and Naruto looking at it with almost lifeless eyes. "I... I don't want to leave him. He's the love of my life and I am his. And… just seeing this breaks my heart."_

 _"...I understand what you're feeling. It's hard for many coma patients to feel this way if they would live through another day and hopefully wake up. Not just to be with their loved ones, but to also get back there and live out their life by either changing it or just going back into their same routine." Death walked over to one of the empty seats and sat in it before patting the neighboring one. "How about you sit down and we can talk."_

 _"About... what?"_

 _"You're opinions about, y'know, the afterlife?" Pam was bewildered on the request. It was oddly hard to say no on the matter. She slowly walked to the empty seat and sat down. "Now some people think that_ whatever _happens after you die, you'll go where you're_ meant _to go. From the ultimate resort above, the kingdom below, the 'seemingly' empty void in between, or one of the many places one believes in."_

 _Pam twiddled her thumbs for several moments before giving out her thoughts on the matter. "Well... Who says so? I mean... if not_ you _, then who has the_ right _to judge me or anyone else? They'd have to have some... objective point of view of the ever expanding universe. And we... well… most of the scientific community -since I know some scientists that are oddly religious- know there_ is _no such point of view." Pam scratched her head and let out a frustrated sigh. "To tell you the truth, I was never much of a religious person at all and sometimes bordered on being an atheist. Hard to really tell at times." Her green eyes met with Death's. "Yet this chat we're having... might change that."_

 _"It happens quite often with one changing their perspectives on the 'higher' and 'lower' powers out there."_

 _"True and believers always seemed to waine on their responsibilities."_

 _Death merely shrugged. "Sure... Kind of. But not in the way you're thinking it."_

 _"Then I'm sure you have a point of view of the cosmos as a whole. I mean if you accept the whole 'Big Bang Theory' was merely a small part of something grander than what one thought to believe in as the universe's origin; deciding on atheism isn't a_ logical _choice. It tends to be an_ ethical _one." Pam rubbed her eyes as her mind seemed to get a headache on thinking about all of this. "Point I'm trying to get across is... if there is a God, do I at least get the chance to put forth my case? Do I get to argue when I meet Him… or Her?" Death tilted her head when hearing that tidbit. "What? I generally thought Death was a man and yet here_ you _are as very attractive woman and that changed my thought of the subject."_

" _Why thank you for the compliment."_

" _You're welcome."_

" _...And back to the matter at hand. What would've you done to put out your case when your time came?"_

 _Pam felt rather stuck when asked about that. She scrunched up her face and felt at a loss. "I… honestly don't know."_

" _No one's really prepared if_ it _becomes rather sudden, Pamela." Said the gothic woman. "Many people out there prepare themselves for that 'big important meeting' for years or practically their entire lives. Yet at the last moment, it's a mixed bag. Things go well for some and others… not so much. They end up choking it and the results vary."_

 _Pam snorted a little. "I can imagine that. But… what would they typically say to make up for not being unprepared on said meeting?" She asked. "It's just a curious thought."_

" _Mostly 'sorry'."_

" _Sorry? Sorry for_ what _? Sorry for what they've done in life with all of the crimes they've committed?" Pam said with a raised brow. "Like officers taking lives while in the line of duty or with soldiers while out on the battlefield? With them having nightmares of what they've done and truly having a hard time coping with them?"_

" _Basically and much more." Death leaned back in her seat and stared at the sealing. "Most individuals tend to grovel and think it's required for their pleas. But in fact that's not really the requirement at all." She ran her fingers through her darkened locks before continuing her explanation. "You know, Pamela, I don't normally deal in hypotheticals. I mean, I'm when you find out. But we could at least imagine your options. What do you think of your own hedonistic_ paradise _?"_

 _Pam thought real hard as a smile formed on her face. "From what I can imagine right_ now _? It's mostly being married, with Naruto as my husband, and us having several children to raise. We're both orphans due to circumstances and I believe we'll do everything in our power to make our children happy so they won't experience the pain we suffered." Soon tears rolled down her cheeks as she wiped them away. "But if I want my ideal paradise, I would've had my mother still alive so I could've introduced Naruto to her and possibly the same on his end. And outside of that, nature came back in full swing and people didn't abuse Earth's resources. Nature and man being in harmony like all those years ago."_

 _Death smiled and placed a hand on Pam's. "That's quite understandable and it's what makes things so interesting."_

 _Pam once again adopted a curious expression. "How so?"_

 _"Everyone has their own form of paradise and it's interesting for me to see what each and everyone of them is like as their different in their unique, respective fashion." Pam nodded in understanding. "Now here's a biggie for ya." Death said, getting the botanist's attention. "What if I said you could have brilliant, lovely bliss forever. A continual best-ever warm bath of awesomeness. With a perpetual side order of_ familial _,_ romantic _, and even_ pet _love and acceptance. A Summer's day in a meadow with an everlasting cup of_ every _tea and book you can ever get your hands on." The gothic woman looked over and saw the smile on the redhead's face as she imagined it as best as she could. "No worries, no tension, just... truckloads of joy! And it's not just for you, but for everyone?"_

 _After several more moments, Pam let out a snorted chuckle and rubbed the back of her neck. And before long, her one smile slowly faded away. "I'd say 'what's the catch'? I mean, there's always gotta be something for all that you just said. And I think I'd spend forever looking for one. And if I do, I've gotta work my ass off to make that happen."_

 _"Which is true, Pamela. Nothing can truly be given freely." Death stood up and popped her back a little. "Well, I gotta get going?"_

 _"Going... where?"_

 _"Need to keep on working, silly."_

 _"...Then why did you come and see me then?"_

 _"There was someone that died earlier in this hospital and after taking him to his next destination, I thought I'd kill some time chatting with you for a preliminary check on something."_

 _"...Excuse me?"_

 _"Eh~ Don't worry about it. And I'll see you later."_

 _Just when Death was about to leave the room, Pam felt a small shift in the area and voiced her thoughts. "What was that?"_

 _"Oh, that? Yeah, that's you waking up." Pam's expression said it all. "Yeah~ Sometimes when I do this with a coma patient, they end up waking up sooner or later if it's not really their time." Turning back around, Pam swore she saw large black wings sprout from the gothic woman's back to show off her majestic presence. "Oh and just a fair warning, you might~ freak out on_ where _you'll wake up to and whatnot…"_

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"...And the next thing I knew, I woke up in a flower pod and soaked in a vat of green slime." Pam said as she drank some of her second virgin Bloody Caesar. "Once out, I got all of these other memories of me chatting with the Green having an extreme crash course on everything I needed to know as one of their champions."

"And you said that chat of yours with Didi was a repressed memory?"

"Correct."

"How?"

Pam scratched the back of her head to think of an answer. "I believe that since I had my split personality -because of the accident- that when I woke up, all that influx memories from my darker half overwhelmed what memories I had of that encounter. Burying it deep until who knows how long." She then started chewing on the celery stick. "And seeing Didi through Naruto's memories must've resurfaced my chat with her."

Harley nodded as she processed everything as to what Pam told her in what could possibly happen after dying.

"Even though the whole process with the Green changed a bit more on my perspective on religion, since the group influences the other religious pantheons one way or another, this didn't mean I was gonna start practicing 'beliefs' right away."

"Yeah. Culture shock to the max is putting it mildly."

The pair were going to continue the rest of their evening in the bar when they heard it.

"...I know I can make you two purr."

"Would you please leave us alone."

Pam and Harley looked over and saw a pair of women getting harassed by some biker punks. Not liking how this might turn out, Harley got up from her seat and decided to make her way over.

"You're pissed, aren't ya?"

"No. I just wanna teach them boys some manners."

"...Yeah, you're pissed."

"Okay, fine. I just need to work out a little aggression. That's all." The changed blonde cracked her knuckles as she got closer to the biker punks harassing the women. "Hey, boys~"

Pam let out a small groan. "Great~ Here we go." She quickly grabbed their glasses and downed their contents, despite what alcohol was left in Harley's. Once done, Pam grabbed the extra lime wedges from her girlfriend's drink as vines started to grow from them. "I guess I should help her out."

By the time she turned around, Pam saw Harley block a kick with her foot and a punch with her forearm. She retaliated by kicking the man's grounded foot away before slamming his head into the nearby table. Harley then backflipped to avoid a knife being thrusted her way and used her legs to lock onto the man's arm before spinning him around and tossed him into one of his biker palls.

Some of the other punks didn't like this and pulled out their guns. Not wanting her friend into getting hurt, Pam used her vine whips and struck their arms. The changed botanist then flung them across the bar and impacted the pool tables.

And as this fight occured, the harassed women fled from the scene so neither would get hurt. From the tossed bikers, the broken pool sticks, bullets flying and the furniture.

"WHEE~" Harley let out in glee as she weaved through the biker punks. "Glad you decided to join the fun!" She punched away one of the punks that tried to get her from behind. "And here I thought you're just too work obsessed, sometimes."

Pam merely rolled her eyes as she vine whipped another one of them. "Life isn't always _just_ about _fun_ , Harley."

After knocking some teeth in, the Arkham doctor looked over to see Pam taking care of a pair of men rather quickly. "You know, Red, I think you might be taking too much influence from Kitty."

"Why's that?"

"Because you really know your way around a whip and it seems very creepy."

"Seriously, people!" Moxxi yelled out with a twitch of her eye from behind the bar. "STOP WRECKING MY BAR!" She then pulled out a shotgun from underneath the counter and cocked it. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW BAD MY INSURANCE GETS WITH YOU LOT FUCKING UP MY PLACE?!"

Seeing this happen, Pam groaned a little. "This is getting tedious. And this should end now." Pam used her vines to wrap up the remaining biker gang members still standing before pulling out a spray canister from her pocket. "Let's try something else."

"What the hell ya gonna do, ya freaks?!"

Harley looked over and saw the item in Pam's grasp. "What's that?"

"Something I whipped up at work while I was bored one day." Once spraying the biker gang with the solution, Pam looked at her watch and counted down the seconds. "...Five... Six..." It wasn't long after when the group of men started getting frisky with each other and started making out.

"...The fuck was that?" Harley asked in bewilderment.

"New pheromone recipe. What do you think?"

Harley tilted her head as she scratched her head. "I honestly don't know what to say, Red."

"Well I say you two need to help pay for the damages!" Moxxi yelled out as she slammed her shotgun on the counter.

"B-But those guys started it by harrassen 'em girls!" Harley pointed out.

"And yet you two caused most of the damage."

Harley and Pam looked around and indeed saw the state the bar was in. Furniture was wrecked, the jukebox possibly needed to be replaced and most of the pool table equipment was now in splinters (asides from the pool balls). The only thing intact of the bar as a whole was where the drinks were served and put in displayed.

"...Can't you just take the money out of these biker's?"

"I will, as usual, but you two will need to fork over some dough by doing all this shit."

Pam and Harley quickly looked into their wallets and saw what cash they had on hand. And it was the Arkham employee who spoke up. "Can ya just bill, puddin?"

"Maybe and I can tell he's not gonna be happy."

"No kidding." Pam breathed out.

When things started settling down, the pair exited the bar as they saw it was starting to rain.

"Do you need a ride, Red?"

"No. I… just need to be alone and think things over." Came Pam's response. "Besides, I need to check up on the 'kids' at my greenhouse."

Harley gave a brief nod before cupping her shared girlfriend's cheek. Her blue eyes held a lot of emotion as they peered into the green ones. And for a brief moment, Pam thought and feared Harley would've brought out her 'nuclear option' to make her cry as well.

But this was really hard to tell with the pouring rain. Harley's makeup covering was starting to run down her face to stain parts of her clothes, yet it seemed the psychologist didn't care at the present time.

"Pammy, I love you." Harley said in sadness. "Puddin loves you. Rae Rae loves you and even Selina in her own unique way. Just don't shove us out. Keep us in, please."

After kissing her Pam on the lips for several moments, Harley backed away and made her way towards her car to head back to her apartment. Being left in the rain, Pam let out a sigh and looked towards the sky before the ground underneath her opened up with a flower pod swallowing her whole. Once secure, Pam ordered the plant to take her to her greenhouse outside of Gotham.

 _ **-Gotham Grand Greenhouse-**_

The ground shook as the flower pod bursted out of the earth. It's petals opened up as Pam stepped out to touch part of the muddy ground before her. Her green eyes gazed upward and saw parts of the broken covering that left the rain to seap on through.

"Wonder how much it'll cost to replace all of those broken glass." She muttered out her thoughts. "Probably quite a bit." The changed botanist strolled onward as she started to undress one article of clothing at a time. And with each part of her clothing, vines grasped them so they can be properly hung in the closet not far away. "I need to do that soon before the snow starts falling."

Nearing her lab, Pam's green eyes looked over the two sporeling pods -holding her unborn children- hanging over a desk. The size of them now were that of her fists. And it was too soon to tell how long it'll be before they would fully blossom for her to hold her children for the first time.

...LIfe can be a beautiful and priceless experience to obtain. And as a woman, she had the opportunity on giving life to a future generation. But after her accident earlier this year, she was robbed of such an opportunity as her womb and body might cause complications. So with these 'babies' of hers in the flower pods before her, she'd be able to have that opportunity with the man she loves with her entire being.

So would it be of the typical 9 months total like any pregnancy or would it be less upon their true arrival?

Upon their agreement, Luisa was babysitting the third of her sporeling pods back at the botanical gardens. It was mostly seen as a controlled experiment on the different environments with the one in Luisa's possession wasn't soaked in the Lazarus Waters as long as the other two. And once they were born, Pam thought she could keep them all in her greenhouse to be raised here as opposed to the loft. After all, that living space can only hold so much at a time, despite the extra rooms there are.

The Green champion had sometimes thought on buying a house with Naruto so they can have all the room they could ever need. A nice suburban one would be idyllic with a white picket fence and a tire swing set hanging off a mighty tree in the backyard. And in both the front and backyards of the residence will have a flower garden.

It was what she envisioned and dreamed to have ever since she was a little girl when her mother was still alive. That dream went into a deep slumber after her death, but it was reawakened during the time when the changed botanist started dating Naruto.

Taking another look of her 'babies' a thought crossed her mind in wondering about the current state of the third flower pod. "I should probably check in with Luisa on her kept plant in the morning." She muttered out as she grasped some documents from the desk. Once in her bed, Pam situated herself underneath her covers before shifting through the pages. "More breakthroughs in crispr techniques… I should also follow-up with her about this…"

And like that, Pam fell into a dreamless sleep as the sounds of rain helped drift her away.

 _ **-Morning-**_

*RIIING* *RIIING* *RIIING*

"Okay, I'm up." Groaned out the botanist as she slapped her alarm clock off. Adjusting herself up in her bed, Pam rubbed the grime off from her eyelids. Once done, she peered over to her cellphone and checked both the time and to see if there were messages.

Flipping open her phone, she saw there was one message made as she slept.

'Might as well hear them.' She thought as she played it on speaker while on her way to the sink to brush her teeth.

" _Hey, Pam, it's Naruto. Hey, I got a call from Moxxi earlier about you and Harley trashing her bar along with the fact that I'm getting a bill on the remaining damage. Have no clue what it's gonna be, but I hope it's not too bad. I can only handle paying Moxxi's damages for so long with us involved before my finance guys start questioning it._

 _Asides from that, I… I wanted to see if you were alright. You didn't call us when you got back from Africa and I only heard about it from Harley. I miss you and Rachel does as well. I respect if you want some privacy, but I just wanna hear your voice… maybe even hold and kiss you."_

At the end of the message, Pam felt like crap now after remembering what was talked about from last night.

'I should see them today.' She thought as she spat out the toothpaste into the sink. Slurping up some mouthwash, she swirled it around as her thoughts continued. 'It is my day off. So I think I should have some fun with them when possible.'

She made her way towards her impromptu closet and picked out her clothes for the day. She then went over to grab her coffee pot to pour herself a fresh cup, which was prepared by her plants… What? Even though she's part plant, Pam still has human cravings and coffee's one of them.

Upon taking a sip, her eyes briefly glanced at her flower pods-

*COUGH* *CHOKING* *COUGH*

...That…

"What the hell?" She spoke with widened eyes.

When she saw the flower pods last night, they were the size of her fists. But now they were the size of her torso!

Quickly downing the rest of her drink, she commanded a flower pod to arise from the ground and swallowed her whole before taking her to her destination.

She needed to inform Luisa of this! The flower pods grew so much under so little time without her help!

 _ **-Gotham Botanical Gardens-**_

Walking into the garage, Pam thought it was odd to see Luisa's car was here so early.

'Did she pull another late-nighter on something?' Pam thought as she made her way through the building. Once at her office, the Green champion knocked the door several times. "Hey, Luisa! You there! I've got some great…"

The door slowly opened as it showed it was unlocked. A feeling of dread slowly grew within the botanist as she pushed the door a bit further in to see the darkened office. Reaching inside, she moved her hand around to find the light switch.

Once flipping the switch, the lights turned on before gasping in fright.

"LUISA?!"

Lying face first on the ground was her superior and mentor with parts of her desk tossed onto the ground.

Rushing over to her side, Pam flipped her over to see if she was okay. But upon doing so, the changed botanist recoiled in absolute horror when seeing Luisa's skin was in an unhealthy green color with green veins being seen.

"LUISA!"

 _ **-Later-**_

"Poison?"

"Dr. Cruz was studying yew samples. Very poisonous."

Pam blankly looked off to the side as the police carefully placed her supervisor into the body bag before rolling it down the hallway.

This was not right. This should not have happened at all. Why was Luisa poisoned?

It didn't take much for Pam to realize the reason: their shared research. The evidence: the missing flower pod left in Luisa's office and their joint research notes. But one revolving question remained for the changed botanist: did someone know who she really was and what the flower pod really was?

'I feel so violated.' She thought as a chill ran down her spine. Tears slowly formed and fell down her face at not just seeing Luisa's body being taken away, but not knowing where her unborn child was at.

"Gotham Botanical gardens is a _prestigious_ institution." Victor Lee said to the police. "What if this gets into the news?"

"Oh shut up, Victor, and calm down." Spoke the wheelchair bound chairman.

"And who are you?" Asked Detective Bullock.

"Victor Lee, head administrator here at the lab." Victor motioned his hand towards his superior next to him in his motorized wheelchair. "This here is Dr. Eric Grimley, chair of the research department. And I'm sure your superiors will agree, this is clearly an accident, detective."

"We'll be the judge of that, Mr. Lee." Bullock said as he wrote down some details in his small flipbook. "Now, who was the last person to see Dr. Cruz alive?"

Pam moved forward and got close to the plump detective. "That would be me."

"And you are?"

"Dr. Pamela Isley, one of the researchers here and I found... her… this morning." She said while steadying herself. "I work here and when I left the lab last night, she was completely fine."

"Okay, good to know."

"But why the hell do you think this was an accident. Luisa... Dr. Cruz was not a careless person. There's no way she would have poisoned herself."

"And how would you know?"

"I work closely with her on several transgenic experiments. She was practically a great mentor."

Bullock nodded as he wrote this down. "Well~ If I were to guess, this all happened sometime during the night. And while you're here, where were you after leaving the labs?"

"I was having drinks with my friend at the Stacked Deck after a long day here. From handling a class visit from the university to working on several tasks… after said friend stopped by for a brief visit." Pam answered truthfully before putting out a lie. "After that I went home and spent the rest of the night with my boyfriend."

"Okay, so who was this friend of yours?"

"Dr. Harleen Quinzel, she works at Arkham."

"...And your boyfriend's name is?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Bullock cringed a little on that tidbit and knew dealing with him is gonna be... unique. He coughed into his hand before speaking once more. "Before we head on out, was there anything missing?"

Before Pam could answer, Victor beat her to the punch. "There was nothing, detective. So stop trying to make this into a crime scene."

"Okay then, I believe we're done here." Bullock said as he put his flipbook away. "But we'll come back later if we need to ask anymore questions."

Just as the police left, Pam soon followed in order to get back to the loft. Though as she retreated away, the red haired botanist looked back and glared at Victor's retreating form.

He was hiding something and she'll be damned if she didn't find it out.

 _ **-Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

"...What are you doing?"

"Putting up security, Rachael." Pam responded as she placed venus fly traps along the patio door.

The ashen ward looked at the half dozen potted plants stationed at the sliding doors before shifting her purple eyes to the loft's front door. Looking back at Pam, Rachel spoke her thought. "Doesn't look like good security."

"To a normal person's perspective, yes." The redhead went over to the kitchen counter to grab some portable, small security cameras. "But these boys are rather vicious if you know their capabilities."

The violet haired child then looked upstairs to see the guest bedroom door was opened with hints of vines peeking through. It wasn't long after as her guardian stepped out before heading into the neighboring bathroom to wash his hands of dirt and grime. She soon scratched her head and thought back to what happened quite recently.

Rachel was currently on the start of her three day weekend from school and wondered what she could've done for today before going to her lessons at Jason Blood's place tomorrow. After getting ready for the day, Pam returned to the loft with a stuffed duffle bag in each hand and an extra large hiking backpack slung on her back. The guardian/ward pair were going to greet her until seeing the look in the redhead's face like she was a woman on a mission.

It was there that the half-demon and former shinobi learned on what happened recently: not only was Pam's supervisor murdered by poison but their joint research was stolen.

Reason why the botanist didn't head over here right away was her needing to head straight to her greenhouse and grab her two 'baby' pods and the now identified 'security system' of hers. Pam stated that someone from work is a killer and a thief and she feared she might get framed for it.

A wild thought was brought up that said thief and killer might know what Pam exactly was. Luisa was the only person at work that knew Pam's secret, but she never showed any evidence to anyone else. Even details about their secret project -the sporeling children- as the one flower pod was stolen.

Said project was practically apart of selective gene technology as it's now possible to combine plant and animal DNA. Mostly theorized for years when scientists used hybridization to breed plants with other plants for decades to make new strains and the like. Like one example, vineyards making stronger and better product for their respective beverages over the years.

And with the jump of technology and scientific knowledge in recent years, this could be fully applied by splicing many forms of DNA to make different species -both floral and fauna alike- stronger than ever before.

So what did Luisa's killer exactly want with their genetic research? And was said person planning to throw the changed botanist under the bus to get away from it all?

...So many questions with so little time to find some answers.

This happened before in Pam's life with Woodrue having the Holland's killed for their Nobel Prize winning research before trying to steal it from the red haired botanist upon completion. All of this resulted into Pam becoming what she is today as a champion of the Green.

"Question." Rachel said, getting Pam's attention. "Why are you keeping _them_ ," pointing to the pods upstairs, "here instead of your greenhouse?"

"Few things really." Pam said once putting up the last of the reattachable security cameras. "If my superior's killer knows what I am then I think they'd know of me using the greenhouse outside of Gotham. If anything gets stolen from there, then it'll be hard for me to talk to the police."

"How so?"

Pam was going to answer when Naruto beat her to the punch, who was walking down the stairs. "You need to remember, Rachel, the Grand Greenhouse is considered condemned and 'private property'," he said with air quotes. "Being spotted or reported being there without 'proper' permission would get one charged with trespass would be the least of our worries right now. Investigations would be made and with Pam already having a record with her _episode_ earlier this year, things would not turn out well in both the process and end results."

Said woman nodded in bitterment as her boyfriend was right on the nose.

"It's not just that, isn't it?" Rachel questioned.

Pam sat down at the kitchen counter before explaining. "You see, the facts Naruto mentioned are true, which made me have to move my two sporeling pods here, the only place I would feel they would be safe at."

"Which, despite the last minute preparation, I'll have a good number of my summons watching this place over for anything amiss." Naruto said before turning to his first girlfriend. "Speaking of things being amiss, how in the world are the pods half your size now instead of your fists in over a night?"

"I've been wondering about that as well." Said the ashen child.

All the botanist did was give out an expression that mainly read as 'I don't really know'. "Possibly the plant DNA inside of them helped accelerate their growth. After all, plants have a different life span that than of humans and animals."

Rachel blinked at this before asking a possible fact. "So would they end up becoming like the Replicants in Blade Runner?" She ended up receiving looks from her guardian and his first girlfriend. "What? I saw the movie the other day and I thought it was great." The half-demon then let out a little sigh. "I mean if they're possibly growing faster than a typical rate than other babies out there, how long will they really live after being born? Would it be a handful of years or like that of a tree by living for decades, centuries or even millenia."

This got Pam and Naruto worried on the mere thought of a simple, yet complicated detail.

"That's... right." Pam muttered. "If they grow at a fast rate, their brain chemistry would have problems on the rapid growth and change in maturity. Possibly getting smarter at a fraction of the time than any normal being out there."

Naruto groaned. "And here I thought Didi saying they'll not have the Lazarus Pits' bad side effects would be a good thing."

"Then what are you gonna do now, Pam?"

"In this situation, I would probably pull a Bruce and research everything I can get into." The Green champion then paused and thought for a moment. "But…"

"But what?" Asked the guardian/ward pair in synch.

For Naruto, he was getting worried on Pam with her current mentality. She might become Batman-leveled obsessed in getting through this problem. And with how Bruce dealt with things like this, he would be at it for days on end with little to no contact with the outside world.

As for Rachel, she had missed her pseudo-mother. For a while now, Pam felt rather distant with everyone she was close with and it made the ashen child sad. She missed the little gardening moments they had together -both here and at the greenhouse- among other things.

Before either of the pair could think of anything else, Pam spoke up. "But stressing over this -at short notice- would probably cloud my thought process. And I… need a clear head before working further into this." She then turned to Naruto and Rachel while forming a small smile. "And I believe the only way I could do that is to relax and do something… fun."

Both Naruto and Rachel brightened when hearing this. As they tried to plan things out for the day, the Uzumaki summoned a good amount of his Nobodies to guard the loft. And to possibly help out in guarding their residence, the half-demon had worked in on a spell to help defend the fort as they were gone. It won't be strong, due to Luisa's killer not being of magical nature, but it will be of good strength for the time being.

 _ **-Next Day, Gotham Botanical Gardens-**_

Bureaucrats… the worst kind of human many can agree upon. All Victor can think about is rules, regulations and reputation in that sexist head of his.

"...Last item on the agenda -in light of recent events- I've scheduled a mandatory review on safety for all lab staff." Victor voiced out in the cafeteria.

Everyone on staff was currently here, from being on the clock to having the day off. This sudden meeting was placed at the end of the work day so everyone could be able to make it, if possible. And there were -of course- varied reactions like any normal situation on said meeting. Many were in agreement, others were neutral and others…

"Mandatory?" Winston groaned out. "C'mon, Victor."

...bitched and moaned…

As everyone disbursed, Pam was finishing up her meal as she briefly thought over things from yesterday as a whole.

Sure, the day didn't start out all that well with her mentor's death and having to move her sporeling pods into the loft. She was honestly planning in getting into the Batcave and using the batcomputer to the best of its ability to help out in solving Lusia's death. But she remembered her discussion with Harley in the previous night, which fully made her go with her original plan for her day off in spending time with her loved ones.

Pam had a nice lunch with the guardian/ward pair before going to see a movie. Rachel decided to have them see Ms. Doubtfire and it was honestly a pretty good film. Afterwards, the three went out for a really good walk to burn off some excess energy before heading back to the loft.

Harley was a little upset that she couldn't spend a lot of time with them for the day due to her shift at Arkham. Yet this was made up after she got off and had dinner with them. The psychologist did freak out when learning about the death of Pam's supervisor and even more so when seeing the current states of her puddin and Reds' babies.

To finish off the day, the three adults had some good passionate, raunchy sex to help release some built up stress that accumulated over the past week or so… Well more so towards Pam since Harley gets a good fucking like every other day, unless she has some good time off.

Once done with her meal, Pam got up and tossed away her disposable containers and put away the meal tray before making a b-line to Victor's office. After several minutes of travel, Pam knocked on the office door before Victor cracked open the door.

"Yes?"

"Victor, I need a word with you."

The head administrator widened the opening and showed the red haired botanist in. "Is there some trouble, Dr. Isley?" He asked as he sat back down behind his desk.

Pam hotly glared at the head administrator. "Yes, there is. You know perfectly well Luisa wouldn't have poisoned herself. And what about our missing research?"

"Ah~ about that." Victor leaned against the back of his chair as he narrowed his eyes at her. "Would you like me to call the police back in? Because I can."

"Then why haven't you?"

She wasn't budging, causing him to lean forward and interlocked his fingers in front of him. "You see, Ms. Isley, Dr. Grimley and I have kept a close eye on you for quite some time now." He said in an even tone. "Curious we were when you were suddenly brought on and your expertise made us wondering what else you had to offer."

Hearing this -and the man's tone of voice with a certain 'glint'- got Pam to realize Victor and Grimley paid _very_ close attention to her whenever she worked here at the labs. They must've noticed something that she wasn't aware of towards a slip up when using her powers. Pam then guessed they could've researched on her on what exactly got her into Arkham in the first place and either one of them is just waiting to pull out the blackmail card on her.

Wanting to slightly change topic, Pam spoke the next question on her list. "And what of our research? You didn't bother answering that."

"I would love to tell you were it went, but I honestly don't know." Victor said as Pam looked into his eyes. "And even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you since it's company property."

All this got was the Green champion narrowing her eyes before she abruptly leaving his office.

'I could easily kill you right now, Victor. But then suspicion over Luisa's death will shift to me.' Came the botanists thought as she gritted her teeth. 'And you're definitely lying. I can see that particular glint in your eye.' She tightened her fists as she went to grab her belongings before heading back home. 'I just need something good right now to help lighten my mood.'

Ask and you shall receive.

Once acquiring her purse, Pam heard her cell phone go off. Fishing it out, she saw it was Rachel who was calling her.

At one point or another, Rachel kept using the loft's phone to call Artemis and Perdita quite often. It became cumbersome when the ashen child surprisingly hogged it all to herself. And after some discussions, Naruto decided to get his ward a cell phone of her own so she wouldn't hog the loft's line at all.

Answering the call, Pam spoke up. "Yes, Rachel, what is it?"

" _Hey, um… so… I already called Naruto and Harley about this before calling you."_ This got Pam a tad confused on what was going on before the young ward continued talking. _"And he's heading back to the loft now. Harley though will try to get over once done with her shift."_

"...For what exactly?"

" _Um… I think… the pods in the guest bedroom are leaking."_

 _ **-Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

Pam bursted through the patio entrance and hurried her pace to the guest bedroom. The plants that raised her to the current level receded to the earth below as their master didn't want to wait through being in an elevator for what could've felt like ages in this crucial time. She did trip and fell on the stairs but shrugged it off while scrambling upwards.

Making it to the occupied guest bedroom, her green eyes instantly landed to the hanging sporeling pods. The pair were leaking a pinkish liquid from their tops as they were draped over an inflatable kiddie pool to catch said birthing material.

And sitting on the bed were the guardian/ward pair before standing up upon seeing Pam's arrival.

It was Naruto -who was currently a nervous wreck- that broke the small silence first. "So are they…?"

"Yes." Pam breathed out with a smile.

"But so soon?" Came Rachel's question, which her guardian nodded in agreement. "At their size, I would've thought they wouldn't be do for another week."

"So did I." Said the Green champion, walking to the pods with a shaky hand. "But… infants aren't always predictable when it pertains to their due dates."

"Obviously." Muttered the Uzumaki. He walked up to his red haired lover and looked into her eyes. "Are you alright, honey?"

Pam gave an awkward shrug as she slowly opened up the spoorling pods. "Well… this is gonna be weird."

"Why's that?"

"I never delivered a pregnant plant before." She joked. "Much less of my own flesh and blood."

"There's a first for everything." He said. "Do you need some help?"

All Pam gave him was a warm smile and that was all he needed as he cupped his hands towards the pod on the right as she took the right.

As Rachel gazed at the sight before her, she felt the ankh necklace around her neck getting rather warm out of nowhere.

"One of the things I enjoy about my job is witnessing this and I'm always there for each and every one of them." Rachel whirled her head around and jumped a little when seeing Didi sitting right next to her. "Seeing Life being brought into the world before your very eyes -despite the situations where it occurs- is always such a beautiful and wonderful thing." Death said to the ashen child. "Even if it's saddening on the complicated births."

Rachel looked over to the couple and gave a brief smile at the scene before her. Two baby girls were born in the room just now with their own distinct features. A pinkish skinned girl with green hair laid in Pamela's arms while in Naruto's laid an oddly mocha skinned child with a tuft of blond hair. Both cried in their parent's arms as said couple shed tears of joy as they greeted their first born children into the world.

The ashen child soon remembered her mother telling her that despite Rachel being brought into the world as being Trigon's daughter, Arella still loved her. From the time she was pregnant, to the very first moment she looked into her innocent purple eyes as a babe and onwards. For she could never hate her child despite how she came to be.

A thought then crossed her mind and looked over to Didi. The gothic woman saw the look Rachel was giving her that screamed 'why can't they hear you?'. All Death did was smile. "They can't hear or see me right now, Rachel." The half demon was about to ask when the goth beat her to the punch. "Only you can -at the present time- due to that necklace of mine." She stood up and patted Rachel's shoulder before walking out of the room. "Sorry if I can't stay and chat, but I've got places to be; little Raven."

The ashen ward could only wave Death goodbye as said woman returned the gesture before standing up to grab the couple some towels to wrap the newborn spoorlings in.

 _ **-Meanwhile, Gotham Botanical Gardens-**_

Winston groaned a little as he ended the call of one of his booty calls. "Man~ I really need some action tonight."

The 'office pig' chose to stay in a tad late to finish up a project here at the labs so he can get off early tomorrow. Now he was practically regretting it that once done with said project, he thought of hooking up with one of his girls-with-benefits for the evening. Unluckily for Winston, each and every one of them had something else going on by the time he called each of them. If he called earlier, then he would've been lucky for tonight.

The blonde scientist would've thought about trying to have a one night stand with one of his female co-workers, but they were either in a relationship with someone or was an intern. Winston tried hooking up with interns in the past, but those went horribly wrong so he had to keep his distance away for some time. And you wouldn't believe the mess he went through on that last one.

Pretty much involved the girl was in an internship program from highschool and not from college, which Winston mistook the class being from the later. And oh boy was that complicated in the aftermath that he was lucky on keeping his job at the time and not being in jail by a technicality.

But he still has the restraining order on him, so there's that.

Walking by the chairman's office, Winston heard a series of thumps coming from said room. The 'office pig' felt a tad worried while thinking his boss' boss might've fallen off his motorized wheelchair. It wasn't the first time this happened and others came to his aide, despite his stubborn nature in wanting to get back into his moveable piece of furniture on his own.

Winston faced the doorway and knocked it several times. "Hey, Dr. Grimley!" He yelled out. "Are you okay in there?!"

The blonde scientist then heard a loud crash and several things possibly breaking on the other side. Quickly opening the door, Winston was about to step inside when something large swatted aside. The 'office pig' tumbled across the small distance in the hallway before coming to an abrupt stop.

Getting back up onto his feet; Winston rushed into the office and widened his eyes upon the office's wrecked state. The bookshelves, the desk and other furniture was all broken apart with loose material scattered about.

Winston's gaze then saw a body lying on the ground behind a large portion of the desk. Rushing over, the scientist was about to check and see if the chairman was alright.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Yet he recoiled in fright upon seeing Grimley's shriveled up corpse.

 _ **-Half Hour Later-**_

"Damn." Bullock muttered in disgust as he gazed at the sight before him. "We're going to need a shovel, not a body bag."

It wasn't that long ago when the police were informed about the recent murder at the Botanical Gardens. Bullock, Montoya and Uchiha were sent over -with it relating to their current case- didn't know what to make of how the recently deceased became like this.

"I know, Bullock." Officer Uchiha said as he carefully took pictures of Grimley's body. "I mean, what _does_ that to a man?"

"Not a clue, Sasuke. And we don't even need a shovel." Montoya lifted up a simple part of the corpse's clothes and saw it practically falling apart into dust by touching it, yet alone a simple breeze. "We'd rather get a dustpan and broom with it just flaky skin at this point." Picking up an arm, it entirely crumbled into dust. "And no bone's either."

"Who and how old was this guy again?" Bullock asked as he waved his hand so he wouldn't inhale the dusty residue.

"Eric Grimley, chairman of the plant sciences department here, was in his 80's." Sasuke answered. "Would've kicked the bucket sooner than later. But not through this fashion."

The heavy weighted detective groaned as he rubbed his eyes. "Well ain't this great. A big shot is just what we needed." Bullock looked to the side to see the shaken up blonde scientist. "Wouldn't blame the guy being like that."

"So what you think we should do?" Sasuke said as he stood back up. "Good cop/Bad cop? Bad Cop/Bad Cop? Good cop/Good cop?"

"We might just get this over with." Montoya said as she walked over to Winston. "Guy's so shaken up he'd sing like a canary."

Bullock merely chuckled a little. "My thoughts exactly." Coming up to the huddled scientist, who was drinking some coffee to help settle his nerves, the detective spoke. "So mind telling us what went down, er… Winston?"

Winston hesitantly nodded as he kept his eyes away from Grimley's office. "I'm… not sure. I-It all happened so fast."

Montoya came up to the witness' side. "You don't have to rush it all, sir. Just start from the beginning when you can." After a few more moments -once drinking the rest of his beverage, Winston nodded. "Now, how did you _find_ Dr. Grimley?"

"W-Well… I was staying in late in order to wrap up some stuff in the lab so I could hopefully get off early tomorrow. A-After that, I was calling some people to see if they'd like to ha-hang out for the night, but they were rather busy. And on my way to grab my things before heading home, I-I heard noise coming from Grimley's office." Winston nervously said. "I thought that Grimley fell out of his wheelchair again or something else. When I was about to go in to see what's wrong, someone swatted me aside and out of the room. I-I couldn't really see who -or what- it was."

The three officers rose a brow, yet it was Bullock who voiced their shared thought. "What do you mean 'what'?"

"W-Well, I mean, I can't say for sure it was… _human?_ " Winston said unsurely as he racked his brain on the memory. "I swear, detective, it was like a… monster…"

Bullock groaned once more. "You've gotta be _kidding_ me." He then looked over to the two officers with him. "Okay, we're gonna need to shut down this whole area."

As this little interrogation took place, Pam was coming up to the facility and saw the few police cars parked outside. "Okay~ Why are they here?" She thought out loud. "Did Victor call them just to spite me and to cover his tracks? But why so late?"

Reason why the Green champion decided to come back here -instead of staying longer with her two newborns- was to sneak around in order to find any clues inside the offices of both Victor and Grimley. She could try to use her plants to directly search through them. Combing through the desk drawers and sorting through the files, both hard copy and digital, for anything relevant. An easy way for her to hopefully find answers.

Yet when she was in Victor's office earlier, Pam noticed the few plants he previously had in there were gone. From the snake plant tucked off to the side to the little cactus plant placed on his desk. The redhead had a suspicion Victor removed them recently -along with Grimley in his office space- in thinking she would've controlled them for her present purposes.

'Wish Selina could've been here.' She thought as she went through the opening hallway. 'She can do things a whole lot better than I could.' Once rounding a corner she saw several officers questioning Winston, who was looking worse for wear. "The hell is going on here?" She asked.

Winston looked over and saw his coworker, alongside the detective and officers. "Grimley's dead, Pam."

The changed botanist could only stand there in shock. "What?"

"Yeah and your coworker here ran smack into his assailant." Bullock said as he walked up to her. "Now since you're here, we'd like to ask ya a few questions. For one, what's your relation with Eric Grimley? And two, why'd ya show up here so late?"

Pam can only swallow down her annoyance, despite what just occurred. "This is ridiculous."

"Just answer the question, Ms. Isley." Officer Montoya asked as she stood next to Bullock. "The sooner you answer them, the sooner we'll be on our way."

The redhead could only massage her head before answering. "Grimley is the chairman here and is practically my boss' boss. And the reason why I'm here was that I needed to check up on my current work." She then saw the questioning looks from Bullock and Montoya on that.

"Doesn't that sound like it's in the same league as 'I left something in my office or lab'?" Officer Uchiha asked, which got Bullock to nod in agreement.

Pam let out a sigh. "My experiments are time sensitive and I have to check up on them during the off hours."

"She's right, you know." Winston said from behind the police, drawing the group's attention as he was still a nervous wreck. "Caught her several times in the past doing that. Pretty much Luisa's influence rubbing off on her."

Pam sent Winston an appreciated look, despite him still seen as the 'office pig' he is in her eyes. But with the current situation, she'll let it slide this one time.

"Regardless of the situation," Officer Uchiha said to the Green champion, "we can't let you enter, Dr. Isley."

"And why not?"

"The whole wing's going to be closed until further notice."

Pam let out a frustrated groan before whirling back around. Bullock was the one to speak up. "And where'd you think you're going?"

"I'm going back home."

As she left, Bullock rubbed his cheek before pulling out his phone. "Well this night is getting rather annoying, if ya ask me."

"Indeed it is." Montoya muttered out as several other officers entered the building to help take care of the crime scene while Officer Uchiha helped Winston get back to his car.

"Still no word from getting in contact with Victor Lee?"

"Nadda, Bullock. Tried calling him again and still not answering."

"Probably he's driving."

"Or probably something else. If he doesn't want to return calls from the police, then that'll leave more suspicion on his part."

 _ **-Back in the Loft-**_

"...Is it just me or are these two developing rather quickly?"

"It's not just you, Rachel."

"Good, because I was getting a tad worried." Said the ashen child as she and her guardian watched the little activities taking place before them.

Shortly after their birth, Pam decided on giving the sporelings their names, which matched their personalities at the get go. Naruto and Rachel were confused by this, but the botanist stated it was just a feeling and somewhat left it at that. But afterwards, Pam had to heartfully leave for the time being to personally check the botanical gardens to find any clues of the current situation. Naruto wanted to send a clone with her, but she assured him she can take care of it by herself before leaving.

And it was not long after her departure when Harley bursted into the loft and started interacted with the newborns as the 'fun' aunt of the family. Once introductions were made, the psychologist instantly fell in love with the sporelings and started showering with love and kisses. They either loved it or fussed over Harley's actions, but the blonde didn't care.

Now to describe the newborns, they are… unique to say the least. And a common feature the two have are the two whisker-like birthmarks on both sides of their cheeks which both showed they were indeed Naruto's daughters to just add more of their adorableness.

Rose, the blonde pinkish skinned and green eyed infant, seems quite active as Harley was currently chasing her around the loft; who was already on stumbling with her steps right now. She has a natural talent to communicate with plants; like her having them ensnare Harley when she got too close to the infant in the little playtime.

And Hazel, the oddly mocha skinned, hazel eyed and blonde infant; is actually more quiet and a bit recluse. Yet she is already displaying an amazing ability to grow vegetation without any help. Like having a nearby potted plant grow towards the ceiling by just staring at it or having an apple break apart and grow into a bonsai sized tree from its seeds.

And said child was sitting in her father's lap while she read a picture book.

"I'm a little sad, yet happy, that I only had to show Hazel here the alphabet before she started reading." Naruto said as he looked at his daughter flipping to the next page.

"Either that or she's just trying to fully grasp it." Rachel said as she closed a 'how to' baby book. "Hard to tell, if you ask me."

"And Red's gonna be pissed that she wasn't here to witness that for her first time." Harley said as she carried Rose in her arms. "Along with Rosy here taking her first steps."

"No, she'll be _really_ pissed if she wasn't here to hear them speak for the first time; plus walking."

"Oh yeah~ that'll definitely be worse."

Naruto chuckled while envisioning Pam unknowingly acting like his mother; from what memories he saw of course from years ago. It would be rather scary if that were to happen and he might fear for his life -in some comedic fashion- were his first girlfriend not able to see their newborn's developing acts first hand. From seeing an evil spectre behind her to a suffocating aura that'll cause her hair to levitate in a ghostly fashion.

Just when everything seemed fine within the loft, the patio windows bursted open with glass spreading everywhere.

Naruto was the first to react by forming a barrier around themselves so the shattered glass wouldn't impact them. He was about to lower it when large vines shot towards the group and impacted the defensive field. They tried forcing their way through, but the force behind the rapid blows were causing it to crack.

The Uzumaki gritted his teeth as his two daughters started crying. Looking back, Harley and Rachel were trying to comfort and protect them in their respective embraces.

"Get out of the loft!" He called out to them. "Get to safety!"

"But what about you?!" Rachel spoke out over the constant banging sounds against the barrier.

"I'll take care of the source of this! Now get out of here with Rose and Hazel!" He ordered. "I'll cover you both!"

Harley and Rachel hesitantly nodded, got onto their feet and was ready to book it. Forming his ice shield, Haku, around his arm, Naruto slammed the weapon into the floor just when his barrier fell. Once this occured, ice spikes penetrated the enlarged opposing vinces. This gave Harley and Rachel the opening they needed as they ran towards the loft door and left the home to get themselves and the infants to safety in a floor or two below.

As they were gone from the residence, Naruto switched out Haku for Lunar Rose before swiping his blade to cut down the vines. Focusing through his scythe, the Uzumaki activated Pam's security system. The act caused them to grow and start chomping onto the incoming vines coming from outside.

Wanting to take care of the source of the attack, Naruto rushed towards the patio opening and saw the vines were coming from. With a mighty heave, the publisher threw his weapon upwards as it climbed a vast distance towards the roof. As it got close enough, Naruto teleported to his scythe's position, grasped it and slammed his bladed weapon into an opposing vine that tried to skewer him.

Naruto hotly glared at the being standing on the rooftop. The Uzumaki was able to make out it's hulking size -of 12 or so feet tall- with the opposing vines originating from its back. It's skin was muddy brown with large leafs protruding around its head. And to finish off the look were the beedy, sickly yellow eyes peering down at him from his mangled, deformed face.

And with Lunar Rose in his grasp, the Uzumaki felt the horrible, perverted taint radiating off it's form.

"Who… What the hell are you?" Naruto questioned. Quickly slicing through the vine, the former shinobi slashed at the other ones. "And why are you here?!"

 _ **"WHHHERRRE ARRRE THEYYY?!"**_ Growled out the hulkish being with a warped, monstrous voice.

"Where are who?"

" _ **THE SPOOOOOORELINGS, UZUUUMAAAKIII!"**_

And like that, the hulkish monster charged forward.

With each mighty step, the rooftop shook as the monster roared. Lunar Rose sliced through each of the incoming vines before it's wielder dodged the incoming tackle. Once coming up from the recovering roll, Naruto sliced through part of the monster's arm as it's blood splashed across the rooftops surface. The publisher hotly glared at his opponent, who was roaring in pain.

"You are not going to touch my daughters! You hear-!"

The monster interrupted the Uzumaki by batting him away. Soaring away from the building's rooftop at an extremely fast pace, the whiskered man threw his scythe towards it before teleporting to it's position.

By the time he got back, Naruto the monster morph and shrink through what appeared to be… the remains of a potted plant? Running up to it, he inspected the object and saw the plant was all withered and dead.

"Dammit!" He growled out before pausing as he heard the sounds of something sizzling. Looking off to the side, Naruto saw the splattered blood was bubbling like it was some sort of acid before disappearing like it was not even there to begin with. "Well there goes that."

Seeing as the threat was gone -for now- Naruto phased through the rooftop and went through the many floors before ending back up in his loft. Upon arrival, he saw the current state it was in from the decapitated vines lying on the living room's broken and thrown furniture. It wouldn't take long for him to clean this up, with his clones and summons, along with knowing how much it'll cost to replace the damaged goods.

But none of that mattered as long as his loved ones were safe.

Just when he pulled out his phone to call Harley so they can get back in here, he heard Pam's voice behind him. "Oh my god!" She cried out. "What the hell happened? And where are-"

"They're safe, Pam." He said before he heard Harley pick up the call. "You girls can get back now. The attacker's gone."

"W-Who attacked?" The botanist asked in distress.

"I don't know, but the… monster was after our daughters." Naruto said after hanging up. He looked towards his first lover and saw her wrathful expression.

" _ **W**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _i_ _ **s**_ _h_ _ **e?!"**_

"The attacker got away, Pam. Used the same kind of high tier plant traveling technique you showed me once."

"...You mean of traveling across a city or the glove in a snap?" She shockingly asked as her voice went back to normal. "But how could-?"

"Found the remains of a dead potted plant on the rooftop." Naruto answered. "And it seemed he sucked up it's remaining lifeforce so he wouldn't get tracked by you."

"But was there anything else he left behind?"

"Some blood when we fought, but it corroded away like acid back on the rooftop."

It wasn't long before Harley and Rachel came back with the sporeling newborns in their arms did Pam come up to them and hugged the life out of them. "Thank goodness you two are safe."

"It's nothing, Red." Said the psychologist once out of Pam's grasp. "And look, we kept your babies safe."

Once ending the embrace with Rachel, she took hold of her two daughters and gave a small smile at her friend and pseudo ward. "Don't worry sweeties." She cooed at them as they gave out small whimpers. "No monsters going to hurt you."

"Then we'll need to increase the security here, Pam." He said in a stern expression. "The attack came when we least expected it and this might not have happened if I had my summons out."

"Or my magic barrier." Rachel timidly said.

The Green champion looked at them and gave them a reassuring expression. "It's not your fault, you two. Neither of you knew this would have occurred so soon."

"But what are we gonna do, Pam?" Naruto asked. "The attacker might come back for Rose and Hazel."

"Rose and Hazel?" Spoke a familiar voice. Whirling around, Naruto Pam and Rachel saw Selina standing in the doorway. "Okay… What the hell happened here?" The ravenette thief then saw the infants in Pam's arms and gained a surprised look in response. "The kids are here?! Already?!"

"This surprised us as well, Selina. Which we'll happily catch you up on." Naruto said as he came up to her. "But now… are you okay? How were things while you were gone?"

"Um… Things are good, Naruto." Selina said as she scratched the side of her head. "And I can talk about what happened later." The Red champion then motioned towards the loft before her. "So mind telling me what's going on?"

After situating themselves at the kitchen counter; Naruto, Rachel, Pam and Harley filled in Selina of recent events. And it didn't take long for Selina to get brought up to speed.

"So let me get this straight," Selina started off, "someone stole all of your joint research at your lab and is poisoning and killing the top scientists." She then looked at the two newborns. "Said research is related to these two… cute little girls. And some monster came here for them." The Red champion then looked over to Green counterpart. "I have a question, Red. If this guy was controlling plants, can't you just sense him through the Green and locate him through there?"

Pam blinked before realizing her dark haired girlfriend was right. The redhead closed her eyes and focused everything she can to get in touch with the Green. But for some reason... there is some kind of interference... and it's _rather_ strong.

Naruto saw something was off and voiced his concern. "Pam, are you alright?"

"I'm... not." She struggled out. "I can't reach them or even Yggdrasil." Pam opened her eyes and looked at him. "Something's blocking me and I couldn't hear anything."

Both Selina and Naruto exchanged worried glances upon hearing this as it was highly unusual for this to occur with the Nature group. And it was Naruto who voiced it. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. And it's not right."

Naruto sighed and scratched his head as that possible idea became a dead end. "Then if we can't find that guy, then what about Victor Lee?" He asked.

"Hmm… Maybe his home?"

Harley shook her head on that. "I don't think he'll be there." She then explained her thoughts. "By my guess, a creep like that won't bluntly hideout at his place if he's trying to hide something this big. Hell, I bet he has some hidey hole he'll camp out at until this'll all blow over."

"Harley's right, Red." Selina said in agreement. "Someone that high profile has got to have a place to hide all of his crap so it'll be hard for anyone to find it. So if there's any place this Victor person is keeping your research, then where do you think it might be located?"

Pam thought for a moment or two before giving out a frustrated sigh. "We might need to look up the information to see if I'm correct."

"Where at?"

 _ **-Batcave-**_

"What are you doing exactly?"

"Hacking into the Gotham Permits Department to find the information I'm looking for." Said the Green champion to the Arkham employee as she typed away through the batcomputer.

Pam had told them they needed to borrow the infamous batcomputer for the time; for it being the best way to find what she might be looking for. She would've had the resident thief break into the permits department as she was the most experienced out of all of them to get in and out quite easily with the desired information.

Yet Pam wanted to quickly get this over with and to do that required using the best hacking tool they could get their hands on. Thus Bruce's batcomputer.

Right before Naruto, Harley, Pam and Selina left; Rachel volunteered to stay behind to watch over Rose and Hazel with a magical barrier set up as we speak. And to help out his ward in the task, Naruto had a horde of summons watching over them just in case of anything.

After several more keystrokes, several windows came up. "Here we go." Pam spoke out.

They looked at the details and saw it was the blueprints and layouts of the Gotham Botanical Gardens. "These don't look the same like the ones at your work, Pam."

"Because these are for the previous location the Gardens were located." She said while pulling out a laser pointer and aiming it at the date. "Built in 1888, the original Gotham Botanical Gardens competed against the Grand Greenhouse. Yet it got converted into a visitor's center back in the 70's when the better and current version of the Gardens was built around the ancient tree we typically see everyday now."

"And why bring this up, Pammy?" Harley asked.

"Because the original one became a storage facility for the Gardens after the visitor's center closed down in order to save money or whatever." Pam then pulled up what appeared to be an updated version of said building. "And according to this, for some reason, the current layout of the location has one particular problem."

Selina looked at the schematics and gave out her thoughts. "You might be right. There's quite a lot of state-of-the-art security for _just_ a storage facility."

"Do you think we can get around it?" Pam asked.

"If it's just by myself, that'll be tricky." The Red champion then smirked. "But with all of us, then we'll do just fine."

 _ **-Gotham Botanical Gardens, The Old Abandoned Facility-**_

" _ **...A**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **e,**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _w_ _ **o?"**_

Currently in their 'nightly' garbs, Vanitas and his three costumed lovers overlooked the area. Harley was leaning on her large mallet for support with an absolute bored expression and Ivy was pacing back and forth while Selina and their shared lover were inspecting the sight below with their binoculars and 'zoom' ability respectively.

"I see activity down there." Said the Catwoman.

"At least we know that's definitely _not_ an empty building, Ivy." Vanitas said with a narrowed glance. "Especially with the heavily armed security at every entrance I can possibly see."

"I'm not sure how we're gonna get through the traditional-"

The conversation was cut short as they heard the skidding of dirt and rocks not far away. Ivy, Catwoman and Vanitas saw the source was coming from Harley and wondered what the hell she was doing. Redirecting their respective equipment, the thief and the hero saw the costumed psychologist eventually stop some distance away from the building. She then started looking around and then jumped a little before crouching down at one spot and prying open what appeared to be…

"Are those," Selina muttered before widening her optics, "steam tunnels?" She then slapped for forehead a little. "Of course, why didn't I think of those."

The three eventually caught up with Harley before they entered the steam tunnels connected to the storage facility.

"How did you know these were here, Harl?"

"A lot of buildings built in the 19th century have these, Kitty." Answered the bubbly blonde. "I remember Guy taking me through these one time back in college in order to break into the professor's offices just for kicks." Ducking under an enlarged pipe, Harley soon turned left at a branching section. "And if I remember correctly from the blueprints, there should be an old service entrance just around here."

After navigating through several corners, the group was able to fully stand up before trekking down a small hallway. Coming across a sealed door, Vanitas held Ivy's and Catwoman's hand -with Harley latching onto his back- before phasing them right through. Once on the other side, the Red champion felt a tingle in her nose before sniffing the air.

"Is it just me or do you guys smell smoke?"

Harley took a whiff and gave a reply. "It's like something's burning or someone took too many joints here often."

Ivy was going to say something when-

' **...H-Hello?'**

-she felt and heard something from the Green… The redhead soon snapped her head to the side as she distinguished the voice. Ivy then started walking away from the others.

Vanitas noticed her action and was going to call out to her when the alarms blared to life.

*BWEEP* *BWEEP* *BWEEP*

"...I hope we didn't trip the alarms!" Harley spoke out as she whirled her head at every other direction. "Or get spotted by the cameras!"

" _Level 6 emergency! All personnel must evacuate!"_ A man spoke out through the intercoms. _"I repeat, all personnel must evacuate immediately! This is not a drill!"_

"Oh! Nevermind!" The masked blonde then felt her arm getting yanked by Selina. "Hey!"

"We need to move!" She yelled out. "I hear people running this way!"

Vanitas copied Catwoman's action by pulling Ivy into a different hallway before the four saw half a dozen scientists running away with expressions of pure fright.

"God help us!"

"It's a nightmare!"

"Run for your lives!"

" _Lockdown in progress."_ Spoke an electronic voice this time. _"Repeat: Lockdown in progress."_

Vanitas, Catwoman and Harley had bewildered looks on their faces and wondered what was going on. The only person who didn't adopt the expression for the current moment was Ivy, who was looking upwards like she was paying attention to something.

Vanitas noticed this again and spoke to her. "Ivy? What's wrong?"

' **...Hello? C-Can you hear m-me?'** Spoke a child's voice. **'I-I'm… afraid.'**

" _ **C**_ _a_ _ **n'**_ _t_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **t, h**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **y?"**_

"Hear what?" Vanitas asked as Harley and Catwoman picked up on this and were curious as well.

" _ **A…**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **t**_ _l_ _ **e**_ _g_ _ **i**_ _r_ _ **l."**_ Ivy answered. _**"S**_ _h_ _ **e'**_ _s_ _ **s**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **. A**_ _f_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **i**_ _d_ _ **."**_

"Where?"

" _ **I**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r…**_ _f_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **G**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **n."**_ Responded the Green champion. She then walked at a quickened pace down a hallway while motioning them to follow her. _**"**_ _T_ _ **h**_ _i_ _ **s**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _y_ _ **!"**_

They complied with Ivy's request and followed after her. As they did, each took notice of the scorch marks along the metal walls with various dents along the way. This got the entire group to realize that something bad recently happened.

Venturing further into the storage facility, Ivy kept in contact with the little girl through the Green. _**'C**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **, l**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **e?'**_ She asked. _**'**_ _W_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **?'**_

 **'They were… bad men.'** Said the scared child as she didn't answer Ivy's questions. **'They... they tried to hurt me. But I escaped.'**

 _ **'...W**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **d**_ _i_ _ **d**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **?'**_

After rounding the corner, the entire group froze in their spots as they saw several dead men lying on the ground. Each of them had a automatic weapon on hand... and a flamethrower for some reason. But what truly stood out were the exposed skin taking on the appearance of demented and twisted wood with thorns and blood coming out from their mouths.

 **'I had to hurt them back.'**

"I think I may hurl." Harley spoke as she felt queasy at the sight before her. And from the corner of her eye, she saw Catwoman holding her mouth.

"I think I might, too."

Vanitas came up to the bodies and inspected them. 'How the hell did this happen?' He thought as he lifted up a changed limb. 'What could possibly change flesh into wood?'

 _ **"W**_ _e_ _ **m**_ _u_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **g**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _g_ _ **o**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **."**_ Ivy spoke out, snapping Vanitas out of his thoughts and the other women from their disgusted moment. _**"T**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _c_ _ **e**_ _i_ _ **s**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _w_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **u**_ _p_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _i_ _ **r**_ _s_ _ **. I**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **f**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **."**_

Vanitas stood up from his spot and nodded at his red haired lover. Looking back, he saw Harley and Catwoman look and moved away from the deformed bodies in order to follow Ivy down the hallway.

After a minute of travel, the group went up a flight of stairs before entering a mirror facility of the lab at the Botanical Gardens. It was state-of-the-art in the research variety. And a shared thought was formed within the group members' minds: there was no way this place could've been constructed without higher-up approval.

Hell, this was practically from the very top.

On the far off side, there was a multi-monitoring system set throughout this building... and the main one Pam works at.

"Ivy." Harley spoke with a narrowed glance. "Someone's indeed been watching you at work and it's been all done here."

The Green champion nodded in anger before she heard Catwoman speak up. "Hey! I think I found your research!" Ivy turned her head around and saw the thief was rummaging through a file cabinet and started pulling out handfuls of folders and books.

Marching over, Ivy wanted to confirm they were hers and Luisa's work. Upon seeing the covers, they were indeed theirs. _**"M**_ _y_ _ **m**_ _i_ _ **s**_ _s_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _b_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **k**_ _s_ _ **… L**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **a'**_ _s_ _ **… a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **H**_ _R_ _ **f**_ _i_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **s!"**_ Ivy then let out a growl. _**"**_ _W_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **s**_ _V_ _ **i**_ _c_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **r?!"**_ She then shoved down her anger as she started flipping through the pages just in case anything was missing. _**"**_ _I_ _ **u**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _k_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **L**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **a -**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **v**_ _i_ _ **c**_ _e_ _ **v**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _s_ _ **a-**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _m_ _ **e**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **m**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **."**_

"But wasn't he close to Grimley for years?" Vanitas asked. "Why would Victor possibly kill him?"

" _ **T**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _s_ _ **o**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _t_ _ **e**_ _l_ _ **l."**_ She let out a frustrated sigh. _**"**_ _B_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **I**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _u_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d.**_ _T_ _ **h**_ _i_ _ **s**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _k_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **."**_ Ivy looked over to her male lover with the large stack of notes, journals and documents next to her. _**"W**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _d_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **m**_ _a_ _ **k**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _r_ _ **y**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **e?"**_

Vanitas nodded as she formed a large backpack with his powers. He handed it to her before Ivy started shoving them into the backpack.

"Hey. There's another room over here and it's sealed." Harley spoke out as she pointed to a high tech locking system. "Puddin, mind getting us through? I've got a feeling more of our answers are behind here"

"Sure thing."

Summoning Lunar Rose, the helmeted Uzumaki was about to quickly slice through the security door when he felt and heard something familiar.

 _ **"ISSSLLLEEEY… UZUUUMAAAKIII… TOO CLOSE… MUST FIND…"**_

Quickly noticing his hesitation, Harley spoke the same thought as Ivy and Catwoman. "Is something wrong?"

"...It's here."

"What?/ _ **H**_ _u_ _ **h?**_ /Excuse me?"

"The monster I fought earlier, it's hear." Vanitas answered as he tightened his grip. "I can feel it's taint… through the Green."

" _B_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **w**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _f_ _ **e**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _f_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **?"**_

"I don't know." Said the vigilante as he raised his scythe and brought it down to break through the door. "But we've got other matters to attend to."

The moment the security door fell onto the ground, the group once again adopted the same expressions from earlier in the hallways. Underneath the red light shining from above, a litter of dead scientists were deformed with wood and blood coming out of their bodies. And in the center of the room was a destroyed medical bed with snapped, leather restraints.

"Ugh! Not again!" Harley groaned out.

"The hell happened here?" Spoke the Catwoman.

These scientists were experimenting on something." Muttered the black/white themed hero. "Or someone… and they didn't like it."

' _ **C**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _l_ _ **d**_ _i_ _ **t**_ _b_ _ **e...?'**_ Ivy's thoughts went to that girl's voice through the Green.

*BANG* *THUMP* "HELP!" *BUMP* *BANG* "PLEASE!"

The group heard the muffled sounds coming from within the room. They walked in and started searching for the source.

Yet as they did, each of them horribly saw what they couldn't see from outside of the room. That lining the far right side of the room were rows of dead, plant-like fetus' lined up in either glass beakers or glass cages.

The masked psychologist dry heaved several times before rushing to the nearest trash can and threw up her evening meal. The cat-themed thief tightened her fists in disgusted anger on the destroyed forms of life before her.

And as for Ivy, she flurred through a rainbow of emotions. The men responsible stole her research to create their own sporelings. There were many tries with an equal amount of failures. For they disregarded life who knows how many times.

With Vanitas, he could only grit his teeth in anger and wanted to destroy something for a while. Yet he had to shove down the feeling -for the time being- as he held his beloved red haired girlfriend to comfort her.

The group turned their gazes away from the horrific sight in the room to resume the search as the muffled pleas for help were still heard. In that time, Selina quickly took out a camera from her belt and took pictures of the sight before her in order to gather evidence for the police. And it didn't take long for Harley to notice the source of the noise was coming from the freezer installed into the room.

"Hey guys! Someone's alive!" Harley called out.

As the masked blonde was marching towards the freezer, Ivy -and now Vanitas- heard the girl's voice from the Green. **'I hated needles.'** She weeped out. **'I had to change the bad men to stop them.'** The moment Harley opened the door, Victor Lee fell down as he was almost frozen to death. **'And** _ **he**_ **was a** _ **very**_ **bad man.'**

"HOLY SHIZNO!" Harley yelped out as Victor tried to warm himself up in a fetal position. "Is he dead?!"

" _H_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **i**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **w**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **b**_ _e_ _ **."**_ Ivy growled out. Marching towards the head administrator, the Green champion yanked him off the ground to hotly glare at the man's blue face. _**"Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **s**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **c**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _w_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **k**_ _w_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _L_ _ **u**_ _i_ _ **s**_ _a_ _ **, k**_ _i_ _ **l**_ _l_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **h**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _d_ _ **G**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _m_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **y,**_ _b_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **k**_ _e_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _y_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _m_ _ **y**_ _d_ _ **a**_ _u_ _ **g**_ _h_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **r**_ _s_ _ **! W**_ _H_ _ **Y?!"**_

All Victor could do was wheeze out a chuckle. "Y-Y-You th-think yo-you're _s-so-so_ sm-smart, Isley. B-But you ha-have no _idea_ what's happening... Wh-What you've _unleashed_."

Ivy was about to lash out on Victor when Vanitas grasped her shoulder. "It's not him, Ivy." He said, causing her to look at him in confusion. "He _is_ involved in this -no doubt about it- but something's off." The hero turned his gaze to the soon to be former head administrator, with said man feeling the heavy feeling placed on him that would make the freezer seem like child's play. "You're working for someone… something and you want a big slice of the ending profits, aren't you?"

Before Vanitas and Ivy could _properly_ interrogate him, Selina spoke up. "Ivy, Vanitas, you've gotta see this."

The pair looked over and saw Harley and Catwoman crouched next to a vent. The Green champion soon tossed Victor to the broken medical bed where he was soon rendered unconscious. Ivy and Vanitas then made their way towards the others' position to see some form hiding behind the vent.

"How'd she get herself in there?" Harley asked.

"Hiding like a smart girl. That's what." Said the Catwoman.

"I know that, but still: how?" As the thief pried off the vent, the masked blonde spoke in a soft, gentle voice. "Hey, it's okay. Don't be scared. We're not going to hurt you."

Once Vanitas and Ivy got close, they saw what appeared to be a small girl barely peeking out from the vent's shadows.

 _ **"**_ _H_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **, i**_ _t_ _ **'s**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _g_ _ **h**_ _t_ _ **."**_ Ivy spoke in a gentle tone. _**"Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _c_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **c**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **t**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **. T**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _b_ _ **a**_ _d_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **g**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **."**_

The child hesitantly moved further out of the vent. She kept herself cautious just in case the people before here were bad. When the adults saw this, they knew they wouldn't blame her at all. And as the light showed more of her details, the costumed individuals held their breath and widened their eyes.

The little girl -who wore an oversized shirt to cover up her body- appeared to be physically close to two years of age. Her yellow-green skin complexion was an odd trait to have, but it showed that she was indeed part plant. Her raggedy brown hair reached to the bottom half of her back with thorny vines mixed in the whole mess. The little girl's green eyes held a lot of pain and sorrow as they shifted to each of the adults.

Yet the one trait that stood out the most was the two whisker-like birthmarks on her cheeks… just like Rose and Hazel.

The sight before him made the costumed Uzumaki melt his glass domed helmet away to reveal his features onto her. Both looked at each other, but Naruto had one out of shock which opposed the curious one. And the vigilante wasn't the only one as the three women shared their male lover's expression.

"Y-You have marks," said the frightened sporeling as she placed her hands on his cheeks, "like mine." She then saw tears well up in his eyes. "W-Who are you?"

The sporeling flinched when the whiskered man before her wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. Before the yellow-green skinned girl could say anything, he beat her to it. "I'm… I'm your father. Your daddy." He said with tears falling down his cheeks. Pulling away after several moments, he motioned for Pam to introduce herself.

Pulling down her hood and face mask, the redhead botanist shed tears as well. "And… And I'm your mother."

The sporeling looked at the two and could only voice the only thought that crossed her mind. "W-Why?" The couple looked at her as she swallowed a lump in her throat. "Why weren't you there for me?" She asked, causing them to feel extremely hurt. "Why weren't you there for me when the bad men hurt me?"

"You… You were taken from us." Pam heartfully said. "Before you were born, you were taken from us." The redhead then took hold of what appeared to be her eldest daughter as tears kept flowing down her face. "But I promise you, your father and I will be sure the bad men will never bother and harm you ever again."

The sporeling saw her father nod to show he's making the same promise as well. He then joined the embrace as Harley and Selina softly smiled at the scene before them. And it was there the young hybrid possibly felt the peace she dearly wished for.

 _ **-Insert Dark Souls 3: Curse-rotted Greatwood-**_

Yet this moment came to a sudden end as enlarged vines burst through the ceiling, knocking the two standing women away from the hugging individuals. And before they could react, the couple was smacked onto the ground as their sporeling daughter tumbled away from them.

" _ **FOUND YOU!"**_ Growled out a monstrous voice. The vines ensnared the frightened sporeling as she screamed for help. _**"I WAS LOOKING ALL OVER FOR YOU!"**_

"LET HER GO!" Naruto roared out as he reformed his darkened helmet. This was ignored as the vine shot up through with the sporeling child in its grasp. Growling, Vanitas ran towards the opening above and threw his scythe upwards in hopes of catching up to whoever was behind this mess.

"I'm coming with you!" Pam called out as she latched onto her boyfriends arm. Just as she did, they were teleported to the scythe's location.

Being left in the lab, Harley and Catwoman clicked their tongues.

"We need to get up there."

"I know, Harl, but we have other pressing matters."

Harley looked over to Selina's line of sight and saw both Victor's unconscious body and the backpack containing all of Pam's research. Nothing had to be said as Harley quickly grabbed the sack before helping her friend get the unconscious man out of the building. After all, the man involved with the crime needed to be kept safe -for the time being- before being handed into police custody.

With Vanitas and Ivy, they quickly zipped through the floors in order to reach their stolen child. They zigzagged through broken walls and ceilings before reaching the rooftop. Once landing, they hotly glared at the monster with their weeping child now within its grasp.

Upon laying her eyes at it's hulking form, the Green champion immediately sensed this being-being the one blocking her attempts to talk to the Green… somehow. She felt it's nasty taint and every fiber of her being wanted to kill this beast.

"This is going to be our only and final warning!" Vanitas growled out. "Let her go or get the beating of a lifetime!"

" _ **HIGHLY UNLIKELY, UZUUUMAAAKIII."**_ Spoke out the monster.

Despite the voice sounding warped and demented, it sounded familiar to the Green champion. With widened eyes, it clicked. "Dr. Grimley?!" She yelled out in shock. "But you're dead! Winston found you at the lab!"

 _ **"NO. I AM ALIVE."**_ Said the now identified 'dead man'. _**"AND YESSS, I AM GRIM. JUST OUTGREW… MY… OLD… SKIN…"**_

"How-?"

 _ **"YOURRR RRESSEARCHHHH…"**_ Answered the changed man. _**"ALL MY LIFE, I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THE ANSWER TO IMMORTALITY. AND I KNEW SCIENCE HAD THAT ANSWER."**_ The sporeling struggled in his grasp as he kept talking. _**"I ROSE TO THE TOP OF MY FIELD. BECAME THE HEAD OF THE BOTANICAL GARDENS LAB. BUT FOR YEARS THE ANSWER ELUDED ME."**_

The monster used his unoccupied hand to tap his head. _**"MY MIND REMAINED SHARP, BUT MY BODY... BEGAN TO DIE. ONLY VICTOR KNEW AND HE DID EVERYTHING HE COULD TO STOP MY STAGE FOUR CANCER… WHICH STARTED REACHING MY BRAIN AND LUNGS."**_

Grimley started pacing back on the rooftop as the couple opposingly moved in front of him. _**"BUT THEN THE IDEA OF LONGEVITY CAME ALONG. YEW AND TAXUS BACCATA WERE SOURCES FOR TAANES, A CANCER-FIGHTING TREATMENT. AND YOUR JOINT RESEARCH HAD SO MANY POSSIBILITIES."**_ The creature before them chuckled darkly. _**"FOR IT'S WHY I ALLOWED YOU TO… GROW YOUR CREATURES ALL THOSE MONTHS AGO. ALL SO I COULD USE THE EMBRYONIC FLUID OF YOUR GENE-EDITING EXPERIMENT."**_

The Green champion widened her eyes on what Grimley meant. "Stem cells. You're talking about stem cells. From my sporelings!"

Stem cell therapy is considered a working theory in the scientific community -at the current point of time- with it heavily researched; for it requires raw genetic material. Practically generating new cells -of any kind- and using them to replace damaged ones. With the right chemical and genetic signals, they can form anything: size, shape and function.

For example, have a really bad heart? Then introduce stem cells onto the organ and many of the damaged muscles could get repaired and make them stronger.

Acquiring stem cells vary as they can be found in almost all of the body's organs and tissue matter. Whether they be from the brain, bone marrow, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin and teeth as examples. And gaining these are normally done through human donors -and animals- for the research.

Yet other means of getting stem cells can be taken from amniotic fluids after a pregnancy like using the umbilical cord to harvest these cells… or from dead infants… like what Vanitas and Ivy seen in the labs below.

 _ **"YESSS. STEMMM CELLSSSS. SOOO SSMART, ISSSLEY."**_ Grimly then held up the sporeling child in his grasp. _**"KEPT THIS ONE ALIVE AND TOOK WHAT I NEEDED OVER THE MONTHS EVER SINCE YOU GAVE LUISA THAT ONE POD IN ORDER TO MAKE OTHERS. ONLY SMALL AMOUNTS AT A TIME SO THIS CHILD WOULDN'T DIE."**_

"There could've been other ways, Grimley!" Yelled out the Green champion as she started planning in ways on how to get their daughter back.

 _ **"I HAD NO CHOICE! CELL REGENERATION WAS THE ONLY ANSWER!"**_ Shot back The Grim. _**"I RISKED IT AND AFTER TENN YEARRSS OF SELF IMPRRISONMENT, I WAS FRREE!"**_ The monster said with glee in his warped, demented voice. Yet it quickly soured as he glared at Ivy. _**"BUT THERRE WERRE UNUSUAL SSIDE EFFECTSS... AND IT WAS GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO HIDE… THE CHANGES!"**_

"And how could that happen?" Vanitas asked out of sheer curiosity. "You were in a bloody wheelchair for years. You could've easily hid…" He looked over and saw his botanist girlfriend giving him a particular look. "What? I'm just stating a fact."

 _ **"TRUE, BUT IT WAS THAT LUISA… SSUSPECTED SSOMETHING. TRROUBLESSOME WOMAN."**_ The Grim spat out in annoyance. _**"VICTORRR AND I HAD JUST FINISHED SSETTING UP THE SSECRET RRESEARCH FACILITY HERE, AWAYY FROM PRRYING EYES. BUT LUISA FOUND IRREGULARITIES WITH THE WAYNE BUDGET FOR THE GARDENS."**_

Grimley then chuckled in a menacing tone. _**"FORTUNATELY, YEW BERRIES… VERRRY TOXIC. POISONING CAN TAKE SOME TIME… AS YOU KNOW."**_ He said, causing Pam to let out a gasp in realization. _**"ENOUGH TIME FOR ME TO GO THROUGH AND TAKE THE FILES I NEEDED TO DEVELOP MY OWN SPORELING CELL SUPPLY, WITH YOUR UNBORN CHILD BEING A MAIN PART TO SUPPLY WHAT I COULD NOT DO IN THE LATER EXPERIMENTS."**_

 _ **"S**_ _o_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **l**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **!"**_ She roared out in anger in her dual voice.

 _ **"YESSS. YOU SAVED MY LIIIIFFFE, ISSSLLLEEEY. BUT I NEED MORE CELLLSSSS…"**_

Ivy was going to question this until she saw the tumors growing on the underside of Grimley's neck. _**"Y**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _c_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **c**_ _a_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **b**_ _a_ _ **c**_ _k_ _ **, h**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _n_ _ **'t**_ _i_ _ **t?"**_

There can be a problem involved if one introduces stem cells to cancer and tumor cells. In theory, they are supposed to help stop the cancer and tumor cells' growth rate and terminate them at a faster rate than from your typical cancer treatments with radiation and surgery.

Yet without the proper means of correctly applying the stem cells, the newly introduced material could either get converted and enhance the problem or suppress it for an unknown amount of time. Much less the low possibility of getting rejected.

 _ **"YESSS… THE ONES DOWN BELOW COULD ONLY HELP ME FOR SO LONG UNDER SO LITTLE TIME. I NEED MOOORRRE!"**_

Life and Death, it's a cycle. For plants. For animals. For all living beings out there. This creature -this monster- seeks to leave the Cycle between Life and Death in order to gain Immortality. This cannot stand with what he's done to reach that state.

But it wasn't just that. Grimley not only tried to kidnap his two daughters, but also harmed and tortured his stolen third... Something inside of him flipped as primal emotions of a newly made father made Vanitas want to make Grimley pay dearly…

 _ **-Insert Bloodborne The Old Hunters: Living Failures Extended-**_

Darkened whisps radiated off his body as he charged forward in hopes of striking down this monster hard and fast in order to save his daughter. Behind his glass domed helmet, the Uzumaki's eyes brightly glowed with rage fueling his movements. And energy leaked out of Lunar Rose's ivory blade with the first slash he made, which was severing the hand which held his daughter.

 _ **"AHHHH!"**_ Grimley roared out. _**"THAT WAS JUST A STING! A FLESSSH WOUND!"**_

Just when the monster tried to reach out to take back his prize, wooden pillars bolted from the rooftops bottom and smacked the monster away. Vanitas quickly reached his daughter and phased her out of the animated limb's grasp before forming a clone and handing her to it. It then took off running to get her to safety.

Looking back, Vanitas saw he wasn't the only one feeling this way as Ivy roared while calling upon the surrounding plant life. They answered as they sprouted from around the building and slammed at The Grim in a repeated fashion. And with her beloved boyfriend's help -who started sending energy blades from his scythe- most of the former botanical garden building started crumbling down.

Seeing the building collapse onto itself, Vanitas quickly caught Ivy and leaped away so neither would get harmed from the debrie. Landing back onto the ground, the Green champion yelled out to the pile in hopes the monster died in the process. _**"T**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _t_ _ **w**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _f_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **L**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _s_ _ **a,**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **b**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _r_ _ **d!"**_

The wreckage shook before The Grim's massive form bolted out of the ground with debris flying everywhere.

"Hey! You walking tumor!" Vanitas taunted, causing The Grim to glare. "Yeah, I'm talking to you, you science hack job!" The monster lashed out at the vigilante, yet he kept missing. Even sliding underneath the massive pile of mutated flesh before slicing through it's legs. "Heh~ too slow."

The Grim fell down with the temporary lack of legs holding him up. _**"YOU LITTLE-"**_ The monster focused on regenerating and reconnecting his severed limbs before standing back up to attack Vanitas. Yet there was no sign of him. _**"WHERRRE ARE YOU?!"**_

"Right here!" Came the sudden call before the Green monster was slammed into the ground by the hero's Rasengan. The attack started shredding through as it's acidic blood sprayed all over and quickly corroded once impacting different surfaces.

Despite the heavy damage upon him, enlarged vines sprung from his back and smacked the vigilante away. Getting back up on his feet, The Grim had two of his vines dug into the earth as he lashed out. Even using his other attached vines to knock away the plants which were controlled by Ivy.

" _Y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **'r**_ _e_ _ **g**_ _o_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **n,**_ _G_ _ **r**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _l_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **."**_ Ivy spoke out as she stomped her feet. Enlarged roots sprung from the ground, crashing into the monster's form in a twisted wave of wood.

As The Grim fell, the earth shook around. The vigilante and champion steadied themselves, yet they too fell with plants smacking the pair into each other. The couple tumbled across the ground for a few moments before they both saw their opponent get back up and stalk towards them in a quickened pace.

Before Grimley could get close enough, his head snapped towards the side as a powered kick was delivered by the resident Red champion. The changed scientist stumbled in his steps before a whip ensnared his neck and was soon pulled back as it's owner pulled with all her might.

"Now!" Called out Catwoman.

"Ya got it, Kitty!"

Vanitas and Ivy soon heard the sounds of whistling flying through the air. Whipping their heads, the couple saw a rocket flying towards the briefly restrained Grimley. At the last moment, Selina used the monster as a springboard to leap away. Grimley saw this, but was too late to act as got an explosion in his deformed face.

"Okay I'm sorry," Vanitas spoke out as he helped Ivy stand back up, "but where and how did you get that?!"

"What~? You thought I just had my trusty mallet?" Harley called out to them as she loaded up her launcher before taking aim. "You should've known that by now." Firing another round, the group soon heard Grimley roar out in pain from the next explosion. "Oh and before you two ask, Thorn's being sent back to the loft by puddin's clone as we speak."

Glowing green eyes blinked in confusion, alongside hidden hazel ones. "Thorn?/ _ **T**_ _h_ _ **o**_ _r_ _ **n?"**_ Asked Vanitas and Ivy.

They received a shrug from the masked blonde. "Thought it was appropriate with the thorns growing out of her head." She then glared at them. "Oh don't look at me like that! You two already named Rose and Hazel! So why can't Aunty Harley have her choice?!"

Ivy shook her head on her former doctor's antics while Vanitas merely chuckled.

" _H_ _ **e**_ _y_ _ **, H**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _l_ _ **!"**_ Called out the Green champion.

"Yeah, Ivy?!"

" _ **C**_ _a_ _ **n**_ _y_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **, S**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _a_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _V_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **i**_ _t_ _ **a**_ _s_ _ **d**_ _i_ _ **s**_ _t_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **c**_ _t_ _ **G**_ _r_ _ **i**_ _m_ _ **l**_ _e_ _ **y?"**_ Ivy said while pulling up her hood and face mask. _**"**_ _I_ _ **n**_ _e_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **s**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **w**_ _r_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _d_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **c**_ _e_ _ **o**_ _v_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **u**_ _r_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **u**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **p**_ _l_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **t**_ _l_ _ **i**_ _f_ _ **e**_ _f_ _ **r**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _m_ _ **."**_

"Ya got it!" Saluted bubbly blonde.

The helmeted Uzumaki didn't say anything, only giving his red haired lover a complying nod. Rushing forward with scythe in hand, Vanitas sent energy blade swings at the changed scientist to deliver more damage for their distraction. Getting close enough, the hero slammed the ivory blade into the earth before a newly created tree struck Grimley.

The former human grunted in pain from the attack. He retaliated by reforming his hands into giant hammers to break the tree. Grimley then slammed them to the ground in hopes of killing the vigilante. Though this was not meant to be as the hero slid to the side to evade the attack before slashing at the monster's arms.

Leaping into the air to dodge another blow, Vanitas saw Catwoman charging. Grimley saw this as well as he commanded many flora to attack both her and the costumed blonde, who was firing bullets from afar.

Selina weaved, slid, jumped and maneuvered her way around the incoming enemy plants with her enhanced agility and speed in order to get in close. Harley was in a similar boat, but it was more towards staying from afar to keep up with the supporting fire. But with her current arsenal of giant mallet, a rocket launcher (which has a few rounds left) and her pistols; the costumed blonde will be forced to start fighting at close range very soon. And this was proven to be true as vines shot out of the ground and shot towards the masked Arkham employee.

"Nuh uh! No way!" She cried out as she bolted away from the incoming vines. "I'm not gonna get roped into that!" Harley brought out her mallet and slammed it at one of them before sliding over a car's hood. "Only Red has the right to use those in the-"

" _ **H**_ _A_ _ **R**_ _L_ _ **E**_ _Y_ _ **!"**_ Ivy yelled out from across the battlefield, who was concentrating from behind a broken tree.

"Oh, right! Sorry!"

While dealing with his attackers, Grimley felt the control he had over the surrounding flora starting to wane. He quickly noticed the source, causing him to charge at Isley in hopes of killing her. Yet he was held back for a time by Vanitas slamming a Rasengan at his legs.

As she ran towards her prey; Selina's muscles expanded, then condensed before sharp claws poked out from her gloves. Her green eyes sharpened alongside her teeth as she briefly roared at Grimley. The monster turned his attention towards the ravenette thief before receiving an assault of strengthened strikes at both his head and torso.

Starting to get weak, Grimley slammed his massive hands into the ground and formed a massive barrier of thickened roots, branches and vines. He then heard and felt the continued assault on his defense. Needing more support, Grimley dug his hands into the earth. One went to absorb some of the surrounding flora's life energy and sent it to his barrier. The other quickly went underground to the possibly destroyed lab where dead sporelings were kept.

' _ **I MUST HAVE MORE STRENGTH…'**_ Came the monster's thoughts.

Before Catwoman threw her next punch, two giant vines smashed into the sides of Grimley's thick, plant dome. Two more slammed down on it from above, caused it to crack. It soon fell apart once an explosion impacted the enemy barrier, courtesy of Harley's rocket launcher for added support.

Said explosion caused Selina to tumble away until her back hit something solid and very dense. The Red champion grunted out in pain once hitting the building's debrie. Pushing off the ground, she quickly- if not woozily- stood up.

'Harley should've paid attention that I was right fucking there!' Catwoman groaned in thought. Grabbing her side, Selina saw Grimley's barrier start to reform itself as she steadied herself while shaking the haze from her brain.

Just when the enemy barrier was about to completely repair itself, Catwoman saw what appeared to be a giant beanstalk completely slam into the barrier. It shattered completely under the massive weight that fell upon it.

The Red champion looked at the source and spotted Vanitas not too far from the base of it. With the way he moved his scythe, the recently made beanstalk moved in synch to show he was the one to control it. And it was pretty clear to Selina -and possibly Harley, wherever she may be now- that the beanstalk and the vines from earlier were probably in full control by their male lover.

'Naruto…' She thought as the ringing in her ears finally left.

It was still easy for her to forget that Naruto had more access using the Green whenever using that scythe of his. Selina and Pam called bullshit when told about this, but seeing Naruto's memories back in India, they realized this was indeed true. And Harley thought it was really cool this happened and wondered if he could use that in the bedroom…

Yeah~ the bubbly blonde has quite the naughty set of thoughts to their shared love life.

Just when Selina was about to move forward, a defining roar was heard as Grimley bursted out of the destroyed barrier, seemingly larger and stronger than before.

'The hell?!' Came the shared thoughts of Grimley's opponents.

As the monster before them stood several feet taller, the group saw Grimley toss several small objects into his mouth and chewed. _**"AW~ THAT'S THE STUFF!"**_ He spoke out as he popped more into his gullet.

Curious as to what they were, Vanitas used his Hawkeye ability to zoom for a better look. What he saw caused him to stiffen before boiling rage filled his entire being. "You sick bastard!" Yelled out the helmeted hero.

"What's going on?!" Harley yelled out from behind a destroyed car.

"He's eating them. He's eating the failed sporeling corpses!"

The three women stood there in shock and felt absolutely disgusted what was happening.

" _ **THEY'VE SERVED THEIR PURPOSES BEFORE."**_ Said the changed scientist. _**"NOW THEY'LL DO IT AGAIN, IN FULL."**_

With fierce determination; Selina lurched forward, leapt into the air and started punching the monster with gusto. Each hit hurts The Grim and it was very satisfying to her. Yet each blow wasn't fully effective as she would've thought.

Gritting her teeth, the Catwoman eventually got onto the monster's head and started clawing at his face. "I'm going to enjoy cutting you apart with my claws."

 _ **"GAAAH! I WILL RIIIP YOU APAAART, YOU MANGY CAT!"**_ He said, grabbing Selina and tried to squeeze the life out of her.

This act was haltered by another rocket whizzing through the air and impacting Grimley's back. The former human lurched forward, giving Vanitas an opening to come in and slash right through The Grim's wrist. There was difficulty -due to how thick the hide was- but after another swing, the ivory blade fully went through once it was fully charged up.

Grimley roared again as he held his stump of a hand, which soon fell upon the ground with a large thud. Phasing Selina out, Vanitas spoke to her. "Get back to Harley, now." He ordered.

"Yeah cuz I don't know if I'll handle him like he is now." Said the thief as she rushed to the costumed blonde's position.

As she ran away, Vanitas was soon swatted away by their monstrous opponent. The hero tumbled away once more before quickly forming claws from his fingertips and slammed them into the earth to slow him down. Lurching back up, Vanitas summoned Lunar Rose back into his hand before focusing power into his weapon.

"Well you grumpy, ugly giant." Spoke the hero as a loud groan was heard from his towering plant. "Even though I'm not Jack, my beanstalk's gonna kick your ass into the ground."

Slamming the ivory blade into the ground, Vanitas' beanstalk soon attacked the former human. As his plant creation preoccupied the former human, the costumed Uzumaki ran over to Ivy's hiding spot. Said woman had glowing green lines traveling up and down her arms as she kept her concentration.

"Still having problems?"

" _ **Y**_ _e_ _ **s.**_ _H_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _m_ _ **u**_ _c_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **f…**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _o_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _l_ _ **l**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **n**_ _c_ _ **e,**_ _m_ _ **a**_ _k_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _m_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **o**_ _s_ _ **t**_ _r_ _ **o**_ _n_ _ **g."**_ She answered. _**"**_ _B_ _ **u**_ _t_ _ **I**_ _s_ _ **e**_ _n_ _ **s**_ _e_ _ **s**_ _o_ _ **m**_ _e_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _i_ _ **s**_ _h_ _ **a**_ _p_ _ **p**_ _e_ _ **n**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **t**_ _o_ _ **h**_ _i_ _ **m**_ _a_ _ **s**_ _w_ _ **e**_ _s_ _ **p**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _k_ _ **."**_

"Such as?"

" _ **T**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _d_ _ **e**_ _a_ _ **d**_ _s_ _ **p**_ _o_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **s…**_ _a_ _ **r**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _c_ _ **t**_ _i_ _ **n**_ _g_ _ **l**_ _i_ _ **k**_ _e_ _ **a**_ _d_ _ **r**_ _u_ _ **g**_ _n_ _ **o**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _n_ _ **d**_ _h_ _ **e'**_ _s_ _ **b**_ _u_ _ **r**_ _n_ _ **i**_ _n_ _ **g**_ _t_ _ **h**_ _r_ _ **o**_ _u_ _ **g**_ _h_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _m_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **q**_ _u_ _ **i**_ _c_ _ **k**_ _l_ _ **y.**_

"So we need something really big and powerful to help finish him off, huh?" He asked before pointing to his beanstalk. "Something bigger and tougher than that?" Peeking over her cover, she nodded in confirmation. Ivy leaned back when Vanitas held out his scythe in front of her. "Wanna contribute then?"

The Green champion blinked before smirking underneath her facemask. Lifting one hand off the earth, she used the same appendage to grasp the ivory weapon and channeled her energy into it.

With their combined power through Lunar Rose, Vanitas and Ivy morphed the beanstalk into something quite extraordinary. Loud creaks and groans could be heard as the very top of the towering plant formed a head with a beak-like snout. It's body condensed as roots, thorns and branches formed around the vines to create a giant serpent-like dragon.

In the end of it's transformation, it opened up it's maw to show it's rows of sharpened before giving out a loud, ferocious roar.

 _ **"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!"**_

Without any warning, the newly made Green dragon lurched itself forward to pounce at its prey. It quickly wrapped around Grimley's body and constricted, earning loud groans from the former human. He tried fighting back, but the wooden dragon quickly shot up before slamming it's form into the ground. Thick thorns dug into Grimley's hide with acidic blood pouring out. The plant dragon didn't bother as it followed it's creators' commands to pummel the Green abomination into nothing.

Off to the sidelines, Harley and Selina could only stare in shocked awe as to what was happening. Neither knew what to do to contribute to the fight now. All they could really do was heading over to Ivy and Vanitas' location.

After several more moments of the battle of the Green monsters, the serpentine plant dragon tightened its grip around Grimley. The former human could only open his mouth and let out another roar of pain. Yet this final act would be his downfall as the Green dragon opened it's maw as green sparks started flickered to life.

And before Grimley could react, a beam of green energy shot into his gullet and tore right through him. Any openings there were in the former human's body glowed a green light as everything seemed to burn within him.

Once seesing it's attack, the wooden dragon roared once more before uncoiling it's prey. As soon as Grimley crashed into the earth, the Green serpentine beast shot into the ground and left to parts unknown.

Once all back together, the group soon noticed the earth beneath Grimley start degrading, but a moment later they heard a primal cry of pain. They saw Grimley's body start to wilt and turn into sickly shades of green and brown. The large roots and vines connected to him limply fell to the ground, sliding off it also showing prominent signs of rot and becoming moldy as hell.

" _ **THIIISSS WASSS NOT…**_ _SUPPOSSED TO… haaapeeen!"_ Were Grimley's last words as his head separated from his degrading body and fell into the nearby hole. No doubt decomposing like the rest of his destroyed carcass.

The group let out a sigh of relief as the adrenaline was slowly leaving them. Harley took it the best as she didn't have to fight that much, yet had Selina lean against her. Vanitas and Ivy soon fell on their asses as they were heavily drained by pouring much of their power into their joint creation to finish off Grimley.

As the group rested, the sounds of sirens filled the air and they figured the police were finally making their arrival; no doubt with citizen sightings. And it appeared they brought company with an ambulance car and a news van joining in for the fun of the fight's aftermath.

 _ **-Later-**_

"So mind telling me what happened, Ms. Isley?" Asked Commissioner Gordon as he spoke to the Green champion away from prying ears.

"Grimley, he was behind Luisa's death and he stole our joint research." Pam answered as her voice was no longer in it's dual-tone. "He was dying and he figured there was nothing to lose by testing our research on himself. And he convinced Victor Lee to help him to earn the benefits in the end."

Gordon scratched the back of his head while letting out a frustrated sigh. "Never would've expected Grimley was behind it once he supposedly died. And for some reason, this feels quite a lot like a Scooby Doo episode." He then shook his head before staring at the redhead. "Then what do you explain with that?" Gordon asked, pointing to the quickly rotting body parts.

"Other side effects." Came a quick answer. Gordon wasn't buying it, causing her to explain. "The sporeling fluid acts like the theoretical stem cell treatments for they have amazing regenerative properties. But his cancer also regenerated. And Grimley believed he thought a transfusion of… my eldest child's fluids and what failed experiments he devoured would rid him of his abnormalities. But like any drug, it had its downsides and possibly ended him."

Once again, Gordon let out a frustrated sigh. "Well this is gonna be one for the books." He looked over and saw Victor Lee get placed into a medical stretcher before getting sent to the hospital. "Once he wakes up, we'll properly interrogate him before sending his ass to jail. Though if we had evidence, things would get by much quicker."

"Would these help?" Asked the Catwoman as she handed Gordon a camera. "Those have pictures from what we found in the labs. Highly doubt you could dig them up with the place demolished."

"Thanks." Said the spectacled police commissioner. He then looked over to the Green champion. "And about your research…"

"What about it?" Pam said back.

"We'll need to take in your notes since they're apart of the investigation now." Gordon saw the look in her face, causing him to hold up his hands. "You'll get them back once this is over, I swear." He then blinked in rememberance when hearing Pamela saying about her taken child. Gordon soon asked about them, causing her to give a brief explanation on what they were exactly.

After her explanation, Pam spoke one question that soon came to mind. "And… And what about them? My children?"

Gordon looked at her and understood Pam was just being protective. He merely rubbed the back of his head before speaking his mind. "If what you said is true about your joint project with Dr. Cruz is right, then I'd like to see them personally as extra proof." He responded. "Besides, your kid dealt with enough trouble as it is, Ms. Isley. It would be wrong if we took her in for questioning for what she didn't know."

Pam smiled at him. "Thank you."

"Though I recommend you having someone do a psych evaluation on her and send the reports to me."

Selina merely smirked as she practically read Pam's thoughts. "I'm probably sure she'll think of someone."

Gordon nodded and made his way towards his car. Yet he stopped and briefly turned around to address the costumed redhead. "Oh and before I forget, be sure you tell your boyfriend about this. I would imagine he would not be happy to find out you had a kid now, right?"

Pam softly smiled. "Of course."

Walking once more, he made his way to his car before ending up talking to some of his officers to start wrapping things up and ordering people to search through the wrecked building for further evidence.

Seeing as no one else was going to question them, the thief and botanist walked over to where Vanitas and Harley were at. They were currently being questioned by Summer Gleeson as to what occurred earlier. And it was at this point the small interview was over as the news crew vacated the area.

As the masked publisher and psychologist got closer to Selena and Pam, Harley asked a question. "So… where to now, puddin?"

"Home." Responded the costumed Uzumaki with a hidden smile which matched the others. "We're going home."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Would've had this out sooner, but trying to find a job ate a lot of time as usual in these past two weeks; along with writer's blocks. Though on the bright side, I was able to get a job that'll last longer than a few months as it'll be for a year. Hopefully it'll turn out to become something more permanent or something.**

 **And I really hate Summer, especially the hot nights that it's just muggy as hell in my own apartment. I would crack open my windows to circulate the air, but the screen windows are cracked along the side and stupid box elder bugs end up crawling in if I do. And I don't want to keep using my central air conditioner plugged into the wall or else my electric bill goes up.**

 **...Like I said, I hate Summer. So sorry Olaf.**

 **O: No biggy.**

 **...What the fuck? How'd you get in here?**

 **H: Because of me ^_^**

 **Oh, hey Harley… And why'd you do that?**

 **H: Thought you would need to nice cold hug from the 'warmable' Olaf.**

 **...Why thank you. I appreciate that.**

 **H: You're welcome. And I gotta say it's been a while since I've been here.**

 **Indeed it has.**

 **H: Yuppers! And I'm so glad you got Puddin's and Pammy's kiddys here now!**

 **Well I wanted to do this specific chapter to show more on Pam's character since looking back there wasn't much I've written that focuses mainly towards her. I've also wanted to finally introduce her children with Naruto. The three daughters are indeed DC property and there will be some interesting topics I'll be sure to use in developing their outlooks on things.**

 **Onto other news… found out that a California judge recently repealed Stan 'The Man' Lee's Protection order. 'The Man' has been harassed and things have been stolen from him for the past several years. Stan is very vulnerable right now, especially since his beloved wife passed away last year. His only child -a woman in her 60's- has not worked a day in her life and many men are going after her by doing the gold digging route.**

 **Now I don't know how I could properly help out the man, but I wanna at least spread the word of this recent problem in the comic fan base community. He brought joy to many of us for the past several generations with what he helped bring into the world through Marvel comics. All that I want to see from Stan Lee now is for him to enjoy what time he has left in his twilight years before joining his wife in the sky.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!**

 **R &R**

 _ **-Omake-**_

All was right in the Heavenly Afterlife. People were singing, dancing, frollicing and doing whatever they please in paradise. And nothing was wrong in the ever expanding land-

"BUT DEATH-SAMA! I WANNA BE A REAPER!"

...except for that.

In a far off area of Paradise, Didi was trying to pry off Kushina off of her legs. Yet the energetic Uzumaki's was _very_ clingy and wouldn't let go. Even with the combined efforts of Lilian, Arella/Angela (Rachel's mother), Jiraiya and Minato; there was no way they can get Kushina to let go.

"How the hell can she be so damn strong?!" Lilian grunted out before her hands slipped from the energetic redhead's leg, causing Pamela's mother to fall on her ass.

"Uzumaki's are fucking stubborn, that's why!" Jiraiya yelled out.

Arella was struggling alongside her new friends and briefly wondered how she got into this predicament.

The mother of Rachel Roth first met them -by chance- on her daughter's birthday. It was mostly Kushina who was able to finally track her down in the ever expanding Paradise. Once this happened, Arella truly enjoyed having real friends -once joined up with the others- instead of ones she _had_ back at Azarath.

For the ones back _there_ , Trigon's baby mama could barely tolerate them as they told their children to stay away from hers. Arella knew they talked badly about the mother/daughter pair when they weren't looking. Yet Rachel's mother couldn't lash out or else things might get worse for them with Azarath's council breathing down her neck.

So the former cultist had to suck things up for her daughter's safety.

With her new friends, Arella was slightly hesitant about them until learning that her daughter's guardian was related to them from parents and god-parents respectively; even with Lillian's daughter being Rachel's pseudo-mother. And it was from then on that she truly felt at peace by having great friends to be with after so many years.

...Now you might be wondering what exactly is going on.

You see, Kushina started freaking out when Pam and Naruto's three babies were born way earlier than anyone would've expected. Blame it on how exactly they were made, but it didn't really matter in the end. The energetic Uzumaki went loose once more across Paradise and proclaiming how joyous she was on their arrival.

And in that _devastating_ time, Kushina ran into Death -sometimes prefers being called Didi- before requesting to become a Reaper.

Now to simply fill you in, a Reaper is one of Didi's employees. Their job: help escort souls to their destination and help keep the 'natural order' of Life and Death on the mortal plane due to the many occurences out there. For it's quite honestly quite hard for Didi to cover so much ground at a time, even with her Aspects and her clones.

Unlike their boss, they're limited on their abilities -like having a small fraction on what _she_ can _really_ do- while getting assigned to either work under Didi herself or one of her Aspects.

Their assignments vary, like any normal job. Helping out their respective bosses in transporting souls if they prove troublesome as one example. Another pertains to mass gatherings in prelude to a great disaster, such as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii or the destruction of a planet like Krypton in the neighboring star system to help ferry the large surplus of the departed.

"Why aren't you helping, Tsunade?!" Jiraiya struggled out before he fell over and received a powerful kick to his chest, causing him to fly several feet away.

"Yeah! You could easily get Kushina off of Death-sama!" Minato said in agreement with his teacher.

Sitting not far away, Tsunade was casually sipping some bottles of sake while letting out an occasional chuckle. "Because, this is outright funny as Hell."

"I don't think it is!" Didi and Lillian spoke out in synch.

The gothic woman struggled as she was starting to lose feeling in her entraped leg. "I'm sorry, Kushina, but I can't make you a Reaper."

"But… But… But you made Konan one of your Reapers." Weeped out the Uzumaki.

"Because she *sorry* wanted to fully *sorry* repent for her misdeeds." Didi spoke out as she kicked Kushina in the face several times while saying 'sorry' on every blow. "Will you let go?!"

The oldest female of the Endless doesn't like harming others. But this time, Death made an exception.

"NOT UNTIL YOU MAKE ME A REAPER!"

The formation of a new Reaper is honestly rare at best. Any soul could become one and it's all done by Didi's hands as she's the only one to make it so. Whether they be from Hell, Purgatory, Heaven or any of the other forms of the Afterlife.

A contract would be forged for one to serve the time in such a position. And each contract is unique, pertaining as to where exactly the current soul resides and of what happened when they were alive to how long they so wishfully want to serve in the position.

But a common factor is in each and every one of them: they can leave the Afterlife and roam the Mortal realm whenever they are on the clock.

"You just wanna be a Reaper so you could skip work and be with your grandkids." Tsunade said from the sidelines.

"DON'T TELL HER THAT!" Kushina bawled out before looking back at Lillian and Minato. "Why aren't you two helping me so we can be with our grandbabies?!"

"Because I know I can see them just fine from up here." Came Lillian's response.

"And I know it's best not to antagonize Death-sama." Was Minato answer.

"And doing this isn't helping in possibly making you one of my employees." Didi spoke out as she fell to the ground and tried to crawl away with the added weight on her limb. "Seriously, let go! I need to get back to work!"

The sounds of frustrated yells and screams could then be heard throughout Paradise as Kushina Uzumaki kept pleading Death for the position, yet it was becoming a lost cause at this point in time.


	58. Holiday Knights

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 53: Holiday Knights**

Ah~ mid-December... The Holiday season has come closer and closer to Gotham.

Sure, a lot of people prefer the start of the holiday season… before Thanksgiving… for some God awful reason. I mean seriously, it wasn't even December at the time and yet Christmas music started hitting the airwaves! Just start the Christmas season at the traditional time like a lot of normal people out there!

...Sorry… I have issues with this particular topic.

*COUGH* *COUGH*

Even without snow; the grey, weary city seems to sparkle in the cold. Many prefer this way as they particularly like the snow all that well. Others wish for it. Yet so far in this Winter, snow hasn't bothered touching Gotham at all.

Even during it's time for celebration…

For dreams to come true…

And for Angels of Light and Darkness alike to do their work leading up to the Holidays.

 _ **-December 17th, Mayfield's Department Store-**_

Standing in line through the toy section of the building, Naruto was waiting patiently alongside a bunch of other parents for a very particular item which _apparently_ is all the rage recently.

"...This is the last store in town with the Beebo dolls, Pam." Naruto spoke over the phone.

" _Are you sure, Naruto?"_ She said in a worried tone.

"Afraid so. I even had several clones go all around in hopes of finding the weird Elmo knockoff. Yet they were sold out at said locations." He said with a small silence barrier around him so no one would hear _that_ detail. "Not even Wacko Toys, the city's main toy store."

The whiskered Uzumaki already got all of the Christmas presents he needed for his friends and loved ones. Even giving his employees their Holiday bonuses like every other past year, except for the first few years when he was getting it up and running.

Yet upon the birth of his three daughters last weekend, Naruto needed to buy a lot of things for their sudden arrival.

Clothes shopping was already taken care of the day after fighting Grimley. He, his lovers and young ward knew that Rose, Hazel and Thorn would quickly outgrow them -due to their possible accelerated aging- they were going to be useless. Luckily they got enough outfits that'll help take care of things until they're roughly Rachel's physical age. And as for the outgrown attires Naruto would just donate them for the needy.

Asides from this, the adults didn't know if the toys they previously got for the three sporelings would fully suffice. And with Christmas coming up soon, Naruto and his lovers wanted to get the newborns something special from each of them.

For the current situation, Naruto thought getting an electronic plush doll that looked like Elmo and the Cookie Monster had a child would've been quite easy… Apparently not, despite his luck.

" _Then what if-"_

"Honey, I promise. I am not leaving without one for the girls." He said before giving a quick goodbye and then hanged up. 

"Every kid needs a Cuddle Me Beebo doll, right?" Said a man standing behind the whiskered publisher.

Pocketing his phone, Naruto gave out a sigh. "So it would seem."

Suddenly at the front of the line, a woman rushed out and gave out a cheer as she held up a Beebo doll. "I got one! I can't believe I got one!" She yelled out before running to the cash registers.

Looking onward, Naruto spotted one of the managers stationed in the toy section of the store was walking their way as everyone mildly chatted with each other. Picking up his voice, the Uzumaki spoke towards the store employee. "Hey, I don't suppose you can tell me how many Beebos you have back there?"

Hearing this, the manager spoke up with a plastered smile. "Oh there's plenty, folks. Don't worry about it." Suddenly a dressed up employee came up to the manager and whispered something into his ear. The manager cringed a little before speaking once more. "Actually, we just ran out of them."

This resulted with everyone waiting in line to give out complaints and groan for their wasted time.

"Uh, but you just said-"

"I'm sorry, folks."

"Then when will there be another shipment?" Naruto questioned with many customers wondering the same thing.

"We are expecting a new shipment in February."

"...February? I don't think my girls will wait until February." Muttered the former shinobi before thinking to himself. 'Though with their possible growth rate, their brain chemistry would have them no longer like the doll by that month.'

"Wait!" Called out someone from behind Naruto. "There's one more Beebo right up there!"

And in odd synch, all of the waiting customers gasped and saw one Beebo doll sitting on top of the large shelf. They suddenly charged right through the little barricade and started climbing up store property or each other in hopes of acquiring the desired toy of the Season.

As this occurred, Naruto hanged back and scratched his head. 'Wow… this must've been what people were like when the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls came out.' He then shook his head. 'Focus, Naruto, and think.'

His eyes darted all around before they soon landed on several items. With a smirk, Naruto formed a blunted version of his dagger and threw it with pinpoint accuracy at his target in sight. The moment his blunted throwing weapon impacted the latch on a hanging toy airplane, it disbursed. The flying toy slid down the connecting wire before impacting a toy sign. Said toy sign broke free from it's constraint, swung down and impacted the last remaining Beebo doll as it was shot towards the publisher's general direction.

Once the toy of the season fell into his hands, Naruto broadly smiled. "Hah ha! I've got it!" This got every other customers' attention as they whipped their heads towards him. "...Shit."

"GET HIM!"

Naruto whirled around and bolted away from the stampeding customers. He made quick turns into different toy isles before phasing himself through several to help lose his pursuers. At one point, he came across the escalators and ran right down before blending in with the compacted crowd so the pissed off customers from upstairs wouldn't find him.

'Man that was close.' He thought before walking of the motorized stairs. 'Just need to buy this and I'm home-'

Naruto was knocked out of his thoughts as he crashed into someone. They fell onto the ground with the Beebo doll and the other person's belongings joining with them.

"Watch where you're going, bub!" Spoke a young woman's voice.

"Sorry about that." Naruto said as he quickly got to his hands and knees. "Let me help get your stuff."

The woman before him grumbled as they started gathering the items she wanted to purchase.

As the two were doing this, someone could be closely heard from the bustling crowds inside of the mall. "Hey, Morgan, where are you?!"

"Right here, Babs!"

Barbara found the source and saw her friend picking up some of Morgan's desired soon-to-be purchases off the ground with- "Naruto?"

Said man looked up from the ground just as he picked up the last of Morgan's items. "Barbara? What are you doing here?"

"Shopping, obviously."

Morgan snatched her other stuff from Naruto's grasp and looked over to her friend. "You know him?"

"Yes I do, Morgan." Barbara answered. "He's a friend of mine."

The wild blonde blinked her emerald green eyes. "Oh… okay."

The commissioner's daughter walked over and stood between the two. "I should probably introduce you two." Her left hand gestured to the Uzumaki. "Morgan, this is Naruto." Her right hand gestured to the wild blonde. "And Naruto, this is Morgan."

Getting up from the ground -with the Beebo doll on hand- Naruto fully faced Barbara's friend. "Hello there." He said as he held out his hand.

Adjusting the items in her grasp, Morgan soon grasped the publisher's hand. "Nice to meet ya."

Naruto felt the firm handshake as it tightened around his hand. "That's some grip you got there."

Morgan felt a similar feeling with her own. "Thanks. And so is yours."

"Sorry if this sounds weird or anything, but I can't help but feel the calluses in your hand." He said, getting emerald and amethyst eyes blinking when hearing this. "I'm guessing you train with a weapon at times, right?"

"Why yes I do." Morgan responded as she pulled back her hand.

"I never knew that, Morgan." Barbara said with honest curiosity.

"Well you know I'm more used to hand-to-hand fighting, Babs."

"So the weapons…"

"I train with them back at my place. Besides, one doesn't know when you're in a tough situation and you'll need an impromptu weapon on hand if fists won't fully work. Even when your hands are all scraped up and broken."

The spectacled Gordon and the silver haired Uzumaki nodded in understanding and confirmation respectively.

"And what weapons do you train with?" Naruto asked with Barbara thinking the same thing.

"Quite a lot really." Morgan gave a shrug. "With my years of travel with my mom, I picked up on a variety and wanted to study them out of interest."

The two nodded once more Naruto spoke up. "Well it's nice meeting you, Morgan. Might run into you again sometime since you're Barbara's friend."

"Heading out, Naruto?" Asked the redhead.

He nodded. "Need to purchase this," holding up the Beebo doll, "for a Christmas present and all other places were out of them."

"And who's it for?"

"Rachel." He lied since he didn't want to say some other lie to start causing problems. "She wanted to gift it to someone else."

Barbara nodded as she bought the given lie. The Uzumaki soon walked away after giving the redhead a brief 'goodbye', leaving the two women by themselves.

As the two walked around some more, Morgan spoke up. "That was him, huh? The one you talked so much about?"

The spectacled redhead smiled a little. "Yes, he is."

"Heh~ He seems nice.

"That he is."

"Probably enough that you wanna fuck him."

Barbara was about to say something until pausing in her movements and forming a look of shock on her features. "I'm… I'm sorry, but what did you just say?"

"That you wanna fuck him."

An embarrassing blush started for form on Barbara's cheeks. "W-Wha-What are you talking about?!" She practically blurted out.

"With the way you spoke about the guy -whenever he was brought up- along with how close you were to him and giving off a certain look just moments ago just confirmed things." Morgan formed a smirk at Barbara's expression. "Hell, I'm probably thinking -given the opportunity- you'd take him to your home when daddy's not around and chill on your couch while watching a movie before things get _interesting_." Said the blonde as Barbara's face practically showed the gears were turning in her head. "Or~ discussing further stuff on your book and possibly adding a love scene for it and you need _inspiration_." Barbara's face was starting to get a little red. "Either way, you throw yourself onto him, straddle him and get all frisky like it's no tomorrow before-"

"MORGAN!" Barbara loudly said in a snapping manner with her skin almost matching her hair.

Morgan took on a cheshire smile as her friend was starting to fume. "Oh or better yet, you surprise him at his work office and-"

"Will you shut up?!"

"Nah~ It wouldn't be as fun!" The wild blonde laughed out as Barbara started smacking her arm like a fuming, embarrassed child. "Besides, you could've stopped me sooner; yet you didn't." Barbara went rigid when hearing that. "Were you too busy quickly fantasizing-"

Morgan was interrupted when Barbara quickly covered her mouth.

"Seriously, shut the hell up!" Whispered out the commissioner's daughter with the meanest death glare she could muster.

All Morgan did was laugh it off once pulling her friend's hand away. "I'm just playing with ya, Babs. No need to get so damn fussy about it."

"Easy for you to say, Morgan."

"I mean seriously, what's the big deal? You have a crush on the guy. Big whoop."

"But he's already with someone."

"Then what's stopping you from liking the guy? Lots of people out there have crushes on others."

"B-But it's not that simple."

"Oh? How so?" Barbara didn't say anything as she tried to think of a response as the redness of her face slightly went down. Upon further reading her expressions right now, Morgan got the idea. "He's your first crush, isn't he?"

"...Yes."

"And from what you've told me, he is a great friend of yours." Said the wild blonde. "And I get the feeling if you confessed, your afraid he might reject you and it'll hamper and effect your relationship. Practically to the point that it'll end sometime not long after." All Morgan got was a downward nod. "Seriously, this is not one of those weird high school themed movies, Babs, with the stupid-ass romances and all that shit. And if I were you; I'd just tell my feelings, be done with it and let things flow." Her emerald eyes then hardened with a far-away glance took hold over. "Because sooner or later if you don't confront and actually tell him then you're only hurting yourself. Seen it happen several times and _believe_ me, it's hardly pretty in the end."

Barbara blinked at this and wanted to say something, yet her wild blonde friend started walking away. "Where are you going?" She asked.

"I need to find the restroom." Morgan responded. "Keep on shopping or whatever. I'll find ya when I'm done, Babs."

As the emerald eyed girl walked into the bustling crowds, the commissioner's daughter was left alone and given time to think things over.

For a while now, Barbara has been coming to terms that she does indeed have deep feelings for Naruto. It's really hard for her to explain it in her own words. From how he comforts her, his warm presence, his helpful and caring nature and much more. Barbara yearned to have more of that in her life and a big part of her wants to keep feeling that way more often than she realizes.

Yet there's this pain the redhead sometimes feels from him that makes her want to return the favor and help him as well. He plays it off at times with a cheerful or neutral mask as he focuses on other matters. But Barbara could tell he's merely burying those feelings, among secrets and a past he often avoids talking about. She wants to break through, learn more about him and experience things possibly dreamed about.

It's things like these are how men and women tend to get attracted with each other on an emotional scale. And as much as she'd want to be with him and possibly form a relationship with him, Barbara knows Naruto's already taken.

Now the daughter of Commissioner Gordon has never met Pamela Isley in order to have her own personal opinion about the botanist. But Barbara knew what she could about her from hearing about her from Naruto, Harley, her father, Rachel and even Dick Grayson of all people.

From what she knows, Pam is a great woman who enjoys nature quite well. She has had quite the troubled past that she buried behind in order to move forward. Yet said past sometimes haunts her every so often with how she lives by each and every day. Having quite a startling injury around the beginning of this year that left her not able to have children and Barbara greatly sympathises with her on that particular detail.

The spectacled redhead knows there's supposedly more to Pamela's character than from what others have told her. She'd like to know more and in order to do so would require meeting the botanist in person.

Yet she's worried -borderline afraid- that if Pam learns she's greatly attracted to Naruto, something might happen and relationships might get greatly broken.

What if Barbara ended up confessing her feelings and ended up throwing herself onto him. Would he respond in kind and accept her feelings or deny them and reject her? Could their relationship become sour and get worse later on or would it possibly work and everything turns out alright in the end.

But if this does happen, would Barbara become a homewrecker? It's truly hard to tell for her as these questions sometimes keeps her up at night and distracts her both at work and training under Vanitas.

(Yet unbeknownst to the commissioner's daughter, Barbara doesn't know of Naruto's _unique_ relationship status -along with his well kept secrets- which might change her thought process if she did.)

'But would telling Naruto about my feelings soon help or hamper me?' Came the thought as she walked by a tie rack. 'Or would it be better to do it later?' As she inspected them and pulled out one to realize her father would like it a lot. 'Maybe later so I could fully prepare myself for my inevitable confession… but not 'too much' later.'

When Barbara made her way to the nearby cashier to purchase her gathered items, the sounds of an ear-piercing wail sliced through the air.

"What's that all about?" Barbara commented.

The cashier could only rub her head a little before responding. "I've heard of kids being afraid of Santa, but they've been crying all day."

"How so?"

The cashier pointed behind her. "See for yourself."

Barbara followed the pointed direction and came upon the realization as to why. Sitting at a Santa Claus display not far away was Detective Harvey Bullock dressed up as the (not so) jolly St. Nick. And standing by his sides were officers Renee Montoya and Sasuke Uchiha as they were dressed up as elves.

As for the sounds, they were made as a child quickly hopped off 'Santa's' lap and ran away crying for his mother.

"You big cry baby." Harvey said before letting out a burp. "NEXT!"

"Oh dear god, I don't believe it." Barbara said before stifling a laugh. Calming herself down, she wondered why they were here in the first place before realization quickly hit her.

Her father was telling her about some thief who's been picking department stores clean. It's been going on for the past several days now and Barbara figured the three currently stationed at Santa's Castle were apart of an undercover operation. Possibly with this store being the next target of the thefts.

'Maybe I'll hang around here until Morgan comes back.' She thought before shifting her backpack a little as her 'nightly' outfit was tucked inside. 'Something might come up and they'll need some Batgirl-esk assistance.'

Over at Santa's Castle, Renee leaned over and spoke into Harvey's ear. "You know, you could be more jolly, St. Nick."

"I agree with Montoya, Harv." Sasuke commented. "We're supposed to be on cover, yet you're scaring the kids. I mean your like that one Santa from 'A Christmas Story' for crying out loud."

"Oh give me a break, you two." Whined the detective. "This is the lamest stakeout I've ever been on."

"At least you get to wear a nice, warm Santa suit." Sasuke muttered as he rubbed her arms. "I'm freezing my ass off."

"You're telling me and yet I've kept spotting a lot of guys giving me the bedroom eyes." Montoya groaned out.

"Wish they didn't or else I'd punch their eyes out."

Renee looked over at her partner and rose an eyebrow. "Oh? And why's that?"

"...Nothing." Was the response as Sasuke turned his head away to hide a small blush from her.

Ignoring this part of the conversation, Harvey spoke to the rookie officers at the matter at hand. "We'd better get some lead on this invisible shoplifter soon or-" The plump detective was soon interrupted as a kid quickly jumped onto his lap. "Hello there. What's your name-"

"You're not the real Santa Claus." Said the boy presently on his lap.

Feeling fed up on this, Bullock leaned forward. "Sure I am. Wanna see my gun?"

In response to this, both officers Uchiha and Montoya slapped the back of Bullock's head.

After paying for her items, Barbara decided to wander around a little to possibly find both the thief and her wild blonde friend. Though if she were to stick around a little longer, the redhead would've seen several mischievous kids pick pocketing several people's wallets.

A new child was soon present as she sat on Bullock's lap. A sweet little girl with innocent eyes gazing upon him. "Hello. My name is Mary McSweeney, Santa." Said the child. "Can you… bring my daddy home for Christmas? It's all I ask."

Harvey looked at the kid funny as he popped a donut hole into his mouth. "Gee, kid, I don't know… Where is your pop anyways?"

"In prison."

The detective froze and soon processed the little girl's last name. "You mean your dad is Mad Dog-" He quickly coughed to correct himself. "I mean, Mike McSweeney?"

Mary gave a small nod.

Harvey leaned back and rubbed his head. 'Poor kid. I sent her old man up the river three months ago.' Was the thought before he spoke to Mary. "Listen, kiddo, it's like this. I'd like to help you out, but… er…" The detective was now sweating at this point as he didn't want to crush the kid's holiday spirit. He calmed himself down and spoke as delicately as possible. "What I mean is… sometimes even Santa can't make every wish come true."

Harvey soon reached into his pocket, pulled out a fifty dollar bill and handed it to her. "Here, kid. Buy yourself something nice."

Mary soon hugged the plump detective. "Thank you, Santa." She said in a brightened tone to her voice. The little girl leaned back and asked 'Santa' a question. "Can I buy something for my daddy too?"

"As long as it ain't a hacksaw, why not?"

Mary soon hopped off his lap before running away with a smile on her face.

"That was rather nice of you to do that, Harv." Renee said to the detective.

"I agree. Practically the most selfless thing I saw you do for a while now." Came Sasuke's response with a smile.

All Bullock could do was groan and scrunch his face as he just gave away his donut money for the week.

Over with Barbara, she was simply browsing around the jewelry department when something was caught from the corner of her eye. Turning over, the redhead saw a kid pocketing a pearl necklace before silently walking away.

Quickly catching up to the little thief, Barbara grasped his arm. "Hold it right there, young-" The child soon pulled his arm as both his limb and clothes quickly dissolved into nothing before running away from her. "...man?" She bewilderedly said.

Back with the GCPD officers, Montoya was paying close attention to the radio and Sasuke was scanning the area… while Harvey was napping at this point out of sheer boredom.

Suddenly, a call was heard over Renee's and Sasuke's earpieces. _"Attention: juvenile suspects heading towards Menswear. I repeat: juvenile suspects heading towards Menswear._ " Said the security team. _"There are four of them. All have been observed and reported shoplifting. Detectives and officers are in pursuit."_

Hearing this, Montoya quickly pulled out her gun and ran off while Sasuke quickly slapped Harvey's head to get him up.

"What the hell was that for, Uchiha?!" Snapped the detective.

"We're on, Harvey!" Sasuke replied as he ran after his partner.

Realizing this, Bullock quickly got up, ripped off his Santa hat and beard before following after his fellow officers.

Over in Menswear, Renee was able to spot a suspicious looking kid. He spotted her, causing him to run away. "Stop!" She called out.

Sasuke got lost finding his partner, due to the thick crowds. Yet he caught glimpse of a kid running out of the electronics department with an expensive piece of equipment. Realizing it was one of the thieves, Sasuke ran after him.

At one point in the chase, the three GCPD officers were able to corner them and two others as a store employee and a security guard helped close the suspects in. All four started closing the gap to make it harder for the shoplifters from getting away.

The four adults soon saw something quite… off as the four children seemed quite calm in an eerie sense. And before anyone knew it, they grasped each other's hands and… quickly melded together?!

"The fuck?" Harvey blurted out.

Suddenly all four child bandits quickly melted and started to reform into a brown clay-like substance. Their limbs and clothes started to blend together as the one color became more prominent. And it wasn't long before the misshapen form took on a monstrous appearance as jagged teeth was shown from it's mouth along with yellow eyes staring right back at them.

" _ **HO!… HO!… HO!"**_

"Holy shit! It's Clayface!" Yelled out the store employee.

Matt Hagen could only smile before shooting out his hand towards the GCPD officers. Renee and Sasuke quickly knocked Harvey over to avoid the ground breaking hit. And this act ensued mass panic as the surrounding customers started running for safety.

Seeing this occur, Barbara whipped her head around in order to find a place to change into her Batgirl persona. Luckily for her, she saw a changing room not far away from her position. Upon entering the changing room, she quickly looked at her watch before getting into action.

Barbara soon took off the necessities before pulling out her crime fighting outfit from her backpack. She quickly slipped on matte leather pants and jacket before getting her gloves and combat boots into their respective places. The redhead then attached the other parts of her outfit before shoving her civilian attire into the backpack.

'Forty-eight seconds.' Batgirl thought as she rushed out of the room. 'Not bad at all! Can't wait to tell Vanitas this that I broke my minute record.' And before getting any further, the female Bat quickly slid her belongings in a secure place so no one would take her stuff by mistake.

As Batgirl arrived on the scene, she saw what damage the former movie star did to the area. From the broken displays and ruined floor along with injured people trying to flee.

"Hold it, freak, or we'll drill you!" Harvey yelled out as he and his fellow GCPD partners aimed their glocks at the meta-actor.

All this did was give Hagen a good chuckle. _**"Oh~ You're scaring me, tubby."**_ Clayface mocked. He then stalked forward, causing the officers to open fire yet their bullets were ineffective. _**"Well now you know it was me behind this Yuletide shopping spree. So what. Minor setback, that's all."**_ Hagen reared his head back and spat out clay loogies at their sidearms, rendering useless for the time being. _**"And great thing about being a shapeshifter…"**_ He said before his head morphed into different people's identities. _**"I can blend in with the crowd outside make my getaway and rip off some other joint."**_ His hand soon formed a giant ax ready to cut down the people in front of him. _**"Once you're out of the way, ain't gonna be no one to stop me."**_

'Don't bet on it, gruesome.' Batgirl thought as she took on a running start

Leaping into the air, the female vigilante used the 'Dynamic Entry' kick her mentor showed her as a surprisal move to stop Clayface from harming the GCPD personnel. The attack was very effective as Hagen was knocked off balance with his head caved in. The meta-actor stumbled back and crashed through the nearby window before falling to the ice-rink outside on the ground floor. The force from the fall broke through the ice-rink with many skaters and onlookers to pause their actions.

Landing onto her feet -with a little fumble due to being on ice- Batgirl yelled out towards the civilians. "Run! Clear the area! Now!"

Everyone nearby complied with the order as they fled the scene. As this happened, Clayface rose from the icy, cold waters and growled at the female Bat. Forming razor sharp claws in his hand, the meta-actor slashed at Batgirl's back. Said protege felt the blow and was thrown forward due to the force of the offending attack.

Rising onto her feet, Batgirl saw the current state of her cape. 'Oh man~ this is gonna take at least an hour to mend back up.' She thought before glaring at Clayface. "How the hell did you get out of Arkham, Clayface? I thought you were still there ever since Vanitas brought you in."

The meta-actor merely chuckled. _**"Let's just say the one there is just an empty, dried up shell. And this cold water may slow me down, little Bat, but not enough to keep me from waistin' you!"**_

Running outside, the GCPD officers saw the current events before them. Rushing towards the ice-rink, Bullock yelled out the order. "Aim high!"

Officers Montoya and Uchiha compiled as they shot their target while not hitting Batgirl by accident. Bullets pierced through the meta-actor and was ineffective like before back inside.

Seeing this, Batgirl jumped back to further her distance from her opponent. The masked Gordon looked upwards and formed an idea. She was about to pull out a batarang and throw it at the hanging Santa electric display above the rink before Clayface knocked her away, thus ruining her throw.

Recovering back on the ice, Batgirl turned her attention to the officers and spoke out to them. "Don't waste your ammo on him! Shoot the Santa!"

The GCPD officers ceased their firing before Bullock took pause and looked at his partners. "You wouldn't dare."

Renee could only facepalm on what the detective was implying.

"Not you, dobe!" Sasuke said before pointing upwards. " _That_ Santa."

Snapping back into action, Harvey quickly joined his partners in shooting the display Santa up above Batgirl and Clayface. As this occurred, the female vigilante had to slide, roll and jump to avoid the meta-actor's attacks. And she had to stay at a confined radius in order to keep Clayface in the icy, cold water for her distraction to work.

It didn't take much longer as the electric wires finally broke free, swung down and knocked the escaped Arkham inmate back into the water. When he tried to get back out, the wires from the display fell and touched the icy liquid before-

" _ **A**_ a _ **A**_ _A_ _ **A**_ _Aa_ _ **a**_ A _ **AA**_ **RG** _ **HAHAhHA**_ _HG_ _ **gHAaHA**_ **H** _ **AHG**_ GH _ **AH!"**_

...the moist, muddy criminal was electrocuted into unconsciousness.

The meta-actor's body fell forward and was about to crush Batgirl from his weight. Yet she was able to scoot back in time before Hagen's body collapsed onto the ice-rink with few cracks forming from his weight.

Batgirl let out a nervous breath held in her lungs. Standing up, she saw several onlookers clap their hands on the feat before them with others taking pictures.

'I better get back and get changed.' Thought the masked Gordon as she carefully walked off the ice-rink. 'Morgan must be worried… or drinking either absence peppermint schnapps or strong eggnog somewhere.'

Holstering his gun, the detective walked over to the unconscious meta and chuckled at the former actor's expense. "Well, so much for Frosty the Lawn Cigar."

Renee and Sasuke could only grown at the bad joke. And it was the Uchiha who spoke up a reply to the bad pun. "You have a way with _words_ , Harv."

"Then this means our case is finally solved and we can wrap this up." Bullock said as he started to slowly walk away so he won't slip and fall on the ice. "Let's get a cup of Joe."

"Not so fast, Santa." Montoya said, getting the detective's attention. "We still have to recover the evidence."

"Oh, no." Harvey groaned out. 

Sasuke merely smirked at the detective's expense. "Oh, yes." 

"Now roll up them sleeves, Harv." Renee said as she too shared her partner's humored expression. 

Harvey hung his head before he rolled up the sleeves of his Santa coat. He then made his way towards the unconscious meta-actor for the evidence retrieval. "Ho... Ho... Friggin' ho..."

 _ **-December 20th, Vreeland Estate-**_

A Holiday party took place inside of the home of one of the Gothamite elites. Many were there for the social event before leaving town for Christmas. It wasn't all that bad as the guests were clearly enjoying themselves in the early evening.

"You know, Bruce, I'm surprised Naruto hasn't shown up to this for this party this year." Spoke the Vreeland heiress as she sipped her champagne.

"Well, Veronica, you know how much he doesn't like attending to these events." Came the Wayne billionaire's response. "With the previous ones, I had to practically drag him here to attend."

Which was true. Ever since Naruto started up his publishing company, he became a pseudo-elite and was invited to many fundraisers and charity events. The Uzumaki was reluctant to show up in order to help boost his company's reputation, despite him already donating quite often throughout the year. But as for parties, Naruto wasn't one to simply tag along for he needed someone to convince him to do so.

"True. Yet it was quite interesting when he brought that one girl with him to this party last year." Veronica thought for a moment to remember the details. "Pretty redhead and the two of us chatted for a bit as Naruto fetched us drinks."

Bruce blinked in surprise when hearing this. "Wait, Naruto brought Pamela here?" He asked before remembering that he didn't attend Veronica's holiday party last year so he wouldn't have really known.

"Oh, you know her?"

"Yes. She's Naruto's girlfriend."

"Really~ Who would've thought. Then again I'm not that close to him than I am with you to know such details."

"Then I should let you know she might become a bit well known now." He said, getting a look in response that read 'explain'. "After the incident at the Botanical Gardens, I decided to pull some strings and had Pamela become the Head Administrator there. She'll technically be working for me since I fund the Gardens as a primary benefactor."

"Well~ Ain't that quite the promotion, Bruce."

Bruce could only chuckle at one of his socialite friends, Veronica Vreeland; a gorgeous red haired, green eyed woman in her mid-thirties. Granddaughter of Staten Vreeland -famous hunter and wildlife conservationist- and daughter of a 3-star US general, Veronica has been involved with numerous charities and fundraisers throughout her life after graduating college. Even more so in order to pursuit a proper husband to truly continue the Vreeland legacy.

Unfortunately for her, she already blew through three marriages so far. This was all due to her past spouses going through the following: first was merely after her fortune, second dealt with abuse (which Bruce helped end for her safety) and her last one past away last year when returning from a business trip abroad via plane crash.

An interesting fact between Bruce and Veronica were their brief flings with each other. First started out back in college after Bruce was dumped by his former fiance, Andrea Belmont. They dated for some time when he first became Batman in order to start out his playboy persona and adjust things accordingly so no one would suspect a thing. And it was the heiress herself who pursued him first as a potential romantic partner in his playboy lifestyle. Yet their on-and-off again relationship could only go so far as Veronica thought Bruce was just too boring for 'boyfriend material'.

Despite this, they've still remained good friends throughout the years.

"So tell me," spoke the Vreeland heiress as she swirled her glass' contents with her hand, "what does Gotham's most eligible bachelor have planned for the holidays?" Her unoccupied hand was placed underneath her chin to adopt a thinking pose. "Skiing in the Alps? Sunning in the Bahamas?" She then formed a coy smile. "And more importantly: who's he taking?"

Scratching the back of his head, Bruce gave his old friend his response. "Actually, I was planning on a quiet Christmas alone, Veronica."

"Really?" Questioned the heiress. Drinking the rest of her champeine, her eyes caught onto something behind her friend, causing her to widely smirk. "I wouldn't tell _them_ that."

"Who's _them_?"

And that's when he heard it. "BRUCIE!" Turning his head around, the Wayne billionaire saw half a dozen women looking at his way with a mixture of predatory to just outright goofball.

"Brucie! You're standing under the mistletoe." One of the women spoke out.

Bruce looked above him and saw he indeed was standing underneath the festive plant. Bringing his head back down, he quickly adopted a nervous expression as they marched towards him.

"Oh, he's so handsome!"

"Come here, big boy!"

"Give me that!"

"Gang way!"

"He's mine!"

Veronica could only stand there and laugh at her friend's misfortune, who was quickly stepping away from them. "Cheers." She held up her empty glass in mischievous glee.

"N-Now, ladies…" Bruce stuttered out as he was never used to so many women ganging up on him all at once; hoping on either of them hooking up with him for his fortune or having _quite_ the one night stand.

Stepping back at a certain point, Bruce soon felt someone tap his shoulder from behind. Turning around slightly, he felt his necktie getting tugged forward by some woman -whose image was hard to see with the one hallway lights turned off- before she brought his lips to hers. The Wayne widened his eyes on the sudden act before the woman pushed him into the hungry women behind him.

"Oh, isn't he dreamy?~" Spoke one of the women as they latched onto him.

Bruce could only look on as the mysterious woman retreated away while he shuddered in the others' grasps. And it wasn't until ten minutes later when the Wayne decided to leave the party. Wearing his coat to deal with the cold, he heard the several women before call out to him from the doorway.

"Bye~" 

"Don't be a stranger!" 

"See you soon."

"Call me!" 

"Hope to see you on New Years~"

Bruce could only chuckle as he gave the female suitors a brief wave before making his way towards his car. Getting closer and closer to his parked vehicle, the Wayne billionaire felt a presence near him. He stopped walking and looked around as his training took over.

"You can come on out," he called out, "whoever you are."

" _You're no fun, Bruce."_ Spoke a familiar voice to the dark haired man. _"Though that kiss I took might as well make up for it."_ A few feet away from Bruce, a large plumb of pink smoke bursted from the ground before it was cleared away to reveal-

"Zanna?!"

The female magician merely smiled at her old friend, who stepped back in surprise. "Hello."

"What are you doing here?"

"Decided to take a small vacation in between shows." Was Zatanna Zatara's answer. She walked towards him with the smile still present on her face. "And what better way in doing so than to spend time with you."

Bruce scratched his head. "I… don't know what to say, Zanna."

"Thank you while saying your appreciation would come to mind. And since I heard you say you have nothing to do in the foreseeable future-"

"I only told Veronica that I merely wanted a quiet Christmas." He interrupted.

She rolled her eyes. "It's basically the same thing if you think about it, Bruce. Now, before you interrupt me again, how about we go out somewhere? Just the two of us and let things flow from there."

The billionaire thought for a brief moment before forming a genuine smile. "Sure, why not."

"Great. You're driving." She said as she walked away a little and felt the raised brow from him without looking. "What? You thought I merely drove or flown here?"

"...I assumed."

"That's one of the wonders of magic at times, Bruce." She then let out a frustrated sigh. "Yet it does get draining if I overdue that particular spell too many times."

Bruce then saw his old friend take on a whimsical look upon her face as she continued. "Oh how I wish I didn't have to deal with that now. Later on, I just might on my magical control. And things would be so much easier for travel on my shows." She then let out a playful sob. "But alas, I must spend so much time and money on traveling for my magic performances." The magician then looked towards the sky and glared while shaking her fist in a comedic fashion. "Why'd you have to leave so soon, Dad?! Things would be much better if you DIDN'T LEAVE ME TO DEAL WITH ALL THIS CRAP SO SUDDENLY!"

All the Wayne could do was sweatdrop on Zatanna's childish antics before the pair went to his car and drove off to whatever caught their gaze.

'Hopefully nothing bad will happen for the rest of the night.' Bruce thought as he drove off the Vreeland Estate grounds. 'I mean, what could happen?'

…..

…..

…..

Yeah~ hope you remember saying that later, Bruce, when your pleasant night with Zatanna goes sideways.

…..

…..

…..

 _ **-Later, Gotham Amphitheatre-**_

Bruce's first instinct was to leave the burning theatre to the fire department so he and Zatanna can continue their evening together. Buildings burn in Gotham every night, after all; whether they be from childish antics, accidents or some sort of crime.

Yet two things changed his mind: First, a report that there were still people trapped inside. And second, the name of tonight's performer: Ivar Loxias.

Reacting quickly, Bruce pulled off to the side of the road -a block away- in order to get into his Batman attire. Yet Zatanna was able to shave off a good chunk of time with a quick spell which magically got him in his 'evening' wear on in a flashy instant. The costumed Wayne quickly thanked his old friend before making his way inside of the burning amphitheatre.

The moment the Dark Knight got inside the main performance hall, he saw a pair of stage performers trying to to get what appeared to be a casket opened, yet there's no such luck.

One of them yelped by the intense heat that was on the casket. Turning over, she then saw the Bat landing on stage. "Please, you've got to help us!" She yelled.

"Katy's locked inside!" Spoke the second stage performer.

Without hesitation, the Caped Crusader punched a hole into the casket and started ripping it open. A feeling of dread quickly filled his core on what lied inside. And it was quickly confirmed as his instincts crushed any lingering hope the two stage performers had. For this Kathy was long gone even before the bat-themed hero pulled the cloth gag from her mouth.

'The smoke probably got to her before the flames did.' Thought the Bat as he heard the shocked gasps behind him. He took hold of the performer's dead body with one arm while the other pulled out his grappling gun. Aiming up high, he fired the hook before looking back to the two performers. "Grab on!"

Getting the message, they quickly latched onto the Bat's back before he propelled them away from the roaring flames to safety.

Upon reaching for safety at the streets outside, the fire trucks soon arrived as the firefighters quickly went to action. Pulling out their hoses and connecting to the nearest fire hydrant before spraying down the exterior flames to stop it from spreading to the neighboring buildings. And not long after did the ambulance arrive for any possible injured people.

The two stage assistants let go of the Batman's back so he may properly deliver the dead body to the medical workers. They can handle things from there while attending to the two performers' injuries.

As this was being done, Batman went back into the shadows and made his way back to Zatanna. She would no doubt be curious to what occurred as she was quickly interested with the fire being involved with Loxias' performance.

Something she took great interest in apparently.

Upon arriving back to his car, the costumed Wayne saw his old friend pacing back and forth with her fingers drumming against her arms. Stepping closer, the Bat made his presence known, causing her to jump in surprise.

Turning around, the female magician glared before slapping his arm. "Don't do that!" She growled. "You know how much I hated that when you traveled with us."

"I know." He responded with a ghost of a smile that was hardly scene with his hero attire on.

Part of his training away from Gotham involved the silent walk. It was great for stage hands when they didn't want to be spotted on a darkened stage during a live performance. Whether they be for live concerts, presentations or in Bruce's case the magic/illusionist variety.

The silent walk was a great asset Bruce later perfected over the years so no one could tell if he was in a room and even taking down criminals when they least expected it.

The Wayne practiced this trait quite often during his time traveling with Zatanna and her father. Though he unintentionally scared the hell out of the young magician by this act, causing Zatanna to comedically slap him silly with her father getting a good laugh upon seeing the occurrences.

Calming down her beating heart, Zatanna asked a simple question. "Did everyone make it out alright?" She got a brief 'no' in response. "Then… someone died?"

"Yes, a stage performer named Katy." He answered before seeing a shocked expression mared her face. Batman quickly deduced the particular expression across her features and spoke for confirmation. "You know her, don't you?"

Zatanna gave a saddened nod. "She... she was a former assistant of mine when I first started out. Hired her on and after a few performances, we became good friends."

"Then how'd you know she's the Katy you know?"

"Ivar Loxias." She breathed out with her head hung low. "When she wanted to work with a different illusionist troupe, I recommended her to him since I was good friends with him while my dad was still alive."

"Yet something happened."

"Indeed something happened." She said with such disdain in her voice that was probably at the same level she had towards Montague Kane; maybe more. "Things became… bad in our relationship a few years after Katy joined his troupe."

"Like what?"

"Last month, his _trained_ leopard went nuts and attacked one of his assistants. Last week, two technicians were almost electrocuted to death during a live performance." Zatanna listed off. "Oh and not to mention an innocent volunteer from the audience lost his arm due to a buzzsaw illusion gone wrong."

The Gothamite hero grimly nodded on the details. "Yes, I seem to remember hearing about him on the news lately. But I didn't know it was that severe." Said the Bat before turning around and walking away. "We can talk about this more when we're back at my place. For now, I should head back to find more information."

"You go do that."

He gave a curt nod before quickly making his way back to the ampitheatre.

Upon arriving from an adjacent alley, the Bat peered over to the scene in front of him. He saw the police had arrived for crowd control from many pedestrians and former audience members clamoring about.

"Hey, did you see?!" Spoke out a female attendee. "One of the assistants was burned alive!"

"Heh~ Loxias rules!" Spoke a male one. "I can't wait to see what he does next."

Batman merely narrowed his eyes. 'Hope you still feel that way when you're the victim, punk.'

Slinking closer to the paramedics, the Bat saw Commissioner Gordon talking to a gothic looking man wrapped in a security blanket. Curious as to who he is, he walked closer before hearing the conversation took place.

"...That's true, Commissioner. I usually perform the cremation illusion myself." Spoke the gothic man. "But ever since my accident," he gestured to his right leg with his cane, "I've been giving my girls more time in the spotlight, alongside a bonus for their cooperation."

Getting closer, the Bat quickly deduced the gothic man was Ivar Loxias. His black hair reached towards his chin as it framed his fair caucasian skin tone. He wore a simple pair of sunglasses alongside some jewelry to finish off his darkly attire.

Loxias pulled out a deck of cards and started shuffling them, no doubt as a calming mechanism. "Take away the elaborate exterior, the illusion is simple. The victim appears to be burned alive, but is actually a safe distance away from the fire. I can't imagine what went wrong. The sliding escape panel worked perfectly during rehearsal." The illusionist said defensively as he kept playing with his cards. "All I can offer is that possibly Katy took too long to get free and panicked when the fire started. I tape all my performances to see any errors and correct them for future ones. Perhaps the playback will reveal more."

"I don't want _perhaps_." Said the police commissioner. "I want to _know_ exactly what happened, Mr. Wiener."

"Call me Loxias, please. I've buried the simple magician that was Art Wiener."

"I will address you as so since it's on your birth certificate and to my knowledge, you haven't legally changed your name. You're just keeping your stage name for some time now. So would you please answer my question, Mr. Wiener?"

Before the illusionist could respond, a voice spoke up. "I'd do as he says." Both Gordon and Loxias looked up and saw Batman perched on top of the ambulance.

"Ah~ the illustrious Batman. We finally meet." Loxias said with a small smirk as he put back his deck of cards away into his jacket.

"It would probably be a matter of time after hearing what you've done recently." The Bat hoped down to the ground and faced the illusionist. "From your trained leopard mauling one of your assistants last month, accidental electrocution on a pair of technicians week, and an audience member losing an arm-"

"I get your point, Dark Knight." Interrupted Ivar. "Yet proper payments have been made to anyone allegedly injured in my performances. And rest assured, Katy's family will be generously compensated for her unfortunate death."

"That's not good enough." Gordon said getting Lexious' attention. "I'm shutting you down."

This got the gothic illusionist rather angry. "You can't do that!"

"I just did."

Ivar gritted his teeth while struggling to get back onto his feet with his cane for support. "Well, the show will go on. If not here, then I'm sure I'll fine suitable-" He suddenly toppled onto the ground, causing Gordon to come up to him.

"Are you alright?"

The illusionist merely shrugged Gordon away. "You'll have to pardon me, Commissioner. Since the accident, I'm not as agile as I'd like." A man in a driver's uniform came up to Lexios and helped him up. He had shoulder-length blond hair, a five o'clock shadow and a faint scar on his left cheek. "Thank you, Bob."

"Anytime, boss."

While escorted into the limo, Lexios continued to speak to the police commissioner. "Continuing from a moment ago, you can't imagine how maddening that is for an active person like myself."

"I honestly have no idea what that would be like."

As the limo door closed, Robert gave the Commissioner a curt nod before making way to the driver's seat and drove away from the scene. Gordon turned over and spoke to his old, costumed friend on getting him the footage from tonight's show to help out on the investigation.

Once getting the tape, Batman gave his thanks before heading back to his batmobile.

 _ **-Batcave-**_

The trip back to Wayne Manor was a quiet one after Bruce filled in Zatanna what occured back at the amphitheatre. Even on the brief conversation he had with Loxias. Once done, the ravenette magician kept quiet as she processed everything in her mind for what will happen back in the infamous Batcave.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Ms. Zatanna." Alfred said in a saddened tone as he poured a cup of tea for their guest. "I know it must be truly hard for you to experience such a thing. And it will be hard to move on from such an event."

"It really is, Alfred. And thanks, I appreciate it."

"May I offer you something stronger?" He asked as he handed her the china dish.

Zatanna shook her head 'no'. "Tea is fine. I just need to relax myself at the present time."

Alfred gave a curt nod before he served the unmasked Wayne his cup of tea, who was sitting by his batcomputer.

Saying a brief 'thanks' to his oldest, most faithful friend -who soon left with the pot of tea to go back upstairs- Bruce turned his attention to the grieving magician. "Now, mind telling me what caused you and Lexios to slowly drift apart?"

Zatanna sighed before taking a sip from her cup. Once placing the dish onto it's plate, the magician spoke. "Art Weiner -or what he goes by as Ivar Loxias these days- was a good illusionist. Doing some shows every so often while slowly growing his reputation. Yet he became impatient on his slow popularity and started to take drastic measures to jump his reputation a whole lot more. And this happened sometime after Katy joined his troup."

Drinking more of her tea, Zatanna then scooped up a spoonful of sugar and poured it in. "From what I heard from Katy during some past calls, Art became quite intrigued by his exposure to the various criminal mindsets throughout the world, mostly here in Gotham."

Stirring up beverage to properly blend the sugar, Zatanna kept talking. "My former assistant stated he called his new illusionistic craft the perfect fusion of performer and sociopath. Even going so far as to integrating more of that danger into his act. And because of that, I had to cut ties with him." She took another sip and gave a brief nod that her cup of tea was at her prefered, desired ratio before drinking the rest. "And the only way I somewhat caught up with him with either through the news or via Katy."

She then lowered her head while her hand seemed to shake a little. "I... I feel like this is my fault, Bruce. I begged Katy to leave his troupe in our past phone calls. The horror show routine was fine as a gimmick, but Loxias took it too far as of late." Zatanna placed the tea cup down near the batcomputer and looked at her old friend in the face. "Putting his people in danger, then whipping the crowd into a frenzy when someone gets hurt… What professional magician/illusionist does that?!"

"I understand your frustration, Zanna. And I plan on talking to him again." Bruce said as he placed his tea cup down. The Wayne then moved his chair around to face his computer. "I'm sure you'll want to be there for that.

Zatanna merely narrowed her eyes. "Definitely. I've got some things to say."

Bruce nodded before typing on his keyboard to pull up the footage of the show from earlier. "First thing we'll need to review is the recording Gordon gave me of Loxias' show." He looked over to see his old friend hovering over him. "I believe I should warn you now that it's disturbing."

"Run it." She ordered. "I want to see everything, Bruce."

Bruce fast forwarded the footage before playing it right when the cremation act was about to start. "I've gotta ask, Zanna, but I noticed Loxias walking with a cane, yet in this he's not. Was he hurt in one of his own routines?"

"Nothing so glamorous." Zatanna soon saw the look on Bruce's face that read 'explain.' "Six months ago, he was helping his crew move some props onto a van when a loaded dolly rolled back and crushed his leg. Soon after that incident, he taught his assistants how to do the cremation act."

The footage played on with two of the stage performers tying up Katy with Loxias speaking the crowd while waving a cloth in his hand. "Katy told me Loxias discovered the audience liked the idea of a girl in peril, so he added more bondage into the works." The pair soon saw the illusionist tie the cloth over Katy's mouth. "He soon developed tastes of his victims tied up nice and tight. Claiming the impact is heightened by... Wait a second..."

"Zanna?"

"Pause the footage and rewind a bit." Bruce did just that. "Now zoom in on Katy." Typing a series of commands, the image focused more on Katy's head. There they saw Katy with a horrified expression across her features all of a sudden. "Look at the way she's struggling. That's not an act, Bruce. She's trying to shake off the gag! Something's wrong with it."

Bruce nodded while standing up from his chair. He walked over to his scanner and pulled out the same cloth from earlier from his utility belt. "I'm glad I kept this when I removed it earlier." Scrying through a series of keystrokes, the scanner activated before an analysis popped up on the computer screen. "It seems it's not poison, Zanna, but oil-"

"From walnuts." Finished the magician, earning a curious look from Bruce. "Katy's violently allergic to a large variety of nuts. She couldn't even touch a tree nut without breaking out in a rash. Hell I once saw her accidentally take a bite of cashew chicken. She had a bad reaction and I was lucky I'm licensed in several forms of first aid or else she wouldn't have made it to the hospital in time."

"The gag must've been heavily coated with walnut oil. Katy suffered an anaphylactic reaction that shut down her respiratory system." Bruce and Zatanna looked back at the screen as the rest of the footage played out before everything went downhill. "It was meant to look like she either asphyxiated from the smoke or was burned to death."

"But why Katy? She didn't have an enemy in the world."

"That's what Loxias will tell us." Said the Wayne as he wore his mask once more. "Ready to go?"

"Give me a second." Zatanna stepped back and focused her magic through her hands. _"Gnikrow sehtolc raeppa! (Working clothes appear!)"_

Soon a flash of light surrounded the female magician's form for several moments. The Bat had to briefly close his eyes from the light before opening them back up to see his old friend in her stage attire.

"You seem to be practicing without your wand as a conduit." The bat-themed hero got a raised look from her. "What?"

"You seem to know that detail a bit too quickly."

"You can thank Naruto and his ward for filling me in on quite a lot of information on the magical variety."

"And how would they know?"

"His ward has magic and is taught by a resident practitioner, who I haven't had the chance to meet yet."

"Really? Who?"

"Jason Blood."

She blinked on Batman's answer before giving her response. "Really? Blood's taken in a student?" Her voice took on a surprised tone. "After all these years?"

"Anything special about him?"

"Quite a lot actually." Zatanna said before shaking her head. "I'll fill you in on him once this mess with Loxias is done and over with."

The Bat nodded before they made their way to the batmobile and took off.

 _ **-Ivar Lexios' Mansion-**_

The gothic illusionist stood outside of the loading dock of his home where several men were placing several crates into the truck.

Gone was his attire he wore in his performance earlier this evening. For his current attire consisted of baggy jeans and black t-shirt along with his cane on hand, which helped support his weight.

"And that's the last of the load, Mr. Loxias." Said one of the workers.

The illusionist nodded as he smiled. "Good. And you boys have the location for tomorrow's show?"

"Yeah, it's right here on the form." The worker said, looking on his clipboard. "But I've gotta ask about this."

"About what?"

"Well~ we've been contracted for you for roughly five years and this stuff you're using now... I mean, this is practically hazmat stuff."

"It's none of your concern, Davy. Just bring it to the location of my next show and set it up. I'll handle the rest." Said the gothic magician. "Now, do you understand?"

"...Yes, sir."

"Good. Now finish loading and go."

"Why's that, Mr. Loxias?"

The illusionist stepped further into his home before answering. "I'm expecting company soon."

It was about fifteen minutes later after the crew left when the batmobile pulled in front of Ivar's home. The hood of Batman's vehicle pulled open before the vigilante and female magician stepped out. Upon reaching the door, Zatanna pressed the doorbell with a buzzing sound coming off from the nearby speaker not long after.

" _Yes, who is it?"_

""Ivar, it's Zatanna."

 _"Zatanna?"_ The Bat and magician then heard some shuffling on the other end before they heard Loxias speak again. _"Wow, it really is you. It's been ages. Why'd you come?"_

"I need to talk to you about Katy."

 _"Ah~ I thought you might. And it seems you've brought a friend, with how I'm seeing you two on the security monitor."_ The pair soon heard a series of locks open up from the front door before it opened up on it's own. _"Come on in. You'll find me in the theatre."_

Stepping inside, Zatanna and Batman made their way through the halls in order to find Loxias' whereabouts.

Passing buy a trophy/memorabilia hall, the magician spoke. "It doesn't make sense. I've known him since he was working shell games at the county fair. We've even done shows together, appeared on TV… But why would he risk all this? Why would he kill? And don't you say it's because of a _mid-life crisis_ bullcrap."

"Maybe that accident snapped more than his leg." Came the Bat's response.

Once finding the theatre, the pair saw Loxias sitting in some goady chair in the middle of the stage with several magician props spewed about. From an Iron Maiden, a guillotine, a hacksaw with boxes and a water tank. "You're lovely as ever, my dear Zatanna. And I'm sorry our visit couldn't have come at a happier time."

"I'm not here to be sociable." Zatanna said as she and the Bat walked closer to the stage. "We watched the playback of your latest show, Loxias. Katy was already dying when you put her in the cremation illusion."

"Give us one reason to believe you didn't cause it." Spoke the Batman as they walked up the steps.

All the gothic illusionist did was give out a wiry smirk. "It took me a long time to get motivated after my accident. But once I made the commitment to perform again, I couldn't believe how much I missed it." The man leaned forward as he pulled out a pair of sunglasses from his pocket. "Awakening long dormant skills, stretching the old muscles again. And the reaction from the audiences was absolutely intoxicating."

Loxias then stood up as he wore his darkened spectacles. "But as always, there was this nagging little voice in the back of my head telling me I should do more. Bigger effects with bigger payoffs." He waved his arms upwards with a chuckle. "Not just the possibility of injury, but the certainty of it. And did the audience eat it up! Oh~ before long the kids were coming just to see the blow flow! I was on an all-time career high!" He breathed out as sigh as he twirled his cane. "Of course, some sacrifices had to be made. Katy, for example."

The mere mention of her former assistant got Zatanna to narrow her eyes on the illusionist before her.

"She had gotten unpleasantly vocal about the risks I was taking as of late. The girl had even taken to snooping around in my personal affairs." Loxias gave out a shrug with a growing, dark smirk. "Well, you know how protective we magicians are of our secrets, so the kid just had to go."

He looked back and forth between Batman and Zatanna, who gritting her teeth in anger. "While it's true the sliding panel on her coffin was working, I did rig the illusion's fire jets to explode and set the fire on stage. And just to make sure she didn't take any bows, I surprised her at the last second with that oil-soaked gag." The gothic illusionist's smirk widened as his gaze heavily landed on the true magician in the room. "I'll tell you what, there's a _world_ of helpful information to be found in your former employee's medical files."

This got Zatanna to finally snap and growled out her anger. "I have never wanted to hurt another being as much as I want to hurt you!"

"Me first."

Without warning, Loxias quickly pulled out a gun from behind his back and fired a round into Zatanna's throat.

"NO!" Cried out the Bat.

Zatanna fell onto the floor and started choking with blood pouring out from her mouth and throat. The Caped Crusader went to her side and tried his best to help her in this unforeseen predicament.

"Hahahaha! You're so surprised. Doesn't the very nature of magic tell you to expect the unexpected?" Loxias merely watched on as he paced around a little with the chaotic scene before him. "Just when you think you've figured out all the angles-" the gothic illusionist soon kicked Batman across the head, drawing blood in the process. "Along comes a new twist!" He ducked from Batman's punch before twisting the handle for his cane as he pulled out a hidden sword inside of it. "And that which you dismissed as harmless-" Loxias then stabbed the Bat in the chest before kicking him into the goady chair where metal clamps suddenly latched onto his wrists. " _Always_ has a hidden bite!"

Despite his bleeding side, the Bat of Gotham struggled to free himself from his confinement. "THIS ISN'T A GAME!" He roared out. "SHE'S DYING!"

"Ah~ ever the hero." The gothic illusionist pulled out a remote from his pocket and pointed it towards the goady chair. "So concerned with the welfare of others, he never considers what might lie in wait for him." Pressing the central button, the bat-themed vigilante felt sparks running through his system as he was getting electrocuted. "It's nothing pleasant, I'm afraid."

Releasing the pressure placed on the button -causing Batman to lean forward to catch his breath- Loxias grabbed ahold of Zatanna's body and lifted her up from the ground. "Forgive me, my dear. I had to make sure we wouldn't be interrupted." All he got was several pained grunts and gobbles with blood spill pouring out from her openings. "You see, there's a trick you do that's always left me mystified."

The illusionist then carried the female magician's body to the nearby water tank and climbed the steps to reach the top. "The water torture cell~ the way you perform it is without peer. Houdini himself would be proud."

"DON'T YOU DARE!"

Loxias ignored the Bat as he pulled open the tank's lid. "And yet, some of the more jealous practitioners of our art claim you use a little extra hocus-pocus to effect your escapes." Loxias slipped Zatanna's body into the cold water before quickly shutting the lid. "Chant a word or two backwards and forwards and poof! Out you come!" He quickly sealed off what means Zatanna had to escape -with the lid screwed tight with a lock snapped in for good measure- as she pounded at the glass with one hand while the other held onto her bleeding throat. "Which was the reason why I had to remove _that_ temptation. So sorry to do it so roughly, but I used my last hanky earlier tonight."

As Loxias walked down the steps, Batman could only look on as he saw Zatanna bleed out in the water and barely hanging onto life. The Bat of Gotham was then snapped out of his concentration as Loxias pressed his remote button again to electrocute him once more.

"I say she'll be out of there in several minutes, unless her bleeding out to death beats her to it." The illusionist came up to his confined prisoner and peered into the Bat's eyes. "Wanna put money on it, Batman?"

The vigilante didn't know if it was the electrocution -once it ceased- or peering into the illusionist's eyes. Things started to click, causing the Bat to grit his teeth. "I should've known from the start..." He balled his fists and glared at the smirking man. "Your cruel dismissal of Gordon."

"Ah~ so you've finally figured it out." Loxias stepped back with a cruel grin spread across his face. "After all, it was a dead giveaway~"

"The references to your accident, the cavalier admission that you had _buried_ Art Wiener..."

"Misdirection, Batman. The magician's and illusionist's greatest weapon. Something I should've adopted ages ago." The illusionist twirled around before his back faced the Gothamite hero. "Make the people look only where you want them to look." He brought a hand towards his throat and massaged on it. "Make them see only what you want them to see." The goth's other hand went towards his chin and ripped off a thick layer of skin as his voice seemed to change. "Reduce your mark to witless confusion and then play your final hand." The thick layer of skin traveled all over as bleached white skin was revealed underneath with matted green hair and ruby lips appeared.

"Admit it, old buddy old pal." The man said with a growing cheshire-like grin as he tossed away his realistic mask. "I gotcha~ I gotcha _real_ good!" He then bellowed out his signature laugh -which echoed out throughout the room- while electrocuting the Batman once more. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"H-How…" Struggled out the vigilante.

"Hmm?" The Joker questioned as he turned off his device. "I'm sorry, but I didn't quite hear what you were trying to say. Speak up, would you kindly?"

Still feeling the pain coursing through his body, the Bat endured and spoke his question. "How'd… you survive-"

"That shark attack those months ago?" Finished off the crazed clown. "I can honestly say it wasn't all that great, Batsy. I mean, beaten up by you and your friend, Vanitas back at the aquarium when all I wanted was my Joker fish trademarked for crying out loud!... Along with having some revenge on Uzumaki in the process."

The Joker paused his actions and scrunched his face as if he was trying to remember something. "Oh~ where was I?" He snapped his fingers in remembrance. "Ah that's right, the shark attack." The clown pulled up his shirt a bit to reveal several shark bite marks. "Well I did get chewed up a bit by the bastard before I wrestled myself free -don't ask- and swam to safety after emptying my clip into it's noggin."

The Clown Prince of Crime pulled out a handkerchief from his back pocket and started whipping off the skin makeup he had on to fully show his bleached white skin. "For some time now, Loxias had been sending feelers through the underworld trying to arrange an audience with yours truly. Seems Ivar had recently become obsessed with the element of theatre _Gotham's Criminals_ bring to their work and wanted to learn some tricks from the ol' master himself!

Now normally I don't do command performances, but finding myself in reduced circumstances -once he found me drifted off ashore all bloodied and beaten- I decided to help him out as repayment for nursing me back to health. Heh~ Turned out Ivar and I were _kindred souls_. Natural showmen who love driving our audiences past the breaking point. He hid me here and played nursemaid for some time. In return, I taught him what I knew about poisons, explosives and other playthings. It felt oddly gratifying to have so earnest a pupil while he taught me all he knew about being an illusionist in return so we can refine and better our respective crafts."

Once done cleaning himself of his makeup, the Joker formed a mock-depressed expression across his features. "Though I do feel sort of bad about _killing him_ the first chance I got." His mock expression died as he darkly chuckled. "But as the rattlesnake said to the dying girl 'You knew what I was when you saved me.' Heh! No truer words than that, old friend."

The clown then tossed the cloth away as he continued to smile. "Anywho~, as Ivar had been so kind to me, I thought it only fair that I continue his dream of bringing a new level of horror to magic. We were close enough in appearance that I could double for him. Some prosthetic makeup, fixing my vocal cords to match his voice and no one knew the difference. The mere fact that I now controlled Ivar's mansion, his vast fortune _and_ resources sweetened the deal."

He walked up to the Iron Maiden and traced his finger across the inner spikes. "And I must admit, I loved performing again. Before I became who I am today, I was not all that great and I struggled to make others enjoy my work. But as Loxias, I had a built-in audience primed for all manner of ghoulish delights! Those wicked little angels soaked up all the blood _Ivar_ could deliver and cheered for more!"

The Joker then scrunched up his face and ran his hand through his matted locks to make it all wild once more. "And that was the problem. It wasn't really _me_ getting the cheers. I mean, I'm a star in my own right, aren't I? So called up my boys and took up a small job for Killgore to get me groove back. And of course Catwoman had to screw it up!" He mockly whimpered and shed a crocodile tear. "I just wanted those gorgeous albino hyenas that would've given me comfort. But nooooo~ she had to steal WHAT WAS RIGHTFULLY MINE!"

The crazed clown coughed into his hand to recompose myself. "Now because of this, I decided to finally end this gig of mine while on top and maybe take a few high profile victims along the way before I fully transfer Ivar's funds onto my own." He then walked over to the water tank and patted the glass. "I realized that by killing Katy, I had the perfect means of luring her gal pal and former boss, Zatanna, into my clutches. And who would've thought that she brought you along! HA! That's practically a bonus right then and there!" His ruby grin stretched far and wide as he became all giddy. "It just goes to show what you can accomplish with a little _planning_ and _persistence!_ "

The Batman struggled in his bindings as he tried to break free. The chair may be wired, but it's still a prop. All the Bat had to do was find it's weak spot in the restraints.

"Why haven't you killed me yet, Joker?"

The clown blinked and was baffled upon hearing this. "Kill you? Why would I want to kill you?... Oh wait, I do but not right now." He moved behind the chair and hovered his head besides the Bat. "I just want to knock the fight out of you while you watch her die in front of you. Being so helpless and you couldn't do a thing to stop it."

'Not on my watch.' Growled the Bat's thoughts as he mustered all his strength into breaking free. Yet he was electrocuted once more for his actions.

"Ho-HO! You're a glutton for punishment! I like that!" The Batman fought through the pain and with the adrenaline rushing through his veins, he soon broke free and collapsed onto the stage. "Impressive as always, Batman!" Yelled out the Joker as he pressed another button on the remote. An escape hatch opened up not far ahead before the crazed clown jumped in. "I'd stay and applaud, but the show must go on elsewhere!"

If this was any other situation, the masked Wayne would've gone after the Joker. But this wasn't the time, he needed to save Zatanna!

Rushing over to the water tank, Batman started smashing his fist onto the glass. Hardly any cracks formed to show the material was rather dense. Having no choice, he pulled out a sticky bomb, set it for a few seconds and placed it at the bottom portion of the tank. Stepping back a bit to give himself some space, the bomb soon detonated as water came rushing out.

Batman then ran over and caught Zatanna before she hit the stage, which could've caused more harm to her asides from the bullet wound and almost drowning. Lying her onto the ground, he was about to quickly operate when he noticed… something amiss.

'Her bullet wound…' Thought the Bat with widened eyes. 'It's gone! But how?' He looked back at the destroyed tank and saw something scrawled on the tank hatch above -Leah em! (Heal me!)- written in blood? 'That's right. Rachel told me that a spell written in blood could possibly be considered very powerful in a dire situation.' He turned over to his old friend and performed CPR on her.

If he didn't get the water out of her lungs soon, then she'll drown like anyone else.

 _ **-December 21st, Wayne Manor-**_

A pair of blue eyes groggily opened up as they stared into empty space. Their owner soon moved them around to find her present surroundings. As this happened, she felt rather comfortable and soon realized the ravenette magician was in some sort of bed.

Sitting upright, Zatanna was about to begin the search of her whereabouts when the room's door opened up. Looking over, she saw an unfamiliar blonde woman step in with a tray of either food or something else.

The moment both women looked at each other, the blonde leaned back outside and yelled. "Hey, Brucey! Zanny's awake!" Leaning back in, the woman walked up to the bed and placed down the tray to reveal it to contain tea. "You want some tea? It's a fresh pot of ginger tea with added lemon and honey."

Zatanna was about to speak before she started to cough. The ravenette felt her throat was rather sore, no doubt from getting shot there and using magic to fix the major damage.

Yet not everything could be fully healed right away.

"Yes, I'd like some." The magician spoke in a whisper-like tone.

"Would you like some extra honey with that?" Came a question in a similar tone. Zatanna blinked before raising an eyebrow. "What? Too much?"

The ravenette merely nodded, causing the blonde to mockly pout. Zatanna giggled a little while rubbing her throat to ease the pain.

The moment came to an end when Bruce came walking in and saw the brief interaction. "I'm guessing Harley here was trying to be funny?" He asked.

"I'm just doing what I can for a patient in need, Bruce." Said the Arkham employee. "After all, good bedside manners help a lot in the recovery process." She then hung her head as a depressive, dark cloud appeared over her. "Yet I botched it."

In a small state of confusion, Zatanna reached out and waved her hand through the cloud to see if it was just her imagination or not. Yet she was surprised to feel some moisture there. Even seeing several raindrops falling onto Harley's pale blonde locks.

Looking over to her old friend, the magician saw him mouth out 'Don't ask'.

Suddenly, the bubbly blonde shot up with a grin across her face. "Welp~ I'm gonna get myself more of Alfey's delicious brunch with puddin." She then walked out of the room before poking her head back in. "And yes, I'll be getting you some as well Zanny."

With the psychologist's departure, Bruce looked back and served Zatanna a cup of tea. Once she drank some of the beverage, he asked her the obvious question. "How are you feeling, Zanna?"

"Alive." She hoarsely said. "That's something, I guess." The magician drank more before coughing a little with the throat's pain lessening. "But… where…?"

"My place upstairs."

She nodded with her eyes wandering about. "Can't wait to see the rest of your humble abode." The feminine blue eyes landed back at the doorway. "Who was she?"

"Harley? Oh, she's a friend of mine." He answered before quickly adding in a certain detail. "And before you ask, no, I'm not seeing her since she's dating Naruto."

Zatanna nodded while filing that detail away for later. With that question out of the way, the ones pertaining from last night surfaced. ""What happened to Loxias?" She asked. "I couldn't remember much from, you know, trying not to die."

Bruce sighed. "He's been dead for months."

"...Then how-"

"The Joker impersonated your friend after murdering him."

Zatanna widened her blue eyes while processing what was just said. After several moments, she placed the teacup down and spoke. "So all of this... Katy's death, our torture, the lives hurt... it was simply Joker's way of screwing with us?"

"That's about it."

"...I want to kill him." She then growled with her hands balling into fists. "I want to burn the skin from his bones or turn him to stone so I can smash him into bits! Or- *Cough* *Cough* Or simply vanish him from the face of the Earth!"

After several moments of anger, Zatanna slowly calmed down and leaned her head back against the bedrest. "But if I do that -using magic to avenge an act of brutality- then there will be dire consequences... which I never want to experience." She massaged her head a little before grabbing her teacup to drink more of the herbal beverage. "As... much as I'd like to see out justice in my own way, it's not really my call." She looked back at her old friend with tired eyes. "Your city, your enemy, your rules, Bruce. All I ask is that you let me help you bring him down."

Bruce gave her a firm nod. "That's all I'd ask."

"So should we go now or-"

"You still need your rest, Zanna." Said the Wayne. "Your spellcasting mainly requires your voice and without it at it's best, then you might become a liability."

"I can easily take care of myself, Bruce."

"I know, but I just want to take precautions before we face the Joker."

The magician nodded on the small logic. Finishing up her cup of tea, she asked a question. "Then what do we do until then?"

"Well… what do you have in mind?"

The magician formed a small smile as several ideas popped in her head.

 _ **-Hours Later, Lexios' Mansion-**_

"There's nothing here." Zatanna said in frustration as she and Batman sat in the theatre.

After waking up in Wayne Manor earlier today, Zatanna decided to enjoy the most of it while recuperating. She interacted with Naruto again -after two months- and got to know both him and his blonde girlfriend a bit more. During this time, information was exchanged from Bruce learning more as to who Jason Blood was and Zatanna wanting to meet him and the Uzumaki's ward to measure her up.

By the time Zatanna's throat was fully healed up, she and the Dark Knight decided it was time to continue their investigation. Naruto and Harley offered to help, but were told they'd be contacted later if anything were to come up.

Upon arriving back at Loxias' home, Batman and Zatanna searched the residence for any clues as to where the Joker is currently at. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful in finding anything.

"Joker left no hard copy, written indication of his future plans." Zatanna rubbed the bridge of her nose while sighing. "And Ivar's computer has been wiped clean too."

"And yet Joker mentioned _twice_ ," said the Bat while scratching his chin, "both as Loxias and as himself, that 'the show must go on'."

"What are you getting at, Bruce?"

"Joker's going to stage one final performance _tonight_ -as Loxias- and wipe out his devoted fanbase as his grand finale."

Zatanna groaned. "Well that's just great. But where would that nutjob of a clown have it at?"

"...I may know where he left us a clue."

Standing up from his seat, the Bat ran out of the theatre -with his old friend not far behind- and made their way upstairs.

"Mind telling me what's up?"

"Joker's good at covering his tracks." He answered while heading towards the master bedroom. "He no doubt destroyed his plans as soon as he committed them to memory." Upon entering the bedroom, the Batman made a b-line towards the spacious bathroom. "But he's got a very restless mind. Always plotting, always working out new angles and scribbling down ideas," he went into the glass shower and turned the shower knob with the hot water quickly fogging up the confined space, "no matter where he is."

After several moments, the pair saw a large amount of scribbling plastered along the shower walls. Only visible given the right conditions with finger writing scrawled all over. And it consisted of various song lyrics, stick figures put into gruesome scenarios, different illusionary act ideas, and so much more.

"...First off, wow~ obsessive compulsive, much?" Said the ravenette magician. "And second neat way of hiding notes in plain sight."

Kneeling down, Batman carefully placed his finger next to a series of words. "Saint Jenny, short for Saint Genesius."

"Patron saint of actors and clowns." Zatanna muttered in disdain. "Fitting, but Joker doesn't strike me as the Sunday school type of guy."

"He's not, but there's the abandoned Church of St. Genesius in the East End." He moved his finger over to a number ratio that read 'approx. 900 to 1100'. "It's often used for illegal, midnight gatherings."

"Perfect for Loxias' fans."

The pair then made their way out of the bathroom to make their way outside. "And based on what was written there, at least a thousand of them are about to die."

 _ **-Church of St. Genesius-**_

Peeking through the curtain, 'Loxias' saw the roaring crowd hastily waiting for the show to start. The disguised clown darkly chuckled as he motioned the stage workers to get the show rolling. With everyone getting into place, the laughing man checked himself over one last time as he wore a grim reaper styled outfit for the upcoming performance.

The Joker honestly wasn't quite sure how many would show up. He figured Batman tipped Gordon off to his antics with what was shown in the news and local papers. Yet despite word being spread that the Great Loxias was no more, the fanbase was still at an all time high.

With the illusionist's connections, the deranged clown sent out a massive amount of messages to the fanbase that Loxias' death had simply been an elaborate hoax in order to prepare for tonight's show. And the Joker had hoped for a few hundred, at best.

But for a literal full house was absolutely thrilling!

The curtain rose and the audience roared for 'Loxias' arrival in his current getup. And standing in front of him was a giant casket with his stage performers standing on each side of it for the opening _and_ closing act of the night.

The Casket of Lost Souls: the final and best collaboration idea Loxias and the Joker had created with both working hard on it.

As the Joker ordered the stage performers to pry open the lid, he would spin the crowd some hokum about how the swirling mists will reveal who will live and who will die... Yet deep down, the disguised clown already had a pretty good idea. And the deranged man had to give Loxias full credit for the lighting effects and projector works. Not to mention the floating skulls were quite the inspired touch as they sprang out of the opened casket.

Yet the act's punch-line was all _his_.

As the normal red mists floated and spread throughout the room, it soon changed into an eerily green color. The audience and stage performers started to breath it in and started to cough in rapid succession. Before long, they started to laugh and laugh before people realized what was really happening.

They tried to escape through the exit, but bars quickly slid down from the ceiling and imbedded themselves into the ground. The moment people came into contact with the metal, they got a large jolt through their systems to show the new addition to the doors were electrofied.

As the Joker laughed as his gag unfolded right in front of him, he was about to jump on down and put his scythe to good use when a grappling hook latched onto his shoulder. He grunted in pain as he was yanked upwards. Looking towards the originator up towards the rafters, the Joker he saw Batman and Zatanna glaring right down at him.

"Look who's back to give me the hook!" Jested the Joker. "Luckily I brought _my own!_ " Swinging his scythe towards the rope, the clown cut himself free before landing on an old, broken church pillar. Yet as soon as the clown stepped onto it, the Bat lunged and grabbed ahold of him in a neck lock. "You're quite the spoilsport, you know that?!"

"I'll take care of him, Zatanna!" Yelled the Batman before the Joker twisted around and elbowed the hero in the face. "Save the audience any way you can."

The magician nodded and focused as she jumped down to several elevated areas before coming across the panicked crowd below. "Nosiop sag nrut ot negyxo! (Poison gas turn to oxygen!)" She said before quickly aiming her wand at the barred entrance. "Eatg raeppasid! (Gate disappear!)"

Two things happened right after as the green Joker gas and the electrified gate sparkled for several moments. The poisonous gas soon evaporated into invisible vapors while the barred entrance faded away. Seeing this happen, the many show attendees and workers rushed towards safety.

Worried on what happened, the magician called out. "Stop! Listen to me! You're safe!" Yet she was ignored. "Dammit! They're too scared to listen. They'll trample each other unless-" She was cut off when broken debris fell right next to her. Looking up, Zatanna saw the fight continue on. "Okay, Smiley the Reject Clown. You want to spread terror through magic? Have I got a trick for you!" Aiming her free hand and wand at the deranged man, she casted a spell. "Ecneidua egnach ot eripmav stab! (Audience change to vampire bats!)"

Back in the fight above, the Batman dodged a swipe from Joker's weapon when both combatants heard a sound of massive screeches and flutter of wings. Wasn't long before a large swarm of bats shot out of the many holes of the abandoned church.

"Oh, cute!" The Joker struggled out as he tried killing -and failing- the bats. "What are these? Your pets, Batman?" He then dropped his scythe once the flying animals started swarming and biting his exposed flesh. "OW! HEY!" He yelled out. "GET AWAY! THIS ISN'T FUNNY!"

"Oh, I think it is." Spoke the magician from her place down below. "You made the audience thirsty for blood, so why not redirect it to drinking yours, Joker." She smirked as she saw the clown get knocked out by her old friend while he was distracted. "Quite the topper, if I do say. Would've been better if he died laughing from the irony."

Sometime later, the police arrived and hauled the unconscious Joker into the police van in order to get him sent back into Arkham. Off to the side, Batman and Zatanna looked around to the many onlooking attendees that stuck around. They were quickly changed back into humans by the resident magician as the little moment of vengeance was fulfilled.

If they ever remember tonight at all, it will only be as a dream. And a rather fond one at that as it got closer to the special holiday of the month.

 _ **-December 23rd; Bensonhurst, Brooklyn-**_

Currently driving down the road to her destination, Harley was talking to her cousin while she's been put on speaker. They've been at it for a while as she's heading towards her parent's home for today and most of tomorrow before heading back to Gotham. And to kill some time along the way, Harley dialed up her favorite cousin in the whole entire world -since she's her only cousin- so they can play catch up.

" _...I still can't believe you're dating_ him _of all people."_

Harley still kept her smile on her face. "Well I'm a very lucky gal, cuz. Being able to snag such a great guy like him and he's made my life a whole lot more interesting."

" _Lucky~ And all I still got from him was an autograph and a pleasant lunch alongside Queen Perdita of Vlatava herself!... I'm not really complaining or anything about the great, yet random moment."_

"Mah~ Mah~ I understand you completely, Felicity. Chance encounters are rare and well worth it." Giggled the bubbly blonde before making a left hand turn. "So enough about me, tell me how things are on your end."

" _Nothing as interesting like in your end, Harley. I mean, you're working in one of the most infamous asylums -which also functions as a prison- ever known in over a decade. For me, I'm just working at the IT department at Queen Consolidated. Day in and day out I'm doing the same, usual routines that sometimes feels repetitive."_

Harley then heard Felicity let out an exasperated sigh. _"Sure, there are a handful of assignments and tasks I get from my bosses to keep me occupied and changes the pace I deal with on a daily basis."_

"I know the feeling quite well, cuz. Working on specific patients and inmates for so long tends to get dull and repetitive. Others get quite interesting if you know how to truly figure them out. Yet there are moments you'd regret doing so."

" _Talking from very personal experience, I take it."_

"You have no idea." Harley drawled out. "But there are the rewarding moments which you feel accomplished that you truly helped out the person on their treatments."

The psychologist heard Felicity give out an understanding hum over the line. _"I have felt rather good helping out Walter -my boss- on several inquiries, so I don't know if that counts."_

"Like what?"

" _Started out on finding details to some organization called_ Tempest _, which isn't affiliated with any company or government out there. Yet the group was involved with some warehouse purchase somewhere in Starling. And it was after that some other details came up as they were connected to his wife, Moira."_

"Did you tell him about that?"

" _Of course I did, yet I ended up threatened on being suspended if I dug back into his wife's affairs."_

Harley pondered on this while driving through an intersection. "Maybe he did that just to protect ya."

" _...You're probably right."_ Felicity sighed. _"But just how he looked and sounded when saying that was hard to tell. And it wasn't a few days later Walter asked me to look into this odd blank book he found that I soon found out had invisible ink of some kind."_

"Huh… And what ya find?"

" _A list of names… and it was rather lengthy."_

"That's rather strange."

" _You're telling me. So I decided to looked into who's who and found out that a handful of them were either killed or befell in a really bad way by our resident vigilante, The Hood."_

Harley widened her eyes. "And have you told your boss about this?"

" _I actually did before you called me, Harley."_

"Hope things turn out well when you did that, cuz."

" _Same here."_

"So asides from work, have anything else happened on your end?" Harley slowly formed a grin. "Like have you been seeing anyone lately? A cute boy, perhaps?"

Felicity merely snorted. _"Like I've had any time because of work."_

"And I'm guessing something else is hanging you up on not doing so."

" _Somewhat… and I don't wanna talk about it."_

Harley nodded. "That's fine and you know that I'm willing to help ya out. After all, I am a psychologist."

Felicity chuckled. _"I'll keep that in mind."_

"Though I don't come cheap, ya'know. If I ever come over to Starling or vice versa, ya owe me lunch." The Arkham employee could literally feel an eyebrow rising from her cousin. "Blame my neighbors for starting that payment."

" _Heh~ I'm actually fine with that. Though if I wanna be honest, I have somewhat been seeing someone."_

"Oh~ you have?!" The bubbly blonde practically hopped in her seat. "Tell me! Tell me! TELL ME EVERYTHING!"

" _We haven't really gone out at all. He just shows up at the IT department every now and again for small favors to look things up."_

"Like what?"

" _Pulling out blueprint information for the Exchange Building -which my boss' competitor owned- from a destroyed laptop for starters."_ Harley rose a brow as her cousin continued. _"Finding information as to where this AK Desmond Group was located to helping him out on this so called scavenger hunt his friend was doing some weeks ago."_

"That's… rather strange."

" _Tell me about it."_

"But is the guy still cute?"

The psychologist could feel the smile form on Felicity's lips. _"Why yes. Yes he is."_

Slowly pulling up to the side of the road, Harley parked her car and got out. "I'm gonna hang up now. I'm by my parent's place."

" _Then have a good one, Harley."_

"And you have a good Christmas, Felicity."

" _...You do realize we're both Jewish, right?"_

"I know, cuz, but it doesn't stop us from liking Christmas. With it being so colorful and bright and stuff." Harley whined out. "I can't help but celebrate it along with my family and puddin."

The Queen Consolidated employee laughed a little. _"Right you are, Harley. Then happy Holidays. And tell your parent's I said hi."_

"You too, cuz, and will do."

After hanging up, Harley went towards the trunk of her car and opened it. There lied half a dozen wrapped presents, in which she awkwardly stacked in her arms before closing the trunk. The bubbly blonde then made her way up to the front door and rapped the wooden surface. Feeling impatient, she started ringing the doorbell a a good number of times before the door was thrown open.

"WHAT?!" Yelled out a pixie haired greying blonde before blinking several times. She then formed a smile across her face. "Harleen?"

"Merry Christmas, Ma!" Harley cheerfully said. "Happy Hanukkah! Blessed Kwanzaa, Happy New Year and all that Holiday stuff! For your baby girl's home at last!"

Harley's mother -named Sharon- could only stare at her only living daughter as she looked much different than from when she saw her last. Gone was her creamy skin tone as a pale, ivory white took its place. Her blue eyes seemed different to her, but Sharon didn't know how to respond to that. And most of all was her near platinum blonde hair with some yellow at every other spot.

Seeing her mother's dumbfounded look, Harley spoke out in concern. "Ma? You okay in there?" She waved a hand in front of her face before snapping her fingers. "Hello~"

"S-Sorry, Harleen, but how'd you," Sharon moved her hands to her daughter's current appearance, "become like this?"

Harley let out a nervous chuckle as she stepped inside of her parent's home. Walking past her shocked mother, the psychologist placed the presents down by the Christmas tree before explaining. "You can blame an estranged patient of mine of having me take a dip in a vat of chemicals."

Sharon became very concerned upon hearing this. "W-Why didn't you tell us about _this_?"

"I didn't know how to properly bring it up over the phone." Came Harley's answer. "So I decided that 'seeing was believing' in this current case."

"An-And are you alright? Nothing bad happened to you as a result?"

"Oh, I'm completely fine."

' **Not really.'** Came Foxy's voice from inside her purse. **'I'm the least of the problems that was made because of the Joker's actions.'**

A twitch arrived on Harley's eyes. 'Be glad Ma can't hear ya or else I'd toss ya into the roaring fire.'

' **Whatever you say.'**

"Harleen, is something wrong?" Her mother asked in a worried tone.

"No, I'm good. Why'd ya ask?"

"You paused there for several moments and didn't say anything."

"Oh just… thinking. Yes thinking!"

"...Okay…"

Getting into the kitchen with her mother, Harley could smell dinner being cooked. She licked her lips in anticipation as her ma's cooking was to die for.

"Hey, I gotta ask but is Barry home?"

"Nope."

Harley blinked when hearing this. Her lazy, deadbeat brother is not here of all places? The bubbly blonde then asked the million dollar question that came to mind. "Then where is he?"

"Your brother is out doing a show at some venue."

"...I'm sorry, but Barry is doing what?"

Sharon groaned while stirring the pot. "Your father and I were getting tired of him staying at home all day long. Hell, at the rate he was going with borrowing money from us, we would've ran our retirement fund dry before officially retiring."

"That still doesn't explain about him doing a show."

"Oh, yeah right. So Barry got his visitation rights back with little Nicky and Jenny -your nephew and niece- and the only way he can keep it is getting a job. And the only job he could really get on hand was going with his heavy metal band-"

"HIS BAND?!" Harley blurted out. "Horror Toilette is still a thing? Y'gotta be shitting me!"

"Harley, language."

"...Sorry."

"First off, no the band's name is not Horror Toilette anymore since Barry's not with his old bandmates anymore."

"Then what's it called?"

"Barry's Angels." Sharon answered. "The rest of the band is all female. They play metal versions of James Bond themes and whatever else comes to mind."

"All female?" Harley rose a brow before something clicked, resulting in her forming a deadpan expression. "So, future ex-girlfriends in the making."

Her mother shook her head 'no'. "Two of them are married, bass player said she was gay -probably true or to save herself from Barry- and your brother decided that 'the music comes first'."

Harley snorted while leaning back in her seat. "Yeah, I'd buy that. Then where's Ezzie? I miss that little rat. Heh~ I _swear_ he was put on this planet to cause _chaos_."

"He's a _constant_ project for us, as ya know Harleen." Sharon formed a smirk and looked over her shoulder to gaze at her daughter. "Your baby brother _reminds_ me quite a lot like you."

"Aw~ come on, I was the perfect kid." Her mother then let out a sigh, which got the psychologist to snap. "Oh no, don't you 'sigh' me, _Mom!_ That's the noise you _always_ make when yer about to rain on my parade with that _Matronly Wisdom_ of yours!"

"...Gonna ignore the fact you called me _Matronly_." Her mother rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Listen, Harleen. As far as I'd known, you _love_ teaching 'jerkfaces' a lesson. It's who you _are_ and Ezzie picked up on that trait off from you so he could be just like you as he beats up school bullies quite often." She said while hearing a cute 'Aw~' from her daughter. "And if you've forgotten, but you've been doing _it_ since you were around five years old starting with that mailman."

Harley could vividly remember the occurrence her mother was talking about. Walking home from school one day, she saw a mailman kick a helpless puppy that was in his way. The small Harley from back in the day didn't take too kindly to that. So she ripped off the nearby mailbox and whacked the postage employee across the head like a mallet.

"Hehehe~ That was quite the experience." Harley tilted her head before thinking on the additional information. "After I was done with him, he couldn't have kids."

"We did have to _bribe_ the prosecutor, Harleen." Said her mother as she went back to cooking the evening meal.

"Well duh~ breaking a _mailman_ in half is a _federal offense_ … Still, doesn't explain where he's at."

"Last I heard from a call earlier, Ezzie's working late at the mall."

"Then where and how's Frankie?" Asked the psychologist. "Still the school genius? I mean the last time I saw him, he won an award for some jet propulsion thing he did for the science fair."

"Senior in highschool and an honor student with him getting a scholarship to college."

"That's great!" Harley brightly beamed. "But that still doesn't explain where he's at."

"He's with his girlfriend tonight and plans to introduce her to us tomorrow."

"Heh~ Should've brought Naruto along to meet ya."

"And who's Naruto?"

"My boyfriend." Harley absentmindedly said before widening her eyes. 'SHIT! I WAS SUPPOSED TO KEEP THAT IN MY HEAD!'

The sounds of cooking stopped as a scary silence filled the room. The warm temperature suddenly dropped and Harley swore everything darkened around her.

"Excuse me, but what?" Sharon calmly said in a particular tone that frightened Harley to her very core.

Nervously swallowing, the bubbly blonde answered. "M-M-My boyfriend…"

"And how long has this been going on?"

"...Half a year now…"

…..

…..

…..

The bubbly blonde screamed as she ran out of the kitchen in order to escape her mother's suddenly, risen wrath. She thought she could've escaped if she didn't trip and roll into the front door. Turning around, Harley frantically waved her hands over her face as she saw the cooking ladle in her mother's grasp.

"WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! A-A-AT LEAST PUT DOWN THE WEAPON!"

"It's not a weapon. It's a cooking utensil." Sharon then smacked the ladle onto the palm of her hand, making Harley yelp. "Though I could use it to dish out _something_ to a certain, idiot daughter of mine…"

"Th-Th-That's a terrifying thing to say!"

The front door then opened to reveal Harley's father -named Nick- as he finally returned home from a long day at the warehouse. The company wanted to wrap up and send out extra shipments for the Holidays since they were closed for the next two days. Nick was fine with it, thus he got paid time and a half for the extra time he clocked in.

"Honey, I'm ho-"

He wasn't even a step in when the out of prison con-artist was interrupted by an all too familiar voice. "DAD!"

Nick quickly saw her daughter -who looked very different than from the last time he saw her- to see the frantic look on her face. He was about to question Harley's current state of duress when he peered past her to see a certain _look_ on his wife's face.

…..

…..

…..

*SMACK*

Harley's father then closed the door, leaving his daughter alone with the furious beast- I mean mother.

Slowly looking back, the psychologist nearly wet herself upon seeing the evil grin across her mother's face. As a result, Harley tried to exit their home through the front door. Yet said door was held shut and realized her father was keeping it there.

"Dad! DAD!" Harley yelled out as she kept banging the door. "OPEN UP THE DOOR! SHE'S GONNA KILL ME!"

On the other side, Nick could only whimper out 'I'm sorry' several times.

"DAD! DAD! DA-"

*TWACK*

"OUCHIE!" Harley whined out as she held a comical bump on her head.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND?!" Sharon yelled with the ladle still in her hand. "AND WHY DIDN'T YOU BRING HIM OVER?!" Harley's mother then grabbed the nearby photo of her deceased, adopted daughter and cried into it. "Oh Ino. What have we done to have our precious Harley be like this? She should've known better."

"Maaa! Don't be so dramatic about this!"

"And how could I?" Sharon quickly had a dark aura around her and glanced at her daughter, who now got chills down her spine. "Hearing of you having a boyfriend _now_ after all this time without knowing BEFOREHAND REALLY PISSES ME OFF!"

As Harley sat there while nursing her wound, the bubbly blonde kept getting verbally lashed by her mother on the importance of properly introducing one's significant other for the Holidays.

'I regret not bringing puddin with me!' Harley thought with whimpers coming out of her mouth. 'He would've saved me from _this!'_

 _ **-Christmas Eve, Arkham Asylum-**_

"...Do you know how Victor got out of his cell, Dr. LeLand?"

Vanitas could only stare at the destroyed freezer cell before him with outright confusion. He didn't know what to make of it as his former landlord suddenly broke out and left the asylum.

"Near as we could tell, he ignited the gas in the cooling pipes and blew his cell open. And from what we saw in the security footage, he had a small makeshift device to cool himself down long enough to get his suit from the storage room." Joan responded as she and Vanitas stepped inside. "And here I was hoping we'd have a peaceful Christmas for once."

"Same here."

Tracing her hand at the broken pipe, Joan looked back with a sad look across her face. "It's so strange, Vanitas. Victor was always one of our quieter and respectful inmates. He never tried to escape before."

"Any reason he'd do it now?"

The asylum doctor shook her head. "Not really." She then adopted a thinking pose. "Though he did seem somewhat different this week. Always asking questions about the weather." The pair exited the destroyed freezer cell before making their way out of the building. "For some reason, he kept asking if it would snow by tonight since weather reports tend to not always be accurate. And when we told him the weather reports said no snow would come until January, Fries grew more sullen and more depressed than usual… if that were possible."

Vanitas was about to say something until the two stepped outside and saw snow was falling from the sky. It would've been fine if it was just that, but looking all around showed the scenery was that of a frozen wonderland of snow. From the several inches of snow for as far as the eye could see.

The helmeted hero looked back to see the asylum doctor look on in bewilderment. The vigilante wouldn't blame her before his windlance formed in his grasp. "Looks like he found a way to cheer himself up, Dr. LeLand." He said before taking off into the air.

 _ **-On the Streets-**_

The masked Uzumaki hovered through the air as he had to look for any sign of Victor or any accidents due to his former landlord's actions. Yet it was getting rather hard with the blizzard currently happening right now as it was starting to get worse.

When the call was made earlier from Arkham during his patrol, Naruto told Bruce he could handle the situation by himself since this was a very close friend of his. The Wayne billionaire respected his friend's wishes and left the Uzumaki to take care of the situation.

During his search, Vanitas got a call an hour ago from the people that owned the storage locker facility which kept Victor's and Nora's belongings was broken into. The masked Uzumaki had purchased an extra large one to keep both their personal and homely belongings along with all of Victor's cryogenic equipment and research.

Upon arriving there, Vanitas inspected the contents of the second storage locker and saw that one of the items taken was an experimental snow maker.

Yet the snow maker wasn't exactly experimental, per say. The device actually worked when Naruto saw Victor use it one time during a hot summer. Nora loved it so much and roped her husband and tenant into having fun in the snow, especially since she wanted to build a snowman rather badly.

Neither men could say no in the matter as they wanted to no longer deal with the heat.

The three had a fun snowball fight, had snow cones and even made a few snowmen with Nora calling one of them Olaf; something off from her family traditions. They would've had more time playing in the recently made snow on other hot summer days, but the formula for the snow maker was a bit costly.

Yet the experience was priceless… especially with what happened shortly… with Nora getting sick.

Flying over some intersection, Vanitas saw a car hydroplane across the road and was about to run over what appeared to be a mother/daughter pair. Diving in quickly, the hero snatched the mother and daughter just in time before the swerving car crashed into a nearby building.

Setting them down, Vanitas was soon thanked by the mother. "Thank god you saved us. I thought we would've died."

"It's no problem, ma'am." Vanitas said. He was about to check on the driver when he felt his waistcloth getting tugged. Looking down, the hero saw the little girl have a curious expression on her face. "Yes?"

"Are you an angel?"

"...Maybe."

Walking over to the crashed car, Vanitas saw the driver get out and start kicking his vehicle. "Fucking piece of shit."

Coming up to him, Vanitas grabbed his shoulder and swirled him around for a brief face-to-face chat. "I _highly_ recommend you get chains on your tires, sir." He then pointed to the mother/daughter pair, who were waving at the hero. "You almost killed those two."

The driver could only nod before the vigilante summoned back his windlance and took off into the air once more.

As he continued his search, Vanitas racked his mind as to where Victor might've gone to. Places of significance for his former landlord. For example there was their old home, but that would've been too obvious.

It wasn't long after till a sad idea came across his mind.

 _ **-Gotham Cemetery-**_

Arriving outside of the grounds, the masked Uzumaki saw a police car frozen over in a thick layer of flash frozen ice indicating that Victor is indeed here.

Fearing for the police officers' lives, Vanitas phased right through the vehicle and pulled out the two cops. They were a shivering mess as the hero didn't know how long they were stuck in there.

"Are you two alright?" He asked, getting shaky nods in return. The hero soon formed a clone with a card platform underneath. "Get on and he'll get you to someplace nice and warm."

Vanitas didn't bother to look back as the officers were taken somewhere else. All he did care about was to stop Victor's actions.

Venturing past the gate and past the Wayne grave marker -which resided close to the grounds' entrance, the masked publisher was barely able to hear the reminiscent machine whirls of Victor's snow making device. Coming closer and closer, the hero saw his former landlord firing the device -now converted into an oversized version of his freeze gun- all over the place with an expression that showed he was on a personal mission.

"Victor!" He called out, gaining Mr. Freeze's attention. "Stop this, please!"

All this did was getting the frozen man to aim his device right at the hero. _"BE GONE!"_ He roared out with his electronic voice.

Vanitas was blasted away and tumbled across the ground before coming to a stop. He shook his head as everything seemed to spin all around. Once everything was back to normal, the hero was about to go after his friend when he felt something in his grasp.

Looking at the ground, Vanitas saw the Christmas reef he and Pam placed here a few days ago for the grandmother of their precious daughters. Getting back up, the hero fixed the wire stand and put the reef back up before finding his friend within the growing snowstorm.

He was barely able to see Victor's form in the dense blizzard. Needing to stop this, Vanitas formed several daggers and threw them at the snow making device. They pierced the barrels, making his former landlord whirl around to feel a death glare aimed right at him.

" _You've ruptured the device's power core, Vanitas."_ Mr. Freeze coldy said. _"Another shot could cause it to backfire."_ He quickly aimed the snow maker at the hero. _"But to rid myself of you, I'll take the chance."_

The helmeted hero widened his eyes in shock and reached out. "VICTOR, NO!"

But it was too late as Victor pressed the firing button, causing the device to immediately explode. Both were thrown back several feet and tumbled across the snowy ground.

Groggily standing up, Vanitas marched toward the frozen man and saw the glass dome surrounding his head was severely cracked. He tightened his hands for several moments before becoming laxed.

"Why...?"

Victor looked up with a curious expression. _"Why, what?"_

""Why did you do this, Victor. Why today of all days?"

Nothing was immediately said. All Victor did was turn his gaze towards the grave marker of his departed wife. He crawled towards it and soon traced his hands over the lettering.

 _"We… We were married ten years ago on a snowy Christmas Eve."_ He said with outright sorrow before pulling out Nora's family heirloom from a suit compartment. _"Nora loved the snow… so very much…"_ Victor held his head low as Vanitas widened his eyes in shock.

How… How could he have forgotten?! They always made such a big deal out of it when he lived with them and even after moving out of their home. Naruto was either invited to their home or vice versa to enjoy Christmas Eve as he thought of them as family.

 _"I… I thought it… would've been sad that there should be none this year."_ Victor weeped out as he kept tracing the lettering. _"And I wouldn't want my Nora to be sad tonight."_

Vanitas could only hang his head low and swallowed a bitter lump in his throat. He slowly came up to his former landlord before sitting down next him. Victor looked over with tears running through his red goggles and wondered what the hero that helped put him away will do.

All Vanitas did was say one thing and one thing only. "Take all the time you need to grieve, Victor. We'll head back when you're ready."

 _ **-Naruto and Pam's Loft-**_

"...All morning on the ride back here, I'd heard reports of people being attacked by a gang of knife-wielding Santas." Harley said as she munched on some candy canes. "At first I thought the news had confused Christmas with April Fools Day."

"You're not wrong on that, Harl." Selina chuckled as she sipped her eggnog. "I actually encountered those psychos terrorizing customers at an ATM."

"Really~? And how'd that go?"

"I was lucky enough to take the others by surprise," started out the thief before putting down her cup in order to pet Isis, "but this one big guy wasn't going down as easily. And to make things worse, I was running late to help Shizune with this one favor I owed her before she needed it to visit the future-in-laws."

"So whaddya do?"

"What I would do in any given situation: I improvised. Got ahold of some Christmas lights and used it as a whip to help take them down. And when I was done, I wrapped those crazed Santas up at a light pole and hightailed it outta there before the police showed up.

"Eh~ Not bad." Said the bubbly blonde. "And it may not be a Red Ryder BB gun, but you got some more nut-jobs off the street."

"True. And how was the ride back?"

"Not great, due to the sudden blizzard that hit Gotham." Blue eyes peered through the patio window to see the snow has started to settle. "Wished it was like _that_ then instead of now."

"No kidding. It was a complete oddity."

Pam sighed softly as she sat at the nearby couch. She glanced away from her two girlfriends to her two infant daughters playing in the little playpen. Rose and Hazel were doing like what any other child they should be doing in their age… well physical age by interacting with the variety of toys in front of them.

Though the Green champion had to keep rapt attention the infant pair as they tend to use their powers quite often. Pam had to stay attention just to be sure neither of them would destroy any furniture or cause problems… like previous situations.

Lets just say that making Rose and Hazel eat their veggies -for some odd reason- was not a pleasant experience for anyone… like AT ALL. Crank up Attack of the Killer Tomatoes to eleven and _actually_ make it scary instead of a lame excuse of a B-movie comedy to get the general idea.

Now things have been rather interesting ever since her daughters were brought into the world. One were the few previous mentions towards the younger sporeling girls -which kept the household on their toes- and the second pertained to Pam's standing at the Botanical Gardens.

The issue pertaining the murder of Dr. Luisa Cruz was solved with Victor Lee being sent to prison as a collaborator to Dr. Eric Grimley's immoral science experiments and actions. Luckily for the Uzumaki household, Victor only knew of Pam's secret as Naruto paid the former administrator a visit -while he was asleep- and erased any knowledge of the publisher being Vanitas… if there was any to begin with. The former shinobi didn't know if Grimley told his partner the particular detail or not after they fought on the buliding's rooftop with Naruto using his powers.

After the old Botanical Gardens' building toppled down, Bruce took action as he got involved with the science division collaborating with the main Gardens. Since the Head Administrator position was now vacant with Victor's incarceration, the Wayne billionaire pulled several strings to have Pam take the spot.

It was quite the odd promotion for the changed botanist to have. The new duties she'd need to perform will prove some difficulty as Pam never really had experience in that type of field. The Green champion was more used to doing things on her own, with the occasional collaboration assignment every so often. Yet overseeing everything going on at the Gardens will take some time getting used to.

Oh! And let's not forget Bruce meeting the sporelings!

The billionaire playboy was quite surprised seeing them and wondered how Naruto and Pam were able to keep the three kids a secret for so long. He stumbled upon them when Bruce dropped on by as the Batman in order to learn more on Pam's side of the story on Luisa's death and the incident at the old Botanical Gardens' location. The costumed Wayne did get pummeled quite hard -via vinewhip and whacking- as he surprised Thorn on accident. The couple did spill the beans as to how this became possible, thus Bruce soon learned about the Lazarus Waters currently residing at the old Greenhouse Pam currently uses as a second home with the chemical compound being essential to the sporelings being here today.

Pam's green eyes soon darted over to the plastic Christmas tree -which Naruto bought some days prior- where Rachel was helping Thorn hang up some ornaments.

This wasn't just Rachel's first _good_ Christmas since leaving Azarath but this was also the first for the three sporeling children. Naruto, Selina, Harley and Pam wanted to be sure their first time experiencing the merry Holiday was a pleasantly, memorable one. So the four adults had to pull all the stops to make this great, yet were slightly afraid something might happen to screw it up.

Lying underneath the tree were a good number of gifts. Most were for Rachel and the sporeling children while a select number were for the adults. Some were from people they knew -like from the Wayne household, the Gordons and even Lois Lane, Cat Grant and Kurama- to some relatives from Harley's and Selena's respective families. There's even a package sent from Vlatava -no doubt from Queen Perdita herself- as it was addressed to everyone given by the attached letter.

In said letter, Perdita wrote the usual Holiday greetings to expressing her gratitude towards both Naruto and Rachel of being such good friends. Perdita also mentioned as a forewarning on the gift opening towards Pam and Selina that their respective presents will benefit the environment, which only left several questions in their wake. There was even a package sent to Artemis, given to what Harley mentioned the other day upon chatting with the Crocks.

Speaking of, the Crock household is coming over tomorrow night to have Christmas Dinner. It's going to take place in Selina's loft downstairs since she actually has a large enough table for everyone to sit at as opposed to the kitchen counter in Naruto and Pam's home. This was fine as said couple would have clones to watch over the sporelings so neither would be fussy while their parents were away…

Hopefully.

And everything would've been fine this day if it wasn't for one… particular… thing…

It's not dangerous or anything within that spectrum range. It was rather sudden upon its arrival as neither Naruto, his girlfriends and Rachel really expected it at all. For the object merely brought back a sour taste to the the Uzumaki's three lovers, a saddened feeling for Naruto and a worried one from the resident ward…

A 1930's Brough Superior SS100 arrived earlier today -via delivery crate- which originally belonged to the whiskered Uzumaki before Talia al Ghul took possession of it.

Neither person within the household really knew the reason why the Demon's daughter did this in the first place. It was really hard to figure out like with Selina and Pam guessing Talia possibly wanting to end things with Naruto with what she'd done to them.

The only way of really knowing was within the sealed envelope found inside of the crate.

Said letter is addressed to the resident Uzumaki and Naruto hasn't had the chance to open it up yet to read it's contents. He could read it either tomorrow -when it's Christmas Day- or later on when he feels ready. No one really knows for sure when that'll happen and either one could forget about it all together if the whiskered publisher were to lose it.

Yet seeing Naruto's first motorcycle parked in the garage would be a constant reminder of that particular detail.

Conversations and little moments inside the loft came to a halt as Naruto walked through the front entrance. His lovers and young ward were about to greet him before seeing the tired expression marrying his features.

Over by the plastic Christmas tree, Thorn saw her father's current state and was worried something must've happened. She walked away from Rachel, came up to Naruto and hugged his leg. He peered down to see his eldest daughter's expression presently shown on her features.

"Are you alright, daddy?" Thorn innocently asked. "You look sad."

She received a small rub on the top of her head as her father gave her a small smile. "Sort of, sweetie." He answered.

"What happened?" The elder sporeling voicing the others' thoughts.

"Just… a harsh reminder I should've been more aware of about today." Came the vague answer. "It's nothing you should worry about, Thorn."

Her green eyes saw her father was hiding something from her, but was slowly learning that it was a painful subject to talk about. It was just like of it being hard to talk about as to what happened to her before meeting her parents as one such example.

Thorn nodded before being picked up by her caring father. He then came towards her two younger sisters and awkwardly picked them up as well with the three girls fussing around within his grasp.

Rachel and Naruto's lovers soon saw him give each of them a look which read 'I'll tell you later'. They knew it was going to be a difficult conversation to get into at the present time with the three sporeling children currently up and about for the evening.

Christmas dinner was a nice little experience for the little household. Rose and Hazel were still fussy as before -given their current mentality- while Thorn kept quiet before talking small chat with her father on certain, innocent topics. Other than that, other conversations took place like Harley catching Naruto up as to what happened when visiting her family back in Brooklin.

The Uzumaki did feel bad on what occured over there and wished his bubbly girlfriend asked him to come with him. After all, he did wish to meet her family just like Naruto hopes on doing with Selina's sister, brother-in-law and their daughter. Harley assured him it was merely an innocent mistake… which she paid dearly with the lashing her mother gave her.

"Just fair warning, puddin, my mom literally is the head of the house as she's real scary on certain situations." Came the psychologist's warning.

After dinner ended, the household ended up in the couch and watched several Rankin/Bass Christmas movies. They could've watched 'It's a Wonderful Life' on TV, yet there were certain subject matters that could've been worrisome for Thorn to handle. So the adults decided to watch some of the stop animated films to help ease them further into the Holiday feeling.

By the time those _very_ child friendly films were done, the three sporeling children were tuckered out for the evening and were sent straight to bed. After tucking in his three daughters, Naruto met with his three girlfriends and his ward back in the living room to discuss what occurred earlier in the evening.

Suffice to say, they felt horrible on the reason for Victor's actions.

"I should've known about this sooner." Naruto sorrowfully sighed. "I'm a horrible friend in not remembering that."

Harley gave him a side hug and gave a firm squeeze. "It's not your fault, puddin. I should've realized it as well when he started requesting for the weather reports for about a week. Even asking him beforehand, yet it didn't cross my mind."

Rachel, Pam and Selina gave their respective sympathies while everyone promised they'd visit Victor sometime tomorrow in hopes of cheering the frozen man up. Before long, the five were soon feeling tired and decided to call it a night.

Tucking his ward into bed, Naruto wished her good night and pleasant dreams. Yet before having the chance to leave her room, the ashen child spoke towards her guardian. "Naruto."

"Yeah, Raven?"

His ward looked a tad bashful underneath her covers. "It's nothing."

"Oh, it doesn't sound like it's nothing." He teased once coming up to her bed and tickled her a little.

Letting out a small squeak of laughter, Rachel fought off her guardian. "Stop~!"

"Heh~ Then tell me."

Calming down, the ashen child readjusted herself in her bed while she spoke. "Well… I was wondering… if Santa was real or not."

He tilted his head in curiosity. "How so?"

"Magic exists and there's all these oddities out there that we've come to experience. Like… me being _his_ daughter." She said in disdain before brightening a little. "To meeting Didi as a few examples."

Naruto nodded and let out a sigh. "I can see where you're coming from, Rachel. Who knows if Santa actually exists out there. He could be a magical entity, a title passed down from one to another or some being that came from the Dreaming with how often people believe in him." She nodded as he briefly rubbed the top of her head. "So don't worry about such a thing, okay. You can believe in the holly jolly Holiday icon in any way you want to. I won't deny you such a thing."

"Then… can you at least leave out some cookies and milk for him please? Along with some carrots for his reindeer by the patio door?"

He chuckled. "I think Harley already beat me to that when I came to tuck you in." The Uzumaki then exited her bedroom after saying a brief good night to her and turning out the lights.

Closing the door to his ward's bedroom, Naruto went over to check on his sporeling daughters. Peeking inside, he saw they were sound asleep with Rose and Hazel in their shared crib while Thorn snuggled up against a pillow while drooling onto it. He chuckled at the little sight before looking at the little nursery plants, which were set up to help monitor them and to be sure they slept well with little to no problems.

'I still can't believe I'm a father.' Naruto thought with happiness. 'I'm really lucky in having them. Not to mention Rachel.'

Closing that bedroom door, Naruto made his way downstairs where the Christmas decorations helped light his way back to his bedroom. He double checked the milk, cookies and carrots set out by the patio door and smirked a little. The Uzumaki will need to get up from bed later and switch out the cold milk so it wouldn't get spoiled by the morning.

Either that or just devour them for the whole Santa spiel towards Rachel and Harley.

Walking past a sleeping Iris, Naruto opened his bedroom door and saw something… interesting. His living quarters seemed to have gone through a complete makeover as a small winter wonderland was present. His bed looked like a decked out sleigh -given the surrounding set up- with the pillow cases switched out for a gift wrap design. Many vines surrounded the walls to darken up the place with a good number of Holiday lights lit up the darkened room.

'...How the hell did they get this redecorated so fast?' Was the Uzumaki's thoughts before his ears picked up on the sounds of music starting playing. It was set to low from the music player and took him a moment to recognize the song. 'Is that… Santa Baby by-'

Naruto soon heard the faint sounds of bells from behind before he was tackle hugged from said direction. He stumbled forward from the assault while hearing his bedroom door being closed. Harley's giggles caught his ears soon after as he immediately recognized his attacker. Naruto phased out of her hold, which made her momentarily seem displeased before spinning around to snag her in a hug.

"What was that for, Harley?" He asked before taking notice of her current attire once she pulled away from the embrace.

His lovely ivory beauty was dressed in a red velvet vest top, with white fluff lining around the neck and along the bottom hem. Said vest had uplifted her generous breasts in order to make them more defined. Running down her arms were red and white horizontal striped arm covers before cutting off at the wrists with white fluffs on each end. Matching the vest is a knee-length skirt, with white fluff around the bottom, and two large golden bells attached to the right and left side of the fluff respectively. She had white and red diagonally striped stockings covering her legs, down to the red elf shoes, complete with a curly point and a bell at the end of each. Wrapping the ensemble up was a two pronged jester Santa Cap, curving backward, with bells at the end of each tip, her platinum blonde hair done up inside the prongs, with some bangs hanging out rebelliously over her face.

"So how do I look, puddin? Very _lick-_ able or what?" Harley asked from her red glossed lips while sending the man in front of her a smoldering look with some red eye shadow over her eyes.

"If you were a candy cane, I would just eat you up, Harl." Selina purred from the side, as if answering their boyfriend's thought.

Turning his head towards the thief's direction, he widened his gaze when seeing Selina in a similar attire like the resident psychologist. Yet there were several differences between the outfits. For one, Selena only wore a standard Santa hat -with her hair spilled out from the back- and had forgone the elf shoes. Second, there was only one bell present with it attached to the black choker around her neck. And finally, everything red was replaced with black as it more fit with Selina's prefered color.

"With her current state of dress and _extremely_ fair skin," Pam said from the bathroom, "I'd say she _truly_ is a human candy cane."

Turning once more, Naruto saw his first girlfriend wear the same outfit she wore last Christmas. The green Christmas lingerie nightgown with the white fluff along the edges and the matching Santa hat brought fond memories with how they both made love for the first time. Yet there seemed to be new additions to the attire like the small vines rolling up her toned,'mile-long' legs and arms with red leaves sprouting from every other spot. Large maple leaves were shown on the backs of her hands and on tops of her feet. Green leaves popped out from her flowing red hair and to help finish off her appearance were the green eyeshadow and lipgloss.

Suffice to say, the appearance of his three lovers were very arousing as he swallowed a lump in his throat.

Naruto let out a small yelp as Harley placed her hand on the crotch of his pants and felt him up. "Hmm~ I can't wait taste your candy cane, _Santa_." She said seductively while pushing him closer to the bed.

Once forced to sit at the foot of the sleigh bed, Selina and Harley sat beside on each of Naruto's sides. "We've been rather _naughty_ lately, _Santa._ " The thief purred into his ear. "So what would it take for us to get back onto your nice list?"

"Would you like that, _Santa_?" Pam huskily said as she started unbuckling his pants. The botanist leaned forward and kissed him for a brief moment with a coy smile present on her face. "Us _naughty~_ girls help getting you off to become good girls again?"

All Naruto could do was chuckle while setting up a silence barrier so neither of them would accidentally wake up Rachel and the sporelings from their sleep before celebrating Christmas in their own… _special_ way.

They've been holding off on their nightly romps ever since Hazel, Rose and Thorn came into their lives as the four adults wanted to focus getting used to them. Not that they were complaining or anything at all. They'd just need to schedule their love making a whole lot better or work around certain surprises.

When it was just Rachel -for starters- they quickly adjusted to her sudden arrival when she needed comfort from them as she'd wake up from nightmares. But now, they had to keep closer attention to the sporelings when Thorn adopted her pseudo older sister's action, due to what torture she endured while kidnapped. Not to mention Rose and Hazel waking up in the middle of the night and crying for their parents.

Hopefully the four adults will exhaust themselves out this Holiday night on their long overdue activity before sleeping until Christmas Morning; where they'll gleefully enjoy the day to the fullest.

 _ **-Lemon Start-**_

The Uzumaki cupped Pamela's face and brought her back into kiss. It was deep and sensual, given with how the redhead moaned into it. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and straddled his waist in order to get closer. Yet their kiss ended with Selina and Harley prying them away before capturing each others' lips so they could get on with the action.

Neither Naruto or Pamela minded as they quickly reciprocated the act by bringing their respective partner closer.

The botanist moved off of her boyfriend's lap in order to straddle Selina's while Harley took her previous spot. Once brought closer, the thief started feeling Pam's legs up and down before having her hands travel upwards to rub her sides. Her hands soon went under Pam's nightgown in order to feel more contact as their tongues caressed each other.

As this little moment went on Harley was grinding herself on her puddin's lap and heavily made out with him. He broke the kiss first before he trailed his kisses towards her jawline which soon went down her neck. She mewled when Naruto reached a sweet spot along her ivory white skin and started leaving eventual hickey marks. This only drove Harley more wild as he pushed the right buttons, like having his hands fondle her perfect rear.

Mirroring her former doctor's action, Pamela started grinding against her Red counterpart as their bodies were pressed up against each other. Both moaned into each other's mouths as they kept feeling each other up. Pam slid her one hand down Selina's toned stomach -while the other kept fondling the thief's breast- and went underneath her skirt to find her bare. The redhead didn't care -just one less obstacle to deal with- as she inserted a pair of fingers inside of Selena's moist hole.

'Oh~ Two can play this game~' Selina purred in thought as her hand ventured down Pam's back until it rested on the center of her ass. Selena's fingers slowly moved up and down in place -like playing an instrument- which sent shivers down down the botanist's spine. A devious smirk formed on her lips once they separated for a brief moment to catch their breaths. 'But I can kick it up a little.'

The Green champion soon felt the thief's hand slapped her toned butt, which got a small moan from it. Yet Pam yelped a little as she felt Selina start fingering her puckered hole. The botanist wiggled her lower half in response on the feeling before having some revenge of her own by speeding up her menstrations on Selina's lower lips. As the thief moaned from the assault, her botanist girlfriend latched her lips onto hers as they resumed their kisses.

Wanting more contact with her boyfriend -after he roamed, kissed, pinched and kneaded what flesh he could easily touch- Harley separated from their embrace and started stripping Naruto of his clothes. A great warmth grew inside of her loins as she wanted to get right into the good stuff. Yet the ivory woman didn't get far into fully undressing him -leaving him in just his pants- as he flipped her onto the 'sleigh' and held her arms behind her back with one hand.

"Oooh~ nice start puddin." She lowly purred with a craze glint growing in gaze. "Mind giving me a scratch for a bad itch I have?"

He chuckled and leaned forward to whisper into her ear. "I'll do more than scratching, Harley."

The bubbly blonde formed a savage grin as she got more hot and bothered now. "I'll say~"

"But first… I believe you need some punishment, _naughty_ Harl."

Harley blinked in slight confusion as he pulled back, yet she smirked with anticipation.

Still having her arms bound with his one hand, Naruto used the other to flip over her skirt to reveal her pale white butt cheeks to show she didn't wear any panties with her Holiday attire. Sitting back down on the bed, he lifted up her legs and had her mostly laid down across his lap while the rest of her was still on the bed.

"And like most naughty girls," he raised his hand above his head, "they need a good spanking."

Harley then felt the pain -the good kind- as her puddin brought his hand down and slapped her ass. She yelped on the first strike before Naruto started striking her lower cheeks over and over and over again, which got her to loudly moan. The psychologist bit her lower lip as she at bliss from the overwhelming pleasure, yet felt frustrated as she couldn't play with herself to partially quench the growing heat inside of her.

Turning her head to the side, the bubbly blonde bit her lower lip on the quickly grew envious. Reason why was the current position her two girlfriends were in as they truly getting into it. For both champions of Red and Green were currently scissoring each other with Pam holding Selena's leg up in order for their nether lips to kiss and grind against each other while their higher lips already preoccupied each other.

Harley started to fight herself free from her puddin's grasp so she could at least do something with his cock. Yet Naruto was too strong for her so her wrestling her way out was unsuccessful. Not to mention he kept slapping her ass for who knows how many times as she quickly lost count as the blonde focused more on the scissoring couple beside them.

Both Naruto and Harley then heard an all too familiar sound coming from said women as they gave off a distinctive moan as they soon climaxed. The pair separated and heavily breathed in some air with large blushes marred across their cheeks. They broke their gazes at each other and looked over at Naruto with Harley still partially lying across his lap.

Pam and Selina got off the bed and crawled over to Naruto as if in a trance. No doubt since they were really hot and bothered, despite them recently orgasiming. Quickly lifting and tossing Harley out of the way -which earned a surprised yelp from her- the two champions of nature grabbed ahold of the hem of his ripped them off.

"Oi!" Naruto said in annoyance. "Those were a good pair!"

"We don't care." Pam and Selina synchly said as they soon did the same with his boxers to finally leave him in the nude.

"You could've just asked me to phase thEM-!"

He soon felt their mouths on both his cock and balls as the redhead and ravenette beauties serviced him. The botanist currently had his testicles in her mouth with her tongue fondling them while the thief lick, sucked and lathered every inch of his dick as if like a candy cane. Not only that, but the pair switched off every other moment while leaving lip gloss marks over his privates. And every now and then, they came into contact with each other and made out with his cock head between their lips.

"Oh~ It seems they really want your milky seed, puddin~" Harley huskily said as she wrapped her arms around him from behind. She kept gazing at the scene below and grew rather hungry as she wanted that piece of meat down inside either one of her mouths.

"Well~ despite them ruining my pants and boxers, their good girls and they deserve a treat." He said before a gruntal moan escaped his lips. He patted Selena's and Pam's heads and gave them a loving gaze. "Am I right, girls?"

The pair broke contact with his privates and gave him a sultry grin before getting back to work.

"But ain't I a good girl?" Whined the blonde with a pout. "I got my well deserved punishment."

Naruto adopted a mockly though posture before looking back at his bubbly girlfriend. "Come sit on my lap, Harley." She let out a gleeful squeal as was about to finally get some. But he held out his hand just when she attempted to steal his dick from Pam and Harley. "Not there, but on my leg."

The crazed psychologist reluctantly complied as she awkwardly sat on his left leg once he spread his legs further out. Harley didn't know what Naruto had planned, but she soon felt him grab ahold of her velvet vest and phased it off of her chest. With her pale white breasts free, the Uzumaki latched his mouth onto one of them and started playing with the fleshy orb.

Harley mewled on the feeling and hugged his head closer to her bosom. Yet she yelped when she felt her puddin slide a finger along the the space between her butt cheeks. The bubbly blonde then felt him play with her puckered hole before inserting a digit inside. And if that wasn't enough, Harley soon felt her milky white legs forcefully part before feeling lips kissing up her thigh.

Looking down, she saw Selina momentarily taking a break from servicing Naruto -while Pam fully took over the _candy cane_ detail with feverous glee- and decided to service the asylum doctor. The kisses trailed upwards, go above her womanhood and went down the other leg. Harley moaned as her teeth clenched as Naruto inserted a second finger in her backdoor while Selina was attending the front.

"That feels great~" Harley purred, placing a hand on the thief's head and pushed her deeper. "I… I love this! Keep going!"

The ravenette kissed up her thigh again, but this time -instead of arching over her womanhood- she kissed it directly. Harley's thighs twisted inward as if to meet the Red Champion. The blonde then felt her teeth press onto her lower lip, biting down as Naruto pulled her nipples forward and kissed the other side of her neck while his fingers pistoned themselves in a rapid succession.

A quiver shook Harley, and for a moment she was like the string of a harp, plucked, making a sweet tune. The blonde then felt Selina slide her tongue in between her lower lips. She leaned forward and into it as the thief kept up the pace by lapping at her gushing pussy.

Over with Pam, she was enjoying her Christmas _treat_ very much. The botanist slurped and lathered his manhood with great care while fondling his balls with one hand while the other pumped him to get his seed much sooner. Her mouth kept working on him, bobbing up and down and took a great deal of it into her mouth. Yet -to her frustration- Naruto hasn't even shown signs of coming.

And just when Harley was about to climax, Selina and Naruto ceased their actions.

Harley was brought out of her haze and looked at her shared lovers with utmost confusion. "Hey! What gives?!"

Selina pushed Harley off Naruto's leg -which had her fall onto the 'sleigh'. "It's time for you to earn for what's to come." Came the thief's response.

This left the bubbly blonde in a curious state before the ravenette crawled on top of her and brought their lips together. Both moaned as they embraced each other. Harley soon started to grind herself into Selina's leg in order to reach her climax, yet it wasn't enough. As if pleading for it, the Red Champion decided to move their legs around so their nether lips would meet. Selina then took the lead as she rotated and thrusted back and forth against Harley, causing her to mewl in their aggressive liplock.

As this went on, Naruto brought Pam onto the bed as they briefly made out. Ending the kiss, the publisher lifted one of her legs into the air and planted multiple kisses down the sweaty, yet firm flesh. He soon took hold of his tool, guided it to her damp entrance and plunged all the way through.

Groans of pleasure emanated from Pam's mouth as he delved deeper inside of her. Naruto rolls a hand over the redhead's fit body and makes her shiver and shake over him. His cock goes in deep and pulls out after several minutes of long, angled thrusts which brought Pam closer to climax as she kept tensing around him.

And before she knew it, Pam let out a primal moan once feeling Naruto unleash his load inside of her.

"You make me… feel… so... good!" Pam breathed out as he pulled himself out.

"I am to please, my earthly queen." He said as he kissed her lips, which she hungered more of in order to keep this high of hers from falling.

Breaking contact, Naruto had let his red haired beauty rest on the bed before making his way to Selina. Said woman was hovering over Harley, who recently climaxed given the panted out expression across her face.

The Red Champion soon felt his hot, slick member poke her from behind, causing her to smirk. Looking over, she gave her boyfriend a sultry grin. "Ooohh~ I've been a naughty pussy. I think I might've broken Harley."

"Then I guess you'll have to be punished."

She nodded before feeling his hands grasp her ass and dragged her towards him. Selina then felt him push her head towards Harley's pussy. Getting the idea, the ravenette started eating her up once more just as Naruto teased her folds.

Breaking contact for a brief moment, the thief spoke in a pleading, teasing tone. "This naughty pussy cat needs some cock badly. It's the only way for me to be good AGAIN!" Selina moaned as she inserted him inside of her. His girth and length helped spread her open as he slowly pistoned in and out of her.

"I'm gonna ride you like a reindeer on this sleigh, Selina." He said before speeding up his menstrations.

Selena nodded as she was getting rocked hard from behind. The thief then felt her hair getting pulled back by her lover. Not too hard that would actually hurt her, but just enough to not cause problems as he kept thrusting in her.

After several minutes of powered thrusts, they flipped over with Naruto lying on the bed with her on top. She then started gyrating her hips with his member inside -reverse cowgirl style- before he held her up with her ass. Selina was going to question him before -without warning- Naruto slammed her down which made her quickly tighten around him as he started thrusting upwards.

The thief moaned on the act and started meeting the publisher on his thrusts. Even leaning back to get more feeling as he stretched her out. With her back meeting his chest, she kissed him on the lips before he increased the speed of his thrusts. After several more moments, he released a load inside of her wanting womb.

Just when she thought it was good to pull him out in order to rest, Selina felt her body twist around -which caused her to moan with his member churning inside of her- before their chests were in contact with each other. The thief then felt something probe her puckered hole.

Looking at the source, Selina saw Pam wear a strap-on. Yet it wasn't any typical one, for it was an organic vine reshaped as one. Said object is normally used for some more intimate romps between the girls. Pam's designed plant would be inserted inside and connects with the nerve endings. Once settled, it would make its wearer feel the attached member like it's really apart of their body. And instead of male fluids, it merely gave out green sap that tasted great and was good for the body…

…..

...Pam was really bored one day at her Greenhouse and designed the plant for fun. Enough said.

"This is payback for earlier, Selina." Was all Pam said before she fully inserted the plant-like member into the thief's rectum, which got the ravenette to roll her eyes back a little. "So, how does it feel to have his cock in your tight pussy while I'm in your tight ass?"

"Its... It's… purrfect!" She groaned out as Naruto and Pam started thrusting in and out of her. Selina felt both cocks rubbing against each other with only a certain layer inside separating the two. The pair even went at certain angles that seemed to bring her closer to the edge of her climax. "Oh god, yes!"

Off to the side, Harley was vigorously playing with herself as she wanted to be in Selina's place right now. Panting heavily, she crawled across the bed, came over and took hold of each side of Selina's face before bringing her into an aggressive kiss. She even brought herself over Naruto's face and sat on top of him in order to get off from the current activity.

The group was going at this for several minutes with Pam and Naruto thrusting hard as they could with Selina loudly moaning in Harley's mouth. The bubbly blonde was felt rather good as her puddin was licking her in just the right ways on both her folds and her puckered ass. And after some time has past, the redhead and silver haired man sped up their menstruations before unloading a blast of seed/sap into Selina's respective holes.

Upon their release, both Selina and Harley came hard. Their juices sprayed at the groins of the others in their shared relationship. And Naruto could only lap up the essence off of Harley- who fell onto the matress while coming down from her high- as there was so much on his face.

Slowly pulling themselves out of Selina, Pam and Naruto gently laid her on the bed as they noticed she was now unconscious from exhausted bliss. The redhead noticed Harley's juices on his face, causing her to lap off some of it before kissing Naruto on the lips. Turning over to Harley, the pair saw she was looking at them with very hungry, lustful eyes.

With a smirk, Pam stood by Naruto as their respective members stood at attention with both their essence and Selina's coated them. "Thanks for being patient, Harley." Said the botanist. "Hope you love your present."

Without saying a word, Harley dived towards the two, bent down and inserted one of the cocks into her mouth. She didn't care which one it was at this point as she was extremely hungry for one. Harley wanted to clean them off in order to get a good taste on what she was mostly missing.

Coming onto Pam's plant-like member, she blinked a few times before diving in on said member for a few moments for confirmation. Pulling it out of her mouth, she gave out a pleasant hum. "Mmm~ Tastes like peppermint!"

Pam merely rolled her eyes before the three moved to the one end of the bed. The botanist laid down with the psychologist mushing her chest against her former patient. The blonde took hold of the plant-like cock and slid it inside of her folds. She moaned a little to feel it's length and texture before adjusting herself. Looking back, she saw Naruto kneeling behind her with _junior_ standing at attention. Giving her puddin a nod, she then felt him slowly insert himself into her rectum with her grunting out.

After several more moments of adjustment and waiting -due to how big both of her loved ones are- Harley was soon felt a wave of pleasure as her first two lovers started moving.

"Shit!" Harley let out. "It feels better and better every time we do this."

"Mostly because you like getting your stockings stuffed this way." Joked the Uzumaki.

"Does it feel good? Having us diving so deep inside of you?" Pam grunted out as she kept thrusting inside of Harley. "Cause I know we are."

"God yes!" Screamed out the blonde as the two members were pistoning in and out of her. Her body felt like it was on fire. Like every time they thrusted into her, electricity coursed through her system. Even them holding her in their embrace -in a sandwich position- was stimulating.

Their thrusts were escalating as Pam and Naruto soon moved to a standing position with Harley hanging in the middle. Both of them held onto the ivory woman's legs and spread them open to get a more tighter feel out of her before they started thrusting. Harley screamed in pleasure as her tongue hanged open and her eyes rolling backwards.

'Mmm~ I love them fucking me hard.' Harley thought as she couldn't say it from her fucked stupid expression she currently wore.

After some time going in and out of the Arkham doctor, the botanist and publisher soon felt their end coming. They tried to hold it off as long as possible, but it was becoming too much for them.

"Oh shit! I-I can't hold it!" Pam rasped out with Naruto nodding in agreement.

"Puu yur pesants in me stokins! Put yor peasants in me! (Put your presents in my stockings! Put your presents in me!)" Came Harley's drunken like voice.

Her demand was given as she felt them shoot their loads inside of her. She screamed in pleasure as she too came not long after. The ivory woman's body shook and shivered after the final orgasim she could ever handle for the rest of the evening.

"Oooh~ Yo've _sleied_ mi, _Sunta and Ms. Sinta._ (Oh~ You've _sleighed_ me, _Santa and Ms. Santa_.)" Harley moaned out before exhaustion took over and fell asleep in their embrace.

With tired expressions, Pam and Naruto smirked before leaning and chastly kissing Harley's lips. The pair soon pulled themselves out of Harley as their essence slowly came out of the used holes. Once laying the energetic blonde down on the bed, Pam took hold of her plant-like member and pulled it out of her. The experimented plant soon shriveled up and died with it served its purpose.

Pam and Naruto soon gave each other a small kiss before climbing into the bed. They then brought the unconscious thief and psychologist into their arms, who slowly snuggled to feel the heat coming from the still conscious individuals. And not long afterwards, Pam and Naruto soon fell into a deep slumber and wouldn't wake until the morning.

 _ **-Christmas Day, Peregrinator Club-**_

To the famous and fortunate of Gotham City, no Holiday season would be complete without a trip to the Peregrinator Club.

Originally established as a gathering place for gentlemen adventurers, the Peregrinator is clearly a throwback to another era, an antique not too different from the collection of relics it houses. And yet, the old place comes alive on that special night when fathers from Gotham's best families are allowed to play host to their sons.

First, there's the tour of the trophy halls donated by it's vast members throughout the world during years pass as one example. Yet towards the end of the event would always be followed by a traditional Holiday dinner and show hosted by the Master of Yuletide Merriment: Santa Claus.

"Ho, ho, ho!" Santa laughed out loud as he patted his plump belly on stage with several men and women holding present sacks along their shoulders. "Who's been bad? Who's been good? And who's been naughty or nice?" He questioned to all of those watching in the dining hall. "That's what I _love_ about Christmas! So many wonderful, maddening _questions_!"

Without warning; 'Santa' twirled around, ripped off his fake white beard and threw off his hat to show off his identity underneath. Many onlookers questioned on what this was about as the paid actors act for the evening. Yet more of his reveal was shone once the actor ripped open his Santa jacket to show off parts of a green three piece suit with a green tie and a question mark pin.

Slipping on a green domino mask over his face, the actor formed a devious smile. "So I guess that would make old St. Nick the Greatest Riddler of them all!"

"Who the hell are you?!" Asked someone from the audience.

"Oh that's right~ I haven't been properly introduced to you all." The domino masked man said as he was handed what appeared to be an curved hook cane. "After all, I was responsible on that massive citywide power fluctuation some month's back, yet hardly no one knew it was me behind it."

The man twirled his cane before slamming it onto the stage. "My name is Edward Nygma, the Riddler, and I'll be the one asking the questions here." He looked off to the other men and women on stage and gave them a nod. "Would you lot be so kind and give us crowd control, please?"

The men and women on stage nodded as they pulled out semi-automatics from their present sacks and started firing in the air, causing panic and chaos to stir amongst the guests. The security tried to stop the armed men on stage, yet they were soon gunned down and rendered dead.

"Now then, I've got a question for you all." Nygma said to the large amount of hostages currently in his grasp. "Would anyone like to call the police or would you like me to do so?"

 _ **-One Hour Later-**_

"This is Summer Gleeson live downtime where less than an hour ago, one Edward Nygma -who's calling himself the Riddler, laid siege to the Peregrinator Club and took it's members hostage." The news reporter and anchor walked over to the police commissioner, who was chatting with one of SWAT team members. "Commissioner Gordon, has the Riddler given any clue to his motives?"

James turned to her and only shook his head 'no'. "Nothing was actually given for his demands, which is rather strange in this type of situation. All that he told us was what he was going to-"

The sound of glass breaking could be heard by all nearby. They looked at the surrounded building and soon saw several canisters being thrown out with question marks plastered on their surface.

Fearing as to what they are, Gordon yelled out a warning. "Everybody move!"

The moment the cannisters hit the ground, they exploded and released a thick cloud of gas. Everyone started to wheeze and cough as they realized it was a strong form of tear gas. Many onlookers vacated the area while the police were struggling in their spots.

And as for Summer and her camera man, they collapsed onto the ground before they felt someone grabbed their arms and started pulling them inside. Next thing they knew, the news studio employees saw themselves dragged by the Riddler's men as they got closer and closer to the dining hall.

"Ah~ the media!" Nygma spoke out with a smile. "Splendid and right on cue!" The cane wielder motioned his men to get Summer and her cameraman onto their feet. "Now would you please aim your camera over here? I'd like to speak to the people of Gotham in order to proceed with the evening's _real_ entertainment."

The cameraman soon had no choice as several guns were aimed at him and Summer.

Once aimed at the Riddler, the hostage holder spoke into the camera. "Season's greetings, Gotham City! This is the Riddler coming to you live from the Peregrinator Club, where I shall expose the greatest mystery that has come across this fair city for quite some time now: the true identities of the illustrious Dynamic Duo: Batman and Robin!"

Summer and many others -both in the club and throughout the city- blinked when hearing this. And it was the news reporter who voiced their thoughts on the matter. "That's insane! Practically ludicrous! And what makes you think they are?"

The Riddler merely scoffed in annoyance. "They must've hired you for your looks." He then quickly swung his cane at Summer's cheek. The reporter soon felt something warm slide down her cheek and once bringing her hand to it, she realized it was her blood. She stepped back with wide eyes, especially when Nygma brought his bladed cane up to her neck. "After all, many think there's nothing up in your head." He tisked at her several times before pulling back his weapon, which caused her to rub it tenderly. "Now thing, tv monkey! Examine, as I did, the few known facts about them."

Coughing into order to clear his throat, Nygma began. "One: he's relatively young, somewhere between the ages of oh~ let's say twenty-eight and forty. Two: he's got money, or at the very least, is bankrolled by someone who does. Let's face it, the Batman's equipment doesn't come cheap like maintaining his batmobile, for instance. Three: if he's rich, it follows he's also one of the well-to-do of Gotham City and more than likely a member of this club. And lastly four: there's Robin. Is he our mystery man's son? Brother? Third cousin twice removed? Whatever it may be, I'm sure he has some familial link to our dear Dark Knight." The Riddler then waved his bladed cane towards the hostage crowd before him. "Just as I'm sure they're in this room right now!"

Without warning, the Riddler jumped off the stage and stalked towards the closest table. "Graham Knowland! Your multimillion dollar computer firm has donated a fortune to victims of violent crimes. Plus, you and your son are world-class gymnasts. One might say you two could very well be Batman and Robin."

Graham moved closer to his son in a protective fashion. "Please, I don't know what you are talking about." He said. "Just leave my son alone."

Nygma merely rolled his eyes. "Oh~ stop your sniveling. I'm just warming up." The former software designer whipped his cane towards another table where a wheelchair bound man with two large men and a smaller one sitting near him. "For instance, right over there we have the venerable McIvor Clan! Proud patriarch Ian, his twin grandsons Alex and Jake, along with their baby brother, Michael."

Alex and Jake got up from their seats and went to protect their grandfather and younger brother respectively as the Riddler got closer to them. "How about it, Ian? As founder of McIvor Technologies, you could have easily whipped up the batmobile and all the other nasty gadgets Batman and Robin uses."

Ian coughed into his hand before glaring at the domino masked, cane wielder. "If I could get out of this chair," he said with a thick Scottish accent, "I'd shove that cane right up yer smug-"

"Granddad! Don't!" Michael warned.

"Ah~ but you can't get out of your chair, can you Ian?" Nygma said smugly. "Not since that terrible day fifteen years ago when a robber at your factory put a bullet through your spine, killed your son and his wife," he then waved his free hand towards the grandsons; "and left these fine chaps orphans."

The Riddler turned his attention towards the cameraman and tapped his head. "Think about it. The McIvors had the motivation and money to start a whole Batman Dynasty! Ian masterminding the whole operation while his twin grandsons switch off as Batman and the youngster learns the ropes as Robin. Hell, even it could possibly fit around the time when the Bat first started his operations roughly thirteen years ago."

One of the Riddler's men -who now wore a ski mask with a sown in green question mark- aimed his semi-automatic at the McIvor's. "You want me to waste 'em now, boss?"

The McIvor twins quickly stood in front of their grandfather and younger brother to protect them from the possible gunfire in response.

Yet Nygma held off the order. "Not yet, Query. Let's give the folks at home a chance to play along." He turned his attention back to the camera man and spoke once more. "What do you think? Who am I really after? A father and son? Two brothers? A whole family perhaps? You've got all the clues, but only the Riddler knows the answer to this question."

As this all occurred, Batman and Robin were perched at a neighboring building as they watched the video feed from their upgraded mini-computers attached to their gauntlets.

"Nygma doesn't know." Batman said, ending the feed alongside his protege.

"Yet he's made a few lucky guesses." Robin muttered as he stood up.

"But if he were really convinced we were in that room, he'd have already shot two people."

"That must be why he yanked in the TV crew. If we weren't in the crowd, Nygma wanted to be sure he had our undivided attention."

"Though question is, why'd he show up again after the whole debacle with Mockridge months ago?" The masked Grayson scratched his head in thought. "I could guess he'd show up to get back at us for stopping him from murdering his former boss. But other than that, I'm at a loss."

"Same here." Batman then pulled out his grappling hook -alongside Robin- and fired towards the Peregrinator Club's rooftop. "Perhaps we'll find one when we get inside."

Once making it onto the Club's snow covered rooftop, the pair opened up the skylight before jumping inside. Rising from a crouched position, the Dynamic Duo walked through it's darkened halls as they kept their attention towards their surroundings. Both passed many portraits, statues, memorabilia and artifacts the Club's many members collected over the years.

It was when passing one particular portrait did the Batman stop and face it. Robin noticed this and was about to question his mentor's action when he paused the act. The masked acrobat quickly understood what the portrait was for exactly: in memory of the late Thomas Wayne.

From what Dick was told by both Bruce and Alfred, Thomas -who was a Club member of this establishment- couldn't wait to bring his son here for his first Club Christmas. Yet after Bruce's parents died, the Wayne found himself reexamining the priorities in his life. And as years passed, Bruce eventually realized he wasn't exactly the club-joining type... despite him being a member of several other clubs in order to keep up with his playboy cover.

Yet the club the pair were currently in meant a lot to Bruce's father and even though he's no longer around, Bruce still thought there's a little part of him here.

The quiet moment within the small area came to an end as the two vigilantes heard a loud, metallic crash was made. The Duo headed towards the source in a quickened pace. Once there, they heard a hushed conversation take place.

"Could you have taken any longer with that door?" Asked one of Riddler's men as he and one other were in front of a now opened safe room.

"You know as much as I do that these rich bastards wanted to keep their really precious shit tight and secured in this room so of course it would've taken a while to crack."

"Whatever. Let's just get the shit and head on back."

Whatever they had planned to do came to an abrupt end as they heard someone speak behind them. "Ho-ho-ho! The man in red is here to pass out the presents!" Quickly spinning around, they saw Robin rush them with Batman not far behind. "Would you both rather have a concussion or a loose filling?"

The two thugs pulled out their guns and opened fired, yet they missed their target as he leapt into the air. Coming on down, Robin performed a double take down with Batman quickly assisting him. Riddler's two men were no match for the vigilantes as they were quickly down for the count.

As they lied unconscious, Robin did a brief look over them to see if there were any concealed weapons -of any kind- on them. This was so that neither thug could wake up suddenly and attack the heroic duo when they least suspected it.

While Robin did his small task, Batman surveyed the vault while wondering why Nygma's hired men were getting into it. He understood the implications the former software designer would've wanted something else while at the Club, asides from possibly revealing their identities. After all, a place where many artifacts have been stored and kept here for years could make any lowlife want to rob it.

But what specific item was Riddler after? There's too many to count for.

In his search, the Batman's eyes soon landed on a pair of half-foot long, gold Mayan statues. He would've pass by them if he didn't look at the name card for the statues.

"Everything's good so far, Batman." Robin said, walking into the vault. "Any luck in whatever you were doing?"

"Yes," said the Bat. "I found who Nygma's _really_ after."

Back in the dining hall, the Riddler was speaking to his _captive_ audience as he paced along the stage. "...Of course, there is one sure way to get the Dynamic Duo to reveal themselves!" As he talked, one of the golden Mayan statues was placed at the far end of the stage. "If Quiz, Query and my other associates were to start firing into the crowd, I know the heroic Batman and Robin would surely leap forth to save…"

Nygma's eyes soon landed on the statue, causing him to lose his concentration. Walking over, he picked it up and moved it around for a brief examination. 'I told those two there were two of these statues since they were a pair.' He thought before something was off. "Wait," he muttered, "if this is here… where's the other? More importantly, where are the-"

Nygma was interrupted when the Batman leapt at him from behind the curtain. "Locked away, just like you're going to be!"

"Shit! It's the Bat!" Yelled one of the thugs.

One of them quickly aimed his semi-automatic upon the crowd, with others following suit. "Put him down, Bats, or else the captives get it."

The hostages grew quite worried and were about to panic once more until Robin dropped on top of the hired thug from the ceiling. His presence startled the other thugs and were about to fight when the 'Boy' Wonder spoke to them. "You know folks, Santa doesn't come to see naughty boys and girls who shoot people!"

And like that, the thugs went into action as both Batman and Robin fought against the hostage takers.

All of the captives were relieved upon seeing the Dynamic Duo here to save them. Summer Gleeson's cameraman kept on target of the action back on stage for all those both at home and for the authorities outside to keep up with the current moments. And at its end, the _captive_ audience cheered the moment the Riddler's men were laid beaten right up on stage and partially off of it.

"Your men should've been more careful, Nygma." Said the Bat while hoisting Nygma up and up close from his Santa jacket. "When we saw them about to loot the vault, I soon realized the 'Two Brothers' you hinted earlier had to be _Dos Hermanos_ : one of the Club's most famous treasure, an identical pair of gold Mayan statues. And you concocted the whole guessing game about our identities with the TV crew to throw attention off the robbery."

All the Riddler did in response was letting out a mirthful chuckle.

"What's so funny, Nygma?"

"The statues were merely a consolation prize for myself." Was the response. "As for the TV crew, they're here to record your death."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked.

With a darkened smirk, Nygma moved his cane a little. "Riddle me this: when is a tree not a tree? No answer? Why it's when it's a flame!"

The Questionable Man soon pressed a button on his walking stick, causing the Christmas tree behind them to erupt into a blazing inferno. The sudden explosion caused the Bat to drop the former software designer as the three were knocked onto the ground. The flames quickly spread all over the stage and traveled through the dining hall. Panic ensued with everyone scrambling for safety.

"Not the most inspired of riddles, I admit that." Yelled out the Riddler while getting back onto his feet. "But it's the best I can do under the circumstances!" With that said, he bolted off stage with the golden Mayan statue on hand.

Robin was about to go after him, but Batman stopped him. "Let him go! We have to help save both Riddler's men and the hostages!"

Robin nodded as he lifted up one of the downed men. Running on ahead; Batman pulled out a mini-bomb from his utility belt, armed it and threw the device -with a brief yell of 'MOVE!'- at the far off wall. The nearby hostages scrambled away before the bomb went off.

From the outside, Gordon and many officers saw the explosion and feared for the worse. To their relief, the explosion merely gave way for the captives to escape.

"Move in, people!" Gordon ordered. "Get them out of there, stat!" The SWAT, officers and anyone else around compiled and rushed over to help out.

As this all occurred, one officer strayed off on the order and made his way towards a police cruiser. Hopping in, the man drove away from the scene with a smile on his face.

"I can't believe that worked," said the officer. Pulling off his officer hat, Nygma kept on his devious smile while pulling out the statue from within his jacket. "I truly outwitted them! Gordon! The police! The Batman and his insipid brat!" He then clicked his tongue. "Would've been better if I fooled Vanitas as well, but one can't have everything." His eyes then landed on the gold statue now laying on his lap. "Well, one can't win them all. So Merry Christmas to me."

Yet his moment of jollies came to a swift end when hearing a rapping on the car's window. Redirecting his attention up front, Nygma reared back in shock when seeing Robin waving at him. "Hey, Eddie, can we hitch a ride home for the holidays?"

It wasn't long before Batman punched through the passenger window, causing Edward Nygma to start swerving on the road. "Game's over, Riddler."

"NO! NO! NO!" Roared out the man of Questions. "Not when I'm so close!"

With all of the action occuring, the car started to lose friction on the road. Due to the ice the tires came into contact with, the vehicle ran off the side of the road and plunged into the nearby river. Robin quickly jumped off and performed a recovery roll on the street, yet his mentor was caught along for the ride into the icy waters alongside their target.

"Batman!" Robin cried out in fright.

The masked Grayson was about to jump into the frozen water to rescue him when the water exploded upwards. And from that, the 'Boy' Wonder saw Batman gasping for air with the now unconscious Riddler in his right arm while in the other held the stolen gold statue.

'What a relief.' Robin thought, making his way over in order to help pull them ashore. 'And boy, this Christmas sure turned out to be better than from last year with what the Joker pulled.'

 _ **-New Years Eve, GCPD-**_

" _...The ball is snapped."_ Spoke the game announcer as the New Year's football game was currently taking place. _"Altaire fades back, looking for an opening-"_

Static soon replaced the game footage for several moments before it was replaced with the Joker blowing a whistle in a locker room.

" _Hi-ho, couch potatoes."_ Said the Clown Prince of Crime while wearing a football referee's uniform. _"I'm interrupting the Toilet Bowl to bring you my very special New Year's resolution."_ He coughed into his hand before standing at attention in a serious manner. The Joker placed his right hand over his heart with his left hand held up in a mockly Scout's Honor salute. _"Starting tonight at midnight I, your loving Uncle Joker, do solemnly vow not to kill anyone for a whole year."_

The demented clown broke out of his serious demeanor to get right back into his usual, maniacal one. _"Which means I'm going to have to work extra hard and fast to bump off a few more of you today!"_ The Joker then let out his signature laugh as he pulled out his normal attire from the nearby locker. _"As to who, how and when, let's make that a game. A countdown of victims that will end at midnight unless our dear Dark Knight stops me first!"_ The Clown of Gotham then came up close and personal to the screen. _"In other words Batman: What are you two doing for New Year's Eve?!"_

The footage ended when Commissioner Gordon came up to the TV set and ejected the tape. "Joker broadcast that message at noon. In ten hours we've had two shootings and a stabbing, but nothing that smacks of a Joker murder."

"He doesn't make idle threats, Commissioner." Said the Bat. "He's got something big planned and he wants us to know about it."

"Right you are and we've only found one victim so far." Gordon then handed over a file to the Dark Knight. Opening the cover, Batman saw a grizzly photo of a man that no doubt was heavily exposed to the Joker Gas. "Dr. John Erickson, a pioneer in sonic research at GothCorp."

Briefly scanning through the file, the Dark Knight spoke. "Says here he was working overtime on some special weapon for the military."

"A sort of sonic bomb." Gordon then explained the details. "Once activated, the device releases waves of hypersound. Strong enough to kill anyone within earshot." He then walked over to the filing cabinet, picked up a small box and opened it to the vigilante. "Unless they're wearing these special mufflers."

"Joker's got the bomb and he's gonna use it tonight. He promised a countdown of victims. And there's no bigger countdown on New Year's Eve than at Gotham Square."

 _ **-Gotham Square, 11:40 PM-**_

The public area was packed for the New Year's countdown. Music was playing, people were dancing while some were drinking booze they slipped into the grounds and all were having a good time.

Except for a few… unfortunate people.

Walking past a few dead security guards -via Joker Gas- the Joker walked up on stage as he adjusted his New Year's suit. "Oh how I _love_ New Year's Eve! So many happy faces!" The deranged clown gazed at the roaring crowd before him. "And I'm so glad I escaped Arkham again to attend this joyous event."

The crazed clown had escaped the asylum two days ago in the dead of night. The security had changed up their game and routes again, due to his readmittance ten days ago. This caused the Joker to take some time to plan his escape for the big night. And after his escape, the clown and his crew went out to find the perfect way to cause a big scare to make up for the failed slaughter at St. Genesius.

Luckily for them, they came across this sweet, weaponized sound bomb earlier today.

Oh, speaking of…

"How's it coming, boys?"

"All set, boss." Spoke his most faithful, number one goon. "We hooked up the sound bomb just like ya told us." He motioned to the bell which Punch and Judy were finishing adjustments. "Once the bell reaches the clock, everyone's gettin' a real bad headache."

The Joker formed his cheshire grin as he peered at the other work being done around the stage. "I _really_ have to congratulate myself on this one, Bob." The clown then checked his watch. "It's almost magic time, and Batman still hasn't figured out my clue."

His smile died as a displeased look took over. "Of course, he does have that annoying habit of spoiling my fun at the last minute." He then walked over to a nearby table and pulled off the sheet. "Luckily, I thought ahead and I stocked up on party favors." Joker then looked over to Bob and gave out an order. "Pass 'em out."

"And what are ya gonna do, boss?"

The deranged clown walked over to an ice bucket and pulled out a bottle of champagne from his coat. "I'll chill the bubbly while you warm up the crowd."

Minutes have passed as time drew closer and closer to the New Year. Overlooking the roaring crowds from above, Batman surveyed the area.

'He's gotta be here.' Thought the Bat as he soon made his way towards the crowded street below. 'With murder on this scale Joker will be close by to enjoy his handiwork. And even in this crowd, he'll stick out like a sore thumb.'

Coming at the end of an alleyway, the Bat of Gotham widened his eyes at the sight before him. For many attendees within his gaze -if not all- were currently wearing Joker masks in a large variety of styles. _'Wonderful…_ Not only has Joker found the _perfect_ hiding place, he's fixed it so all his victims will die with a _smile_.'

Rushing into the crowd, the Dark Knight soon found it difficult to move with how jammed pack it is. 'I need to move out of this mob." Batman thought before finding a parked bus in the middle of one part of the square. 'Would be better if found a better vantage point.'

Climbing on top of the large transport, Batman then pulled out a pair of binoculars and whirled all over to find his target. His gaze soon landed on the stage and saw something that stood out from among the rest of the Joker masked people. Each of the people on stage were wearing the same sonic mufflers Commissioner Gordon showed him back at the GCPD!

Switching out his binoculars for his batarangs, Batman took aim and threw his weapons at the men on stage. The throw held true as they impacted the muffler men with several falling to the ground. Even one of them knocked the Joker off his concentration as he played the piano.

Whirling around in anger, the deranged clown saw the Dark Knight gliding right towards them. "GET HIM!"

Joker's goons went into action as they dived towards the bat-themed hero. The vigilante punched one of them in the chest, sending him tumbling back into another goon. Punch came up from behind and grasped the Bat in a tight bear hug. Lifting himself up, Batman headbutted the goon from behind before throwing himself forward to toss the large man into Judy.

Bob came running towards Batman, causing the hero to duck down and sweep kicked him to the ground. Just when the vigilante high kicked another thug away, Batman was smacked across the head with a metal object which caused him to fall head first onto the stage. Turning around, the costumed Wayne saw Joker hover over him with an ice bucket on hand with what appeared to be a bottle of champagne inside.

"HA, HA! Poor Bats! That champagne went right to your head!" Taunted the clown. "Now you'll miss the big countdown!" He then kicked the Bat across the head to knock him back down as he tried to get back up. 

" **Ten!"** Roared out the crowd as the giant bell started to rise from the stage. **"Nine! Eight!"**

The Joker started fiddling around with the bottle's cork to get it open. This got opening Batman needed to knock the bottle back, which sent the cork flying straight into his eye.

" **Seven!"**

"GOD DAMMIT!" Cursed the clown with the champagne soon spraying all over his face.

" **Six!"**

The Bat kicked the Joker away and snatched the bottle before rushing towards the controls.

" **Five!"**

The Dark Knight then poured the rest of the champagne's contents onto the machine, which started to short circuit it.

" **Four!"**

Wanting payback, the demented clown pulled out his gun and fired a round at his longtime foe.

" **Three!"**

The bullet soon lodged itself into the Bat's arm, causing him to fall onto the ground.

" **Two!"**

*KABOOM*

" **One!"**

The Joker laughed while aiming his gun at the downed Bat. Yet everything seemed to darken around him before looking up to see the bell coming closer and closer to him. And there was only one thing the pale clown could only mutter… before it crashed on top of him.

"Oh, no." 

The Bat cringed on the sight as he knew that has really gotta hurt.

" **Happy New Year!"** Roared out the crowd as they tossed their masks into the air in celebration.

From underneath the broken bell, the Joker could only let out a moan with the pain he was experiencing. "Oooooowwwww!"

 _ **-New Years Day, 1:55 AM; Porky's Tavern-**_

The owner of the establishment could only sigh as many drunks were singing inside of his bar. He was a bald man with his nose appearing squashed upwards to make him look like a pig's snout. The owner was often nicknamed Porky Pig -like the Looney Tunes character- and he was fine with it as long as no one made fun of his appearance or his stuttering.

Porky was currently finishing things for the night and waited for a certain pair of individuals to arrive to make one last order before closing up for the day. Yet with these drunks still hanging around, the tavern owner was getting rather impatient. And of course said men weren't doing that much of a great job on the singing.

 _"...Should old acquaintance be forgot~ And never brought to mind~ Should old acquaintance be forgot~ And days of auld lang syne~"_

The tavern door soon opened before Commissioner Gordon came walking in. Smiling at the man, Porky made his way over to the drunks and started pushing them out. "So-So-So-Sorry, fellas. It's cl-closing time."

"Aw~ But we wanna shing!"

"So s-s-start practicing for St. Pa-Pa-Paddy's Day, Selvester!" Yelled out the tavern owner as the drunkards voiced their complaints. "And seriously, Foghorn! Sam! G-G-Ge-Get Out!" Once they were out, Porky turned over and saw Gordon sitting in one of the booths.

Going towards the counter, he picked up a pair of mugs and a fresh pot of coffee. "Happy New Year, commish." Porky said with a smile. "I he-heard your b-b-bu-buddy had a rough night." He placed the mugs down and started pouring the caffeinated drinks. "I wouldn't be s-s-surprised if he di-di-didn't show this time." 

The police commissioner rose a brow. "What? And break our tradition?"

The tradition Gordon was talking about was that every New Years, the two would meet up in this tavern around closing time to have a celebratory toast on a successful year before entering the new one. They've been doing this for over a dozen years ever since they became good friends all so long ago.

The tavern owner and commissioner then heard a sound coming from the kitchen. "In fact, unless I miss my guess that's him now." Gordon said.

In fact it was, for the Batman pushed his way through the swinging doorway and made his way towards the booth. Coming closer, Porky and Gordon saw his arm was bandaged up, no doubt from the Joker's bullet. The Bat soon gave a nod towards Porky before sitting down.

"How's the arm?" Gordon asked while Porky went towards the counter to finish things up.

"Better than the Joker's."

Indeed it was. From what they heard in the medical reports, the Joker got several broken bones because of the large bell falling on top of him. And in recovery time, he'll be out of commission for quite some time while locked up in Arkham.

"Close one this time." 

"They're all close ones."

The Commissioner nodded and raised his mug. "Well, here's to survival." The two cups met in the middle in a soft 'clang' before the pair drank their caffeinated drinks. Putting down his mug, Gordon smiled. "Hopefully we'll be doing this again next New Year's Eve."

"Hopefully." Said the Bat with a matching grin.

The commissioner nodded before turning his head towards the tavern owner. "And now, Porky, if I could get one of your famous cheesesteaks to go I'll be ready to call it a night."

"Ri-Righty oh, C-C-Commish!" Porky yelled out before the sounds of cooking were heard.

Turning over, Gordon was about to ask his longtime friend what he'd like to have… only to find him gone. Looking down on the table, he saw the empty mug with money placed on the table. And by his guess, it was for both the cups of coffee and Gordon's recent order.

James could only groan a little as a result. "One of these years, I'm going to beat him to the check."

From the outside of Porky's Tavern, Batman could only chuckle. 'Highly unlikely, old friend.' He thought before he made his way towards his batmobile.

For the Bat of Gotham had one more stop before he too called it a night.

 _ **-Gotham Cemetery-**_

Walking across the snowy ground, Batman made his way towards his parents' grave markers. Leaning against it lied the Christmas Wreath he placed there last week. Bringing his hand up, he brushed the snow off the lettering.

"Mom… Dad… Another year as Batman in the books with so many experiences and instances along the way. And new year has just begun with so many unknowns… How many years, months and days has it been now," said the Bat in a sorrowed tone, "to the exact day?... How long ever since I lost you both?" He sighed. "I... sometimes don't know anymore as time seems blurry to me." Looking up, he swallowed a lump with his fists tightening. "I've tried to make up for it, I have... all my work throughout the years." The costumed Wayne then hung his head as a stinging sensation filled his gaze. "But still, it doesn't fill this _emptiness_ inside me... Doesn't even get rid of your dying screams out of my head."

Batman then started to circle around the grave marker as he kept talking. "I just wonder what we _could_ have had... or if you'd be proud of what I've made of my life _without_ you."

"Perhaps I could help you answer that question, Batman." Spoke a sudden, calm voice. "Or should I say, Bruce Wayne?"

Whirling around, the Dark Knight saw a man standing not far away from him.

The new arrival wore a navy blue attire with his business suit and the cloak hanging around his shoulders. His fedora hat casted a shadow over his face and the only thing the Bat saw underneath were the pure white eyes which were devoid of irises and pupils. As the man came closer, the bat-themed hero saw the light coming from them reveal his sunken eyes in a gaunt, sad visage that perpetuated the shadowy look around him. The last piece of detail about him -which stood out the most- was the connecting silver coin necklace surrounding his neck as it replaced the traditional tie.

"Who the devil are-?"

"Not a devil at all, Bruce Wayne. But merely a _Stranger_ , drawn here by your buried sorrow." Came the man's calm even voice, yet it made the Bat weary. "Though if it makes you feel any better, I go by the name the Phantom Stranger or sometimes the Grey Walker with one of my alias'. Surely you've heard about me, in some way shape or form."

Batman could only blink behind his cowl. "Can't say I have."

"Understandable. For every encounter I've made, no record of me has ever really stood the test of time as my true name faded away." The Stranger laminated. "Yet I have become a legend throughout the cosmos," he turned his saddened gaze towards the Bat, "just the same as yours, which has been growing over the years." The Phantom then placed his hand on the Wayne grave marker. "But I assure you, I am as real as the names carved into these tombstones... even the ones lost throughout the ages of all shapes and sizes."

"Is there a point into you being here?"

"...I do have the power to grant your wish," revealed the Grey Walker, "if that is what you truly want."

"My wish? What do you mean?" Things slowly clicked when he remembered what he said before the Phantom Stranger's arrival. "You can bring them back? But-"

The fedora wearing man narrowed his glance at the hero before him. "You misunderstand, Bruce Wayne. I cannot undo the past, but I can show you what would have been," he revealed. "Is that enough to satisfy you?"

Batman paused and didn't know what to say. Hell, he didn't know if he could accept this offer. The costumed Wayne opened his mouth and paused for several moments. "I... don't know." He looked back at his parents' grave marker. "Maybe it would be enough. If I could just see them again, alive, I think I'd like that."

The Phantom Stranger opened up his cloak as a whirl of colors appeared from the darkness. Once things settled, the Bat saw a different change of scenery from the flap of the man's worn cloth. "Then come with me, Bruce Wayne, and we will attempt to set your mind at ease."

The vigilante sighed. "I really wish you'd stop calling me that, at least when I'm in costume."

"...I will _try_ , Bruce Wayne."

Batman could only rub the bridge of his nose. "Forget it. You obviously don't get the concept."

The Grey Walker tilted his head slightly. "Forgive me. I admit, I do not understand _secret identities_ you human mortals use all that well."

The Dark Knight took several deep breaths before stepping forward. He then felt a sensation cover his very being before his eyes adjusted to the new environment. The Bat lost his footing for a brief moment as he realized he was now on a rooftop.

"Where are we?" Questioned the Bat. "This looks like Gotham, but-"

"It's _a_ Gotham of long ago... from the very night that changed our life."

Batman widened his eyes upon hearing this with realization quickly hitting him like a truck. "What?!" He was about to run into action when the Stranger held him back. "Let go! We've gotta-"

"Fear not. This is not _your_ Gotham, Bruce Wayne. The events of _your_ timeline do not go the same way here." The calm spoken man then pointed towards the street below.

The Bat gazed at the scene below and saw a police car was parked at the mouth of the alley where several people were gathered around.

"...I told ya on the phone, there was a guy lurkin' in there." Said one pedestrian. "If you'd taken any longer to get here, these nice folks would've gotten mugged or god forbid worse."

The officer nodded as the mugger was hauled into the police car. "Of course ma'am and I'm sure you have their thanks."

Off to the side, a woman that was all too familiar to the Bat held her child in her arms. She had short brown hair with it curling outwards at the ends. Her green eyes held much worry as she gazed towards her loved ones with a pearl necklace around her neck. "Good lord, Thomas, and to think we almost _went_ that way."

"Of course, Martha. And I'm sure that'll teach me to take short cuts. I mean, what if something happened to Bruce, I'd never be able to forgive myself."

Back on the rooftop, Batman could only look on with widened eyes. "Mom... Dad... they didn't die?"

"No, not in this place." Revealed the Stranger as he too looked down below. "An alert pedestrian saved them without even realizing it."

Batman looked over in confusion. "But how can that _be?_ What _is_ this place?"

The Phantom broke his gaze to glance over towards the man beside him. "I told you, Bruce Wayne, this is the world of _what would have been._ " The costumed Wayne took more focus with the utmost interested wonder. "More importantly, a world _without you_ being Batman."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **First off… longest chapter written thus far.**

 **Second… work has been kicking my ass.**

 **Well not really since the job is quite easy, to some degree. The only problem is that we've been short on staff lately and I've been needing to stay in late to help wrapped things up for the day. Sure I do get paid time and a half on overtime, but there's a limit I can handle before I get really exhausted -which gets worse while taking public transit to get back home- and it hampers my writing motivation.**

 **On some bad news… seriously… why did the Titans show have to turn out bad from just one trailer.**

 **The problem is like most of WB/DC properties -save for like the CW shows for the most part in recent years- it's WB/DC going "hey you know those characters that you like, some of which have been popular for almost a century now? Yeah, they sucked so we fixed them… you're welcome."**

 **Three Examples:**

 **Dove: A pacifist that uses logic and charm to help solve problems alongside some minimalistic fighting and meta-powers in order to properly defend herself? Bah that's fucking boring, let's have her brutally beat the shit out of bad guys.**

 **Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing: A well adjusted person whose basically Batman if he got over his shit? NAH~ that's boring, let's dip him into the Snyder pool to make him fucky edgy as hell by allowing him to shoot guns and breaks peoples necks because HE DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK!**

 **Now with these past two changes, it makes Hawk and Jason Todd/Red Hood redundant as hell because if the super-pacifist is using the "I'mma punchem" strategy and the 'The Good Son' is being Angsty McEdgelord… THEN WHAT THE FUCK IS LEFT FOR THEM TO DO? Is Hawk going to throw nukes around? Is Jason gonna start reading the totally deep poetry he wrote while shooting more guns and giving less fucks?**

 **...And yes, both Hawk and Jason are in the series since they have been members in the comics and supposed to be in the TV show.**

 **Not to mention how cheap and lazy a lot of the costumes look like with Starfire/Koriand'r for instance. Nothing about her show's look says 'alien' as she's literally in a dress, thigh high boots and a fur coat. And no I wouldn't have expected the show runners and designers to painstakingly recreate her purple straps like in most comic book outfits. I would've expected them to take inspiration from Starfire's recent comic line with the more modest approach. It's practical and easy or better yet, use inspiration from the good Teen Titans cartoon on the outfit.**

 **It wasn't just that, but they ruined Starfire's character.**

 **It's not because of the actress since I'm fine with the show's cast since as long as they do good performances, I don't give a fuck. But seeing the first trailer showed that instead of using her classic energy blasts… they have Starfire be a pyromancer… THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU DC! YOU GUYS HAVE YEARS WORTH OF MATERIAL TO REFERENCE FOR KORI AND YOU FUCKED IT UP!**

 **I hope WB/DC learn from this mistake since this is just the first trailer and go back to reedit the shit out of their show on most details before releasing it on their streaming site: DC Universe.**

 **Said site will have** _ **each**_ **and** _ **every**_ **DC movie, TV show and comic property in time since it will take a while to upload every bit of content, but it will** _ **all**_ **be there. For one example that I'm a bit glad about the service is the mention the Teen Titans show revival for the highly sought after season 6. This is due to the mid-credit scene on the recent Teen Titans Go film that people are speculating it'll make a true return on the DC Universe streaming service since it's the same with Young Justice season 3.**

 **At least for some other good news came out with the Batwoman tease in the next CW crossover event in December. Not to mention the trailers for M. Night Shyamalan's Glass, Ducktails, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Venture Bros, Netflix's Disenchantment and Castlevania Season 2, Venom, Aquaman and even Shazam; which the last two I hope turns out well just like the Wonder Woman film.**

 **Oh and one more thing…**

… **..**

… **..**

… **..**

 **STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS IS COMING BACK BITCHES!**

 **They are finally using the episode arcs they had pulled because of time constraint! From the attack on Mandalore so Ahsoka and the Clones can fight Maul, the Bad Batch clones… some episode arc pertaining to a giant Kybar Crystal on some planet I can't remember what it's called (it was the world Obi-Wan was on when Order 66 was given).**

 **And most of all, Darth Revan is supposed to make his appearance… God I hope that happens so they'll finally make him canon.**

 **Not to mention the return of a Nickelodeon cartoon cult classic as a movie! Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus!**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thanks you!**

 **R &R**


	59. It's a Wonderful Life

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 54: It's a Wonderful Life**

"...Are you serious?"

"Why would I lie about this?"

The Phantom Stranger then saw the Batman pace back and forth -on the rooftop- as he spoke incoherent thoughts. "I must be dreaming again." Came the muttering. "Either from the stress and I fell asleep at my parents' grave again or Tetch must've escaped and put me into his dream device-"

"I assure you, Bruce Wayne, neither has happened."

"Then how do you explain that?!" Batman snapped as he pointed towards his parents and younger self at the crime scene below, who were now entering their car to get back to Wayne Manor. "I already dealt with an all too real dream before and I almost fell for it." The vigilante tightened his fists. "It felt too damn real and believable to the point of me being trapped inside my own dreams for the rest of my life." The costumed Wayne then gave the Phantom Stranger the fiercest Batglare he could ever muster. "So tell me: how is _this_ possible? And you better give me a straight answer or by God I'll-"

"Threats hold and mean little when directed towards me, Bruce Wayne." Shrugged off the fedora wearing man. "There is no way you could ever be able to harm me with what you currently possess." His pale white eyes bore into Batman to make his statement clear. "And if you think I'm fooling you in any form, you're quite mistaken."

"Then how do you explain on where we are?"

"Like I told you, we're in a world where you are not the Batman. And as to _how_ we're here, I've used one of the skills I've picked up on in my long existence."

All Batman could really do was narrow his eyes upon the Grey Walker. There was much mystery towards the fedora, victorian cloak wearing man and the Bat didn't know if he could be trusted. Truly feeling put on the edge as this Stranger knew of his identity and taking him _here_ of all places, despite his wish from earlier.

All the costumed Wayne could do was see as to where this was going.

Suddenly the Batman's vision started to shift around them as he heard the Phantom Stranger speak. "Now to get back into the matter at hand, the Bruce Wayne of _this_ timeline grew up in the warmth of his parents' love. Where he was protected from the harsh realities of the world around them, almost sheltered."

As everything settled down in his vision, the costumed Wayne saw he was in his home's dining room. It was there that his younger counterpart was eating breakfast with his parents, who sat on opposite sides of the collapsable/expandable wooden table.

"Listen to this, Martha." Thomas growled from reading the newspaper. "There was another murder in downtown Gotham last night." He sighed before looking at their son. "Maybe we should think about sending Bruce to a private school."

Martha looked uncertain as she too looked at Bruce. "I... I suppose. I just hate the idea of him growing up so removed from the rest of society. I don't even know what that'll do to him, Thomas." She looked back at her husband. "Maybe have him attend a school that isn't private. Like the one his cousin, Kate, goes to."

Off to the side, Batman remembered about his only living relative from his mother's side: Katherine Rebecca Kane. Her parents were in the military for years with her father -Jake- being a colonel while her mother -Gabriele- was a captain. Things were truly happy in the Kane household until one day while Jake was on deployment; Kate, her mother and twin sister Beth were abducted by terrorists. Her father was able to come in and save the day -with an army squad- but this ended badly as Kate was the only survival of the raid as her mother and twin sister perished.

As far as he knows, Kate graduated from the Air Assault and U.S. Airborne schools before getting into West Point so she could be much like her father. And in that time, her father remarried a wealthy weapon's heiress, which makes Kate a wealthy socialite as a result.

Other than that, the Bat hasn't really kept in touch with his cousin and uncle all that well for some years now, despite Kate's stepmother currently living in Gotham.

But now? Batman doesn't know what's going on with the Kate of _this_ timeline. Was everything the same or not? Did her mother and sister survive as well? Is Kate not in the military? It could be possible with the theoretical butterfly effect that one small change could cause massive ones later on.

The older Bruce snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his father speak. "Well this society's going to Hell in a handbasket!" Thomas growled out. "And I don't want to lose my child in it." The Wayne Patriarch then left the dining room with a huff. "He's going to a private school and that's final."

As Thomas Wayne walked out, he ended up walking right through the Batman and the Phantom Stranger. The vigilante looked back and forth on what just happened and looked at his companion for an explanation.

"On this journey of ours, Bruce Wayne, we will not be able to interact with anyone. For we cannot be touched, heard, felt and seen by anyone."

The Bat could only nod in understanding as he possibly thought he was in a situation similar to 'A Christmas Carol' with him only seeing the events unfold and could not do a thing about it.

Looking back, Batman saw Martha was left in the dining room with both Alfred and her son. Said child looked towards his mother with a worried expression. "Is… Is daddy mad?"

His mother let out a small sigh and held his hand. "No, Bruce. He just worries because he loves you very much. Not just that, but family means everything to him."

Off to the side, Batman was amazed on what he was seeing. Turning to his companion, he asked the Stranger the next questions that popped in his mind. "Mind telling me how it all turns out? Who do I grow up to be?"

The scene shifted around the Dark Knight's vision again as he heard the Grey Walker speak. "A good man, a happy man."

Batman then regained his bearings and saw he was at the airport. Standing in front of a private jet, the vigilante saw Summer Gleeson speak in front of the camera. "We're here at Gotham International Airport, where any moment now we expect to see billionaire-industrialist Bruce Wayne making his return to the city where he was born…"

The Bat gazed at the scene with a surprised expression. "I... I don't live in Gotham?"

The fedora, victorian cloaked man nodded his head for a responsive 'yes'. "Your mother eventually agreed with your father as your birthplace slowly became too dangerous. Thus your counterpart was raised in Europe until now." The pair then saw the plane hatch open up where Batman's counterpart stepped out with camera flashes hitting his form. "You do -however- still run your family's business. Yet you're not alone."

Batman was going to question this when he saw a pair of boys coming out of the jet with- "Selina?! What's going on?!"

"Yes, Selina Kyle." Said the Grey Walker. "Your wife and mother of your two sons: Thomas and Bruce Jr."

This was a tad hard for Bruce to process and he didn't know what to say. Yet a curious thought graced his mind. "I know I met her back in Gotham in my timeline, but... but if I wasn't raised there, then how on Earth did I meet Selina?"

Batman heard a small chuckle escaping the Stranger's lips. "It's actually an amusing story." The scene shifted as the Bat ended up seeing Selina breaking into a darkened home. "It was roughly a decade ago, in Paris France."

The pair saw the Catwoman traverse through the loft in order to find a safe. She eventually did by moving over a painting before Selina started cracking it. Just when the thief pried open the safe door, the room's entrance was opened.

"Hello?" Batman's counterpart called out with a flashlight and a fireplace poker on hand. "Is... Is someone there?"

The light shined upon the cat-themed thief as she narrowed his glance at Batman's counterpart. "Well~ Look what the _cat_ dragged in."

"Who are you? I'm warning you..."

Off to the side, Batman tilted his head. "This... is going to go _badly_." He muttered. "I mean a fireplace poker of all _things_." The Bat blinked and turned to his companion. "Question? Does my counterpart have _any_ combat training at _all?"_

"Two judo classes when you were barely a teenager." Was the answer.

The Dark Knight groaned soon after. "This is going to end _very_ badly."

Sure enough, the Bat was right as his counterpart was the first to attack. Yet he wasn't expecting Selina's quick reflexes before kicking him across the room; thus resulting in the other Wayne to be soundly defeated.

Quickly grabbing what she could from the safe, the thief made her way towards the window. "It's been _fun_ , but I'm afraid I must say _adieu."_ Batman's counterpart quickly got onto his feet and snagged Selina's arm before pulling back her mask. "What?!" She said in shock. "How could you-?" Once her mask was off, Bruce could only dumbfoundingly look at the thief. "Well, you're a quick one, I give you that. But this really ruins _everything_ , doesn't it? And luckily for you, I'm just not a killer."

"No... it's just that... you're... you're _beautiful."_

Selina blinked several times before a grin formed from her lips. "Tell me _more_ , Mr. Wayne." She said in a flirtatious tone. "This could just go to a girl's head."

Batman could only gape while being completely weirded out on this encounter. "Oh you've gotta be kidding me." He groaned out. "It was as simple as _unmasking_ her?"

The Grey Walker shook his head. "Oh don't be silly. That was just the first meeting." Batman let out a sigh of relief while muttering 'oh thank god'. "Your counterpart spent _months_ reforming her... not to mention paying lots of money for items she stole during that time."

Once more, the scenery slowly changed as the Phantom continued to talk as the pair now appeared in a chapel... for Bruce and Selina's wedding. "Eventually, Selina came around to your way of thinking. And it probably didn't hurt that Bruce Wayne was a billionaire."

Batman sat in the audience as he watched the wedding proceed before him. Walking down the aisle was Selina in a beautiful wedding gown with a woman hooked up with her arm. She was a brunette wearing a pixie haircut as she had similar features as the bride to be.

"Who is she? The one with Selina?"

Looking over, the Grey Walker soon answered. "That would be Maggie Kyle, her sister. Their mother died when they were young while their father died some years later while hiding from his mob rivals." The pair saw Maggie hug her older sister and kissed her cheek before standing a foot away. "And both sisters promised to be at each other's weddings in order to give each other away towards their respective grooms and be their maids of honor."

The Bat looked over and saw his parents were there to attend the very special event in their son's life. "So my parents are here as well." He said with a small grin. "That would have made them happy, I'm sure."

"It did take some time for them to warm up to Selina. After all, nothing is quite that simple in relationships."

"That's quite understandable."

Batman soon noticed someone sitting right next to them. Much like he was a close carbon copy of Thomas Wayne back in his prime, the woman sitting next to his parents looked much like his mother with several differences. Her brown hair seemed more rich and defined which almost made it look like it was black in color. And opposed to Martha's green eyes was the signature Wayne blue.

Things started to click in the Caped Crusader's mind. With widened eyes, the Bat spoke in utmost surprise. "Is… Is that-?"

"Your sister, Rochelle Wayne." Said the Stranger as they saw the wedding continue where Bruce and Selina said their vows. "She was born a year after your counterpart's family moved out of the United States. Your sister exceeded through her lessons and was at the top of her class. More so to the point where she co-runs Wayne Enterprises alongside your counterpart, much like the Luthor siblings in this timeline."

Batman rose a brow on that particular detail. He distinctly remembers that Lex Luthor is an only child. And even if he were to have a sibling, the Bat had a hard time envisioning the bald corporate head co-running the company with someone else.

'Remember,' he thought to himself, 'this is a different timeline. Things are bound to be different in some manner.'

Just as Batman's counterpart and his bride kissed, the witnesses cheered for the newlyweds just as the Phantom Stranger spoke once more. "For most of your life, your family were happy about everything you did," the scenery changed to a conversation between Batman's counterpart and his father, "until _this_ night."

"I just don't agree with you, Bruce. I don't think you should go back to _Gotham_ of all places." Thomas said in disdain. "Lucius is still fine with running the company back in the states. You don't have to go, son."

"Well, I'm going, Dad. I want the boys to grow up in _America!_ And I want to fully bring the Wayne Corporation back to its homeland!" Bruce argued. "Let Rochelle handle the company here. She's better than me and does better management on the other countries the business has connected with over the years than I ever could."

"But America isn't really safe anymore, Bruce! Especially not in Gotham!" Thomas then looked very worried. "I fear for the safety of Selina and your children."

Bruce could only glare before walking out of the room. "I can _protect_ my family, Dad. We're going and that's final!"

Batman could only look over at the Grey Walker as the scene changed once more to where the costumed billionaire recognized as part of Wayne Manor. "So... does everything go well once we return to the States?" He asked. "Please tell me nothing goes wrong."

All the fedora, victorian cloaked man did was point towards Bruce and Selina as they walked down the hallway. "See for yourself, Bruce Wayne. For _it's a Wonderful Life."_

Upon hearing this, Batman looked on while feeling something in the pit of his stomach that something was off.

"You think it'll be okay, Bruce?" Selina asked as the married couple peaked inside of their sons' shared bedroom.

"Sure, with all your cat-burglar skills, do you really think we'll wake them if we peek in just one more time?"

"I just want them to get a good night's rest. They've been so excited since we came back to America."

Bruce placed a hand on his wife's shoulders and gave her a reaffirmed squeeze. "It'll all be fine. We're going to build a good life here in Gotham, Selina."

All she did was give him a smile. "I know, Bruce, I know."

As the married couple left, the Stranger turned to Batman. "So now you see what your life could have been. Though is it better for you to know of the happiness that _escaped_ you?"

"I... I honestly don't know." Said the Bat as he rubbed his arm. "Maybe it is." The vigilante then turned and peered outside of the window. "But something... something just doesn't feel right."

"I assure you, I have played no tricks upon you, Bruce Wayne." Batman's companion calmly said. "Now, would you like to return to your home?"

The Dark Knight turned and faced the Phantom. "No, not yet. I want you to take me to the city. To Gotham. I want to see what happened to everyone else."

When the Phantom Stranger said that it was a _Wonderful Life_ earlier, the disguised Wayne thought back of that movie he usually watches at every other Christmas. Where the main character -George Bailey- sees the alternate life if he was never really born and everything had gone to Hell as a result.

Batman needed to see what happened to the others in this alternate timeline.

The Stranger merely nodded. "Good~ You did not disappoint me in requesting such a thing."

The scenery soon changed to the Gotham Cemetery, causing the Bat to look around in confusion. "Why are we here, Stranger? I thought you were going to show me the others, not bring me back home."

"Oh, but I am doing your request." He spread his arms all over. "See anything different, Bruce Wayne?"

The Bat looked and walked around before he saw nothing was different at all. Upon reaching the spot of his parents' grave marker, the vigilante was about to call out on the Phantom's bluff when he stood there in shock.

"No... No... It... It can't be!" The Bat whispered in horror.

"But it is." The Phantom Stranger walked up to the costumed Wayne, who was now shaking like a leaf. "Say hello to John, Mary and Richard Grayson."

Batman's eyes kept focus towards Dick's name and of the date of his ward's death. "How… How could this have happened?"

"You must remember, if you aren't Batman, you can't be there to guide him and to help him get through the pain of his parents' death... much less save him." Batman didn't say anything as the Grey Walker continued talking. "You see, _this_ Dick Grayson doesn't become the ward of Bruce Wayne shortly after that tragic event. Wanting to bring his parents' killer to justice, Dick ran off and searched for Tony Zucco. He succeeded and was going to stop him from leaving Gotham." The cloaked man sighed. "Yet your ward's counterpart ended taking Tony over the waterfall to their deaths."

Batman kept staring at the Grayson family gravemarker as he remembered that day all those years ago. He was able to save Dick that day from falling to his demise over the spillway, courtesy of Tony Zucco. But if he indeed wasn't there to save him then such an innocent life perished in such away.

Other thoughts ran through his mind on who else was affected by his counterpart's absence. One person quickly came to mind and worried for what became of her. 'Zanna.' Thought the Bat before speaking to the Stranger. "What happened to Zatanna Zatara?"

The scenery around Batman shifted again. The pair transported from his family home to what appeared to be a nightclub with Zatanna up on stage. It was mostly a full house with people looking on in interest.

"...And what's your name, sir?" Zatanna asked towards a nearby table as she stood in front of a cloth covered table.

"It's Doug ma'am."

"And, Doug, do you believe in magic?"

The club attendee looked sheepish. "I mean... I don't _not_ believe in magic."

Zatanna nodded before addressing the rest of the audience. "Do we think Doug should believe, ladies and gentlemen?!"

Much of the nightclubbers applauded and cheered on. Yet there was one person drinking several cups of alcohol that thought the show was a complete waste.

After Zatanna placed the cloth over Doug's body, she spoke towards the attendees. "Say it with me now, people! Abra-" She said before aiming her arms at the volunteer.

 **"Cadabra!"**

Soon after the words were said, Doug levitated off of the table. The audience applauded and cheered on towards the illusionary act…

"FAKE!"

Yet one person yelled out as the applause died down.

Back up on stage, Zatanna groaned before muttering to herself. "There's always one at every show." She turned her attention towards the drunkard, who was walking towards the stage. "And what's your name, sir?"

"I am a sayer of truths!" The patron growled out.

"I bet you are."

Getting close to the stage, he pointed towards the ravenette magician before addressing his fellow nightclubbers. "It's a lie! Magic isn't real. _She_ isn't real. It's all a fucking rig with filaments that light doesn't catch."

Zatanna rubbed the bridge of her nose before pulling out a knife from her coat pocket. "Right you are, sir." She said before quickly swiping the air above the volunteer, causing Doug onto the stage. "There are filaments."

The nightclubbers started to boo at her as a result.

"Give us our money back!" Yelled out one woman.

"Con-artist!"

"Phoney!"

"Charlatan!"

Feeling frustrated, Zatanna aimed her eyes at the drunkard and spoke. "Etativel. (Levitate.)" Suddenly, 'the sayer of truths' started to float in the air with a magical aura surrounding him. The man started to freak out as others looked on in wonder and disbelief. "Won nips. (Now spin.)"

Batman and the Grey Walker eventually saw the drunkard spin around and cry out for help. But everyone else was enjoying the act too much to see the cruel grin grown on the magician's face… all except for the vigilante and his companion.

"Like the Zatanna you knew in your timeline, she has become quite the magician and performer."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming along."

"...But she became closed off and reclusive while growing up. Without you being in her life, she wasn't able to open up to others. Not to mention stopped an unfortunate event in her life."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Tell me, do you remember a man John Zatara referred to as 'The Hypnotist'?"

"How could I forget." Muttered the Bat.

The costumed Wayne meet the man during his time studying under John Zatara in his years away from Gotham. The Hypnotist was Zatara's illusionist rival and the man was primarily a con-artist. Sure the hypnotist acts he did were indeed real, but he used his skills for more nefarious acts as he stole money from many audience members.

One night, Bruce was able to stop The Hypnotist from stealing priceless amulets the Zatara family kept in their possession for years. The Wayne back then didn't believe in magic, so he only thought the items were just family heirlooms that would have costed a fortune. But after learning more about magic from Naruto, Zatanna and Rachel; Bruce came to the conclusion they were magical amplifying relics.

The young Wayne was able to track the hypnotist down -after said man stole them once putting Bruce and Zatanna into a hypnotic trance- as the disgraced illusionist was in the middle of a robbery. The Bruce from back then was able to stop him and got the amulets back to John Zatara while the Hypnotist was arrested for his crimes.

"What's he got to do with whatever happened with Zatanna?"

"You remember when The Hypnotist was in the middle of that robbery that you got in and put most of your training to good use?" Batman nodded before the Grey Walker continued. "Replace your past self with Zatanna. For she wanted to make things right for her father as The Hypnotist used his skills on her before getting away. Zatanna was able to track him down and a fight ensued.

Yet she was inexperienced in the magic arts so she didn't know how to fully counteract his advances. Her father -however- was able to find her as she disappeared without a trace. Zatara and his bitter rival fought and at the end of the confrontation, Zatanna's father died due to a hypnotised officer shooting at him while protecting her."

"No… John…" Batman muttered in grief.

"Because of having her father die in her arms, Zatanna awakened her latent magical powers and killed the Hypnotist for what he'd done to her and her father. And since then, the Zatanna Zatara you knew became bitter and harsh while carrying on her father's legacy as a performer."

The costumed Wayne swallowed a lump in his throat before looking at one of his oldest friends on stage take a bow before performing another act.

From there, the Bat of Gotham started thinking on who else got affected by a simple change of his past. Yet his longtime friend, Harvey Dent quickly came across his mind. "What about Harvey, who… goes by Two Face now? Something good must've happened to him?"

The Phantom sighed. "I'm afraid it's not as you would've hoped, Bruce Wayne." The pair quickly appeared in Harvey's office as the DA was currently going over various forms and documents. "Even though in this world, he was spared the acid that brought his personality disorder to the public eye. But still, the disorder is there as a split in his personality." The Stranger grimly said as Dent was sweating a pool while suddenly calling someone up. "A good man turned against himself as his darker half is connected to the mob."

Batman felt a bad twist in his gut while watching his old friend speak into the phone.

"No, I _don't_ remember calling you about this before. And no, I haven't been drinking at all!... I don't think I like the _tone_ you're taking with me, either." Harvey sighed while patting his sweaty forehead with a handkerchief. "Listen, my informants tell me that Thorne is going to try to move in on your territory _tonight..._ No, you're on your own on this one, boss... After all, I handled Maroni for you... but I'm staying out of the way here so the heat won't go down on me!... That's what I said, I-"

The Batman then saw Harvey's eyes dilate and recede before he suddenly got scared with his posture dramatically changed. "Who... Who is this?!... _Boss Sionis!_ How'd you get this number?!" The DA yelled into his phone. "Listen to me, you cheap bastard!- What?! No, I'm not crazy! You are!"

Just as the DA ended the call -by slamming the phone down onto the receiver- Batman could only look on with pity. "Harvey... I had no idea how bad it had been for him."

"He fought it for a long time, but as you clearly know now the other half won out."

"...Crazy?" Harvey muttered as he paced back and forth in his office. "What on earth would he say that for?" The speaker on Dent's desk sounded off before the DA answered. "Yes, what is it?"

 _"Commissioner Gordon is here to see you, Mr. Dent."_ Spoke the secretary. _"Should I send him in?"_

Harvey looked nervous before responding back. "Uh... Yes, of course."

Batman widened his eyes and turned to the Phantom. "Please, for the love of God, tell me that Jim Gordon isn't corrupt too."

"Just watch and see." Came the vague response.

Gordon soon walked into the DA's office before marching right towards Harvey. "Hello, Commissioner. What can I do for you?" Asked the nervous DA.

"Harvey, what the hell is going on?!" Gordon growled out. "Have you been taking _payoffs?!"_

Harvey reared back in shock. _"What?!_ Jim... Where is this coming from?"

"I have surveillance photos of you with Black Mask, so don't bother to deny it!" The GCPD captain balled his fists as if he wanted to punch Harvey real badly. "I thought you were different, Harvey! I thought it was us against them! We trusted you for God's sakes!" Jim then pointed an accusing finger at the frightened DA. "But you've been part of them all along! You're just as corrupt as most of this city!"

Harvey was shaking like a leaf at this point and tried to explain. "I... I really don't know what you're talking about, Jim... I'm completely honest."

Gordon gritted his teeth and stormed out of the office. "The next time we meet, it won't be as friends, Harvey!"

"Jim Gordon never realized that his friend is not in control of his actions." Sighed the Grey Walker as he and the Batman soon walked through the walls -as if like spirits- before ending up outside. "Perhaps if he weren't under so much pressure, he would put the pieces together. But alas, he and his daughter are two of the only honest officers in Gotham."

Upon exiting City Hall, Jim was confronted by his daughter; who was currently wearing an officer's uniform. "How'd it go, Dad?"

"Not good, Barb." Jim sighed while rubbing the back of his head. "I... just got so angry when I got in there. There's something really _wrong_ with this world when a good man like Harvey Dent turns bad."

"I know, Dad, I'm sorry." Barbara said as she hugged her father. "I somewhat wished Naruto didn't show you those photos so _this_ might not have happened."

Jim merely shook his head. "No. Naruto did the right thing in showing me those." The police commissioner said with a small smile. "At least he's one of the good people in this city I can _truly_ count on these days. With him publicly disgracing Loeb -after his death- to saving you a good number of times, I don't know why I haven't truly befriend him sooner."

His redhead daughter smiled as she fiddled around with the ring on her finger. "You're right, Dad."

Off to the side, Batman rose a brow on what he's currently seeing. "How is Barbara a police officer already? Shouldn't she still be in school."

"Since you were never here in helping out her father, Barbara decided to take it upon herself to become an officer of the law a whole lot sooner." Stated the Stranger as they saw the Gordon father/daughter pair get into their police car before driving off. "Being quite the college student towards the degree you already knew in your timeline while interning at the GCPD. And after much dedication, Barbara was able to graduate early and work under her father."

Batman nodded before asking his next question. "And I couldn't help but notice two things. But first off, what did Jim Gordon mean of Gillian Loeb's death before his public disgrace?"

"As you remember, Commissioner Gillian Loeb was a corrupt officer of the law as he was involved with extortion and being in the mob's pocket. And similar to your timeline, Gordon soon became Commissioner some months after Loeb was removed from his position. Yet there was one final difference was with how he was finally taken down and when."

"Which was what exactly?"

"It wasn't just his public disgrace and when the reveal took place, but his death by the hands of the resident clown of Gotham months ago."

"The Joker." Batman said with a narrowed glance as he knew there was only one criminal clown in this city.

"Yes. She has been one Gotham's biggest criminals in recent years."

"... _She_?"

The Phantom Stranger lifted up his victorian styled cloak and covered the Bat before they were transported to an abandoned warehouse. The Batman didn't know why they were here, but didn't fully question it as it was apart of the Grey Walker's explanations. And before the costumed Wayne made the attempt to enter the warehouse, a darkened shadow flew above him.

He looked up and paused with widened eyes as his gaze locked on the flying figure coming towards them. Once it landed, the Bat glared at his temporary companion. "I thought you said there was no Batman in this timeline."

"Correction: I said that in _this_ timeline, _your_ Batman doesn't exist."

The disguised Wayne looked back and took in the detail of what _this_ timeline's Batman looked like. He wore a bat-themed suit that apparently had retractable wings once the man landed on the ground. It was primarily black with it having silvery white placed around the wrists along with a pair of stripes on each side of his leg. The same color wrapped around the collar and went down both his the chest and back towards the man's utility belt, which was also silvery white. There were a pair of red lenses placed over the eyes on the pointy cowl and the only visible part of the man's flesh was around the mouth, which was deathly pale.

As the Batman of _this_ timeline entered the warehouse, the costumed Wayne spoke the recently formed question in his mind. "Who is he?"

"That… would be Dr. Kirk Langstrom."

The disguised Wayne widened his eyes upon the realization as he kept focus on the scientist that was once the Man-Bat. Even wondering how this came to be.

The pair soon followed Langstrom down the warehouse steps. Coming at its bottom, they walked forward with the Grey Walker giving his companion the current Bat's story. "You see, Kirk Langstrom's origins originate when he graduated university. He was attempting to cure his own lymphoma -which was killing him- and he was using bat venom as a baseline in his antidote. Kirk has had some success in this regard, but has not yet cracked it as his formulas keep breaking down too soon and he eventually required the help of his best friend and roommate, Will Magnus. And in your timeline, they weren't roommates and Langstrom hasn't suffered lymphoma."

Bruce Wayne remembered hearing about William Magnus from his old electronics mentor, Karl Rossum, as they both studied under one T.O. Morrow -well known futurist and robotics engineer- and worked together for a time before going their separate ways. The Wayne even read several of the scientist's written papers showing his genius level intellect. Will Magnus is considered one of the foremost experts in the fields of robotics with his multiple doctorates in the diverse fields of Electronics, Mechanics and Computer science. And to many in the scientific community, he's also considered a radical by many.

During his college years, Magnus had given rise to a theory were he stated that the upcoming science of artificial intelligence was flawed. He assumed that things were already intelligent and that 'personality traits' might indicate the presence of certain metals in the human body. Magnus hoped he could find a way to draw out this intelligence and personality, yet Bruce Wayne hasn't really heard more about this since.

As the (L) Batman searched through one part of the warehouse, the fedora continued his tale. "Once brought into his roommate's project, Magnus suggested theoretical nanobots of his own design to help perform tasks. Langstrom reasons that if Magnus' nano-robots can be programmed to build organic materials to help stabilize his formula and cure his illness. And from there, his nanobots could possibly cure other diseases like cancer or any other disease out there."

The costumed Wayne pondere on this and spoke his thoughts. "That could be true. Medical solutions can only go so far as a true stabilizing agent needs to hold things together."

The Phantom nodded while seeing Langstrom give up searching the one room and entered through a doorway to a much lower level. "After many trials and errors, they succeeded in finding a solution via lab rats and adjusted the formula for human DNA. Despite the formula curing him of his lymphoma, there were... side-effects."

"Mind explaining what you meant by that?"

"You will see soon enough…"

The (W) Batman could only look on as his costumed counterpart entered what appeared to be a butcher's shop with various tools and wares with various places covered in dried up blood. At the one end of the room, the (L) Batman came across a refrigerator and decided to inspect the contents inside.

Yet neither Batmen were prepared to see the severed, bagged body parts -mostly severed heads- stuffed into clear plastic bags in order to _preserve_ them; causing both vigilantes to recoile and widen their eyes in disgust surprise.

"My god…" Muttered the disguised Wayne. "Who… Who would do such a thing?"

"The Joker of this reality." Reminded the Stranger. "Much like your adversary, she has committed various crimes ever since her debut and has done what your Joker did within a smaller time frame of recent years." The pair saw the Langstrom Batman close the refrigerator door and exit the room in order to continue investigating. "Yet she was never had a chemist's mindset in order to create the Joker Gas and Toxin. So she went into kidnappings and murder for her own… _beliefs…"_

The Batman of this reality made it down another flight of stairs to enter the warehouse's deepest basement. There he found it filled with various crates and many clown themed items. Coming across some across a wall, Langstrom barely touched the lid of an identifiable jack-in-the-box before it bursted opened to spring out 'Jack'. The inanimate object merely bobbed about on it's coiled spring as the box's harness wasn't kept in check.

Upon checking the neighboring container -which was another jack-in-the-box- that instead of seeing another toy, the vigilante saw 'Jack' was one of the Joker's victims. For the man was severed right above the hips and was dressed up as a clown. And to finish off his appearance, a ghastly smile was spread out from cheek to cheek.

"I forgot to mention the mutilation with her taxidermying her victims into toys or works of art with freakish grins." Came the Grey Walker's remark.

"...The Joker I know hasn't become that deranged." Muttered the costumed Wayne.

"Be lucky he hasn't… _yet."_

Soon the sounds of a muffled cry could be heard from the last jack-in-the-box. The (L) Batman quickly opened the container and saw one of the Joker's latest captive as she was tied up with a gag put into her mouth. And the woman inside was an all too familiar person to the Wayne.

Reaching inside, Langstrom pulled the woman up and removed the gag. "Veronica Vreeland?" The red haired heiress nodded with tears running down her cheeks. "I'm here to get you out of here."

"Th-Thank god." Veronica cried out, shaking like a leaf. "I… I thought you were-"

The red goggled Batman took notice of her sudden pause and asked. "What is it?"

"Sh-She's behind you!"

The vigilante whirled around and saw the Joker coming right towards them with a weapon in her grasp. Tackling the captive towards the ground, the pair were able to dodge the attack as it struck the mutilated corpse right next to them. Rolling close to the wall, the Batman of this reality soon brought Veronica behind him as the Joker stalked towards them.

With what light the costumed Wayne had in the room, he walked towards the Joker of this reality in order to inspect her.

She was a woman in her late twenties and was in a torn up red/black themed attire with various playing card diamonds tattooed onto her exposed flesh… among other wordings and symbols. Dragging behind her was a large sledgehammer with dried up blood caked along it's surface. Her hair was dyed red and black and put into high ponytails to match her colored attire. Wrapping around her neck were a series of stitches as it separated the normal flesh from the ivory white, which had a lot of smeared black makeup. And to finish things off were the glasgow scars to make her current smile even more deranged.

There was a double take for disguised billionaire in order to realize who this Joker really was as he was in a shocked state of disbelief: Harleen Quinzel.

"Wh-What happened to her?" Asked the bewildered Dark Knight as she walked right through him in order to attack the (L) Batman and her latest captive. "How could Harley be the Joker?"

Just as the revealed Joker Harley swung down her large hammer, the vigilante quickly caught the weapon with his feet. He then kicked it back towards the crazed killer with it's pommel slamming into her face. She flew and fell a foot away -due to the blow- as groaned a little.

Briefly looking at the downed woman, Langstrom looked at Veronica and spoke to her. "Run. I'll hold her off."

The Vreeland heiress nodded and made herself scarce by bolting out of the room in order to get to safety.

With the captive escaping, the (L) Batman ran towards another hallway just when the deranged Harlequin slowly got back up. She briefly saw her recent captive escaping, causing an insurmountable rage boiling inside of her. Harley was about to go after Veronica when she heard the sounds of glass breaking. Snapping her head off to the side, she realized where the vigilante went off to.

Picking up her steel malete, Harley gave chase as the Phantom Stranger spoke. "Harleen Quinzel was a loving and cheerful woman with a bright future ahead of her. She was on her way to graduate school alongside her boyfriend, Guy Kopski. One day, he invited her family to come to the special occasion so he could ask for Harleen's hand in marriage. She accepted and her family was very happy for her."

"...With how your telling it -and seeing her as she currently is- I get the feeling things went south."

"Indeed." Came the Grey Walker's grave tone. "On the night of the proposal, a mob war occured and their car came across the crossfire. Harleen and her fiance made it out alright, but her family did not. And after weeks of her not taking her medication -due to the traumatic event- Guy was forced to admit Harleen into Arkham for her own safety.

Most of the staff was supposed to make her better, yet they merely made it worse with what… _things_ they've done to her in her admittance in their facility. Soon enough, the trama became too much for her before Harleen snapped, killed off the corrupted staff and fled before she tracked down Guy. She demanded why he hasn't helped her at all before killing him in her fit of rage. And all this eventually led her to become who she is today."

Upon entering a mirror filled corridor, they saw Harley looking around with an enraged look upon her features.

"You let my _plaything_ get away, Batman!" Growled the Harlequin. "That wasn't nice!" Stalking further into hallway, she kept a lookout for the vigilante. "Just because you're such a gloomy gus, doesn't mean we all have to be that way. And now that poor bitch will go back to her drab little life where I could've made it better FOREVER!"

Suddenly, Langstrom dropped from the ceiling in order to pounce on her. Yet she swung her sledgehammer and swats him through the air. The Batman of this reality crashed into several mirrors before quickly recovering as the Jokerized Harley came after him. An intense series of swings were delivered, which Langstrom dodged before slamming his foot down on top of it to hold it in place. He then punched the Harlequin into a mirror, which revealed a darkened room. Stepping through, the (L) Bat rose a brow as to how his opponent suddenly disappeared on him.

Wanting to find the Joker of this reality, the vigilante walked further into the darkened space before finding light coming from underneath a door. Coming towards it, he opened it before his sight was momentarily blinded with the light's entensity.

And that was when the two Batmen smelled an extremely foul stench. Looking at the source, they saw a set of rotting, human taxidermies arranged in some family room setting. From two boys placed in grade school with one being in college while there was a set of parents.

Upon looking at the scene, the disguised Wayne felt disgusted -while also saddened- on what he was seeing before him.

'She really didn't let go of her family's death all that well.' He thought before the sounds of a chainsaw filled the air. Langstrom heard it as well and whirled around to see Harley charging right at him.

"NO SUPER CREEPS IN MY ROOM!" Came her bellowed roar. The (L) Batman quickly evaded the blow as the mother taxidermy took it with her head sliced off. With the severed head rolling across the ground, the Harlequin looked even more enraged. "SHE WAS GONNA MAKE ME COOKIES!"

A small fight ensued inside of the 'living room' which involved destroyed furniture and destroying some of the other taxidermied 'family members'. When Langstrom dodged one final attack from her, Harley's chainsaw impacted a stone wall before it quickly broke apart. Though this didn't come without some consequence as the whirling chain sliced across her abdomen, causing her to quickly hold onto her bleeding wound.

The Batman of this reality quickly shoved Harley against the wall, making her hold up her hands in surrender. "Oh alright, already! I give! I know when I'm licked!" She heavily glared at her opponent. "Take me away and throw me in jail-" Harley then heard the bat-themed vigilante chuckle. "What's so funny, AssBat?!"

"Who said anything about jail." Was Langstrom's comment.

Before the disguised Wayne or deranged clown knew it, they saw the (L) Batman open up his mouth to reveal retractable fangs before he quickly bit down onto Harley's neck. She screamed from the immeasurable pain as she felt her blood draining out of her. Harley tried to push him away, but he held on as she started to slowly die.

From the other end of the room, the costumed billionaire looked on in horror of what was happening. He then heard the Grey Walker speak. "The side-effects I mentioned earlier of his cure is what you're seeing before you. For Langstrom's strength, speed, agility and senses dramatically heightened; yet he soon realized he became something else... as he hungered blood like a vampire."

The fedora, victorian cloaked man could feel his companion break away his gaze from Langstrom finishing off his meal. "Now it's to be noted that Dr. Langstrom's not like a mythological vampire as he doesn't turn others and he can survive in daylight unlike the supernatural variety. And that he has to either devour plasma -of his own making- has to take lives or raid the bloodbank to sustain his hunger. Kirk hopes he doesn't harm an innocent life as he could never truly live with himself if he did so. For he fights his problem every second of every hour of every day ever since his change."

"Get me out of here." Said the (W) Batman as he glared at the Stranger. "I don't want to see anymore of _this."_

"Very well."

The scenery shifted as they now appeared at a random part of Gotham. The costumed Wayne could only grit his teeth as several emotions ran through him while using a nearby wall for support.

He saw a good person -a good friend he tolerated- get murdered in front of him and he couldn't do a thing about it! Sure it wasn't the same Harley he knew, but it still made him uneasy. The disguised Wayne didn't know if he'd look at Naruto's blonde girlfriend the same way once back home with what he'd just seen.

And as much as he'd like to end this now… there are a few more people left he needed to see before his journey is finished… along with some additional information.

Once calming himself down and collecting his thoughts, his old adversary his crossed his mind.

"What about… the Joker that I know of?" Asked the Bat as he practically felt the Stranger raise a brow from within the shadow covering most of his face. "Just an honest question."

"Of course." The Phantom motioned the Caped Crusader to follow him down the street. Coming across a television display, the pair saw a stand-up comedy routine was being broadcasted. Peering at the footage, the Batman took notice of the man's facial details as they were quite similar to his old adversary. "Your longtime foe never became who he is in this timeline."

The two kept seeing the little comedy routine as the Grey Walker continued to speak. "As you may know, the result of your parents' death or survival would've caused ripples and affect other events along the way. Small and simple, yet big and complicated later on. From your ward dying, Harvey having trouble in his position, to Harleen becoming a criminal in this timeline. And the Joker you know is one such individual affected in some sort of way."

"How so?" Questioned the Batman as he was indeed curious.

"You must know that your old adversary has quite… an _interesting_ set of backgrounds." The Stranger commented. "In one timeline, he's a security guard. In others he's a mobster or a thief in some shape or form. Yet each and every one typically end up becoming who they eventually are from taking a dip at Ace Chemicals… and one _very_ bad day that would've warped their minds and bodies forever.

In this timeline -however- the specific Joker you've fought against time and time again never went through such a thing. He was merely a struggling stand up comedian that was down on his luck. Yet his loving wife helped support him despite their current situations. And coming closer and closer to the time of the birth of their first born, your adversary would've been offered a simple thieving job that could've set him for life… in a completely different direction."

The Dark Knight blinked and oddly saw the monitor image change into a scene with the sane Joker meeting up with some mobsters at what he believed was the Stacked Deck.

As mobsters ate their food, the normal looking Joker rubbed the back of his head. _"You see… I-I have a reason, a good one."_ He muttered out before sipping from his cup full of alcohol. _"I have to prove myself… As a husband and a father."_ The man then rubbed the bridge of his nose. _"I mean, well, this isn't the sort of thing I'd agree to do normally, without an important reason."_

One of the mobsters -a pleasantly plump one- stopped eating his food to look at the struggling comedian. _"Of course. It's quite understandable."_

The sane Joker scratched his cheek as he nervously spoke. _"D-Did I ever tell you I started out as a lab assistant?"_ He gave a faint laugh. _"Of course, I did, right? A good job, a real good job, but my heart wasn't in it. So, I quit to be a comedian, to make people laugh because when they laugh, they feel good."_ The strugged comedian then looked down with a sad look across his features. _"The thing is heh~ they didn't. Now I'm not feeling good."_ He then looked up with a hopeful look on his face. _"That's why I'm here, for one big score!"_

The other mobster -a skinny one- held up his hand and motioned to quiet down. _"Hey, can you try and be cool?"_

The sane Joker flinched before slowly grasping his glass. _"Sorry… I usually don't drink at lunchtime."_ Swirling it's contents, he briefly looked up to meet the two men in the eye. _"You're not lying when you say we'll get away with it? Nobody will know I was involved?"_

 _"Not to worry, friend. We'll take care of you."_ Said the skinny mobster with a reassuring tone.

Taking a break from eating, the plump one spoke next. _"We need your help getting into that  
chemical plant you used to work in and into the playing card company next door. It's your expertise we appreciate."_

His companion picked up from there as he pulled out a duffle bag from underneath his chair. _"And to absolutely guarantee ain't nobody connects you to the robbery,"_ the skinny mobster opened the bag to reveal it's contents, _"you'll be wearing this."_

Both the sane Joker and the Dark Knight looked onward and saw what was inside: an elongated glass domed helmet with a red cape wrapped around it.

 _"Wait a minute,"_ spoke the struggling comedian with recognition, _"I've seen that before in the papers."_ He leaned forward and whispered closely to the men before him. _"That's the Red Hood's mask. He raided that ice company last month."_

The skinny mobster quickly closed up the bag and put it back underneath. _"Smarten up, wise guy. There ain't no Red Hood. Just a bunch of guys -like yourself- and a mask."_

The plump man nodded. _"Right, the most valued member of the crew, he gets to wear it, no questions asked. 'Cause he needs the…"_ the mobster then struggled on the words _"he can't afford to be connected to the job… so he deserves additional anonymity. Merits it."_

His companion nodded. _"Sure. That makes sense, right? That's you."_

The sane Joker leaned back and rubbed the back of his neck. _"I don't know, I don't know."_ He sighed. _"That chemical plant… I quit 'cause it creeped me out."_ The man soon shuddered. _"So grim and ugly, it was getting under my skin."_

" _But you know it like the back of your hand."_ Said the skinny man.

" _But this ain't about you, though."_ Spoke the plumply one. _"It's your wife you're doing this for."_

The comedian let out a frustrated sigh. _"No. No, of course not."_ He then looked into his glass to barely see his own reflection. _"Just this once, then I can lead a proper life."_ The footage then fizzled out as the image went back to the sane Joker's comedy routine.

As he looked at his normal looking foe -via television screen- Batman thought over the small details he recently saw.

The Caped Crusader remembered investigating and later fighting against the Red Hood gang when he first started out as a vigilante. They met their eventual end back at Ace Chemicals with the gang members being shot down and Red Hood -who he found out later became the Joker- fell into the vat of chemicals.

But the Bat felt there could've been some differences between his Joker and the comedian he saw on the TV set. For one, the sane man seemed rather nervous and shy, which he would've ran away at the first opportunity in a confrontation. But the Red Hood _he_ fought those years ago actually stood his ground and fought back before accidentally taking a chemical bath as the Batman tried to save him. That particular detail showed the difference between the two Jokers with actually apart of the gang or not.

He was broken out of his thoughts once the Stranger spoke. "In most timelines related to _this_ -when you were the Batman- the Joker accepted the given offer in one way or another. A shootout commences on the night of the heist and he would've taken his destined dip at Ace Chemicals. In this timeline, however, the Red Hood gang never got caught and you were never involved. The heist ran smoothly and your old foe came back to his loving wife, just in time in able to save his wife and unborn child from getting killed from the accident that originally did so." Revealed the Bat's current companion. "And it was sometime later, your nemesis was able to land a lucky break around the time when his child was born to make him successful."

The Bat nodded on this bit of information. "And where's he now?" He curiously asked.

"The Joker you know currently lives in Fawcett City with his family as they wanted to live somewhere safe."

"Then mind telling me what was _my_ Joker like before he became who he is today?" Asked the vigilante. If he could get a clear backstory as to what _his_ Joker was like before becoming the psychopathic clown, then much information could be solidified and corrected.

"...I'm afraid I'm not allowed to reveal such details."

The Bat narrowed his eyes. "Why not?"

"I can't say."

"Can't or won't?"

"Take your pick." Was the Grey Walker's response as he earned the infamous Batglare aimed right at him. Yet the act failed to make him change his mind. "Certain information must be found out and revealed on their own." And just when the vigilante was about to open his mouth to speak something else, his companion beat him to the punch. "And if you demand on asking me who killed your parents, I also can't reveal you his identity."

Hearing this gave the Dark Knight a sudden pause. Eyes slowly widening upon realization on what just came out of the Grey Walker's mouth. And before long, the vigilante gritted his teeth as a feeling bubbled towards the surface.

"...Excuse me?" Growled the disguised Wayne. "You won't tell me who he is?" He suddenly grasped the Stranger's arms and brought him close in order to stare into his glowing white eyes. "I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO KNOW! HE TOOK MY PARENTS AWAY FROM ME! HE NEEDS TO BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE FOR WHAT HE DID!"

"What happened to your parents was no secret to anyone, Bruce Wayne. Yet what hardly anyone knows -only a select number- is that you've felt that it was your fault. You blindly lead your parents into that alleyway, which soon brought their tragic end."

"I WAS ONLY A CHILD!" Yelled the Bat. "There was nothing I could've done." He then tightened his hold in grown anger. "But I could've done something."

"Yet you did as your drive motivated you to become who you are today. Dedicating your _very_ life for justice amongst all others." Spoke the Phantom. "The need filled you, control you even. But revenge should not take hold of everything about you as it'll drive everyone else away when your most vulnerable and there will be nothing to halter that."

The costumed Wayne didn't say anything as the Stranger spoke a question. "So tell me, Bruce Wayne: would you act out of _vengeance_ for what occurred? If the day _ever_ came for you to confront the man who took away your parents… would you _uphold justice_ or would you dispense punishment without mercy as an act of _vengeance_?" The Bat soon felt the Phantom's eyes truly look into him as if he was boring into his very soul. "Would you still be the same hero many idolize and respect or would you grow dark just as the foes you've fought in your past and in your foreseeable future? Hunting down and destroying each person that crosses your way, without a clear conscious and mercy?"

Batman didn't answer the spectral-like entity's question as the intellectual and rational portions of his mind tried to work through what the Grey Walker spoke of. Yet the rest of him was too focused on his current demand as he quickly spoke. "JUST TELL ME WHO HE IS, STRANGER!"

"I cannot." Came the calm response before the fedora wearing man easily pried himself free from the hero's grasp. "You must learn about who took away your parents' lives on your own _and_ the reasons behind the act. And when the time comes of you encountering the man who started out your path, your very _existence_ would be tested with what would occur."

Batman merely narrowed his eyes. 'What did he mean by that?' He thought. 'He was just a thug trying to take my parent's belongings… Or was there much more than what I originally thought?'

Shaking his head, the vigilante soon breathed out a sigh. Turning around, he punched the nearby wall several times in order to let out his frustration. On the last strike, the brick wall corner broke into pieces leaving the Bat's hand rather sore. He then leaned against it to finish calming himself down.

The hero of Gotham was _very_ close into learning who took his parents away from him, yet it's so far away. He merely glared back at the man who refused to reveal such information. Right now, the Bat needed to move his thoughts elsewhere in order to distract him from his current frustrations.

Luckily for Batman, his eyes caught onto a police car -which the Gordon father/daughter pair drove- went past them. The costumed Wayne soon remembered the details from earlier when the Commissioner walked out of Harvey Dent's office. From Naruto giving Jim information about Harvey meeting Black Mask to Loeb's death by this timeline's Joker Harley.

Though a small detail quickly popped up in the hero's mind, which he voiced. "Wait, Barbara's married?" Asked Batman. "To who?"

"Not married, Bruce Wayne. Engaged." Corrected the Stranger. "And as to whom, it would be to your friend, Naruto Uzumaki."

Batman blinked in surprise confusion. _"Really?_ Since when and for how long have they been together?"

"For a few years now." Came the answer as the scenery shifted to the Gotham streets in a hot Summer's day. There the pair saw Naruto walking around as he appeared frustrated. "As you may remember, Naruto moved to Gotham after moving out of Metropolis. Living in a hotel before he could finally find a place to stay before he started up his publishing company. And in your timeline, he ran into Nora Fries before he started renting a room from her and her husband, Victor, for several years."

Batman looked on and saw his whiskered friend bump into Nora before they eventually talked and Naruto helped her take her groceries home. Suddenly, the sight seemed to fritz -like a TV screen- before everything returned to normal. Except there was no sight of Nora Fries anywhere in sight.

"Unlike in your timeline, Nora and Victor Fries didn't live in Gotham after getting married since neither wanted to get harmed with how dangerous the city became. Not only that, but Nora never suffered from MacGregor's syndrome later in her life. Regardless of the second fact, Naruto never met the Fries and lived with them in Gotham."

"Then… who did he stay with?"

All the Bat got in response was a pointed action from the Stranger, making him look onwards. There the vigilante saw his friend rush ahead and push someone out of the way from getting hit by a car. Naruto rolled across the car's hood before falling onto the ground. The Uzumaki appeared fine as the person he pushed away came towards his side to check up on him.

Upon taking a closer look, Batman saw it was Barbara Gordon.

"In this timeline, however, Naruto met Barbara much earlier as he saved her life from being run over by a distracted driver instead of meeting her at a coffee shop months ago." Said the Grey Walker as the commissioner's daughter fussed all over the Uzumaki. "She then introduced him to her father and Naruto Uzumaki later rented a room at their home."

Batman soon saw a quick sequence of scenes play out in front of him. Naruto living and interacting with the Gordons in their household while getting his publishing company up from the ground. Even using his skills acquired from the Daily Planet to be a part time investigator for James Gordon in order to help him out with his job. The hero then noticed Naruto and Barbara getting closer and closer as the scenes progressed.

"As time went on, both Naruto and Barbara Gordon started to learn more about each other as they eventually fell in love." Spoke the Grey Walker as the scenes stopped at a restaurant familiar to the Dark Knight.

"I remember this place." Batman said as he looked at Naruto and Barbara having a pleasant date. "This was where Hiraishin showed up and attempted to assassinate Naruto."

Soon enough, Hiraishin broke through the restaurant's windows before he started his attack. The Uzumaki fended off his attacker as everyone else started to flee from the scene. In the end Naruto ended up defeating the meta-assassin once awakening his powers instead of Batman finishing the job.

"Naruto and Barbara kept their relationship a secret from her father as they didn't know how to properly do so. Yet after this particular date, two things occured: one was James Gordon learning of their relationship and second was Barbara witnessing Naruto using his powers."

Scenery switched once more as Jim Gordon verbally lashing at Barbara and Naruto for keeping this secret from him. And the costumed Wayne had to admit the moment was quite funny. Things quickly changed to a garbage dump where Barbara witnesses and records Naruto's progress in controlling his newfound powers.

"Where there any changes with Naruto, Stranger?" Questioned the Batman.

The Phantom Stranger took pause as if he was comprising all the necessary details he could muster. After what felt like eternity to the Dark Knight, the odd entity spoke. "Naruto Uzumaki… is quite the interesting fellow. As if the universe had to properly fit him here, necessary fixes and adjustments had to be made."

Batman rose a curious brow with how the Phantom said his question. "What do you mean by that?"

"Certain… occurrences took place sooner than what originally happened in what you originally have known; even altered and changed." Came the answer. "He started his travels in Eurasia a lot earlier and interacted with Talia al Ghul longer and _differently_ than from just his two years before coming into the states. His time in Metropolis was generally the same but was longer by roughly a year before moving into Gotham where you generally know how the rest goes."

From there, the Dark Knight saw many events occur once Naruto became Vanitas in order to take care of crime. Each were brief by a few seconds, but each one quickly told a story. At one point, Naruto took in Rachel Roth as his ward -along with one other girl who appeared to be a mute- as both he and Barbara found and saved her from the Sewer King. After that, the couple learned of the ashen child having magical powers later meeting one Jason Blood.

Later in these sequences, Batman saw Vanitas team up with the Langstrom Batman in order to keep the city safe. Much of these problems were against many familiar foes such as Scarecrow, Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad, Magpie, Mad Hatter and the Riddler amongst others. There were even others the bat-vigilante never seen before like someone using a ventriloquist dummy to order his lackies, two insect-themed men with one using a flamethrower with another being more high tech, some ragdoll themed thief and one man that seemed to be everywhere with his clones.

Things soon changed as Talia came into the picture and interacted with Barbara, Naruto and his two wards. A relationship was rekindled between former teacher and student - in what seemed to be a romantic sense- while Talia befriended and getting close with the spectacled redhead.

Before long, the costumed Wayne saw Naruto meeting with Ra's as they went on a quest to save Barbara and Talia instead of Naruto's current three girlfriends. The ending results were practically the same from what his whiskered friend told him.

Yet there were some changes after Ra's demise. For one -to the Batman's surprise- Naruto gave the title of Ra's al Ghul to Talia so she would rule the League of Shadows/Assassins instead of him. This occured as more League members were present for the fight and witnessed the mantle and title being passed onto Naruto before it was transferred to his former teacher… and lover.

And once Barbara and Naruto returned to Gotham, the Uzumaki ended up asking the spectacled redhead for her hand in marriage.

"So, _all_ the lives of my friends… and others I've known took different paths or changed course, all because I wasn't there." Said the Batman as the pair ended back on the streets.

"Because _your_ particular Batman wasn't there." Corrected the Phantom Stranger as they walked along the sidewalk before stopping near a dinner which the Gordon father/daughter pair were eating at. "And yes, the paths they took diverged, just as Bruce Wayne's did, but many remaining ones are about to collide soon enough."

Before the Caped Crusader could question this, his ears picked up on a distinctive sound coming from the nearby police car.

 _"Calling all cars and officers!"_ Spoke a women's voice over the nearby police vehicle radio. Batman looked over inside of the diner and saw the Gordon pair react to the call. _"City Hall is under attack! I repeat, City Hall is under attack! Calling all cars and officers!"_ Upon hearing this, Jim and Barbara rushed out of the diner, got into their car and drove as to where the incident was taking place.

…..

At the far edge of Gotham where Wayne Manor resides, Bruce Wayne exited his home with Alfred standing not far away.

"And where will you be going and for how long, sir?"

"I'll be just away for a few hours, Alfred." Bruce answered. "So don't bother holding dinner for me. I just wanna take a look at the site of the new Wayne Towers building."

"Of course, sir. Though do be careful. Your father always said the city was a dangerous place."

…..

Upon arriving outside of City Hall, the Caped Crusader and Grey Walker saw much commotion going on. Yells, gunshots and explosions could be heard from inside of the building.

The costumed Wayne wanted to rush inside and help -from whatever threat there is- in any way he can. But with his current _situation,_ all the Bat could do was stand by and watch… which peeved him greatly.

The disguised billionaire then noticed a pair of individuals arriving onto the scene as they glided towards the ground. Vanitas was the first to land with his windlance. Following after him was Langstrom as his wings retracted into his suit while staring at the building before them.

"Any idea who's involved this time?" Asked the (L) Batman.

"It could be anyone, Bats." Responded the helmeted Uzumaki. "But I do know most of our guys' MO's tend to have more _flare."_

The vampiric hero merely nodded before the two pairs heard a loud quake and a series of crashes emanating from City Hall. Taking more focus, they saw enlarged roots breaking through the walls before the damage grew and stretched around the grounds. Before long, a monstrous-looking flower sprouted out from what remained of City Hall.

The costumed Wayne looked on with widened eyes and realized in bitterment who was behind this. He didn't know if this was possible as he was so used to knowing his acquaintance being a good individual with Naruto's influence in her life. Yet his fears were confirmed with the large flower blossoming.

And it was there the costumed Wayne saw differences between the Pamela Lillian Isley he knew to the one standing in that opened up flower.

Instead of the vibrant red hair he normally sees was replaced with a darkened variety, as if coated and dyed by blood. Her pale green skin was even more sickly green with her vine-like tattoos being more prominent and harsher. The redhead's eyes had a sickly yellow color with black sclera replacing what white was ever there. And as for Ivy's attire, it was primarily green to show off the plant-like armor with an undercoating of brown to indicate hardened tree bark for extra protection. Yet there were many sharp thorns growing out of the edges for some additional offensive capabilities.

"Well ain't that an entrance." Vanitas muttered out as he and (L) Batman stared down at the giant flower pod with two equally sized plants guarding her. "Great~ Ivy with her freaky, beefed up Audrey 2 knockoffs... No need to panic whatsoever."

Off to the side, the costumed Wayne turned over to the Grey Walker. "What the hell happened to Pamela?" He asked in a demanding tone.

The Stranger merely looked on before answering. "Much of Pamela's life was met with strife. The death of her mother at a young age by her father started off her path. It was a rough struggle with hardly any good moments for Pamela to experience. And it became much more apparent without Naruto being there for her."

"Who dares intrude my Realm? _"_ Demanded the Green champion before her eyes landed at the two Gothamite heroes. "Oh, it's you two."

"First off, Isley, we aren't intruding." Spoke the vampiric hero. "You are."

"I beg to differ as you humans are _festering_ this lovely world."

"Right~" Vanitas drawled out. "What are you trying to do this time?"

"Don't you remember?" She asked with a snarl. "I'm still trying to make a better planet!"

"By getting rid of people."

"They are the cause of much misfortune upon this globe and I must cleanse it of it's filth! And the worst place of them all is this city." She growled out. "So I'll start off here!"

As tree sized vines launched towards the heroic pair -who quickly evaded the attack- the Phantom continued his tale. "Dr. Isley was alone for most of her life and didn't have that many companions to rely on. She did have the Hollands, but they were too far away to be with. So when Naruto met her at the Commissioner's Gala, her life became much better with light flickering -then growing- in her darkness. And because of him, Pamela was kept grounded and stable."

Seeing the Green champion in her current state, the (W) Batman quickly knew that wasn't the case in this timeline. Without him being in Naruto's life, the Uzumaki was never dragged via blackmail into the gala where he first met Pamela. And with that, the two never gotten close, later fell in love… and Pamela became a villain as a result.

Slicing through many thick roots with his lance, Vanitas called out to the changed botanist. "It's time to give up, Ivy."

"Sorry. Not interested." She said from her placement up high.

"Then you might be interested in this!"

Rearing back his arm, the black/white colored hero quickly charged his weapon and threw it straight at her. The screeching wind covered the lance as it pierced and sliced through many of Ivy's defenses. As the weapon came closer and closer to her, her two Audrey 2 plants intercepted the attack head on in order to save their creator. The first one was quickly skewered while the second bought time for Ivy to leap out of the way from getting harmed.

Landing onto the ground, the changed botanist looked back where she last stood and saw a small explosion take place. Ivy then glared at the helmeted hero. "You'll pay for that, Vanitas."

"Please~ You can make dozens of those. Scores even." He jested as another Kazekage lance was formed in his grasp. "Now, you're wanted back in Arkham."

"I'll go back over your dead body!"

The ground shook underneath them with vines shooting out before aiming right at Vanitas. With him slicing through the assault, more carnivorous plants were formed on Ivy's command. Once they were sent out to attack the masked Uzumaki, the vampiric hero dropped down from the sky and struck her.

Tumbling across the ground, Ivy quickly got up while dodging her opponent's quick punches and kicks. She backflipped, which her feet upward smacked the Bat's chin to send him flying back. Landing near a bus stop, Langstrom used his strength to tear out it's sign from the ground before smacking Ivy around a few times.

Quickly getting tired from getting hit, the Green champion caught the impromptu weapon before tugging it out of the Bat's grasp. She then batted him away to send him crashing into a nearby building.

As the pseudo-vampire pried himself out of the brick wall, his ears picked up on the sounds of police sirens.

"The cavalry arrived." The (L) Batman dryly spoke. "Too bad them showing up will only hamper things."

"Yeah, no shit." Vanitas stated once landing right beside him. "You alright there, Bats?"

"Dealt with worse."

The two vigilante's were suddenly snagged and hoisted up in the air with them hanging upside down.

"Like a spider, it seems I've caught several flies." Taunted Ivy as she had her vines smack them around. "My babies are rather hungry, so you'll both be food to be first liquidized and then consumed." The Green champion then chuckled darkly. "Prepare to be consumed and transformed into bio-organic fuel for the glory of the _Green!"_

"We'd rather not." Voiced the two heroes.

Vanitas quickly phased himself and his vampiric companion out of their bindings before throwing a volley of electrified daggers at the changed botanist.

"Do you really think you can beat mother nature?" She said once her vines blocked the thrown weapons.

"At the moment, we could outrun her." Vanitas said as the two bolted from the incoming assault as her plants tried to crush them.

"She's consistent, I'd give her that." Langstrom stated.

"Right?"

Before Ivy could personally pursue them, a police car suddenly rammed into her. She yelped and flew into a nearby street lamp with a loud *clang*. The villain then appeared unmoving from what anyone else could see. But if one looked closer, she was actually groaning.

"I really thought the airbags were gonna to go off." Barbara muttered out while holding onto the driver's wheel.

Her father merely groaned from shotgun. "Really gonna need to remember to have these cars up to code after this is over."

Barbara never kept her eyes off of Ivy's form after hitting her. For a brief moment, she thought she ended up killing her or greatly injuring her. But that wasn't the case as the Green champion got back up and harshly glared at the offending driver.

"Crap!" Barbara yelped as she quickly got her car to switch to reverse. Flooring the gas pedal, their car sped backwards in order to get away from the meta-villain.

But their transport was not fast enough as their ride was snagged by Ivy's enlarged roots to briefly hold it in place. The father/daughter pair then lurched forward with the police car lifted up into the air before Pamela started shaking it like a ragdoll.

This came to an end with Vanitas flying right towards the car, phased right through and snagged Gordon and Barbara from their restraints. Making it through the other side, the helmeted hero landed some distance away in order to safely place them down. He then acted quickly and threw up a barrier due to Ivy tossing the car right towards them.

"That wasn't very nice, Ivy."

"It wasn't supposed to."

More police cars arrived onto the scene with many officers quickly exiting their vehicles before aiming their respective weapons at the meta-villain.

Stepping past Vanitas, Commissioner Gordon aimed his glock at the changed botanist alongside his daughter. "Freeze, Pamela!" He said. "It doesn't have to be this way."

All the woman did was smile in a sinister manner. "Actually, Commissioner, it does." Plants soon ensnared him, causing many officers to harden themselves. Even Barbara gritted her teeth on what just happened. "The only law I follow is the Law of the Jungle."

"Isley... please…" Gordon struggled out. "You need help."

Vines came up to her as she caressed their tops. "I have all the help I ever need." Was all Ivy said before she shot them all around her.

The many officers in the GCPD started unloading their ammunition at the offending plants, but they were practically useless against their thick hides. More and more sprung out from the ground as they kept up their assault. Even with the help of Vanitas and the (L) Batman, it was truly hard to keep things under control.

At one point, Ivy quickly commanded many of her plants to reform into flowers before they spewed a green vapor amongst the lot of them. Vanitas quickly formed a barrier around himself, Barbara, her father and the vampiric hero. The many police personnel coughed and wheezed for several moments before things took more notice.

From what the costumed Wayne could see from the sidelines, many of the GCPD appeared to have glowing green eyes with their skin a shade paler than normal. Not to mention green veins being more prominent along the surface. And everytime each person exhaled, visible vapors could be seen coming out from their mouths and nostrils.

'Judging by their movements and mannerisms, they're in some sort of hypnotized state with Pamela as their puppeteer.' Bitterly thought the Caped Crusader.

"I've got quite a bit of security." She said with a devilish smirk. "They'd just die if anything were to happen to me." Ivy then gave a silent command for her drones to attack the two heroes and the Gordons.

Blocking and dodging a series of punches and gunfire from the hypnotized people, the masked Uzumaki spoke. "Hey, Ivy, here's an idea! If you want a good relationship with someone, how about trying the dating route?" Vanitas jested with a hidden smirk. "Beats this creepy voodoo crap."

The Langstrom Batman side kicked one and then kicked another in the chest follow by a spinning back kick and low sweep one off his feet. The vampiric hero quickly got up before dodging gunfire and landed a hard-right punch to the hypnotized officer's face, knocking him down and had kicked one coming from behind and continuing to kick every one of them in the head or chest and spun to deliver a roundhouse.

Vanitas backflipped several times and grasped the shoulders of one of the officers before tossing him into another. Landing on the ground, the helmeted Uzumaki quickly spun around to deliver a series of punches to several joints in order to mobilize one of the officer drones. Once that man was down for the count, the black/white hero then charged and jumped in midair kicking two enemies from left and right and kicked one in front.

The Gordons -however- had to do what they could to immobilize their fellow officers. Neither wanted to shoot them down, but each had to use what fighting skills they had up their sleeves to help out in this endeavour.

"A billion microorganisms will enter your bloodstream." Ivy stated as her hypnotized minions continued their assault. "Spores will grow, replacing the blood in your veins. And when I'm done, your flesh will be replaced with bark."

"Are you done?" The vampiric Batman blandly asked while rounding an officer and elbowing the man underneath his arm before flipping him on the ground. Once subduing him, Langstrom went onto the next opponent. "As much as I'd like to hear more scientific details, I'd rather not become a plant."

"Too bad. I've spent weeks perfecting the toxins that will destroy your _pathetic_ meat sacks you call bodies." 

"We'd like to see you try." Barbara called out as she slid underneath one of the SWAT members before knocking the man out via neck chop.

Jim Gordon had to smack one of his cops around while trying to pay attention to his surroundings so he wouldn't get hit by stray bullets. He quickly spun and kneed a man's side before delivering an elbow strike to give him some advantage. Gordon then took hold of an officer's neck before punching him a few times before grasping his arm and tossed him over his shoulder into another of Ivy's mind controlled officers in order to fend off against another.

"My realm shall _grow_ and _rise_ and-" Ivy was cut off by one of Vanitas' daggers flying past her with it leaving a bloody cut across her cheek. She then felt a massive pain struck on her back, sending her flying across the field.

"OH SHUT UP!" Vanitas roared out as his Rasengan dissipated from his grasp.

With the vampiric Batman, he was having a hard time fending off against the mind controlled police officers and Ivy's sentient plants. Needing to quickly take care of one of the problems, Langstrom pulled out some incendiary grenades from his utility belt. Priming one of them, he jumped onto an incoming vine and ran across it's length before slapping it on it's thick hide. The vampiric hero did the same thing as he hopped onto each of the vines in order to repeat the process. Once out of his explosives, he quickly pressed the trigger before-

*KABOOM*

As a result, many of the sentient plants screeched in painful agony with them burning alive. The fire's started to spread across each of Ivy's 'children'. And soon enough, Ivy watched in horror of what just occurred.

"NO!" She cried out. "My children! My babies! What have you done?!" Spiked vines shot out of the ground and went rampant as the two vigilantes and the father/daughter pair went off to avoid Ivy's attacks. **"This is** _ **my**_ **realm!"** Ivy roared out as her eyes hotly glowed an emerald light. **"AND THE** _ **GREEN**_ **WILL** _ **NOT**_ **BE HARMED BY THE LIKES OF YOU HUMANS NO LONGER!"**

The ground beneath them harshly quaked as it split opened to reveal a monstrous flower. It quickly swallowed Ivy whole before it climbed up higher and higher into the air. Once it towered over them, the petals opened up to reveal Ivy in it's center with some sort of barrier protecting her.

Without warning, two lesser sized copies of the monstrous flower came out of the ground and started shooting acid all over the place.

Vanitas formed a score of clones and had them nab both the unconscious and mind controlled police officers to get them away from Ivy's acidic attack. Even Langstrom had to help out in this situation by taking a few people with him.

Acid kept getting sprayed all over with it melting all sorts of surfaces. From brick walls, the cement sidewalks and roads, lamp posts and even police cars. With most of the later, explosions soon occurred, which added more damage in Ivy's wake.

Wanting to stop the meta-villain, Vanitas and Langstrom started throwing what throwing explosives they had at Ivy's position. They were rather effective, but caused retaliation with Ivy's plants wanting to kill anyone more and more. Digging into the earth before sprouting out in random parts of the battlefield caused much chaos. There were some narrow evasive maneuvers while some were not so lucky with either the heroes or the Gordons getting hit in the process.

As things grew more and more crazy, it was truly hard to keep focus on one's surroundings for those currently against Ivy.

"We need to get out of here, Barbara." Ordered her father as he used up the last of his ammunition. "Let Batman and Vanitas handle this."

"Right." Barbara responded as she knew when to quit, especially in the present moment.

Yet before they could try to escape, one of Ivy's plants sprayed a heavy dose of acid on the nearby car, which caused it to explode, sent them back and had most of the destroyed vehicle roll towards their way.

Not knowing on what just occurred -as both were too focused to take Poison Ivy down- the vampiric Batman and helmeted Uzumaki got closer and closer to their opponent's position. Langstrom gilded while dodging her thickened vines while Vanitas helped slice them up as they were in their way. Once getting to the main flower, the changed scientist latched onto the flower bud and used all of his strength to pry open the monstrous petals. Having enough of an opening, he slipped in what explosives he had left in his belt before taking off.

A powerful explosion happened soon after as Ivy's attacker/guardian was forced to open up. Yet this left it wide open for Vanitas to leap towards its cracked central bud and slam a condensed Rasengan onto its surface. The attack grinded and slashed through it before breaking through and hitting Pamela dead center to quickly knock her out.

With Ivy defeated, she and her monstrous plant fell into the cracked earth. The Green champion had to fight again on another day after this failed attempt to end Gotham.

Back on the battlegrounds, Barbara groaned awake while processing on what just occurred moments ago. Everything was rather hazy for her before things became rather clear. Before she could act up on them, the redhead felt someone help her up. Looking up, she saw it was her fiance.

"Na-Vanitas?"

"Barb, I'm here." He said before hugging her close. "You're safe."

Her head started to blurry swerve all over with a growing, worried expression. "Wh-Where's dad? Is… Is he safe?"

Vanitas hesitated and spoke with a broken voice. "B-Barb… I'm… I'm sorry."

Her amethyst eyes quickly widened before they started to water just as her eyes saw her father's prone body laid nearby them with his chest caved in because of the destroyed police car. "N-No… NO!" She started to fight from her fiance's grasp. "Please! Let me go! DAD!" Barbara cried out before she broke free and rushed towards her father's corpse. "No… Not him…"

Vanitas came up to her and hugged her from behind. "Barbara, I'm so sorry." He said in utter sadness as his fiance bawled her eyes out.

Off to the side, the costumed Wayne looked on in horror on what he just saw. "Good lord…" Muttered the Bat. "This is what _would have happened?_ If not for _me?"_

"Yes." Answered the Grey Walker. "But there is one more part."

The Dark Knight looked on in confusion before he saw his counterpart pull up close to the scene. Coming out of the car, Bruce Wayne looked on in worry. "Good heavens, what a _mess._ Maybe dad… was right. This city really _is_ dangerous." Bruce tightened his fists. "But someone should do _something_ about it."

Seeing this occur, the costumed Wayne held his head low. "So… everyone's life is _different…_ if not for that night that created _me?"_

"Not _everyone."_ Said the fedora wearing being. "Your life is _considerably_ better. But the good that _your_ Batman has accomplished is not here."

The Dark Knight looked onward before he tiredly sighed. "I… think I understand why you brought me here now." The hero then looked over to his companion. "Take me _home,_ Stranger."

"Of course, Bruce Wayne." Said the Phantom before opening his cloak to reveal the snow covered cemetery, where they started off in this little journey of theirs.

As the Bat stepped on through, he spoke. "You really need to learn to stop calling me that."

"...No promises."

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Hoped to get this out sooner, but I had a family trip recently and that took up a good chunk of my time along with the normal time at work… as it sucks up everything like a bloody vampire! I lose my motivation to write once I get home with me being fucking exhausted. I wanted to stay up and write, but can't as I need to be well rested for the long ass days while on the clock.**

 **...So funny story on said mentioned trip. Went to California for my sister's birthday and we went to Disneyland for one day. We had to use a friend of my mom's to get a friends pass discount for 40% off each ticket. Things went well but towards the end of the day, we were wondering why the tickets were still so pricey. Price was supposed to be like $80-90 for each ticket with the discount but we later figured the discount was up to 40% to have us have $119 each.**

 **...We later found out that the friends pass upgraded our tickets to park hoppers.**

 **We could've gone to California Adventure on just the one day after hitting the rides we wanted to do at Disneyland instead of re-riding a few and wasting time in the several rides! And** _ **sure**_ **we were able to go into the park but only rode the roller coaster ride a few times. We didn't have time to fully explore the park and enjoy it to the fullest.**

 **Now with the current chapter… I admit it was quite the struggle while hoping this turned out alright.**

 **As you've realized I wanted to do a rendition of 'It's a Wonderful Life' for Bruce so he could possibly see what it could've been like had his parents not died in Crime Alley when he was eight. Not really the same as my Perchance to Dream chapter, but this one would really show the butterfly effect on a larger scale of things with different moments affecting others in good or bad ways. Delaying, haltering or bringing things closer than what intentionally occured.**

 **With Rochelle Wayne, she is indeed an actual DC character. Shown in the Elseworld comic Batman: Reign of Terror; she's Bruce Wayne's younger sister during the days of Revolutionary France where the pair are the Dynamic Duo. And sorry if I didn't really do any interactions with her at all.**

 **With the Hypnotist I mentioned when talking about Zatanna, he's a character from the DCAU Batman tie-in comics. I thought the details used on what few issues he was in was nice to use in some manner.**

 **Now with other stuff I used in this chapter, they won't exactly be really connected to the main story in general. I merely wanted to put down some good details with certain issues. As you know in my story, Pam and Harley are good guys/anti-heroes; but thought without certain details coming into place the pair would become villains in the other timeline. And with Selina, felt gipt on the Batman/Catwoman wedding in the comics that it didn't really happen at all. So using the wedding portion in this chapter could've made up for that.**

 **With Langstrom being Batman in the altered timeline, you guys already have guessed I'm using stuff from the Justice League: Gods and Monsters run. It's brought up that every reality in the DC Universe needs a Batman in some way, shape and form even if they are the normal variety we're all used to with Bruce at the helm… Or someone else taking up the reigns to be the Bat as either heroes, anti-heroes or outright villains like the Dark Multiverse shown in the infamous Dark Nights Metal run.**

 **Another thing I should bring up is that a pair of fanfic writers asked me to put up a notice for y'all. Their names are Autobot0001 and white petal and their hoping someone could take up the reigns of their one Yugioh/Totally Spies story called 'New Recruit'. I helped them out on writing up a lot of details for their story and it turned out great. Though despite the fact they have enjoyed the idea of 'New Recruit', neither could continue the story because of certain circumstances.**

 **So if anyone wants to take up that story, PM them in order to adopt the story and to acquire the story notes.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thanks you!**

 **R &R**


	60. Destati

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 55: Destati**

In the beginning, there was nothing.

An empty Void filled with the deepest Darkness and Chaos held sway. An eternal abyss where time was irrelevant as if one were to be there; mere moments could in fact be days, weeks, months, or even years.

If one were there -at some particular moment in the infinite void- they'd feel a _Presence_ there. It hasn't made itself known, but you could feel it. With nothing happening all around oneself, one's senses are heightened considerably so you would obviously feel _that_.

Then out of out nowhere _His_ Voice spoke: _Let there be Light._

Several things occurred at that very moment: First was Destiny being born from nothing as he went to record _His_ first sentence in his chained up book; in fact, it's on the very first page. And the second -with a _Heartbeat_ and a snap of _His_ fingers- a blinding flash of Light erupted all over.

Some called this event Genesis and some called it the Big Bang. It has been given many names throughout countless eons, but one thing was certain: there was indeed Light!

From that Light came all the matter and energy that was the Universe. The stars and quasars. The planets and galaxies. The rocks, the fields, the streams, the deserts. The things that crawl amid the dust to the things that fly through vast reaches of space.

And along with that Light coming from the Darkness came Order to help combat against the Chaos. Conflicts arose with each not truly working hand in hand with the other. Soon enough, they sought to see which came out from top and what would be left to fester and die. Yet each tend to forget that both sides need each other in order to survive, for one can't exist without the other.

Despite this fact, Order and Chaos… Light and Darkness clashed in their never ending war. Always in a state of discord while rarely working together in harmony.

As time went on, parts of the Light and Order tend to be corrupted as they become too blinded with their actions. And parts of the Darkness and Chaos sometimes gets cleansed and actually make amends in order to see the bigger picture at large.

And one thought one's inner struggle with their personal Light and Darkness was confusing enough.

...Asides from this, worlds have been made by these acts. Some for good, some bad, and mostly out from natural ways. All are connected, one way or another. Some are well know, others are kept secret while the rest are unknowing.

Through it all, they all originate from one… _particular_ place. The Cauldron… The Forge… The Root… these are merely just the few names it's been known for in the countless eons since the start of it all.

Yet it has been called by one other.

And it was from _here_ -during the Great Creation- one piece of primeval matter left and wandered throughout the cosmic universe. Through some quirk of blind chance -or some miraculous circumstance- took a shape one day became not that of an undefined piece of molten material of the highest degree. But through the foundry of space and the temperance of time -untouched by living hands- took the form of something… _unique._

For countless years, the ancient relic slashes it's eternal path amongst the vast ocean of stars. It never had any clear destination. Merely wandering, yet avoiding in being pulled into a planet's atmosphere or any spacecraft out there. It's as if the ancient relic was hoping to find something, but there is no clear answer as no one has been able to get remotely close to it.

That is… until now.

Coming across the Milky Way for the upteenth time, the cosmic item was going to make another pass right through it. Swinging across one end to the other before going onto the next galaxy… the relic felt a tug. It was subtle at first with it always being tugged all over the cosmos in order to get away from unworthy pursuers. But as it passed through more interstellar dust clouds -which left quite a coating layer on its surface- the tug became more apparent, like it was calling out to it.

The ancient item was drawn closer and closer to the end of the 'rope'. Riding through one of Orion's arms, the material came across a small solar system before taking a swift turn to enter it.

For the first time in eternity, the cosmic relic was going to land… be found… and be used by one that was worthy of its power.

Floating in a sea of Darkness, Naruto opened his eyes with a blurred vision. He felt like he was waking up from a long nap, yet feeling not all that rested. The Uzumaki always hated that feeling.

Shoving that thought aside, the former shinobi was curious as to why he was in this position with his eyes wandering about. He couldn't exactly try to get himself upright with his body occasionally drifting all over.

'This… feels familiar.' Thought the former shinobi as he slowly remembered the experience. 'It's not falling…' He momentarily opened his mouth before feeling water rushing down his throat, making him not breathe at all. 'SHIT, I'M SINKING!'

Naruto almost drowned a bad number of times and he didn't want to experience that crap again! The whiskered publisher quickly closing his mouth and covering his mouth and nose in order to preserve his oxygen and tried to stay awake as his fatigue crept back up. But the former shinobi had to stay awake or else he might die!

Whirling his head around in order to find where he was, a small form of realization came to mind. 'I must be dreaming.' Naruto soon growled. 'This wouldn't be bad at all, except I can get seriously hurt here!'

Drifting further and further down, the whiskered Uzumaki tried to calm down his heart but to no avail. 'I really hate this kind of dream.'

At one point -which felt like an eternity- his back impacted something solid in the ever expansive void. Naruto coughed into his hand from the feeling, widening his eyes from almost losing his breath. Closing his optics, he tried to focus on waking himself up, but it wasn't working!

'Am… Am I gonna die?!' Naruto thought as he felt his eyes sting from newly made tears, along with his lungs from not being able to receive a supply of oxygen. 'I… I know seeing Didi again would be nice, but not like this!' Images of his friends and loved ones passed through his mind. 'I don't wanna leave them!'

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts 1.5: Dive into the Heart -Destati Extended-**_

' _Calm down.'_

The sudden voice got Naruto to open and widen his eyes in alarm. 'Who?'

' _You should be able to breathe.'_

Naruto hesitated for several moments with his heart racing. If he moved his hands from his mouth and nose, the water will drown him by losing his precious oxygen. The Uzumaki didn't know if he should trust… whoever just spoke, but what choice did he had?

Slowly removing his hands from his face, waited and waited for the water to take him, yet it didn't come at all and he was able to breathe… somehow… Naruto then realized he didn't feel the water touching him at all!

' _Well?'_

Looking all around, the whiskered man tried to find the source of the voice. Yet with this endless abyss, it was rather hard to do so.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked with a narrowed glance. "And where the hell am I?" All the publisher got was a feint chuckle. "Do you think this is funny?! I could've died!"

The former shinobi merely laid in his spot while glaring at the abyss above him, not hearing any response back from the particular voice. He was like that for several moments before getting onto his feet. Naruto moved around in order to make heads or tails in where he's at. Though after several moments, the Uzumaki realized he was in a familiar place as he was _here_ before.

In fact, he'd been here countless times!

The moment he took a step forward, the solid surface he was standing on quickly lit up. The intensity of the light was so bright that he shielded his eyes with his hands or else he'd go blind. And after several moments, Naruto briefly saw the light dim down from underneath his hands. Bringing them down, his gaze immediately looked down and was surprised to see what was before him.

Naruto was no stranger to the Heart Platforms in his mindscape as he saw the ones for Pam, Harley and Selina. Each were magnificent and beautiful in their own right as they represented his three girlfriends with how they were connected to his heart.

But what he was standing on was something very unexpected to him.

The design of the platform was primarily green in color with some sort of island fortress appearing in the background. Surrounding it were the small circles framing the platform which the silhouettes of various weapon. Walking further up towards the upper circles, Naruto saw portraits of the familiar of Nyssa, Ra's and a beautiful woman. And the focus of the platform had his former teacher in her assassin attire with her compact bow in her right hand as her image seemed to be asleep.

"Talia…" He muttered with a sorrowed gaze. "Why are you here?... Did you truly mean so much to me?"

Ever since Talia sent him their old motorcycle for Christmas, the former shinobi had a hard time not thinking about her. He had been prolonging to open up her letter and read its contents as he feared on what words were written inside. It was a silly thing to be all into, but to him it was a lot.

Naruto had hoped on seeing her again since they never really said goodbye when they last saw each other back in the Sahara. But was her sending him their motorcycle her way in doing so? He didn't want to believe that at all…

' _So much to do, so little time…'_

The Uzumaki jumped a little and briefly whirled his head around to find the source of the voice. It felt familiar to him now that he thought about it. Thinking back, the whiskered publisher remembered it was the same one he heard when he got his Kazekage lance -with the Man-Bat incident- and his Void Shots when he was back in Starling City.

The former shinobi could feel some sort of Presence there, but he didn't know where it was at.

' _Take your time. Don't be afraid.'_

"For what?" Questioned the Uzumaki as he went towards the center of the Heart Platform.

' _The door is still shut.'_

Naruto then felt the stained glass floor softly shake with him wondering what was going on. Not knowing what would happen in this situation, he went into a fighting position in order to prepare himself for anything.

Instead of a threat coming at him, his eyes saw three pedestals rising from pools of light which formed on the stained glass surface in order to surround him. He took notice of one of them -as they appeared to be of the same material and design- and saw it was made out of marble as they were about half his height. The design wasn't complicated at all, for whirls took up the space with an intricate crown placed in the center. And to finish off the marble pedestals were small spikes coming out from the top corners.

' _Power sleeps within you.'_

Suddenly -in a flash of light- an object appeared above the pedestal on his left which appeared to be some medieval kite shield merely floating there. It was primarily obsidian black for its base color with a red outline. On each corner lied a bronze bolt punched into the onyx material. And in it's center got Naruto to raise an eyebrow to express some confusion that quickly rose inside of him.

'Why… is the Mickey Mouse symbol there?' Was his thought before he saw another flash of light appear from the corner of his vision.

Whirling his head towards his right, Naruto saw some sort of combat rod floating above the marble pedestal. The majority of the handle was green in color with some metallic gold material at each end. Yet on the top, it was the same Mickey Mouse symbol as before, but it was more three-dimensional and blue in color.

' _If you give it form, it'll give you strength.'_

One final flash of light appeared on the final pedestal, which sat around where Talia's head was at on this platform. Like the other two objects, it merely floated there as it briefly rose and up and down from it's spot. There lied a short sword which it's blade seemed slightly longer by about an inch or two from it's standard length. It's handle was blue with a golden bronze hilt with a matching pommel for the material. In the center design was a red circle… with a black Mickey Mouse symbol in it.

"Okay… I have no clue why they have _that_ symbol -of all things- on them." Naruto muttered.

' _Choose well.'_

The Uzumaki rose a brow. "Choose?" He questioned. "I'm supposed to choose one of them?" He waited for the voice to respond back to him, yet all he was met with silence. "Of course." He looked down onto the platform before he let out a small chuckle. "Should be oddly appropriate since Talia did the same thing when she started teaching me how to properly use weapons."

Moving his head to each one, he decided to go to the shield first. Taking hold of it with both of his hands, he twirled it around to see both sides of it. On it's back were two leather straps bolted into the metal and saw on the back it was vaguely similar to the front, minus the Mouse symbol.

' _The Power of the guardian._

 _Kindness to aid friends._

 _A shield to repel all._

 _Is this the power you seek?'_

Naruto cocked his head before shaking his head. "If you're providing details… Not yet. I wanna know about the other two before I decide." He said before putting the shield back in its place. Once letting go, Naruto saw it floated once more.

Coming across the rod, he grasped it's pole and swung it a little. He then turned it all around to see if there were some irregularities to it, but found nothing at all.

' _The Power of the mystic._

 _Inner strength._

 _A staff of wonder and ruin._

 _Is this the power you seek?'_

The Uzumaki shook his head 'no' as he needed to see the final option. Putting the mystic rod back onto the pedestal, Naruto went towards the sword to finish off the inspections. Once taking hold of the leather handle, the former shinobi felt it's weight and swung it a little to see what it was like. After that, he spun the weapon before it ended up in a reverse grip.

' _The power of the warrior._

 _Invincible courage._

 _A sword of terrible destruction._

 _Is this the power you seek?'_

Naruto thought about it and wondered which of the three he should take. He pondered for several minutes before he came to his decision. Twirling the sword in his grasp to have it in its normal position, Naruto held it up.

"I'll choose this power."

In a flash of light, the weapon disappeared from his grasp as he felt the weight leaving him.

' _Your path is set. Now… what will you give up in exchange?'_

The Uzumaki sighed. "Of course it wouldn't be that simple." Tapping his foot a little, Naruto pondered once more. Once done, he walked over to the shield. "Hey! Whoever you are! I give up this!"

" _Are you sure you want to give up that power?"_

"…I don't need a shield to protect what's important to me." Memories of his life flashed through his head on what he exactly did to protect those precious to him. "I know a shield can represent protecting others… and myself. But I'm already doing that by fighting back. I can't always rely on being on the defensive. I need to fight for what's right, which to me is how I can protect anything these days." Looking at the black abysmal sky, Naruto spoke with determination. "So yes, I will give up this power."

' _Hmm… Well said.'_

And like that the shield vanished in a flash of light. As this happened, Naruto smirked when hearing the pleased tone from the person's voice.

' _You've chosen the power of the warrior._

 _You've given up the power of the guardian._

 _Is this the form you choose?'_

"Last chance to back out, huh?" Thinking about it a bit more, Naruto realized he wouldn't get another chance… for whatever was going on right now. But there was no backing down now! Giving out a nod, he spoke. "Yes! I choose this form!"

Suddenly, the pedestals started to sink into the stained glass ground. Naruto looked around while preparing himself for whatever might happened next. But what came caught him off guard with the ground shaking like crazy… before it shattered!

With nowhere to go, he could only stand there as the floor he was standing on disappeared. He blinked several times and felt all blood rushing out of his head.

"Oh SHIIIII-!"

And like that, Naruto fell into the abyss.

The Uzumaki kept spinning around as he let out a momentary scream. He tried to get himself upright, but to no avail. He didn't know when he'd crash into something, but he felt himself speeding up to his inevitable crash.

Suddenly, his vision caught onto a Heart Platform that appeared from out of nowhere. Though it was rather hard to focus with all of the damn spinning! Coming closer to it, Naruto was able to get himself to stop twirling all over by shifting and throwing his weight at the right moment.

There he was able to see a light purple platform with the repeating circles framing the structure having the same mark. The design almost looked like a blockish-looking heart, but the bottom came out it three spikes with two going off to the sides. In the center -instead of there being a person- lied three large different colored circles; which were rustic orange, light green and crystal blue. And inside of each of these circles was some oddly shaped star with the same blockish heart placed into their center.

With the platform rapidly approaching, Naruto was sure he would hit it with his current speed. Yet suddenly, his descent slowed and he was able to gain control of his landing. Flipping over so he landed on his feet, the touchdown was feather light.

"Soooo~ now what?" A flash of light appeared in his hand. Once it died down, he saw that the sword from before had returned. "Okay… what's this for?" He said before doing some experimental swings to get a better feel of it. It was rather light and could deliver some swift blows from what he could make out of the weapon.

' _You've gained the power to fight… Use it to protect yourself and others.'_

"Well duh~" He muttered before he blinked. "Wait… Protection from what?"

Suddenly, he noticed something strange appearing on the stained glass platform. A shadow had formed on the ground nearby and it was shifting around as if it was alive!

' _There will be times you have to fight.'_

The weird shadow suddenly rose and grew out of the ground! It looked like some kind of bipedal impish, giant ant. It had clawed hands and feet. There were jagged antennas coming out of its head, where two glowing yellow eyes appeared on its inky black face. There wasn't anything like a mouth or a face. Another ant-thing soon joined it… and another… and another!

' _Stay strong and keep moving forward.'_

Naruto could only look on as several dozen of these odd Shadows popped out and surrounded him. He narrowed his gaze as they suddenly lunged right at him. Quickly swung his sword, the strikes connected with them which sent each back a bit. Yet he didn't let up on the assault as he took them down with these Shadows going up in blackened vapors.

Naruto was aware of his surroundings and saw a few trying to strike him from behind. The whiskered man flipped to avoid their attack while swinging the blade right through them.

After defeating a few more of these impish creatures, pools of darkness started to converge and cover the entire platform he was standing on. When it reached him, Naruto began to sink into it as he struggled in attempting to pull himself out.

But where would he pull out to? There was nothing else at all! And before long, his entire body sunk into the abyss…

Next thing he realized -upon jolting awake- Naruto saw he was on a completely different platform, again.

This one was slightly pink with a splash of magenta in the primary color. The surrounding circles took on a design similar to the fleur-de-lis with it being thinner and more curved. In the center of the platform were seven large hearts with a female silhouette -in a gradient turquoise blue color- placed in each one in front of a yellow background. And in the far off side of the Heart Platform was a transparent, creamy-purple colored double door.

Flashes appeared before his gaze. Replacing the doors before him was an extremely tall ivory white double door floating in the endless abyss. There was quite the intricate design along it's surface with its elegant grooves and golden studs. Yet -for some reason- they lacked a knob or handles, making him wonder how one could open them. On the quarter of the way up, both doors had stained glass in them in a kaleidoscope of colors. And in the center of the glass art was a heart.

"The hell was that?" Naruto questioned.

' _The door…'_

Walking towards the intricate purple doors, the former shinobi spoke his curious thought. "The door… to what?"

' _The door to all… but_ that _won't open just yet.'_

This merely left more questions than answers for him, which weren't going to be clearly given anytime soon.

 _'And be careful… Beyond that door lies a completely different world._

 _So don't be afraid. Don't stop walking…'_

Shaking his head of the warning, a thought crossed Naruto's mind once coming to the passage way before him. 'Is there any way in opening this? I mean, all I'd do is end up walking right through it without-' The door suddenly flashed for a brief moment. As it died down, the entrance to… somewhere… became solid. 'That solves one problem.'

Grasping the handles, Naruto pulled and found some difficulty in opening it. The Uzumaki narrowed his eyes and wondered if it was locked. There weren't any visible keyholes or any switches. He moved around the sealed off door and saw nothing to indicate the problem.

Naruto soon adopted a thinking position. 'There must be something involved in opening this thing.' He tapped his foot against the stained glass ground. 'Can't force myself through as that _never_ really solves anything. But there must be some way.'

Small figments of memory surfaced at the time when Morpheus opened up a doorway to Bruce's dream. And after that, Naruto tried to copy the Dreaming Lord's method in opening pathways into the others' dreams.

Later attempts were successful, but the first merely formed that darkened portal of sorts.

Naruto hummed before his eyes went back at the door. 'I never really used that thing before. Only opening it once. Been meaning to look more into that, but kept delaying it.' He sighed before scratching his head. 'The only person I saw use that thing was that hooded asshole that attacked me three times so far.'

Seeing as there was nothing to lose, Naruto held out his hand and aimed it towards the purple doors. Closing his eyes, he concentrated and focused in remembering the feeling from all those months ago when making that doorway.

He can distinctly see it now with it being an inverse of fire. Instead of bright and warm, it was dark… and cold. Even it's colors didn't fit right with normal fire. Instead of reds, yellows and oranges; it was primarily black with purples and blues buried in its middle.

Opening his eyes, Naruto saw a plumb of darkened vapors rising from underneath the purple door. Before long, the passageway was consumed by the darkened flames before becoming a black dome -with purples and blues in it's center- as vapors rolled off its edges.

Naruto was about to walk into it when he saw something shine brightly from inside of the dome. The light grew and grew and before the Uzumaki knew it, a strange occurrence happened: the Light and Dark swirled together. The dark flames slowly mixed with the silvery white ones that formed from its center.

Naruto admitted the little spectacle looked pretty. Yet this didn't answer what was going on, especially seeing the Dark overwhelming the Light before it started to switch around every few seconds. Looking back at his hand, an idea formed on what he needs to do for this situation. Sinking his appendage into the swirling dome, Naruto focused in making things right; to find balance in the different colored flames.

And several more moments of deep concentration, the swirled flamy vapors dissipated to reveal the purple door. From here, a loud click was heard coming from the entryway.

"Huh, so it was locked." He muttered out. "But I needed to make the means to unlock it." As he soon grabbed the handles, one final thing left his mouth. "I definitely need to start working on that dome thing after this."

Pulling the door open, a bright light bursted from the cracks before his vision was bathed in it.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Back Cover: Cases of Foretellers-**_

Once the light died down, the former shinobi rubbed his eyes to help clear his vision. The intensity of the light hurt his optics pretty badly, like when he stared up at the sun for too long when he was a kid and didn't know any better.

Removing his hand from his face, Naruto saw he was in his loft. He rose a brow and briefly wondered if he woke up from the Dreaming. He did see the familiar details of his residence from the same layout to all of the placements of many miscellaneous items placed by his three lovers and both his ward and daughters.

Yet something felt amiss in this picture.

The Uzumaki remembered himself training Rachel in better use of meditation. And what better way than doing so than with the meditation techniques he had learned during his Sage training. Fully immersing yourself so you might seem dead to the world, but you weren't. Having a far better connection with one's surroundings by seemingly losing yourself in order to draw it's energies. But not too much or else one becomes consumed by it and suffers the consequences.

Rachel was fascinated by the meditation technique Naruto presented. She felt it would truly better her skills she learned from both at Azarath and under Jason Blood's teachings. Not to mention the activity would be a better bonding moment between the guardian/ward pair.

So question was: where was she? Rachel was supposed to at least be meditating near him. If she wasn't doing that anymore -for the time being- his ward would've been somewhere in the loft to take care of her other studies.

And it wasn't just the ashen child, but where was Pam and their daughters? His little girls would be fussing over him by now that he's woken up… or at least messing with him like the past few times. For instance, hanging him upside down with their plants or drawing on his face because of Harley's influence. And if they were gone, Pam would've left a note on where she took them. Either to work, the greenhouse or to the park as mere examples.

Getting up from the floor, Naruto moved to find out what was going on. Though when he moved his head around, the Uzumaki confirmed his suspicions were indeed correct. For when his gaze went past his patio window, he saw the normal buildings of Gotham…

But the familiar landscape of his old home of Konoha.

"I'm still in the Dreaming, aren't I?" He questioned himself.

' _Hold on._

 _The door won't open just yet._

 _First, tell us more about yourself.'_

"Us?" Muttered the publisher. He turned around and saw three new additions appearing inside of his loft. "Oh… them?"

The first one was a fair-skinned young woman that appeared to be slightly older than Barbara. Her rich blue eyes matched the same colored hair which reached past her neck as it seemed to spike near the end along with the sides of her head. She wore a black and blue, high-collared halter top with black shorts. Over the top were two pink intersecting belts over her chest that in the center was the same blocky heart design he saw earlier. It was from there she appeared to be wearing silver segmented pieces of armor over several parts of her attire. From the white bell-sleeves and fingerless gloves, her black stockings -which reached halfway up her thigh- her battle cloth around her waist and her boots.

The second person was a tall, tanned-skinned young man with blue eyes and dark brown hair reaching the base of his neck as it was styled in a way that reminded Naruto a lot of Sasuke's haircut from his home world. He wore a skintight, grey and black high-collared muscle shirt with a pair of red suspender belts intersecting across his chest. The man wore sand colored hakama pants with it being grey on top with a belt running through it. And there he saw the belt buckle being the same blockish heart as before, but it was gold instead of silver like the previous person. There was also segmented armor shown on his feet in a gold brown color and completely on his left arm with gold, bronze and brown colors working together.

The last one was a mid-teen boy with blue eyes and spiky, dirty blonde hair. His clothing was rather odd with the red collared jacket's right side of his jacket being white while the left was black that was reminiscent of Yin and Yang. Underneath the jacket was a grey vest with several white, angular patterns on it. The boy wore balloon pants -that closed up halfway down his legs- which had shades of grey, black and white. And over his chest was the same blockish heart as it was connected to a pair of intersecting straps. With a similar theme to the other two, the boy wore segmented armor -which was dull green, blueish-silver and black in color- on his midsection underneath his vest, a pauldron on his left shoulder and on his boots.

It was quite odd seeing these people for the first time and thought of them being from some sort of fantasy novel series with how they looked. Then again, he'd seen odder in most parts of his life. And looking upon the three people, Naruto would've thought they would've been statues if it weren't for the fact that he barely saw them move in their spots.

Being curious on what's going on, he went to the woman in blue -who was over at the bookshelf- before speaking to her. "So-"

"What is it that you're so afraid of?"

"...What?" Naruto looked down and thought the question through. It was strange being asked this. He thought it would've been easy to answer, but in fact it wasn't. Looking up, the whiskered man answered. "Losing something important, something that's precious to me… If I lose those that I considered precious, I don't know if I'll be strong enough to support others."

"Is that so bad?" Asked the blue woman with a small smile.

"...The hell is that supposed to mean?" He responded back with a raised brow. "You asked the question, I answered and you only gave me another one in return."

She didn't say anything at all, causing Naruto to groan as he walked over to the mid-teenager who was over by the kitchen.

"What's the one thing you care about more than anything else?"

The Uzumaki breathed out a sigh. He had a slight downcasted look as he thought back on things. Before long, he gave his answer. "It would be my bonds towards others." The teenager merely looked at him that practically read 'explain'. "Throughout my life, I hated being alone. It hurt so much and I sought after it. As time passed, I gained friends and loved ones which soon gave me experiences I'd forever treasure. And because of that, I gained a bond with my loved ones as they are truly a big part of me with who I am today."

The teenager merely nodded in response.

After that, Naruto walked over to the final person in his loft as he merely sat by the stairs. Coming up to him, the former shinobi spoke up. "What are you making me question now?"

"Between the road to Light," moving the left hand, the being waved it slightly before doing the same towards the right, "and the road to Darkness. Which one would you walk?"

This question caused Naruto to step back a bit. It was something quite unexpected for him to hear. Not to mention that the question was something that'll truly push his mind to the limit.

After thinking for a minute, the whiskered Uzumaki replied the man's question. "Neither." The duck-butt haired man was surprised by the publisher's answer. "One cannot exist without the other. Every light creates a shadow. If there is a shadow, there is a light. They're inseparable."

"Then which road would you take?"

"I'd rather take the middle road."

The young man tilted his head. "Do you mean the Twilight road to Nightfall? Or the road to Dawn?"

Naruto merely rose a brow. "...Really hard to decide as one can't exist without the other. So why not both."

Without warning, the man sitting at the stairs faded away like he was never there. Naruto was curious on what occurred and turned around and saw the other two occupants were gone as well.

'What the hell is going on here?' He thought as he moved around his loft. Before he could move any further, Naruto felt something appear behind him. Turning around, the Uzumaki saw the same girl he saw in that odd memory when he chatted with Didi standing a foot away from him. "Who... are you?" Naruto asked the orange eyed, ashen child. "It feels that I know you... somehow."

"Naruto, what do you wish for?" The former shinobi rose a brow at the little girl's question.

"More questions, huh?" He muttered while racking his mind to find an appropriate answer. "Honestly? I don't _really_ know for sure."

"How so?"

"Well there's a few wishes that somewhat come to mind." He said before listing off one from the top of his head. "World peace -for one- so everyone could be happy. No one to ever suffer again life's problems." Naruto sighed as he sat on the arm of his couch. "But there lies a problem in that as conflict must happen for everything to move forward to make things better for all. It's a great goal, but should not be a means to the end. If progress does not occur, then everything becomes stagnant and no one wants that."

The little girl gave the same look the teenage boy made earlier for Naruto explain his reasons. "Causality is a universal concept and no one can change it. Always occurring whenever people start moving forward in order to progress with one's beliefs, ideologies, goals, etc. For that brings in challenges, which incites conflict. And yes I know conflict breeds catastrophe, but... but despite what catastrophes occur, people hope they can work together to make things better. So if I wish to end all of that, then what will people learn from all these problems. Not to mention that I'd have no confidence whatsoever in humanity for asking that wish. Everyone fights against their problems to make themselves better."

The Uzumaki then shook his head. "It's not just that, but a world without pain or death or actual problems would actually bring chaos from the facaded order. Sure… it's an idealized dream many have sought for, but it causes confusion and everyone would want to change that. It's unnatural and unsettling for any living, breathing being out there.

But if everyone was given immortal so quickly and easily, they'd stop in their potential all together. Should that happen, everyone would be _too_ contempt with what's been given to them, making their lives meaningless."

The Uzumaki held his head as his hands tightened. "And there are things no one can solve, no matter how hard they try. Like good repelling evil. It's sadly the truth as things can't exist without the other. There's a fact that people do strive to be good, despite many having their faults and what they see are justified while others see their actions are not."

Naruto then held a hand over his heart. "I admit, I'm not perfect. In fact no one is as everything makes mistakes. However, all I want is to do what I can to help fix those problems in a reasonable manner."

After several moments, the publisher collected his thoughts and spoke again. "Another wish I have is… wondering what happened to everyone back in the Elemental Nations after Kurama and I came to this world." He said before letting out a sigh. "I know the 4th War was still going on as everyone was fighting the reanimated dead, Tobi -the fake Madara- and the infamous Madara himself; but with our sudden disappearance I don't know what happened afterwards.

Did the united shinobi forces win? Did they lose? Everything held at a stalemate since Kurama and I are no longer there for the Moon's Eye plan to commence? It's those questions that plague my mind every so often and I wonder what the answers are. But in the end, I had to move on with what I need to worry about now here in my new home."

The child merely stared at the man before her. "What do you _really_ wish for, then?"

"...If I were to guess, I feel I should wish to gain back what I lost. And if I were to guess, it would have to be memories."

"Why'd you say that?"

"I feel… there's several things missing from my head and I'm confused as hell on what they are." He answered. "Are they bad? Are they good? Doesn't really matter to me. They're apart of me and having them be missing seems to make me feel… incomplete."

The orange eyed, ashen child didn't say anything. Only turning around from her spot and rushing out of the door. Naruto quickly followed after her and was blinded by the light.

As it died down, the former shinobi saw her outside… in a secluded part of the Konoha woods with his younger self playing with her. The pair were currently playing in the snow as evidence showed them making snowmen, having snowball fights and making snow angels. Both children had clear signs of exhaustion across their features, yet it was buried down with how much fun they were having.

Lying on the ground, the younger Naruto kept breathing at a rapid pace in order to catch his breath. _"So tell me, ▄▅▂▃▄, why were you all alone earlier when I saw ya with them bullies?"_ He asked as his head was turned to her.

 _"I dunno."_ She muttered as she sat against a tree to calm herself down. _"I must've lost track of mother. One minute I was with her. Next thing I knew I blacked out before waking up here of all places. When I went exploring, those mean kids found me… and you know the rest."_ Her orange eyes stared right back at him. _"What about you, Naruto?"_

 _"Same for me... sort of. I don't have anyone to be with really."_ This got a sad look from her face. _"But I'm not lonely at all anymore!"_

The ashen child blinked in confusion. _"Why's that?"_

 _"It's because I met you! My first friend ever!"_

This brightened her a lot. He thought of her as his friend? Just after meeting for the first time earlier?

In a bashful look, she spoke in an innocent proclamation. _"T-Then we'll be together forever?"_

In blissful ignorance, the younger Uzumaki rolled onto his stomach before getting onto his feet. _"Heh~ Of course we will, ▄▅▂▃▄! It's a promise of a lifetime!"_

The two self proclaimed friends soon faded from Naruto's sight as the snow drifted down from the sky.

The publisher then felt something wet rolling down his cheek. Bringing up a hand, he felt it came from his eye and realized he was crying. And it was not just that, but he felt a small tug in his heart as Naruto realized he must've broken his promise… to a long forgotten friend… that he can't even hear her name at all…

' _You cherish your bonds with others._

 _You're afraid of losing those precious to you._

 _You want to walk the path of Twilight._

 _And you wish to gain what you've lost, if there was any to begin with._

 _Is this correct?'_

Wiping away what tears were forming from his eyes, Naruto nodded in acceptance.

' _Your life will further change at Twilight._

 _The day you will open the door is both far off and very near.'_

"The hell do you mean by that?"

' _The Darkness awakens with the Light from within… which shall lead you to the Key.'_

"...Now I'm even more confused."

After that was said, the world before him was bathed in light again.

Once again as the light died down, Naruto reappeared standing on a platform in the blackened abyss. And like usual, it was a new platform with quite a unique design. Yet this time had a somewhat familiar face as its main focus.

The enlarged platform was primarily rustic orange in color with the brown duck-butt haired man leaning against the side carrying a large sword on his back. Said sword was lightly bronzed on the extravagant blade with teeth on both sides at the tip of the blade. The turquoise colored hand guard also elongates to form a wing-like shape of sorts. Surrounding the edges was that same blockish heart as before and in the background had a darkened castle set in front of a sunset. And towards the top had headshots of the woman in blue and the dirty blonde teenager with one other being a dark haired man with a goatee… and a bald man with a white goatee that screamed cliche villain.

After the little inspection was over, Naruto saw a light shine down from above to the platform's center. Upon reaching it, a pillar of light appeared in his hand before the sword he used before entered his grasp.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: Night of Tragedy Extended-**_

Darkened shadows soon started to appear and shift all around before rising from the stained glass surface. And by the looks of it, they were the same ant-like Shadows from earlier.

One of them was the first to act as it leapt at the whiskered publisher. He quickly spun and sliced the shadowy creature in two before it dissipated into vapors. From there, many more followed suit to avenge their fallen comrade. Yet they too met the same fate.

Things started to change as the shadowy ant-like imps started to change sizes from either twice or thrice their original size.

Taking a quick look of them, Naruto clicked his tongue in mild annoyance. "Eh~ I've faced bigger." He quickly rolled and sliced the head off of one of them. "And tougher, I might add."

The enlarged Shadows didn't take too kindly being told that, causing them to charge.

Naruto jumped over one and hit it's head with his sword pommel as he slid over it. Once landing, he sliced it's exposed back before whirling around to avoid one of the enlarged shadow's attacks. The Uzumaki soon stabbed another before sliding underneath an incoming attacker. He used this opportunity to slice it's belly.

Quickly getting onto his feet, Naruto saw the dark vapors from the destroyed shadow creatures. He was soon tackled to the ground by a pair of the enlarged Shadows as they tried to swipe at him. Naruto retaliated by using much of his strength to push them off. From there, he swiped his sword horizontally, killing them.

Some of them were able to get behind him in order to surround their target. Yet Naruto made quick footwork in order to quickly side around one of them before striking it down with a powered swing. Once that creature was turned into vapors, the Uzumaki quickly delivered several strikes at the remaining Shadow. With the last few, they decided to jump him. Yet he ducked down and spun his weapon to slice through the last of them.

After the shadow creatures were gone from the Heart Platform, Naruto looked at the sword in his grasp. "Sucks that I don't know how to properly use one of these." He muttered out. "Really wish Talia could've taught me the proper basics back then. All I did was merely going with the flow and going with my instincts. Just like when I fought Ra's." The Uzumaki then noticed another platform in the distance, making him know where he had to go to next.

Yet before he made the chance to do so, his eyes wandered downward and reared his head back in confusion.

For some reason when looking back at the brown haired man's image, Naruto swore the man's hair seemed to change into silver with his eyes turning from deep blue to acidic yellow. The platform's sunset background was replaced with a darkened, desolate ruin. And as for the man's sword, it turned into something black and demonic looking sword.

Said weapon has a dark black handle with a raised spiral carved around it. Its pommel and guard resemble black, demonic wings. The base of the blade is an etching of an evil goat and the shaft is formed from two black, barbed blades, etched with a white icon resembling a bramble of thorns. The teeth at the blade's end are formed in the shape of a demonic wing, and are set with an devilish blue cat's eye.

"Okay… that is weird." Came his response.

Shaking his head, the former shinobi ran towards the platform's edge as a stained glass stairway formed soon after. He didn't wait for it completely form as he dashed across its surface. He did have to be careful or else he'd fall into the abyss below.

At one point, he glanced back and saw more of those Shadows following after him. He tried to form some of his throwing weapons, but to his shock they didn't appear at all.

"That's fucking bullshit!" Naruto yelled before he readied himself and swung his sword. As the blade struck, he swung at another. "Should've realized that sooner!"

By the time he destroyed his incoming attackers, the rest of the stained glass pathway was formed. He quickly ran across its surface in order to get to the next platform. Once making at it's edge, Naruto quickly struck the rest of the incoming attackers before seeing if any more were coming his way.

Letting out a little sigh of relief, he looked at his vacant hand and tried to form one of his known weapons. But to his dismay and frustration, either of them didn't show up at all! Even when he focused more power into his hand to the point of almost having a massive headache.

"THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!" Naruto roared out, almost ripping his silvery hair out from his scalp. "I WAS FINE GETTING THEM OUT ON PREVIOUS TIMES, BUT NOW-REAAAAAAAAAHH!"

After releasing some pent up anger, his eyes landed on the surface of the platform he was currently on.

It was primarily blue in color with the blue woman seemingly falling holding a particular looking sword downwards… which looked like it meshed with some artistic key. It's guard was circular and somewhat jagged around its edges. The upper half of the guard is black, the center is grey, and the bottom of it is white. The handle is a featureless, grey rod. The shaft of the sword was thin and navy blue in coloration, except for the tip, which is silver. The base of the shaft also sports two diamond-shaped bumps. The sword's teeth were comprised by a rectangular frame lined with four short, blunt spikes. There's also three silver pieces bent at right angles; two on the inside corners of the frame and one on the inside center of one side.

And like the previous platform, it's edges and headshots were all the same… well minus the duck-butt haired man replacing the woman's image and the background image was had more of a sunrise than sunset. The last thing to note was the odd faded out image on one of the portrait spots that it was hard to make out who was inside of it.

Naruto was distracted long enough for more shadows to form and rise out of the stained glass surface. But instead of the ant-like, impish looking creatures, these were taller and thinner with a more humanoid body structure. Their antennae were quite longer and fell back against their muscular frame. Their hands had sharper claws with bluish veins running along their arms to meet up with the rest of their respective bodies.

Just when they were about to pounce, Naruto's instincts kicked in. He swirled around and blocked a clawed strike from one of them before kicking it away. Getting a quick look of them, he saw they were more intimidating than those ant-like creatures he fought moments earlier.

"Show me what you got!"

The humanoid shadow creatures -these NeoShadows- ganged up on him in compliance. Several leapt forward with a swipe of their claws. Naruto had been able to either evade or parry the blows before delivering ones of his own. Yet no matter how strong his attacks were, these humanoid shadows were more durable than their ant-like counterparts.

Naruto did stagger as he was struck from behind. Falling to the ground, he performed a recovery roll before quickly jumping up to slice at a NeoShadow. One of them seemed to have been defeated with it disbursing into blackened vapors. Yet through said vapors, odd olive-green hearts -within bubbles- were formed before drifting onto the stained glass floor.

And it was there, Naruto saw more of their humanoid Shadow kind start to form.

"Oh that's BULLSHIT!" He yelled, trying to strike another one of them with his sword. Yet it quickly sunk into the ground with several others following suit. "OH COME ON!"

The darkened pools rushed all over the ground before one of the NeoShadows quickly popped out and spinned kicked Naruto back into another, which hit him as well. As he was about to get struck again with a similar attack, Naruto blocked the kicks with either his arm, leg or sword before striking back.

With another one of them defeated, the whiskered man quickly struck the olive-green hearts in order to halt more from coming. He was successful as they turned into green vapors before he was sent tumbling onto the ground.

As he fended off his attackers, Naruto gritted his teeth. 'I need more than _just_ this sword.' He thought in frustration while kicking another NeoShadow away. 'If I had my other weapons, then things might be easier.' Naruto channeled more power into his swings and blows while focusing harder towards his vacant hand. 'Anything will be fine to quickly take these guys out!'

Once his empowered fist struck a NeoShadow -sending it flying over the platform- Naruto saw his powers manifest something in his grasped. For a brief moment, the Uzumaki thought it was one of his configured weapons, but he was slightly disappointed as it appeared to be another sword.

The designs and measurements were quite the same as the other sword. But unlike the one he originally got in this odd dream of his, this one had a blackened blade. It's handle was red with a bronze colored hilt with a matching pommel. And the center design had a black background with a red Mickey Mouse symbol on the foreground.

Naruto quickly swung his new weapon at a diving opponent, which caused it to dissipate into smoke. "Well… another sword doesn't hurt, I guess." Was all he muttered out before leaping at a group of NeoShadows.

Naruto swung his swords at his opponents while kicking any that tried to get in for a surprise attack. Each quickly maneuvered around him in hopes of throwing off the Uzumaki, yet his previous training helped out a lot to deal with their tactics. After destroying more NeoShadows, Naruto made quick work in getting rid of their olive-green hearts so more won't appear. Others tried to evade the whiskered man's attacks by sinking back into the ground to attack in another manner.

Yet Naruto wasn't having any of that.

Diving towards their flattened spots, he drove his blades into the stained glass surface in order to skewer them. This small act seemed to work as several either took massive damage or was quickly killed off with no olive-green hearts appearing at all. The publisher gave out a fox-like smirk before repeating this action a few more times as the NeoShadows sunk back into the ground and moved around.

After several more moments of fighting, the rest of the humanoid Shadows were gone from the platform.

Hunched over, Naruto took in several breaths to calm himself a little. This act soon got him to notice a few changes on the platform's design. One being the sunrise background as it was replaced with that of a darkened realm. And the blue woman's sword of choice changed all of a sudden.

Instead of the water themed sword, this one appeared to be more akin to a blackened skeleton key at first glance. It has a smooth, cylindrical grey shaft that tapers outward at both ends. It has a boxy guard that's made up of two small, light grey boxes and copper rod. The base of the guard connects to the grip, and both sport several small indentations lining them. And as for the teeth of the sword, it took on the shape of the letter 'E'.

Naruto merely rose a brow on this before shaking his head. Looking back up, he saw a stained glass pathway form nearby to another Heart Platform. And instead of rushing on ahead, the former shinobi walked at a quickened pace while being aware of his surroundings in case more of those shadow creatures were to show up from behind.

Luckily for him, none appeared by the time he reached the next platform.

...And there seems to be a common theme with this new platform with the other two as the dirty blonde teenager was leaning back -and seemingly asleep- as he held an odd key-shaped sword in a reverse grip.

Said weapon had a black handle is offset with it's guard being in a dull gold color and joins with the shaft of the sword to fully enclose the handle. The shaft is grey, thin, and has a very slight curve outward. There were three thin, dull gold lines that decorate the middle of the shaft. Two short bars connect the main blade to the teeth, which were grey like the blade and have a wing-like shape as they're comprised by five curved bars that decrease in size the lower they are on the sword.

The main color scheme of the platform was predominately green with a touch of light-blue. Instead of a castle for the background, it took place in some sort of rocky desert. And the portraits… only had the duck-butt haired man and woman in blue while the other spots were filled with some oddly designed stars in rustic orange, light green and blue.

After the inspection -like before- Naruto noticed a darkened pool appear from the platform's center. Purplish-blue and black vapors lazily rose from the spot before becoming more violent. And it was there that both Shadows and NeoShadows were spat out and fell over with a smoky trail behind them.

Upon landing, they turned their sights at the whiskered Uzumaki and rushed right at him.

Naruto spun and sliced through the Shadows -of various sizes- and NeoShadows with his two swords. He slid and rolled away from some of them, but they were quite overwhelming with how many kept coming out from that black pool. Frustrations and anger rose from within as he kept working through many of these shadowy creatures.

Without realizing it, Naruto's eyes glowed with a dark aura started surrounding his form.

The NeoShadows were quick in their swipes with their lesser cousins being very annoying with their numbers. Naruto was getting tired with this incoming assault as there seem to be no end of them. He would've been able to handle things better if he could access both his other weapons and powers. But without them, he was losing in this battle against these things.

Naruto was distracted by slashing through a pair of NeoShadows that he didn't notice a handful of Shadows coming up from behind. They jumped on top of him, causing him to fall onto the ground before more started to dog pile him. Naruto struggled to get free, but him being pinned down all over was truly hard.

All of this caused his darkened aura to grow and grow and with a roar, the Uzumaki let out the feelings from inside.

A blast a Darkness sent a shockwave to send the shadow creatures back and off of him. Standing up from the ground, Naruto quickly looked at himself to see the black aura radiating off of him. He could feel the power as it was connected with his own.

'Possibly something I haven't tapped into yet.' Came the thought before seeing his opponents surrounding him. 'Better time as any to test this out.' A wild smirk was formed on his face. 'By letting out my AGGRESSION!'

Naruto reared his arms back as the shadow creatures leapt at him. Throwing his arms out front, his swords let out an energy wave that cleaved through a dozen of them. With more room now on the platform, Naruto rushed through with his dual swords which smashed or diced on each opponent.

He then saw a handful of NeoShadows leap into the air for a dive bombing-like attack. To counteract them, Naruto jumped and sliced through them. Yet more seemed to come from out of nowhere, causing him to throw his swords at them. The pair spun around and destroyed the shadow creatures before they flew further into the darkness. The Uzumaki clicked his tongue that he might've lost his only weapons. Yet to his surprise, they spun back and came back into his grasp like a boomerang after slicing through more Shadows and NeoShadows.

Landing back onto to the platform, Naruto gathered more power into his blades as he swung them up. The energy cleaved through more and more as he kept on spinning before slamming the blades down for a small shockwave. Leaping once more, he used his blades as an impromptu pogo-stick by stabbing on top of the large Shadows as they disintegrated into vapors.

After this little activity, Naruto followed his instincts by bringing his swords together before rushing forward in a stabbing motion. To his surprise, the Uzumaki seemed to be all over the place as he kept disappearing and reappearing -in terms of speed- in order to destroy the last of them. Reappearing one last time, he stabbed his blades into the darkened pool, causing it to dissipate into nothingness.

With the Heart Platform clear of those creatures, Naruto let go of his swords. This was because of him leaning down and resting his hands on his thighs in order to pant in exhaustion with the dark aura surrounding him disappearing. With that disappearing, much of his strength went along with it.

"Wow… that took a lot otta me." He wheezed out. Slowly opening his eyes, Naruto jumped a little as he felt really uneasy in what he's seeing now.

The Heart Platform dramatically changed as the dirty blonde teenager now had a different sword. It was predominantly silver and ivory-colored with it's shaft being thin and smooth with a fleur-de-lis-shaped spike at its tip. The sword's teeth were comprised by a pair of uneven, silver wings framing a broken, bright red heart. The base of the blade is adorned by a simple, grey heart, and the handle is black. Two uneven wings decorate the sword's guard, with the larger wing being on the same side of the weapon as the teeth.

But that wasn't what startled Naruto off at all, but it was what the dirty blonde now shared the image now was… a black haired boy that basically screamed _corrupted evil._

The stained glass image seemed to be sliced in half with the left side being red and dark blue in color. What replaced the desert background was now some sort of graveyard with odd looking swords serving as grave markers. The portraits were now replaced with odd designs, especially the center one with two odd skeleton keys crossing over a heart. The framing designs on the black haired teens side had some evil looking heart that seemed way too pointy.

In his hand was an odd looking sword where the teeth were black with red outlines and possessed a round, cog-like shape. The handle was red while the guard was identical in design to the teeth. The shaft was majorly colored in shades of grey, but had a copper gear in the center. Wrapping around the shaft were two intersecting black chains. At the head of the blade was a devilish blue cat's eye, while an identical eye was embedded in the hilt.

Yet what really seemed to set him off was that the teen was wearing… a crimson red, black and navy blue version of his Vanitas outfit!

"Okay, this is getting _really_ unsettling now."

Needing to get his mind off this latest image, Naruto kept his eyes forward and went to the next stained glass stairs leading to another Heart Platform in the distance. With his dual swords in hand, he walked at a steady pace -while not in a rush- in getting there. Like before, he kept vigilant of his surroundings if any more shadow creatures were to show up and attack.

Upon getting closer to the next platform, Naruto paused his movements and saw… nothing on its surface; like at all. All white as if it was some blank canvas.

"Why would I end up back here?" He questioned with a wandering glance. "Been _here_ plenty of times, but what makes this platform so… special?"

Naruto saw faint marks littering every other inch of it's surface. Was rather easy to miss with how stark white the platform top, unless one were more attentive. He kneeled down and traced his hands over them and felt they were like scars. Appeared to be healing for years now from whatever damage was done here.

' _Scars on the mind can scar the soul.'_

Naruto rose a questioning brow upon hearing this. Looking up, the Uzumaki saw a faint pillar of light shine down from the darkness above. He gazed down to where it landed and saw it was placed dead center of the stark white platform. Curious as to what it's for, Naruto walked closer before standing inside of it.

It was there he felt _it._ Feeling himself… energized and rested? It's as if all forms of exhaustion and injuries were never there to begin with ever since coming here earlier.

' _The closer you get to the light,_

 _the greater your shadow becomes.'_

'The greater my shadow becomes?' He questioned in thought. 'What does that mea-' Reading between the lines, Naruto quickly spun around to get a look at his shadow.

Looking upon his shadow, the Uzumaki saw it was now moving on it's own; regardless of himself. After a moment, it began to rise from the white surfaced platform. As it stood, Naruto saw it took on form that looked like a mix of the NeoShadows and himself. And once it formed, it began to grow bigger and bigger, which caused the whiskered man to take a few steps back.

' _But don't be afraid.'_

He wasn't, just unsettled of seeing his his shadow detach from him and become something else; that as it kept growing, the shadow took on a different form entirely. Despite what was happening, Naruto stood his ground with his swords ready.

The shadow just kept growing, by the time it was done, Naruto was only as tall as its foot. Not wanting to fight that, he turn around and ran. That was when he remembered that he was on a platform that was in the middle of a black abyss. Skidding to a stop, he looked around for an escape.

The shadow creature was quite massive and muscular which Naruto had to figure he was as tall as around it's calf or knees. And that's saying something as it's legs were rather short and its feet were very thin and curl upward like jester shoes. Its arms were quite long and has two relatively small, twisted wings on its back. The hair on top of it's head formed into tentacles, which most wrapped around it's jaw and neck for an impromptu scarf. And in the center of its chest was an extremely large heart-shaped hole, which penetrated straight through from it's front to it's back.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: Destiny's Force-**_

It's small, glowing yellow eyes bore right at him before it reared it's right fist back in order to strike the Uzumaki down. As it did, thick wisps of dark energy gathered in its massive fist before striking the white platform.

Naruto was sent back a bit from the resulting shockwave. Steadying his footing, he saw a swirling pool of darkness form from the shadow creature's fist. And it was there a bunch of Shadows and NeoShadows rose up ready to attack.

'Well ain't that perfect.' Naruto sarcastically thought.

Rearing his swords back, the Uzumaki soon sliced at the creatures that jumped right at him. Naruto spun around to avoid claw swipes of a pair of NeoShadows before kicking them off the platform. Coming back around, he started working through the smaller creatures while thinking of a way to take care of the much larger one.

'If those fists can make more of these pools,' he started in thought while rolling away from an opposing tackle, 'then they've gotta go.'

Once the smaller shadow creatures were gone, Naruto started to hack and slash at the enlarged fist still on the platform's surface. After several moments on his empowered onslaught, Naruto saw the creature bring it's right hand back before sending down it's left. Seeing this coming, the former shinobi crossed his swords and braced for impact.

The moment the blow was struck, Naruto gritted his teeth with how powerful it was. He skidded across the platform's surface before feeling being pushed back further and further. Not wanting to be thrown off and falling into the abyss below, Naruto decided to push back. It took some effort in doing so, but he was successful in pushing it away in order to roll away.

Getting up, Naruto quickly slashed his swords at it's hand and wrist. And he kept going at it as the enlarged shadow creature brought it's arm back. Jumping into the air, the whiskered man kept attacking it. Soon landing on its arm, he ran up it's length and soon started assaulting it's head.

Naruto's attacks came to a halt with the enlarged creature taking hold of him. He struggled in it's grip and tried to phase out, but his attempt was not working. Yet Naruto didn't have to wait long to be out of it as he was tossed high into the air.

Falling back down towards the platform, Naruto saw the giant shadow get on it's knees and rear back as a glowing red and black sphere of darkness form in its abdomen. It quickly fired right at him, causing the Uzumaki to widen his eyes and twist his body to avoid from getting hit. As he plummeted down, Naruto spun and adjusted himself to strike the shadow creature in the head.

Yet the creature's attack exploded from behind caused him to fall off course… by several dozen feet away from the platform.

"SHIT!"

Twisting around and reaching out, the Uzumaki focused his powers while hoping for anything at all to get him back to the platform. If not then he'd end up falling into the abyss and possibly die. Desperation filled his very being as he might not be able to make it… until he felt something warm spread from his heart and crawled from underneath the skin of his arms.

Suddenly, ethereal silvery-white chains shot out of his limbs and flew through the darkness before imbedding themselves into the platforms circular, curved wall which was going into the abyss.

Naruto was going to question about it, but he was quickly yanked forward as he reeled in like some fishing line at extremely fast speeds. Getting closer, the Uzumaki quickly brought his weapons up before driving his blades into the stained glass walls. Once there, he saw the chains recede back into his body as an odd tingle was all that remained before looking up and saw quite a distance from the flat, white surface above. Pulling out one of his weapons, he stabbed upward in order to climb back up.

'Wonder what the hell those chains were… And really wish I had my chakra right now,' came the thoughts when scaling the wall. 'Or at least my powers having the capability to fucking walk this-' "OH FUCK YOU!"

Reason for this sudden outburst was the fact that coming down from above, purple and black orbs were coming right after him like homing missiles!

Pulling out his swords, Naruto somewhat fell and threw himself some feet away -to avoid a 'missile'- before digging back in the wall to resume climbing. During this process, more Shadows and NeoShadows started to appear and crawled towards him. As they started to come too close, Naruto used one of his swords to slash them while avoiding the energy missiles. But this didn't mean he got out unscathed as a few of them either got too close -which the small explosion knocked him around- or landed right on him to deal some serious damage.

Once getting back onto the flat even surface, Naruto saw more missiles pop out from the giant's abdomen -as it kept leaning back- and kept coming his way. He dashed away with each crashing into the ground. But with the influx of the energy attacks, Naruto kept getting hit once more.

Getting tired from these missiles, Naruto swatted one away with an energy coated sword. To his surprise… they went back to their sender?

The Uzumaki blinked in mild shock but formed a small smirk.

As more of those attacks came his way, he used his swords and batted them back to deal quite some damage at the giant shadow. After getting hit by many of its own energy missiles in a short period of time, the creature stood back up as darkness formed in it's right hand. Knowing what was going to happen next, he jumped once the fist crashed into the platform before landing on it's limb. Running up it's length again, Naruto assaulted the giant's head from slashes to stabbing deep into its eyes.

The later act caused it to recoil in absolute pain, bringing it's hands up to its face in response. Before getting smashed, Naruto quickly got out of the way before stabbing once more into the back of the giant shadow's head. As a final result, the creature fell down onto the platform's surface as a large pool of darkness formed.

Naruto was about to leap away, but his leg was snagged by the giant's tentacle-like hair. The darkness then started dragging him in as his swords suddenly disappeared in small balls of light and dark. He panicked and fought and struggled to get free, but the pull was too strong.

'― _But don't be afraid.'_

'Easy for you to say!' Came the thought as the darkness started to envelop him.

' _You hold one of the mightiest weapons of all.'_

Naruto kept fighting, but it was all in vain.

'Your heart is your own.

And remember:

For every light, there is a shadow.'

Despite fighting against the tethering shadows dragging him down into the pool, Naruto processed what the voice spoke to him. 'For every light, there's a shadow?' He thought in mild confusion. 'Wait… My chat from earlier… one can't exist without the other.' His vision started to darken at this point. 'I… had to deal with this back at the Waterfall of Truth before controlling Kurama's chakra… I wonder…'

Despite most of his mind screaming to fight back, he refused to do so. All he did was just accepting the darkness as he sunk deeper into the pool. After several moments -once he was enveloped by the dark- a light started to shine all around.

' _The Darkness can be all consuming, if you let too much in._

 _The same will happen with the Light._

 _And don't forget: you are one who was chosen by the hearts.'_

 _ **-Waking World, Uzumaki Residence-**_

Hazel eyes shot open as their owner gasped and took in an influx of air into his chest. Naruto brought a hand to his chest in order to calm down his racing heart, yet oddly felt it was at a steady pace. With his eyes going down, he saw Isis looking up from him on his lap.

'Was any of that real… or not?' He thought before scratching behind the cat's ears. 'Something important or merely a nonsensical dream?'

"Hey, are you okay?" Rachel asked her guardian from the kitchen counter.

"Yeah, I guess so." He said, standing up -with Isis jumping off of him- while feeling his legs were slightly stiff. Looking over to the nearby clock, Naruto blinked in surprise. "I was meditating for that long?"

For their joint meditation time, Naruto and Rachel agreed on doing it for roughly half an hour because of their respective schedules. But from what the whiskered guardian noticed was that he did it for an hour today.

"I'm just surprised you didn't wake up when I kept nudging you." Said the ward, finishing up a piece of toast. "Or with Rose and Hazel playing around with you."

"...What you mean by that?"

"Check yourself in the mirror."

He did and soon rolled his eyes -with a sigh- on his current appearance. His clothes were disheveled -with small traces of plants stuck on him- his hair had small bows in it and his face was drawn with markers.

'I somewhat blame Harley for this.' He thought as he started pulling out the hair ties from his silver hair. 'But I really can't as the girls should be naturally acting like that.' He did cringe a little with some hairs being pulled out in the process with how they were tightly snagged. 'Though I'm glad Thorn isn't taking Bubbles' influence too much or else things will go _too_ crazy here.'

With how fast his three girls were growing, Naruto and the others decided it would somewhat be best to let things run its course with how they act. But neither person wants the sporelings to get too out of control in thinking they can do whatever they want while they were quickly aging or else their personalities would be spoiled or something.

Going over to his kitchen sink, he poured some soap into his hand before he started cleaning his face from the marker drawings. "Hey, Raven."

"Yes?" She responded while continuing her breakfast consisting of oatmeal and jelly topped toast.

"Where's Pam and the girls?" He asked after scrubbing his face a little.

"Pam took them out for training and to run more tests on their rapid aging."

"At the greenhouse?"

"Where else would they go to anyways? Her work?" She rhetorically said as they know that would never happen.

'Then she has a plant clone at the gardens today.' He thought with a small smile. 'Good. At least she can make things more personal with the girls.'

"So, Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Any reason why you were so deeply meditated?" He grabbed a nearby towel and started drying off his face before turning to face his ward. "Were you fighting Nightmare spirits or some agents of the Black and Grey?"

"Not the later, Raven." He answered. "Those guys usually show up if I'm meditating in the greenhouse, the botanical gardens, the parks or rich environments." Pulling the towel away from his face, he walked over to the nearby mirror to double check for any marker drawings. "Besides, those guys haven't been showing up for a while now in the dreamscape… for some reason."

"Why's that?"

"Thought that since Hazel, Rose and Thorn were born, the Black and Grey would've been more active and possibly try to harm them. Since -you know- they're considered new Green champions."

This was true. During the time of them developing in their sporeling pods; Naruto, Pam and Selina had to occasionally go into the dreamscape in order to combat against the enemy nature groups. Everything was secure in the waking world to ensure their protection, but the Dreaming was still a vulnerable place which the Grey and Black could exploit in harming the unborn sporelings as they'd be a great threat to their groups.

Going back to the kitchen sink, Naruto started to wash his face again -since he found a few stray marks- as Rachel spoke once more after finishing the rest of her toast. "That still doesn't explain why they weren't showing up."

Her guardian scrubbed and scrubbed again for several moments before turning off the sink's faucet. Grabbing the towel once more, he gave the answer. "I've got no clue. And neither does Pam and Selina." Drying his face, Naruto continued. "But Harley brought up an idea. The Black and Grey could possibly be building up their forces and would attack when we least expect it."

Rachel nodded as it did make sense. The three sporelings have the potential on being really powerful Champions with them being the spawn of Pam -an agent of the Green- and Naruto… enough said. Each are a great threat to the Rot and Fungus groups of Nature if left alone long enough.

'If I were associated with them -figuratively- it's best to be rid of the problem now than later.' The half-demon thought as she swallowed a spoonful of oatmeal. "So if you weren't fighting the Black and Grey, then you were fighting Nightmares?"

This got Naruto to scratch the back of his head. "They might've been Nightmares."

Raven blinked in confusion. "Might've been?"

He gave a shrug. "Well I honestly don't know. They weren't in cute animal like forms, dark color variances or had the Nightmare marks on them."

"Then why did you think they were Nightmares?"

"They seemed Nightmare-ish." He said while knowing the answer wasn't all that great.

Summoning his Lexicon in his hands, Naruto quickly flipped through the book before getting to the Heart Platform entries of his. Once sitting next to his ward, the whiskered publisher started drawing inside the empty pages. He made quick work on each of the platforms he saw. And it wasn't just those; but the three weapons -which she did ask about the Mickey Mouse symbol- the shadow creatures and the people who asked him questions.

As he drew all of this, Naruto told Rachel of what _exactly_ happened during his meditation.

Questions were formed in the ashen child's mind while some still lingered in her guardian. It was a bit hard to make heads or tails on the purpose as to what occurred. And in the end, nothing was ever really answered as only Naruto gave his own to the entities in that dream of his.

Rachel adopted a thinking position when the explanation was at its end. After processing for several moments, she gave her opinion. "Possibly some sort of test?"

Naruto scratched his head and gave a small nod. "I guess. But If so, then for what?"

Once again, nothing was answered; leaving lingering thoughts in their wake.

*DING-DONG* *DING-DONG*

The sound of the doorbell going off broke their discussion. Wondering who it is, Naruto got up from his seat and walked over, after dispelling his Lexicon so no one else could see it. As this happened, Rachel went back into finishing the rest of her breakfast.

Upon unlocking and opening the door to his home, Naruto quickly widened his eyes in surprise… in seeing Lois Lane -his old friend- standing right in front of him.

"Hey, Naruto. How's it going?" Instead of a formal greeting, Lois was met with Naruto slamming the door -before it quickly locked- in her face. "WHAT THE HELL?!"

'SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! What the fuck is she doing here?!' Naruto mentally screamed while whipping his head all over. 'I gotta hide the baby stuff!'

The Uzumaki never told Lois and Cat about him having kids now. He could, but it would be extremely hard to explain the circumstances on why his three daughters look much older than what they're supposed to be. And that would raise questions, which he was far beyond ready from telling his two old co-workers.

If one were to look at him, all they'd see Naruto as a blur. Zooming all over his loft and quickly grabbing up anything relating to his daughters before hiding them. From closets to his sporeling daughters' bedroom to even phasing them through the floor in order to land in Selina's loft.

Though in his rush to get rid of this evidence, Naruto failed to realize he ended up snagging Rachel from the kitchen counter -with a resounding, surprised 'eep'- and shoving her into a closet. And by a quick mistake, he also snagged Isis and shoved her into the same space.

Seeing his loft was all nice and clean of all evidence of his daughters' existences, Naruto let out a held breath in his chest. He then walked over to the entrance of his home and calmly opened the door with a wide smile on his face.

"Lois! What a pleasant surprise!"

Suddenly, Lois grabs ahold of his nose and pinches it in the right way that causes him excruciating pain with an audible snap made in the process. Tears were freshly made from his eyes because of this as he yelped while trying to pry off her fingers. Yet her hold on him was too strong and painful to do so.

After what felt like forever, Naruto gave in.

"AH! AH! PEACH PIE! PEACH PIE!" The ravenette reporter let go, causing him to hunch over and turn away slightly in order to keep his nose away from her. "Damnit! I hate it when you do that!" He said with an annoyed pout.

"That's what you get for slamming the door in my face." Lois said with a narrowed glance. 'Not to mention with how long he took to open up the door makes me think he hid something and didn't want me to see it.' Came the thought before she spoke. "Also, seriously? You still use that stupid safe word of yours?"

Back when he used to intern at the Daily Planet, Lois would have some means to get his attention or to at least shut up. One rarely involved some physical violence as she'd smack or punch him across the head and she'd get the response needed from him. And sure it would seem too unorthodox as this could get her reprimanded on the actions, but Naruto always bounced back soon after…

"Well it's effective in the bedroom, Lois." The whiskered man wiggled his eyebrows in a overly-exaggerated way.

Sometimes in an annoying fashion.

She groaned. "I don't wanna know how that goes."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh please~ you'd jump at the first chance you'd get."

Lois gave him a dry look. "With you, no." Of course, she did had the occasional stray thoughts in the past as the reporter wondered how good he'd be in the sack. But if she told him, he would never let it die.

Naruto snorted. "Good. Because it would be creepy as hell if I slept with a sister figure in my life." Lois stares at him. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You know -I'm just gonna throw this out there- I could sometimes see you as a girl when you were younger." Started out the reporter. "Or at least having a sister that scarily looks like you, though insanely good looking at the same time."

"Lois… I know I'm not one to say this but you have a crazy imagination sometimes. And I worry about that." He said before a thought crossed his mind. 'Thank Kami I don't have chakra anymore or else my Sexy jutsu would blow her mind.'

"You're right, you're not one to say that."

Naruto smirked at the jab before retorting back, "Uh, huh. Says the woman who wanted me to sign her copies of Icha Icha."

She sputtered with her face going all red. "YOU SWORE YOU'D NEVER BRING THAT UP AGAIN!"

"In public." He corrected before holding his hand up to his ear. "Oh, what was that? You want an advance copy of the deluxe edition with new content plus new chapters of the next volume? Oh, Lois, I had no _idea_ you were so frisky _and_ kinky. Oh wait, I absolutely did." A devilish grin crossed his features. "My oh my, what would your boyfriend think? Oh wait, you don't have one." He then gave her a knowing look. "So this means you're really rusty in the relationship department then?" Lois glared at him, causing him to flinch a little. "What~? You've been in how many relationships since I've known ya? And for how long?... Not to mention on any at all since I visited you lasted year." She didn't say anything at all as a rapid twitch came in her eye. "Then again, you're really controlling and disapprovING! OH COME ON!" He yelled once more as she grabbed his ear and twisted it.

Stepping further inside his loft, the ravenette reporter dragged her old co-worker along after closing the door. "Apologize and I'll let go. If not then we'll get to see what ten pounds of tork does to a human ear."

"OKAY! OKAY! I GIVE! I'M SORRY!"

Lois then gave another cruel twist. "And no more mention that little favor, public or private!" She declared.

"I WILL! I WILL! JUST FUCKING LET GO! I CAN FEEL IT TEARING!"

She rolled her eyes as she let go. "Oh don't be so dramatic."

"It's apart of my charm, ya'know." He grumbled while rubbing his tender ear. Before long, Naruto smiled before giving her a hug which she returned in kind. "It's good to see you, Lois."

"You too, whiskers."

Breaking away, the publisher asked the obvious question. "Not that I mind seeing you after so long, but what are you doing here? And why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

Lois smirked. "Consider it payback on your surprise visit last year without informing me."

He merely gave a chuckle in response. "Hey, would you like some tea? I was planning on finishing up my one pot of ice wine herbal tea."

"...That sounds rather fancy, isn't it?"

"It does, but it's not. Pam got us some and it's rather nice. You should try some."

"Probably should. But honestly is it like something distilled in a freaking glacier?"

All she got in return was a hearty chuckle from him. And when getting to the kitchen area, Naruto spoke. "You still didn't tell me why you're here all of a sudden."

Sitting down on a stool, she answered. "Mostly cashing in some vacation days since we're in a slow period right now at the Planet; with only a handful of reporters are at the office right now. And since I've been skipping out to enjoy myself on most holidays, Perry decided to send me out to relax."

The publisher nodded in understanding as he pulled out some cups. "I hear ya. Right now it's like that as well back in the office with us already getting some books out in the market for the holidays." He then started pouring the peppermint tea. "Not to mention there not being many projects to work on at the current time, asides from the newspaper and magazine portion of my company."

"So from the top of your head, it's just paperwork and anything else that comes across your desk?" The publisher nodded while handing over his friend her cup. "Then lucky you."

"Yeah and I don't feel jealous of Perry and Cat at all if I get all my stuff done on time."

Taking a sip of the herbal drink, she gave off a pleasant hum and held up a finger. "Smells and tastes de-light-ful! It's like a comforting hug rushing down my body." Putting down her cup, she brought up her previous topic. "Now second off that speaking of Perry, he asked me to personally check up on the progress of the new Daily Planet location while I'm here visiting." 

"Figured as much." He muttered out before drinking a bit more of his tea. "So what are ya gonna do while you're here?"

"Asides from Perry's favor and seeing you, not much." Came the reporter's reply. Taking a brief look around the loft from her position at the kitchen counter, a thought came to mind. "Hey I've gotta ask, but where's your girlfriend?"

Naruto thought for a brief moment on _which_ one Lois was referring to. "Pam's currently working at the botanical gardens today."

"Currently? Not just _at?"_

"She had gotten a promotion as head administrator last month due to… circumstances. And part of said position has her going to other places other than the gardens for a buttload of meetings on top of her prefered scientific work."

"Okay… And how'd she get that position? If I remember right, you said Pam started working there mid-last year as one of their scientists. There's no way she could get such a position so soon."

"Through a friend."

"And who would this friend be exactly?"

"Bruce Wayne."

Lois rose a brow. "Really?"

"Yes, really. Why, you don't like him or something?"

All he got was a narrowed glance from her purple eyes. "I've heard he's nothing but 'Gotham Trash' with him being richly spoiled."

"Now that's just profiling, Lois. Bruce isn't really like that." Naruto defended as he knows his friend somewhat seems like that in order to cover up his 'nightly' activities. "Besides, you never met him."

"Well I'll believe it when I see it." Taking another sip of her drink. "Anyways -if possible- I'd like to meet Pam while I'm in town."

"I'm sure you will." He said as he poured himself another cup, finishing up the rest of the tea.

"Oh and speaking of meeting people, I wanted to meet this Rachel kid you wouldn't shut up about."

"Oh she should be right…" Naruto looked over to where his ward previously sat at and blinked in confusion.

"Missing someone?" She rhetorically asked.

'She was right here.' Was the publisher's thought. Before he could question where the half-demon went off to, he heard one of his closet doors creek open with several items he rushly stored in there tumbling out in the process.

"Oh… hey-"

"Not… now…" Rachel growl as held her bowl, miraculously, not spilled as she went to the table and continue to eat her soggy oatmeal. Naruto was going to speak up, but his eyes glanced down and saw his ward's shadow… which looked rather malicious with waving tendrils coming off from it.

Naruto cried waterfall tears as he tried to reach her, "I'm sorry~" However he stopped as her shadow gained red eyes the moment the ashen child glared at him. "Red flag!" He comically yelled out taking a step back from her.

From her seat, Lois rose a brow at her silver haired friend's reaction.

"N-Nothing, it's a thing on TV." Naruto laughed awkwardly. He heard something soft land on the kitchen counter and saw Isis seemingly glaring at him. The Uzumaki was gonna question it until the black furred feline jumped onto his face and started clawing at him. "WHY, ISIS?! WHYYY?!"

"...Should we help him?" Lois asked in concern as her old friend rolled all over the floor as the green eyed cat kept attacking him in a rather pissed off mood.

"No." Came the half-demon's simple answer.

The reporter sighed and shook her head at Naruto's old predicament before turning to his ward. "Hello there. I believe you're Rachel, right?"

"That I am." Said child looked over and gave a reporter an inspection in order to know who she was. After a few moments, Rachel spoke. "And you're Lois Lane -the reporter- correct?"

"You've heard of me?"

"Yeah." She pointed towards her guardian. "Mostly from the whiskered idiot here."

Upon prying Isis off his head, Naruto felt a harsh, stabbed feeling running through his chest upon hearing this. He hunched over and gasped in mocked pain before letting out a sniffle. "Why'd you have to be so mean~"

He then received a look from his ward that screamed 'don't talk to me right now'. Naruto compiled, gently placed Isis back on the counter, went to over to the opened closet and cleaned up some of the spilled mess that was let out. And luckily for him, it was at a spot where Lois would've had a hard time seeing the objects.

From her spot at the kitchen counter, Lois let out a little chuckle in seeing her old friend's reaction. "I do admit, he can be quite the idiot at times."

"Please~ don't encourage her, Lois." He whined out.

"You, shoosh. We're talking here."

Naruto grumbled and went back in order to properly take care of his children's belongings.

Despite being slightly curious on what said items are -as they might pertain with what took Naruto so long to let her in- Lois was more focused on his ward. "So what did he say about me, if you don't mind me asking?" She questioned before slowly reaching out and gently petting Isis' head, which made the cat's mood better than before.

"That you're a determined, strong-willed reporter that's extremely dedicated to her assignments." Stated the ashen child while scooping some of the last spoonful amounts of her oatmeal. "Whether it is literally facing danger to being very thorough in your investigative work."

Lois smirked. "Right on the money there, Rachel. Anything else?"

"Being rather impatient at times. Jumping ahead on things, which puts your life at risk quite often. Sneaking around in places where you shouldn't be while hardly being caught." Listed off the young ward.

The reporter let out a small laugh at that. "I guess so." She turned her head at Naruto -who just came back down from the stairs- sending him a small glare. "Is there anything else bad you told her, Naruto?"

The publisher flinched a little in response. "To be fair, Lois, you somewhat got some of those habits off from me."

"Which means you're the one to blame… Wait. Somewhat?

"...You were developing those traits when we first met-" Naruto was soon caught off guard with Lois throwing an apple -which was on the kitchen counter- right at his head. He moved his head out of the way before catching the piece of fruit. "That's not very nice, ya'know."

"Well don't say any blatant lies."

The former shinobi rolled his eyes. 'Someone's in denial, that's for sure.'

Not knowing his present thoughts, Lois turned her attention back to Rachel, who was now standing by the sink to wash her dishes. "Asides from what you've heard from him, you know me from somewhere else? Like any articles I wrote?"

Without having to look back, the ashen child gave her answer. "Yeah, I did."

"Like which one?"

"The article you wrote about my friend, Perdita. I thought it was really good and she said both you and Cat were quite patient with her on the interview."

Lois quickly processed what the ward said and remembered Naruto telling her that Rachel and one other girl became phone-call pals with the Vlatavan queen. And the reporter thought it was rather sweet for Perdita to at least have some friends, even if the three girls haven't physically met each other yet.

"Glad to hear such praise from the young queen." The ravenette soon pouted. "Though I wish I could've had the chance to talk to her -in person- when her coronation went on last year."

Naruto shook his head. "I still think Perry sending you to the event would've been a better choice than Angela Chen."

After Cat Grant left the Daily Planet to pursue her own line of work -which later became the media company she runs today- a void was formed in who would be Lois' rival. The spot was eventually filled in by none other than a new rising reporter, Angela Chen. Lois wanted to be a good co-worker with her and possibly have a decent office relationship, like how things eventually went with Cat. But things went sour as their personalities clashed as neither could really stand each other. And it's to be noted that this rivalry has been going on for years, far longer than what Lois and Cat had when they worked together.

Lois scoffed. "Yeah, with miss gossip columnist wanting to hog a lot of the spotlight when doing her live reports." She then sighed. "Then again, Perry wanted a live news reporter on the scene and I'm more used to being behind the scenes when doing my articles."

"Well something else might happen later on to help make up for you missing out on the opportunity."

"Eh~ maybe." She soon snorted on a stray thought. "I mean it's not like a great story is gonna land on my lap anytime soon."

All Naruto could do was shrug. "Just keep dreaming on that Lois and it might just come true."

What Naruto failed to see was the blatant flinch Raven displayed upon him mentioning that which you see at night when you sleep. He did however notice an overbearingly negative aura surrounding his ward. More so than usual.

That along with the fact that her eyes were now on him, boring into his very being.

"Dreams are a wonderful thing, Naruto, lest they turn into nightmares." Raven said cryptically, greatly unnerving her guardian. With her piece done, the half-demon child picked up her dishes and went towards the sink to wash them.

Seeing the little moment coming from her old friend, Lois got a rough idea on what's going on and decided to tease him. "So you're having weird dreams?"

His eye twitched before turning his attention towards her. "Lois you're a reporter, not a therapist. Don't psychoanalyze me."

The ravenette gave out a fake gasp. "What? Me? Do that? Naruto please, are we not friends?"

"Harley does the same thing, I can smell it from a mile away."

Lois blinked a little before forming a small smile while holding onto her chin. "Ah, yes... This Harley you've talked about before. Would like to meet her as well."

"Well I don't know if she's working or not today. And I don't want to continuously know every action she does." He said before thinking to himself. 'Unlike certain people I know.' Looking to the nearby clock, Naruto took notice of the time and spoke to his ward. "Hey, Rae-Rae, it's almost time to head on out to Jason's place."

Rachel looked over to the clock and saw it was indeed getting closer to her magic lessons. Quickly rushing out of the kitchen -and avoiding stepping on Isis- the half-demon ran up the stairs to gather up some of her clothes from her room. From there, she went towards the bathroom in order to brush her teeth and shower.

"And what's she in a rush for?" Voiced the reporter, curious on what was going on from the recent display. "Going to play with her friends?"

"No, just her weekend lessons."

"...Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't grade school start next week? Not to mention it's a weekday."

"I know that, but it's just some extracurricular thing she was highly interested in and I didn't want to cut her off from it."

"Okay." Lois drooled out. "And what's these lessons she's so interested in?"

"Illusionist." Was the answer. "I would say magic lessons, but you know how it is."

The reporter snorted. "Yeah, I do with many _magicians_ out there are just fooling people with smoke, mirrors and sleight of hands. Don't know why you're encouraging it since that stuff's not going to fly later on."

"And deprive my sweet Rae-Rae some joy in her life?" He dramatically gasped. "NEVER!"

Lois shook her head with a small snort on how Naruto acted. Spinning around in her seat, her eyes landed on something… she didn't expect to see coming from her former co-worker. Getting up from the seat, the ravenette walked across the loft to see if she wasn't seeing things.

And sure enough, her little assumptions were right.

"I didn't know you played the guitar." Said the reporter as she gave it a mild exception. "Since when did you start?"

"Some months now."

"You good at it?"

Naruto merely gave his old friend a smirk. Walking over to the stand, he picked up the instrument and strum the chords a little before tuning it up. After things were as it should be, the publisher started to play a song on the top of his head.

It was a little upbeat from what Lois could tell and it was rather fun. This caused her to question on what song it was exactly. But she was lost in the little melody that she forgot to ask about it until the end of the number. Until then, all she saw was how her former co-worker was so into playing the music now.

"What was that, Naruto?" Chimed the reporter as she sat down on the couch arm rest.

"Not entirely sure." He admitted with a sheepish grin. "Just a little melody that came to mind recently when I started writing my next Final Fantasy novel."

This peaked her interests. She did enjoy his Loveless novel and with his follow up one of Final Fantasy. But to know that he plans on making a series out of the later, which would be rather surprising for someone not in the know.

"Really?~"

"Yeah. Had the brief thought of it being some sort of theme cover or something." Naruto strumbed several more chords again as he kept talking. "Though -from what eventually came to mind- it would've sounded better if I played it on a bass guitar."

"...If you say so."

Lois was not all that knowledgeable in the musical arts, like at all. She tried playing the piano instrument when she was younger, but turned out she was rather sucky at it. The reporter wanted to do it when her mother was alive and play for just her. Her mother appreciated the effort and loved her just the same, even in her final days in this world.

As years went by, Lois had attended a good number of concerts in both the popular band groups to the orchestral ones. Some by herself, some with friends and only a handful while out on dates. Though with her last boyfriend, it was mostly towards the orchestral variety because of his public image.

Effortlessly going into another nameless song, Naruto was a bit more engaged while he kept talking. "Sometimes I'll just start playing and something new will come out." His hands then strumbed a set of notes before getting into a guitar riff that was reminiscent to the Beatles song: Blackbird. "It's like my hands have minds of their own."

"Huh," She responded with a smile. "That's interesting. But nonetheless, it sounds great."

"Thanks."

His fingers moved quicker as his motivation to play heightened. The melody picked up as the Uzumaki put more effort into the song which he still couldn't tell the name of. His fingers could execute a _decent_ tune when he wasn't focusing on it -as he was absent minded in the past when playing- but when his mind was in the music his fingers moved with such precision that Naruto doubted that _anyone_ could replicate it.

Then again, there could be other musicians out there that could but that's just a bit of his pride doing the talking.

After he stopped playing in order to give his fingers a break, Naruto saw Lois give him a small moment of clapping. "Wow~ That sounded awesome."

The Uzumaki's grin widened as he resumed playing another nameless song, which had an intricately designed piece utilizing the higher notes in an effort to make the melody come off as less intense.

As the publisher continued to play, Lois spoke something that briefly came to mind. "I know this might seem out of the blue, but during the last time I chatted with Cat she told me she was happy that you sent that Donna girl -goes by Foxglove- her way as a lot of her music was rather great."

"Did she now?" He said as he momentarily stopped playing. "All I heard from Hazel -my employee- was that Donna merely sent over a demo tape of what songs she had recorded in her spare time. Didn't know on what came afterwards."

"Then it seems Cat should've kept you up to date. Either that or she probably wanted to keep it a surprise for ya."

"Maybe." He said as he went back playing his guitar. "I'll have to talk to Hazel when I next get to work to see what's up."

As Lois sat there in listening Naruto getting into another song, to her surprise he started to sing.

 _I need more affection than you know_

 _In you and I there's a new land_

 _Angels in flight_

 _I need more affection than you know_

 _My sanctuary, my sanctuary, yeah_

 _Where fears and lies melt away_

 _Music will tie_

 _I need more affection than you know_

 _What's left of me what's left of me now_

 _I watch you fast asleep_

 _All I fear means nothing_

 _In you and I there's a new land_

 _Angels in flight_

 _I need more affection than you know_

 _My sanctuary my sanctuary yeah_

 _Where fears and lies melt away_

 _Music will tie_

 _I need more affection than you know_

 _What's left of me what's left of me_

 _So many ups and downs_

 _My heart's a battleground_

 _I need true emotions_

 _I need more affection than you know_

 _I need true emotions_

 _You show me how to see_

 _That nothing is whole and nothing is broken_

 _In you and I there's a new land_

 _Angels in flight_

 _I need more affection than you know_

 _My sanctuary my sanctuary yeah_

 _Where fears and lies melt away_

 _Music will tie_

 _I need more affection than you know_

 _What's left of me what's left of me now_

 _My fears my lies_

 _Melt away_

 _I need more affection than you know_

After the last few strings were strung, Naruto smiled when seeing Lois being impressed on what he played.

"That… was great, Naruto." She said, giving him a small form of applause.

"Thanks. And if you want, I could play this song again in my native language."

"Really?~ Wonder how that'll sound like?"

He didn't say anything else as he strummed his guitar and went into the next song.

 _ **-Harley's Apartment-**_

"...So Dick, what was your childhood like after Brucey took you in?" Harley asked as she munched on the last of her fries.

Sitting in her living room at opposing pieces of furniture, Harley was having another therapist session with Dick Grayson. This started up after his last go around with the Scarecrow -before the Fall Semester finals- as the Grayson was infected with the criminal's Fear Toxin. Even though his body was clean from it, Dick's mind still had some psychological wounds and needed to take care of them.

Best solution: go see a therapist. But where would be one that he could trust? Why Dr. Harleen Quinzel, of course! And the best payment option? Get her some food for a session.

Best money well spent. And cheap too to boot.

"It was rough." Came the simple start of the answer. "Having the change of lifestyle after my parents' passing was a bit of a struggle. From being in the circus since I was born to living in a mansion was quite off putting."

"I'd bet."

"Yeah, not to mention having to leave the extended family I had with Mr. Haley and those of the circus group was hard to do. But what could I have done otherwise? Live there longer and not being a better person, despite living in a good environment with them?"

"It's hard to say with all of the 'what if's', Dick. And no one's really sure on such things." Said the bubbly blonde. "Anyways, continue."

The Grayson complied. "Living with Bruce was not easy -from the start- as I had to heal from the recent events. For instance, I kept having nightmares of _that_ night and I felt tired waking up so early; resulting in me not getting enough rest." He took a sip of his soda to take care of his parched throat. "Sure he slowly taught me things before and after I learned he was Batman and as things were still tender, I… lashed out my anger." Harley nodded as she wrote things down in her little notebook. "I tried to keep most of it in, but when I first started attending a private school… things got loose. I received unwanted attention since I was both the new kid and got a sudden upbringing, which got a handful of bullies to start picking on me. I did my best to ignore them, but as they soon brought up my parents… you can get the general idea on the results."

The Arkham employee let out a small sigh. "Indeed I do."

Back when Ino -her adopted sister- died, Harley too had a hard time healing. She became a bit rebellious to cope with her emotional pain. It's a natural thing for many people out there, yet each person are sometimes ignorant while proclaiming the usual spiel of 'You don't know how I feel' or something along those lines and field.

"Obviously I got in trouble and sent to the dean's office on those early times attending that school." Said the Grayson before he popped the last of his burger into his mouth. He then continued to talk after swallowing the last of his meal from Big Belly. "But they became less and less as time went on as I was more focused on my studies, Bruce's training and going out on patrols as Robin."

Harley nodded again as she wrote up more information in her notebook. Once done, she looked over and saw the time shown on the nearby clock. "Seems our time is up, Dick."

The college student looked over and saw the blonde was right. "Huh. Time does fly fast when spilling out your problems."

"Of course it does. Most conversations do that." Harley stated, closing her notebook.

Dick nodded, standing up to stretch his legs. Soon grabbing the bag of food -now filled with trash from their meal- the Wayne ward went over and started taking what was left lying around. "So next time next week then?"

"Unless something comes up at Arkham, of course. Not to mention the new semester starting up really soon." She said before walking towards her apartment door and opening it. "We'll figure things out when the time comes."

"Thanks again, Harl. This is helping out a lot." He said as he walked out of her home.

"It's no biggie, Dicky." She gave a small wave. "And thanks for lunch. I really needed it."

One thing she's gotta hate about her life now is her high metabolism. She already had a decent metabolism before Pam injected her with that serum of hers last year. Having better durability, flexibility, strength and all that fun stuff is great during fights and certain situations -like in the bedroom, for instance- but it sucks as she's hungry quite often. So while at Arkham, Harley always had to snack on something to keep on going through the day while some of her female co-workers always wonder how the hell she is so fit and thin while eating all that food.

Though this detail is going to reallys suck when she gets pregnant one day. That's for sure.

Dick nodded before making his way down to the lower levels of the apartment complex in order to get back to his motorcycle and taking care of his other errands for the day.

As this occurred, the opposing door to Harley's apartment opened up to reveal Lawrence stepping out. The bubbly blonde gave him a small wave, which she ended up receiving a harsh gruff from the Crock patriarch before he headed down the stairs with a pair of suitcases on hand. Harley was somewhat used to seeing her neighbor like that -as it was apart of his personality- but it seemed a bit more harsher than she usually saw.

As Lawrence disappeared from her sight, Harley saw the door to the Crock residence still opened, causing her curiosity to heighten a little. Taking a peek inside, the blonde psychologist barely saw Paula sitting at the kitchen table with an exhausted expression.

"Hey, are you okay?" Harley called out in concern.

The Vietnamese woman looked up and tried to put up a smile, but it was a bit useless at this point. "Not really, Harley."

Stepping inside and closing the door, Harley asked the obvious question that came to her mind. "You two fought again, huh?" Paula nodded. "What was it this time?" Harley looked around and saw no evidence of her surrogate nieces were around. "And where are Jade and Arty?"

"We sent them out so they wouldn't hear us talk." Paula answered the second question. "Gave them some money to either go see a movie or go to the arcade."

"And why didn't you have them stay with me?"

"Because you were having another therapy session."

This made Harley somewhat sheepish on the answer. "Yeah… sorry about that."

"It's no problem. You didn't know." Paula sighed and ran her fingers through her dark hair. "And as to what we were fighting about was about work… well the lack thereof."

"What ya mean by that?"

"...As you know, Lawrence primarily does security work and things have been hard with hours being cut and all."

"Ouch…" The psychologist stated understanding the problem. "But what was with him and that suitcase he took with?" She quickly popped out her blue eyes. "Don't tell me he's-"

"Leaving us? God no, Harley. He's not." Paula assured her former student. "He's just… finding more work and there's no telling how long he'll be gone. And I don't want him to be gone for too long without worrying our girls."

This was partially true. What Harley doesn't know about her neighbor's real occupations have been affected by what her boyfriend did after her kidnapping. With Ra's al Ghul gone, the League members had to go into certain protocols until further notice. This rendered many agents without work, which resulted in relentless unrest.

And the Crocks were in such category.

Paula was fine with not having to do many assassin jobs as she and her husband are sitting on quite the nest egg that'll last them for quite a very long time; due to their many past jobs. Not just that, but this gave the Vietnamese woman more time to be with her daughters and focus on her part-time cover job.

Lawrence -however- was another story.

There are those that enjoys working way too much in their profession. Thinking about the job and planning right through it quite often in order to make things effective towards it's completion. Living and breathing it, rarely settling down and relaxing in the normal way as their preferred way is doing more work or at least preparing for the next part of it.

Lawrence is one of those people.

The former soldier could only handle not doing any League jobs for so long before suffering through his case of cabin fever. Getting tired from waiting, Lawrence was going to the nearest League outpost and contacting the higher ups. If they would not respond from there, then he'll head over to either Nanda Parbat or Infinity Island to seek out jobs and find out what's taking so long before the hiding protocols are over.

"I'm sure things will turn out alright, Paula." Harley said with a reassuring smile. "If you need help, you know I'm there for you and the girls."

"Thanks."

"But is there anything-"

"None right now." Said Harley's neighbor. "I need to settle down this headache and take a nap before the girls get back."

Harley nodded and said a brief goodbye before heading out of her neighbor's apartment. With closed eyes, she let out a frustrated sigh while wondering what other mess was going on with Paula and Lawrence. They've been acting more differently each day ever since she came back from the League stronghold in the Sahara Desert. Harley's been trying to figure out this problem -either from therapy sessions or by offhanded conversations- but to no success.

'It's like they're worried that whatever their keeping is gonna-'

"Did I come at a bad time?" Said a familiar voice. "I mean, it looks like it."

Snapping out of her thoughts -due to the voice- Harley looked towards the source and saw someone… unexpected not a foot away from her.

"Bruce?" Harley said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

The Wayne rubbed the back of his head before answering. "I was wondering if that therapy offer was still on the table." He held up his other hand to show a bag of Big Belly Burger. "I got your payment."

Feminine, blue eyes blinked in momentarily confusion before dumbly nodding. She opened the door to her home and went inside with the dark haired billionaire following behind.

Harley closed the door soon after before speaking to the man before her. "I'm… surprised you wanted to accept my therapy sessions, Bruce. You're not the type of person to go to one unless it's for an ulterior motive. Like when you briefly dated and had sessions with Bethanie Ravencroft because of Magpie."

Bruce cringed a little. "True, but there's nothing bad on my intentions here, Harley."

Harley looked at him for several moments before snagging the bag from his hand. "If you say so." She then pointed her thumb to one of her couches. "Sit down so we'll start." He complied as he saw the bubbly blonde open up the bag and pulled out a bottled soda. "So tell me, Brucey, what got ya to change your mind on the offer? I mean from what I know from Alfey and Dick, you refused to see a shrink for the years in order to protect yourself."

The secret vigilante blew out a puff of air from his mouth before answering. "Recent events… got me thinking on things." He ran a hand through his hair in slight frustration. "I thought I could figure it out on my own, but I needed a different opinion -a professional one- to help straighten and sort them out… if that was possible."

Harley drummed her fingers on the bag's surface as she processed what the billionaire said. 'This must be serious.' Was her thought. Grabbing her notepad, she then sat down on the single seated couch she had in her home. Placing the bag of food next to her, she placed all of her attention now at her puddin's friend. "Alright, Bruce, I'll help you out on this. But in order to deal with it, I believe we need to start at the _very_ beginning of _all_ of your problems. And I mean it."

Bruce hesitantly nodded and let out a sigh. "As you know, a man killed my parents. We were coming from the movies and we went down this alley as a shortcut to get back to our car." Memories of that moment flashed across his eyes once more. "He had a gun. Dad yelled something, which caused the man to shoot him as a result. The thug tried pulling the necklace from my mother and when it got tangled, he shot her too. And all I could do was _watch_... and scream in absolute agony while on my knees."

Bruce tightened his hands on the feeling. "That moment. That _fear_. That _scream_. I was _so_ scared. And he _ran_... and then he was _gone_." He took a breath in order to calm himself down. "That night changed me in more ways than I could ever imagine. And as I got older, I grew tired and relentless on this city not changing. Prompting me that I need to be something more and become something else."

Harley nodded as she quickly wrote this information down.

"Before and after becoming Batman, I was tried and tested time and time again. I've been on this ride that's had it's literal ups and downs. I've gained the experiences that I would never trade as they're influential to who I am. And in that time, I've had... love." Memories of his time with Andrea came to the forefront of his mind as they were the happiest he'd ever been. He would've given up his crusade for her in order to become happy, but then she left.

"In a snap, something could happen. You lose something or... someone... and that dreadful moment I lived through happens again with my parents' murder. I'm eight and I'm on my damn knees. And I'm scared out of my damn mind. And feeling that, I say… I _become_ … something and I _do_ things… I'm not… I _am_ myself. But I'm not what I _want_ to be or what I _should_ be." Bruce's blue eyes met with Harley's in order to show his vulnerable side. "I'm _scared_ , Harley, and I'll do _anything_ to get out of the fright."

Harley widened her eyes for a brief moment before gazing down and started writing this interesting piece. 'Who would've thought that was an extension of Bruce's fears.' Was her thought before something crossed it. Looking back up, Harley voiced it. "So is that the reason why you sometimes beat people up as the Bat? Venting out your fear that way instead of just talking about it?"

She leaned forward a bit with a narrowed glance to peer deeper into her new patient. "Hell, from what I could tell when you're trying to get information from many thugs in the past, they'd give you a confession that either makes sense or doesn't mean a damn thing as to what your really searching for. Anything at all would somewhat satisfy you in your nightly line of work so they can get out of the _fright_. So tell me this -as the Bat- would you be wrong, bad, incompetent, horrible, out of control… Not the hero this city rightfully deserves later in years to come if he ends up going over the line you so happened to make?"

"...I honestly don't know."

"Then can you prove to me that you can be better than that? Can you prove that, Bruce?"

Bruce thought for a moment before he gave her a nod. "I think I can."

"Then work in bettering yourself so that might not ever happen. Don't become some sort of wrathful god that'll drive everyone else away as they can no longer stand your presence or fear you to their graves." Harley dived her hand into her bag of food and pulled out the container of fries and bit into one of them before putting it down on her lap. "Now, I've got a question for ya: Are ya making them pay? The criminals, I mean."

The secret vigilante tilted his head with a raised brow. "For what? Their crimes against the innocent?"

"Well that too, but I'm more talking about the lines with your parents."

Bruce sat there as he looked at the floor as if it was the most interesting place to see right now. Yet in this time, the billionaire thought through before answering. "I have, but they… can never be enough. They can never _pay_ enough."

"I thought as much, Bruce." Said the psychologist as she took a swig of her bottled drink. "Things can never feel satisfying."Tightening the cap, she then saw Bruce looking right at her. "The man who took them also took away a life you possibly could've had while you forged something else to take its place."

He let out a bitter chuckle. "It wasn't easy, that's for sure."

"Right you are. But I get the feeling that each and every night your out doing your _hobby,_ practically every thug you confront you'd imagine either of them being your parent's killer. And after fighting them off, the pain temporarily goes away." Harley quickly noticed his change of demeanor. "Oh please, I could already figure bits of you out ever since learning who you were; even now for instance. Hell, it somewhat helps with what patients and inmates I work on back at Arkham."

"...And this is the reason why I try not going to therapists."

"At least you've got me to help ya out, Brucey. With the whole doctor/patient confidentiality."

"Uh huh…" Bruce blandly said with an eyeroll. Looking back at the Arkham employee, he decided to share a bit of insight of his work. "With me imagining my parent's killer with almost every thug I come across, that did happen… for a time."

Harley quirked a brow. "And when was this?"

"Around the time I first came back to Gotham when I traveled all over to most parts of the world." Came the answer. "Haven't became Batman quite yet as I was trying to find my image back then. With all my training, I felt ready to go out on the streets and start saving my home. But problems arose -due to my impatience- and I didn't know how to work with it."

"Like what?"

"I… almost killed a man." Bruce confessed, much to Harley's suppressed surprise. "I ended up envisioning him as my parent's killer when he tried to take a small family's possessions one night. The same situation was almost on point and… I snapped. I had beaten him up to an inch of his life and when I realized what I had done, I ran away."

The Wayne swallowed a bitter lump down his throat. "Because of this, I have to keep paying attention of my actions. I might end up killing a thug as the image of the man who took my parents would merely fade away at the unlikely end. If I get too deep, then that might become another and then another. I'd end up prowling through the night and endlessly search for him in order to seek revenge." Bruce looked down at his hands as they momentarily shook. "And if that does happen -then sooner or later- I'd realize revenge would've become my whole life… and I wouldn't know why."

Harley took a moment to digest this information before she once more wrote in her notebook. As she was halfway jotting down her present details, the psychologist spoke. "From what I possibly see so far, Bruce, you're in a unique point in your life where you see yourself lost. Lost like when you're parents died before your very eyes. No idea on where to go or what to do. Your natural instincts would soon take over and move you when you least expect it. Yet your inhibitions are screaming you from acting certain ways, yet you'd ignore them."

Once done writing in her notebook, she looked back at the billionaire. "You'd rely on what training and disciplines you've undergone in order to keep things under control. But I guess -at one point- you'll forget them and things will take a dark turn."

Bruce leaned back and nodded. "That's pretty much what I thought as well. I don't know if things will get better or worse as time lets on. And I'm afraid if I don't keep things in check."

"Good." Harley ate the rest of her fries before washing them down her throat with her bottled drink. Putting the fry container back in the bag, she pulled out the burger box and placed it aside. "Now then, Bruce, I believe you came here for another reason; correct?" The 'playboy' soon nodded as he momentarily forgot about his reason in coming here. "With that _very_ old problem talked about, what is your recent one?"

 _ **-Cafe Triste-**_

"Ah." Naruto exhaled in satisfaction, enjoying the warm sensation of the hot large mocha he had gotten from the cafe he currently sat in front of in one of the outside tables. And lying in front of him on the partially snow covered table was a bag of the treats Lois picked out for them to have while continuing their walk around Gotham today.

After dropping off his ward at Jason Blood's place, Naruto played tourguide for his old co-worker. He took her to several places she planned on going to and it was nice to see things through her perspective -once again- when it pertained to certain landmarks. Lois had wanted to see Naruto's workplace, but he suggested they go there when he goes to work next. She was fine with that as they traveled around for old times sake.

But after their current stop, the reporter wanted to see a few other places before wanting to finally meet his botanist girlfriend.

Glancing behind him, he saw that the cafe was crowded this fine morning with many still on line awaiting their turn to have their order taken. Lois was currently in the bathroom right now and he knew that was gonna take a while. She had some of her make up smeared on accident in the crowd and went to reapply it.

The Uzumaki shook his head, honestly wondered how men put up with that. Then again, it was their unspoken duty -in many ways- as women do the same with them in certain cases.

Letting out a sigh, Naruto idly stared up at the sky watching the snow slowly float on down from above. The crunch of the snow beside him indicated that someone was briefly standing before sitting down in the vacant seat beside him. He made a casual glance to the guy before returning his sight back to the clouds above, figuring the man needed a place to sit with how crowded it was inside.

"Lovely day, isn't it?" The stranger beside him spoke up with a chipper tone.

Naruto turned to him to fully take a good look at the guy. He was dressed strangely, yet not at the same time if that made sense. The distinction of his all black attire was one to stand out, but not enough to truly draw attention to himself. His attire consisted of a pair of basic black pants and boots with a thick trench coat, complimented with the hood he currently put up; which obscured most of his face save for his mouth and chin.

"If you like the cold, I guess." Naruto said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Ah~ I've been around for a while and I always like the more peaceful times of weather." The stranger said, inhaling the cold air.

Naruto couldn't help but quirk a brow at the mans unusually eccentric behavior.

"If you say so." Naruto said, taking a sip of his warm drink.

"Man," the stranger went on, "just look at everyone. Happily going about their lives without a care in the world."

As the man finished this sentence, a child tripped and fell into the snow with his father pulling up a now crying little boy who wiped the snow away from his face.

"Right." Naruto wryly said, while the stranger only chuckled at the small misfortunate turn of events.

"Still… must be nice not worrying about much." He said wistfully. "Just going about your day worrying about what you'll eat for lunch or when you'll see your loved ones next. Not a care in the world."

The Uzumaki was starting to get some seriously weird vibes from the guy the more he talked. The stranger wasn't dangerous, that was for sure… At least for the moment.

Though cause that could change on a whim as Naruto had learned in his life. There was also the added fact that he couldn't see his face properly whatsoever. Even with him moving and looking around in what Naruto assumed to be 'wonder' the damn hood magically stayed in place somehow.

Then again, he has seen stranger things. Like that weird ass dream he had while meditating earlier. If he could even call it that.

"I always wanted a dog you know." The Stranger said with a false sense of dramatic longing. Naruto spotted a man walking his enthusiastic husky who was jumping about in the snow making its owner laugh. "Just that true, undying loyalty and unconditional love." He went on. "Just to make sure that the little guy could do its best in making their owner happy. Such devoted love and trust." The hooded man sighed. "If only i could have had that with my own students."

"You're a teacher?" Naruto found himself asking.

"Eh~ Something like that." The Stranger said with a shrug. "Though whether or not I was a good one remains to be seen in the long run. Only two that I could think of lived up to their full potential."

"Two? Selective teacher then?" Naruto said, spitballing the idea.

"Yes actually I- OH Look! A Rainbow in the snowy air." The Man exclaimed excitedly, pointing to that which now caught his attention. "Wow, I've never seen something like that before. So beautiful. Wonder what'd you call that? A rainbow during a snow day… A Snainbow?" The hooded stranger shook his head. "No, that sounds to ridiculous… Snowbow? Wait, that's just dumb." He then groaned. "Aurgh! The small things that plague one's mind!"

Naruto felt as though now was his time to skedaddle on out of there though the fact that Lois was _still in the bathroom_ prevented him from doing so! Seriously! What the hell was the universe intentionally doing this to him?!

"Kinda like those weird Deep Dive dreams those chosen have." The Man said with a whimsical tone. "That always trips them out."

Naruto faced the man now who held a small smile underneath his hood.

"Pardon?" Naruto said with a raised brow. "What do you mean by Deep Dive?"

"Oh, that's what I call them." The hooded man said with a shrug. "Those dreams that occur within their heart, unseen to all save for those connected to it." He pointed out with a small wave of his hand. "The heart is a mysterious thing and it speaks a great deal on the person when given the chance for its own voice."

The air around the stranger shifted a great deal, unnerving the former shinobi to a large degree. Narrowing his eyes, his wariness began growing as there was an unusual gut feeling about the guy knowing that he knew more than he let on. Naruto already dealt with this several times before and he's already gotten sick of it.

"Hey." Naruto said in a very serious tone. "What do you mean by _Deep Dive?"_

The Stranger only chuckled in response. "Now why would you want me to spoil the _surprise?"_ He cheerfully said. "After all, being self taught is something that's a very rare trait and occurence. I have to see it for myself." Spoke the hooded man with a whimsical tone. "It's sometimes better to be hands off and let nature run its course with those who defy it."

Now Naruto was on edge. Opening his mouth to respond -while preparing his hidden dagger from underneath his sleeve- the entire mood was cut off by Lois at long last coming out of the cafe with her drink in hand and make up intact.

"Whew, sorry about that Naruto." Lois said sheepishly. "It's a madhouse in there I tell ya, a madhouse."

Naruto turned to speak with her. "Lois can you get me some sugar." He said sternly. "I need to finish… talking… with…"

Looking back, he saw that the Stranger seemingly vanished into thin air. Taking a moment to look around wildly, Naruto saw that he was completely gone not even getting a sense of the guy. Even the spot where he stood was untouched as the snow looked freshly fallen.

A bit bug eyed and unnerved, Naruto could only gape a bit at what had transpired.

"Talking with…?" Lois said, rolling her hand for Naruto to finish.

"The… The guy that was… Gah, never mind." Naruto said, rounding on the reporter. "What took you so long, that was nearly twenty minutes!"

"Well excuse me, I'll have you know as a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, I've got appearances to keep up." Lois shot back.

While the two bickered, they remained none the wiser of the hooded stranger Naruto had spoken to standing atop one of the building overlooking the cafe.

Gone were his more street clothes with a more streamlined trench coat that went all the way down to his ankles and his hood now obscuring his entire face.

"Naruto Uzumaki, eh?" The Stranger mused aloud. "What an interesting guy."

Looking up into the sky, the man skirked with his eyes seemingly locked onto something. Then -seemingly from nowhere- a block ovular dome like darkness surrounded the man before he vanished entirely with momentary wisps of darkness floating before they too vanished, leaving nothing behind to indicate that someone had stood there.

 _ **-Blood Residence-**_

If one were to enter the renowned occultist's home and go through a particular door leading to the basement level, they'd be rather confused with what's before their very eyes.

Instead of a stereotypical storage basement -or at least a refurbished one- in Park's Row, there was a wide open area which stretched on for miles. It was brightly lit and the temperature was just right, one would've mistaken it as a perfect Spring/Summer day. Yet the area was filled in a barren, rocky wasteland with hardly any plant-life present at all. The ground was cracked and dry as if deprived of water for eons amoun eons.

This… unique basement level was in fact a magical space, originally created by Jason some years ago as a place to vent his frustrations. He would've done so at a remote, secluded area but it became harder as the years went by. And after taking the half-demon child of Trigon under his tutelage, the ancient knight of Camelot decided to make more use of this space as it'll help in their training when it pertained to certain spellwork.

Which was currently happening right now.

"Alright Rachel, since we've gone over all of the basic routines in here for today I think it might be time for me to show you another type of spellwork."

Straightening herself out, Rachel looked over to her teacher in the magical arts and nodded. Seeing this, Jason gathered mana into his hand and snapped his fingers. Soon after, a glowing circle appeared on the floor right in front of them.

"What's this?" She asked, squatting down in order to get a better look of it. Yet she kept herself away at arm's length in case of anything.

"This here is Mine Magic." He walked over to a nearby rock that was the size of his fist. Picking it up, he ushered his student to move back before chucking it to the glowing circle where it soon explode upon impact. "As you can tell from the name, it's practically a magical landmine." He snapped his fingers again as a row of glowing mine circles appeared across the ground. "This spell focuses on trapping your opponents and protecting you from them. And they come in a few varieties, like this mine shield." Rachel saw her teacher snap his fingers again as the magical mines surrounded them in a box-like formation. "Or this square. And I can be able to have them to seek out any opposition if they so happen to come too close for comfort."

Digesting this bit of information, Rachel asked the next thing that came to mind. "And how can I properly cast it?"

"There are a few things." Jason then listing off the details. "One pertains to the magical input as the spell actually stores what amount you put into it. Another goes into how many you create as the power would get divided amongst each one. The formation and possible movement speeds are also factors to take note of." Said the immortal before showing Rachel how to properly cast the spell.

It was quite different than from some of the elemental and healing spells she learned from him. Yet the Mine spell was somewhat similar to the Balloon variants as they help stun one's opponents. But instead of popping and more Balloons flying all over to strike and stun enemies, the mines are either stagnant or could only move around certain surface.

After getting the full specifics and learning how to cast it, Rachel felt ready to make it work.

"Now take your time, Rachel. There's no need to rush."

The ashen child nodded and did as instructed. Since it was her first time performing this spell, she had to take it slow just like the previous ones under Jason's tutelage. And not just that, but precise focus on this attempt.

As she formed the mine's shape and poured the power inside of it, her mind briefly wandered elsewhere. The thought became rather deep as it stated to distract her. Much so in fact as the spell started to fluctuate and greatly pulsate in front of her.

"Rachel. You need to stop now!" Jason warned. "You're gonna-"

It was too late as the spell backfired, sending his student flying back several feet as it blew up in her face. She tumbled across the barren ground for several moments before coming to a complete stop. Coming up to her, Jason heard her groan and cough for several moments.

The demonologist let out a sigh in knowing she was fine, just rather bruised up. Not wanting to hamper things now, he held out his hand and spoke. "Cura."

Right above the pair, green ethereal flowers bloomed over Rachel's head and started pouring their pollen onto her. The effects were instant as the half-demon briefly glowed as all her visible injuries seemed to have vanished.

"Are you alright?" He asked out of concern.

She groaned. "Yeah, I am."

Jason helped her up as she soon dusted herself off. "I believe that'll be enough magical training for today." He said before escorting her out of the magical training ground.

The two walked up as transparent stairs appeared, the same way that helped them when coming down the first time. After barely a minute, the two reached the door that lead to Jason's living room. The immortal smiled as he nodded to Rachel who moved ahead allowing him to locked the door, and then open it to show his closet. "Thank Merlin for teaching me how to make magical locks instead of me having to learn it from his books."

Rachel looked around as this wasn't the first time she looked at the particular area of her teacher's home. But each time she took a glance at different parts of it, there was something new that wasn't there before.

Jason wasn't one to talk about his past -much like her- but the items around her told current room was large, almost double the size of average home. Not a single space where furniture was wasted, but tactifully enough to be called cozy rather than cramped. On the coffee table laid books from many cultures, one caught her attention as it said 'The Shinsengumi History' another 'The Journey to the West'; knowing those two were among Asia's culture.

Jason smiled as he went to the kitchen to start brewing tea for him and Rachel. It was rather quick after a few casted spells as the water got to the right temperature with the blend set just right. As he was gathering the rest of his things for tea, his eyes caught onto what Rachel was looking at. "Journey To The West is good pass time for reading."

The girl only nodded to his words before looking at a nearby shelf that held a odd sword handle, it looked dragon-like mouth opening. "Jason, what's this?"

The man came back with a tray of tea, along with milk, sugar and treats. Looking over to his student's line of sight, he spoke. "Ah, that was Merlin's failed attempts on making a new sword." He placed down the tray as he continued speaking. "It was a odd past time of his to create something good or close to Arthur's blade. It was suppose to use water and make it tangible for a blade, and never become dull as the moisture in the air would sharpen it. But the blade gave a water effect that made it unable to hurt sea monsters well."

Rachel eyes show slight awe to the idea. "Merlin seems so amazing."

A small chuckled left the man's mouth, "More like bored. Merlin wasn't always do things for good. It was all general with him because he was bored; always finding something to cure him of it. He liked challenging himself before disappearing for days to help a friend of his." The man remember that Merlin always did have a bad habit of getting bored and if he wasn't…

Rachel just watched as Jason paled comically and shivered from his old memories. "I take it that Merlin is like my guardian?"

"In most aspects, frighteningly so…" He said before pouring the tea into the cups. "But throughout my long life, I have taken many trinkets to let me study for anything against Morgan and to learn about this ever changing world." He pointed to the fireplace that had a coat of arms having a odd comma like symbol in the design. "I gained that in China learning about Taoism, where they told me that items can gain a soul or spirit from strong feelings."

Now it was Rachel's turn to shiver at the thought of ghosts, "I… see…" Shakingly dropping some sugar cubes to sweeten her drink and lower her stress will help. She smiled as Jason seem to be happy to talk about his journey, "Where was the place that influenced you the most?"

Jason smiled bitterly at that. "My home, or rather former home, Camelot…" He said leaning into his leather chair. "And yes, I know there are other places that are influential to my life, but it will always be the one I'm most fond of... It's as if… I never left home when I close my eyes…" The demon host stated. "I can hear Galahad throwing curses at his father helping a above-pretty woman easily, Gawain training in order to become Arthur's best knight while helping the novices." He said sipping his tea eyes now becoming tender at the walk down his old past. "I can even see remember even Sir Bedivere following Arthur like lost puppy!" He chuckled remembering the most devoted to the King, who often was more like a butler than a knight. "Or even finding Sir Tristan often napping in godforsaken places, or even Mor-" The man caught himself before sighing. "Mordred…"

Rachel eyes narrow at the sudden change of tone… "The Knight of-"

"Betrayal…" The man nodded, taking a deep breathe. "He wasn't always like that, when joining us. Mordred truly love working side by side with us… I dare say he saw us as his true family." He softly said placing his cup on its saucer. "Lord knows that Agravein actually like the novice and he made it hard to be friends…" Glaring at the floor his hand formed a fist, knowing who made everything happen from Mordred's rebellion to Arthur's demise.

Morgan...

It took all of his mental strength to reel in his raw anger, almost losing his anger as calmness took over. Jason remember it was not only Morgan who destroy what he loved, but it was his own doing as well on how the envisioned kingdom fell. "Let's not talk about that. Tell me what got you distracted earlier when you tried the Mine Spell."

The young half-demon fidgeted in her spot as she gave a nod. "It was something Naruto said earlier today after our meditation time." Jason ushered her to go on. "He had an unusually bad dream… or a nightmare from what it seems. And it made me think when told me something… which made me lose focus today."

"Like what exactly?"

"Facing against Darkness." Came the answer. "Or something along the lines of it." Jason blinked as he became curious about what his pupil just said. "He told me that… Darkness isn't something to fear, rather fearing it was the problem. That people misjudge it and that we all have darkness. He even said that he accepted his darkness at one point." She explained as the teacher nodded.

"And why would be bring that up?"

Rachel took a sip of her tea, knowing her throat will be dry if she didn't partake any liquids before telling this tale. "Over a decade ago, he _literally_ faced his own Darkness from a place he called the Waterfalls of Truth. Naruto confronted _himself_ as they argued which one was real and the other was fake. His Darkness stating that _he_ was the real Naruto as all of the harsh emotions he kept away over the years was all him while the _one_ you know was merely a facade. With all the pain and suffering he dealt with manifested into a darker side of him from within the deepest parts of his heart."

The ashen child sighed before taking another sip of her drink. "My guardian had first thought of his Darkness was a burden to deal with upon their first confrontation. But he soon came to realize he needed to accept his Darkness in order to progress with this… _thing_ he had to deal with at the time." She said, not telling her teacher the full reason on that particular part of her older brother/father figure's past.

"And why is this relevant on the dream you spoke of?"

"Naruto said he needed to find balance between his Light and Darkness against these things he was facing against along with this odd test he mentioned. And in that time, he reminisced on what happened when he was at the Waterfalls of Truth as some sort of inspiration to move forward on this dream of his. He can't doubt himself on accepting his darker side since they're one in the same. That if you don't see things differently and accept them, then you won't become a better person."

The immortal knight nodded, but rather to Rachel as it was more towards himself. "I also had to choose a similar way, having Etrigan sharing this body at first was tempermental to say the least." He started as he took another sip of his tea. "We desperately tried to take reins to control the body. It was quite the struggle as both of us considered each other a burden to deal with. However we both compromised that in order to both get what we want… it was only beneficial for us to work together."

The man continued as he poured himself more tea before grabbing the milk and added some of it to his cup. "There's a proverb in the orient, 'Two in Harmony shall surpass One in Perfection.'" He stated as he stir the beravage. "I believe Naruto is right, many things can be better if you don't be narrow minded and expand to new things. Such as I and Etrigan did for each other, we bicker yet we done more with each other rather than separately."

"Then… what about your own Darkness? I mean, have you accepted it?"

The man shook his head, "I fully cannot… not until Etrigan and I fulfilled our duty. If I do, I fear my mission would be affected and I swore to Merlin that it comes first." But his lips pursed upwards, "But when it has been done, I would ask Naruto if he could teach me to forgive myself and tangle my darkness."

"But with your long life, haven't you at least-"

"Sad to say, but no. It's a burden for me to bare and that's the only thing I have accepted from what I've done." He placed his cup back onto his saucer. "If I must suffer this curse of wandering the mortal plane for all eternity, then I shall in order to truly forgive myself of my misdeeds."

Rachel couldn't understand why would he inflicted suffering like this, "You know that darkness is there, but won't face until the demons- ahh I mean, the misdeeds have been undone?"

Jason let out a bitter chuckle on her quick correction. "I will once Morgan Le Fey is long gone."

The half-demon didn't say anything, only listening and playing back the words many times inside of her head. Many things ran on though and she didn't know what do make of them. Even things that related to the present topics, while not at the same time.

Jason took notice of her contemplation and spoke, "Is something amiss?"

Rachel rubbed her arm and looked away. "Well… I don't know if I could… I mean… Can Darkness be evil?"

"Is Darkness evil?" Jason said, repeating his pupil's question. He took a moment to think before giving her an answer. "Darkness is only evil by those who use it in such ways. So am I evil to you?"

She blinked in surprise. "You use darkness?"

"Well Etrigan mainly uses it," he held up his unoccupied hand as a purplish-black aura appeared around it. "And as for me, I use it _through_ him." He shook his hand as the power left as a realized thought crossed his mind. "I can understand you being weary of darkness as you might become closer to your father." He said, causing the half-demon to hesitantly nod. "But it's not really specified to certain beings. And sure it's been known that demonic forces associate themselves with it, but it's not strictly with them all the time." The occultist took up his tea cup and took a sip. "Since you have a demonic heritage, Darkness is apart of you -just like everyone else- but in larger quantities; and if you fight it then you'll only hamper yourself. But if you can control your inner darkness and work with it, then you'll become much more powerful in using it."

"Not sure if I ever can accept it… even a fraction of it." She retorted as Jason gave a small chuckle.

"Well… as many people would say: 'Rome wasn't built in a day'." He quoted and gave a look to Rachel, a look of pride. "Even geniuses must take a step like everyone else to learn something new."

"Then how are you able to use Darkness if you don't accept it?"

"Like I said before: through Etriga-"

Jason paused his speech as his eyes widen to alarming rate. In his shock, he dropped his teacup as it fell onto his lap. The demonologist ignored the hot pain on his breaches as Etrigan's roars were more troubling. His tenant's cries were defensive like a beast daring another to step into his domain.

But this doesn't make sense the last time something affect both Etrigan _and_ him was when-

"Merlin… has the sword you've been waiting for arrived?" He said astonished that the time a new legendary blade was going to be made, twice in his lifetime immortal or not.

Rachel questioned on what her teacher meant. Before voicing it, the half-demon felt it as well, like something to froth over… and the _feeling_ alone was enough to make wet her tongue. The power in that second made her lose her calm mind to feel her inner demon want more. It was like basking in the glory of the sun and unable to be burn from it… glorious… that was that raw feeling she felt.

But even it lastly a second, the two minds made it last longer until the feeling was gone… leaving them -save Etrigan who slowly calmed down- slightly hollow to lose that feeling. Jason saw Rachel's heavy pants, which was understable given her nature and first time feeling untapped power that held no Darkness or Light, something like was enough to make any magic user crave more.

"I… take it you felt it as well Rachel?" Jason said now slightly gritted teeth as the pain from the tea finally hit him.

"Y-Yeah, but I didn't-"

"It's alright if you did… I felt a similar feeling when I was your age." Jason said knowing that Rachel felt her demon side winning for that moment. "Etrigan did just now, wanting to keep the feeling from leaving his area."

"Sorry… I just...what in the world was that?!" She stated losing her stoic tone "It was like all the wrongs in the world mix with the good and… and…"

"Rachel." Jason gave a firm tone, as he saw many of his items float. "Steel yourself… I know, what you felt is something that one other can possibly know." The man stood up as he looked at the fireplace, "The age of a new sword that will usher a new legend… The sword that can rival those in myths… surpass even Merlin's greatest blade for his greatest hero…"

Rachel mind was nearly blow away as each sentence made the answer closer and closer to her mind. Is he telling her… that raw power was… "A new Holy Sword?" she stated, but quickly realize that _she_ and Etrigan felt it. "Or…"

Jason looked back to her and nodded, not wanting a Demonic sword to be formed of _this_ magnitude and be wielded by those of nefarious intentions. "We must go and find where the sword might arrive… before someone horrible takes it."

 _ **-Meanwhile, Elsewhere-**_

"...I don't know why we had to rent that Monty Python movie!" Morgan glared at the VHS case she had in her hands. "I mean it was Galahad who looked for the Grail, not the others!" She tossed the case aside and clicked her tongue. "The guy had an awesome shield that was used for the Round Table! How does that go from that to, a freakin bunny eating the bodies off..." Morgan soon trailed off as her mind went elsewhere. And in that process, the wild blonde couldn't help but gave a smirk, thinking of a few knights in place of that scene. "Actually that scene _is_ funny… but still!" She continued onwards, complaining that Galahad was a more just and noble guy to do something so dumb.

Barbara couldn't help but laughed awkwardly as she knew things with medieval times made her friend get angry.

Things started out quite well as the day went on as the pair hanged out. For the first time since knowing her friend, Barbara was invited over to Morgan's place while her mother was out for the day. The wild blonde already spent plenty of time at the redhead's home, so it was only fair for Barbara to see her friend's home. And it was supposed to a simple hangout while watching some movies -which the pair rented beforehand- in the entertainment room Morgan spoke of in the past.

Before seeing the movies, Barbara was given a small tour of Morgan's home… with some restrictions for family privacy; which the redhead was fine with. And the college student couldn't help but look in a state of awe when seeing the various artifacts kept in the estate.

After the tour, the two friends started to watch movies with the first being The Breakfast Club and latest one being Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

'I know there are people out there who are into the correct things on an extreme level. Just didn't know Morgan fitted in that category.' Thought the Commissioner's daughter before turning to her friend. "You know that-"

Morgan's green eyes were lit with flames of vengeance. "It's the truth. I don't have a problem with storytelling... Just freakin' get the shit right!"

"It's a joke movie-"

"It's Mordred! How does he not even get mention!?" Bellowed the wild blonde. "I mean that's not fair, he was best knight… ahem from my point of view." She then glared at the spawn of Hell in her hands. "It must _burn~!_ " Morgan said with a disturbing smile at it. "Burn as Lancelot morals were!"

Taking it out of her friends hands -while somehow not noticing feint arcs of red lightning coming off Morgan's form- with a stern look, "No way! I'm not losing my membership just because you're OCD on Knights of the Round isn't perfect. I just got into the platinum level!"

"But it must die-" She stopped in mid-sentence as wild blonde comically shook in place.

Barbara left eyebrow was raised as she saw Morgan paled into a white ghost. "Mor-?"

"M… M… Ma…"

"Ma?" The commissioner's daughter questioned as she saw Morgan smile nervously.

"Mama… Y-You're home early…"

Blinking in confusion, Barbara turned around… before blushing at the magnificent sight before her.

It was woman, whose aura raidated with experience and maturity yet with the skin and looks of someone in her mid-twenties. This woman hair had a lighter shade than Morgan's, almost the pale form of gold; which wasn't hard to believe on how lucious and full of life it had as the sun seem to make it more dazzling. Her hair in the front was loose and covered her forehead in a elegant manner and her bangs were a cute yet sexy combination to frame her face well. In the back, it was long enough to reach slightly beyond her rear end. Barbara also noticed the woman wore a braid made from her own hair, keeping the long hair bound and well-kept. She wore a black business suit that was open to show a black lacy corset that hugged her hourglass figure perfectly. Around her neck was a golden necklace with an emerald placed in it's center. Her dress pants hugged her womanly hips to the point men would walk into the street to gaze at it forever.

Barbara nearly blushed as her face flushed when looking at what visible skin there was as no imperfections were ever present. It was like looking at the finest porcelain doll ever made. Although what caught out of her stupor was the face, it was almost exactly like Morgans! Just more… mature and calm.

"Mord- *Cough* Morgan?" The woman smiled with the most motherly smile Barbara ever seen… until the woman eyes open showing lifeless, green orbs that seem to unsettle the redhead. "Didn't I tell you to prepare for the trip?"

Barbara took a step away as the woman started to move closer almost gliding towards her 'daughter'. "Morgan, w-who is this?"

Despite her comically sweating form, the tomboy spoke, "T-This here is my w-wonderful mother… Morganna." The wild blonde then turned over to present her friend. "M-Mother, this here is my friend, Barbara."

Morganna just moved to Morgan a hop with each step, showing her happiness from the compliment which seemed to have work as the mother reached Morgan to pat her head, "Aww, Morgan, you such a sweet child!" She said hugging the younger blonde...before the eyes of the dead reappear. "Too bad you left me to do the work…"

Barbara paled as the woman tighten her hold on her friend's neck as the poor person in question turn blue… and then…

 _DONG~!_

Barbara felt scared as a knock-out Morgan went limp in her mother's arm. "My oh my, it seems she was a bit tired." Morganna placed the younger blonde to a nearby seat, before looking at Barbara. "I am so sorry. I had to get my rebellious child, we're-" She said grabbing Morgan from falling down, and setting her back up. "Going to visit some family members."

"Oh, I'm sorry if I-"

The woman stared at the young lady, as if to tell her to be quiet… in which the spectacled redhead did. "Fufufu~ I take it you're this 'Babs' that my child is so happy to be friends with?" She asked to looked at the girl. As if studying her, "Hmm, not bad… not bad… I can see Morgan liking you."

Barbara placed a hand on her hip, being a bit annoyed with the judging eye, "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Morgan loves red." The woman replied as red haired woman comically cringe at that remark. But a kind smiled from the older woman. "Please continue to be my child's friend. Morgan hasn't a real friend for years. Not since I divorced her father… hateful man..." Morganna spitefully spat out.

That last bit of information somewhat caught the girl off guard, but nonetheless she nodded. "Of course, even if you didn't want me too! Either way I was thinking Morgan would drag me out to hang out still."

"Sad to say, I agree…" Morganna smile seem to be evil as she looked at her child's friend, "Wanna do something mean to Morgan? A punishment for letting me do all the packing?"

Barbara couldn't help but feel like getting back at Morgan at the Naruto teasing… "What do you have in mind?"

After a while, people who were at one of Gotham's parks, which was a few miles away from the estate, were enjoying the peace until…

"WHAT THE HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL~!?"

Barbara and Morganna were busy trying not to laugh as the wild blonde was glittering like a star from the make-up that was done masterfully on her face. Along with a frilly and girly wedding dress, white as the purest snow. On the back of her waist was a black bow, and her wild hair style was now comb down and done with the same black bow. And that wasn't enough injury to insult, the wild blonde pulled her skirt and blanch at the sight… sexy lingerie?!

"Gonna… kill someone…"

 _CLICK~!_

The wild blonde gapped as she saw Morganna drooling as she held a camera in her hands. "Now I can send these photos to my penpal in Japan, Cir-chan does good work with dresses~" She said with a blissful smile. "Wanna a copy too, Barbara?"

All Barbara could do was give out a triumphant smirk. "Yes please, if she ever teases me again."

"You got ammo!" The older woman quipped with a lovely look.

"MOTHER~!" Morgan cried out waterfall tears. "I'm sorry! I won't skip out chores again!"

"Hmm? Odd I thought I heard someone saying 'Send this to every hunky, single boy in the vicinity?'" Morganna teased as Morgan comically threw up blood!

"HELL NO! GIMME THAT SOUL-SUCKING BOX!" The wild blonde tackled her mother, who simply take a simple side step as Mordred crash into the fireplace. "Mother! Please I swear I won't do it again~! I rather not have stalkers here! And also who says hunky anymore?!" The voice echoed as Barbara giggled.

"You two are-" The woman stopped as she and Morgan -who now pulled herself out- stood in silence… they then glance at each other. Morgan stood up dusting her wedding dress, with a wide apologetic smile.

Weirded out on the oddly silent moment, Barbara spoke. "Is… something the matter?"

"Sorry~! But the trip is going to be earlier than expected!" The wild girl said, bowing out of respect for breaking her promise to hang out. "When I come back, we can get smashed at a bar or get you married to Naruto with this vile thing! Hell he might just jump on you if you just wore the underwear~!" Barbara suddenly went red faced when hearing that. "But this trip is beyond important!" The wild blonde clapped her hands with closed eyes. "Rain check?"

"Eh… Yeah~ sure. Why not." Barbara replied before gathering the rented movies and the rest of her things. "Call me when you're done, alright?"

"Thanks okay!" Morgan shouted with a smile while escorting her friend to the door. "And don't worry, I promise to get you laid when I return! I mean if Gala- I mean a certain squirt was done, then it would a walk in park for you~!" With that last teasing and her friend out the door, she slammed the door shut. "Whoo… gonna regret that when she's going to be fucked in a coma-"

The mother/daughter pair suddenly covered their ears as they felt a large boom, yet it wasn't anything normal as nothing was affected. "IT'S HERE NOW!?" The wild blonde stated as she looked to a grandfather clock to pulled out a silver sword!

Morganna gave a glare to her child. "Mordred, calm yourself. It would take a skillful mage like Merlin to do anything remotely as to change the shape of that object. We have time…" The mother said as she looked into the nearby mirror. "A shame though, I rather was getting used to my old looks again. Even Merlin thought I was the female version of Arthur…" She smiled as she waved her hand over the mirror to show someone else.

Her silvery, blonde hair darkened into midnight black with a faint grey streak running through it. Her figure didn't change much, yet it still had the body which many women would kill for and men would lust for. Her soulless, green eyes changed into sinister green as her business suit went into an attire fit for royalty.

"Should I keep it, Mordred? Since they are no real people from our time that could pick me out from the crowds?" Morgaine questioned as she kept checking herself out before scrunching her face once touching her necklace. "Well all except Jason Blood, of course."

Mordred scoff as she shook her head, "Do whatever, I just want my _Sword in the Stone_ … you sure you can do what Merlin did and make a heroic blade or whatever?"

The woman nodded. "It won't be the as the _Sword of Promised Victory_ or the _Sword that Chooses Kings_ -as those were made by the highest of the Fae- but from what we've sensed, this object would be close if not better in the finished results." She noticed Mordred's crestfallen sword. "What is the matter, my sweet child?"

"It won't be the same if the sword isn't like Father's…" Morgan smiled kindly at her daughters sweet nature, to call her monster of a brother, a father despite being killed by Arthur. "Then how will I know if I am truly a King?"

Morgan bit her lower lips, even if Mordred did take the throne and had _all_ the knights choose her. That ridiculous dream of taking Arthur's place when unsheathing Ex- That Blade made her often want to pull her own hair out. Was this a knight thing to have one code of honor? "Mordred, you have Arthur's blood and my support as a mage. You _are_ a King!" She whispered as Mordred's eyes became slightly dazed. Magic-laced words to help her convince her daughter, "A king make hard choices and this is one…" She said as the words ring into her prince's mind. Before stopping with a smile as she shook Mordred awake.

"Now come. We must quickly finish preparations to acquire your new sword."

 _ **-Gotham Botanical Gardens-**_

"...I gotta say, whiskers, this is the most spectacular tree I've ever seen in my entire life."

He chuckled a response. "Glad that you approve."

The botanical gardens rarely had visitors during the winter season, with much of the plant life not being in all of its splendor outside of its climate controlled walls. With the trees shedding their leaves and most flowers closing themselves off before blooming again in warmer times as their bulbs and roots survive until Spring. For the ones inside are still blooming and held strong as if the cold never affected them in the slightest.

Despite that there wasn't much to be seen outside, it was a magnificent sight as to where the main attraction was located. The fleshly powdered show clinging onto the ancient tree large branches and clinging vines with icicles hanging off of it's splendor. Even with the flower bulbs closed off for the season, it was still a lovely sight.

"Can't wait to see this during the Spring."

Naruto opened his mouth and was going to speak when a familiar voice beat him to the punch. "Then come on by when this beauty is in full bloom."

The two old co-workers turned around and saw Pam -more exactly her plant clone- walking towards them in her lab attire.

Naruto smiled, came up and gave her a chaste kiss. "Glad that you're here. Makes things less tedious in finding ya." Pam's plant clone gave a small chuckle as he turned over to the reporter. "Lois, I'm happy to finally introduce to you my girlfriend, Dr. Pamela Isley."

The botanist held out her hand towards the ravenette with a warm smile. "How do you do? I've heard much about you."

"Nice to meet ya. And I hope it's nothing but good things." Lois said while shaking the redhead's hand. "So you're the woman that stole Naruto's heart away and made him happy."

The Green champion gave a small, genuine smile. "Guilty as charged." She then ended the handshake. "Though to be fair, he seemed to have stolen mine first."

"Corny, but I'd let it slide as I believe it."

Pam kept up her smile. "Naruto told me over the phone that you were coming, but I didn't know when."

Earlier today, the Uzumaki called up his red haired girlfriend shortly after leaving the loft to inform her of Lois' arrival. She wished she could personally be there to greet her, but Pam had to put the majority of attention today on their three daughters. But she made a mental link with her clone to help compensate this so she won't miss a beat on the interaction, in real time.

The Green champion usually does this at the end of her day in order to process all of it's memories, but today she'll make a rare exception.

"You can put some of the blame on me since I wanted to see _a lot_ of places here. So sorry if we kept ya waiting or anything."

The plant clone waved her off. "You didn't. Been busy in several projects."

"Oh~ like what?" Lois asked with her interests mildly peaked.

"A few things I wanted to continue after my late-superior's passing." Pam said in a solemn tone. "There was quite a lot she wanted to work on or was still on, but obvious reasons stopped that."

The reporter cringed a little upon hearing this. "I remember hearing and reading about the incident… I'm sorry for your loss."

The botanist's clone breathed out a sigh. "The wounds still fresh and it'll take time for it to heal." Green eyes then met violet as former bore into the later. "And I know you don't really know Luisa, but I appreciate the concern."

"Thanks… I guess."

Naruto jumped in and said an apology. "Sorry about that, Lois, but Pam's rather sensitive about the subject."

"No, it's fine. I understand completely and you don't have to fuss over it." Lois started with a shrug. "I deal with that quite often when I'm doing my work and writing my articles. So it'll be strange if I'm not used to it by now."

The botanist's clone nodded before guestering them to come inside and get out of the cold. "I've gotta ask, but how are you liking Gotham so far?"

"Asides from the fact that this city is one of the most crime ridden places in the country, it's rather fine." Responded the reporter. Getting to the nearby doors, she opened them as the three entered the warm building. "Sometimes I find it hard to believe Gotham is able to manage it's crime rate with the likes of Batman, Robin, Vanitas and them Siren women taking care of things."

For months now -ever since Solomon Grundy's attack and Killer Croc's flood- the city has occasionally seen a trio of costumed women help fight crime alongside the Dynamic Duo and Vanitas. Catwoman was more well known while Ivy and Harley -who still hasn't been given a hero name- were hardly known, but made occasional appearances in the news while helping out the police. And it's been thought to be believed the new Batgirl was either a new addition to the Siren ranks, a new member of Batman's team or just a solo act.

"I agree as well." Pam said with a smirk. "Then again Batman had laid out the groundwork. Hell, I don't know what would happen if he wasn't here to begin with."

"Yeah, I wouldn't wanna know." Naruto added in. "Just thinking of all of the possibilities might give me a headache."

"Heh~ true." Walking down the garden's hallways, Lois continued. "What I would like to know are a few things." She then listed them off. "For one, how the hell does he afford all his gadgets with how expensive they might be? And why bats as his motif; just because their scary?"

Naruto held out his hand and counted them out. "Sound investments and personally building them in order to hide better from those investigating his identity." He then gave her a raised brow. "And bats being a way of putting fear in criminals."

Lois rose a brow. "That was rather quick on the answer, whiskers."

"Eh~ Had a lot of time to think on those questions." Came the vague answer, due with him -alongside his red haired girlfriend- already knowing the truth. "Besides, there's a lot of people out there having the same ideas for answers."

"Eh~ your probably not wrong on that one. Got a few people back at the Planet who thought of the same thing. Even with the Hood guy over in Starling." The ravenette then scratched her head. "Not to mention others who have nothing else to do and contemplate on the idea… Or have those crazy ass conspiracy walls."

"Didn't you say your cousin -Chloe- have one such walls?"

Lois merely groaned. "Yes, she did. Thank god she stopped doing that after high school." She then had a disturbing thought and shivered. 'Unless she still has them and is just hiding it in some locked up room.'

"You okay there?" Pam asked.

Lois waved off the botanist. "It's nothing. Just adjusting to the warmth."

"Or someone has a wall in their room~" Naruto sang out as Lois glared at him, making the whiskered man chuckle as he casually looked away. "Don't worry, we all have those moments…" He sagely nodded to himself as he patted the woman's shoulder.

Lois could only give him a deadpan expression with tone to equal her facial feature, "Why does everything you say sound condescending right about now." She gained a thought that gave her an edge to shut him up. "Hmm, I wonder what kinda _moments_ you have… like this morning?"

"Blah!" Naruto comically gasped out, as he totally didn't see that hit coming! "N-Nothing… illegal that is…" He stated truthfully, but slapped his face… one hint was enough to hound him by the journalist.

"What about this morning?" The red haired beauty asked as she was wondering why was her- 'Ohhh~ now I know what she's talking about.'

"Hmm? Your face says something, Pam." Lois inquiries as the plant clone sighed.

"It's just some… stuff from last night…" She forced her cheeks to flush thinking about certains with a certain silver-haired man to make it as realistically as possible. "And I call him to put them away if guests -or God forbid- Rachel saw it."

Lois' grin couldn't be any bigger. If she had red haired, Naruto would've believe she was an Uzumaki. "Hohohoho~! Kinky stuff? What cops and robbers? Or maybe Naruto likes to take it in the-"

"HELL~ NAW~!" Naruto face turn green as a frog as he felt actually sick at the idea of being prodded like that. "Some things must not be said!"

The two woman laughed at the man's disgust at the 'fun' they were talking about, enjoying that the occasional prankster of the three was caught off guard by the suggestion.

"Oh soo~ a whip and leather corset more your thing? Like 'footstool' play, perhaps?" Lois smiled evilly as she imagine Pam whipping a Naruto who is comically smiling in joy. "Or maybe some naive foreigner getting lost in the city?" She stated now turning red and eyes turning into cartoonish swirls. "Or- Or, some kind naughty teacher~!?" At this point the two lover saw fire on her hair, "HOLY CRAP MAYBE SOME INC-"

"CHOP~!" Naruto comically hit her head as the flames suddenly died out as she grabbed her head with a spurt of blood shoot out. She rolled around the ground crying out and spilling blood everywhere.

"The hell man!?" She cried out, now having a anime-esque bandage on her forehead.

"And you say you're not a closet pervert because of my godfather's books." Naruto said before rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Don't know if I should help her get laid with someone."

"With those many kinks, I fear the guys would leave before the date starts!" Pam stated whispering so Lois wouldn't hear them. "Might be part of the reason why her last relationship ended."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here!"

"Or god, maybe we find the missing link to her. Think about a _boy_ version of perv-vette here." Naruto teased lightly as a arrow that said 'Perv-vette' went through her. "But that'll be highly unlikely. If there was, then I fear what their children will be like."

"O-Oww… my pride…" She whimpered as she had yo-yo-like tears dangling from her eyes.

Despite enjoying the little moment, Lois felt as if there was more to what was going on being covered up by the small change in subject. 'They're hiding something, that's for sure.' Was the thought as they entered the cafeteria. 'But I can't egg them for that particular information right away or else things will get complicated and I'll get shut out. But for now…' "Hey, Pam. I've got a question for ya."

"Which would be what exactly?" Pam's clone asked before asking one of her own. "Also would you like anything to drink or snack on?"

"I'm good on food since Naruto and I snacked on some food earlier before coming here. But I'm fine with something warm to drink." Lois responded before asking her intended question. "I've gotta ask, but have ya been with anyone before Naruto?"

Pam blinked alongside Naruto on the sudden question as the three got in line. Before long, the botanist shook her head. "Afraid not, Lois. I never really been with anyone at all when growing up and throughout college. But Naruto's the only _man_ I've ever been in a relationship with."

The reporter was mildly surprised on the response. "Huh, I would've thought you had like one or two guys at least."

"School and work were my primary focuses, Lois. I hardly had time for a social life."

The reporter nodded. "Yeah, I can understand to some degree." Pam looked at Lois in curiosity with Naruto already knowing what was about to be said. "Mostly raised by a single father -a military one at that- things were difficult. Sure my younger sister, Lucy, and I didn't move that much as our dad didn't want to stress us over with constant moves with his growing position and ranks. You can blame our late mother for that." The reporter gave a small chuckle. "She fought tooth and nail, reeling him into agreeing with her terms."

"Must've been some woman."

Lois kept up the smile. "That she was. So much so that both me and my sister were able to inherit that trait. We can be able to beat him up, have him wrapped around our fingers and put him in his place… to some degree, that is."

Pam then formed a smile of her own as she grabbed an orange from the open fridge with Naruto snagging an apple. "I remember Naruto telling me about that when we first started dating. And suffice to say, I found it rather funny. No offense."

"Eh~ None taken." Getting to the front of the line, the three gave their drink orders before standing nearby the counter not far away. "Getting back to my social life, it was a bit hard to manage after my mom passed away. Had to fill in my mom's shoes as I helped take care of Lucy alongside my dad. Not to mention using up all my after school free time to work on scholarships and internships. And it was quite the pain in the ass."

"So you're like me back then? All work and no play?"

"Pretty much."

Naruto chuckled a little. "I remember your dad telling me he tried setting you up on several dates in the past, but they didn't turn out all that well."

"Oh, they did. But I just wasn't all that interested when I was in school. Lucy was like that at first, but she eventually relented with this one guy for a time. In the end, things didn't work out with her and she called it off."

"Yeah, needed that little reminder." He said, taking a bite of his fruit. Swallowing the bit of food, Naruto remembered a little detail. "Was the guy some sort of secret loan shark?"

"Oh yeah and dad was absolutely pissed. Guy tried to run off with this money he took and dad intercepted him with a tank."

Pam's clone almost choked on her orange slice with what she heard. Coughing a little -with Naruto patting her back-to help clear the airway. Giving her boyfriend a nod of thanks, the botanist looked at the reporter in bewilderment. "Are you serious?"

"Deadly." Lois said with a blown smile. "Saw the whole thing and I laughed my ass off as Lucy's ex tried to speed away. Wasn't long after a tank round hit the nearby road did he stop his car and shit his pants." As the drink order was called, Lois soon grabbed her drink and took a small sip of the warm brew. "Suffice to say, a small rule was made."

"Don't screw a Lane or something along those lines." Naruto stated as Pam got a good kick out of that.

"Basically it."

"And what's Lucy doing now?" Pam asked as the three sat down at the nearby table.

"She's working as a judge advocate under their dad." Naruto answered as he sipped his own drink. "Lucy's gonna be one hell of an intimidating woman if one wants to date her."

"Right you are. And just like me, she's dedicated to her work to see things done right in the world. But instead of going out in the field and investigate, Lucy advises dad and several others in the military while cleaning it out of filth."

"Sounds like you from what I've heard from Naruto." Lois smiled to Pam whose smile was slightly strained. It was true now she was changing herself for the better, the fact is that she has done some terrible things after her change before being admitted into Arkham. Naruto noticed as he place his hand on top of hers gently and unnoticeable to Lois.

"Well good for your sister." Pam said in feminine pride, covering up the bit of pain a moment ago. "I don't know about you, but there's gotta be quite a lot of corrupt-"

*SCREEEEE-BOOOOOOOOM*

The loud screeching boom sound startled what people were in the cafeteria. It was rather loud and deafening as many wondered what happened. Did a nearby building blow up? Was a robbery taking place? It was hard to really tell.

But looking through the nearby glass walls -which now sported a series of cracks due to the resulting 'boom'- they saw a large hole through the dense clouded sky revealing the twilight colors from up above. But it wasn't just that, but there was a large smoky streak emanating from said hole as it trailed across the sky and into the horizon.

Before anything else could be done, the cafeteria's occupants felt an odd shockwave running through the building. The force behind it then caused all of the windows -even the glass walls- to suddenly break, sending itty-bitty shards all over.

If the previous sound didn't startle them, then this recent event did.

"What the hell was that?" Lois asked as she tried calming her beating heart.

"I don't know." Pam responded as her eyes trailed the smoky path. "Whatever it was had to be big."

"A satellite or a meteor, perhaps?"

"Probably."

"Right Naruto-?" When Lois tried to get Naruto's opinion she saw a dazed look in his face, as if in a deep trance. "Hel~lo?" She waved her hand in front of him and snapping her fingers trying to get his attention. "Man. That sound must've really shocked him or something."

Pam however didn't buy it as her lover's eyes were completely gone. She would know as she knew those eyes really well. He wasn't all there… he has gone into deep parts of his mind.

When Naruto was in one his meditation times with Rachel, Harley was slightly curious on what his eyes were like. Mild, child-like curiousity at best, the bubbly blonde slowly pried opened his eyelids and saw the light leave them; which made things rather unsettling. And it wasn't just those times, but when meditating at certain areas around the city in order to help out the Green in taking care of several problems against the Black and Grey.

'What caused you to be like this?' Pam thought out of concern.

Before anything could be acted upon this, the cloned botanist quickly saw the light return in her love's eyes as he quickly gasped and inhaled a large intake of air.

"Whoa there, whiskers." Lois said as she kept him steady. "Had us worried there for a second."

"Uh… Y-Yeah, sorry, guess I was in shock or something…" He stated before hearing his phone was ringing, "I'll get that." He stated knowing that it was probably something about the crash, checking in the people. When pulling up the device into his ear, he spoke into it. "Hello?... Yeah… No… Really?... Ahh… OK… Fine~" Naruto said softly before hanging up, turning to the two women he pointed at the phone. "Uhh, Jason called said that he needed me. Something about the shock breaking some parts of his attic. Cool if I go, since I can pick up Rachel as well? No doubt unsettled with what happened." He said as he pulled on his collar as he sighed a bit too convincing. "Good since the _heat_ is getting to me."

Pam knew that Naruto was faking it, soon figuring out that the crash is something to do with his heroic life. "Oh, I hope they're fine. Go on!" She urged as the silver haired man have his signature thumbs up before leaving.

Lois looked on with a raised brow and wondered what else is going on. But it didn't matter now as she looked outside and saw what took place around the city. Windows were broken as far as her violet eyes could see and car alarms were blazing like crazy. People started to evacuate the buildings for safety protocols while the reporter could faintly hear people talking about what just occurred.

'Naruto is acting to calm in this chaos...something's not right…' Was Lois thoughts as she saw Naruto's frame disappearing out of the cafeteria doors. 'But that doesn't matter now, I should probably get a coverage as to what happened or something.' As she silently walked, she then stopped and facepalmed. 'Wait, I almost forgot the Planet's not fully stationed here yet and I don't have access to a helicopter.' The ravenette hummed in thought. 'Maybe I could find the Gotham news crews and see what could be done from there.'

 _ **-Off the coast of Gotham-**_

What was once the home of the defamed scientist, Dr. Emile Dorian, a privately owned island for his feline experiments was now a _literal_ shadow of its former self.

Sure, the land was rather uninhabited of human life, except for the experimented wildlife, but it was quite the forested landmass. The only sign of any human presence there was the burnt down and destroyed home of the island's previous owner before he was sent to prison for his inhumane crimes.

But now… about a third of the island was now a wreck with the rest being smoldering mess. A large fire consumed the vast acres covering the land and no doubt ended the lives of many animals. The geographic layout was drastically changed with many ridges, cliffs, mountains, and grounds were either upheaved, fallen, sunk or risen unnaturally. Even new rivers and streams were changed as a result.

The reason?

If one would look towards the edge of the farthest side of the island -away from Gotham's lights and line of sight- lies a vastly dense crater. It was only a few miles large, but seeing the outside devastation of the meteor's blast radius would say otherwise. And the only remaining piece of land that was _barely_ affected by recent events was on the other side of the blast zone.

Sounds of clanking metal stepped closer and closer to the blast's edge. The source came to a stop as a medieval armored knight looked on in awe.

"Holy hell that's a lotta of damage!" Mordred shouted as she looked at the landscape totally… well totaled! "Thank God that none of my subjects were anywhere near this!"

"Indeed." Spoke the treacherous knight's mother as she stepped beside Mordred. "If this were to happen in the city, it would've been decimated in an instant." Morgan stated with a raised eyebrow. "Raw power alone didn't do this. It was message from the ore itself stating 'I have power, and I need it to be wielded.'" She said with a smile.

The witch then wave her hand as purple colored lines appeared several feet away from the crater's edge before surrounding the entire area, creeping slowly towards as much as the damage land it could reach. Before long, a faint shimmer rose from the ground as it reached towards the sky and curved to meet at the crater's center.

"What did you do mother?" Mordred question her new mage of the court knowing that magic wasn't in her area.

"Making sure everything here won't be interrupted by the unsavory sort." Was her answer. "Now come, we must tread carefully to acquire the source of all of this. And place your helmet on now..."

Mordred watch as she glided forward, before huffing at being still treated as a child, even when something like this came up. Clicking her teeth, the knight snap her fingers as the helmet quickly formed around her head. "Tch, yes mother…" The steely voiced of the Knight of Betrayal was masked due to its magic ability.

On the other side of the island, Vanitas had his card platform fly across the land as he and his fellow travelers saw the sight before them.

"Holy Hell! That's a lot of destruction!" The helmeted hero yelled out, astonished at the sight. "Like fire everywhere man!"

"And to think that if it landed in the city, it would've been hardly standing." Jason muttered as he stroked his chin.

"...Oh crap you're right!" Vanitas shouted, "Well, we got lucky~!" He quipped smiling underneath his helm.

Jason however sighed, before turning to his student, they had to take her if the power made her unstable back home. "Rachel, can you stand the essence in the air?" He asked as the girl nodded within her purple, hooded cloak.

"Yeah, it's like smelling waffles or something delicious and trying to fight the urge to find it." She joked as the feeling of the power was starting to become easier to get acquainted with. "Jason, are we going to hide this _thing_?"

The man shook his head as he pulled out a book from the inside of his jacket. "We're not, we're going to transmuted that ore into a sword, or at least a stable form that the power won't leak out." Flipping through the pages, the occultist sighed. "If Merlin was here, he would have already summoning the ore here and snap his fingers. I have to use Alchemy and few other skills just to contain it… if it works that is." He said as Vanitas looked at him.

"Wait Merlin made the sword of the stone? I thought it was there beforehand?" He stated as the vigilante knew the legends.

"Common misconception, but in truth, it was more of a joint project with him and the fae as it was there beforehand. In the end, Merlin himself wanted a hero to find it."

"Sounds like the guy was just doing his part and was to lazy to finish it." The masked man stated as he lowered his card platform a good dozen feet away from the crater's edge. "And damn, that's quite an impact site."

"Merlin might act like a fool, but the man has the ability to see far ahead in time." Jason proudly admitted. "Save for one incident…" The man sighed as he walked forward, before hitting his head on… nothing? The man gave a confused looked and looked down. "No… she's here…" He gritted his teeth as Etrigan desperately wanted out.

"Who- oh no…" The masked hero knew that one person was going to need a blade more than anyone given by Jason's current expression.

"Morgan…" Rachel shallow some fear down her throat knowing that last time, the woman gave her a chance to live due to Naruto and her familiar status, but the fact the sorceress was here still scared of her.

"Wait, what's the point? The sword is useless for her. Aren't magic-users like glass cannons from what you told me? Powerful yet weak?... No offense Jason." Vanitas stated as the man waved it off, sweated as he was keeping his demonic ally at bay.

"Perhaps, she is thinking that power could be used for the artifact we destroyed the last time the three of us fought her together last. Or using the sword to go back to time. The possibilities with such power can be endless." The man said more and more worried at the possibility of the misuse of a grand weapon. "We have to stop her. But fortunately for me, alchemy is a good strength against magecrafted barrier." He stated drawing a circle on the ground and placing his hand as blue lighting appear for a moment, and the lines started to wave. "We must go. The second we step into the barrier is when Morgan knows we are here. And Rachel, stay behind us if Morgan has allies and unsavory forces. Is that understood? Provide assistance when we are sure that her allies aren't going to overwhelm us."

The apprentice wanted to fight back, but nodded as Morgan had centuries -if not more- worth of experience on her. "Right." She muttered.

"Naruto, I hate to ask but I need you to run as much interference as I transmute the ore. The second that I grab it and switch with Etrigan is when we can deal with Morgan. The power is the first priority." The former knight declared as his instincts for battle were coming up, knowing that he and Morgan Le Fay was going to battle once more.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts: Strange Whispers-**_

"Now… now, Jason… did you actually think I'd let you catch me off guard?" The three eyes widen in dread as they turn to see Morgan floating in front of them on a purple magical circle. "And to think you used to know me _so_ well…" She crackled darkly as the immortal knight's jaw tightened in raw anger at the woman in front of him… the one who took everything from him.

Morgan's sinister green eyes then landed on two familiar faces. "Ahh the demon child and the man of the void." She greeted with a smile. "I must say, welcome to the New Camelot that will be soon to come in fruition." The legendary witch bowed respectfully at the two people giving her child back to her. "Have you come to swore your undying allegiance?"

"No, that was the other two… we're the evil twins who love goodness and ponies." The helmeted hero stated as he pulled out his Void Shots. "I still got one for you, when trying to harm my ward!"

The witch gave a mock pout. "Oh~ too bad then." She placed a hand on her cheek and sniffled a little before she cackled. "At least there will be less people to worry about now."

With a wave of her hands, a series of enlarged magical circles appeared across the slanted ground. The light quickly grew bright before dying down, revealing what Morgan just did. And before Jason, Vanitas and Rachel's eyes, an army of monsters appeared in the area.

There was a mix of sizes, but all of them wore various medieval styled amours. Each of the creatures had grey and dark paled green skin as they held a variety of weapons. The big tall ones had swords and maces, the small ones had bows and arrows and the bulky ones had morningstars.

All of them growled and hissed and approached Vanitas, his half-demon ward and Jason with their weapons drawn. In an instant, Morgan's summoned monsters charged at the three, who began to defend themselves but as it turned out that these creatures were as deadly as they were ugly. Jason quickly blasted them with magic alongside his student; he did his best to keep the creatures from getting too close but it wasn't working.

'Seems you'll be coming out sooner than expected.' Jason thought to his demonic tenant. Opening his mouth, he started to chant. "Gone, gone the form of man! Rise the demon **Etrigan!"**

Demonic fire soon consumed him before his body quickly shifted and churned into that of his demonic counterpart. And Etrigan was pleased to be let out as he roared and charged forward with his trusty broadsword in hand. Slashing through several of Morgan's summonings, he then called out one of his signature spells. **"DEMON FLAME!"**

As the demonic flames spread like wildfire, Vanitas was firing off his laser arrows while up in the air. Several tethering a handful of the enemy forces while others were disintegrated. Landing back on the ground, the hero quickly switched out his arrowguns for his daggers. Rushing forward, he channeled power into them as lightning coated the blades. Slashing at Morgan's summons, they were either electrocuted to death or paralyzed long enough to be knocked away to clear the path ahead of them.

Rachel sent dark energy blasts at every other direction. Dodging and sliding away from some of the ogre-like monster's bladed weapons, the half-demon sent a blizzard spell towards the ground in order to slip up her opponents. Quickly getting back up she barely dodged a volley of arrows aimed right at her. Yet an arrowhead sliced a small part of her cheek, having blood slightly roll down her face.

The ashen child hissed in the recent pain before being knocked onto the ground. She punched her assailant with a magical encased fist to send the monster flying back. Gritting her teeth, she channeled more magic into her hands as her eyes darkly glowed while chanting her old home's signature spell. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

Releasing the spell, the blast sent a horde of Le Fay's monsters away as they were severely injured as a result. She panted out of exhaustion, but had to quickly endure. Jumping back from one of her opponents, she pulled out an Elixir from her belt and quickly chugged down it's contents in order to help refill her magic reserves. Once empty, the half-demon smashed the bottle on the monster's face. As it tried to wipe away the imbedded glass, the grey-green skinned monster was blasted away with a Fire spell.

" **Do try to keep up, Jason's student."** Etrigan growled out as he landed near the half-demon.

"I'm trying my best, Etrigan." Rachel sent out a stream of Thunder spells to Morgan's monsters with several going down while others held their ground. "But these guys are rather tough to take down and there seems to be no end of them."

"No kidding." Vanitas said, sending a wave of ice spikes across the ground to either skewer or knock away Morgan's summons. "She's pulling all the stops on this one to hinder our progress from getting that ore."

"Oh no, don't think I am stalling you or anything." Spoke the Witch of Camelot from up high. The others barely focused on her as they kept defending themselves from her monsters. "I was just doing this to see if one of you were worthy of _his_ attention." Morgan started with a cruel smile. "After all, it was my new king's wish to see if the demon child and the void user were worthy as new members of the Round."

Etrigan gave a confused look wondering what did she meant by that. " **Foul witch! Speak true, lest you wish to speak with no voice!"** The demon declared before he felt something off, like the ozone was burning.

"I wouldn't dare deprive my king, to speak his glorious voice…" The woman stated as she took a step to the side as something the demon and his host both were immensely were shock by.

"Hooo?" The voice let out amused at the sight of the demon, "Jason, is that you? Man, the years have not been kind to you! Ha, you were at least close to Gawain and the King's level of looking good."

Both Rachel and her guardian stopped their attacks as the monstrous hoards all stop moving and took a knee. "Etrigan, who is that?" The costumed Uzumaki asked, walking to the demon in case the attack resume, as did Rachel.

Etrigan, in all the short time Naruto know him, looked stun, " **It cannot be… he lives?** " The demon whispered, as Naruto watched as the metal being before him. Never in his time in living was a perfect and also intimidating armor stood before him. It was like the armor for Etrigan, however the witch smiled sweetly.

"Man of Void and Demon Child… it is thanks to you, my dream has been accomplished… My son...Mordred Pendragon lives!" She shouted as Etrigan quickly turned back to Jason -without speaking a word- whose eyes were horrified at the fact an old ally -turned enemy- of his was alive.

"Mordred, is that really you?" He asked as the knight simply waved to him, as if greeting an old friend.

"Of course!" The knight cheerfully stated, before raising a sword that Jason paled at the sight. "Unless you know another worthy of my blade?" The armored, wild blonde said as the former apprentice of Merlin pointed at her with alarm in his eyes.

"How in the nine hells are you alive?!"

"Like I could tell ya that. Even if I wanted to, it's all too confusing for me to answer." The Knight of Treachery jabbed 'his' gauntleted thumb towards 'his' mother. "If you want answers, ask her."

"Oh~ I merely worked with what was given to me." Morgan vaguely stated as her eyes -her real eyes- flashed for a moment, making the older magic user take a step back.

"Vanitas... we can't take on Mordred, he is impossible to defeat." Jason stated as his fists tightened enough to draw blood. "All we can do is head for the meteor and transmutate it as quickly as we can. Even drawing them away from each other is the best option for now."

The hero gave a shocked look beneath his glass domed helm. "Is he that strong?"

"No, if Lancelot or even his son were here and alive, Mordred would fall. But Morgan's armor for him allows the knight to be on par with his father. And with this many centuries of hiding, Morgan might've set aside store magic just for today to make her son unbeatable." Jason cursed as Mordred simply walked down a series of magical platforms, just the sight was giving him horrid flashbacks of the flames where Camelot fell. "Mordred, fight her spell! I know you dream of being king, but she lies! Excalibur is gone!"

The knight stopped gave a snort that was full of laughter once touching the earth. "You really think I expect that _Sword_ to be around? No, that one-armed freak gave the blade to father in his last moments… I wouldn't even disturb a fallen King's grave for that… but making a better sword is a much better idea." She started walking forward again. "And showing that foolish man, I deserve that throne! That kingdom! MY RIGHT!"

"Mordred…" Jason said with sad frown. "He was our King…"

"Not… any… more…" The revived knight spat out each word with the utmost hate she can muster into them.

The witch of Camelot took this moment to speak. "And like Arthur pulling Caliburn out of the Stone, my 'son' shall take that empowered ore over yonder and rule all within his wake."

"Well if that soon-to-be Sword is gonna be like Arthur's, then Mordred's gonna earn it." The masked Uzumaki stated, training his weapon right at them. "And if I know any better, you'd rather have him be a conqueror than being a just ruler."

"And what's wrong with that dome-head?" Mordred declared, "If _he_ did so, Camelot would still be around." Morgan's child then turned towards 'his' once former comrade. "Jason, you yourself knew that if he had punished Lancelot for sleeping with his wife… _none_ of the events leading to Camelot's end would have happened."

 _That_ struck Jason hard.

While it was true Morgan took that one incident into the most detailed rebellion ever… it was only true. Lancelot was a driven man, killing the knight of the sun, causing Galahad death as well… among the rest that followed…

"Jason!" Vanitas shouted causing the man to shake his disturbing thoughts. "We make mistakes, but did you really think that Arthur would be fine with punishing his own allies? Watching them over like hawks to give them horrible punishments for mistakes we all do?"

That was true, the knight turned mage remembered one knight… Arthur told him to lay waste onto a village and if he failed. He was going to leave in shame, but no death or exile, just no longer a soldier… that's why others bannered under his King. "Mordred, I… I do not know if Arthur was truly a great king… but he was -at the very least- a good man."

The treacherous knight chuckled. "Aww, fine… I give you at least one choice leave and hide or…" she brandish her blade -Clarent- reading it with her unusual way of fighting with it, "turn into a beast."

Jason just nodded as he focus all of his magic into Etrigan knowing that the demon is going to need everything just to fight Mordred. "Gone, gone the form of man! Rise the demon **Etrigan!"**

Morgan shook her head as demonic fire consumed her former lover… well, more like boy-toy. "Foolish as always… Mordred, I can handle the demon child and Etrigan. The Man of the Void is a more alarming threat."

The knight smirk crazily underneath her helm. "Aim at the helmet fucker! GOT IT!" She rushed at Naruto, but only to be tackled by the Demon. "Oy, baldie! FIGHT ME!"

" **Mordred, I shall end you to stop Morgan's lies in your head!** " He roared slamming the armored body into the ground creating a large crater -within the crater- in the process.

WHAM~!

The Merlin's demon was sent flying as Mordred groaned. "Oww, was not expecting to get sacked like that…" The armored woman seeth in anger from being derailed like that. "Okay where is that ass-"

Tink~!

"The hell?" The woman looked down to see a pebble was on the ground, slightly a different color than the earthy ground ones, looking the direction it was throw was Naruto flicking her off.

"Kiss my ass." The masked publisher taunted before summoning a wind spear and took off across the massive, desolate crater. "You're more of a woman than a man hiding underneath all that armor!"

Oh no…

Those were the thoughts of Morgan and Jason inside of Etrigan, knowing that if you call on Mordred's manhood -despite being a girl that the mother only knows- greatly infuriates her-

"I'LL KILL YOU! COME BACK HERE YOU CHEEKY SONUVABITCH!" The knight roared as red lightning coated her armor before she ran after Vanitas, leaving them further away from Etrigan, Rachel, Morgan and her summoned army!

"SUCK MY DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-"

The others merely sweatdropped hearing the helmeted hero's voice echoed throughout the area.

 _ **-Insert Fate/Stay Night UBW: Into the Battles-**_

"Mordred no-!" Morgan stated before feeling a burning blast of magic behind her shoulder, glaring at Etrigan and Rachel, she smiled darkly. "Alright, I was going to need some relief…"

" **Girl… get ready…** " Was all that Etrigan could advised the demon-hybrid.

Morgan simply waved her right hand as she conjured three purple magic circles as powerful lighting came out from them. "Dark Thundaga!" She chanted as the attack jumped to Rachel, who raised her hand.

"R-Reflect!" A small sphere made of white hexagons appeared around the spell-caster as the lightning stuck it and slowly white orbs appeared before shooting out at Morgan.

The ancient woman merely lifted her hand upwards before speaking, "Crampoane! (Spikes!)!" She called out ten earth spikes to stab each orb before hitting her as the tips of the spikes were blown off as a result. "Jason, I'm surprised that you thought the young lass such a decent, advance spell. She could've easily ripped her own head off if it was too small." She chided darkly as Rachel wince at her words.

Etrigan growled as he let out a breath of demonic flames at the woman, who forced her summoned pawns to take the damage as she move back. "Such a bore…" She woefully stated, "If you only had Jason here, maybe you had a decent- gah!" The woman feet was forced to touched the ground as she felt her weight suddenly increase all of a sudden!

"Force!" Yelled the half-demon as a black orb crackling with dark blue lightning was the reason why Morgan was unable to move.

"So gravity as well? Too bad it isn't good enough!" The witch roared snapping her fingers as the orb Rachel yelled exploded as she held to her injured hand. "Use enough strength can nullify any spell."

"Not yet! Fire! Thunder! Blizzard!" Rachel lifted her only unharmed hand as the three spells were shot out in rapid succession.

The older woman simply move only her head as spells missed her. "Pathetic!" She laughed.

"MINE SQUARE!"

The woman almost lost it, as nothing appeared around Rachel. She then snorted a cackle. "My word~ You can't even produce a single mine? So… disappointing."

Rachel could only grit her teeth before having to evade several attacks from Morgan's forces. She had to use her mana sparingly or else she'd get exhausted too soon. 'If only I had brought an Elixir or two, then I could hold out against her,' stressly thought Trigon's daughter as she backed away, 'only for a little while. But for now… I just hope she falls for this.'

The witch of Camelot rushed to her with a knife in hand. "Magic is wasted on you! Now die-" She stopped her moments trying to figure out this sudden noise… it was like a incoming tornado, louder and louder at the same time. Quickly looking down she saw a white glowing circle, then immediately she was surrounded by eleven more! "They were hidden? But even then that takes real-" Her eyes only grew larger as she quickly made her hands starting to wave around in a desperate attempt to survive. "Mille Gladii Obsidianii! (Thousand Obsidian Swords!)" She called as thousands of tiny blades appeared and stabbed the ground each hitting a mine before the sound was soon died.

Morgan gave a sigh of relief. "My, that was clos-oof!" The woman words were halted as Etrigan shoved his fist into her cheek sending her away.

" **Thanks for the destruction, demon spawn."** Said Merlin's demon as he briefly turned towards Rachel.

"To be honest, I thought it wasn't going to work. I used some left over Gravity to push the mines deeper to make her think it wasn't working." Rachel said with a small smile to earn Jason's demonic companion a compliment.

Their little moment ended as many obsidian swords came crashing down at their position from above, courtesy of their main adversary. The demonic pair leapt out of the way as Etrigan formed a magical shield to help block some of the offending weapons. Yet this wouldn't do them much good as more of Morgan's creatures came in close and attacked.

Dropping the shield, Etrigan breathed out a torrent of hellfire from his maw as it helped mow down a small wave of forces on one side. On the other, Rachel quickly pulled out two glowing blue cubes -which she made under Jason's studies- from her belt, crushed them and quickly felt most of her magical reserves return before sending out a Balloonra spell.

'Wish I didn't have to use these Ethers up so soon.' Thought Trigon's daughter as she saw her spell spread around and stunning a large amount of enemy soldiers. 'But they'll serve their purpose.' She then held out her arm and grasped it before pouring in a lot of magic while chanting a spell. "Undetriginta spiritus ventus. Sagitta Magica, Series Lucis. (29 spirits of wind. Magic Arrows, Series of 29 Light Arrows.)"

Hearing the spell, Etrigan looked over and saw about thirty magical projectiles made of wind shoot out of Raven's palm. They zoomed across the battlefield, skewering through many at high velocity while some tried to land on Morgan. Yet to the demonic pair's disappointment, the old witch knocked them aside which exploded soon after.

"Never thought you would've taught her that spell, Jason." Morgan said while mildly impressed. "Though let me show you what a far better spell is like, child!" The Witch of Camelot raised her hand as a large, purple magic circle appeared before her. "Septendecim spiritus fulguralis, coeuntes. Sagitta Magica, Series Fulguralis. Sagitta Magica, Convergentia Fulguralis! (Gather, 17 spirits of lightning. Magic Arrows, Series of Lightning. Magic Arrows, Convergence of Lightning!)"

A large volley of lightning encased arrows shot forward as they sought to harm their caster's targets. Etrigan got in front of Jason's student and threw up a magical seal barrier to block the attack. But the strength put behind each bolt was tremendous, causing the barrier to crack.

As Merlin's demon poured demonic power into the seal to keep it from failing, he turned towards Rachel. **"Jason asks how you learned that spell. He never taught you that."**

"Found that -along with several others- while browsing through his library one time." Admitted the half-demon. "Thought they were good and I wanted to-"

"Vigintiduo spiritus aeriales, vincula facti inimicum captent. Sagitta Magica, Aer Capturae. (22 spirits of wind. Make shackles to capture my enemy. Magic Arrows, Capturing Wind.)" Threads of wind quickly ensnared the demonic duo when they least expected it. Despite its lack of force, the bindings were nothing to scoff at as both felt they were extremely strong. Both Raven and Etrigan tried to break free, but they soon heard Morgan call out another spell. "Cușcă Magică De Lumină, Îmi Prind Inamicii! (Magic Cage Of Light, Entrap My Foes!)"

Before they knew it, Rachel and Etrigan saw bars of purple light surrounding them before connecting at one point above them. Said magical construct dug into the earth before the gaps in the cage started to become thicker and more complex. When Etrigan broke free of his wind bindings, he slammed against the light cage, only to reel back and hiss in pain.

"That will at least keep you two contained while I assist my precious child." Morgan said as she gave them a cruel grin. "Though by now, that might not matter as your friend might meet his end soon enough with what power I gave Mordred in this endeavor."

Without giving them a second glance, the witch of Camelot spun around and was lifted into the air by her magical seal as she went towards the other fight currently going on. All the while having the remainder of her summoned army surround her captured opponents for good measure, just in case if either of them were able to free themselves of the double entrapment.

Gritting her teeth as she couldn't do anything in Morgan's prison of light and wind bindings, Rachel saw Etrigan trying to force himself out but to no avail. The power behind it was strong and possibly is getting stronger with each passing hit. The half-demon could try to help, but she is not to the capacity in being able to aide her compatriot.

'I need more power.' She thought, gritting her teeth in frustration. 'But what can I do?... What to do… what to do...' Raven pondered and pondered as the gears in her head went into overdrive. 'If we don't break out of her soon, Morgan will assist Mordred and Naruto's no match for the both of them, I think.' Tightening her fists, all thoughts and ideas in getting out of this magical prison is all for naught…

'Except…' The ashen child frantically shook her head 'no'. 'I can't. it's too damn risky!' She then swallowed a lump in her throat. 'But… what choice do I have.'

Sitting down on the rubbled ground, Etrigan saw Jason's apprentice kneeling down on the ground as she sat on her feet . **"What are you doing, demon brat?"**

"Shush! I'm trying to concentrate."

Ignoring the rants of Merlin's demon before he went back into slamming against the cage of light, the daughter of Trigon needed to put Naruto's lessons to good use… in order to dwell out something horrid.

With her violet eyes closed, Rachel envisioned herself in some sort of ocean or lake. Floating at the top, either from a boat or on her back, the ashen child kept up her concentration so she would stay at the _watery_ surface between her inner Light and Darkness.

And before long, she let herself go as she let herself be drowned.

Rachel knew that her mother loved her greatly, yet she knew Arella hated herself for her mistakes that lead her to _that_ godforsaken night. And it seemed this little trait was apart of what Rachel inherited from her, causing the eventual downfall of her first home of Azarath... and the death of her loving, caring mother in the process.

Grief and anger grew and blossomed since that very day and she hated herself because of it. When Naruto learned of this, he comforted her saying that the pain seems endless and feels impossible to run from; but if you can live in that pain then it'll tear into you until there's nothing left to be recognized. Her brother-like guardian had been in her shoes and decided to live for others so it'll hopefully never happen to any other. Rachel understood this as it at least helped her in the healing process.

Yet she feared that in what she was about to do might undo all she had done, causing her to start all over to become the Rachel Roth she knew today once more.

Sinking deeper and deeper into herself, Raven had to swallow the bitterly sour pills as she started to let the darkness inside of her take over. The half-demon outright feared that the powers she might partake will overload her human side... and lose her humanity in the process. Despite it being a great asset of power, it was a great fear she harbored.

'When this is over, I'll need Naruto's help in _calming_ down.' Raven thought as she felt her magical reserves slowly fill back up before it started to quicken it's pace. 'Not to mention try to find an appropriate limit so I won't get drunk off of it if -or rather when- I do this again.'

She was afraid of the kind of power that'll wipe away her own identity as all that'll remain is her _father's_ daughter, a weapon of the darkest energies to be unleashed on whenever direction Trigon desired.

'I need to focus on my darker self, nothing else... and embrace it.' The ashen child gritted her teeth as the power rushed right through her like a raging river at this point. 'But I cannot be like _him_. I am my own person and I... will not be taken by the likes of that _bastard_.' Her body trembled, her heart rate jumped rather high, and if she were looking at herself she would've seen darkened whisps rolling off her cloaked form. 'Naruto dealt with this before, so why can't I?' A torrent of demonic power then rolled off of her in waves as she gritted her teeth. 'But one thing's for sure: I'll never be alone in properly facing _this_.'

Both inside and out of Morgan's cage of light, Etrigan and the witch's summons felt the power coming off of Rachel. The summons staggered back with how foul it felt, even with how small it felt from it's full potential. And as for the demon, he growled and wanted to skewer Jason's student with his sword with the power she was using.

' **Just what in the hell is she bloody doing?'**

'Embracing her darkness -her demonic side- I wager.' Jason responded back. 'Figured the dire situation would force her to do so.'

What both Etrigan and Jason expected to see when she opened her eyes were a pair of violet orbs. Yet they were thrown off in seeing not one, but two pairs of red eyes underneath her darkened hood. As they glowed a bright light, the half-demon's purple cloak seemed to become more lively with darkened tendrils popping out from the inside. Each soon latched onto the wind bindings -quickly snapping them off- before the cage bars as sounds of groaning could be oddly heard coming from the magical construct.

'Using her untapped demonic power to overpower Morgan's cage. I commend her for that.' Thought Jason inside of Etrigan's body. 'Though I worry what might happen after this.'

It wasn't long before the magical bars were snapped and broken. With the magical specks faded away, the dark tendrils quickly shot towards many of Morgan's summoned soldiers and went for the attack. Handfuls were either smacked away or impaled by the half-demon's assault, but the assault was going to be overwhelming.

After being held back from fighting for so long, the demon's hands were coated with dark sparks of energy before roaring out a spell. **"împinge înapoi! (Push Back!)"** A wave emanated from the dark sparked hands, sending the witch's forces away to help clear up some room. It also helped as many of them were paralyzed with darkened sparks arcing over their bodies.

As they were held down by the recent spell, Raven called forth another with her demonic powers fueling her. _**"Centum Lanceae Umbrare! (100 Shadow Lances!)"**_ Shadows from within her cloak and underneath the summoned opposition sprang forth as they solidified and pierced through hardened bodies. Much of Morgan's forces roared in agonizing pain while others leaped out of the way to avoid the attack. Yet the shadow lances were quite agile and fluid, bending and quickly following after their prey in order to kill the rest of them.

Wanting to avoid getting hit by the half-demon's attack, Morgan flew through the sky as she maneuvered her way around them. Some tried to land on their mark, yet all they met were magical shields, blocking the assault as they grinded against the surface.

"You've gotta do better than-"

" _ **Τὸ τεῖχος διαῤῥηξάσθω (Pass Through the Wall!)"**_

Suddenly, the shadow lances were coated with an intense reddish aura as the attack dug right through her barrier with quickened ease. The witch widened her green eyes in alarm as a few pierced through her body, causing her to scream out in pain.

'She… She broke through my barrier?!' Morgan roared inside her mind. 'My very dense five layered barrier?!' Flaring her power, the dark haired woman broke the half-demon's magical constructs before healing herself. 'Seems there's more to her than I thought since she destroyed the rest of my forces.' Magical seals appeared before her hands as she glared at Etrigan and Raven. 'I'll need to take care of them now than later.'

Seeing Morgan's actions, the demonic pair were about to clash against the witch… when they felt it. The surge of familiar, yet unknown power could be felt coming from the air at a far distance away. Neither of the combatants knew who acquired the ore that came from the heavens first, but…

'I must get back to Mordred.' Thought the witch. Before she made the attempt, she was blasted off her magical seal and fell some distance towards the ground. Stopping herself, her sinister green eyes harshly glared at Etrigan, who's clawed hand was smoking.

" **We must not let her get there, child. Now more than ever."**

" _ **I know."**_ Raven responded with her voiced seemingly changed, due to her tapping in her demonic heritage. _**"We'll have to stall her more, just in case."**_

Morgan never felt more interested in this current century. She was suppose to be there with her child, crowning her _King!_ She soon gave a disturbing smile as she floated safely down to the ground. "You know what? I'm tired of playing around a half-breed and a foolish, fallen knight. So I might as well bring this old thing out!" She declared as she clapped her hands as before her a green circle soon a wooden object appear.

As the seal disappeared, the object plopped onto her palm. "Ah~ my old wand" She purred while caressing the old magical tool. "I haven't used wand magic in eons, but as you know when spellcaster doesn't need wands they only used to them to focus _all_ of their remaining power for one spell." She said, smiling half-crazed at her foes pushing her this far, a former student of Merlin. "So time to say your- well prayers aren't good for a couple of demons right?!"

Holding up her wand, she started chanting. "Oh heavenly light and darkness sin…" Was the only thing they could catch as her mouth seem to blur and words melded together as she chanted faster and faster to finish the grand spell she had coming.

" **Whatever that spell is, we'll need to stop her."**

" _ **Don't have to tell me twice, Etrigan."**_ Said the half-demon. _**"But tell me, can you help me in something called**_ _ **Blazing Heat**_ _ **?"**_

Etrigan rose a brow upon hearing it as he knows of this through Jason. **"Yes, why?"**

" _ **Read about it once, so hope it works on us working together on it; even if stopping her for a time."**_

"Just die and let me crown my da- son!" The witch stop her high-speed chanting, and resume before the spell died. "And thus the two shall meet at the base of the Rainbow! Sacred Spell of the Curse God's…"

" _ **It's either now or never Etrigan!"**_ Rachel announced as she gather as much energy to fully charge the spell as a full incantation would be impossible by now. _**"Just the spell, and use everything!"**_ She then began the spell in ancient Greek while channeling her demonic power through herself. _**"Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονήτω μοί, ὦ τύραννε φλογός. (Heed the Contract and Serve Me, O Tyrant of Flame!)"**_

Etrigan then picked it up from there as he channeled his magic towards his vessel's apprentice for a temporary connection. **"Ἐπιγενηθήτω, φλὸξ καθάρσεως, φλογίνη ῥομφαία. Ῥευσάντων πῦρ καὶ θεῖον, ἃ ἐπέφλεγον Σόδομα (Come, flame of purification, fiery broadsword. Fire and brimstone surge forth, burn (down) Sodom)"**

The demonic pair then spoke in rapid synch as heat started to rise around them with fiery sparks rapidly forming off their bodies. _**"ἁμαρτωλούς, εἰς χοῦν θανάτου! (Turn the sinners into the dust of death!"**_ Both shot their dominant arms forward as they finalized the spell. _**"Οὐρανία Φλόγωσις! (Blazing Heat in the Sky!)"**_

The two were suddenly engulf in flames as they became white hot, then slowly the flames turn into a foreboding dark. Needing a way to vent off the spell, the demonic pair shot their dominant arm towards their enemy as the powerful firestorm streamed out of them.

"Dammit!" Morgan cried as she held her wand at them. "Cursed Wave!" She finally finished the chant as grey waves of energy flowed out of her seals before coming right at them, similar to a tidal wave. Reaching higher and higher, the witch's spell soon collided and crashed at their co-chanted spell. The flames became united as they spread around like a disease devouring the air, space, and even life around them to continue to grow! The waves however reached them as as Morgan smiled at her timing. Taking a knee at the full incantation and most of her power, the witch smirked, "Not even Merlin can survive this without using his own wand… and die while telling Merlin his sword has finally been outmatched!" She stated watching the wave swirling around them cutting out any chance to escape.

The waves however… never made their thunderous crash, rather the waves made a horrid hissing sound that it was soon steam was emitting from the glowing orb that stood in the ocean of pure energy. Morgan stood in amazement as the powers were colliding in everlasting harmony, if she was younger self the woman would cry from the sheer beauty of opposite elements attacking each other…

Yet… much to her disappointment, the witch's green eyes saw her two opponents didn't die like she had hoped. Though it was rather hard to tell towards the half-demon as she was lying on the ground and unmoving. Reinforcing her eyes and looking towards the cloaked child, Morgan barely saw her chest move up and down to clearly show she survived, despite being knocked out of the fight.

As for Merlin's demon, he was gone as Jason was there in his place… Oh how she wanted to snap their necks, but as a proud mage she lifted her wand and mead their clothes… "At least they would look nice before death comes to collect their souls." She stated as she coughed noticing some blood hitting the ground. "Only one more spell, or else I can't change the ore into a sword so soon."

Lifting her hands towards the sky -with one of them holding her wand- in order to channel as little magic she could muster, she spoke the last spell she could do for tonight. "Veniant spiritus aerialis fulgurientes! (Come, spirits of air and lightning!)" Clouds appeared above them as they darkened and condensed. "Cum fulguriationis flet tempestas austrina. (Let the Southern Storm Blow With Lightning.)" Faint snowfall was now replaced with sparks as they became more and more apparent to electrify the atmosphere. Leaping away and forming a condensed barrier around herself, Morgan saw the lightning become more refined in its wild state; knowing that it was impossible to save Jason and his apprentice.

'Pity, I would've liked her to work with me.' Thought the witch. 'She could've been a nice successor if I wanted to finally retire.' She then aimed her wand at the unconscious pair with her other hand still held up high, calling out the rest of her spell. "Iovis Tempestas Fulguriens! (Jupiter's Lightning Storm!)"

The conjured lightning came crashing down and was aimed right into Morgan's opened palm. The power behind it flowed through her body as it was soon redirected towards her wand. And at it's very tip, a condensed stream of the amplified lightning shot out as it screeched right at the unconscious duo, ready to end their lives.

"Yare… yare…" Jason eyes open up to show a misty blue eye color. And lifted his hands to redirect the ancient lightning with ease until the spell died and the only thing was harmed was the ground around them. "Jason, I never thought my spell to save you in case of Morgan knocked out Etrigan would come…" The fallen knight's voice was no longer his, but rather a calm and yet whimsical voice came. He took a deep breath and gave a pleasant sound. "Hmph, such rich smell of magic." He grinned widely which was unlike him. "Kinda wish I was still here instead of that _town_!"

That voice… that attitude…

Upon realizing who it was, the witch of Camelot widened her eyes in absolute shock. "...H-H-How…"

"Oh~ I'm not here, Morgaine. I'm only using my old scribe as a simple telegraph… or something like that. And it's only a one time thing, unless I somehow come into personal contact with ol' Jason here again." He gave her a cocky smirk which always pissed her off. "So if you try to 'harm' me now, it wouldn't really work."

The woman fell back eyes full of raw fear at the voice… "Haa… haa…"

The man pouted almost like someone kick him aside, "Rude~ What happen to my darling pupil." He then spoke in a mockly-feminine tone. "Oh Merlin, can you not take me to my bedchambers and~"

BANG~!

"OWW!~" The man head wobbled back and forth comically as a high-heel from his student hit his head, "Hmph, despite what you have done… I'm _somewhat_ glad you're still alive. But you already lost as this power wasn't meant for your brat." He declared standing up and dusting his suit. "Egad, this clothing is rather tight. What happened to good ol' robes? Then again, where I'm at I'm the one that stands out a lot with my own attire." Snapping his fingers, Jason now wore a white robe with long loose pants instead of his usual suit.

She raised her wand, despite the fear she had, she knew that-

The possessed Jason lifted his hand as the woman dropped her wand and fell to her knees, "No… no more fighting…" His voice was now steele and serious as he stood up and walked towards her. "No more…" He repeated as he was now clutching her neck. "Understood?"

She didn't speak or look into his gaze, as she didn't want to admit defeat perhaps his old kind- She stopped that train of thought as he grip became nearly the end of her life.

"I said is that understood?!" He roared as the flowers around them, which came from his gentle stride to her, died off slowly.

Morgan didn't say anything, only gritting her teeth as a magical seal appeared beneath her. And before anything else could be done, her seal swallowed her up and disappeared from the battlefield… no doubt to possibly acquire Mordred no matter what.

The man possessing Jason's body merely chuckled before looking at the unconscious, ashen child nearby. He gave her a small inspection on both her appearance and magical essence.

"Hmm~?" He exaggerated on looking at her, before popping at different angles to look at her. "Hmm? HMM~!?" He stopped before sighing. "This was more fun when they are uncomfortable with my actions." He stated, with a comical tears flooding down.

The man stopped his current act and looked off towards the distance, sensing as to where the sought after power was at. He suddenly dropped Rachel comically (as a large bush suddenly bloomed to catch her body) as he looked at the scene where the energy -and combating light show- was coming from. "Wooow~! They are really going at it… like twins finally able to pal around!" He joked losing any trace of his serious mood just moments ago. "God, if they court each other, the sex must be either awesome or scary, ha!"

The being sighed, knowing that anything was impossible as the spell was only enough to save Jason by teleporting not for real battles. Scratching the back of his head, the man groan out his thoughts. "Don't know if I can do anything else now since my spell on dear ol' Jason is finally wearing out." Looking at the body he was using, he shook his head as he felt himself going limp. "Oh well, I wonder if that young man will be a hero like Arthur…?" He wondered with a small smile, as his whole body glowed with a golden aura around him. "Man of the void… you have been given the chance to protect not this World but-"

Jason's body stopped glowing as he fell to his knees and smiled. "Merlin… thank… you…" He whispered before falling towards the sea of the unconscious void.

 _ **-Earlier and Elsewhere, Insert Fate/Apocrypha OST: The Knight of Rebellion-**_

The costumed Uzumaki was sitting down next to some trees as he heard Mordred cutting down some other trees as she was hunting him down with Clarent. "Hmm… he's angry.." Naruto joked before sighing.

When Mordred was chasing him down like a dog, the former shinobi had to use some of his weapons and own skills to slow the Knight of Treachery down. And hid to recover and… "Goddammit. I just remembered I have a Potions… a few Ethers… and the one Elixir in case of emergencies for the emergences…"

Said items were given to him by Rachel as a small birthday present. It took her a long time to make and perfect as the resources were very scarce while under Jason's tutelage. He never used them since then -due to his healing factor- but it seems he'll need to start using them now.

"Excuse me, do you have the time?"

The hero nodded as he looked to his left, "Yeah should be… HOLY SHIT!" He jumped back as he saw Mordred looking at him with dead eyes underneath her knightly helm… the same when the girls in konoha gave him when they thought he peeped on them during hot springs times.

"I found you~!" She whispered sinisterly as armor helped on the creepy effect. "I was busy looking for you and all these poor, untarnished trees had to die."

Vanitas looked over her shoulder and glared as he saw enough for mansion made of wood was lied all over the field. "You know, some anger management can do some wonders! And I know some distinct people that would be pissed off on what ya-"

WHAM~!

The hero was sent flying to a clearing as he created a large crater in the ground. "Note to self… never call a knight's pride into a fight."

He then heard a harsh thud not far away. Looking at it, Vanitas saw Mordred stalking towards him as she was popping her knuckles. "Now then, poser, time to get your just deserts before I get my Sword." But before she could do anything she watched as her opponent's left hand was stretched outward.

Vanitas quickly got up and summoned his ice shield, knowing that this knight wasn't holding back or going to go easy on him.

"Also, I want you to join my new Knights of the Round." The metal clad being stated, soon stabbing the blade it had into the ground and casually use the left elbow to balance herself to lean lazily. "You got skills to make the top knight and more tricks than that horn dog of a mage." The knight stated. "Whaddya say?"

The masked Uzumaki didn't once let his guard down, as he spoke. "No way in hell. That sword you plan on making is not going to be hands of a tyrant!"

The knight gaze felt scolding. The masked Uzumaki could definitely tell that person was glaring at him now. "It is the only way for a King to be… my father was a fool for being a kind for all-"

Vanitas didn't hear anything else as he charged, dashing as fast and hard as he could possibly go! The whiskered man -however- was greatly surprised when the Knight of Betrayal place a hand on his battle shield, stopping the attack with ease. "Crap!"

"Hoho, I like you!" The voice said with utter glee as the arm lifted Vanitas up and slugged the center of the shield, sending the hero away like a fly while noticing the frost on the metal hand. "Hoo?" The knight clenched its hand to destroy the icy fragments. "Better not take that mask freak lightly…"

"Better not take that mask dick lightly…" Vanitas declared after pulling himself from a rock wall. He didn't think that armor would amplified the knight's overall power. He was going to estimate the gap between powers, but from the way his shield barely freezed the metal clad knight and with the powerful hit -even though the shield took most of the blow- he felt a little winded.

The blonde threw his shield, before quickly summoning his Foudre daggers, and focusing as much energy into his speed. As Mordred blocked the attack, Naruto came from behind the knight turning his body in midair to slam his heel into the knight's helm, sending _him_ into the wall this time. "Ha, payback!"

The Knight of Betrayal however quickly balance himself as he grab the ground clawing at it to prevent the impact of the wall, slowly succeeding as the knight stop just an inch away from it. Red arcs of powerful lightning started to dance around the armored knight as it summon its blade. Rushing towards the silver haired man who back off. The being let out a small chuckle as it dug its foot into the ground and kick up dozens of huge rocks!

"Tch!" The former shinobi gritted his teeth at the cheap move. Jason wasn't kidding Mordred is the type of guy to use anything to win… if they weren't enemies. Naruto could've been friends with this guy.

Throwing his daggers at them with great strength, shattering them into pieces as Mordred rush into the blades as they simply deflect from his magically armor. But continued as he slammed into the hero -horns first- into his chest! "Got ya~!" Vanitas chuckled -despite the pain he was in- as he gripped the neck of his enemy and send every bit of his energy to twist the metal which he felt was happen.

The man could feel Mordred stunned at his attempt before trying to punch and move away, but the position is impossible. Even if the helmet could be ripped off so the knight can have some space to get out, the metal was warped from the raw power from the void-user!

Naruto continue to choke Mordred out, stretching his back out in order to aid his ability as putting more strain on the knight of betrayal's throat would knock him out.

'Gotta… do… something… ANYTHING!' Mordred roared in her mind, as her thought process was a hard challenge due to the lack of air in her brain. She could feel her eyes about to pop out, her teeth going to shattered from the immense pressure the blonde knight was putting on. 'Wish that… we had an archer to teach me something besides… wait… that's it…'

CRACK~!

Naruto footing was lost as he stumbled a bit, causing his hold on the metal plated neck to be slight undone. Mordred kick Naruto away the second that opening appear and smiled beneath the helmet, looking down the metal hand of the armor was sticking out. Looking at her small and soft hand allowed the missing piece to fly and shuffle its plates to reclaim its spot. 'Good thing hanging out with Babs gave me some ideas to improve the armor.' Mordred made a thankful note to repay her friend from listening to the ideas for her story and reading the man, allow her to make her mother make her arm parts detach for a powerful blow.

Stroking her armored neck, the knight groan in from the way the metal was now tightly close to her throat. 'Another minute and I would've been out cold… or dead if the metal somehow snap and pierce my neck.' The more Mordred fought against this odd being, the more reason to make him join her new kingdom. "What was that? That choking thing?" 'This person has better skills than Lancelot ever did..'

"A front hold choke. Was taught by a former teacher of mine." Vanitas said panting from the intense strain on his arms to knock out the knight. 'Didn't expect the guy to shoot out his arms like that…' He thought before quickly pulling out a Potion and downing it's contents to help him out a little.

This guy could be the death of him/her!

This was the same thought process that both opponents had on their minds. One excited from the powerful man before her, and the other cautiously estimating the knight.

"Bwahahaha! Man, I am so lucky to have a second chance like this! Besides my old man, you're the only one who push me so back and yet… keep me guessing!" Mordred stated, this time moving her left arm in a circular motion. "OK! Gonna knock you out and take you to Mother. Once she's done with you, I got my right hand man!"

Naruto threw more knives, watching as the weapons were slowly changing direction to hit the joints were the armor was least protected. But once again the metal clad traitor was charging shoulder first as he was able to not only deflec the attacks but shatter them on impact! "Useless!" Mordred roared as her opponent resummoned Yuki to stand his ground and-

-CRASH~!-

'Two!?' He thought, astonished two of his weapons were so easily shattered by the simply elbow rush. Quickly summoning his arrow guns, the hero let out as much tether bullets as he could to detain the being, only to watch as the wrappings were instantly shredded by the knight simply spreading his arms out.

"My turn…" Mordred announced as the being threw the silver blade at Naruto -who couldn't try to resummon Yuki- letting go of his Void Shots before summoning Lunar Rose. White petals falling down as he tried to slam the heavy claymore at it, only to be shocked as Mordred instantly appear to grab the blade and slammed it with full force against his own. "WEAK!" She screamed as Naruto pure power weapon was easily broken. However the revived knight was leaning down as Naruto was still up. He roared, summoning his wind spear before slamming it towards the knight's helm.

"Heh~" The woman grinned underneath her metal clad armor, as she dodge barely, as she grab the spear between her cheek and shoulder. "Pop goes the weasel!" She chirped as the metal pole snap easily. "This armor is super-charged today, Vanitas. Mother made sure I'm fighting at full power!" With that said, she slammed both hands into his chest, hearing bones pop and crack from the hit alone.

"Blah…" He spat out blood as he felt his innards being crush from the impact. Recovering as he barely grabbed ahold of a Potion from his belt and felt a little better soon after. "Nothing's working… my weapons are like glass against him…"

Standing up, he was going to a least keep Mordred bust until Jason can transmute the ore… which he still needs to acquire. He felt a little daunted but at the same time happy, he stood up… before noticing silvery-white vapors around him, and soon his wounds seem to recover even more. "Alright… gotta use some aikido…" He said as the former shinobi was going to use some old tricks to get back at the knight.

"Oi~!" Mordred walked towards him. "Wanna join now or get back to being beaten black and blue?"

The void warrior didn't say anything as he got into a basic stance. "Come on…" He stated as the knight dashed forward, thrusting the blade first. Naruto eyes widen underneath the dome of his helmet as he slowly moved away from the attack and grab the wrist-

"No way!" Mordred said grabbing onto Vanitas' battle skirt as he was also dragged into the toss. "WHOO!" She screamed as the two were thrown into the air.

"This dude's INSANEEE~!" The silver haired man stated as fell onto ground rolling over as Mordred slide down landing on her feet. "Nothing works!" He roared as nothing seemed to be the answer.

The armored woman soon grabbed Vanitas and lifted him to her eye level. "Alright, it's been fun… but you have two options: join me or my mother mindfucks… RAW!" She threatened as she shook him. "Now what is it? Willingly or having my mother finger your mind!?"

"In the words a famous show character… 'Eat me'." He chuckled before Mordred lean back and slammed her helm against Naruto's cracking his black glass dome enough for a hole to appear.

"Wait…" She stated, looking into his single eye, "Huh… you look familiar…"

"Heh, *cough* don't swing that way." He chuckled as the knight kneed his stomach, sending him away from her. "Worth… *Cough* it!"

"As much as kicking around is cartarstic, more than kicking dad's butt in training, but I'll be taking my blade… and someone needs to watch." She said grabbing his leg and hauling him to where she was going to get her new weapon.

"Why won't you just _kill_ me!?" Naruto whined as he continuously to hit his head on rocks. With each occasional slab of earth his helmet came into contact with, more cracks formed which expanded the ever present hole.

"Not yet. I need a witness to see my ascension."

"Why~!?"

"Be lucky, dad didn't have anyone save the pervy mage."

"You have a lot of daddy- OWW!" The man cried out as the armored woman swung him into the ground, "...Issues…"

"God, you're so annoying."

"By the way…" Vanitas slammed his fist into the ground sending him up as he snaked his arms around Mordred neck. "NEVER LET A FIGHTER'S HANDS BE FREE!" He roared choking the woman as the knight once again was losing air. She stood up, moving hands to reach Naruto at her back only for him weave away, she jumped up to slammed her back into-

"Gah!" She cried as she felt ice entering into her armor, turning her head the void user was on the side smirking using Yuki to stab into the ground. "H-How, I shattered-"

"I can remake them." He said, "I used flash freezing, your armor is frozen into the ground." He smiled, before watching the knight slowly moving up. Red lightning soon danced around the armor as it started to melt the ice, "And apparently you can make lightning."

"SHIT!" Mordred screamed as she stood up, ignoring the pain as the skin was burning from the ice. "You know what? Mother must know spells to reattach limbs. Cause you're going to need them once I DISMEMBER YOU!" Breaking free from her ice entrapment, the knight sped forward with Clarent in hand with a trail of red lightning following behind her..

'Shit! Mordred's like Minato!' Naruto thought in alarm. Bringing Yuki back up, he swung into another trip flying. 'If this is him going easy, what can actually harm the bastard? The armor cancels out most of my weapons!' He thought before landing on his back using Yuki to create to make snow to lower the impact. 'Magic is out since I don't know how to properly cast them. I don't know if I can properly land a hit with my Rasengan with 'his' speed and I think my summons aren't going to do much. What's the weak point!?'

Mordred was in front of him sending the armored fist downward, attempting to punch through his chest. Rolling away and switching his shield with Kazekage, Naruto threw it at the neck only for Mordred to vanish where she once stood. "Stop with the weak attempts!" She roared.

CRASH~!

Naruto spat out more blood when she step on his stomach. 'There!' He thought, throwing Foudre daggers at the eye holes of her helmet.

"Shit!" Mordred leaned back, until feeling her head suddenly being forced back. "Gah!"

Slamming into a nearby fallen tree, she saw Vanitas jumped back up holding Lunar Rose. Pulling out his Ethers, the costumed Uzumaki crushed them, soon feeling himself feeling a bit energized. Smiling at his second wind, the two were back and ready to fight.

Dashing towards each other with their desired weapons on hand, they clashed with sparks emanating from them. Each blow was harsh and destructive towards the environment around them. Their swings were getting overpowered as they channeled their respective energies into their weapons in hopes of overpowering the other.

Leaping into the air, Vanitas channeled power into the scythe's blade and swung down to send energy attacks at Mordred. The knight evaded the attack, speeding around with red lightning still tailing her. Getting close to his landing position, the armored woman coated Clarent with power and swung down, drastically shifting the earth while sending a shockwave at the helmeted hero.

Vanitas grunted in pain as he was electrified while being sent back quite a distance away. Trying to recover, he spun around and channeled more power into Lunar Rose before slamming it into the battlefield. As he skidded back, enlarged roots shot out of the earth and shot towards the treacherous knight.

'Well aren't you full of surprises.' She silently mused, jumping out of the way from the assault before landing on the sentient plant. Rushing forward, Mordred sped as she hacked away at the offending roots that tried to take her down. As many came at her at once, the knight spun around to quickly destroy them.

In this moment, the hero created several clones and sent them out to distract Mordred. This was in order to buy him enough time to get to the ore in time. Sounds of screams and roars could be heard behind him, but Vanitas was too focused to see if they were successful or not. Speeding towards the prize, the costumed Uzumaki was getting closer and closer upon seeing the still smoking meteorite quite a distance away. And it was there he could really feel the power behind it...

Along with its unique appearance.

Before he could pause and examine it, the vigilante felt a force slam against his back. He grunted and coughed up blood as he crashed into the ground. Tumbling across the field, his glass domed helm broke further apart to reveal more of his features, but not clearly enough.

"Huh, seems Mother doesn't have to do much work on the ore than I would've thought." Commented the Knight of Betrayal. Stepping onto her opponent's chest to hold him in place, she grinded her armored boot as she continued to speak. "I mean it almost looks like a roughed up sword at this point."

Indeed it was for the ancient space rock took on a form of a straight sword. It wasn't pretty at all as the shaped out weapon wasn't cleaned up at all. The relic from the stars was forged into it's desired, yet roughed out shape but wasn't smoothed out at all as it still kept all it's pebbles from the countless years being smacked around by asteroids and space debris. With it still steaming -ontop of it's faint glow- it seemed the snow that was here before the crash and falling from the sky was quenching the material.

"Just need to make some fine grinding and cleaning and it's all ready to go for my ascension to the- *BOOOOM* GAH!"

Mordred was sent flying away across the cratered earth and slamming some distance away. Shaking her head, she looked down and saw part of her armored leg was warped, dented and smoking. Looking at the obvious source, the knight saw Vanitas struggling to stand up with his hand smoking.

"What the fuck was that?!"

"I had to get you off my chest, asshole." He responded, rubbing his tender spot a bit but couldn't do much with bodysuit being in the way.

"You could've just asked."

"No, you wouldn't."

"Heh~ True."

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: The Key-**_

The fight was starting to show its marks upon the unmasked Uzumaki. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself back into a fighting position -despite the pain he was feeling- with eyes glaring at his enemy.

Mordred only chortled at his expression, finding great joy at his weathered state.

"I must admit, I haven't had this amount of fun in some time." Mordred haughtily declared. She wished to remark upon his current state, though she knew she was no better than he was. The fight was starting to take its toll on both combatants.

Both knew that they still had a fight left in them, but that can change on a whim within one false misstep or on well placed strike to change the tide.

Mordred spun Clarent around several times before getting into a stance, signaling her readiness to continue the fight.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the Knight of Treachery, finding himself frustrated at the lack of progress in the fight. No matter how many times he thought he had her pinned down, that damned sword of hers or her own ingenuity knocked his ass back to square one. He was doing damage, no doubt. But if this went on, even he doubted that he would come out on top.

'Really wish I can beat this guy.' Naruto wryly thought to himself. 'Or at least have something that'll go toe to toe with him.'

"Are you just gonna stand there glaring at me like a child or are we gonna continue fighting?" Mordred called out to him, clearly becoming impatient with his silence

'You'd like that, wouldn't you asshole.' He internally insulated, shifting his feet apart and reached for the back of his belt.

He had his hand on several physical kunai -none of his manifested creations- prepared to throw them for a distraction but quickly back tracked on the idea. The knight could easily deflect the damn things and he may not be fast enough this time around to get to 'him'.

'Dammit, I am not gonna let this smug asshole take that ore and me back to wherever the hell he wants to take me.' Naruto felt his heart rate begin to increase. 'I got to many people here waiting for me to come back.'

He felt his willpower begin to take root within his… his heart?

Ba-bump~

Blinking, Naruto froze upon seeing black, white and grey wisps begin emanating all around him. And it wasn't just from him, but his eyes moved to where the wisps were going to. The black, white and grey forms of light connected to the sword-shaped meteor Mordred and Morgan Le Fay was seeking as it soon glowed in simular lights. Before long, the ancient space rock disappeared in flecks of light as they soon shot forward and entered the whiskered man's body.

Ba-bump~

Mordred paused, also noticing the strange phenomena occuring around her opponent.

"What is this?" Mordred inquired. "What are you doing?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY SWORD?!"

Ba-bump~

The costumed Uzumaki remained silent, a powerful sensation beginning to pool within his heart. There was a really weird tugging sensation from the back of his mind that made him cringe momentarily at the uncomfortable force behind the pull.

BA-BUMP~

He raised his hand in order to place it upon his head only for him to jolt to a stop. A bright, beaming light exploded from his hand, blinding both him and Mordred momentarily. Unconsciously, Naruto's hand gripped a handle that appeared before it in the midst of the light extending into a longer more defined shape. The light subsided at last and the Uzumaki exhaled a breath he had been holding.

He felt a weight gripped in his hand and glanced down to see… a giant key?

Naruto didn't know what was going on. He felt a surge of power coursing through him in some sort of reawakening. Was it of his own doing... or is it the power of the starborn artifact in his grasp.

The artifact took on an odd refined design, depicting a classic skeleton key. To his estimations, he figured it was roughly 3.5' long with a bronze keychain extending from the hilt. The token at its end was of a stylized crown, which matched the sword's teeth on the hollowed out portion. Both the blade and teeth of the unique looking sword was bronze as well with it's rainguard being a bright yellow, the handle being deeply black and the guard being a dull grey -almost platinum- in terms of coloring.

' _Keyblade…'_

'What in the world?' Naruto heard… was it a voice? For he didn't hear anything. Yet that word popped into his mind

 _'Keyblade.'_

'Is… that what it's called? Keyblade?' He received no other answer, only a feeling of confirmation. 'Whatever it's called, I don't care.' Getting into a battle stance with both hands holding onto his newly acquired sword, he stared down at the bastard son of Arthur Pendragon.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep: Dismiss-**_

"Hey Mordred." He said, drawing his Keyblade in front of him. "Come here for a moment, I wanna test out my new toy."

"You bastard!" Mordred growled, gripping her trusted blade. "You have some nerve to use my Sword against me"

"Oh like I give a shit right now." Naruto shot back as his helmet fully reformed around his head. "But if ya want it, come and get it."

"Gladly." Mordred roared, dashing right at Naruto with her sword raised over head.

She brought Clarent down with lightning speed and force, which Vanitas was barely able to deflect her blade. He stumbled back from her attack, the knight going on the offensive. Though it may seem like she was swinging wildly from side to side, the angle of which she directed them from were anything but uncoordinated. Her sword swings were intentionally arcing wider than usual as it helped in keeping her distance from Vanitas while also allowing her in delivering powerful blows.

Teeth clenched, the vigilante remained on the defensive as he kept moving back managing to reflect most of her attacks at the last second. He realized he shouldn't have challenged her like that. But after seeing her initial reaction upon him receiving his new weapon, the old prankster just couldn't help himself.

Returning his thoughts back to the fight, Naruto scrutinized her attack pattern, trying to discern the right time to counter attack.

He knew whatever he does would be a gamble. She may be attacking in wide swipes that seemed to leave her wide open, but he knew better. Mordred was baiting him to try and go in close where she had something planned for him.

So what was he to do? Easy. Meet her with just as much force as she was showing.

Her latest strike struck his Keyblade, sending his arm out to its full length.

'Now!' Naruto mentally exclaimed. Gritting his teeth, the costumed Uzumaki put his full strength into this swing.

Both Keyblade and Clarent met in between the two, sparks flying upon contact. And both were jolted back, momentarily stunned when their eyes met.

Tension crackled between them and without waiting for recovery, both began swinging their weapons at one another in hopes of gaining advantage over the other.

 ***CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG***

Naruto hit Mordred's sword down to the ground, the tip getting embedded into the floor. Still gripping her balde, Mordred looked up Naruto in momentary dread.

Growling, Naruto elbowed her across the cheek and then with the same arm that held his Keyblade, struck her with a powerful outward slash which sent her careening down onto her back.

"NOT YET!" She screamed, backing off when Naruto tried to thrust his blade, hitting down hard on his elbow. Using her free hand, she slams her fist into Naruto's face, once! _Wham!_ Twice! _WHAM!_ THRICE! _WHAM!_

Vanitas then lashed his boot out at her exposed stomach, causing the two let each other go… which they soon groaned and honest to good whimpering on both sides were heard. They were the same… they actually respected each other that had to give it their all despite the goals they strive for…

With the vigilante, his form radiated specks of black, grey and white light. He was dead focused on taking down the Knight of Treachery that he unconsciously poured power into his newly acquired Keyblade. It's bronzed blade glowed a bright light which helped light up the dark atmosphere. And on the opposing side, red lightning started dancing around Mordred as it glowed brighter and brighter, bathing most of the surrounding area in it's crimson glow. Both forms of light seemingly going against each other to see which was more dominant than the other.

'I'm going to get my Sword and I'll do anything to do so.' Mordred thought as she tightened her grip on Clarent's handle, flooding her weapon more of her power. 'Even if that meant prying it out of this bastard's dead hands!'

With no other notice, the two combatants leaped at each other with roars emanating from their throats. Their blade's clashed, causing a small shockwave to emanate from them. Each were pulled back before being slammed into each other again and again

Parries, blocks, swings, stabs, slashes and evasions wee acted upon, but the fighters were occasionally met by the opposing weapons to deal with quite the damage on them. Both bit down the pain as they wanted to keep on going while momentarily breaking away their matching gazes for specific movements.

No words were exchanged between them, not even any insults or boasts; just mirrored expressions of determination on both their faces -despite them wearing helmets hiding away this fact- as the two forces tried to break the stalemate.

At one point, Mordred disappeared in a burst of speed, reappearing right behind her opponent with one fluid movement aimed straight at his left shoulder. Despite Naruto quickly reacting and catching the slash with his Keyblade -in a backward motion- the strike hit home as the tip sliced in deep past his bodysuit due to the force of the blow to make a shallow cut against his flesh. The costumed Uzumaki gritted his teeth when gaining his newly made flesh wound as he turned at the waist, channeling the momentum into his swing for retaliation. The attack reached Mordred's chest plate in it's upward motion, where it made a vertical cut in the material.

The two eventually grappled every so often with intentions taking the other to the ground, more so with Mordred in hopes of stabbing Vanitas through the chest. And stumbling each other was met with hardly no success as both would either move back for a temporary recover or quickly adjust their position before making the necessary strikes.

Upon separating his Keyblade from Clarent, Naruto kneed Mordred's head before punching her away. It did little to hurt her through her armor, but she retaliated by delivering a spin kick to his center. But this costed the armored woman as her boot was caught before she was thrown away.

Seeing his flown target in the air, the vigilante unconsciously shifted his body, brought his Keyblade back and heaved it forward. He wondered why he did this, briefly thinking that he didn't want to lose a hit against the knight. But his eyes widened in surprise that once the attack met the armor, his newly acquired weapon spun back as if like a boomerang.

Quickly catching the guarded handle, Vanitas gave it a quick look over and snorted in amusement. 'And here I thought that only happened back in my dream earlier.'

Slamming against the ground, Mordread hissed at her opponent as she got back up. Not saying anything, she rushed at him once more with a trail of red lightning following right behind her. She tried to get behind Naruto's unprotected back once more to deliver another blow. Yet she was caught off guard when he spun about and met his blade with her own with sparks emanating soon after.

"That trick isn't gonna work the same way twice, Mordred."

Before the Knight of Camelot could retort and react, Naruto already scored another blow and this time was done across her flank when he spun around her. The force of the blow sent her away once more and before she attempted to recover, the hero rushed forward -with a brief glow around him- and quickly delivered a six-hit combo across different parts of her armor. Dents were made with how much power he delivered in each blow. And on the last one, Mordred was sent tumbling down into the ground with a dust cloud forming soon after.

Landing back down on the ground, Naruto soon panted as he started to feel he was no longer at his best. He was quickly using up too much power and it was taking its toll on him. His mind was racing and was getting a headache as a result, causing him to not thinking properly.

From her spot in the cratered battlefield, Mordred was panting as she coughed up blood -which soon spilled from underneath her horned helmet and using her sword as a crutch to stand up. "I guess it's time to step this up a notch." Grinned the Knight of Betrayal, seemingly uncaring about the damage she had sustained.

Straightening herself out, she twisted her sword's handle as parts of the guard opened up. Red power flowed right after like a torrented storm wanting to be unleashed. Naruto quickly went on guard as his breathing felt harsh, but he had to be ready for whatever the Treacherous Knight had in store.

"Rebellion Against My Beautiful Father..." Growled Mordred as the crimson lightning condensed onto her loyal blade's end. Raising up her weapon, parts of her horned helmet receded back to reveal her wild blonde appearance, but it was quickly covered with the storm she was generating. "Clarent Blood-"

Before Mordred could finish calling out her most powerful attack, a magical seal appeared right next to her with Morgan partially coming out of it. Her mother quickly grasped her arm, causing the attack to be put into a halt, which left much confusion towards the combatants.

With her horned helmet reforming around her head, the wild blonde looked at the sorceress. "What the hell, mother?!"

"We need to leave, now!" Morgan growled.

"What?! Why?!" Mordred asked in bewilderment.

"I'll explain later!" The witch then tugged her daughter, who was fighting to get free from her grasp. Looking over, Morgan saw the weapon in Vanitas' grasp and widened her eyes a little. 'That sword… it looks like _his…'_ Shaking her head a little, she spoke. "We'll meet again, Man of Void. And when we do, I'll take your sword so my 'son' can rightfully have it."

Soon enough, the witch's magical seal expanded and swallowed the mother/child pair up and disappeared just before the vigilante could have a chance to go after them.

With his adrenaline coming down as the fight suddenly ended, the costumed Uzumaki gasped for breath after he dissolved his glass domed helmet. And it was at this moment that he finally remembered he had an Elixir on him, which could've helped him out in the recent confrontation.

'Damn, I'm beat.' He thought as he slammed his Keyblade into the earth, leaning against it for support. 'I need a good night's rest.' He shook his head a little before looking around. 'I need to find Rachel and Jason… or Etrigan… whoever is in control now… and see if they're alright.'

Using his newfound weapon as an impromptu crutch/cane, he made his way out of the crater and went to find his companions. He didn't need to use it in such a way, but despite him taking his Elixir, he still felt extremely winded and he needed to travel at a safe pace in case of anything.

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

Off some distance away from the battlefield, the sound of a heavy tome closed shut with chains rattling soon after.

The source? A man wearing a heavy, hooded cloak around his form. The material's color was hard to determine that it shifted between hues of brown, grey and sometimes purple. Attached to his right wrist is a prisoner's shackle as it was connected to an enlarged book.

Wrapping the chain around his withered out tome, the man's pale white eyes peered from underneath his darkened hood -which obscured all of his features- at the retreating hero who sought after his companions.

Tucking his chained up book underneath his arm, the man slowly faded from the area. His task of recording the recent event was over and it was time to move elsewhere. For his duty is to merely read and observe through his book, for everything appears within his book before they ever happen.

But every great once in a while, something will make him step beyond his comfortable bounds of his duty and personally record them. For certain events can even surprise _Destiny himself._

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Gotta hate writing chapters that are completely original content with very few things to work with. Takes so damn long but it hopes to be done well as the end result. Not to mention work killing my writing buzz, which only makes me write very little per day. But I gotta thank Azure King and free man writer for their help once again on several scenes to make this great.**

 **Now y'all are probably wondering why the Keyblade has made its appearance. Reason? Why it's because I've been planning this for an** _ **extremely**_ **long time, folks. And before you guys complain about it, you'll need to remember this story has Kingdom Hearts elements in here and it's just to help ease things along for what I have planned coming up soon. From going to other 'Worlds', fighting against Heartless and meeting certain characters.**

 **Also, just to note, this story will lead into KH1 events but that'll take a while to get into since I still want to ease out what I planned out properly from my timeline.**

 **So… TellTale Games Studio shut its doors with a very,** _ **very**_ **small staff working there now. 225 employees were laid off while they've been working on the rest of the final Walking Dead season and were developing the additional stuff for Wolf Among Us Season 2. Sucks that we're not going to see the rest of that stuff now since they've been doing multiple projects at the same time.**

 **This means we won't see Clementine's story come to a proper end, no Bigby Wolf doing god knows what the studio had planned and I don't even know what the studio would've done for the next Batman and Game of Thrones seasons that I heard their scripts were being written.**

 **...On a lighter note, happy to see the new trailers for Devil May Cry 5 along with the new Captain Marvel movie trailer. Not to mention new KH3 stuff made me so fucking hyped! Though the recent Venom movie was… alright at best because I put the bar for that rather high and was a tad disappointed on several parts.**

 **Another thing I need to bring up is that I plan to rewrite my Dragon's Guardian story. I need to fix quite a lot of things and clear things up on specific chapters. There've been quite the confusion on several chapters as they either frustrated readers when not told sooner or whatever else. I do agree with many of you readers that things need to be developed more and I wish to make it better. Some things will be the same and others will be different, changed, added and get expanded upon. When I originally wrote it, I was a tad impatient on certain details and was confused on several things as I wasn't all that knowledgeable on the series outside of the show. But after doing quite a lot more research on GOT/ASoIaF, I need to properly do this better.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thanks you!**

 **R &R**


	61. A Small Reprieve

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 56: A Small Reprieve**

Pacing back and forth in her lover's living room, Glenda had the phone pressed up against her ear.

"...And are you sure you haven't seen or heard from Jason today, Harry?"

" _Nah, I haven't Glenda."_ Answered the advertiser. _"You talk to Randu about-"_

"Yes, I did just before I called you and he said the same thing."

" _Huh… and have you even tried calling Jason?"_

"I have, but he hasn't responded."

"I'm sure he has other pressing matters that's keeping all of his attention towards, Glenda. I mean, he can't be there for ya all the time."

"Harry, this is serious."

" _Really? What's so serious that you gotta see him now of all times?"_

"I… I just wanna know if he was alright."

" _From the odd quake and shockwave from earlier that destroyed practically all of the windows throughout Gotham?"_ Harry could feel his friend nod on the other end. _"Yeah, it was very strange, like some odd phenomenon that should've been something else. Like some sort of bomb. Luckily not a lot of people got hurt."_

"Indeed." Glinda sighed while rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Look, do you possibly have any idea where he might be at if not here at his home?"

" _Eh~ either investigating something mystical… or magically traveled his way to New York to that one bar he only goes to."_

This got her to groan in thought. 'Of course he would. If not teaching his apprentice; he'd investigate, read, research or sometimes drink with familiar company.'

" _Anyways, I gotta get off now."_ Harry said, not knowing the thoughts crossing his friend's mind. _"I've got a few projects to finish up within the next few days and I don't wanna be a bloody procrastinator."_

"Alright. Good luck with things on your end."

" _Same to you."_

After hanging up, Glenda put the phone away with a sigh escaping her lips. 'It's been like this ever since I met Jason a few years ago.' She thought, rubbing the small throbbing on her forehead. 'Should've gotten used to it by now.'

The two first met at a party hosted by the wife of their mutual friend, Randu. Things were cordial and their conversations became more enjoyable. And throughout the event, Glinda grew more and more curious about the enigma that was Jason Blood as time went on, due to how secretive he was.

Wanting to possibly learn more about him, Glenda wanted to see his home in order to gather more information with what she could find there. So after some time coaxing Jason, he brought Glinda to his home during their early dating days. And things were relatively nice on the visit some days later, even though Harry and Randu were there; not that she minded their company at all.

Yet the peaceful event turned on its head when something unique occured… in the form of a demon attack which several things were revealed as a result.

Ever since that day, Glenda learned that Jason Blood was an immortal knight from the days of Camelot. Not only that, but he was a practitioner of the mystic arts along with him sharing his body with the demon, Etrigan.

Oh and let's not forget that she, Harry and Randu had joined Jason in a wide variety of adventures whether they liked it or not.

Despite the trials and tribulations the four experienced, they grew closer together and became the best of friends… well more so than others. For Glenda and Jason saw each other in a more romantic light.

Even though they fell in love with one another, their relationship was rather rocky due to Jason's dual nature. But Glenda always tried to see the best of it that it possibly helped show what their relationship is exactly. But the immortal knight had distanced himself every so often, due to his 'roommate' _seemingly_ getting in between their romance and blaming him as a result. And for some form of recuperation, he'd close or distract himself with various tasks or hobbies.

'I sometimes wonder if me telling him over and over again that enjoying the love we have for each other isn't a sin will ever go through that thick skull of his.' Glenda thought

Just when she headed straight towards the kitchen to get something to drink, she heard steps coming through the entrance of Jason's home… without the door being opened?

"I swear, you need to lay off the snacks buddy." A familiar voice spoke out. "You seem heavier than you look."

"Must be with all that dilly-dallying he sometimes does; among other things…" Spoke the second… which was the same?

Coming back into the living room, she saw Naruto… with another one of him(?) carrying both Jason in an odd white cloaked robe with his student, Rachel, as both were unconscious and roughed up.

"Wh-What the hell is going on?"

Looking over, Naruto and his clone saw a mildly worried/freaked out Glenda just when they placed his companions on the respective couches. "Uh~ hey, Glenda. What's up?" Asked the publisher.

"'What's up?' That's what you're starting out with?" Neither Naruto or his clone could respond before she continued speaking. "What the hell is going on, Naruto? From the second 'you' or twin to why is Jason wearing a god awful robe to both him and Rachel looking like they went through the grinder?"

Naruto already knew Glenda has knowledge of the magical world because of her relationship with Jason. In fact, it was how the pair slowly fell in love with each other… in some twisted and complicated way on how that occured.

What she didn't know was her knowledge of the Uzumaki having powers.

Dispelling his clone, Naruto tried to voice an explanation. "Uh… well… you see…"

A rough groan was heard right beside them, interrupting the little interrogation aimed right at the publisher. Looking over, the pair saw Jason lifting himself up and rubbed his head with a hand.

Instantly going towards her lover's side, Glenda kneeled down and held his unoccupied hand. "Jason, are you alright?"

Turning his head over, the immortal smiled a little. "Somewhat, Glenda. Just rather exhausted…" He breathed out a frustrated sigh, "after what happened."

"...What _exactly_ happened?"

Naruto was the one to answer. "You know of that thing that happened earlier today with the city wide glass breaking?" Glenda nodded. "Well it was caused by a meteor crashing down on an island off the Gotham coast."

The blonde rose a questioning brow. "How in the hell does a meteor cause that kind of shockwave of _just_ destroying windows and glass? Why not cause other bits of destruction like electrical outages or whatever?"

Naruto shrugged. "Beats me. But~ it did wipe out almost an entire island's flora and fauna population while drastically reshaping it's layout."

Widened eyes stared right at Naruto before looking over at Jason for confirmation. "He is right, Glenda. If you read the morning paper or watch the coming news, you'll find out sooner or later."

"But why does this explain why you were there and Rachel and-"

"Because of what the meteor's composition was." Jason interrupted. "I don't know what exactly it is, but it had a lot of magical properties and I didn't want anyone horrible to take it." He then looked over to his unconscious student. "I had brought Rachel along since I needed the help… along with Naruto's."

Jason's lover looked over to the publisher. "What did he mean by that?"

Naruto sighed, lifting his hand and channeled power into it to form a Void Rasengan. "Cause I have powers as well." Seeing her shocked expression, he spoke. "We can talk about that later, Glenda. But we need to discuss on what exactly occurred earlier."

"Indeed." Jason said as he slowly sat up on the couch. "For one, Morgan Le Fay made her return."

His lover's shocked levels went up upon hearing this. "Morgan Le Fay? The witch of Camelot? The same person that one cult tried to resurrect when we first started dating? That Morgan Le Fay?"

"Whoa, back up." Naruto interrupted before Jason could properly answer. "Morgan had a cult?"

"Not exactly, Naruto. It was more of a coven of witches that worshipped her, not knowing she was actually alive for all this time." Jason corrected.

All this did was have the Uzumaki roll his eyes. "Sounds like a cult to me."

"Can we get back to Morgan Le Fay and why she showed up from out of the blue?" Glenda snapped, getting the two men to nod and get back right on track.

"Right. So Morgan wanted the meteor for it's oddly mystical properties and to gift them to her bastard of a son, Mordred, who by the way is alive and kicking somehow." Naruto said, getting yet another surprised reaction out of Jason's lover.

"H-How is that possible?" She then turned towards Jason. "He died at the Battle of Camlann."

"We don't know, Glenda. But Morgan made it possible for that to happen." The occultist clamped his hands together and tightened them. "Regardless, Rachel, Etrigan and I fought her while Naruto dealt with Mordred… in order to…" He then remembered their primary objective earlier before turning to the silver haired man. "Please tell me you got the ore away from them."

Naruto merely rubbed the back of his head. "In a way, yes."

With how he said it didn't make Jason feel any better. "Don't tell me you destroyed it."

Naruto shook his head 'no'. "It merely… became something else." This earned a confused look from the immortal. "Look, the ore is out of Morgan and Mordred's hands and it's in safe hands… well… my hands."

"...I don't follow."

Feeling a bit out of place here, Glenda got up from her place and spoke. "I'm gonna make some tea. I get you two have something to discuss and I'm not gonna be able to keep up with whatever is gonna be said."

With that said, the blonde left towards the kitchen leaving the two men alone with the unconscious purplette.

"Does that happen often?" Asked the publisher.

"Every other time." Came the answer. "Glenda can only handle so much of the supernatural at once -given the situation- before needing some time to breathe."

"I can probably understand. Learning that your boyfriend's ancient foe made her return with quite the unexpecting package would push her to such lengths."

"Yes and you should've seen her on what went down on some of our past adventures with just herself or with both Randu and Harry." Jason then spoke as he wanted to get back into the matter at hand. "You said that you got the ore away from them and you have possession of it, correct? What became of it, then?"

"I fought Mordred with it."

"...Excuse me? Did I hear that correctly? You fought Mordred with the ore?"

"Yes, I did."

"You beat him up with a large, enchanted space rock?" Jason soon snorted in laughter as the visual would've been funny to see. Naruto holding the ore in his hand and beating up Mordred with one hand while the other held Arthur's bastard down.

"Whatever your visualizing isn't what exactly went down."

"Oh? Then tell me, Naruto. How did the fight go down with you fighting Morgan's son with an unrefined enchanted ore?"

The Uzumaki sighed. "It… reformed into an odd looking sword."

Jason blinked. "And where, pray tell, is this _sword?_ I obviously don't see it on you."

"After I got to you and Rachel, it disappeared from my grasp in an odd pillar and specks of light."

"And do you know where it went off to?"

"I think it went off to where my other weapons are at or whatever. I mean, my weapons are constructs from my own power, but this sword is _different._ " Naruto looked at his hand and flexed it. "I tried resummoning it on the ride over here, but no such luck."

"How so?"

The former shinobi started moving and poured power into his hand. "I think it has to be a snap of the wrist or something." In one final bit of movement, a pillar of light appeared within Naruto's grasp. As it died down, he quickly grabbed the handle out of reflex. "Oh…"

Seeing the bronzed blade in Naruto's hand caused Jason to quickly stand up and look on with widened eyes. "Is… Is that a Keyblade?"

This got Naruto to look at Jason in surprise. He only knew of its name from that mysterious voice during his fight against Mordred. "How do you know what it is?"

"I… have seen it once before."

"When? Where?"

"Back when I was still Merlin's scribe roughly 1,500 years ago." Sitting back down, his old eyes were still laid upon the Keyblade.

Following Jason's action, Naruto sat down, but next to his ward with his key-shaped sword resting across his lap. "Mind explaining how you know of _this_ , then?"

Memories flooded Jason's mind as he recalled such events. "It was during the early years of Arthur's rising reign when I first laid eyes upon the sword. And mind you it wasn't the same sword you currently have, but it was of similar design." Naruto nodded and ushered Jason to continue. "It was owned by a wandering sellsword or a hedge knight to what we believed at the time from some unknown land. He claimed he was merely a wandering traveler in search of adventure and for his fellow apprentice -studying under the same master/teacher- who was separated from him at the time. And the encounter was… awkward at best."

"It went downhill, didn't it?"

"Indeed it was. Things were tense as we were still against the Saxons and uniting all of Britannia under Arthur's rule. So we had to be weary of many if any person we came into contact with were spies for our enemies. When he was in Camelot, Arthur soon had him arrested due to his suspicious behavior and had him questioned."

As the former shinobi listened to the story, Jason continued. "Merlin went to question him and I followed after him as to my duty's purpose to record much of what Merlin wanted for later generations to learn from us. Yet my former teacher wanted me to stay out of the cell in case of anything were to happen. I understood and I left to my own devices for the time being until either Merlin or someone else sought me out in order to take care of some task. But when I was on my own, I saw the prisoner had escaped and was fleeing from the scene. In response, I pursued after him and soon saw him confronted by Merlin's student at the time, Morgana."

Naruto held up his hand and spoke in a raised voice. "Wait, hold up. Morgan Le Fay was Merlin's student?"

"Yes she was." Jason confirmed. "Taken under Merlin's wing with what magical potential she possessed. And suffice to say, her power became equal that of Merlin himself after leaving under his tutelage. Though I didn't envy her on what she dealt with when learning under him." He then shook his head. "Getting back to the tale, despite our differences I joined her in holding off the Keyblade wielder. And to our surprise, he used his sword as a magical focus, casting a series of spells which held us off considerably. And if that wasn't enough, he used his Keyblade to help make some sort of light portal before entering it in order to escape."

Naruto was rather dumbfounded upon hearing this as he gazed at his Keyblade. Not only was this weapon capable in casting spells, but it can help make something that was polar opposite of that Dark Corridor he needed to figure out on?

'What else is there about this sword that makes it unique?' Naruto thought to himself before something else crossed his mind. "Wait a sec, how did this guy escape from his cell anyways?"

"Ah, yes. Morgan, Arthur and I had asked Merlin about this after he questioned the stationed guards, who were unconscious at the time of the traveler's escape. Apparently he unlocked the cell with his Keyblade before quickly subduing the guards." Jason soon saw Naruto's interest in his newfound weapon more intriguing. "In the end, Arthur ordered the incident to be covered up as it would've been insulting to many of his knights were outsmarted by some unknown rogue. And it was understandable that if word got out of this, Camelot's reputation would've given a harsh blow."

Jason held up his hand with his index finger pointed out. "From what Merlin managed to figure out and surmise, there are a series of things the Keyblade's abilities. First: the weapon had the power to open and close _any_ type of lock it wanted, whether it was a door or even a chest. Second: it can be used as a focus for one's spells. And third: it can have transformational properties, but I don't know how how that's possible."

Naruto scratched his whiskered cheek while processing this bit of information. "I see." His mind raced through the abilities as his gaze shifted to his young ward. He then voiced a thought that crossed his mind. "Locking and unlocking? Does that mean the _full_ concept on the idea?"

"Yes, why?" Jason's eyes followed Naruto's line of sight, which landed on Rachel and slowly realized what her guardian had in mind. "Oh… I see."

"Maybe, just maybe, the Keyblade could be a way to _seal_ off Trigon's advances from coming here."

"Yes, that could work." Jason muttered while stroking his chin. "But we'll need to research and test it out instead of jumping into it blindly. Not to mention we can't exactly tell her this detail or else we'd get her hopes up, only for them to crash down later on."

"No kidding. Don't want her _dad_ to end up coming here way too soon for our liking if we mess this up. Along with depressing her even further." His eyes then went over to the immortal's current state of dress. "Okay so, what's up with the robe?"

Looking down, Jason saw an old set of familiar garments he hasn't seen in centuries. He let out a bitter chuckle as a result. "Oh, Merlin. You just had to do this, didn't you?"

"What? Some kind of prank?" The silver haired man reproached as the immortal shook his hand at the younger man.

"No, it was Merlin himself who don this for me." The man chuckled subside. "Ahh… just like him to always watch my back even when he left us…"

"I am _so_ confused on this moment."

Jason nodded deciding now it would be best to tell his ally. "Merlin possessed me in the last battle with Morgana, most likely to save both Rachel and I from her last spell. I believe he did this to keep an eye on me as he may deny it… but the Mage of Flowers was always a mother hen to the members of Camelot." The man solemnly explain to his friend before looking tired at the fact. "I didn't think that he would do that to me… after what I've done."

"So… can he come back and help or whatever he did again?"

"He could. Only problem is that he must come to me personally to apply a magical glyph onto myself if this were to happen again… And he hasn't been seen or heard from ever since Camelot fell."

"Then that's a no." Naruto surmised before holding up his bronze colored Keyblade once more. "What else can you tell me about this thing?"

"Asides from what I just told you… It's old to say the least." Jason answered "Not that one in particular but the whole concept and usage of the Keyblade apparently dates back before my time, even that of my master; given what we have researched."

"So are there other Keyblade users, like me?" Naruto abruptly asked.

"Of that, I have no doubt." Jason firmly stated. "My old master Merlin spoke of other Keyblade wielders and from what little I could find in the scribes throughout the world, this appeared to be true. Legends of an ancient seat of power, home to all Keyblade wielders of all ages were able to safely and openly converge there and fulfill their duties to the Keyblade."

"The Keyblade?" Naruto repeated in clear confusion "What does that mean? You just said there were many who had one."

"That always never made any sense to me as well." Jason stated, getting up from his seat before sifting through a bookshelf of some of his old works as a scribe. "What I was able to decipher or simply guess is that it is perhaps referring to a code of conduct, guidelines to those who have been chosen to wield the Keyblade."

"Wait, what? Chosen?" Naruto sounded a bit exasperated on his part upon learning of such a 'small' tidbit.

"Apologies, Naruto." Jason said sympathetically "I can only tell you as to what I can recall or have on hand. Knowledge of the Keyblade is extremely illusive with next to nothing on its origin or how it exactly functions."

The blond headed shinobi could only slump his shoulders, allowing his Keyblade to vanish from his hand.

"Why do I feel a headache coming on?" Naruto grumbled, massaging the sides of his temple now

"It comes when you're pursuing something very little is known about." Jason frowned slightly at this. "To us at the very least. There is one figure however that was noted in these old texts but I haven't a clue of who he or what he was."

"Hmmm?"

"The Master of Masters is what he was called." Jason said cryptically. "From what I've gathered, if there was to be anyone with an extensive knowledge in regards to Keyblades it was him."

"Let me guess, he vanished." Naruto deadpanned. "No doubt passed on."

"Unclear." Stated the immortal. "He just vanished. Dimmed. Faded. _Poof._ Gone. Never to be seen again."

"URGH!" Naruto moaned dramatically. "Why can't it ever, _EVER,_ just be simple. It's always gotta be cryptic or some convoluted bullshit that needs you to go on some unnecessary spirit journey where you find out that 'hey, the power always came inside, you never needed to go on this side quest. Thank you, come again'."

The occultist gave a bitter chuckle soon after. "Sad to say, but that's true. You've been holding that in for a while now, haven't you?"

Shaking his head 'yes', the publisher soon looked at his ward. "What now?"

"Now? We rest and deal with this at a later time. Nothing can't be done all at once."

"Right." He carefully moved a strand of purple locks away from Rachel's face. "I best take her home now."

"Of course." Jason saw him pick up the ashen child and hold her in a bridal carry. "Though I must warn you of something."

"Yes?"

"What Rachel did when fending against Morgan and her forces might have caused… an imbalance inside of her."

"...I don't understand."

"You will in time." The Immortal gave Naruto an expectant look, throwing off the author. "For now, keep an eye on your charge if anything has become amiss.

"Right…" Naruto said wearing an expression of clear concern as he glanced down at Raven "That's a comforting way to say goodbye."

"Most often are."

Cue eye roll. "Yeah, yeah. Take care of yourself, Jason."

"You too." Was all the new Keyblade wielder heard before phasing through the front door.

Just as he did, Glenda came back out from the kitchen with a steaming pot of tea settled on a small tray. "Oh. Naruto has left, then." She saw her lover give a brief nod. "Good because now we have things to talk about, Jason."

The immortal sighed, knowing that tone of voice meant he was in trouble in some sort of fashion.

 _ **-Uzumaki Residence-**_

"And here comes the airplane~" Harley cooed out as she whirled a spoonful of food towards Hazel's mouth. "Open up so it can make it's delivery~"

"...Aunty Harley." Spoke the dark skinned, blonde haired child as she appeared to be physically two years old.

"Yes, Hazel?"

"I can eat my own food, ya'know."

"...Why'd you and your sisters have to grow up so fast?!" Harley wailed with tears running down her cheeks. "You three were perfect as you were weeks ago!"

"We barely talked three weeks ago!"

"You just wanted to baby us much more than you have to." Thorn said from one part of the kitchen counter -who appeared four years old- ate some cooked broccoli. "Yet you forget, we're aging up faster than you would know."

"Exactly my point!"

"At this point, we more mature than her… W~hich doesn't say much..." Rose muttered out -also appearing like a two year old- as she cut up some apples and spread some honey on them before adorably eating them up.

Off to the side, Selina was merely enjoying the little scene before her.

Things have been relatively well earlier today as she'd been taking care of personal matters. Not much could be said about it really as it was same old same old for her. Yet feeling like you're doing the same old routine over and over again with hardly anything exciting happening made things a bit stale to her.

Sure there is the part of her occasionally looking after Naruto's recent daughters seemed to spice things up ever since their birth last month. They've been able to get the thief on her toes, that's for sure. Never having a proper experience in help raising children would be something that'll take time to get used to.

Not to mention with them having powers of their own.

Now, she was currently watching the three alongside Harley -who was currently sulking in the kitchen- and Pam after the mother/daughters group returned from the Greenhouse. This wasn't anything new, per say, as every other night Selina would come on over and interact with the growing munchins. And yet she wasn't even planning on coming over tonight.

That changed when supposedly a meteor, satellite or whatever came zooming over the city, causing mass hysteria after everything glass related broke and most of the city's power momentarily went offline.

Being the a worried aunt now -something that'll be odd getting used to- the ravenette came over and checked up on them to see if they were safe. They were as the three children were away from the widows, so none of them were pierced by broken glass. And even if the glass were going to hit them, Red's plants would've protected them.

While the pair were watching over the three, the older women wondered what was really going on. Not to mention curious as to where Naruto was at.

News channels were the only means of acquiring vague information for the general public. Yet all they were reporting were the status' of the injured populous while trying to find the source of their recent problem.

But all the news people could find was absolutely nothing! Which was beyond odd.

Wanting to help out in their mild curiosity, Pam connected into the 'Green Network' -as she called it- to find the source of the problem. There was a bit of vagueness that a lot of plants had seen the space object, but a large amount of them were killed off instantly when impact was made. And the survivors of the crash oddly went to either shock or sleep as none of the flora population were responsive at all.

Imagine what would've happened if it hit somewhere within the city's actual borders.

But from what Pam got back from her plant clone earlier, Naruto was already on the case.

That had been an hour ago and not hearing back from him on the status was killing the two nature champions. And when Harley arrived half an hour ago to personally see if they were fine, the mood coming from the bubbly blonde dampened as she too worried for their shared boyfriend.

Drumbing her fingers across her forearm, the thief sighed for the upteenth time as whatever she was doing to keep herself distracted from the present worries wasn't working. She helped cook the sporelings' meal, she cleaned, even playing with them for a little while wouldn't work.

"The hell is taking Naruto so long?" Selina muttered out. "He should've at least called."

"You're telling me, Selina." Pam said in agreement, sitting right next to her on the nearby couch. "Not to mention not hearing from Rachel."

"You think something happened to them." Harley pondered as she came over from the kitchen.

"Maybe. Maybe not. But given Naruto's luck on most days…"

"I see your point, Red." Harley then smiled as she nudge the green champion tone stomach. "Although I think he knows that he would face a scary punishment if he didn't come back with Rachel at all."

"If not, then we'll just have to remind him." Joked the thief, earning small chuckles from her girlfriends.

Soon the three women heard the sound of boots walking across part of the floor. Turning around, they saw Naruto deforming his Vanitas attire as he gently held Rachel in his arms.

"Sorry that we're late…" He send a sad smile as the only male of the household entered the room, placing his ward to a recliner where he then look at his lovers and daughters. "Anyone got pain killers? I have pretty bad headache…" He joked...before the sporelings rushed over to him.

"Daddy, you're back!" Hazel cried out.

"Where were ya?" Rose questioned.

"Is Rachel going to be okay?" Thorn asked out of concern, sharing the same feeling as everyone else. Seemingly even Isis as she walked over and jumped into Rachel's lap, meowing and pawing at her to see if she was responsive or not.

"She will. She just needs some rest." Responded the writer before he was tackle hugged by the changed psychologist with her all of her limbs wrapped around him. "Whoa there, Harley."

"We were so worried, Puddin!" She muttered out, rubbing her cheek against his. "You didn't answer our calls! Or even respond back to them!"

Naruto blinked. "Really?" He went into his pocket and fished out his phone before seeing there was indeed a lot of missed calls. "Huh. Never noticed. Then again I wouldn't have as I was too focused fighting for my life."

This drew in everyone else's attention.

"Sorry, but what?" Selina voiced everyone's shared thought.

"Right~ So you know of the whole incident earlier pertaining a meteor or satellite, correct?" He received various nods from his lovers and somewhat responses from his daughters. "Well Jason needed to procuring the meteorite as he feared its power would've caused a lot of problems if it were to fall into the wrong hands. And sure enough there was trouble over there as Rachel tagged along..."

He stop when the women are glared at him… while Harley had a baseball bat slowly hitting her open palm.

"B-Before we get into this…" He lifted his hands to ward them off, before he slump into the couch. "Okay, how was I supposed to know that a magical ore was suppose to attractive a crazy old magic hag and her ironclad brat? And said brat smack me around like a rag doll across the forest?"

Pam, Selina and Harley shared a look while the sporelings merely went over to Rachel's prone form in order to check on their surrogate, older sister.

"She's fine, uhh… Etrigan… and Merlin protected her." The females only looked back with a confused look as he shrug his shoulders, "Yeah… I… I don't exactly know how either with the whole magic speal of things."

Pam was the one to speak up next. "Then mind explaining to the whole situation, please?"

"Right. But before I get into it…" Summoning the bronze-bladed Keyblade into his hand, both his three lovers and his three daughters jumped in their spots while the household cat merely looked on in curiosity. "So… the meteor I found ended up forming into this."

"The heck is this?" Harley asked as she came up and inspected the skeleton key-styled sword.

"Jason says it something called a Keyblade." He said before giving a small explanation as to what some of its functions were, which seemed to peak his lovers' interests. His daughters, however, wanted to play with their father's new weapon as their naive innocence took over.

And after that he went into what happened on Dorian's island where the meteor crash landed. Depicting on each detail, mostly from his perspective with all of the animal life was wiped out along with most of the forestation. This in turn received negative responses from the two nature champions in the room while the sporelings were rather hurt. Both Harley and Naruto helped console them on this before the writer continued on.

He then went into detail as Morgan Le Fay had made her return with not only an army, but also the revival of her bastard child, Mordred. The fights then became separate with the Uzumaki facing off the Knight of Treachery before ending up taking the meteorite's ore… with his powers… as it formed into the weapon currently present in his possession.

"So… you fought one of Arthurian legend most infamous villains… and basically won… with a bloody large, magical key that can still stab people." Selina summarized.

"Sounds like it, Kitty." Harley said before helping Naruto pry one of the sporelings away from trying to snag the Keyblade from their father's grasp.

"So it is a sword. It just happens to function like a key in very specific situations."

"Like doors, locks, magical seals, safes." Pam listed off before helping out Harley. "Okay, sweeties. You can't play with that. You might get hurt."

"But it looks so cool!" Rose spoke out with stars and sparkles coming from her eyes. A reaction shared with her two sisters.

"I know it is, little Rose." Pam cooed after successfully getting her in her arms. "But even if ya tried playing with it, it's probably too heavy for ya to even hold up."

Rose and her two sisters merely pouted.

"Well with that sword of yours, I think it really functions as a key all the time." Harley said with a delirious look in her gaze. "And when you stick it in people, it unlocks their death."

Naruto, Pam, Selina and even the three sporelings and Isis merely looked at Harley in their various forms of 'WTF' expressions.

"...Goddamn, Harl." Said the ravenette thief. "I would love to live your world for about ten or so minutes on your *cough* enigmatic moments."

"Yeah~ You'd probably have fun."

Selina chuckled. "Maybe. But I probably think I wouldn't get anything done, but I probably wouldn't care that much."

A groan was barely heard, causing the loft's occupants to realize Rachel was starting to wake up. They soon made their way to the ashen child's form, seeing her sit hunched over while rubbing her head.

"Hey, Rachel, you okay?"

"I... think so, Naruto." She responded before feeling Isis lick her cheek. "Hey…"

He gave kind smile as he gave her a small hug. "Hey, from Jason told me you did good against the hag." He then rubbed the top of her head with a chuckle escaping his lips. "Practically held your own for a time. I'm proud of ya, Raven."

The half-demon gave her guardian a small, beaming smile before remembering the events earlier this evening. "Naruto. Were you successful in-?"

"Yes, Rachel. I was." He said before holding out his Keyblade. "Don't know how exactly, but the ore turned into this."

"...Is that a key?" Was all she asked as Naruto sweatdropped at the answer.

"Is this what I going to hear when using this?"

"Probably." Voiced the chorused answer from his three girlfriends.

"Just asking this now, but what are ya gonna do with it?" Selina questioned, with her eyes still focused on the key-shaped sword.

"No clue." He then saw a peculiar look in her gaze. "Why are you interested?"

"Ooooh~ I'm just curious… that's all." She then reached out and took it from him. "Odd thing, isn't it?"

Quickly realizing what was running through the thief's mind, the botanist grabbed part of the sword's guard. "You're not taking it for heists…"

"Oh, come on Red. I think it might make things so much easier on certain jobs." Selina argued, pulling on the sword's grip.

"And yet if you keep using it, you'd become bored as hell." Harley countered while helping out her former patient. "You enjoy the thrill of your night job. And I believe this Key-sword-"

"Keyblade."

"-whateva would merely hampen your skills!"

Without notice, the sword disappeared from their shared grasp in a pillar and wisps of light. Wondering where it went off to, the magical sword suddenly reappeared in Naruto's hand.

Blinking, the whiskered man held up his sword with a curious look present on his features. "Well ain't that an interesting trick. I don't need to worry if someone steal it, it has a Naru-GPS system."

"Do it again! Do it again!" Shouted his sporeling daughters with innocent glee on their faces.

Wanting to play along, Harley quickly snagged the sword from her Puddin's grasp before the same results moments ago occurred once more. Disappearing from her old and ending back up into Naruto's. "Aaah~ I wanted to just hold it longer than Kitty."

"Oi, wasn't me. It did that by itself." He defended the reason as look at the weapon. "Jason said that he doesn't know all of it's capabilities, so this might be one of them, I think."

"If ya say so."

"Can't you just… lend that to me?" Asked the thief, grasping the sword's guard with a innocent smile on her face. "I promise to bring it back after this one job coming up."

"...Don't make me get the catnip and laser pointers again, Selina."

"It doesn't work anymore!" She snapped… only to falter as she sighed, "Yes it does…"

Pam could only shake her head with a chuckle escaping her lips.

She remembered one time when Selena was at the greenhouse that she came across a small spot she was using to grow an experimental hybrid between Nepeta Cataria -otherwise known as catnip- and marijuana. Selina ended up stuck there for a while getting partially high off of the stuff. Ever since seeing this bit in action, she decided to occasionally pay the thief in hte unique catnip… to share with Isis… in order to watch over her little girls.

Looking over at the clock, she saw what time it was. "It's getting late." She looked over at her sporeling children. "You three have already stayed up longer than you should. So it's off to bed, you three."

The sporelings whined in response.

"But we wanna stay up longer~" Hazel pouted.

"Well you three have in waiting for daddy to show back up." Spoke the botanist as she picked up Hazel and held her. "Mind helping me out, Harl? Selina?"

In the psychologist's arms, Rose was struggling to get free. "Already ahead of ya!"

"Might as well." The thief muttered out, gently holding Thorn's hand and guiding her to their bedroom.

"So what should we put them in tonight, Red? The kitty pajamas?"

Hazel paled when hearing this. "No! Not that!"

Pam was rather curious when hearing this. "Why not, Hazel?"

"I can't move all that much with that on!"

"But ya can, sweetie~"

"You just don't wanna be embarrassed wearing it." Thorn said. "But why would you? No one else outside of our home would see it."

The dark skinned sporeling's face got a red tinge on her whiskered cheeks. "That's not the point, Thorn!"

"Aaah~ But you look so cute in them and your cute little whiskers makes them much more adorable~" Harley gleefully said before gently pinching Rose's cheek. "Ain't that right, Rosey posey?"

Said sporeling merely giggled as the respective trios entered the sporeling's bedroom.

Back in the living room portion of the loft, Naruto was getting Rachel caught up on what happened back on the island. Even asking her on what happened on her end of the fight against the Witch of Camelot.

Which soon got into their current topic.

"...So you're saying you tapped into part of your demonic heritage, correct?"

"Yes." The ashen child hung her head down a little. "I didn't have much of a choice."

"It's okay, Rachel. I'm not mad at ya, just… gonna be concerned."

This got the half-demon worried. "Concerned? Concerned about what?"

"The whole thing with your father… and possibly control over your powers."

"...Right…"

Unbeknownst to her, Naruto briefly wondered what other ramifications this action caused within his young ward. Jason said that Rachel's imbalanced now. Was it because of her darkness outweighing her light? Or could it be something much more than that?

"We should probably head over to Jason's place tomorrow, once you're fully rested. He might help us out on what could be going on with ya."

Rachel gave a small, weary nod.

Seeing the young kid down in the dumps, with her mind still plagued about her powers and possibly her father, Naruto formed a small smile. "How about we have some ice cream before going to bed." This seemed to perk her up considerably. "There's still some of your favorite in the fridge."

"...I'd like that."

"Great!"

"And can I have all the toppings?"

"Only the ones we have." He added in, walking over to the kitchen. "I believe we're missing a few, but I'll just have to see."

The ashen child got up from the recliner and made her way towards the kitchen with her mood slightly elevated.

Passing by the patio door, Rachel paused in her step as she briefly caught her reflection. She didn't know if it was just her imagination, exhaustion or with how dark it is outside; but the young ward saw something off about it.

Being that her rich, amethyst eyes were replaced with pools of abysmal darkness… and she was smirking?

Blinking and turning away for a mere moment made her see her reflection was back to normal. Yet the image seemed to unsettle her.

"Something wrong, Rachel?"

Rachel shook her head on her guardian's question. "Everything's fine. Just tired." Was the response before sitting at the barstool.

"Okay, then." He said, placing a small bowl of ice cream in front of her with all the fixings placed in it. "After this, ya gotta brush your teeth, shower and go to sleep. Alright?"

"Right."

He chuckled as he joined alongside her with his own bowl of desert.

As they ate, Rachel occasionally glanced back at the patio window with the small thought still crossing her mind if there was indeed something wrong with her or not.

Only time will tell.

 _ **-Next Day, On the Streets-**_

No snow was falling from the sky today. It was originally supposed to, really. But with the meteor bursting through Gotham air space cleared the sky of any residual cloud to appear.

'Bunch of odd meteorologist BS is ya ask me.' Lois thought as she rode through Gotham's streets, sitting in the sidecar of Naruto's motorcycle wearing light winter wear; consisting of a light purple jacket, matching gloves and scarf. 'At least it's helping out melt the snow and warming things up a little. Not to mention the aversion here.'

Yesterday was quite a nice day for the Metropolis reporter. Coming over to Gotham to visit her old friend and colleague while given a decent tour on most parts of said city with said friend. She even got to meet his young ward and current girlfriend, which was also a little bonus for her.

Then things interesting and out of the ordinary -in her opinion- as an object from space streaked across Gotham and landed offshore somewhere.

A lot of news media was covering the unexpectedly, strange event with many speculating it was either a meteor or a satellite. The later wasn't the case as no one was reporting the loss of their expensive equipment. Hell, Lois even called up her father to check if it was military property, which he stated it wasn't.

Regardless if it was one or the other, the coast guard and many others had been searching for it and had found signs of it's crash zone on a former privately owned island. And upon investigating the site made people wonder how strong the impact was as it basically wiped out all life on the island while reforming the entire area.

Yet there was no sign of the object that caused this whole mess in the first place. The only thing that seemed out of place was that there seemed to be signs of a fight or battle that seemingly took place in the area.

Did people arrive there before anyone else and snatch it? How were they able to secure it? Where was it now? Would the person who one the fight keep it as some sort of prize or sell it on the black market?

These questions and several more bugged Lois to no end.

When she asked Naruto's opinion on the matter, the investigative reporter felt something was odd about him. It was as if he knew something that no one else did. And it didn't help with her remembering how calm he was amongst the chaos… after that odd 'spacing-out' moment of his when the meteor crash landed.

Not to mention the lingering, gut feeling of hers.

Lois had been away from one of her oldest friends for a long time and a lot has changed. Despite the phone calls and the time they spent together yesterday and that time last year, there seemed to be more about Naruto she was clueless about.

For one instance, their current mode of transportation.

"Still can't believe you have a motorcycle and didn't tell me." Came Lois' voiced thought as Naruto parked his old 1930's Brough Superior SS100 at an opened spot at the side of the road.

It was a really nice day and the roads were partially cleared of snow and ice. Had to take the advantage while it was still good. Not to mention she wanted to ride something that she no doubt her father and sister would be outright jealous on having.

The ravenette couldn't wait to rub it in her faces.

"And I told you before, Lois, an old friend of mine shipped this out to me over the holidays." He said, wearing his leather jacket and an orange scarf around his neck.

"The same one you previously owned before coming to the states." She stated, not questioning, remembering the old story he told her years ago.

"Yeup."

"Any reason why?" She asked, unclipping her helmet while getting out of the sidecar.

Naruto was silent, hesitant on answering; something Lois quickly noticed.

"Something wrong?"

"There was a letter that came with it, but…"

"But what?"

"...I never opened it."

Lois rose a questioning brow when seeing him get off his seat. Tucking the helmet on the inside of the sidecar, the investigative reporter decided to press on for answers. "Any reason why you haven't?"

"We… The last time we last saw each other wasn't of the best of terms. Bad things happened and she was somewhat directly apart of what occured."

The reporter's lips were tugged down for a frown. "And that would've been… what _exactly?"_

"I don't want to talk about it." He firmly said.

Lois clicked her tongue, knowing her old friend will be stubborn in not answering unless feeling like it. Yet a question still lingered that needed answering. "And yet you haven't read the letter. Why?"

Naruto didn't know if he wanted to explain on the details… Well not all of them, obviously. But knowing his old friend, she would be very persistent until hearing at least something from him.

But he didn't know if he should tell her about Talia's feelings for him.

Breathing in, the former shinobi opened his mouth. "She-"

"Naruto?"

Turning around, Lois and Naruto looked over to see Barbara Gordon standing there, wearing a light brown jacket and a red scarf around her neck with a backpack slung around her shoulder.

Naruto smiled seeing her here, feeling a bit relieved on her unexpected presence. "Barbara. Good to see ya."

"Same to you." The spectacled redhead then saw the woman standing beside her secret crush. "Who's this?"

Realizing this, Naruto made the proper introductions. But before he could do so, Lois beat him to it. "Hi there, my name's Lois Lane."

Barbara blinked, slowly realizing the name. "Wait… _The_ Lois Lane of the Daily Planet?"

"One and the same."

"Wow… I never expected I get to meet you." The redhead slowly formed a beaming smile. "I read a lot of your work and I gotta say they were great articles; well the more in depth ones. Hell I even had to do several assignments on them for a class I took."

"Really?" Lois questioned, never expecting to hear that little detail. "Then tell me, what would be your favorite?"

"Hard to chose which one was better. But the one I think was great was the one that helped win your first Pulitzer. The one with the destruction of a coal company with men tied to organized crime."

Lois nodded when she remembered the situation all too well as it occurred way before Naruto came into her life. The coal one was earned around the time she first started working for the Daily Planet when she was in high school. Her father was no doubt worried for her when this happened as Lois was in her mid-teens.

"Glad you enjoyed it." Lois said with a smile. "Now it seems I have the disadvantage since you know me, yet I don't know you." She then looked over to Naruto. "Mind introducing me?"

The publisher nodded. "Right. Lois, this is a good friend of mine, Barbara Gordon."

This peaked Lois' interest a bit. "Gordon, as in Commissioner Gordon?"

"My dad." Barbara responded.

"Ain't that interesting."

Barbara merely shrugged before voicing a question in her head. "So what brings you to Gotham?"

"Two things really." The reporter jabbed her thumb at Naruto. "Seeing this whiskered lug as he's an old friend of mine. The other being checking out the new Daily Planet location here, which we did earlier. And I gotta say, it's looking good so far."

This peaked the redhead's curiosity. "There's gonna be a Daily Planet here? I didn't know that."

"The idea came from my editor-in-chief, Perry."

Barbara soon smirked at the whiskered man she had feelings for. "Seems you'll have some competition in the coming years."

He chuckled. "I guess so. As long as things are fair and all."

"And what were you two doing?"

Lois was the one to answer. "Naruto's been showing me more around Gotham on some places that could possibly be safe. Just wanna be helpful by at least giving some eventual transfers info as to where they can reside and go to without dealing with this city's _underbelly_ all that often."

"Understandable."

There are several places here in Gotham that were not entirely safe as the crime rate tends to fluctuate or is relatively high. Brideside, Burnley, East End, Chinatown, and the Narrows were the most well known crime ridden areas in this city. They are more manageable with her father being commissioner and this city's heroes helping take care of the peace.

"And you?"

"Mix of doin' some errands here and there while going out for a stroll. I mean, it's a really nice day. So why waste such a good opportunity."

This was partially the truth. She was indeed doing what she said she's doing. But Barbara is also scoping out various areas if crime was afoot.

There's plenty of crime occuring in the nighttime, but what of the daylight hours? It's not that often you see criminals performing illegal acts in that time frame. But it's what you'd least expect it on most cases such as bank robberies, certain gang fights and muggings.

Barbara had to thank her time visiting the GCPD in learning this fact. But she wouldn't know to either thank or hate her hero mentor, Vanitas, for getting into this little crime fighting habit in this time of day.

"I couldn't help but agree more." Naruto said, glint in his eyes. "And since you're in such a good mood, Lois would love to tag along with you."

Said reporter blinked, turning to her old friend. "Sorry, what now?"

"I… was planning on dropping you off around here." He laughed… nervously as he scratched his whiskered cheek. "I have things I need to take care of…"

Both ladies gave a solid five minute stare at Naruto, eyes blank and rather terrifying. He had no idea both girls who were so extroverted could seem so dead.

"Uh… Lois? Babs?"

"You know what, I think spending time with Barbara is a great idea!" Lois suddenly exclaimed.

"It is?" Both Naruto and Barbara said in unison.

"Yes, of course." Lois said with a slightly mischievous look in her eyes, leaning over to whisper into Barbara's ear. "Give me some dirt on him and I'll make it your day."

Barbara's own sinister smile shot up to match the reporters -something she didn't think she'd make again since yesterday- and the pair turned to leave the publisher to his own devices.

"Bye now, Naruto, I'll see you later." Lois waved merrily with Barbara doing the same. "I'll stop by your place tonight. Kay?"

Naruto could only stare with a creeping sense of terror and dread, hanging his head low.

"I've made a terrible mistake." Naruto said to himself. "Sometimes…. I really need to learn how to keep my mouth shut and mind slow… URGH, now I got a headache coming on."

The publicist had meant to tell Lois he needed to leave her earlier, but they were so caught up in their time together that he forgot to attend to his more… _personal_ errands.

Shaking his head, Naruto decided now wasn't the time to mope about his two friends off in the distance now. Getting back onto his motorcycle, he had business to attend to.

Down the street, the reporter was having a light conversation with the college student.

"So how long have you exactly known Whiskers?" Lois asked.

"Several months now. You?"

"Few years, give or take."

"Hmmm…. Wait, Whiskers?" Barbara repeated with a snort.

"Yeah~ Cat and I had come up with the name when he first worked with us. And after all this time, we would never stop calling him that."

"Cat?"

"Cat Grant." Lois explained. "And before ya ask, yes we were co-workers and friends but it's been strained." She then sighed. "Though now we've been slowly fixing it."

"Stranger and stranger." Barbara remarked to her new companion. "Ever since I met Naruto, life has just gotten weird for me."

"Good weird or bad weird?"

"Depends really." Babs shrugged. "There've been moments that have no doubt changed me and I wouldn't know if it's because of his influence or not."

Lois rose a brow at this. "Now that sounds rather confusing."

"True. But it feels appropriate, I think."

"Guess so." Lois said, looking around. "Say where are we going right now?"

"I was planning on getting something to eat before I go to the GCPD to check up on my father. After that, have nothing else going on."

"Hmm, I am hankering for a bite right now." Lois mused aloud. "Any good places?"

The spectacled redhead chuckled. "Lois, my dear, I know _all_ of the places… That still hasn't been found by Naruto… but don't tell him that."

Lois smiled upon hearing this. "Well, I'm game. Lead the way."

 _ **-Evening, Stacked Deck-**_

"This is delicious." Lois commented, taking a swig of some bourbon. Placing the glass down, she asked the barkeep. "What was this again?"

"My dad's personal and really _my_ personal favorite." Moxxi vaguely said with a chuckle.

"...And I don't see a label. Should I be worried?" The reporter grabbed the bottle and examined it. "Given the shape of it and color, I swear it's something a stereotypical cowboy would have tied up next to his/her donkey or horse."

"Knowing this place so far, Lois," Barbara spoke up, sipping a bit of her Moscow Mule, "you probably should."

"Come on Bab's, it ain't that bad." Moxxi said heartily.

Barbara responded in kind with her best impersonation of her dad's patented 'I don't buy your bullshit' stare. "You made Morgan drunk off her ass with that pure black absinthe shit that should not be put into market. _Any_ market for that matter."

"But it was personally brewed."

"And yet it burned her _way_ too strong that it practically hurts her. So much so that she tried making up her own language. _Three times_. Not to mention almost wrecking your bar while temporarily blind."

"Oh it's not that bad." Spoke the barkeep, gently prying the unmarked bourbon bottle out of Lois' grasp. "You should see the more lightweights who try that stuff."

Lois gave off a cheeky grin. "I'd pay good money to see that."

"I got 'em recorded, actually so that would probably suffice." Moxxi then spoke a question. "Any other drinks, Ms. Lane?" She then shook the one bottle in her hand a little. "Or do ya still wanna drink more of this?"

The reporter peered at the liquor shelf behind the bar with a small, scrunched up face. "I'll try… Jefferson Small Batch."

"Comin' right up." Turning around, the barkeep climbed up a small ladder to grab the desired drink, but not before putting away the unmarked bottle. "So any reason why ya wanted this?"

"Just want to try it out, honestly. Never had that before."

"So are you sure you want this?" Moxxi held up the bottle to the light to show off it's brownish, yellow coloring of the bourbon. And on one side of the bottle had a decal showing Thomas Jefferson. "I mean it looks like piss to me." She snorted. "Heh~ drinking a late president's piss."

Lois then looked a little disgusted upon hearing this. "Nevermind. I'll have something else." She then shook her head with a slight buzz hitting her now. "Jefferson can go to Hell, I'm certain, if he's not there already."

"Alright then. More for me~"

"Moxxi, for god's sake." Barbara said, embarrassed on what she was hearing.

"What? It's good stuff, Babs." The barkeep peered back at the reporter. "Okay so if not Jefferson's piss-"

"Moxxi…"

"-then what would ya be havin' before I close ya off?"

Lois looked back as she saw a familiar looking bottle. "I'll just have some of the W.L. Weller Special."

"...They're not all special, ya'know."

"Moxxi!" Barbara yelled out.

"Alright, fine! Ruin my fun, why don't ya." Pouted the barkeep. "Just like yer pops."

The two drinkers merely rolled their eyes at this.

Throughout their time together today, it was quite the enjoyable experience. The pair slowly hit it off, given how things started off all due to Naruto's action. They had a good blast getting to know each other to some degree. Not best-best friend kind of way, but just starting out in the new friendship.

"I've been meaning to ask this earlier, but what exactly do you and Naruto do together?" Lois asked, curious as to how well Barbara knows the knucklehead.

"Hmmm, how do I put this…" Barbara mused, shifting her drink around. "He's kind of like a mentor figure of mine."

"How so?"

"He helped me on this book I've been writing." Answered the college student. "Started out with me asking his opinion-"

"Oh a book writer!" Lois said, leaning forward her interest peaked. "That's an easy gateway into Naruto's life."

"Yeah. Never took him as a man of literature?"

"He's full of surprises." Lois said, munching on some complimentary peanuts. Her eyes then caught onto Moxxi pouring her a glass of her possibly last bourbon for the night before handing it over. "I mean at first he wasn't. But later on with him wanting to start up publishing, much less being a book writer, threw Cat and I off with how good he became. I mean seriously, that Icha-icha series is gold."

She was met with silence from boths Babs and Moxxi, both giving her a half-lidded amused and expectant look.

"What?"

"Icha-Icha, huh?" Barbara said with a growing grin. "Lois Lane, I never expected for you to be such a closet pervert."

"It's always the 'professionals' they say." Moxxi matched Barbara with her own shit-eating grin.

Lois's expression changed from confusion into abject horror, her jaw dropping upon realizing what she had just said out loud.

"Fuck you two." Head hung low in defeat and shame.

"Why I'm flattered, Ms. Lane." Moxxi formed a teasing grin. "I do prefer women every so often. What's your favorite position?" She leaned forward as her grin seemed flirtatious. "I wouldn't mind doing it in the back after closing."

Lois sputtered as Barbara couldn't contain herself, letting out a snorted laugh.

"You guys… Can all go straight to hell." Lois murmured, knowing it was pointless to struggle. This was always her achilles heel in most conversations. Causing her to be careful in what she talked about. "What's in these drinks again?"

Moxxi only chortled. "Honey, drinks remove inhibitions. Whatever you just said was all you, and my oh my what a discovery. What's your favorite chapter, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Moxxi, for the love of-" Barbara could only cover her face with her hand.

Lois's face could only burn in humiliation, slumping forward onto the bar to hide her ashamed face.

"Chapter 13 of Book 2." Lois' muffled response came through her arms.

Moxxi gave a knowing nod while Barbara turned her head away and coughed into her hand as her cheeks reddened a little.

"He does have quite the imagination, doesn't he?" Moxxi stated, giving both women a look. "Isn't that right Barbara? Chapter 9 of Book 3 was your favorite, right?"

"Let's move onto something else, please!"

The barkeep snorted with a shake of her head. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Seeing the bar owner walk away from them, as she needed to focus on other customers, Lois slowly wanted to get back into the previous topic… before things took a nosedive.

"Let's agree to never speak of this with Naruto." Bab's abruptly stated

"Don't need to tell me that twice, sister." Lois nodded, clearing her throat. "So… about this book of yours, when's it coming out? Well if it does come out anytime soon."

"Soon, I think. Naruto said he's been trying to have an appropriate time for a good release. Just nervous if it'll turn out alright or not."

"Right. Right." Lois took a sip of her bourbon before a question was voiced. "And what kind of book is it exactly?"

"Crime and mystery."

"And this is a shot in the dark, but I take it you got inspiration because of your father's work?"

"Basically, yeah."

"Art often reflects real life, doesn't it." Lois stated, taking another sip of her drink.

"Kinda dramatized but… basically, I think."

"With things like that, it's practically another day in the office for me." The ravenette looked around the bar as her eyes caught onto various moments happening at each corner of the establishment. "Been to many places like this bar as they helped me out in a lot of my articles."

"Has that stereotypical vibe."

"Yeah and it's pretty much hit or miss with what can be exploited. Shady business deals happening or just certain get togethers that can reveal much if ya pay attention to the details."

"That's what dad, Bullock and Naruto have told me."

"Given our respective backgrounds, Barbara, it's a good factor to know."

This merely got the redhead to wonder why Lois said this. But she then remembered the reporter is the daughter of a high ranking general of the US military. A lot of details helped influence her as she grew up because of her heritage.

Much like her own. Yet being one's child can't decide and cement who one is as they much forge their own way in life.

For a time, Barbara thought about joining the police force in order to be much like her father. As she grew up, things slowly changed for the spectacled redhead on what she possibly wanted to do in life. Even recently, Barbara had started taking up crime fighting as Batgirl and it was something she started to greatly enjoy.

This is merely part of her nightlife, but what of her daylife?

Would she be a writer? Or perhaps pursue working in law enforcement later on? Who knows for sure with how life is.

"I got a question for ya." Barbara asked Lois, before quickly asking Moxxi for some cold water.

"Shoot."

"I know you're passionate about being a journalist, but have you ever considered working for the military in some way?"

Lois slowly processed what the commissioner's daughter said. It was mostly delayed because of the bourbon, but it didn't take much longer to give her answer. "For a time, I was iffy on the idea." The ravenette swirled on her barstool so she could lean back and have support from the bar while staring at the ceiling. "Mom wanted me and my sister to contribute into helping others and both of us had our own mindset in what we wanted to do. Years passed as Lucy and I still kept deciding and figuring out what would suit us best. I eventually found my calling with reporting while my sister decided to join the military."

"You still didn't answer my question, Lois."

"Right, right. Sorry, Babs." Lois breathed in a bit while massaging her head before turning to face her new friend. "I… did think on joining the military, but things eventually changed with my mom's passing. I didn't see it at first, but slowly saw things what changes one being in that lifestyle."

"How so?"

"Tell me, do you know people who presently or used to serve in the military?" Lois earned a 'so-so' gesture from Barbara. "What can you tell me about what you know?"

Barbara shifted in her seat while scratching he cheek. "Well… some people I briefly knew are more prone to being triggered, defensive, protective, isolated and out of place. Sadly that's all I know really."

"It's quite alright, Barbara. Don't get yourself too worked up about it." Lois quickly ordered several cups of water for her in hopes of helping her sober up a bit before the pair headed out for the night. "The point in asking that is that yes those are some qualities some people in the military are like, despite what kind of help they get. And it mostly depends on what kind of _support_ one has."

"Meaning?" Barbara asked, drinking her water.

"Being in the military -by no means- is an easy experience. Even living with someone for so long being in it." Lois quickly drank an ice cold cup before continuing. "Whatever life you know them prior to them joining would never be the same when you see them next. It changes them in more ways than one."

A far off look was seen coming from Lois' features, staring into the blank emptiness before her. "Everyone needs a proper means of support, no matter the experience and situation. Through the good times and the bad. And in the military makes it even five… ten times more valuable. A means of making one stable and keeping your humanity."

The reporter soon released a sigh. "I remember hearing from Lucy about this one family with the husband coming back from his tour in the military. Everything didn't exactly go well in the long run as the man slowly went into a drinking habit while not able to keep a stable job. He was suggested into going to support groups for people who dealt with similar experiences the husband went through. But he was a stubborn man and didn't take his wife's advice. And one night things went pear shaped as he threatened her during a drunken rant -at gunpoint- on why he couldn't go to the support groups. Because of this, he was sent to jail while a restraining order was placed on him that he couldn't exactly be anywhere near his daughter."

Lois let out a bitter laugh upon seeing Barbara's uneasy expression. "I often wonder what that would've been like if my dad didn't get the proper help. I mean my mom was his main form of support, keeping him grounded so he could live a semi-normal life, despite his career dealing harsh blows onto him. But after her passing, he slowly changed into the man Lucy and I know today. Thank god he didn't get unhinged like what I just spoke about."

Turning around to grab another cup of water, Lois swirled it in her hand while noticing Barbara's attention purely focused on her. "We didn't see much of it at first, but it developed as years went by. Both of Lucy and I did all that we could to keep him stable, but we didn't exactly have our mother's touch in doing so. And with me wanting to live my own life, Lucy believed someone should at least stay with dad to keep him from going on the deep end. Thus she joined the military for his sakes."

"I get the feeling things didn't turn out all that well."

"For the most part, I guess so." Lois responded. "I sometimes get unsettled whenever I spend time with Lucy as she seems different than what I was originally used to. We were thick as thieves, yet we slowly drifted apart with our life's choices. But that's normally expected with us being so far apart, despite what times we tried to have in order to communicate with each other."

Barbara looked down and dipped her finger into her glass, playing a little with an ice cube; processing everything the reporter said.

The experiences in both the military and police forces could might as well be playing in the same ballpark. Certain moments can be quite harsh for a person and hard to deal with. Without the right means, one would spiral down towards their self destruction. And along that process could drag others down as well.

Officers being evaluated more often than most in both professional and psychological means can most definitely mean their own success or downfall as a result.

But this wasn't exclusive to just _those_ particular career fields.

"I can probably relate with that a little." Barbara muttered out. She drank some more water before explaining. "I have an older brother I haven't seen in years. J.J. and I were… close, ambient several times as he isolated himself. But we tried to at least spend time together and I enjoy the memories of them." The spectacled redhead then released a sorrowed sigh. "Once graduating high school, he up and left town with neither me or dad hearing from him since."

"Anywhere you at least know he went off to?"

"Chicago for college." Barbara answered. "But with how distant and secretive J.J. was, I probably guess he's doing something else at some other place."

Lois nodded while munching on some nuts. Feeling a bit depressed from the current topic, the reporter thought it was time to talk about something else in a more elevated mood. Hopefully to at least end this night in a good note, per say.

"I know this seems out of the blue, Babs, but do you have a boyfriend?"

The college student choked a little on her cold drink before coughing in order to expel what water entered her wind pipes. "I *cough* I'm sorry *cough* but what?"

"Do you have a boyfriend? Just an honest question."

The commissioner's daughter was about to answer, but someone else beat her to the punch. "Oh no, sweetie. Barbara here doesn't have one." Lois looked over and saw Moxxi standing there with a slip of paper in her hand. "Your bill, you two."

The ravenette nodded as she looked at it before fishing out her purse to pay her respective share. "And how would you know, Moxxi?"

"She comes here with her friend on most nights." Came the barkeep's response with a knowing grin. "And I often hear them talk about this one guy this gal here has her sights on."

This peeked up Lois' interest. "Really~? Who is it?"

"Well~"

"Moxxi." Barbara interrupted with a narrowed glare. "Don't you dare…"

"Oh what are ya gonna do if I tell your friend you have the insane hots for-"

Before the barkeep could say the name; Barbara leaped over the bar, tackled and clamped her hands over Moxxi's mouth.

"Whoa! What the hell, Barbara?!" Lois spoke out with widened eyes.

"It's too embarrassing, Lois!" Cried out the redhead, struggling to keep Moxxi from prying her hands off from her mouth. She then shuddered when feeling the barkeep licking her palms. "Please don't do that! It's gross and disgusting!"

"MMPHE! MMAERH! HRUMPHE!" Came the muffled talk.

"I don't know what you're saying, but I don't care! You're not telling Lois who I like! If ya do, I'll tell my dad what illegal stuff probably happens here and he'll shut you down!"

Hearing Barbara's threat caused a twitch coming onto Moxxi's eye while sending her an annoyed glare. After several moments, she rolled her eyes before nodding. Seeing this, Barbara pulled her hands away from the barkeep's face.

"Poo~ You're no fun." Her eyes briefly looked over to her sides. "By the way, you're paying extra with what you just broke, Babs."

The spectacled redhead didn't have to look to know what exactly she broke. Given the fact that some glasses and bottles were no doubt shattered with her latest act.

But she didn't care as she merely wanted to shut up the barkeep from spilling the beans! To Lois Lane of all people! Who would no doubt tell Naruto or even Pam! And she did not want to deal with the fall back if that were to happen.

"Is the guy you have feelings for that much of a big deal, Barbara?" Lois spoke up from the other side of the bar. "I mean, damn, you seemingly went ballistic."

"Trust me, toots. It's bad." Moxxi said as she carefully got up from the ground. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to clean this mess up." The barkeep then glared at the commissioner's daughter. "And I better see ya fork over the extra money by the time I get back, Babs."

Said woman rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

As the bar's owner left to get the cleaning supplies, the reporter looked over to see the college student fish out the money… merely grumbling along the way. "I'm guessing I won't be learning who ya like anytime soon, huh."

"Ya think?!" Came the growled response.

"Come on, Babs, throw me a bone here." Lois pouted mischievously. "I happen to have my fair share of experience when it comes to men."

"Somehow I doubt you've had many."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Lois asked in an affronted manner.

"Lois, I've known you for a few hours and I can tell you haven't been with too many guys." Babs teased. "I can't imagine how many dudes were either too stupid to back off or to scared to even come near you."

"I don't know how you pulled off that backhanded compliment." Lois deadpanned

Barbara went on. "Thanks, anyway, from one red-head to another depending on the lighting."

"Very rich shade of brown, borderline black, thank you."

"Respectfully so, you could count the number of men you've been with on your hand."

Lois stared intently at the novice writer only to grumble, crossing her arms and turning away. "Shut up."

Barbara only smiled cheekily. "Then what can ya tell me about your last boyfriend."

Lois perked up a little by letting out a bitter chuckle. "I practically got under his skin. So much so that it eventually resulted in us breaking up with me initiating it."

"And mind telling me who he is?"

"Oh~ I would." Lois then formed a teasing grin. "Only if ya tell me who ya have it in for~"

"...Then pretty much never."

The reporter snapped her fingers. "Drat and here I thought I'd get it outta ya."

Barbara chuckled a little. "Well asides from that, what else could ya tell me?"

"He's loaded, for starters. Practically built up his company _somewhat_ from the ground up."

"Somewhat?"

"Smartly bought certain businesses while investing in just the right companies that later resulted in what he has today."

Barbara scrunched her face, wondering who this man Lois previously dated. Yet the detail wasn't much to go by as she wasn't all that knowledgeable in the business world. The only people she remotely knew in said world were Bruce Wayne and her love interest, Naruto.

"And what was your relationship like with him?"

"Challenging is putting it lightly." Lois answered while tossing several nuts into her mouth. Once chewing and swallowing them, she continued. "Work was primarily all he cared about and hardly had much time to consider my opinion on things… Then again, I'm mostly like that as well as I try to get good stories in for the Planet. But dating him did have it's perks here and there from going to the best opera shows or seeing various sites I wouldn't normally see on my own."

"Yeesh, he must have been loaded."

"You've got no idea." Lois muttered out.

"Anything else or…"

"Well… it's kind of complicated but it isn't at the same time." Lois vaguely said

"Like what?"

"Sex was alright as both of us needed a means to vent off some work frustrations." Started off the reporter. "Things soon became stale as we didn't see each other often which soon resulted in me looking into him more out of curiosity. It was then I found a factor that made me consider dumping him were the secret dealings his company does on the side. Some of which made me decide to cut ties with him so I don't get dragged down as an 'accessory' or something along those lines if I kept being with him."

"Oh…. _OH!_ " Barbara cringed. "Uh, I kinda hate to ask but how'd he take it?"

"Like one of his favorite toys got up and left while flipping him off at the same time." Lois wryly stated. "Think if your favorite possession suddenly gained sentience, flipped you off and told ya how much of an idiot bitch you are and left then and there.

Barbara was rather perplexed by the analogy but found the bite in Lois's tone more than enough to hazard an idea as to her walkout on her Ex.

"Enough about my ex, Babs. Tell me what you like about the guy you like."

Barbara let out a sigh, making a raspberry noise.

"I don't know where to begin really." Barbara said whimsically.

"What does he look like?"

"Nice try, Pultziporter."

"Pfft, ok, that's a new one." Lois snorted in an unladylike fashion. "Ok, so what can you tell me?"

"Well…" Barbara thought about it momentarily "He's really funny. Self-deprecating to an extent but also genuine. Never truly holds anything back."

"Go on" Lois egged on.

Barbara opened her mouth to speak once more, yet found herself stammering now, her face blushing a fierce shade of crimson.

"I… I do love him… or at least know I have strong feelings for him. Hell, I've been thinking about it quite a lot for quite some time now to see if it's real or not, but-UGH! It's so frustrating!"

Barbara then started fiddling with her hands while spilling out what she could say without giving out anything too revealing. "I don't even know if I could properly mash it down and hopefully ignore it whenever I'm around him. Yet I feel so excited when I know I'm with him as I wanna know more about him."

She then started to stammer a little. "He-He's gorgeous and… and he's a wonderful guy that I practically know he'd be an excellent father… or at least a good one that'll treat his kids right. I mean no one can be a perfect parent, right?"

Lois nodded as the college student went on. "He likes me, but he doesn't _like-like_ me, I think but he's just more focused with his girlfriend that has been through so much apparently."

"Oh boy." Lois gave her a sympathetic side hug. "You're facing one of _those_ situations, aren't you?"

Barbara could only nod in defeat, continuing where she left off; knowing she'd feel better once letting it all out.

"He's well respected by all of his co-workers… maybe, who knows for sure if there's someone at his workplace that hates him." Rambled off the spectacled redhead. "And he's… he's in me-"

"Phrasing~"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, MOXXI!" Barbara bellowed out, causing the barkeep to laugh while scampering away. "Uhm… Where was I?"

"The guy you like is 'in you'."

Barbara nodded and was about to speak until sharply glaring at Moxxi. "Seriously, I am not in the mood right now for your humor."

Lois shook her head, turning back to Barbara and nudging her to continue. "Explain before she gets her chance again."

The redhead quickly nodded. "He's like a disease and I'm infected by him in a good way. Not the bad way, obviously as that's terminal or something." Barbara then laughed a little in a bitter tone. "I can't think about anything or anybody and I can't sleep." Her voice then seemed to crack in pain. "I… I can't breathe. I can't eat and I love him with all the minutes of every day ever since these feelings came up and yet I don't know what to do and how to approach him on _this_. I try to do what I can to keep myself distracted from him, but the thoughts and feelings _always_ return afterwards. It's eating at me Lois and I can barely stand it when I'm with him."

Lois stared at her new friend, rubbing her back. "You have it _bad_ don't you?" She didn't need to look to tell Barbara was nodding. "If I may be frank about this, I suggest you at least tell him what you feel."

Barbara merely blinked in confusion. "Seriously? Nothing too elaborate or-"

"Things like _this_ get too complicated for people when trying to think around it." Lois admitted with annoyance. "Sometimes it's better in a straightforward manner. I mean, it's how my parents eventually got together She then scrunched up her face a little as if trying to think more about it. "Though my memory on how they spoke about it differed." Lois quickly shook her head, getting side tracked there. "The point is that you should just muster up your courage and just tell him what you've gotta say."

"And what if I choke up?"

"Then try again at a later time when you feel it's right. But not too long or else you'll miss your chance."

"And what if… he doesn't-"

"Reciprocate? He'll at least know how you strongly feel about him and you'll feel better as a result. If he obviously doesn't give you a good enough response as to why he accepts or declines your feelings then you'd at least know you confessed before moving on with your life. And obviously with him in a relationship right now, he'd no doubt decline your feelings."

"And… if he accepts them?"

"Then more power to ya." Smiled the reporter. "But be careful on the fallout as things'll will no doubt be complicated with the challenging moments yet to come. His girlfriend will obviously be cautious around you with what you did, possibly destabilizing their own relationship. She'll see you as a threat and will probably try to get rid of ya, one way or another."

Lois then shook her head with her eyes closed. "Seen this happen with several other relationships and it doesn't look pretty. Thank god you're not pining for a guy who's single with several other women going after him. That's a whole thing I'd rather stay away from as I think that's completely annoying as Hell. But who knows what life will throw at ya for situations like these."

Barbara nodded, taking the advice to heart. She was nervous before but now seemed a bit more with this bit of revelation.

This was completely different than scenarios involving a man or a woman cheating on their significant other with someone else. Things are much more known on what will happen as the ending results.

But what Barbara's going through right now is a whole different ball game that's not often seen and experienced.

As the pair got up and started making their way out of the Stacked Deck, Barbara spoke up. "Thanks for the advice, Lois. I just… never felt this way before… and it scares me."

"Happens to the best of us."

A chuckled grin formed on the redhead's face as she opened up the door for the ravenette. "And what if you find the guy that ends up placing you in my shoes right now?"

"...I'll deal with those feelings when the time comes."

Barbara snorted in thought. 'More like you'll be nervous and wrecked as I am.'

As the pair got near the street, they saw an incoming taxi and hailed for it so they can get a ride towards their respective destinations.

Unbeknownst to them; sitting at the edge of a far off building building, Vanitas peered down at his two friends entered the yellow and black vehicle before taking off from the scene. As he saw it leave his sights, the helmeted hero felt a presence nearby. And he didn't have to look to know who it is.

"Batman."

"Vanitas."

"Hope you've been well." Vanitas said amicably. "Well enough considering our line of work."

"What do you want, Vanitas?" the Dark Knight asked, standing beside the vigilante on the edge of the building.

"What's the matter with having a friendly chat from one fellow vigilante to another?" Vanitas jokingly asked. "Is it to much to believe i want to socialize for once rather than argue or have that annoying tension between the two of us? And besides, you're the one who's coming up to me right now. So the real thing is, what do _you_ want?"

"Because I know you enough to have gauge as to what's going on." Batman bluntly stated. "Last night, I saw something… unusual."

"Bruce, no offence, but have you forgotten that's the textbook definition of our life." Naruto remarked. "You're gonna have to elaborate your cryptic speak."

Batman narrowed his eyes, though not at Naruto's words.

"Shadows." Batman said. "Shadows are moving."

"...I'm not following what your getting at."

"Shadows are _moving_." Batman repeated, this time looking at his friend. "And they are taking people with them."

That made Vanitas sharply look to Batman in slight alarm. "What do you mean?"

"I've been getting some small reports earlier this evening of some people disappearing after some witnesses claiming they saw shadows moving as if they're sentient." Batman elaborated. "These shadows were shaped in an unusual fashion, showing signs of intelligence though instinctual at best."

"How in the hell did you come to that conclusion?"

Batman gazed at him expectantly, waiting for him to come to his own conclusion.

"Right, world's greatest detective." Vanitas said, rolling his eyes beneath his helmet. "Sorry if I hurt your ego."

"These shadows moved like a pack of hunters." Batman continued on the reports he had read. "Cornering people who had strayed away from populated areas and taking them."

Pulling out a folder from his cape, Batman held it out for Vanitas to take from him. Curious, Vanitas tentatively took the folder and opened it up, seeing pictures of crime scenes and testimonies to the disappearances.

"They're all basically the same." Batman said, eyeing the rooftops of Gotham. "Shadows moving. Sounds of running and panicking screams. Silence after… all but one."

Coincidentally, Naruto reached the last report which spoke of the specific difference this disappearance had with the others.

"You timed that last part, didn't you?" Naruto chortled knowingly though Batman remained nonplussed.

"There was a flash of light and red sphere of some kind going up into the air before shadows consumed it." Batman said. "I managed to track down the last eye witness who saw this and the best that she could describe the light as being shaped like a heart."

"A heart?" Vanitas tilted his head. "What, like a literal organ heart or…?"

"The symbolic one."

The helmeted hero nodded before handing back the file. "You think it's a new meta-upcomer?"

"Probably or something else. The patterns are all random as there's no discernable motive. Hostage scenario… or worse."

"Okay then. I'll keep a look out for these _shadows_ and I'll inform the others to be careful."

"See that you do."

With that, both heroes departed from the area in order to continue their patrol for the evening. Not only to take care of normal crime but to watch out for this _oddity_.

…..

…..

…..

If either of them were to stay longer in the area, they would've seen something amiss.

Walking out of the Stacked Deck, a thuggish looking man was staggering in his step. He was clearly drunk with his eyes wandering all over and his face red from how hot he was from his drinking.

Getting closer to the street, several cars sped right past him. He swirled around several times as he was almost hit with horns blaring and yells aimed right at him in order to get off the road.

Yet the drunk man didn't care as he wasn't of sound mind.

Once on the other side of the street, the thuggish man made his way towards an alley. He would've gone around the block to get to his car, but the alleyway gave him a shortcut as he couldn't find any parking closer to the bar.

Even though a part of his mind told him he shouldn't be driving in his current state, wanting to hail a taxi to get home, the thug didn't care at the present time.

Traversing through the darkened space, the drunk man ran into a dumpster and fell onto the ground for a brief moment before getting back up. As he did, he swore he saw some beady yellow eyes peeking out from the corner of his sight. He looked over for better detail as they seemed to lock onto him.

In his wasted state, the thug merely thought they were cat eyes.

Shaking his head, the man moved onward and getting closer and closer to the end of the alleyway. It's bright light stung his optics, no doubt with how hazy his senses are. Yet he knew he was almost at his small destination being his parked car.

The moment his foot stepped out of the alley, the thug felt a tug against his leg.

"The fuck?!"

Falling onto the ground, he slammed his shoulder onto the pavement while his head merely bounced a little soon after. Both places were sore as a result. He shook his aching head while shifting onto his side in order to see what he snagged on.

When he did, he saw the same beady yellow eyes staring right at him… and it wasn't alone.

"What the-"

His legs were tugged _hard_ , causing him to be dragged back into the darkened area.

The thug struggled and kicked in order to get himself free from whatever was doing this. He even tried to crawl away, but his one arm was still sore from the recent fall… along with the fact his attackers were quite strong.

Seeing as he wasn't gonna get out of this on his own, the thug cried out for help. But with the sounds of cars blaring from the street, no one was able to hear him at all.

If anyone was able to pay attention and look towards the darkened alleyway, they'd see the thug get dog piled by a bunch of yellow eyed _shadows_ before the man's cries were silenced and his form disappeared.

As if the darkness truly consumed him whole.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Been a while, huh? Well, no kidding. For one, got stuck on this at one point before I turned my attention to my Dragon's Guardian rewrite. And shout out to free man writer and Azure King for the help on this chapter as he helped me write through several parts I've been stuck on.**

 **On another note on this chapter delay… KINGDOM HEARTS 3 IS OUT BABY! YATTA! After so many years it came out!**

 **Though I do wish the game could've been better on several aspects, but hopefully it'll be done in the possible Final Mix DLC. For instance if they do Critical Mode, new game +, more bosses, worlds, replay-world and boss mechanic like what they did in Re:Coded, and maybe more.**

 **Regardless, latest game gave me quite a lot of good ideas on what to work with for this story on various aspects.**

 **With some related Disney news, here's a quick thing: Will Smith's persona as Genie looks creepy from seeing latest Aladdin trailer. And speaking of trailers, the one for Frozen 2 just came out and it seems it'll be more action oriented with Elsa, Anna and Kristoff going on some adventure.**

 **Okay, need to clear this up on the story. Reason why I'm labeling this on DC Superheroes on the crossover bit is because I'm not going to be hitting Justice League events anytime soon. It's going to be a very bloody long time until I get anywhere close to those episodes. So to make things better in the large general run of things, I'm having this be put into the full generalized notion of DC comics.**

 **Now some reviewers asked about the spells I used in the last chapter. Some were obviously from Kingdom Hearts, but some were a bit confused on the others. So… yeah, some of the other spells I used was from the Negima series while others I just had to look up from somewhere else. I might incorporate other spells from other series if they seem appropriate and stuff. After all, in DC comics, there's no real limitations in terms of spells… unless they end up doing the 'backwards speaking' stuff with certain characters mind you.**

 **Also from said reviewer, he wondered why I didn't have Naruto unmask Mordred or destroy her armor in their fight to reveal her identity. Well I wanna let there be a reveal for him and a particular redhead when the time comes on who 'Morgan' is. If I did that too soon then what was the point. Though the idea of removing Mordred's armor like Issei's 'Dress Break' or Negi's 'anti-clothes sneeze' would be funny, but need an appropriate time for that to occur.**

 **So had one guest review come across my notices that I would've just ignored like what I've done in the past. But it brought up a good point that I need to focus better on characters personalities and whatnot as they seem to be a bit OC on most degrees. I can understand this little complication, but I'm trying my best here as I'm not going to be perfect in making things right.**

 **Also yes, I'm sorry to those reading my story that were really confused on what I did here recently. It's just been something I've been passionate about on writing for a long time on what I wrote. My mind just had this wonderful idea upon all my research and my love for the specific works I'm using in my story.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thanks you!**

 **R &R**

 _ **-Omake-**_

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

Naruto groggily woke up from his sleep as he rolled over on the bed. Reaching over to the nightstand on his side of the bed, he grabbed his cellphone and blurly saw it was coming from Harley.

Opening up the device, he spoke up. "Harley. Is something up?" His eyes glanced over to the nearby alarm clock and saw the time. "It's around midnight."

" _Yeeeaaaah~ You can say that."_

"What's… *yawn* ...up?"

" _Soooo… the lock won't open up, Puddin."_

"To your car?"

" _No… the other one."_

"To your apartment?"

" _No… the_ other _one."_

It took a bit for Naruto to realize what she was referring to. "You mean… the padlock to your _gear_?"

" _...Not the one for my hero attire, Puddin."_

This ended up getting his undivided attention to realize what Harley _really_ meant. "You mean-"

" _Selina and I came back from drinking and we didn't want to end our fun for tonight."_ She said with some giddiness in her voice. _"So she convinced me to do some bondage shit with her to really spice things up tonight."_

"...Okay…" He muttered, knowing Selina had gotten the others in their relationship into enjoying that sort of kink every so often.

" _Heh~ I tell ya, it's hard to get into all the leather stuff -with the baby powder and oil- and making sure the locks are secure."_

"Harley," he interrupted her. "Can you get to the point?"

" _Oh, yeah. Right, right, right."_ Naruto could tell she was quickly composing herself. _"We had finished up one part of our romp and were about to switch places… but… the main padlock isn't opening up."_

"Don't you have a lock picking set with you?"

" _I… lost them."_

Naruto rose a brow as he felt something was off. But being one of the more responsible ones in their polyamorous relationship -alongside Pam- decided to help.

"I'll be there in a bit, Harl."

" _Thanks~"_

Once hanging up, Naruto rolled himself out of bed. He walked over to the other side of the bed to check if he ended up waking up Pam on accident, which he didn't. Exiting his bedroom, he made his way towards a closet to pull out a tool set before going to the patio; taking off via wind lance towards his destination.

Coming to her apartment door sometime later, Naruto knocked on it several times. Waiting for several moments, the writer saw it open up to reveal Harley in a bathrobe. And given the small glance he partook from the attire underneath spoke a leather BDSM getup, which was rather arousing from what he remembered seeing her in.

Holding up the tool kit, Naruto spoke the obvious question. "Where is she?"

Before he could get the chance to get inside of Harley's residence, it's owner untied her bathrobe to have it part open; revealing the attire hugging her figure quite nicely. She then grasped both the door's edge and the frame before going into a sensual position with her gaze matching her form.

"Are you the Keymaster?" She spoke in a sensual tone.

Naruto blankly looked at her with a small twitch in his eye. "You recently watched Ghostbusters, didn't you?"

Her expression somewhat broke as she cracked up a little. "Yeah…"

"...And me having a Keyblade now didn't help you think that, right?"

She didn't have to say anything else for him to realize that the opportunity practically spoke itself for the bubbly blonde.

Releasing a sigh, he spoke. "Okay, _Gatekeeper._ Let me pass through so I can help Selina out."

Harley merely giggled, letting him in before closing the apartment door so he can do his thing.


	62. Darkened Invaders

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

 _Radio/TV_

 _"Headset/Flashback"_

 _ **-Scene Shift-**_

 **Chapter 57: Darkened Invaders**

Sounds of fighting could be heard within the magical space underneath Jason Blood's home. It was rather distinct with metal clashing against metal with grunts added into the mix.

"Firaga!"

*KABOOM!*

Along with the occasional explosion here and there.

Skidding across the wasteland-like terrain, Naruto gritted his teeth as he used his Keyblade to block Jason's latest attack yet again. Seeing another one of the Firaga blasts heading his way, the Uzumaki had to roll out of the way before dashing forward with an explosion happening right behind him.

With a focused gaze, Jason quickly drew his unused hand forward and spoke out a spell. "Thundaga!" Arcs of lightning shot out of his palm, causing the former shinobi to leap into the air. Knowing this would happen, the immortal smirked. "Aeroga!"

Naruto widened his eyes when he felt himself spun and flipped around with a powerful gust of wind tossing him all over. Gritting his teeth, the Keyblade wielder jolted his body in order to recover from Jason's latest attack. Falling down from above, Naruto drew his key-shaped weapon and brought it down to strike the ancient knight.

In response, Jason quickly swung his old broadsword to intercept the younger man's attack. When the two swords met, a small part around them shook before Naruto's feet met back onto the ground.

"You're doing well, Naruto."

"Thanks, old man."

"Old man, you say?" Jason spoke with a raised brow. "I quite say I'm remarkably spry for my _age_."

Naruto merely rolled his eyes, breaking the sword connection before kicking the knight away. Seeing Jason quickly balance and adjusting himself in his sword-wielding stance, the writer shifted his weight into his back foot, propelling himself forward to get back into their training spar.

When he came by yesterday with Rachel to further discuss what happened on the previous day, Jason eventually asked Naruto about his fighting prowess. This confused the writer on what the occultist meant by this. But he humored the man and spoke about his time as a shinobi, what he learned from Talia al Ghul (which earned some reaction from Jason), and parts of being self taught.

At its end, Jason got a basic understanding on the publisher's fighting skills, asides from what he previously saw.

Reason behind this? The ancient knight wanted to see how capable Naruto was with wielding the Keyblade. Not to mention offering to teach him how to wield it… in a basic sense of things. Despite neither knowing it's full capabilities, both knew the Keyblade was essentially a sword and if using it, one needed to know how to properly use it in fights and confrontations.

Naruto understood what Jason was getting at upon the offer. Morgana and Mordred would no doubt want to get their hands on the Keyblade after their failed attempt to retrieve the meteorite ore for their purposes. Especially with the fact wafting around upon hearing that other magically influenced individuals might follow the Witch of Camelot and Knight of Betrayal's example. And the publisher would not want that to happen in the slightest.

Naruto accepted Jason's offer, which lead to his second training session under the man.

Jason remained unmoving as he studied the younger man's movements. At the last second, he stepped out of the way of the Keyblade's path before knocking it further away with his broadsword. Naruto seemed to have predicted this as he quickly swirled around and delivered another downward arc-swing at the occultist.

Surprised, Jason stumbled back a few steps which had him evade a downward strike that had split the ground from the younger man's efforts. Acting quickly, the knight swung upwards causing Naruto to backflip away from the assault. Lunging forward, Jason pursued the younger man as he tried to get some distance away for an upcoming attack.

Wanting to get the upperhand in their spar and to further assess Naruto's skills, Jason called out a spell that might hold him in place. "Septendecim spiritus glaciales, coeuntes inimicum concidant. Sagitta Magica, series glacialis. (Gather, 17 spirits of ice, cut apart my enemy. Magic Arrows, Series of 17 Ice Arrows.)"

Orbs of ice quickly formed around Jason's form before they shot out towards their target. Seeing the attack, Naruto did what he could to evade them. Yet to his frustration, they were homing attacks. Jumping into the air, the former shinobi readied himself with the ice arrows coming closer and closer before quickly batting them away, which soon exploded into giant frozen stars soon afterwards…

With one ensnaring his limbs in the process.

"Crap!" Naruto growled out, falling with the recently added weight tied to him.

Phasing his limb out of the pointy ice sculpture, the whiskered writer was soon met with Jason, who had leaped into the air to deliver an incoming swing moments prior.

"You're too slow, Naruto." He called out as his attack held true, smacking Naruto and quickly sending him to the ground. And for added hurt, the Merlin's former scribe channeled magic into his sword, swiping it downwards and sent out an arc of lightning to crash into his sparring partner.

"GAH!" Roared the publisher as he was met by both the ground and the lightning attack.

Finishing in a defeated bounced, Naruto soon struggled to get back up onto his feet all the while Jason calmly walking towards him. "You seem to be doing better than yesterday."

"I know." Naruto rasped out, using his Keyblade as an impromptu crutch. "Would've done better have I used my other weapons and skills."

"True. But remember, we needed to see how you'll handle with only the bare minimum skills and your Keyblade. Nothing else."

Getting back into a combat stance, Naruto held out his Keyblade as both of his hands gripped it's handle for the first time in this spar. With a firm hold, he adjusted himself for the continuation of their fight.

Jason chuckled under his breath. 'He's rather tenacious, I'll give him that.'

Letting out a held breath, the ancient knight leaped forward and closed the distance between them rather quickly. Reacting to this, Naruto spun around to avoid the hit and used the momentum fuel his strike against Jason's exposed back.

The occultist grunted, but didn't let up on his drive. Stomping on the ground, Jason turned his heel in order to face the whiskered man with an upward swing of his broadsword. Naruto ducked and swung his Keyblade in retaliation, which was soon met with the opposing weapon. The two blades clashed, ringing upon impact and causing their wielders to step back before they charged at each other once more with their respective battlecries.

Their weapons struck each other again and again with their sounds reverberating through the air. Attacking, defending, evading and parrying was done at every given moment as neither let up on this spar. Even with both combatants receiving various blows to their bodies when either were too slow to react or becoming too sore to quickly intensity of the mock fight continually grew as both combatants were getting near relentless in their spar.

But there was that part in their minds that reminded them that this was still a spar and not a life and death scenario.

Clashing their swords once more, the two stared each other down with either a smile or smirk gracing their faces.

"You're pretty good." Naruto said with what Jason could only consider a look admiration.

"Thanks... you too." Jason grunted out as both he and him shared the same feeling…

That the two of them were having fun!

But like all things, this spar must come to an end…

*RING~ RING~* *RING~ RING~* *RING~ RING~*

...with an alarm clock to signal it.

Breathing out a relieved sigh, Jason pulled back and rolled his shoulders as he felt a few creaks being made. "I swear, I must be feeling my age with joints aching."

"Then that means you're not as _spry_ as you say you are." Naruto chuckled out as he too relaxed as well.

All this earned was a dry look coming from the immortal.

"Geeze~ Take a joke, why don't ya."

Jason rolled his eyes before summoning his scabbard and sliding his broadsword into it. Walking over to the nearby alarm clock, he turned it off before looking back at the Uzumaki. "We best get back upstairs, Naruto. We'll pick up our spar tomorrow."

"And when will ya start teaching me some of those spells?" Naruto questioned.

"Probably when I deem you worthy." Jason said without looking back as he walked towards the stairs leading towards the surface.

Cue eye roll. "Uh huh. Right~"

"Or you might learn on your own."

"...And why those options?"

"You're a resourceful lad. I'm sure you can come up with things to make up for what I won't teach."

"...And why won't ya teach me right away? Kinda feels like a cop-out to be honest."

"Because I like teaching one student at a time in a certain subject. With you, it's fighting. With your ward, it's magic."

Naruto blinked. "And the reason behind this is because…"

"For one, I tried taking in an additional student -in one particular subject- while I had a more senior one in it. Didn't work out as I had to split my time focusing more advanced studies with the beginner one's." Jason cringed at the memory. "Suffice to say, things became conflicted and became messy. Since then, if I wanted to take on another student for a subject, the more senior one had to either complete their studies under me or leave for whatever reason."

The former shinobi rose a brow. "And I'm guessing there's another detail behind this, right?"

"Merlin." Both men kept ascending the stairs as Jason explained. "He originally brought up this teaching method onto me when I was his scribe. He didn't like having too many students at a time in particular subjects as he wanted to fully focus on each one at a time. For instance, he gave me a proper education while I worked as his scribe. And later on, after I was no longer needed under his care, I then learned how to become a proper knight in Arthur's court."

Reaching towards the top, he opened the door as he continued. "Before I even came under Merlin's tutelage, the Magus of Flowers secretly gave Arthur a proper education as well while he squired under both Sir Ector and his son, Kay. After that, Merlin soon taught Arthur everything that was needed for him to become king."

"And what of Morgana?"

"She already had other forms of education prior to being under Merlin's tutelage, because of her being of noble birth and being the future Lady of Cornwall. By the time Arthur pulled Caliburn from the stone, she studied under him in the ways of magecraft."

Naruto nodded on the facts as the pair made their way towards the living room. "I can understand that… somewhat, but I remember you telling me you telling me the other night you previously fought that one Keyblade wielder alongside Morgana."

"You are correct."

"And I assume you fought him with magic, right?"

"...Yes…"

"Then how'd you know such things as you were just Merlin's scribe while he taught Morgana that craft?"

The occultist became a bit embarrassed and let out a chuckle. "Self study… and eavesdropping on his lessons towards Morgana." He then formed a smile. "Merlin was impressed of me on how well I did without proper means. And he said that once Morgana was finished learning under him, I would've been properly taught in the craft." The expression then became bitter. "Yet it was never meant to be. Morgana had her rebellion and Camelot eventually fell. With him gone, I had to learn all that I could through his many tomes and scrolls while I traveled the world."

Naruto nodded in understanding with his arms crossed. "So if I can't learn certain magic under you right away, then I gotta learn it through other means. Correct?"

"Basically, yes." He then looked at the writer with a curious expression. "By having the Keyblade, from what I've gathered, you inherently have the capabilities of utilizing magic as well as higher forms of combat that can be created by you alone. Though I do wonder why you can't incorporate some of your already known skills through your Keyblade."

"I know that, Jason, and I've already been thinking about it. But I just wanted to expand my range of _techniques_ , per say. Don't want to keep using the same ones all the time. Hell, there might be an opponent I could come across that would've known them beforehand and predicted on what I could do. I need new moves and ways of fighting. Can't remain stagnant now, can I?"

"Quite understandable." The former scribe then scratched his chin. "But what of your Rasengan techniques, for instance? Surely those might suffice."

"...Technically they are _all_ the same attack. Just different variants if I'm honest about it."

The occultist gave a brief nod in understanding. "Then if you want to possibly learn more on expanding your skills, you could either ask your ward for some tips since she's quite the exceptional child."

"Which she is." Naruto interrupted with a bright smile.

Jason shared the same expression before it became neutral. "Right. Now either you ask Rachel or you could read up and did what I did under Merlin's care."

"Self study? Right." Naruto then made his way towards the door and opened it. "I'll see ya tomorrow, Jason."

Jason gave a brief wave before attending to his own devices for the time being.

 _ **-Uzumaki Residence-**_

"...Sorry to hear about your schedule as of late, Perdita."

" _It's quite alright, Rachel. It's just something I'll have to juggle and get used to even more."_

Sitting in the living room, the ashen child was on the phone with her second best friend in the whole wide world for their weekly chat. They would've done it like every couple of days, but moments on their respective ends made it hard to do so. The same could be said on Artemis' end.

To _somewhat_ compromise, Perdita would try to call her American friends either on the weekend or a slow day when her workload is rather light on the weekdays; which would after the Gothamites' time at school. Obviously it wouldn't always work, but it's the best they could come up with.

"You have your various tutors, from standard education to political topics. You have your continuous paperwork and meetings in order to make your country prosper again. I'm just surprised you haven't gone insane at this point."

Rachel heard the queen sigh over the line. _"I'm surprised as well. Luckily I have a good secretary to keep everything manageable."_

"That's good at least. But do you still have time for yourself?"

" _Why wouldn't I if didn't have time to talk to you and Artemis."_ This got the two friends to laugh a little. _"I do have moments to unwind, Rachel. Reading, playing a few video games, going for some runs in order to clear my head and to keep my heart in check."_

The half-demon nodded before a thought crossed her mind. "Just wondering about this but when would you start opening trade to the States?"

" _Within this year."_ Came Perdita's answer. _"Well, at least I hope. When it does, then I'll try to get in business with Queen Consolidated and Wayne Enterprises for starters."_

"Why's that?"

" _Still need to get several neighboring countries on our side before seeking contracts from outside of Eurasian territories. For instance, as much as I'd like to get Kasina back into friendly relations; it's up for debate right now as they are having civil conflicts between the North and Southern areas of their country. And to my understanding from my advisors, in the coming years it might escalate into a civil war."_

"I can probably see where this is going. You and your people are recovering from one conflict and don't want to get into another."

" _We could, but we don't exactly have the resources to properly handle ourselves if this were to happen quite yet."_

"So could you still try to do trade with Kasnia?"

" _It would only be for a minor contract, per say. If it were a major one, then it would be much harder to back out as the drawback would be rather damaging to Vlatava's economy."_

Rachel leaned back in the couch and raked her fingers through her violet locks. "And what other places would you try to open trade with?"

Perdita paused for a bit to collect her thoughts before listing them off. _"There's Kahndaq for trade pertaining their fig and olive oil. My country could consider this a good blessing. There's also Pokolistan as they're struggling as we are and I think it'll be good to support each other. Qarac has a good history and is lead by good leaders throughout the past generations. But I don't know if I could possibly work alongside them."_

Rachel rose a brow while voicing the obvious question. "Why's that?"

" _Their neighboring country of Bialya."_ Came Perdita's response. _"It's currently ruled by a dictator publicly known as Queen Bee and I had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting her when my father was alive. I don't know what is up with her, but something about Queen Bee gets under my skin in just the wrong way."_

"Naruto has said to trust your instincts and try to follow with it."

" _I'll do what I can with that. But having to put my pride to the side, I need to look more into Bialya before I can move forward if I want to request trade with them and Qarac. It's just that there is civil dispute between the two nations and I don't know if it's wise to quickly side with them right away. Hell, that's even going to be even more of a struggle than what my advisors suggested me looking into the North and South Rhelasian nations."_ The young queen sighed with the ashen child imagining her friend rubbing the bridge of her nose. _"It's going to be quite the trick in keeping the politicians off balance. Making them underestimate you one moment and then overwhelm them the next. Most of all, never show weakness to a strong opponent and more so to a strong ally... even if they become your closest friend... possibly."_

"...Something one of your tutors taught you?"

" _No, my father. It's something he tried to use often in his work, but the stress he was dealt with made him falter in this trait. I think that if he were to do this more often, then our country would have recovered quicker… and still be alive. Just wish that with all I'm doing to search for trade routes and good relations with other nations, I hope I don't get called the 'beggar queen'."_

"You probably won't if you're not some sort of whiny, spoiled girl that keeps wanting everything your way."

" _Which I'm not."_

"Then there you go."

The magic practitioner could tell her friend after hearing this. _"Luckily I already have the alliance with Markovia… due to what my father made with the royal family prior to his death."_

"...And that is…"

" _An arranged marriage."_

The half demon blinked at this. "Oh… Umm… congrats?"

" _It's quite understandable that this can be quite a shock to others not in the know. But this has been kept under wraps so the media coverage won't cause problems for our nations. For instance, what if word got out of the eventual marriage and either me or my betrothed get into quite the mess on whatever subject. It would be really hard to recover from."_

"I can probably see your point, Perdita." Shifting in her seat, Rachel asked another question. "So tell me, have you even met your _betrothed?_ "

" _I have. It was shortly after I returned home from Starling City and on my coronation day. The Markovian royal family was in attendance on both times and I got the chance to chat with the second in line to their throne, Brion, who is my eventual husband. He's rather nice and cares for his family and people. I just hope this whole arrangement turns out well to strengthen our nations. Hell if it wasn't for Brion's family and their ties to other nations then Vlatava's recovery process would take longer than expected."_

"As long as he treats you right then that's all that matters, right?"

" _Pretty much. And in a few years, I'll be seeing him more often as he'll be courting me to see if things will eventually click between us."_

"And if things don't click?"

" _Then adjustments towards our arrangement will be made for Brion to pursue someone else while our nations still work together. I mean, both of us would want to at least_ try _and make this work."_

"Then I wish you the best of luck."

" _Thanks. On the bright side, I was able to make another friend because of their visits."_

The purplette thought for a moment, trying to remember this detail in a past conversation. "Did you tell Artemis and I about this? I think you didn't."

" _Probably, but it could've been a passing topic that flew over your heads as it were."_

"Guess so. But tell me, what's your new friend's name."

" _It's Brion's younger sister, Tara. She's around our age and she's rather shy given the few encounters we had."_

"Probably bound to change in the coming years."

" _True as it's much like everyone. Give them enough time and they'll change in various aspects."_ Perdita then sighed. _"At least you know how to keep up the conversation unlike Artemis."_

"Why's that?"

" _She needs the occasional help from her mother or father on certain subjects I end up talking about for her to better understand. Even Jade tries to help but can only go so far. But with you, you are a bit more knowledgeable and informative compared to her… no offense."_

"None taken. But give Artemis some time and she'll come around… eventually."

" _I hope so since it would be nice to get another friend's thoughts and opinions with some words of encouragement on what I'm dealing with."_

"That's true."

" _Enough about me, Rachel. Tell me how are things going on your end."_

Figuratively seeing the change of subject, Rachel compiled in answering. "It's been rather fine. School's starting up next week, so my schedule -along with Artemis'- will be a little packed with our studies. And my magical studies have been coming along quite well, in fact."

" _Oh~ I would really love to see you perform some magic, Rachel."_

The ashen child giggled a little as she imagined her friend's eyes sparkle upon hearing this. To a normal person, they'd brush aside the idea of magic being real, but Perdita was a firm believer of the craft. Even more so when Rachel sent over a gift that was magical in nature with it working before her very eyes.

"When you get back to the states -so we can finally meet- I'll do some for ya." Rachel could hear the giddiness over the line. "But it won't be like any of those magic shows you hear about."

" _I know that quite clearly."_

Rachel merely shook her head. "Getting back to things… Hazel, Rose and Thorn are doing alright. Pam's still trying to figure out how to slow down their rapid aging process as they look like 3-4 years old right now and neither of us want to deal with some awkward moments out in public by the time it feels appropriate… or something of that nature."

While it seems unfair Rachel hasn't revealed this detail -and of her powers- to Artemis and Jade, who are two of her friends, Perdita knows of her guardian being Vanitas. With this, the half-demon felt fine revealing the Vlatavan queen more of Naruto's current life.

Hence the knowledge of the sporelings and how they came to be in order to clear up some confusion.

And Rachel hoped she could introduce them to the Crock sisters when the time came… without the odd complications of not being properly prepared. After all, it'll become quite the can of worms that'll snowball into other problems.

" _I still find it rather fascinating on how_ that _worked."_ Perdita admitted. _"Yet my knowledge in the field of science still flies over my head."_

"Same here, but then again we're not even teenagers yet. Not to mention we're not _aligned_ with said field."

" _True."_ A pause was soon given as if Perdita was thinking things for a quick moment. _"I'm getting off topic here for a quick moment. So forgive me on this."_

"I'm fine with it. So what is it?"

" _Is Pamela there with you?"_ Asked the young queen. _"I'd like to ask her about that formula of hers pertaining plant growth. It could help my people out very much."_

Rachel gave a brief nod, knowing what her friend was talking about. "She's not here, Perdita. But I can be fine relaying the message to her so you two can discuss about it further."

" _Thank you. And what of Selina?"_

"Currently at the vet for Isis' check up and mandatory shots." Was the magic user's response. "After that, I believe she'd be running other errands until this evening." She then paused with a curious thought being voiced. "Need her for something?"

" _Just wanted to inform her -along with Pamela- of the progress on the wildlife preserve."_

"Of course." Rachel said with a nod. "Now then… recently there was quite the interesting event that occurred a few days ago."

" _Really? What was it?"_

The half-demon then regaled the young queen of what occured on Dorian's island in her perspective. How she, Naruto and Jason confronted the legendary Morgana le Fay and her shockingly revived child, Mordred, before conflict ensued; all for a powerful meteorite. She obviously couldn't get into detail on her guardian's fight, but she went into most detail on hers…

Minus her tapping into her inner darkness as that was a _very_ delicate bit of info she didn't want to talk about.

" _...If I didn't know of you and Naruto having powers,"_ Perdita started with an astonished tone with a possible wide-eyed expression, _"I would've thought your experience was straight out of a fantasy novel."_

"Understandable." Sighed the ashen child. "Yet it was quite the fight for my life. Even if Morgana wasn't using her full strength, I believe."

" _I bet."_

The violet haired girl breathed through her nose for a moment and was going to speak of another topic before she heard something… odd.

 _ **-Insert The Umbrella Academy OST: Vanya-**_

'Is that a violin playing?'

" _Rachel? Is something wrong?"_

Said girl snapped out of her thought for a brief moment to give Perdita a response. "It's nothing, I think." Her eyes wandered a little as they worked alongside her ears before finding the source of the music. "We can talk again later, Perdita."

" _Are you sure?"_

"Yeah. Don't know what else we can talk about, dragging things along before you need to get back to your duties and bedtime."

A small chuckle was then heard over the line. _"I guess you're right."_

"Then have a good week."

" _Thanks and I'll give Artemis a call sometime tomorrow on my end."_

Hearing the phone call end, Rachel placed the phone down on the receiver. She then got up from the couch before making her way to the sporelings' bedroom. As she got closer and closer, the music seemed to get more defined.

'This seems different than what music they're used to listening to.' Rachel thought as she neared the bedroom door. 'That is unless they started changing their _tastes_ again with their growing maturity.'

Opening the entrance to the sporelings' room, Rachel expected to see them listening the music from either a radio or a cassette/CD player…

"Good to see you again, Rachel."

Not a familiar face sitting cross legged on one of the beds, playing on an unique-looking violin.

"Didi?" Rachel spoke with utmost surprise in her voice. "W-What are you doing here?"

Didi -otherwise known as Death- was doing a small performance in front of Hazel, Rose and Thorn. Each sporeling were rather drawn into the song -even Rachel- as it told quite the story without a single word being spoken.

It was one of sorrowed hardships with hardly any joy being mentioned at all. It tugged at their heartstrings as each girl yearned for something good to appear. Sure there were some little exciting moments around the upbeat middle -not that they really noticed- as the feeling was present throughout its entirety with hints of longing set throughout the piece.

Not much could've been given towards the sporelings as neither of them truly felt any bad moments in their lives… except for Thorn with her being experimented by Grimley after her birth. Regardless, neither of their eyes were dry as some tears were shed with how they were moved by the song.

Yet the one that was affected the most was the resident half-demon.

Memories flooded through her psyche, both good and the bad. The bittersweet moments of her back in Azarath with her conflicts growing up there. How her mother tried to cheer her up in her worst moments. And they soon escalated towards it's downfall with Rachel accidentally summoning her _father_ into her home, which then lead to her mother's death.

Before she knew it, Rachel felt her arms were tugged by Rose who wore a look of concern on her face.

"Are you alright?" Asked the pinkish-skinned sporeling. "You're crying."

"So are you, Rose." Hazel bluntly said as she quickly wiped her tears away.

"Like your any better." Thorn voiced out.

"It's quite alright, girls." Didi spoke up as she placed the violin right next to her on the bed. "One doesn't need to simply hide away the fact that you're touching a sensitive feeling."

"But it's strange." Rose said, placing her hand over her heart. "I… never felt this way before."

"Nor have I." Added in the dark-skinned child.

"But I have." Thorn said, getting her sisters to nod in knowing what she was referring to. "You two just haven't experienced it yet."

"I don't know if I wanna feel that way again."

"Sorry to break your bubble, Rose, but it's something you'll touch upon more often than you'll realize as you get older." Didi said with a soft smile.

Finishing drying her tears, Rachel looked over at her… _unique_ friend before looking over to the instrument she recently used to play that _moving_ number.

It was a fine looking violin as it didn't have a single scratch or flaw to it. It seemed relatively brand new as it was kept in mint condition, showing the tender care placed upon it. Yet the only thing strangely amiss about it was the coloring.

Instead of the typical black and brown hues one would see in a violin, this was was _white_. Not that it was just white, but it was completely devoid of any other color at all. As if any of it that was there to begin with was drained of substance and texture.

Not only that, but the ashen child felt overwhelming power radiating off the musical instrument.

"I wouldn't touch it, if I were you."

Rachel blinked upon hearing Didi's words. She was confused on why she said this until seeing her outstretched arm. The half-demon withdrew her hand, which it's tips were only an inch away from the violin's neck.

"Umm… sorry, Didi." Rachel apologized, grasping her upon instinct.

"It's quite alright. Your demonic side was being drawn to it." Said the gothic woman. "And you weren't aware of it."

Rachel slowly nodded, understanding the fact. Any creature of demonic nature are often drawn to power, no matter how powerful or weak they are. Yet the former ones are far more controlling in this instinct as they learned how to keep it under check.

"When… and where did you get it?"

"It was quite recently." Death soon rested it on her shoulder before resting her chin in its place. She then swipe the bow across the strings, giving off a pleasant tune. "And as for where, it came from an opera house where _a lot_ of work started out for me today."

"What happened?" Thorn innocently asked.

"A lot of people passed away and I had to take them elsewhere."

Rachel looked between Didi and the sporelings and wondered if the three sisters knew who they were talking to. Not just that, but they seemed rather comfortable around her.

'Do they even know who she is?' Rachel thought in curiosity. 'Seems they do… I think.'

"That wasn't very specific, lady." Hazel bluntly said.

"Hazel…" Spoke the magic practitioner. "Be nice. You sounded rude."

The dark-skinned sporeling looked away, but gave a quick apology to Death.

Said woman merely smiled as she accepted it while the violin bow still ran across the strings. "If you want me to be more specific, you could've just asked." Closing her eyes, the gothic woman spoke with the melody filling the room. "To start things off, the first batch of people passed away as they were trying to have the Apocalypse follow through. They were fighting against a small, dysfunctional family who tried to stop it."

"And were they successful?" Rose questioned.

"In part, yes."

This confused not only Rose, but also her sisters and Rachel. The blonde sporeling then voiced their shared thought. "What do you mean 'in part'?"

"The siblings were able to _somewhat_ stop the Apocalypse on how they intendedly thought." Didi kept playing the violin as it gave off a soft glow. "The one causing the event had the power to manipulate sound waves."

Rachel and the sporelings' confused expression merely heightened upon hearing this.

"I know it sounds silly and an odd concept to most people. But in actuality, it can be quite dangerous regardless if harnessed correctly or not." The room's other occupants slowly nodded as Death continued to explain while the music still went on. "Anyways, this person would've originally drawn in a planet-killer asteroid from the far reaches of space while using _this_ violin as a fishing line by generating enough power in order to reel it in." The younger people soon eyed the violin and wondered how that would've worked. "But after several instances, it all changed. She didn't reel in the planet-killer asteroid from deep space, she merely _made_ one."

While the sporelings were confused on this detail, Rachel became more weary on the idea.

"How'd she _make_ one?"

Didi stopped playing before looking out of the nearby window. Both the sporelings and Rachel were curious on what the ancient entity was looking at. Moving over to the bed, they aimed their heads roughly where the Didi's line of sight was at.

And it was there they saw the object barely visible in the daylighted sky.

"The one being fought against, the youngest of the dysfunctional family, ended up blowing up the moon." A feeling of dread filled up Rachel's core while the younger girls were more and more curious. "It's remains rained down upon the globe, wiping out many lives in the process. Yet the biggest one of them all destroyed it."

The gothic woman materialized a violin case by her side. She then opened it up and placed the stark white instrument and it's bow inside. Closing the lid, she then saw the younger girls look at her.

"Why did it happen?" Thorn questioned.

Death sighed, leaning back on the bed while using her arms for support. "Several factors really. One being her father as he wasn't a great person raising her. He meant well, but he did quite the crappy job raising her and her adopted siblings. Practically made them total wrecks in their own respective ways."

"And what are the others?" Hazel asked.

"Said father shunned away a boy that wanted to be accepted by him as he told the boy wasn't special in his eyes. This spiraled the boy down a dark path as he slew his surviving, abusive parent and years later, his vengeance towards the one who shunned him made him to manipulate the youngest of the adoptive siblings. Which -in turn- made him ignite the fuse to the apocalyptic bomb."

Didi then looked at each of the younger girls before her. "It greatly saddens me that many lives are ruined all because they are not given the chance to show how special they are. Even hiding or destroying the fact one does have. Each has the potential to do extraordinary things -no matter how big or small- as they greatly affect others." She then frowns with a downcasted look. "But to squash it all down hurts me deeply… especially if it's done by ones closest to you."

Death soon felt several hands placed on her. She formed a small smile in knowing the children wanted to comfort her to the best of their ability.

"Thanks for the gesture, girls." She said, patting each of their heads. "I appreciate it. I don't experience this bit often, ya know. So promise me you lot won't do such a thing towards each other, will ya?"

Both Rachel and the sporelings smiled in their respective manners, giving the ancient entity their answer.

As the moment passed, the half-demon looked over to the locked up violin. She could barely feel the power from it now, even if she can't see it.

"...And what are you gonna do with that violin, Didi?"

"Storing it back at my place along with other items that are _World Ending_." She chuckled as she briefly glanced to see Rachel's shocked expression. "Trust me, I have quite a _lot_ in my collection through the many _Worlds_ I've reaped."

This unsettled Rachel a bit as she briefly wondered _how_ many there were exactly.

"Yet I do plan on giving it back to its rightful owner after she better controls her powers."

This snapped Rachel out her thoughts. "Excuse me?"

"What?"

"How are you going to give it back if everyone in that _world_ died?"

Death blinked when hearing this. She tilted her head a little as a coy smile graced her lips. "Who said that _everyone_ there died?"

A small reboot went on in Rachel's head at this point.

"So…" Rose started out with a perplexed expression. "That violin's owner is alive?"

"Along with her adopted siblings, yes."

"...How?"

Didi's smile stayed on as she 'booped' Rose's nose. Said girl recoiled a little on the act. "I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, now would I?"

This merely confused the sporeling and her sisters even more while Rachel's mind barely processed what was just spoken after booting back up.

Shaking her head a little, the ashen child spoke up. "Uh, Didi."

"Yes?"

"You… didn't exactly answer my earlier question."

The gothic woman adopted a thinking position to remember a little on what question Rachel was referring to. After a moment or two, she nodded. "Ah~ right. Why I'm here, correct?" She saw the purplette nodd. "I'm just taking a small break after doing that big job on the _world_ I mentioned earlier. I mean it's quite the big moment I don't do often."

"...Okay."

Didi then stood up from the bed, grabbed the violin case and walked out of the room. "And before I get back to work, I'm famished." Cue stomach growling. "Doing all that works up an appetite."

Rachel blinked as she followed her _much_ older friend out of the sporelings' bedroom. "I thought you didn't eat or drink until your _holiday_ , Didi."

"Oh, I still do. It's just extra special when I have a mortal body." Coming down to the bottom the stairs, Death made a beeline straight towards the refrigerator. "Hope you guys don't mind if I take some food to go."

Rachel briefly thought it would be rude for her friend doing this suddenly…

...But this was Death herself…

Would it be offending if she refused to _not_ let her have some food?

Before she realized it, Rachel saw Didi diving deep into the refrigerator and pulling out an armful of food before slamming the door shut with her boot. Placing the items onto the counter, she rubbed her hands together with a smile on her face.

"...That's quite the spread you got there." Rachel said before cringing a little. 'The others aren't gonna be happy when hearing this.'

"Yeah, I know." Didi pulled out the loaves of bread from their bags before getting into the _many_ deli sandwich fixings. The meat containers, the cheese blocks and balls, the bars of salami and pastrami meat, the anchovy containers, the lettuce bags, jalapeno and pickle jars, the sauces and spreads… the whole nine-yards of sandwich makings.

"Need some help with all that?"

"Nah, I got it."

Before Rachel's eyes, Didi became quite the literal blur as everything seemed to have been hit by the fast forward button. The kitchen knife chopped everything in a flash with the meats, cheeses and veggies flying all over. Yet instead of it becoming a wild mess, they strangely fell into a decent sized stack.

Rachel could only watch in morbid fascination at the flawless movements of Didi coupled with intense and concentrated expression that sliced and diced all of her assembled ingredients. Even the odd accuracy of when the gothic woman squirted the condiment bottles from her oddly coordinated movements.

'I don't know whether to be amazed or… scared.' Rachel internally thought to herself watching the shredded cheese, chicken and tomatoes all pile up into neatly _constructed_ food pyramids.

Didi then reached behind her and seemingly pulled out a pepper grinder from nowhere with a spinning flare of skill and began spreading small black flakes over the chicken in an extremely intricate and near artistic fashion making sure each piece of every chicken had a happy balance of pepper.

Moving onto a pantry, she got out the flour, sugar and dough and placed them onto a clear surface of the kitchen counter. Didi rubbed her hands together in anticipation with a glint of manic hunger in her eyes at the site of so many possibilities.

"Are you merely feeding yourself or a small army?" Rachel spoke in a bland.

"Hey, a girl's gotta eat, little Raven." Didi said knowingly, wagging her finger at the young hybrid. "When you're as busy as I am, food is a comfort I am ill ever afforded."

"Please, don't be poetic with your obsession of being a glutton." Raven said rubbing the sides of her temples. "Naruto read me his _holy bible_ on Ramen for that already. I even think Harley is converted because of her odd lunacy."

"Oh, I have one to!" Didi proclaimed, pulling out a red book with her picture on it wearing a set of shades, a chefs hat with a whisk and spatula in both hands.

"Peachy Keen." Didi declared proudly. "My guide to all the best meals in the physical and astral plain that I know of to date with blank pages that are always ready for more recipes and ingredients."

Raven could only stare in utter bewilderment at the literal personification of Death when the title registered in her head.

"Peachy Keen?" Raven repeated. "Wasn't that something you said when we first met?"

"Yup." Didi proudly nodded her head. "I'll have you know I couldn't have picked a better title cause my reviews are like the book title. Very satisfactory. Originally, I wanted it to be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious but Walt wouldn't let me have it since technically it was owned by Disney so I went with the next best thing. "

"Probably that or you killed the critics if they gave you bad reviews." Was the half-demon's comment.

"There was this one guy who didn't like it." Didi said in a downcast frown. "Took me a while to find the right dish but by golly I succeeded."

"And what would that dish be?" Rachel found herself regretfully asking.

"Nothing beats a good old Grilled chicken cheese sandwich." Didi said, opening up her book to a specific page. "Rye bread with thinly slice paprika and salted chicken pre grilled and on top of that shredded cheese along with whatever add ons you like."

"You know, when I first summoned you here it wasn't for cooking lessons." Raven wryly stated.

"I know." Didi giggled happily. 'It's just that aside from Dream and Naruto, i never get to talk about my hobbies."

It was at this point that the sporelings came down the stairs when they smelled something delicious coming down the kitchen. They were merely going back into playing in their room before the smell reached their cute little noses. By the time they got there, the three saw the large amounts of food prepared.

"...Is something special going on?" Hazel asked.

"I have no clue, sis." Responded Thorn."

"Wonder if we could have some." Rose added in with some drool leaking out of her mouth. "It looks very good."

"If ya ask nicely, I'll let you three have some." Didi chimed in as the stove roared with fire. "Just to let ya know, the majority of this is _all mine~_ "

"...Okay." Sounded out the sporeling sisters.

After what seemed like an hour… more like several minutes… the large spread was completed. The amount of food shown before the younger girls was quite large as they wondered what they could take. Even Rachel was a little curious on what certain meals tasted like.

"Now what do you girls say?" Didi teased while cleaning up her hands.

"Can we please have some, Didi?" Asked Rachel and the sporelings.

"Yes you may."

Just as the four girls were about to get some food within their grasp, it all suddenly disappeared in a blink of an eye. They whipped their heads around and wondered where it all went. They soon heard a zipper, causing them to look over to see Didi zipping up a black lunch box hanging by her side like some sort of purse.

Didi snapped her fingers a moment later and they all suddenly found themselves seated in the living room with a plate of sandwiches in the center.

Didi herself had changed into a different attire, wearing a pristine suit with her hair slicked back and a fine curled mustache on her lips.

"...You look funny." Hazel commented before Thorn elbowed her side. "What? You know it's true."

"Dig in, my friends." Didi said extravagantly, making a flourishing bow towards the food.

"You know, I strangely think this seems odd of you to do Didi." Spoke the half-demon as she took a small bite of her brunch.

"Eh~ blame Delirium for adopting this trait whenever I'm hungry."

Hazel was the first to take one sandwich and bit into it hungrily. Chewing her food for a few seconds, tears began shining out of the corner of her eyes.

"It's… I-It's so…"

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" Didi sang happily making Hazel, Rose and Thorn nod their head vigorously in agreement.

Rachel could only deadpan at her now. "You were just waiting to say that, weren't you?"

"Guilty~" She then ripped off the moustache and rubbed her hair to get it back into it's wild look. "Now if y'all excuse me, I best get back to work. 'Em souls won't go to their destinations all on their own."

Heading towards the kitchen again, she went back into the refrigerator one last time to pull out a can of soda before snagging the violin case she placed on the side. Without further notice -after a brief wave goodbye- a sound of flapping wings was heard within the loft as Death disappeared before their very eyes.

Blinking at this, Rachel slowly shrugged before getting back into her meal. When she did, her eyes saw a sheet of paper on her lap attached to some little rolled up scroll. Placing the sandwich down, she picked up the note in order to read it better.

 _Rachel,_

 _If ya want to chat with me again at a later time, you can summon me with what is written in the scroll provided._

 _-Didi-_

 _P.S. I recommend you leave out some food for me when ya do as some little payment compensation for my time coming over. I'm a busy girl after all. So surprise me. I'm not picky._

At the bottom of the note was an odd chibi drawing of Didi giving her a peace sign while winking at her. And right behind it was her Ankh symbol in the background.

Rachel gazed at the note for several moments before a small appreciative smile began creeping up her face. It was strange to make friends like Death herself. Then again with her life the way it was it was ironically more natural then making friends through conventional means.

 _ **-Arkham Asylum, Cafeteria-**_

Sitting in the main mess hall of Gotham's infamous asylum, Harley was waiting for several inmates to arrive for today's group therapy session. Many tables were moved about so various seats would be filled with the _colorful_ patients that she wants to help fix. Hopefully being able to have them return to society in a safe, peaceful manner.

Even if it's only a temporary manner as a lot of the criminals always return here one way or another.

Over a century old and Arkham Asylum was still standing. Crumbling, due to the many breakouts done in past years, but the land was still standing.

A lot of money was channeled towards this place in order to properly keep it up to code. But from what Harley has heard as of late through the grapevine is that the current warden of Arkham, Quincy Sharp, is pushing the governor and Mayor Hill to set up a new Arkham Asylum by Gotham Bay at one of the islands along the coast. It would be a way to better isolate the inmates as it would often make things difficult for many of them to escape.

With the sudden surge of inmates was due to the recent spike in Gotham's 'criminally insane'. The state's budget for all prisons, including Blackgate, was already stretched too thin with how many mobs and criminals were brought within their walls. But there was a surplus available for medical spending for hospitals and -of course- asylums.

Mayor Hill lobbied hard and won over the governor to ensure that the legendary Arkham Asylum, an almost forgotten but protected historical landmark, would become a national leader in psychiatric care for this new emerging age with metas and super criminals on the rise. The new asylum being designed and built will be reinforced and customized with 'supercells' to take the _unique_ criminals resounding prisons didn't want would be a bonus… at first thought as Arkham's well known M.O. was admitting the specialized sort.

The idea seems sound at best, but it could prove difficult in various aspects along the way.

Zoning would have to be made and approved of with what land could be used for construction. But with the recently changed island that was once owned by Dr. Emile Dorian, Mr. Sharp wants construction to happen immediately.

With this happening, environmentalists would no doubt become concerned with what'll happen. People like her girlfriends Selina and Pam, along with the eco-terrorists of Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad, would cause some sort of uproar. Yet their respective please and arguments would no doubt be ignored as long as a more public opinion is positively received.

Many tech companies would no doubt donate a lot of money and state of the art product into this project that if it's done well, spreading throughout other areas around the country to raise the standard of prisons with the growing times.

As the new asylum would be closer to completion, transfers will obviously happen at a slow pace. Once everyone is fully moved to the eventually named 'Arkham Island', the old asylum will be used as a training facility for upcoming employees to the new establishment.

Sitting in her seat with continued patience, Harley's eyes wandered all over in order to entertain herself a little.

For a brief moment, she eyed the passing form of Dr. Penelope Young as she was going to the next patient on her list for today. She even saw Dr. Joan Leland quickly walking by to check up on said doctor as they soon conversed on some topic of some kind. But from her knowledge, Joan was supposedly going to chat with Pam about her mandatory 'parole' meeting.

Soon enough, she then saw a man passing through the cafeteria doors. This made her think her group therapy participants were finally coming in. Yet to her displeasure, it wasn't the case as Dr. Hugo Strange came waltzing in… and came towards her position.

"Dr. Quinzel." Hugo Strange greeted with a disarmingly calm smile. "What a pleasure to see you once more. I hope life has been treating you well enough."

"More or less." Harley said with a shrug. "Least the crazies keep life interesting."

Unfortunately for her, Hugo took a seat right in front of her, eyes glinting in interest and… something else she couldn't quite make out.

"Ah yes, you're supposed to have a little meeting to day with several of the inmates." Strange said, making Harley's eyes narrow slightly at that correct assumption.

"I am." Harley said evenly. "How do you know that?"

"I'm very astute at observations and patterns, Ms. Quinzel. Almost to an obsessive degree." Strange humbly admitted. "That and I forgot to inform of this earlier, but I'm going to be taking over today's session."

"...You're joking." Harley saw the unreadable expression on his face, before speaking with a tone of annoyance. "You're not."

"I'm sorry on not-"

"But I've been preparing for this for days." The changed blonde frustratingly said. "Been reviewing each of the group members over and over again in hopes of getting a good balance on topics to discuss. Do you have any idea how complicated it is to delicately work it all out?"

"I do know as I too have gone over their files extensively."

"Then why are _you_ taking over the session today and not wait like the others?"

"More experience in the field as I'd be able to discern various thought and facts than what you could've figured out."

"Right~ Yet I've worked with most of these patients more than you."

"True, but I understand more than you do." Strange said in a _strange_ manner. "For instance, I feel the masks those _vigilantes_ and _villains_ wear are their _true_ faces while the ones underneath are the masks."

"Cultures often depict many masks to be representations on either their gods, monsters or various beings that are often not fully understood. Yet they wear them in order to become something else… someone else."

"Right you are, Dr. Quinzel."

"...I've seen your office once, in passing. And yeah I get the idea you have a mask fetish."

"More like a fascination." Hugo Strange corrected. "When so many begin cropping up at an exponential rate, each with a clear distinction from the other I can't help but find them interesting. That and after working with many individuals our society has dubbed as menaces, it is a refreshing change of pace to see those who use mental trauma in a positive light."

"You assume that these masked vigilantes perform these acts of heroism out of trauma? Even the criminals?" Harley questioned. "That's quite an assumption to make, Doctor."

"Perhaps so but when working with individuals like the ones here in Arkham, the one thing I've noticed is the pattern of the 'breaking point' as most people call it."

"Breaking point?" Harley repeated in confusion.

"A simple phrase really but something practically all of these inmates share in common with each other." Hugo Strange said with a gleam in his eyes to signify his underlying enjoyment of his job. "A collection and string of events and experience that constantly piled and culminated into a singular moment where *SNAP* their perception of reality is forever altered as is their outlook on life, their purpose, even their very appearance is a reflection of this change."

Harley Quinn couldn't hide the grimace of her face, having a very clear idea as to whom shares that description perfectly for Strange.

A crop of brilliant green hair, ashen white skin and an insane smile accompanied by a maniacal laugh.

"Mental illness has often been seen as a survival mechanism." Harley blurted out without realizing it.

"Indeed it has." Strange agreed. "However, these aren't illnesses these individuals are born with. Nay, it appears that the outside world is becoming a greater influence upon the singular person in comparison to the nature argument of what makes a human an individual."

"This all interesting in theory, Dr. Strange, but you're gonna need more than that to truly have this apply to everyone." Harley cut in.

"What makes you think this could be applied to everyone?" Strange questioned challengingly

"Because you're a psychologist and a psychiatrist." Harley stated with a knowing look in her eyes.

Strange could barely contain the amused grin that found its way to his face, chuckling lowly.

"Guilty as charged, Dr. Quinzel." Hugo admitted, falling into momentary silence as to contemplate his next set of words as many thoughts were running through his mind right now.

"People are often afraid of progress, yet we keep making it. A fascinating contradiction to humanity, is it not? Always having a desire, a want, a need so to speak to change to become stronger, faster, better, more enlightened and yet we find the fear of change not long around the corner."

"It's human nature one could say." Harley remarked. "An eternal contradiction of words and actions."

"Precisely, Quinzel." Strange said a bit excitedly. "Evolution of humanity has given way to a plethora of conflicts with these contradictions. I believe it is also why we are living in such a tumultuous era right now."

"Huh?" Harley tilted her head in clear befuddlement at the somewhat jarring conclusion. "What is that supposed to mean? What's evolution got to do with this?"

"If you're looking for the cause on an evolutionary scale? I'll give you one." Dr. Strange calmly bore his eyes into Harley's. "With the rise of power throughout the world, everyone wanted a piece of what gave it so. The start came when Homo Sapien lifted a up a rock and saw it had greater purpose to it than just being a fragment of the Earth. From that one thought came the dawn of mankind with the stone age. Soon after, the discovery of metals and geometrical innovations led to the Chariot, sword, shield and spear and thusly the Bronze Age and a growing age of empires where new weaponry, societal laws, medicine and science exploded. Thousands of years, many different ages like the Iron and Renaissance until we arrive within the last 300 years of human civilization. A near unprecedented level of explosive innovations and advancements in so many fields that you couldn't even begin to fathom where to start. Guns and explosives, Atoms and Neutrons a literal arms race that seems to have no end. And before we knew it the nuclear missiles and its deterrents became the tipping scale.

And now? Now we have the metahumans joining in on the arms race of powers and egos. We might not see it now, but it's starting to grow at a steady rate all over the world as each of them act as gods in their own right.

Yet what we have here in Gotham contains a different problem."

"And that is…"

"One of our _guardians_ , Batman, being just a man." Hugo answered. "An alpha beast in a concrete jungle… and others rise to challenge him at a constant rate. People, Dr. Quinzel. Not Gods."

"Yet you forget, Dr. Strange, we also have Robin as he too is just a man. Not to mention that blonde Siren girl and Batgirl." Harley added in, while leaving out Red and her Puddin that as much as she hates to admit it, both could be considered _gods_ with their powers.

"And same with Selina Kyle, the Catwoman, as I commend them for their efforts for what they've done as our _mortal_ guardians."

Harley suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. 'Only if you knew more on Kitty and I.'

Not knowing her present thoughts, Hugo continued. "Batman is too good in his craft, Harleen. Too skilled, and so, even on this early level of arms race begins. He brings batarangs, they bring freeze rays, electrokinesis, toxins, mutagens… In the root of it all, it's an age old game of dominance. A war of wannabe alphas whose sense of control is challenged and they lash out in, albeit creative ways; even the majority of them don't have powers. And, honestly, most of them don't even belong here.

"Like you said, it's a jungle. I admit that." Harley calmly said. "And the Law of the Jungle is based on self-preservation."

"Dr. Quinzel…"

"I've said this earlier, but mental illness has been seen as a survival mechanism. One would do what they can do to live another day, despite the hand they've been dealt with. Some are the end result of a long series of moral compromises made under times of extreme danger and personal duress. Others do not. The inability of the individual to deal with their sense of guild results instead with them reshaping their own view of the world."

"I understand this quite well, Quinzel. I have read your varied reports, papers and research. Even with the ones pertaining the Joker and he is _nothing_ like what you have spoken and wrote about."

Blue eyes narrowed, glaring and burning a hole into the man before her. "Oh. I know _plenty_ about that, Dr. Strange."

"Why of course you do, Harleen. As you know, he doesn't have a sense of morality. He lacks it completely. Whatever he had before what he is today is long gone." He then listed off several points. "Lapse of judgment? Non-existent. Moment of weakness? An act… or often not as one would exploit if looked well enough. Rationalizing his actions? He laughs at them on what he does with guilt going through one end and coming out the other with no effect at all. The only sense he has is for his own self-preservation by using others for his own means of survival and entertainment."

Releasing a sigh, Harley closed her eyes in order to digest what was spoken. Before long, she opened her mouth. "Makes me think of a previous session with the Joker."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"If you've read my reports on him -no doubt you have- you would know the Joker thinks we all are irrelevant in the bigger picture of life. Law, order and control is quite the elaborate illusion to him that he seeks to shatter as an agent of Chaos." Harley then scratched part of her head. "He then brought up some facts of metas out of the blue as he pertained them in this illusion."

"One would never think of himself being concerned with metahumans."

"My thoughts exactly but he stated he never developed an inferiority complex, despite how sudden it may seem. He merely sees them as a metaphor. Their actions reflect the world as he sees it. Gods fight, people die and no laws can fully stop it, despite many of them getting locked up in the process. As he sees it, he compares them with the Batman, a man he has quite the fixation with. A hero that desperately attempts to show that control is possible without having powers to combat metas. I had asked him how he sees himself in this scenario."

"I already know what he spoke about, but I'll humor you and ask: what was it?"

"Joker sees himself as what happens when society takes itself too seriously."

Hugo hummed, being silent for a moment before speaking. "Tell me, what was your result after the Joker tortured you and dipped you in that vat of chemicals?" Strange gave her a quizzical, calculated look while noticing her tightening her hands into fists. "I'm surprised there weren't any reported acid scaring when you were bathed in it, asides from your skin and hair tone taking on a paler tone."

Harley contemplated if she should give him an answer or not. It was a rather touchy subject, but she knew the man would be relentless in getting a response one way or another. So to save her the time and annoyance from him, she gave in and responded.

"When I was being electrocuted and fell into that vat of chemicals, all I physically felt was sporadic pain on the former while utmost numbness on the later. I didn't know if it was the combination of the two which shot my nerves for that time before it all ended. It could've been them or the outright, overwhelming fear I took on when it all happened."

She sighed, rubbing the spots on her head where the Joker placed the electrodes all those months ago. "When the electricity ran through me, I heard this strange high pitch in my ears. I didn't know if it was the result of the pain I was experiencing or me screaming my lungs out being drowned out. But I swear I heard something in that odd pitch… Actually, scratch that. I _felt_ something."

This got Hugo rather curious. "Any idea what it was?"

Harley pondered for a moment before answering. "I felt an odd sense of… comfort?" She saw Strange giving her a raised brow. "Yeah, it confused me as well whenever I think about it. Me being put through quite the strenuous moment with me possibly dying by the end of them." She then scratched the back of her head while looking away from him. "And it wasn't just that time but it was also when I took that dip into that vat of chemicals… where something else added into the mix."

Her blue eyes grew distant as she recounted the event. "Even if I couldn't hear the words, I strangely felt them, the same way I could almost feel the world around me. More than any other, like your sense of touch grounds you. It makes the world around you feel real. And... while I could feel some of it fleeing from me as reality slowly crept up on me. All the subtlety was gone. The world oddly felt right for the first time since I was a child. Things felt split before they mended back together as a balance. Attachments, detachments. Deranged, luminous. They felt… natural with me as if they were there to begin with."

"...One would say that you're not mentally connected with the rest of society." Was Hugo's response.

"Who knows for sure, Dr. Strange." Harley then got up from her seat and gathered up her belongings. "What I do know is that I have to keep on doing what I do best so I can be for the sake of myself and those I truly care about. Even if I'm unbalanced or not, then that's all that matters to me."

Hugo sat there, pondering on the blonde woman's response as she left the cafeteria.

The man was present at the time when the Joker was brought back into Arkham last month. In the interrogation, several questions and answers were thrown out on his time impersonating the deceased illusionist. After that was done, Strange wanted to chat with the deranged clown to personally see about the man's psyche.

He had read all of the reports on him prior to the meeting as he wanted to be prepared to mentally fight against the Joker to get one over him.

After some standard methods of his, giving him a decent layout on what to combat the clown with, Strange questioned the pale man on the time when he last broke out of Arkham. Sure the man had his laughs when describing the event. Recounting on him, his men and fellow inmates ran wild and performed various acts on the guards, staff and their fellow men.

The details that were more frequent and pronounced was his fixation towards Harleen Quinzel. Yet it was a tad hard to tell if they were romantic… or something else with the Joker's twisted mentality.

The torture has been a no brainer from a normal perspective. After all, Dr. Quinzel had taken advantage of the sessions she had with the Joker before putting on her full, personal sentence on him.

To be fair, the deranged clown had pushed her limits with his one stunt with presenting her a severed limb of her late sister's killer. One could be somewhat grateful on this approach, but this was too much for her to handle, causing her to wipe her hands clean of him and move on for her mental sanity.

Strange can commend her for that. She knew her limits, unlike most he used to know.

Now going back to the torture, Hugo thought there was more to it than meets the eye. A more accurate report would've been given if Harleen was fully awake at Ace Chemicals before her dip. Yet he sufficed from getting the information from the Joker, despite the maneuvering he had to take.

What he eventually put together on the Joker's torture and later reported fixation made the psychologist figure out the clown's motive. Long story short, the Joker would have wanted Harleen to become like him and make her his bride. That or something else that's brewing in that psychotic brain of his was hidden away.

Hugo thought on the reason why the Joker became interested in her, despite what she did towards him. Could it have been out of respect as no one had the metaphorical balls to do so? Or could it have been that he saw something in her that he merely wanted to bring out for his own pleasure.

After hearing Harleen's little proclamation, Strange started to question if she became more like the Joker than she would ever realize. Instead of going off the rails and becoming a danger to society, she was more grounded and is doing her best to contribute towards it.

'Seems I'll be needing to keep a closer eye on her than I previously thought.' Strange pondered before seeing several inmates walking into the cafeteria with armed guards escorting them for the group session. 'Might need to send some people to survey her whenever she's not working here.'

Walking down one hallway, Harley sighed with her arms crossed behind her head. 'Getting tired of Strange getting the better favor here. Practically has the warden by his beckon call, if I think about it.'

Many of her fellow co-workers practically shared this line of thought. Ever since Hugo Strange started out here last year after the last big breakout, most of them slowly noticed the Blackgate transfer gaining more power here. It wasn't visibly shown or loudly spoken, but the hints were there.

'I wouldn't be surprised if Strange will practically order Sharp to resign as warden so he can take his place.'

"Dr. Quinzel?"

Harley snapped out of her thoughts upon hearing someone address her. Turning around to see the source, the Arkham psychologist saw a frequent guest to the asylum coming towards her.

"Oh, hey Grace."

"Hello."

One would normally think the former District Attorney and his future wife were still together, despite Harvey being incarcerated into Arkham. It's known to happen with many prisoners throughout the world. Despite one being inside of a cell, individuals would still be in a relationship with each other.

Yet there are times when they actually break up due to these kinds of circumstances. Either because one can't take it anymore with what's happening, became quite the struggle to keep it together or something else.

The current circumstance on the relationship between Grace and Harvey 'Two Face' is summed up into one word: strained.

Officially the pair are still considered engaged, yet it's being juggled around that the idea is falling apart. Both Grace and Harvey have been trying to get it to work. But the issue pertaining to the 'Big Bad Harv' persona makes it quite difficult. Not to mention what's happening on Grace's end in both her work and social life.

"Here to see Harvey today." Harley stated, not questioned. After all, why wouldn't Grace be here otherwise.

"Yes and I was wondering if he's available at this time."

"Well he ain't gonna be available for quite a while." Harley informed. "He's supposed to be in a group session right now."

"You sure?"

"Yup. Was even supposed to lead it today."

"...Sounds like you aren't."

"Cause one of my co-workers took my spot today." Sighed out the psychologist. "I had all this stuff planned out on what I wanted to do with each of the desired patients today."

"With Harvey included?"

"Along with Jervis Tetch, Jonathan Crane, Edward Nygma, Waylon Jones, Matt Hagen and several others you wouldn't really know."

Grace nodded as the pair walked through the corridor. "Then would you know when Harvey will be next available?"

"If ya got nothing happening in like ninety minutes or so then you can come by then." The asylum doctor then scratched her head. "Though with Strange leading it, I'm afraid he'll be pushing it to two hours."

Grace let out a frustrated, yet tired sigh. "I see."

"I'm taking a guess it's going to conflict with your schedule?"

"I hoped to talk to Harvey and try my best to get through to him again. But he often pushes me away."

"It's good that you're not giving up on him. Even though he's acting this way in order to keep you safe."

"I know, but…"

"But what?"

Rounding a corner and getting closer to a common room area, Grace continued with a downcasted expression. "But I don't know if I should comply with his wishes… stop visiting him… and see someone else."

Harley looked over with a mixed look between shock and sadness. She knew things were getting bad between the two but the asylum employee didn't know it was hitting this point now.

"You shouldn't give up on this now, Grace. You two seem to be making good progress in fixing things. Why stopping this now?"

"Family… friends… things have been starting to decline with my relationship with them. It's really hard to handle as they're a mix of supporting me one way or the other. Most of them believe it's already over and I should be seeing someone else. I've even complied in going out on several dates just so they could get off my back. As some seemed rather fine, I keep thinking I'm turning my back on Harvey and I don't want to do that to him while we're still together… yet it might not matter anymore."

Hearing the breaking in Grace's voice hurt Harley very much. She wanted to help more on this relationship, but she didn't know how to mend it further than it already is. Harley even tried requesting more time with Harvey, like by trading work times with other doctors. Yet there can only be so much she can get from the former DA.

On each session, Harvey would always bring a coin with him. Either one he pilfered from a guard or made by himself. Always using it as a means if he would want to answer certain questions or give out different responses from what one personality would want to give over the other.

It's often difficult to work with, but it's one obstacle Harley has gotten over with over time.

Running her mind at top gear, Harley racked her mind to figure out on what she could do now. Sorting through various questions, one crossed to the forefront and seemed like a good starting point.

"Tell me, Grace, how'd you and Harvey to first meet?" Came Harley's question. "Harvey never told me. Maybe it could help me out to change his mind in complying more into the relationship."

Harvey's fiance… well more like ex -due to her current mindset- thought for a moment before giving her response. "You can… stereotypically say it was because of work."

"Transfer?"

"Pretty much. Originally wanted to work elsewhere due to me being disturbed by most of this city's reckless behavior that supposedly keeps it alive."

"You mean with the criminals and actions done towards this city?"

"I'm not referring to that… well somewhat." Grace then recomposed in order to correct herself. "What I meant to say being the reckless behavior and destructive attitudes of most of Gotham's rich that disturbs me."

"...I don't follow. Mind explaining?"

Grace nodded in compliance. "Gotham City can be considered bankrupt in several aspects. Despite the arrival of Batman, Robin, Vanitas and whoever else tries to save this city; crime rates continue to stay steadily high. This city isn't standing because of miraculous government leadership, natural resources, masked vigilantes or any capitalist industry. Gotham stands because of the hubris of the rich."

Harley kept her gaze on Grace, unsure of where she was going with how Harvey and her ex met and soon fell in love.

"The rich, despite their fast cars, big paychecks, beautiful trophy wives and husbands and even hotter misters and mistresses live rather dull -and danger-free- lives. A few people here and there partake in high stake gambling, yes, but never without a safety net."

Harley shook her head and released a chuckle. "No doubt about that with most of 'em, Grace. I mean it's practically a dick-measuring contest in various shades of grey." She then coughed into her hand and went through various voice pitches. "Oh look at my new _yacht_. Oh look at my new _boytoy_."

"See how much money my _company_ made this _quarter_ because of _me_." Grace added in with a scoff in a whiny tone. "Not only that but see how expensive this _thing_ is." She then went back to her normal voice. "Most of the time it's just how they enjoy their money and validate themselves."

"In actuality, it's simply how they pass the time since they _have_ the money _and_ resources to do so."

Grace nodded in agreement before adding more fuel to the fire. "It's also how they _compete_ and have it as the best part of their _thrill_."

"Sad thing is, that's pretty much true." Harley sighed, racking her fingers through part of her tied up hair. "Normal people do their best to avoid danger. Those caught within it flee. The psychotic seek it for pleasure."

"Before Batman arrived, Gotham City had the highest crime level of any city in this country. It's fallen over the years -no doubt about it- but now it's home to the most _dangerous_ crimes in possibly the world. The rich stay in Gotham because it's exciting. They live in this horrible cesspit of human misery so they can _brag_ about it. The part that makes it damnable though is that how many other innocent people they hurt."

"What do you mean?" Asked the psychologist.

"They lure innocent people to this cursed metropolis with flashy commercials and promising jobs so there are enough pawns on the table to provide an interesting show." Grace straightened herself out. "That's why I often hate this place."

"And the rich, apparently."

"Pretty much." Grace then looked away in a far away glance. "But things slowly changed when I met Harvey."

"Yeah, you didn't explain on how you first met him anyways."

Harvey's (ex) fiance nodded, remembering the question from earlier. "Right. But I just wanted to put in my thoughts on the whole matter before getting into the topic, Dr. Quinzel."

"It's quite alright." Harley said, motioning for her fellow blonde to continue.

As the pair got to a waiting area, Grace told the story on how she and Harvey first met.

"It was really any ordinary day in Gotham." Grace said with a far away, reminiscent look and tone. "Crime as per usual with the corruption of the police and District Attorney's office up to your damn waste."

"I worked in said office actually." Grace said, chortling slightly. "My job description was liaison to the GCPD but really I filed out reports between the two. Never really met much of the 'fine men in blue' from our Police department, but I think that was for the better. Things weren't exactly bright at that time. By the time I had arrived, Batman had been a growing figure for the past few years. A lot of the cops and assistance were pissed off that he was doing their jobs so much better than they were. But if we're being honest here, I think most of those guys were mobbers -or at least associated with them- who were more angry with the fact that the Bat was throwing all their friends in jail."

Harley snorted but remained silent allowing Grace to go on.

Grace sighed. "A few months of writing down and storing papers talking about criminals being thrown in jail only to get released just a few weeks later. And then… I see him."

"He was drenched from head to toe cause of the thunderstorm that day and he didn't have a briefcase." Grace sniggered. "I think it was stolen but he basically waltzed right in, walking past everyone and right to his new shiny cubical on the first floor. Nobody even batted him an eye unless he came too close to them. Then they would just back away cause they didn't wanna get wet. Nobody saw him but me, this young determined idiot who slumped down into his chair and just…. Got to work. He worked faster than anyone I ever saw and was done with a mountain of papers and rushed upstairs to talk to the head of the DA. I don't know why I couldn't look away but the moment he came downstairs, he was fuming, throwing his papers up in the air and storming out the building. That sure got everyone's attention."

"So where's the part of the story where you two made googly eyes at each other?" Harley asked teasingly.

Grace shot her a dry but amused look. "That part comes later, Doctor." Coughing into her hand, she then explained. "It was a week later that we spoke for the first time and officially met."

 _ **-Flashback, Eight Years Ago-**_

 _Harvey Dent was glaring in frustration at the printer in front of him. He was trying to make it work so he could finish the reports on trying to get one of Carmine Falcone's head honchos behind bars. But it seems that it isn't just the people in this city that's against him…_

 _It's this god damn printer as well._

 _Kicking the drawer stand it was positioned on, Harvey leaned on the nearby wall closing his eyes with a groan of annoyance._

" _Whoa, easy there jawline. The printer didn't do anything to you." A female voice said from beside him._

" _Yes it did." Harvey countered. "It's not doing its job of printing out papers. Which should be considered a crime here when you think about it."_

 _The woman couldn't help but snort at the man's attempt at humor. He grinned slightly, opening his eyes to face his new acquaintance._

" _So you're the new guy." Grace said knowingly._

" _Is that all I'm known for?" Dent asked._

" _Well there is that time of the day where you throw your papers up into the air." Grace remarked with a shrug. "Paper tosser feels more appropriate."_

 _Harvey only rolled his eyes. "Ok that was only one time and it was for good reason."_

" _Oh, and what might that be?"_

" _The DA is corrupt to the core." Harvey bluntly stated in a bitter tone. "I had so much evidence against the Falcone family, but they just looked at me and laughed. Then threw me out the office."_

 _Instead of being stunned or affronted, the lady only sighed wistfully leaning on the wall beside the new guy._

" _Yeah, there's not much that can be done about it here in Gotham. Half the damn city is either owned by the rich or by the mob. And sadly it's the half that the mob controls that really controls the city. Most of the rich just stay out of it."_

" _It shouldn't be that way." Harvey said in a bit of a depressed tone._

 _She looked at him sympathetically when she realized…_

" _I never got you name, Jawline."_

 _Harvey chuckled at the nickname, hand tracing over said feature she keeps pointing out._

" _Is it really that noticeable? I'm Harvey Dent."_

" _Grace Lamont." She introduced herself. "And yes, it is very noticeable. Seriously, it looks like you can chisel marble those bones."_

" _Yeah well, it ain't doing me any favors right now with this stupid machine." Harvey said, hitting the top of the printer for emphasis… which in turn booted up the system and started printing out his files._

 _Both stared dumbly at the machine, slowly looking to one another. A few moments later they devolved into hearty laughter._

 _ **-Flashback End-**_

"...That little printer area became a kind of meeting spot for the two of us." Grace said with a fond smile. "Either it was fate or just coincidence. But once a day the two of us would just bump into one another there all the time. From there, the small talk turned into conversations that literally took an hour out of our scheduled work hours until finally the time came where he decided to man up and take me out for coffee."

Harley snorted. "The age old courting ritual of all co-workers."

"He said something similar along those lines." Grace chortled. "He was a bit of a goof at first. Stuttered a bit but he was honest. He kept saying how he's not dated anyone in a while and forgot how to do this." She then leaned in-in a mock gossiping fashion. "Between you and me, I think he didn't know how to date to begin with."

Once again, Harley snorted while imagining Harvey doing just that.

"From there… I don't know what it was but the two of us found ourselves at his favorite diner a week later and later that night back in _my apartment."_

"Grace!" Harley said in a joking scandalous tone. "Grace the Bold should be your nickname."

"It would be had it not been for the leftover ice cream we basically gorged ourselves on." Grace said. "Then and then and then and then... I finally asked him why. Why was he trying so damn hard to work his way up the ladder to be the head of the District Attorney."

"What did he say?" Harley asked, getting enraptured in the story now.

"The same cheesy line that fueled his campaign the first time." Grace said with a sad smile. "I believe in Gotham City. He may have had his flaws but like this city, he knew that there was greatness to it that was waiting to be brought out. Harvey worked for his position through blood, sweat and tears. And I was with him from the get go. Harvey was relentless. Always preaching about the dawn coming from the darkness."

Grace barely reigned in a choked up tear that managed to escape her, reliving the memories.

"And we were actually doing something about it all." Grace whispered. "We got the right people, the right group of friends to back us up and be by our side from the get go. Bruce Wayne, Naruto Uzumaki, Selina Kyle, Jim Gordon. They were all willing to fight together, fight the corrupted stench of Gotham and show that this city can be something greater."

Grace fell silent. "And then… I lost him to madness."

She hung her head in sorrow, silent tears trailing down her cheeks. Harley could only watch on with a downcast expression.

Wordlessly, Harley pulled out a handkerchief and held it out for Grace to take. Ms. Lamont momentarily stared at the tissue in confusion when she saw Harley give her a nodding gesture to take it.

Giving her an appreciative smile, grace took the Handkerchief and blew her now and dried her tears.

"You still love him?"

"With all my heart and soul."

"Then I'll be rooting for you. I believe in the two of you. And happy endings." Harley said with a joking laugh.

Grace gave her a truly grateful look, handing back the handkerchief.

"Are you in a relationship, Dr. Quinzel?" Grace abruptly asked, surprising Harley slightly but the answer was easy.

Harley had a warm smile on her face. "I am."

"Then mind telling me how you two got together? Seems only fair, I think."

The psychologist giggled a little. "You can say it began when he went to check up on me after a certain… situation… occurred…"

"Doctor?"

Harley didn't respond back as her attention turned elsewhere. Her eyes caught onto something that seemed amiss. She could've played it off due to the lighting in the area, which no doubt needed the lightbulbs to be changed.

But she swore she saw an odd pair of beedy, yellow eyes in the shadows. They stared at her for several moments before closing up and stayed like that not long after.

Harley also thought she simply imagined it, especially when seeing the shadow move from one corner to the other. But there was this feeling running around her gut that said otherwise.

"Dr. Quinzel? Is something wrong?"

Harley snapped out of her thoughts and turned back to Grace. "Sorry about that. Just my mind was elsewhere."

Grace nodded a little, but could tell something was going on. Yet she doesn't want to pry right away. But for now she wanted to know how the woman in front of her got into her current relationship…

Not knowing what was happening at the asylum.

 _ **-Spiral Publishing-**_

"...And over here is our design department for our magazine and book covers." The silver haired Uzumaki pointed at the room with a man holding up a sketch of a cloak figure. "We take both talented and rookie members that always make the best of both worlds every time." He walked up to the door to knock on it, to show a thumbs up for the cover as the others cheered at another success. He turn see Lois rolling her eyes at his way with people. "I'll show you the break room that has some pinball machines."

She laughed as she walked with him, but before he can show her the way. A young man ran up to them, "Hey, Mister Uzumaki, I need some input. My team was thinking of adding a either cooking or technology section to the new magazine we're launching around this Fall. Usually we would ask for both if you let us, but it seems were divided in this. What should we do?"

The blonde moved towards the employee as he took a clipboard, "Ok are these the statistics on the subject? It seems new tech is coming than those holiday spike up for seasonal recipes. How about this, the tech company is having an expo three months prior to releasing them. So get the scoop there and we'll run a small section on the other mags and see if it holds well. If not, we run the recipes for that instead. That alright, Banner?" Naruto asked as the man nodded, writing what his boss said as they continue to run a bit more detail as Banner left the two alone.

"Well, well, someone has the job on lock down." The reporter said with a chuckle leaving her mouth. "You really gotten the handle of things here."

"Did you think otherwise, Lois?" He said with a smirk.

A coy grin graced her features. "I don't know~ You were rather hectic during the time working at the Planet."

"Hey I was still learning the ropes I had barely enough to go by with everyone pull the new guy to help and abuse his trust!" He complained/joked with his old coworker.

"And now you know how to make the perfect pot of cheap coffee." She concluded as the two enter the break room, where Naruto found the coffee maker and pour some into empty cups. She took the creamer and noticed the flavor, "Chocolate caramel? That's more of a dessert than milk."

"Either that or peppermint, we take votes for weekly flavors." Naruto shrugged as he pulled out the second flavor, "We just finished the last regular creamer."

"Well I have to admit, you keep the workers happy with this positive atmosphere and this friendly stuff. I just hope they don't take advantage of you." She warned him as she didn't want his good nature to hurt him.

"Don't worry most of these guys I screen personally, so they are good hard workers." he said with a nod of confidence.

"Color me impressed." Lois said, pinching his cheek with a coo. "Ah Wittle baby Naruto all grown up."

"Need I remind you I hold the fate of your favorite book series in the palm of my hands?" Naruto said irritably, swatting off her hand. "Lest I reveal to you the true ending to the series."

This got her to hold off on her teasing with an obvious eye twitch present.

"Geez~ You just had to hold that over my head now." Lois said, puffing her cheeks out before giving him a soft smile. "Still, I'm real proud of you for what you've got here, whiskers."

Naruto chuckled as the two continued the tour of his workplace.

After meeting up for lunch, the whiskered writer brought his old friend and colleague over as promised. It was quite the interesting work environment for him to establish, but whatever made people productive and active in order to make better articles, designs, etc. was fine with her.

"And here I thought the Daily Planet had the busiest building in the world." Lois said aloud, watching people work at a rapid pace with papers and files flying up in the air and littering the floor with ideas, drawings the such.

"I wouldn't say about that, Lois. There's other places that could outshine me. And before you ask-"

"SIR!" A young man rush in front of him, canvas in his arms of a hand-drawn gorgeous and voluptuous individual posing sensually. "Do you think this could be a good cover for the next book or should it be serialized? Johnny and I have about 12 of these on standby."

"THIRTEEN!" A voice yelled over the commotion.

"Right, sorry sir, Thirteen." The young man corrected himself, still holding out the canvas to him.

The abrupt arrival was something Lois was rather surprised about. She was about to comment about it and present situation, but Naruto beat her to it.

"Hey, that's really nice." Naruto complimented, eyes raking over the drawing. "Good form, nice image, easy to work around for more. You got thirteen more of these, Roland?"

"Yes sir, and another pair on the way." The now named Roland said, nodding his head eagerly.

"What do you think of it, Lois?"

Lois gave the canvas more time to admire it before giving her thoughts. "It's rather good. Can't wait to see it done… along with knowing what it's for, I think."

Naruto nodded before putting his attention back to his employee. "I'll meet you guys at your location later so I can get a better look at them for what comes next."

Roland nodded once more before heading back to his work station.

"So where'd you snag him?"

"Oh, I got him from this one little town in New York called Riverdale. Nice kid despite him living in the Southside where the highschool in said district being not all that great."

Lois nodded while wondering what well known significance was from said town. Took her a bit to pull from her mental filing cabinet in order to find a few. One being the current residence of the not so well known, business tycoon of Hiram Lodge. The other was the ongoing family business of Blossom Maple Farms where a very rich, flavorful and all natural maple syrup comes from. Anything else about the town sadly never came to mind.

As the pair got to a hub area of the building, Naruto felt his phone going off in his pocket.

"I gotta take this, Lois."

"No problem." She said with her eyes wanding elsewhere. "I'll do some small exploring for myself."

With her going deeper into the hub area, Naruto pulled out his phone and saw it was coming from Harley. Curious about the call, he answered. "Hey, what's-"

" _PUDDIN!"_ Harley yelled out over the phone, causing him to quickly pull away. _"YOU NEED TO GET HERE QUICK!"_

Putting the phone back to his ear, Naruto spoke out of concern. "Harley, what's going on?"

" _Something's happening at Arkham!"_ Was the response with alarm sirens being heard in the background. _"These shadowy, sauces of death-"_

"Sauces of death?"

" _DON'T INTERRUPT!"_ She yelled. _"Sorry, but it's the best I could come up with right now. They're crawling all over like inky shadows and attacking a lot of patients and staff! They sound like 'em things Brucey warned you about!"_

This got him really worried by now. "Don't worry, Harley, I'm on my way."

" _Hurry! I don't know how much longer I can hold them off with my hammer and guns!"_

Ending the call, Naruto sadly walked towards Lois in order to make an excuse for him to leave. Said woman was briefly watching something on the nearby TV monitors while chatting with someone.

"Lois, something has come up."

Prying her attention from the conversation, Lois rose a brow. "Really? Like what happened yesterday or is it legitimately work related?"

Naruto was going to answer when all of the TV monitors abruptly went into a news coverage.

 _"We interrupt your scheduled programs to deliver this breaking news."_ Spoke Summer Gleeson in an even, yet worried tone. _"Moments ago, the city's South District was attacked by numerous unidentified creatures."_ This suddenly drew the attention of many nearby personnel, wondering what exactly is going on. _"Witnesses describe losing sight of victims during the mayhem. Many also said they saw strange, floating heart symbols in the vicinity of the missing victims. City police are urging citizens to stay inside and not go outside. And for those just joining us, only minutes ago, the South District was attacked by-"_

"Now this is rather interesting." Lois commented with a narrowed glance. "I don't know if this is a common occurrence in Gotham or not, but I wanna know what it is. What you think, whiskers?"

There was no response given.

"Naruto?" She turned her head and saw her old friend was nowhere to be found where many employees showing many levels of concern with what they just saw. "The hell did he go?"

 _ **-South District-**_

Pandemonium reigned in the South District of Gotham City as all around were the sounds of gunshots, screams and explosions with people fleeing the area whilst the police shepherded them out of the scene.

"Can someone please explain to me as to what the hell is going on?" Commissioner Gordon barked aloud, now arriving within the district.

A young officer jogged up to him and pointed ahead. "That sir."

Up ahead was a gaggle of some of the strangest creatures Jim had ever seen and he has seen some strange things here in Gotham. Most of them were short with unusually shaped legs, tiny clawed arms, jagged antennas with their bodies being entirely pitch black crawling along the sides of buildings.

They were not alone however as they were accompanied by some equally bizarre humanoids that ran about with flailing arms while those that stood still twitched and spasmed about violently. These creatures wore silver helmets and possessed a lanky set of clawed arms.

The one defining feature all of these monsters shared were the bright glowing, sinister yellow eyes that kept jerking about rapidly, spotting the fleeing civilians.

In the blink of an eye, one of the silver helmed dark humanoids swiftly bent low and flung itself into an unsuspecting woman who froze in fear. That was tragically her final move as the creature jammed its claws into her chest.

"NO!" Gordon yelled allowed in horror.

To add to Gordon's fear as well as rising confusion, the woman instead did not slump over dead like one would have first expected. Instead her eyes were wide with her body immobile even when the monster pulled its claws out of her.

The woman's eyes began to close as she fell back in slow-motion from Gordon's point of view. But then, she began to fade away before his very eyes when a glowing heart floated out of her chest where she was struck and before she could even hit the ground she vanished entirely.

Jim was at a loss for words as he, nor anyone here had ever witnessed anything like that in their life. He sucked in a terrified breath upon seeing one of the shorter creatures converging upon another group of cornered citizens.

Fumbling with his gun momentarily, Gordon pulled it out of its holder and fired upon the creatures. The bullets struck several but all they did was make them jerk their heads slightly from the force of the metal.

That did nothing in stopping their advance upon their next set of victims.

Jim could only cry out for them in a vain attempt to get the attention of the dark monsters.

The head shadow creature -given his larger than impish size- crouched and jumped forward at the frightened huddle of people. Just as the clawed hands reached out to strike her, a flash of metal cleaved right through the monster and it was destroyed with dark wisps floating away.

"Get to safety, now!" Spoke the helmeted hero, having the civilians quickly nod before running like bats out of hell.

Vanitas turned to face the oncoming horde of darkness, Keyblade in hand. Metal wire wrapped around the bottom area of the grip, Naruto flung his Keyblade forward and swung it forward.

Holding on to the end of the wire Naruto whipped his oversized weapon around in one swing, eliminating most of the of the black creatures that surrounded the civilians. Seeing that they in the clear, Vanitas quickly told them to run to safety.

Not needed to be told twice, they fled with their savior right ahead of them to keep their escape clear.

"Vanitas."

The masked hero turned to see Jim Gordon approach him with several SWAT members in tow.

"Commissioner." Vanitas said respectfully in a nod.

"Mind telling us what in the hell is going on right now?"

"Wish I knew." He said, taking a moment to see that more were starting to appear beyond the barrier that the Police had formed. "But what can you tell me so far, and fast please."

"These things pop up out of nowhere and I mean nowhere." Jim listed off quickly. "No pattern, no communications just show up and cause people to vanish in front of us without a trace. We don't even know what the hell these things are."

' _Heartless… Dwellers of the dark…'_

"Heartless." Vanitas blurted out, surprising himself along with Gordon.

"Pardon?"

"They are Heartless, these things are called Heartless." Vanitas stated, rubbing his head.

"...And how do you know that?" Gordon asked after a brief second.

Vanitas instead looked towards the oncoming wave of Heartless that were starting to appear by the dozens now. Glancing down to his Keyblade, he gripped the handle more firmly this time.

"I'll answer that later, Commissioner." Vanitas said in total seriousness. "Right now you should get your men to steer clear of these things and help anybody else you see. I'll handle these guys."

"You sure?" Gordon asked hesitantly. "We can help, you know."

"Yes, I am." Vanitas said, now getting into a pose. "Get going, Gordon. We've got a long day ahead of us."

Gordon could only grimace in silent agreement of those words, turning to instruct his men on their objective while Vanitas's eyes narrowed at the site of the Heartless all making a beeline towards him in particular.

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts II: Rowdy Rumble-**_

Grinning slightly underneath his helmet, Vanitas launched himself forward with a spin in the air. He cleaved through several of the Shadows on his descent down to the ground, destroying another one of these creatures this one being one of those silver helmed monsters.

"Come on boys, I haven't got all day." Vanitas called out to the horde, casually tossing his Keyblade up into the air. "I have other places to get to."

Several of the humanoid Heartless jumped at him in response.

Just as the Keyblade flipped down back into his hand, Naruto grabbed the weapon and whacked them away and destroyed one of them. He did not notice the light that shot out and flew to the sky.

"Huh, so you're a bit sturdier than these little Shadows." Naruto commented. "Guess I'll have to hit ya a little harder."

To back this statement, Vanitas slashed through another helmeted Heartless and destroyed it in the process. What he did not expect however was the heart shaped symbol that burst forth from where the Heartless once stood and flew up into the air before vanishing.

"The hell was that?" He muttered, tilting his head in confusion. His instincts then roared at him to moved, ducking in time to dodge another chrome head from bashing his face in.

"HEY, I WAS DISTRACTED." Vanitas yelled aloud in faux anger. He dashed forward, slashing through a large contingent of the Shadows before getting through towards the helmeted Heartless.

"There's got to be a better name for you metalheads." Vanitas murmured. "You guys look like bad excuses of knights. Maybe something revolving around that."

' _Soldiers… the legions of Heartless…'_

Eye twitching momentarily, Vanitas impaled one soldier followed by cleaving through the others around him.

"Are you just gonna do this for the rest of my life now?" Vanitas shouted to the skies above, getting no response. "Typical."

Suddenly, he heard a car speeding his way. Turning to the source, it was being chased by several flying Heartless. They appeared to vaguely look similar to the Soldiers, except they had bat-like wings while wearing an old styled, aviators hat and goggles.

Reacting quickly, Vanitas threw his Keyblade towards the car. As it got closer, he teleported back to his key-shaped sword before whacking them away. Landing back on the ground, he heard the car crashing right behind him.

"Crap!" Running over to the car, he quickly opened the door and automatically asked the obvious question. "Are you-"

"Vanitas!" Yelled a familiar voice. "You came!"

Looking at the back seat, the costumed Uzumaki saw Artemis strapped in the backseat. And sitting right next to her was Jade, who appeared to be knocked out from the recent crash.

"Is everyone alright?" Vanitas asked

"I… I hope so with my sister." Artemis spoke. "But mom-" A small groan could be heard from the driver's seat. "Mom! Are you alright?!"

"I… I think so." Paula groaned out, holding her head.

"Don't worry. I'll get you three outta here." Vanitas said, helping getting Harley's neighbors out of the vehicle.

Paula stumbled out of the car with Vanitas steadying her for a moment. He then opened the back seat door for Artemis to quickly get out to be by her mother's side. With her out, Vanitas crawled in to unbuckle Jade's seatbelt before prying her out.

With the small family out, the hero was about to summon a clone to escort to safety when he was slammed from behind. The attack caused him to tumble across the street with Jade's body coming along, due to her still in his embrace.

"Cut me some damn slack here." Vanitas growled out.

Looking at his attacker, he saw quite the large Heartless with rotund protruding belly.

'Talk about your big bodies.' Naruto internally mused.

This new Heartless was large with a spherical shape. It had large massive arms, feet and hands though with contrasting small legs and head. It seemed to wear a sleeveless bodysuit with gold trims and horizontal laces. Its head was topped off with a silver colored metal hat that ended with a curl, similar to that of the Soldiers. On both arms were manacles that had chains dangling from them and like all the other Heartless he encounter, this large heartless had glowing yellow eyes.

Quickly getting up, Vanitas readied himself to defend Artemis' unconcious sister for the incoming attack as it charged with it's belly glowing red. Just as it got closer, it was knocked away via aerial kick to the head. Before it could react quick enough, a small bomb was detonated on it's back. The blast was strong enough to disburse it into blackened smoke, but as opposed to the red heart being seen earlier, it was yellow in color.

"Sorry I'm late to the party, Vanitas."

"No, you're good as any showing up, Batgirl."

The commissioner's costumed daughter formed a smirk, turning back to face another fat Heartless that arrived to take the place of its fallen kin.

"What's the word on these guys, Vanitas?" Batgirl asked. "They're popping up all over the place."

"First off, they're called Heartless." He said as Paula and Artemis quickly rushed over to them to see Jade's condition. "And second, I have no idea why they're here."

"Heartless?" Batgirl repeated, pulling out a few batarangs.

"Don't ask."

The masked redhead merely shrugged. "Any name good as any right now."

Flinging her projectiles forward, the large Heartless merely stood there with its belly swaying back and forth. The batarangs then bounced of its large stomach while it was scratching its head in a daze.

"Well that failed miserably." Vanitas wryly observed while briefly seeing the Crocks running away from the scene.

"Oh shut up." Batgirl countered, now pulling out a metal stick from her utility belt that extended into a Bo staff.

"Doesn't Robin use that?" Vanitas inquired, watching her twirl the Bo.

"Gave me a spare." Batgirl answered

"Good to know." He said, readying himself with Keyblade in hand.

"And where'd you get that?"

"Long story. I'll tell ya later."

"Can't wait."

The two proceeded to run forward at the heartless who was now starting to hobble its way towards them. Both swung their weapons at the same time only for them to bounce off its thick belly. The Heartless proceeded to swing its arms back in attack with both dodging.

Seeing as these large Heartless, these Large Bodies, were immune to attacks on their front, the heroic pair had to maneuver around towards their backs in order to effectively damage them.

Grabbing Batgirl's wrist, he threw her over the Large Body while sliding around in a curving arch. With a horizontal strike followed by a downward bashing, the large body was flung forward landing on its belly.

"Got it." Batgirl fist pumped.

"But we didn't destroy it like you did with that last one." Naruto reminded, making Bab's nod her head while the Large Body got to its feet.

What neither of the two expected was the Heartless to glow a burning red while jumping about like it was having a tantrum. It flailed it's arms all over while on the move. One of it's limbs were able to hit them, causing both to take a painful blow as they tumbled away.

"Ok that hurt." Vanitas grunted, getting to his feet with Batgirl.

The Large body was not done it seems. With a pound of its belly, the Large Body jumped forth and barrelled towards them upon the ground like a cannonball.

"DODGE THAT." Naruto exclaimed, tackling Barbara out of the way.

The Heartless crashed into the side of a building, completely caving in the brick wall.

"Geez, that thing can move." Batgirl groaned, getting helped back to her feet by Vanitas.

"No kidding." He murmured, Keyblade at the ready as the big bellied Heartless stepped out from the rubble still glowing red.

Pounding on its belly once more, the Large Body shot itself forward again.

This time Vanitas grit his teeth and swung back just in time as the Large Body was a mere foot or two away. The clashing of the Keyblade upon its belly made both combatants flinch, with the Large Body rolling away on its stomach while Vanitas had his Keyblade raised in the air, balancing himself on one foot.

A brief flashing of light came from the Keyblade as Naruto slammed his foot to the ground and flung his Keyblade forward in a spinning fashion. The Keyblade slammed itself against the supercharged Heartless.

Yet Naruto was not done, raising his hand again and the Keyblade reappeared for him to toss it once more. This time it destroyed the Large body but in its place, Shadows appeared from the ground and Soldiers -both normal and aerial- arrived on the scene.

This gave Naruto further incentive to use the move he came up with during Jason's spar session yesterday and pulled off in rapid succession.

"STRIKE RAID." Vanitas roared out, annihilating groups of Heartless with every throw and return with his weapon glowing in the process. "See ya!" He cried out on the final throw that seemingly got rid of the last of them.

Grunting, Vanitas momentarily fell to his knees to take a breather with Batgirl by his side.

"Vanitas!" Batgirl cried out in worry "Are you alright? Better yet, what was that just now?!"

"Man. I definitely need to work more on that." He said, rolling his shoulder. "A simple thing as that should not have exhausted me so."

"Well what was it then?"

"Strike Raid." Vanitas explained. "Little something that came to me when i was learning how to use this oversized Key."

Then out of the blue, large plumbs of dark smoke appeared around the pair to reveal more Soldiers, Air Soldiers, and Large Bodies.

"For Fuck sake." Naruto gritted out in annoyance. "These assholes just don't let up!"

"Thundara!"

Suddenly, the large group of Heartless were electrocuted -with some evaporating into smoke and yellow hearts- before the rest looked around for the new attacker.

"Blizzara!"

The ground below the group suddenly froze over before large spikes protruded upwards. The attack skewered most of them while the others were entrapped. Said ones were trying to break themselves free before-

"Fira!"

They were roasted alive in their confined state as the last of them went away in both black smoke and yellow hearts.

Both Vanitas and Batgirl blinked at the sudden display of elemental magic, turning their heads on the direction of a young girl wearing a cloaked hood while floating in the air, hands lowering to her sides. Any attempt of seeing what was seen from underneath the hood was all for naught as it was like staring into a darkened void.

"Hello. You're new." Batgirl said to the younger, cloaked girl.

"I am." Raven bluntly said.

"Raven. What are you doing here?" Vanitas questioned the new arrival. "Weren't you watching the girls?"

The cloaked girl shifted her feet as she seemingly looked away from her guardian. "I… was." She could feel his bland stare right on her. "Hey, I was protecting them when they were inside-"

"Are they alright?" He quickly asked.

"Yes, but-"

"Hey uh, guys, not to cut in or anything but most of the South District is still under attack by the… What was it again? Heartless, right?"

"That's a weird name." Raven commented.

"I agree, but Vanitas said it's what they are or whatever."

"That's what you came up with for them?"

"I didn't. It was a voice in my head… or something like that."

"...Should I be concerned on this, right?"

"Oh don't get me started, Raven." Vanitas deadpanned. "You of all people should be the last…"

Batgirl abruptly coughed into her hand, getting their attention once more. "Hello! Heartless! South District! Go! Now!"

The costumed guardian/ward pair nodded before proceeding to make their way towards more of the action with Batgirl not far behind them. Got to one point when Vanitas summoned a Fair Play card, enlarged it and had them ride it to get there faster.

"By the way, forgot to ask." Vanitas looked to Batgirl. "Where's Bats and Robin in all this? Feels like they would be out here."

"They are." Batgirl confirmed for him. "They went ahead while I saw that speeding car. I think they went more towards the center of the District."

"I know this may sound generic but do you think that that's the place where it's the center of the attack." Raven said aloud.

"Probably." Vanitas said, taking a turn in the direction of the center of the District. "Never hurts to look."

"I think in this case it just might." Batgirl pointed out.

"Duly noted Batgirl, but let's check it out any-"

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts II: Tension Rising-**_

Several dozen Air Soldiers abruptly appeared before them, following the floating card platform.

"-way." Naruto finished, Keyblade in hand.

"Does this confirm my theory?" Raven asked. She drew out her arms with black mana coating them.

"Backs it up for now." Vanitas said, already moving to engage the Heartless.

As the card platform flew in between many buildings, Batgirl had to quickly adjust herself with every twist and turn. Though she didn't waste most of her movements by swinging her Bo staff at the nearby Heartless. At one point, she did fall off, but with a quick use of her grappling gun, she was able to swing back onto the card platform in order to resume the fight.

Raven weaved her hands in a specific pattern, murmuring to herself. **"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"**

Pillars of black magic shot out from the nearby buildings, buffeting the Air soldiers destroying some while others fell to the ground.

At one moment, she was knocked away from one of the Heartless. She briefly screamed as a result before feeling a hand grasping her arm.

"I got ya, Raven."

"Thanks, Batgirl."

Vanitas in the meantime corkscrewed in between several heartless, destroying them quickly. Landing on his feet, he let out a slight yelp as he inclined his head back in time to avoid the swipe of a Soldiers clawed hands.

Dispatching his would-be attacker in an instant, Vanitas was on the defensive momentarily as Air Soldiers dive bombed him.

"Assholes." Vanitas said, making quick work of them as he was swinging with much greater power now.

Batgirl and Raven were back to back facing the Air soldiers that surrounded them.

"Think you can pull them in?" Barbara asked.

Wordlessly, Raven's hands were surrounded by her magic. Each Air Soldier was suddenly encased in black spheres with only their heads visible.

Throwing her arms together while crouching down, the heartless came towards the two. Spinning her staff with all her might, Batgirl smashed her metal Bo into the heads of each Heartless successfully destroying them.

Letting out a shaky breath, Batgirl grinned at Raven who had a small smile of her own.

"Good thinking." Raven praised.

"And nice swing there." Vanitas said, jogging over to the two of them. "Let's go, we're a few blocks away from the center."

Nodding, the trio resumed their run to the center of the South District swatting aside a few Heartless here and there.

The moment the three made it to the central part of the district -which looked rather trashed with many vehicles burning and toppled over- they lurched forward as something knocked them off the card platform. Tumbling across the ground, each of them recovered in their respective manners. Looking at their offenders, they briefly expected to see Air Soldiers… only to see something else.

Sure they were somewhat modeled like them, but they seemed to look more like architectural gargoyles in nature. They had dark grey, purple themed colors with jagged horns protruding from their heads with craggy, unhinged maws. Their longs were long, but not nearly as alien as their feet. And their leather wings were more pointy than the Air Soldiers.

"Well ain't you guys creepier than the last ones." Barbara commented, pulling out several batarangs from her belt.

"These look like some of the gargoyles on buildings here in Gotham." Vanitas noted, taking a moment to observe them. Each had a misty air of darkness surrounding them.

"They look like they're possessed." Raven said, hands glowing.

"Whatever the case, we need to get rid of them."

With that, the group went into action as the gargoyle-themed Heartless flew right towards them. Meeting them at the middle, Vanitas was the first to strike with a swipe of his Keyblade. One Gargoyle didn't give out a sound as it was smacked around but it was rather noticeable with the pain it was receiving. It was soon destroyed by Raven's Fira spell as it collided with a few others in the process.

Batgirl was having a slightly difficult time as every time she struck a Gargoyle, her hands wrung. The metal impacting the stone-like bodies of the Gargoyles made her Bo vibrate which brought great discomfort to her body with every movement. Playing smart, she used her weapon to pole vault over one of them, landed on it's back, placed a small bomb and jumped onto another to repeat the same process. Leaping away from a few more, she soon detonated them as each Gargoyle she contacted with were destroyed.

"Whew." She whispered to herself.

A Gargoyle had attempted to get the drop on her from above when two figures swung in and bashed the Heartless into the ground, effectively destroying it.

Turning around, Batgirl beamed at the welcomed site of some friendlier faces.

"Batgirl." Batman greeted, approaching her with his protege by his side.

"Seems this is where all the action is at now." Robin said with a smirk.

"You came just in time." Batgirl said happily

"Any idea what the hell these are?"

"They're called Heartless, Robin." This drew curious looks from the Dynamic Duo. "Don't ask me. Vanitas was the one who got the name."

Batman nodded on the little bit of information.

"And how'd he get name?" Robin couldn't help but ask.

"Voice in his head." Raven said as she blasted several Gargoyles and newly arrived Large Bodies away.

"Hey, Rac-Raven." Robin spoke, quickly correcting himself from calling out her real name as he maneuvered around a Soldier and kicked it away. "Didn't expect to see you here."

"CIrcumstances made me come here."

"If you say so, kid."

On the other side of their attackers, Batman swiped his batarangs through several Soldiers in order to get rid of them. He soon saw a pair of Large Bodies coming right at him with them glowing red and their arms flailing. He dashed out of their way before coming at them once their glows died down. The Bat struck their protruding stomachs, but realized no damage was done at all with his attacks merely bouncing back.

"You need to hit their backs, Bats!" Vanitas yelled out, cleaving a Heartless' head from its body.

Taking the advice, Batman jumped up and used the Large Bodies head to help flip over. Landing on the ground, Batman put all his might into a roundhouse kick followed by a set of explosive batarangs that embedded themselves into its back. They blew up upon the Large Body hitting the ground, finishing it off in an instant.

With that opponent out of the way, Batman soon saw large pools of darkness forming around him. Creeping out of them, he saw humanoid Shadows with blue veins running through most of their bodies with large pairs of jagged antenna curling back. They appeared far more formidable than the Shadows and other Heartless.

Without much notice, the Neo-Shadows leaped at the Dark Knight.

Acting quickly, Batman spun around and kicked the closest one coming to him. He then grabbed another and used it as a blunt-force object for a brief moment before tossing it away into an incoming group. The bat-themed hero then shot his arms forward, punching several in rapid succession before kicking them up into the air, with one of them colliding into an Air Soldier.

One however got past Batman's defences and slashed at his side. Clenching his teeth in pain, Batman utilized his clawed greaves to slash at the Neo-shadow and took it down with a quick flurry of jabs and kicks.

"Bats." Vanitas appeared, quickly dispatching the last Neo-Shadow. "You alright there?"

"Fine, I've had worse." Batman said, pulling out an adhesive bandage from his utility belt and quickly placing it over the claw marks. While doing so, he saw the Keyblade in Vanitas' grasp. "That's new."

"You're not the only one commenting on this thing." Commented the helmeted Uzumaki. "Got it from a meteor if you can believe it."

"When it comes to you…" Batman left the statement hanging and unfinished.

"Did… Did you just make a joke?" Vanitas asked, head slowly turning to the World's Greatest Detective.

All he got was a grunt before the older hero rushed into the nearest Heartless.

"You totally did." Vanitas called out, running after him. "I can't believe you. You never say one when you wear your getup."

"Focus on the task at hand." Batman chided, booting away a Soldier.

"Sorry, sorry." Vanitas said sheepishly while cleaving through an Air Soldier. "But you just gotta understand Bats."

"Do you have anything else on you that could help us out on this?"

"If you're asking if I have another Keyblade, sorry I don't."

"What about your other weapons?"

"I think they could." Vanitas shrugged. "But your style is working, isn't it?"

"Doesn't feel like it's enough." Batman admitted.

"Then what you want?"

"Your daggers."

Vanitas and focused in creating a good number of his electrified daggers. Once done, he handed them to the Dark Knight before rushing over to a pair of Large Bodies.

With his new weapons on hand, he opened up his gauntlets before inserting a pair of daggers into them. Closing them up, he activated his shock gloves. Just in time too as a Neo-Shadow came right at him, which had him punch it instantly. And it was there he saw a simple punch became more damaging as the pitch black opponent evaporated into smoke and green hearts.

"Really effective now." He commented before seeing the green heart go into the ground where a new Neo-Shadow formed. "...Perfect…"

Raven was levitating high in the air, a dome surrounding her. She had remained there for sometime as she was gathering her magic.

Air Soldiers bounced off in an attempt to get at her but failed.

Down below, her friends and comrades continued fighting on none-the-wiser on her floating above. Feeling the accumulation of magic reach its peak, Raven's eyes snapped open in their ethereal black glow.

" _ **Azarath… Metrion… THUNDARA"**_

Over with Batgirl and Robin, they having some more difficulty now with their respective Bo staffs becoming less effective now. It wasn't much of the case when confronting the different Shadows and even both the Soldiers and Air Soldiers. But the Large Bodies were becoming quite tedious. Not to mention with the other Heartless in general coming in droves, relentlessly attacking the crime fighter.

 _ **CRACK THROOM**_

A flash of light from above followed by a rain of blackened thunder bolts cascaded down upon the Heartless, leaving the four standing in the center of it all in complete shock and befuddlement.

The lightning cleared to reveal all the Heartless to be completely annihilated, leaving a now empty District.

"Damn…" Robin voiced out with Batgirl nodding in agreement.

Vanitas and Batman only looked up to see Raven floating down towards them. Landing, Raven stumbled forth and fell only to be caught by Robin and Batgirl.

"Holy hell, Raven." Batgirl said aloud. "That was incredible."

"How'd ya do that?"

If either of them could properly see under her hood, they would've seen the half-demon giving a small smirk. "Magic."

"...Lame~" Batgirl drawled out.

"That's the best you could give us?" Robin asked in equal disappointment.

"It's the only one that makes sense." Raven said weakly, looking up to the both of them.

"Sadly, that's usually the case with magic." Vanitas said, walking over to them. "Great job there, Raven. You really saved our necks down here." He threw up a thumbs up for added praise.

Raven smiled slightly, using the support of her friends to get back and stay on her feet.

As the group of heroes tried to recover themselves from their recent fight, they saw a large pools of darkness forming ten or so feet away from them.

"Oh Come on." Batgirl whined. "Can you give us just one moment?"

"Vanitas."

"Yeah, Bats?"

"Give Batgirl and Robin one of your weapons." Requested the older hero. "They'll need it for what's to come."

Briefly slamming his Keyblade into the ground, Vanitas formed a pair of his Kazekage lances. With them out, he handed them to Batgirl and Robin before taking hold of his key-shaped sword.

"Thanks." Robin voiced with Batgirl nodding.

The pools of darkness converged into one spot before floating up into the air. Out from the darkness burst forth a Large Body but this one was distinctly different. Covered in armor, including a round shield on its back, arms sporting gold and red-violet gauntlets this body was no simple one. This was a Large Armor and it wasn't alone with there being a dozen of them along with other Heartless.

"Well… they're colorful." Robin noted, readying his lance.

The group paused once more as from behind these new Heartless came one last one to form from the darkness which completely outsized these new Large Armored Heartless four or five times.

Taking shape, the Heartless was a gigantic one with large plated shoulders and gauntlets around both arms with jagged, yellow swirls taking place as it's eyes and a red horn on its forehead. It was metallic in nature, wielding a giant double bladed ax with what appeared to be some sort of face on it.

"Oh come the fuck on!" Batgirl exclaimed. "What in the hell is that supposed to be?!"

"A severe pain in the ass." Vanitas grumbled.

"Kinda reminds of a troll." Robin murmured. "A giant Metal Troll with an Ax."

"Thank you for pointing that out." Vanitas dryly said

And if that wasn't enough… a second, more rock-themed version of the newly named Metal Troll appeared not long after. A Rock Troll if you will.

"...SERIOUSLY! WHAT THE FLYING FUCK!" Batgirl yelled out

"Ok, I'm not usually one to say this but…. That's bullshit right there." Raven stated, none to pleased with this newest addition.

Both trolls stepped forward, their footsteps shaking the grounds letting out roars of challenge at the group of heroes.

All five had their weapons or in Ravens case, magic, at the ready with both side going into a momentary tense standoff to see who would move first.

Before anything else was said or done, Robins ears perked at a strange tone far off in the distance that was getting louder… which meant it was getting closer.

All attention was shifted away from the eventual fight as the music was growing louder and more clearer with it clearly going in their direction.

"Is… Is that Ride of the Valkyries?" Robin voiced their same thought.

"As in, Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries?" Raven repeated for clarity.

"And why is it in a bell jingle?" Batgirl questioned.

Vanitas had a strange feeling come over him. "Why do I feel like… I may have an idea as to why it's this song."

With the music getting louder and louder, the group of heroes heard the sounds of tires running across the pavement with an engine roaring. Turning towards the source… they saw something quite unusual.

"Is that… an ice cream truck?"

"It is." Came the Bat's blunt response.

"I know who it is now." Vanitas confidently said.

As the ice cream styled vehicle sped past the group, everything seemed to go slow motion in their vision. There they saw Harley waving at them from the driver's seat with a bright smile on her face. And she wasn't alone as in the neighboring seat was Poison with Catwoman standing in the middle while having a cheshire-like grin.

'What the hell is she doing?" Batgirl questioned with widened eyes under her mask.

"Improvising… most likely." Robin commented as he mirrored Batgirl's reaction.

"GO FASTER!" Selina yelled out from the middle.

" _ **P**_ _L_ _ **E**_ _A_ _ **S**_ _E_ _ **D**_ _O_ _ **N'**_ _T_ _ **!"**_ Ivy responded.

"WHEEEEEEE!" Was all Harley could sound out as she floored the surprisingly fast ice cream truck. Soon enough, she swerved the vehicle over to a flipped over car. "BE READY TO BAIL GIRLS!"

By the time their jacked ride came into contact with the impromptu ramp, the Sirens quickly got out of the vehicle in their respective manners. Either through the front window or from the sides.

"WHOO." Harley jumped up, oversized hammer in hand. "That was awesome!"

"I know!" Catwoman said as her grin never left her face. "We should do that again!"

" _ **I'**_ _d_ _ **r**_ _a_ _ **t**_ _h_ _ **e**_ _r_ _ **n**_ _o_ _ **t."**_

"Ladies." Said a familiar knowing voice. "I see you're all alive and well."

Whirling around, Harley gave a brief wave. "Hiya, Batsy."

"Glad to see you're all on your feet." Catwoman remarked, brushing away some dust on her arm.

"Uh guys." Robin pointed ahead. "Gigantic bad guys, remember?"

Turning to face them, Pamela and Catwoman blanched a bit at the sight of the two gargantuan Trolls now facing them.

"Oh… that's a lot of sauces of death…" Was Harley's response.

"They're called Heartless."

Harley rose a brow when hearing this. "And where'd you come up with that name, Vanny?"

"...Would you believe it was from a voice in my head?"

"Yeup~" She then snorted. "Though I should be worried if you are hearing voices in your head."

"Don't you?" Selina rhetorically said.

"...True."

"What happened at Arkham?" Vanitas asked. "When you called-"

"Oh, right. That." The hammer wielder jabbed her thumb at the Green Champion. "Ivy here came and helped out-"

 _ **-Insert Kingdom Hearts III: The Consuming Dark-**_

"INCOMING!" Batgirl yelled out.

Raven instinctively threw up a large barrier, encasing them all. It shattered upon impact due to both trolls utilizing their axes at the same time.

Falling to her knees, Vanitas shot forward with Batman by his side as the two ran at the trolls.

"Fight now, talk later!" Vanitas shouted out.

Batman pulled out his grappling hook and fired at one of the large spikes on the shoulders of the Rock Troll, using it to avoid the Metal Troll's arm.

Vanitas zipped towards the Metal Troll in a zig zagging fashion, confusing his opponent enough to actually make the swirls for eyes spin.

Seeing that it was confused, he leapt forth with a spinning swing, striking the troll right in its face. The behemoth of a Heartless stumbled back but shook its head and swung its own ax in retaliation.

Vanitas was thrown off by its speed, narrowly ducking down in time to avoid the large ax.

Unbeknownst to any of the heroes, a pair of cars quickly pulled up to the scene at a safe distance. One was a news vehicle with Summer Gleeson and her camera man coming out while the other was a civilian one with Lois Lane being the driver.

The news crew was obvious as to why they were there. Wanting to record the latest event and air it towards the Gothamites. They knew of the dangers presented to them and were ready to take the risk for the sake of their jobs.

As for Lois, she was being a bit reckless in coming here. With these creatures roaming about, her life could be at stake, even if they're primarily focused on the Gothamite heroes right now. But old habits die hard as she wanted to be there as this took place, no doubt wanting to get a great story for the Daily Planet.

Getting ready in record time, the cameraman motioned his partner to start. "This is Summer Gleeson, coming to you live from the South District where right behind me a clash between our city's heroes and these monstrous creatures are taking place." She briefly turned around to see more of the action as it was rather hard to not pry her attention away from it. "Given the small statement from Commissioner Gordon, he spoke that these creatures are called Heartless by Vanitas. Don't know how or why he came up with the name but they seem appropriate right now."

As this live report was going on, Lois Lane was standing nearby as she was observing the fight taking place. She was quickly writing through her notepad as she was quickly describing what was happening in great detail. The reporter from Metropolis would no doubt hound either of these heroes in order to get more information on what's going on.

Back in the action, Raven was casting out spells left and right in getting rid of a lot of the smaller Heartless… well small in comparison to the two Troll ones. She even had to occasionally pay attention to her companions for whatever assistance was needed.

Pamela was a great boon in terms of being on the offense while assisting her allies as well with her vines being used as leverage in riding and launching themselves at the Heartless. Even calling out some of her giant, sentient venus fly traps to snag and devour some of the shadowy creatures. Though they had to spit them back out with how _tainted_ they were.

The Large Armors were proving to be exceptionally difficult to handle as other than Raven's magic, most of their attacks unphased the fat Heartless.

"Whoa." Harley let out, feeling herself spin from her hammer bouncing off the back of a Large Armors shielded back. "Gonna need to think of something else to take ya down, busta."

Selina wasn't doing any better from the mixture of her whip to using her Red Champion abilities of augmented strength and speed. Yet not much couldn't be done as her physical strikes couldn't do much on the Large Armors as opposed to it's lesser cousin and other Heartless.

Robin and Batgirl were working in tandem together, taking down many Heartless like the typical ground and Air Soldiers. Their borrowed Kazekage lances were doing wonders in cutting down many Heartless with ease. No doubt with the power provided in them.

Yet like the rest of their allies, the Large Armors were proving to be the most difficult in fighting as practically their entire body was encased in armor that was seemingly immune to most physical attacks.

That was until Harley got extremely frustrated with her lack of damage. Using a nearby car for a boost, Harley let out a war cry as she jumped into the air and slammed her hammer down upon a Large Armors head effectively destroying it.

Blinking, Harley grinned maniacally looking to her allies, several of which saw what she did.

"Well, this became easier now." Pam said, conjuring forth more vines with a plan in mind now.

Over with Vanitas, he was giving it his all when striking down both the Metal and Rock Trolls before him. Yet they seemed to be visibly doing nothing.

Batman was utilizing long ranged projectiles and distraction based tactics to keep the Trolls from landing a good hit upon Vanitas yet it did nothing in damaging them.

Things changed when the two giant Heartless brought their axes towards the ground, stepped on top of them… and spun around like a mad spinning top. With rocks and the occasional car being flung in all directions.

"Holy-" Vanitas let out before frantically swatting aside the rocks only for a car to slam into him. Managing to get out from the car that struck him, he saw yet another big piece flying towards him. Acting on instinct he sliced through it in half.

Batman in the meantime was crouched down in cover, thinking hard on how to take down these Trolls, seeing the minimal damage they had managed.

Once they stopped spinning, both Metal and Rock Trolls charged at the two heroes. Batman and Vanitas avoided the incoming attacks.

"God you two are such a severe pain in the ass." Vanitas grumbled out. "Any ideas, Bats?"

"Their heads seem to be the only weak point so far." Batman said, recalling Vanitas attacking the Metal troll and successfully stunning it momentarily when he hit the head.

"So… Aim for the head then?

"Aim for the head."

"Works for me."

The pair made their respective ways of getting close to the Rock Troll's heads. Vanitas channeled power into his legs in order to jump rather high and rapidly clashed his Keyblade onto it's face. Batman however jumped when the Metal Troll swung it's weapon down to the ground. Once this happened, he landed on the weapon and ran up the giant Heartless' arm. Getting in close, he started punching the creature's head with his powered gauntlets.

The Heartless however didn't take to kindly to damage it was receiving and managed to flick him off. Grunting in pain, Batman recovered by using his cape to stall his descent. Upon landing on the ground, Batman had no choice but to leap up once more to avoid the ax swing coming his way.

Thinking quickly, Batman fired off his grapple gun and had the claw tie around the handle of the ax. Using his own strength on top of the Metal Trolls momentum, Batman managed to guide the ax right into its own owners face. The Troll greatly stumbled back, falling down onto its behind.

"Vanitas." Batman called out to him.

"I saw, nice thinking, Bats." Vanitas said, moving to attack the Rock Troll with an objective in mind this time. With a quick series of strikes to the head, Vanitas jumped back and waited.

As expected, the Rock Troll began pursuing after him.

"Hey Bats, lure yours over." Vanitas shouted.

Batman saw the Metal Troll get back to its feet and charged at him.

Taking Vanitas's advice, Batman began to duck and weave all the while heading in Vanitas's direction who was using the same strategy.

The two then bumped into each others backs. Whirling around to face one another, their eyes widened momentarily and both ducked at the same time.

Both Axes swung overhead, striking one another directly in the head of the opposite troll.

The damage to both made them stagger, with small cracks appearing on their heads.

"It worked." Vanitas said aloud with a grin beneath his helmet.

It was at this point when the two Trolls brought their axes up… and placed them on their heads.

"The hell are they doing?" Vanitas questioned.

This was answered as the two giant Heartless glowed in a pinkish hue and started charging all over in a random manner. Not liking where this is going, Vanitas got close to the nearest Troll and started laying some damage on the Heartless. Yet nothing seemed to be working to get it to go down.

'Seems I'll be using _that_.' He thought before looking at his Keyblade. 'Might become easier through this.'

Jumping a good distance away, the helmeted hero channeled power into his Keyblade in creating a Rasengan at it's tip. Adding something extra into the mix, his purple colored sphere turned bluish-white with sparks radiating off of it. It then shifted with an ethereal arrow from the middle.

With it reaching it's point, the costumed Uzumaki focused aimed his attack at the two Troll Heartless. Oddly enough, his vision darkened a little with his Hawkeye ability activating in targeting said Heartless with the occasional other ones roaming about.

'Lightning style Rasengan: Rasen-Yajirushi! (Spiral Arrow)!' He thought aloud, unleashing his attack from the Keyblade's tip.

The arrow-styled orb shattered the moment it got close enough to the Heartless. The shards homed directly towards their targets, striking them with many of the shadowy creatures getting destroyed. Not to mention the jutsu struck with a powerful effect on the Trolls, causing the masks dispelling off both Heartless and turning back into their axes.

"Neat." Vanitas remarked, smirking down in appreciation at his Keyblade.

"Think you can try that again?" Batman asked.

"I've got a better idea." Vanitas said with a mischievous undertone.

Holding out his hand, another Rasengan formed with Wind being infused into the swirling sphere. Once completed, he tossed up the sphere and winded back with his Keyblade.

"FORE!" Vanitas shouted, striking the Rasengan with his Keyblade like a baseball bat.

The Rasenshuriken shot forth right at the Rock Troll. When it hit the Troll in its face, the Rasengan exploded out with the Heartless stumbling back. The wind kicked up around it and converged upon the Rock Troll with the wind forming into spears that shot into the Troll greatly damaging it.

"AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!" Vanitas threw his hands up in victory only to be shoved aside hard by Batman to save him from the Ax that the Metal Troll brought down on both of them.

"Stay focused!"

"Sorry!"

The Metal Troll jumped onto its Ax once more and spun about, flinging rocks at both heroes. They avoided the debris, yet the largest one of them flew over and past them. Instinctively looking over, Vanitas saw it was flying towards the news crew and Lois.

"No… No No No NO!"

Rushing forward, Vanitas sped towards the intended landing zone with his arm stretched out. He didn't know if he could be able to reach them in time from getting crushed and killed.

"NO!" Vanitas roared aloud, throwing out his hand.

Desperation filled his very being as he might not be able to make it… until he felt a odd, familiar warmth spread from his heart and crawled from underneath the skin of his arm.

Suddenly, ethereal silvery-white chains rapidly shot out of his limb and flew through the air before imbedding themselves into the large debris.

'The hell?' He thought before he was feeling dragged by the latched object. Responding, he tugged HARD in order to stop the piece of earth from crushing both the news crew and Lois. It did come close to it as it fell onto the ground a few feet away.

Glaring back at the Troll Heartless, he quickly grabbed the ethereal chains before using all his might in dragging the debris back. As it started coming closer, he started spinning around before taking careful aim at the giant opponents. At the last moment, he brought it down upon them, causing quite the amount of damage in the process.

The Metal Troll was now grounded, unmoving at this moment. Wanting to take it out, Naruto sped right towards it with his Keyblade poised in taking it down for good. Jumping high, he then brought it down onto its face as it's tip dug into the metal-themed giant.

The moment it happened, it disbursed into a large plumb of dark vapors with a giant, glowing red heart floated up into the sky before disappearing.

"Well ain't that something." Harley commented as she saw this happen along with everyone else before resuming the fight against the decreasing number of Heartless.

Seeing as it's metal cousin was destroyed, the Rock Troll made its way towards the Keyblade wielder with it's ax poised to kill.

As it was brought down, Vanitas performed a quick parry to knock the Heartless' weapon away. The action did ache his arm greatly, but he sucked it up and swung again with his Keyblade channeling his power. With a diagonal swipe, an arc of power came out of the weapon and struck the Rock Troll's face and created a massive gash. Once this happened, it started falling back as darkened vapors escaped from the wound before it died. And with that, another giant red heart floated up into the sky and went to parts unknown.

With these two giant Heartless gone, the remaining smaller ones saw no further point staying around. Most were encompassed by dark clouds, disappearing from the battlefield. Yet the other heroes managed to pick off a few that tried fleeing before all were gone.

Vanitas collapsed onto his ass, letting out a sigh of utter exhaustion. "I need a vacation."

"No kidding~" Batgirl agreed, coming up to the helmeted hero. "No doubt I'm gonna be really sore in the morning. Don't even know if I'll be stuck in bed all day or not."

Batman in the meantime switched over to surveillance, getting into contact with Alfred to give a sitrep on the situation in the city overall.

"We seem to be in the clear." Batman informed the tired group.

"What ya mean, Batsy?" Harley asked.

"Appears that the rest of the Heartless vacated the city." He revealed, getting varied looks from the others. "Highly doubt it, though."

"Well, let's not look a gift in a horses mouth and ignore it." Robin said. "We should do a sweep of the city to be sure."

"Do we have to?" Catwoman said, nursing her wrist which was aching a great deal from excessive use of her whip and empowered punches. "I wanna go back home now and snuggle in my bed for a well deserved catnap."

Before anyone could do anything else, they were soon confronted by not only both Summer Gleeson and her cameraman but also Lois Lane as both wanted to interview the heroes on what just occurred.

…..

…..

…..

…..

Standing at the edge of a far off building, a man wearing a leathery black cloak peered at the central area of the city's south district. With a hidden smirk, he brought his hands up and started clapping.

"Now _that_ was quite the show." He said with glee. "Kid's got quite the nice spunk in fighting those Heartless for the first time. Well… outside of the Deep Dive, that is."

Raising a hand to his chin, he idly mused to himself while strolling back and forth upon the building's edge where he watched the battle from.

"Should I stick around? Watch some more? Or Leave?" He asked himself. "Dilemmas, Dilemmas all around me."

He then looked up towards the sky where the moon shined so bright. Bringing his hands up towards his vision, he brought them together like he was framing the giant space rock in a picture. He then formed his hands to encircle most of it as if it was some sort of heart.

"Wonder how long it'll be before we reach to _that_."

Glancing back to the Keyblade wielder, he was speaking with the tall imposing Batman while everyone else was patching themselves up with the two reporters interviewing them.

"Will he'll learn how to use his Keyblade effectively so soon or not. I mean, he struggled…" He paused for several moments before shrugging while speaking in a whimsical tone. "Meh, he can figure it out for himself."

And like before, wisps of darkness appeared around him before engulfing him completely in an ovular dome before retreating back to the ground to show that he was gone. Nay a trace or hair of the individual that stood there could be found.

All the while the heroes down below remained none the wiser.

 _ **-End Chapter-**_

 **AN:**

 **Once again, gotta thank free man writer for TREMENDOUSLY helping out on this chapter. Greatly appreciate it, immensely. Wished I could've gotten this out last week on my birthday, but things happen.**

 **One weekend weeks ago, I saw the reboot of She-Ra: Princess of Power show on Netflix as I was bored as hell. Gotta say it looks good on the animation, but there is only a few things from the show that I liked: Catra, Scorpina (barely) and Entrapta. Everything else was rather hard to sit through watching the rest of season one.**

 **The writing was not that great on various moments and episodes, making it seem rather slow and cringy. Almost all of the princesses are lazy as fuck and don't do what's needed to defend their respective kingdoms against the Horde, except for Glimmer and her mom, Queen Angella. Not to mention several are just very stereotypical on their respective character traits that made me hate them very much.**

 **Oh and Bow… more like Stupido Cupido… and Seahawk… and Swiftwind… very annoying… enough said.**

 **On another note, saw the Umbrella Academy on Netflix and I gotta say it was a pretty good show. Sure I admit I never read the comics in the first place but understood the premise quite well. Even though it's a superhero themed series, it's primarily about family developmental drama. And this show is supposedly adapting a better job from the source material to make events and details better.**

 **Though I do have things concerning the series getting into it for the first time as I believe a lot of the problems originated from: Sir Reginald Hargreeves.**

 **He is no doubt a shitty guardian/father/parent. Reginald had fucked up his wards/children considerably in various manners. Sending Luther away for four years on the moon for a bogus mission in order to give him** _ **purpose**_ **. Made Klaus a druggy because of locking him up in a mausoleum for hours on end in order to communicate with the dead. Not to mention using Allison as an accomplice in taking away Vanya's powers by pulling an Xavier move like what said mutant did on Jean to lock away the Phoenix. Said action fucked up Vanya badly by making her ostracized from her family, making her a timid mess and falling for the man that wanted revenge on her guardian/father for rejecting him into his Umbrella Academy.**

 **Sure this is the Netflix show and I haven't read the comics, but it's enough for me to know how Reginald did a horrible job in training and properly raising his wards/kids.**

 **Now back onto DC material… it's official folks, Arrow is reaching its final season as Stephen Amell released a statement to all that the show's final episode will be on the CW's Crisis crossover event.**

 **With Marvel… seriously… Captain Marvel was not great with how it turned out. Two directors, five writers, an actress pushing more on her political views all over the place were mere factors that caused things to go really bad. The only good things to come from the movie were Nick Fury, the head Skrull and Goose the Cat.**

 **Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thanks you!**

 **R &R**


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